I'm a "child" of Dieter S.'s German incarnation of "Swinging Pig". And since the man was a strong Stones fan I was in awe of the TSP releases in the early 90's.
And these CDs had a special aura as the label used the "NoNoise" software to enhance the sound quality...

... little did I know at the time that "NoNoise" kinda killed the dynamics of the music!

Read here :
[forums.stevehoffman.tv]



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2020-12-07 16:12 by dcba.

some of my first bootlegs: Stoned again - completely blanc album and cover,
Bright Lights - Big City
The Beatles and The Rolling Stones - Sing This all Together

I used to pick-up my bootlegs early Seventies at the Waterloo-Market Amsterdam, fundays and many more followed.

Purchased from Rather Ripped Records in Chapel Hill, NC from an ad in the back of Rolling Stone in 1976. Wrote down my mother's credit Card number (unbeknownst to her), sent in the order. It's arrival started a serious addiction to all things Brussels, and bootlegs in general!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2020-12-07 16:40 by Ross.

First heard "Live-r Than You'll ever Be" on the radio-- WBCN in Boston played it after midnight in 1970

I was in Worcester Mass a week later and was in a small record shop called Soul City Records and on the front desk by check out were two piles of records-- both in all white covers-- The Beatles Get Back bootleg and The Stones 'Live-r" only the stones had any type of writing on it-- the stamped cover with the title. Beatles had nothing on it at. Both were a revelation at the time ! Think I paid $ 3.98 for each

Bootlegs ...
A couple of Stones fans connected with a fanclub asked me in the late nineties to investigate the possibility to purchase Rolling Stones Vinyl Gang CDs. They were very much in demand because of their apparently high quality. The place to be was Tokyo. I happened to be "in the neighbourhood" because I worked there for a month or so.
Shinjuku was the place to be. After finding about five bootleg stores (the street naming and nummering is very complex so it took quite some time of my precious saturday) I almost gave up. They had massive amounts of bootlegs, but not the VG ones. The manager of the last store luckily pointed me to some stairs around the corner and .... (decorated with Voodoo Lounge Tongues) upstairs I ran into this small place filled with only (!) Rolling Stones VGs. They had everything that was on my shopping list! Only some had to be collected at another (hidden) place. These guys were the heart and soul of Vinyl Gang. The owner told me that he had recently finished 6 months in jail because of his bootleg business, but it didn't stop him from restarting. At the other place I witnessed that the VG bootlegs were made in ... China (several thousands). I could only pay in cash and since it was quite some money I had to do some serious feedback with the people in my home country. Well, everything worked out fine (also for me ) and ... I didn't end up in jail ...

Great story Georgie!
I really didn't know you could do time for bootlegging in Japan...

First one was SPs "Altantic City 1989", great set with 4 CDs and it was available at regular shops. Got it as a christmas present from my parents in 1989 and played it to death. Glad to have this one now as a official release.

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dcba
Great story Georgie!
I really didn't know you could do time for bootlegging in Japan...

Looking back, it was pretty risky "business" for me carrying all those bootlegs in my suitcase and handcase, but times were different then. These VG guys told me that they were changing adresses frequently to stay out of trouble. There are lots of small apartments in Tokyo, so it's not difficult to find one.

I mentioned the other five stores in Shinjuku without VG CDs. Well, one of the stores manager told me that they had an unexpected visit by Jimmy Page (LZ) and some "friends". They looked around and noticed a rack filled with Led Zeppelin bootlegs. They left but returned again within the hour with a couple of plastic bags. Jimmy and his friends filled the bags with all (!) the LZ CDs. The manager thought he was going to have some great business, but Jimmy and the guys left the store without paying. The manager ran after them and asked for money. Jimmy was not impressed and told him that it was his music and they were not allowed to sell it that way, and left. The manager was still frustrated when he told me this

My first experience was in 1975. Bought "Bedspring Symphony" and "Nicaraguan Benefit Concert 2LP" at Record Head in West Allis, WI. Life was never the same. As a 13 year old listening to that 1973 blazing concert was awe inspiring (still is).

The Grateful Dead were kind of famous for sending people out to scout stores, and if they found any selling GD boots, they would take them up to the counter, identify themselves and take them with them. And, generally, give them away out in front of the store to anyone who wanted them. Happened to this friend of a friend of mine who had a store in Berkeley, he was a right scumbag so it served him right.

The good old Grateful Dead.

jb

....man thats tuff ......

Keef in interview was proud that The Stones
had more boots out there than any other band
And laughed that Stu was behind sellin some of
the stuff from off the mixin desk ta make a quid ..... HHHaaaaaaa



ROCKMAN

Quote
dcba
I'm a "child" of Dieter S.'s German incarnation of "Swinging Pig". And since the man was a strong Stones fan I was in awe of the TSP releases in the early 90's.
And these CDs had a special aura as the label used the "NoNoise" software to enhance the sound quality...

... little did I know at the time that "NoNoise" kinda killed the dynamics of the music!

Read here :
[forums.stevehoffman.tv]

Well, these people from the Steve Hoffman forum are a special brand... Almost never happy with anything their "master" was not involved with... often negative to the extreme : "totally killed the music", "ruined", "completely dead-sounding" etc.

However, I would agree with a quote from user "Vidiot":

"Getting great master tapes is always better than trying to use NR to clean up a crap master tape. And a 1st or 2nd-generation tape rarely needs noise reduction at all, assuming it's well-recorded."

Thing is, with boots you rarely get "great, well-recorded master tapes". And 30 years ago internet trading of tapes did not even exist. I could fill books with listings of tapes where better tape generations appeared in the meantime - quality that just was not around back in the day.

Many greetings from my old friend Dieter S., by the way!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2020-12-08 09:22 by retired_dog.

Cool to read all these stories... especialy the ones dating from the early days of bootleg market.

My first bootleg dates from early 1983 I guess - bought by mail from a seller in Helsinki who finally got caught and got a tremendous fine - after having used for a year to collect all the officially released material (well, my collection wasn't complete I learned later). It was called LEED STONES: THE FLAMIN' GROUPIE (or something like that), an orange vinyl (never seen anything like that before!), the cover photo of the Stones in drag (the one from "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby"), and the show was the 1971 Leeds concert.

I wasn't particularly excited: the sound was rather weak - not any idea of bootleg standards - and the show a bit dull (I think differently now).

However, I kept on buying more. The next ones blew my mind: L.A.FRIDAY, BEDSPRING SYMPHONY (the famous Brussels 1973 one) and JACK DANIELS ON TOUR (a great 1972 show, but can't recall which one). Can't recall the particular order any longer.

- Doxa

I spent some days in Stockholm (Sweden) in July 1973.

I had heard about bootlegs, but never seen one; I lived in Frankfurt, (West)Germany back at the time and there was no market for those - as opposed to the 90`s.

I came across a shop called "Skivgrosisten" in the old city (Gamla Stan), where I found Live`r than you`ll ever be, Beautiful Delilah and We never got it on `till Detroit. Bought them and am still satisfied with my purchase.

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retired_dog


Thing is, with boots you rarely get "great, well-recorded master tapes". And 30 years ago internet trading of tapes did not even exist.

Many greetings from my old friend Dieter S., by the way!

And in some cases (like the "Welcome to NY" CD) "No-Noise" was kind of necessary as Dieter probably had to work from a vinyl source.

"All Meat Music" was my first bootleg. It's an audience recording, and the sound quality is pretty awful, but it was a great show. It's also a document of a kind of interesting transitional moment, between the '72 US tour and the '73 European tour.

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blivet


"All Meat Music" was my first bootleg. It's an audience recording, and the sound quality is pretty awful, but it was a great show. It's also a document of a kind of interesting transitional moment, between the '72 US tour and the '73 European tour.

I also bought this one and yea the sound was awful but the sleeves by William Stout were great and I remember that It's All Over Now was a big surprise for me and "sounded" great

__________________________

In the seventies I was at Montpelliers on holiday(south of France), I find at a record store Bedspring of Symphonyb but I had to wait for my return home to listen to it, I was really impatient

Mine was a double vinyl album called Reverse Blues, with a reversed picture of Keith on the front cover. I bought it at a Record Fair in Leicester in 1980. I naively asked the dealer if it was all recorded on the 1978 tour, the track list suggested it might be, and I was told it was so I happily parted with my £15. It was actually a combination of Bedspring Symphony and Out On Bail with All Down The Line not listed on Bedspring which would have given the game away and I might not have bought it.

I am glad I did as this was a great way of introducing myself to the wonderful world of Stones bootlegs.

Around the same time I bought Pink Floyd 'The Wall Live' and The Who '79 Tour: Gonna Rape You', both triples, both £18. 40 years on and I still love all of these recordings. I guess I got a bit lucky with these purchases as you couldn't listen to the quality before buying and you could not always believe what was written on the covers.

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bob r
First heard "Live-r Than You'll ever Be" on the radio-- WBCN in Boston played it after midnight in 1970

I was in Worcester Mass a week later and was in a small record shop called Soul City Records and on the front desk by check out were two piles of records-- both in all white covers-- The Beatles Get Back bootleg and The Stones 'Live-r" only the stones had any type of writing on it-- the stamped cover with the title. Beatles had nothing on it at. Both were a revelation at the time ! Think I paid $ 3.98 for each

Ah...WBCN. The greatest radio station ever. Charles 'Laughing Goose the Weatherman' Laquidara, Sam Kopper, and the inimitable Maxanne, among others. They were responsible for expanding my musical landscape at a young age and I am so grateful for it. Being able to listen to entire albums in one sitting sure helped simplify the LP buying process back then as TOP 40 was purely singles-driven.

The winter of 1970, my Dad used to drive me to a head shop/record store called New Wave Music in Pittsfield, Massachusetts and I bought " Live-R Than You'll Ever Be," the bootleg version from the 1969 tour, Madison Square Garden....Get Your Ya Yas Out...plain white jacket, title printed in red..I still have it. I had to write the songs on the plain white label..the good ole days...I wore that record out!

I had a 1973 Hawaii show on tape - off the radio before this but this was my first actual vinyl boot..3 LPs ..... ..autumn, 1982 - £20

A friend gave me a compact disk he recorded for me of the vinyl of "Nasty Music" (Live in Brussel 1973 and 4 Songs from New York City 1972). Although I had YaYas at the time, this one really blew me away. Must be in 1974. So I was 12 years old and the world changed forever.

Quote
RockingLonestar
A friend gave me a compact disk he recorded for me of the vinyl of "Nasty Music" (Live in Brussel 1973 and 4 Songs from New York City 1972). Although I had YaYas at the time, this one really blew me away. Must be in 1974. So I was 12 years old and the world changed forever.

You had a CD in 1974? ..............perhaps you meant cassette?..............



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2020-12-10 17:43 by EddieByword.

In California in the early 1970s, you used to be able to buy bootlegs in record stores. They were sold in the racks right along with the bona fide records.

My first Stones bootleg purchase was "Bright Lights, Big City," some Jimmy Reed and other blues covers.

My best purchase was "Bedspring Symphony," which I believe is now called "Brussels Affair."

The gold standard for bootlegs was "The Basement Tapes," by Bob Dylan and the Band. Everybody either had it or wanted it. It was so popular Dylan's record company finally gave in and released it has an album.

When I was 13 years old, I lived in a small town in Germany.
It was the summer of 1977.
Me and my 17 years old brother visited Berlin, where we were born and where our grandmothers lived.
A friend of mine was in my company as well. It was the time I smoked weed for the very first time. One day I went into a record store.
Wow! I spent hours, listening to music and I bought my first LPs.
"New Skin for the old Ceremony" by Leonard Cohen,
"Relics" by Pink Floyd and
"Live at Leeds" by the Rolling Stones.
These records still please me.
Many followed.
These days I download music from YouTube and eventualy burn them on CDs...

When I was first exploring boots in the early 80s, there was a record store in Towson, MD, that RENTED records by the day.

My buddy and I would rent five or six records on Saturday, take 'em home, tape em on cassette and return them the next day.

My first was probably "In Again, Out Again," which I think was Passaic, NJ 78.

T@3

It was a cassette for a Steel Wheels show, I can't recall which one. Anyway, it sounded like it was recorded from the bottom of a garbage can across the street from the stadium. I think of it every time I watch fan clips from concerts on YouTube. I once paid a lot of money for a terrible concert recording from years before, and now just minutes/hours after a Stones concert I can get relatively clean video and audio for free. It still blows my mind.

Paris au Printemp on vinyl 1982...awful. Didn't buy a bootleg after that, of course my own loss.


Rediscovered them in the digital age.