my first bootleg i got in 1979 in a local used record store of led zepplin live in seatle 1977.the sound was really treble and no bass and plenty of noise.the highlights of the album was kashmir with page using his violin bow,and going to california (boy did i wanna go west to sunny southern california after hearing that one ill tell ya)and a killer no quarter with some really spooky and haunting keyboards from john paul jones piano.

First boot was the Robert Johnson LP put out by an Australian
collector in the mid-sixties so as to make available the other Johnson
tracks that weren't on the first official Columbia release from 1961...
Columbia did not release Vol2 of the Johnson material till 1970 .........

Picked it up a year or so before Liver Than You'll Ever Be and
Great White Wonder....At the time the Johnson boot could only be
found under the counter at a few Melbourne record stores......











ROCKMAN

A journalist/writer sent me copies of Leeds 71 and Brussels 73 - after I'd been in touch via letter.... Later that year, I bought Passaic 78 and WTNY - and things got rolling... I was 11 or 12.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2008-03-10 17:37 by Erik_Snow.

Late Summer 1969-- I was a 13 year old Beatles / Stones fanatic (still am) and I was in a section of Worcester Massachusetts that a 13 should not be in, and wandered into a record shop called "Soul Record City" which catered to R&b..on the counter were a stack of albums, white covers, no wrting anywhere on the covers or album inside..just a handwritten sign on top of the stack that said "New Beatles !" I had every Beatles release, belonged to the fan club and although I knew they were working on a new album I didnt think this was it--I picked it up and turned out to be the "Get Back" sessions which officially saw the light of day a good 8 months later...I always remember this being superior in every way to the official release....

About 6 months later I picked up "Live-r Than You'll Ever Be" in the same place.... I was never the same again..............

If I remember correctly I paid about $3.98 each...

This one is my primeur.
"It's all over now" is so great.
Oh, still crazy after all these years.

My 1st bootlegs were cassette copies of LPs I had from my classmates' older brothers.
My 1st purchase was Atlantic City 1989 (3CDs), from Swingin' Pig.
I bought that one in Germany, where these records where easier to get than in France.

Years later, I sold that one after getting the 4 gold CDs edition

[doctorstonesblog.blogspot.com]

Honolulu again! So I wasn't the only one, starting from there.

What's yours?

A pint please!!

When I was 13 years old, I got a shoppingbag full of Stones LP's.
I remember it contained Stone Age, a vinyl one with only interviews, get your yayas out and also one with a live concert in Madison Square Garden in the 70s.

Unfortunately I can't remember the titles anymore!

The thing was then that this triggered me to become full stones fan forever.
The great part was that I found a leaflet inside the bag with the autographs of the stones. It seemed that the father of this girl (who appearantly wanted something more then just my interest )) played with the stones in Sweden in somekind of Jamming session in Sweden.

Don't know if it is true, but it was at least the foundation to start with collecting bootlegs of the stones.

In early 1987 I started my first job sacking groceries at a local store. I made friends with one of the checkers and we talked about music alot. She introduced me to Depeche Mode and I tried to get her interested in the Stones. One day she told me about a record store that had a good selection of 12" club singles. So after work one day she took me there and I picked out some Depeche Mode singles.

As I was walking to the counter to check out I thought I would see what kind of Stones records they had. I didn't expect much since the place was small and looked like they would have only had recent releases. Oh... they had recent releases alright! The very first record in the bin was something called, "Live in England 1974".

Now having been a Stones fan for sometime I knew the date on the LP was not right and the cheap cover made it obvious the release was not official. As it turned out it was a the Memphis show from 1978. And right behind that was "Necrophila", "On The Road" and another '78 boot.

Needless to say the Depeche Mode single went back in the bin and I picked up the Stones along with an extremely cheaply done Led Zeppelin boot called Destroyer III (Largo 1977). The Led Zeppelin was an audience recording and it was great to hear the real audience reactions.

About a month after this I went to a local record festival and ran into a boot dealer with Japanese boots - very expensive. I couldn't afford anything he had so I suggested he try running by the record store I knew might buy them. After that I had a regular supply or choice of newly printed Japanese boots: Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, U2, Depeche Modeand on and on and on.

This same record store expanded and opened several locations in Houston. I think they had somewhere around 15 stores at one time. They had one location that would continue to sell boot CDs but sadly they were busted around 1999 and have not sold any since then. This was right about the time that Vinyl Gang releases started to appear.

I have managed to get most of them on CDr but the vinyls are boxed up and looking for a home.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2008-03-10 18:10 by harlito1969.

I bought a box set of two vinyl records and a copy of the tickets from 1981 called Partdown I think. I also had a few early live BBC.Ed Sulivan stuff but unfortuanetly it got sold years ago....

"Madison" LP of soundboard 26/7/72. Ordered it from a catalogue and sent in a money order, February 1974.

It was 1979, and was a Beatles fantatic and starting to dig the stones. I only had Some Girls. I was reading The Beatles An Illustrated Record, and in the back it listed "unreleased" tracks in the form of albums. I did't understand what this meant and didn't udnerstand why it said they are often called bootlegs. But I had to get some! So I started calling record stores in the phone book. Like Jim Rockford I was going through every record store in the vacinity. I finally came to Schoolkids Records in Ann Arbor Michigan...and the nice guy on the other end said yeah, I have some boots come on down. So I pleaded with my Mom and she drove me there. I went into this small compact store over flowing with records, and met this shaggy hair bearded hippy and said I was the boy on the phone. He was really impressed a boy my age (11) would be looking for Bootlegs! He only had Stones records so I bought three off of him, Lacerated, In Again Out Again, and The Rolling Stones Live '78. All from the Some Girls tour. I was so excited and put the on right when I got home and was rivited for months. I thought it was so cool to be hearing stuff no one else had!

Well here it is

the backfrom the land of Rockman

live'r than you'll ever be in 1969. i'd been at the show and my boyfriend gave it to me after we survived altamont. it might have been a christmas present. i still have it.

Great thread! To me, the best of the year.

First bootleg: Burning at the Hollywood Palladium, red vinyl, muzzy sound but hot show. I loved it.

Bought in June 1973 in Paris, that makes me the second on the list, so far. I can fairly say I was an early boots'adopter, to talk as a marketer. At that time, you had at least three boots store in Paris and around : Marc Zenatti's Open Market, Mur du Son, and Violon d'Ingres.

I strongly recommend to read this book if you are interested in boots's industry: Bootleg! The Rise & Fall of the Secret Recording Industry, by Clinton Heylin, Omnibus Press. There is a lot about the Stones boots...

And the question of the day (sorry, no bounty): what was the meaning of "We never really got it till Detroit"?

For me, it was 'Welcome To New York' on vinyl and by mail order. Still the best Stones boot (even better than Brussels Affair).

Quote
The Joker
Great thread!

(...) strongly recommend to read this book if you are interested in boots's industry: Bootleg! The Rise & Fall of the Secret Recording Industry, by Clinton Heylin, Omnibus Press.

And the question of the day (sorry, no bounty): what was the meaning of "We never really got it till Detroit"?

Hey Joker, you're not joking? You know the Jagger quote, you surely do.
Anyway, thanks for the recommendation. Must read this!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-03-11 16:08 by Greenblues.

For me when it comes to Stones bootlegs I started with a few LPs I had picked up at flea markets as a kid. Had a vinyl of Mick's solo show in I think Japan, however didn't really listen to it that much. Than the other one was the Stones live in Paris 1976, wasn't too impressed with the sound and than found a bootleg shop in Connecticut where I picked up the Performances box set, the guy actually played it for me before I bought it. Couldn't believe how many great unreleased songs were on these 4 discs. Than I also got The Black Box not too long after that.

However as far as live shows go the first few Stones shows I got sounded terrible. At that time I probably had more Dead bootlegs (on tape) because it was very easy to find great sounding shows, despite being a Stones fan long before a Dead fan. Took me a few years after that to learn how to track down Stones shows where the quality was good. Been addicted ever since.

Beautiful Delilah, very early 70's maybe even late 69 but more likely 70's though , bought it at Virgin Records at Notting Hill ( Branson's first shop if I'm not mistaken )they had others but can't remember any names , later on they had Liver than you'll ever be , but for some reason it took me another 30 years to get that classic.

It was 1977...after a long night of hard partying, I remember trading a not inconsiderable pile of Controlled Dangerous Substances to a friend for a vinyl copy of Belgium '73 in a plain white wrapper...the rest is history. It now sits on a shelf not 3 feet from where I am typing this. At our 30-year high-school reunion last year, I drunkenly promised to return it, along with a CD of the show. I haven't got around to it yet...someday maybe?

My first bootleg was probably the Yardbirds' "Golden Eggs." Technically it was a pirate; it was all officially released songs that were hard to get at the time, ~1983. They're all on CD now of course. Fantastic cover by William Stout.

My first Stones boot was either "Bedspring Symphony" or "Welcome to NY," ~1984. Some friends and I used to make pilgrimages to NYC's Greenwich Village. They had 5-6 stores with very interesting records and lots of boots. I bought a copy of Hot Wacks, the bootleg bible, and those 2 titles looked good.

Later I discovered the versions sold in that store were inferior copies but at the time they were pretty cool. The music still rocks.

Jimi Hendrix Smashing Amps on red vinyl in a box of records my dad gave me when I was around ten or younger. Was taping concerts off the radio before that. It turned into a genuine hobby when I was 14 years ago and evolved into a lifestyle not long after that.

A slew of Grateful Dead tape trades in college starting about 1985.

However, the internet changed everything for me. Once I picked up Brussells Affair via snail mail trade, it was all over with.

Best boot I ever purchased was the Touring Party '72 box.

It all started after my first Stones concert at Rosemont Horizon Nov.23,1981. I wanted to experience more live Stones. While visiting Rolling Stone Records in Chicago back in high school, around 82/83, I came across my first boot: "IN AGAIN OUT AGAIN" LP from Passaic NJ 1978. I didn't know if I should buy it because there was a sticker on the cover that stated "NO RETURNS". When I got home to take it for a spin, I cracked open the shrink wrap and got really bummed to find the record of another band inside the sleeve. I was really pissed, the label said "Creative Artistry" and had the name of another band with tracks I never heard of before. I couldn't believe I was taken. I threw this shitty LP on the turntable almost scratching the hell out of it and was pleasantly surprised when all my dreams came true! This is exactly what I was after, great raw soundboard with the Stones attitude of the '78 tour. I was completely addicted and forever lost in LIVE STONES BOOTLEGS!

Hope you didn't make too deep scratches on In Again Out Again, Stonedalive
Yeah, it's funny with tHe bootlegers who couldn't write "Rolling Stones" on the labels, as they didn't want the "vinyl-factory" to know they were making bootlegs. Some CDboot-labels also have to print the CDs with incorrect or absurd info on them



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-03-14 00:40 by Erik_Snow.

Back in the 7th grade (mid 1970's), my best friend and i would
sit in his "den" and listen to records all day long..everyday.
He had a huge record collection but we exhausted it quickly.

So one day we went digging through his older brother's records and
found poorly printed photo copies listing records we'd never heard of...live recordings!

I think the first one he ordered was Elton John's "Ol' Pink Eyes is Back".
It took weeks to arrive by mail.....but it was cool knowing that we had
something that none of our friends had. (Keep in mind this was back
when Elton was ripping thru the charts)

Then...his dad started making business trips to Taiwan. He'd come back
with his arms full of black market counterfeit records...sometimes similar
to the offical releases..sometimes not. Led Zep / Beatles / Stones etc...
Audio quality was not as good as official releases but I treasured these.
(They were $1 per vinyl album)

A few years later...when I became a hardcore Stones nut.....I searched
every used record shop etc... within 100 mile radius of my home. Bought
my first Stones boot from a record/head shop...."Welcome to New York".
Bought a few poor recordings...came across a book called "The Illustrated
Discography" of Rolling Stones Bootleg releases & official releases...and
increased my search to "record shows" that were held quarterly.

Over the years I bought dozens and dozens. Met a guy (stones collector)
that had boxes of new shrink-wrapped Stones bootlegs...several copies of 20-25
different titles.

Still have everything I've collected.
Now I'm satisfied with free MP3 downloads.
I acquire them for the music not for the packaging etc...


IORR............but I like it!

Quote
StonedALIVE
(...) I cracked open the shrink wrap and got really bummed to find the record of another band inside the sleeve. I was really pissed, the label said "Creative Artistry" and had the name of another band with tracks I never heard of before. (...)

Quote
Erik_Snow
Some CDboot-labels also have to print the CDs with incorrect or absurd info on them

True! Sounds like stuff for a whole new thread. Could make for interesting reading.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2008-03-14 11:47 by Greenblues.