Heartland

Bootleg records!

since discogs has decided to forbid the selling of a slew of unofficial LP's, many fans of bands that gravitate towards that sort of thing have found a precious lifeline severed. it was only hanging on by a koka noodle anyway, and other than waiting for that holy grail ebay listing i'd no doubt be competing with you fine people for... i'm looking for advice and recommendations.

where do you get your rarer discs? is there some kind of shadowy black market in leeds, or a handy dandy website even a merseyrat like myself can enjoy?

Are you talking about vinyl bootlegs specifically? If so, I don't feel anything about them whatsoever as I haven't owned a record player for 30 years. If you mean recordings of gigs generally, then i love them and they're brilliant, even when they're sh1t as for where I get them - here mainly, or some other sites for different bands or genres or etc. I can recommend a couple if you do mean downloadable recordings. I don't think any shops exist in Leeds selling bootlegs of any description these days, if there is I don't know about it.

Anyway, most of those rather expensive bootlegs on eBay are lathe cut vinyls featuring old stuff in another new dress every few weeks ... oh yes, and in many, many colours ... tempting as candy ... so, if you want to start collecting them, make sure you've got a very big purse and plenty space to store them and well, some heir(s) for the time you gotta leave the planet without taking them with you ... ...

I, like Planet Dave, prefer the audience recordings and everything in data format ... that way I can listen to soo many recordings anywhere and anytime I want to. I've got some vinyls, CDs, etc. but already these make me worry while on the other hand, I don't want to sell them ... therefore I keep my fingers off most of the stuff by now. Oh well, time and again I fall for another tour shirt, book, or mug, or ... *sigh ... ...

having collected white stripes digital bootleg live shows since i was young enough to operate a mouse and keyboard, id throw myself at the sister's live ones. ive heard there's an ethereal board on this forum dedicated to just that, which i cant wait to sink my teeth and ears into.

but yeah, i do mean mainly vinyl bootlegs for this post. its an insatiable hunger to hear and listen, and ive already tore to shreds the holy trinity of albums (even though VT seems to be a taboo subjest besides some flowers wrapped in razor wire...). ive got almost every EP, all 3 LP's, and am itching and scratching to hear the songs i hunt on the web through my hifi on blissful analogue. might sound dramatic, but ive prowled the record shops of a few cities to find the sisters in. out of all of them, i only found one: in manchester (the incredible vinyl exchange near Piccadilly, where the guy behind the counter's brother used to drink in the fenton in the adrenochrome days and wait for Eldritch to collect his milk around 6pm...), the day before the show, i found enter the sisters (blue sleeve) and a gaggle of EPs... im sure you guys from my north west neck of the woods know how hard it is to find merciful releases in the midst of a dusty old record shop, so it's only got me invigorated. in short....

I WANT MORE

I have a few vinyl bootlegs. Bought in a variety of places. In the 90s, when independent record shops used to advertise in music magazines. From record fairs or, more recently from Ebay or folks selling on the FB groups.
You'll have a lot of fun when you get access to the Sharing section! I had to increase my Mega storage

Imagine.
A sweet little music shop in the middle of nowhere called, appropriately, “ B-Side Records.” That’s where I found my Sisters vinyl and CDs. The owner, who hired two hippies turned techno to help out there, is equally sweet and has a veritable encyclopedic knowledge of rock ‘n roll. It’s a good idea to go on a treasure hunt. That’s when you find the good stuff. And be sure to wear comfortable shoes, as you may find yourself stomping around in the boondocks, as it were.

I've likewise got a handful of vinyl bootlegs, and I'd say most people on this site who've been fans for a while also do; certainly if you've been a fan since the 80s you almost certainly do, as at one stage it was really the only way of getting some key items. So I've got the portastudio demos, the Floodland demos, some shows, some key 7-inchers including the almost obligatory bootleg Damage Done.

What I used to have was a large cassette collection, but they're mostly lost in various house moves by now. One key benefit of the Internet and Sharing is that it allows for much much better preservation and archiving than we used to have. Gone are the days of a "do not share"/"do not trade" cassette slowly crumbling to bits in a private collection, eventually becoming damaged and the contents of it lost forever.

In the case of the Sisters, where so much of their sound, so many tracks, and an entire 50% of their style is otherwise undocumented by official releases, this is particularly critical.

I haven't bothered buying bootlegs in decades, certainly not since I joined HL. The appeal is largely gone, although I still do play the ones I've already got.

As others have said, once Sharing unlocks you'll be like a pig in proverbial.

Funnily enough, there's someone on the 80-85 FB group just posted that they're selling their bootleg vinyl collection!

White Stripes? Nice. I don't suppose you ever happened upon recordings of their Sheffield Leadmill gig did you? Hotel Yorba tour, couldn't tell you the year. Or maybe Harewood House 2007 (O2 Wireless Festival)? Or even for that matter either Glastonbury or Leeds Festival 2002? Amazing gigs, though I've never thought to try track down bootlegs.

roswelltourist wrote: ↑03 Dec 2023, 20:40 Bootleg records!

since discogs has decided to forbid the selling of a slew of unofficial LP's, many fans of bands that gravitate towards that sort of thing have found a precious lifeline severed. it was only hanging on by a koka noodle anyway, and other than waiting for that holy grail ebay listing i'd no doubt be competing with you fine people for... i'm looking for advice and recommendations.

where do you get your rarer discs? is there some kind of shadowy black market in leeds, or a handy dandy website even a merseyrat like myself can enjoy?

Are you talking about older material (e.g. rare/ltd. LP from 80s show) or bootlegs of new (or more recent) material? I do collect CD bootlegs of several bands (incl. The Sisters) incl. new/recent shows, I do not collect vinyl...the primary reason is I'm pretty sure I would spend all of my money on vinyl and be even more obsessed than I've been w/ a large CD collection.

One thing to say about where to find anything: "Japan". Even that's been rocky of late. And of course, eBay as you mention. Obsessive searching can reveal those gems, that's how I got most of my Sisters collection going back 20+ years.

I used to have a massive collection of bootleg material, but as the world moved to the digital realm, so did I. Ultimately, I’m not the collector who wants to hoard artifacts - I’m the nerdy obsessive fan who wants to listen to stuff (over and over and over). I think at this point all I’ve got left bootleg-wise is a small bit of vinyl.

Gothicbiff wrote: ↑04 Dec 2023, 16:51 Funnily enough, there's someone on the 80-85 FB group just posted that they're selling their bootleg vinyl collection!

amazing! ill be sure to check out the FB groups. thanks!

Planet Dave wrote: ↑04 Dec 2023, 17:13 White Stripes? Nice. I don't suppose you ever happened upon recordings of their Sheffield Leadmill gig did you? Hotel Yorba tour, couldn't tell you the year. Or maybe Harewood House 2007 (O2 Wireless Festival)? Or even for that matter either Glastonbury or Leeds Festival 2002? Amazing gigs, though I've never thought to try track down bootlegs.

I have the 2005 Glasto, leeds, the forum and reading... as well a couple of dozen of other shows mainly 97 to 05, with a few icky thump era concerts digital, which id be happy to share if you're interested. i also have some extremely high quality (albeit much shorter) radio recordings. they're one of those bands that are just so much better live, and a lot of their songs best versions are in some no mark gigs lol. much like the sisters, they tend to shake things up for the live versions and do them a little different.

to everyone else, thanks for the great advice! i am looking for pretty much anything 80s to modern, with some of the harder to find tracks. whether digital or vinyl, i'd be elated with some variety outside what spotify, youtube and my shelves can provide... as you've all said, I suppose getting the keys to the sharing section vault is the best move.

mh wrote: ↑04 Dec 2023, 14:57 In the case of the Sisters, where so much of their sound, so many tracks, and an entire 50% of their style is otherwise undocumented by official releases, this is particularly critical.

this, for me, is what makes bands like the sisters so enticing. similar to nirvana, with only 3 official album releases, a compilation or two and some official live releases - most of the iceberg lies underwater. it mustve been an incredible time in the 80s, where the only way to hear these songs would be to trade them over some dingy pub table and listen at home... i suppose theres something to be said about Some Girls Wander By Mistake, which is im sure the easiest way to get a hold of at least the below surface level tunes. it's only when you do some digging and realise just how many are left unreleased you have to turn to places like this to pick the brains of people who know the most!

In case anyone is looking for Sisters vinyls, I have about 700+ for sale. Happy to send a list. PM your email.

unofficial concert recordings i love. bootleg records i have no feelings about one way or the other as i dont collect them or sell them. (got a box of 7" rare-ish boots & 'THAT' picture inteview disc that EVERYBODY probably has got somewhere -mines on the wall, hat-and-raybans side out, not the reverse MR logo cuz thats WRONG... actually i have that same interview on 4 b&w 7" picture discs as well: which are also on the wall... )
i dislike people making money out of Our Goodwill & Benevolence, so ANY CUNT selling cd-rs of gigs theyve obtained from those shared freely HERE shouldnt be surprised to get mangled in a nasty kharma accident...(that is of course NOT AT ALL accidental due to the way the Universe realigns itself. BUT simultaneously IS accidental due to the Nature Of Chaos! Good innit? )
Oh and those oligarch wannabe greek wankers can go f**k themselves as well- the ones who charge the third world debt for "limited" editions of widely available recordings that theyve re-pressed 17 copies of in see-through "Puce-[whoops, i did a racism]-Brown With Tobbacco Trim" coloured vinyl (a real "colour" "scheme" for bathrooms in the late 70s i kid you not...for those too conservative for "avocado"...)