The Old Timers' Bootleg-Shopping-Recollections Thread

[Lord Reith]

I've always wondered what that event looked like.

[MarkRJones1970]

Part 2: The Sky man has been so hopefully my internet won't keep dropping now!

Then, of course, we got the Ultra Rare Trax series. I managed to get the 1st 2 CD volumes at a record fair but when a mate of mine got the follow ups, 3&4 and 5&6, the seller only had 1 copy of each, the ones he'd just bought, so I had to order them. These were a revelation. Someone had got into the vaults! Those secret, impenetrable vaults at Abbey Road! New stuff we'd never heard in master tape quality were on these 4 records, tracks we'd never dared dream we'd get to hear. I'm sure these were the releases that George Harrison blamed on Mark Lewishon, but we all know it was DJ Roger Scott who made the copies while he was researching the Abbey Road show video. What a HERO!:







I was always a bit pissed off that these amazing volumes didn't come on CD like the 1st 2. The CD series that followed, also called 3,4,5,6 etc was nowhere as good as these 4 records and was mainly full (if 30 minutes per CD could be called 'full') of stuff that had appeared elsewhere.

While at my 1st Liverpool Beatles convention in 1989 at the Adelphi in Liverpool I spied a new series, the 'Unsurpassed Masters' volumes. I duly grabbed 1 of each volume that had, so far, been released. Luckily my copies were the correct versions that had both sides of the stereo included instead of the 1st batch that only had 1! These discs contained material that had been on Ultra Rare Trax but was surrounded by more outtakes and goofs. Plus, they were all on CD! Unfortunately for me Vol 4 had a great big dirty gouge on the playing surface, just where the most interesting track was (the early mix of Everybody's Got Something to Hide... with the extra guitar bars. It jumped just after that section) so I had to find and buy another copy of it later on. There was no way I could take it back to where I bought it and get a swap!



I would trawl each record fair looking for further volumes and I usually bought anything Beatles that had the Yellow Dog label attached to it.

The came along the beautiful Great Dane BBC boxset. I only ever saw one copy available and snapped it up. Glad I did as I never saw another:





A few years later, in 1994, I spotted these boxsets by Yellow Dog, The Ultimate Collection 1-3 series at the record fair. I'd learned by now that if I didn't buy something there and then chances are I'd never see them again so I toddled off to the cash point from the record fair and, more or less, emptied my bank account and bought all 3: These contained yet more studio outtakes, some of which hadn't been available anywhere else before. Another plus was that these boxes contained booklets outlining what was on the discs. This was a 1st for Yellow Dog as their previous CDs just contained track listings and sweet fanny adams else:









After getting these I barely touched my Unsurpassed Masters CDs. A few discs were picked up after this, we had a bit of a dry period. The odd disc contained something new and exciting but there was a lot of 'upgrades' and CDs containing a couple of new bits surrounded by rehashes. Some were good, some not so. The better ones were 'The Lost Pepperland Reel' because we could now hear the full 8 min + version of Gerorge's' 'It's All Too Much' and 'Turn Me On Dead Man' which had yet more outtakes we'd never heard before including an early version of 'What You're Doing' that was new to disc and a whole set of 'That Means A Lot' run throughs, some of which had been on 'Arrive Without Aging' but there they were were horribly tinny and warbly. These were perfect quality. There was also a lot of new Get Back era material, so I bought the Rockin' Movie Stars series:



At a fair in in 1999 I spotted 3 brand new boxes, the Mythology set. Again, I knew that if I didn't buy them there and then I would probably never see them again. These were great looking and 2 of the 3 boxes contained a coin from the 60s in them.(I should hunt down a 1967 penny for the box that doesn't have one!) A gimmick but a neat one:









Getting them home though I soon realised the content left a little bit to be desired. They weren't great, there was a lot of poor quality spoken word stuff. Still, I didn't realy regret buying them but, as I barely touched them, they are all still in mint condition.

Since then I don't think I've actually bought a brand new bootleg CD. Releases containing new material dried up and what did come out was either 'remastered' or slightly better sounding verisons of stuff I already had that could be downloaded off the internet. Then of course we all got to hear the long version of 'Revolution 1' on a boot called 'Take Your Knickers Off', which was absolutlely amazing.

I did, for a while burn my downloaded bootlegs to CD but soon gave up as, a few months later, a new, upgraded version of the same material would usually surface on the internet. Now, I don't bother with the burning to CD. I stick it on my iPod and listen to new stuff via that.

For a while I had a hand in making some bootleg CD & DVD covers of my own for releases put together by a fellow called Hobnail (I am the 'Jones' of 'Hobs, Apes & Jones', the made up label we put them out under). I even ended up having some of the covers I'd made feature in the 901 pdfs that reviewed the latest bootleg releases, a mag I bought a couple of issues back in the late 80s. I loved doing these and the fact I had some of my covers sitting on Beatles fans shelves all over the world was payment enough for the time I put into making them:





But then came along the HMC series of DVDs containing piles of video footage we'd never had access to before. I downloaded the 1st few volumes I wanted as I had no idea whatsoever about where to buy them. For a while I saw that physical copies were available to buy on eBay so I managed to get myself 4 originals but, when they arrived, was dismayed to see they didn't come in proper boxes. The discs themselves were inside the booklets. In some ways I prefer the copies I downloaded and made myself as I put them in solid DVD cases. I did get the same thrill though when they arrived in the post, as I had when I'd found something exciting to buy at those record fairs back in the 80s and 90s. The last time I looked on ebay they were nowhere to be seen. Either they've all sold out or Ebay cracked down on the people selling them.



But now, even those appear to have dried up. Now I have to rely on the Beatles themselves with their expanded deluxe boxsets for my new Beatles fix. Of course I bought the Pepper, White Album and Abbey Road boxes in order to hear more new studio outtakes from the best band there's ever been in the world. The band that have been the soundtrack to my life since I was 10 years old!

There will never be a time, until I'm dead that is , that I won't enjoy hearing the Beatles in the studio, at work, chatting, joking, running through songs etc.

But still, I do wonder. What will be the next surprise recording that surfaces by the Beatles? Things are slow at the moment but I'm sure they'll be something exciting and new to hear. Eventually.....

Oh and as a footnote to all this, all my bootlegs aren't shown. Despite not burning physical discs anymore I still have loads sitting on my shelf (that's straining under the weight) and a big pile a vinyl boots too. Here's what the CD section currently looks like:


Here's me at the start of this story (12 June 1983 to be exact)


And me now:

[Onkster II]

Ah, a downtown YMCA record swap in Des Moines, around ‘82! Beautiful spring day. Got a 45 of Day After Day and a vinyl LP of Melvin’s The New 21.

Spent the afternoon with the windows open, enjoying the wonders of 3 Cool Cats, Mama You Been On My Mind, and The Death of Joel Glazier!

Heaven. New Beatles music, to me anyway.

[noirbar]

But now, even those appear to have dried up. Now I have to rely on the Beatles themselves with their expanded deluxe boxsets for my new Beatles fix. Of course I bought the Pepper, White Album and Abbey Road boxes in order to hear more new studio outtakes from the best band there's ever been in the world. The band that have been the soundtrack to my life since I was 10 years old!

Mark,

This is incredibly great - post of the month!

Right down memory lane for me: astonished to find a Beatles box set called Artifacts I and II at my local record store in '93. Had no idea there was such a thing - my last Beatles boot was Watching Rainbows vinyl which I purchased, and still have, in 1979.

The Artifacts boxes went for a cool $125 each. (Had to go without an AC unit in Chicago that summer). Stumbled on the Great Dane BBC set a little later. Another $200. And it continued...probably ~$1500 over the next years, lots of quid back then.

Now I can download pretty much everything in my collection - in mostly better quality - in about 4 minutes & 12 seconds, all completely free. Still to be honest, I'm not sure it wasn't more fun back then.

I know I don't need to say it but hang on to that collection!

Michael

[Choking Smoker]

I used to deal in Beatle memorabilia and records in the 1980's. At one time we made a contact in Holland, he was involved in helping to organise Beatles Conventions. I got to meet Pete Best in 1986 through him because he helped arrange Pete's attendance at a Convention in Rotterdam, I remember we had an authentic copy of the first ever Beatles concert program (October 1961) so I asked Pete if he could remember the gig and he told me some great background details to it.

Anyway our contact had a sideline in bootleg LP's and we used to go over on the ferry (same one The Beatles used on their first trip to Hamburg) and bring back about a hundred bootleg LP's at a time. He used to give us a receipt for a low price stating that they were deleted old stock so we just used to declare them to customs who would open a few, slide out the records to see if there was anything inside that shouldn't have been there...and wave us through. It never failed as they had no idea that the records were bootlegs, by this time they pretty much all came in nice covers and looked legitimate at a glance.

[Albert Grove]

I used to deal in Beatle memorabilia and records in the 1980's. At one time we made a contact in Holland, he was involved in helping to organise Beatles Conventions. I got to meet Pete Best in 1986 through him because he helped arrange Pete's attendance at a Convention in Rotterdam, I remember we had an authentic copy of the first ever Beatles concert program (October 1961) so I asked Pete if he could remember the gig and he told me some great background details to it.

Anyway our contact had a sideline in bootleg LP's and we used to go over on the ferry (same one The Beatles used on their first trip to Hamburg) and bring back about a hundred bootleg LP's at a time. He used to give us a receipt for a low price stating that they were deleted old stock so we just used to declare them to customs who would open a few, slide out the records to see if there was anything inside that shouldn't have been there...and wave us through. It never failed as they had no idea that the records were bootlegs, by this time they pretty much all came in nice covers and looked legitimate at a glance.

Thanks for your recollections on this. At present only in Japan they keep the bootleg flame alive.
As for early Beatles Conventions, we could start a seperate thread. Looking forward to hear from people who were at the 1976 Norwich and Alexandra Palace conventions and took photos there.

[Wogew]

Nice to see photos from the 1983 Beatles at Abbey Road show, since the ones I took came to nothing as the camera got ruined. Still hoping to see myself in someone's photos!
I went to London from Norway all by myself especially for that Abbey Road event, I was 21 at the time. Before the show, I had a pint at the pub which at the time was in the St John's Wood tube station, and in that pub they had a jukebox. Always keen to see what they had, I noticed one Beatles related single, John Lennon's Imagine/It's So Hard. Not wanting to go for the obvious, I selected "It's So Hard". I was then approached by a fellow who was there for the same reason as I, so we chatted about the event we were both going to. His name was Paul Ferguson.

Of course, listening to The Beatles in the same studio with audio that sounded as if they were in the same room (which of course, they were - only through speakers) as us, and with unheard versions of songs, songs and conversation was as magical as it can possibly get.
Always fascinated about film of the Beatles, some of the films they showed were new to me. After the show, Paul told me about his video collection, he had taped stuff off the TV and had a better copy of some footage they had projected at the show. He invited me home to his place the next day or the day after, I don't recall precisely, but he was going to show me some of the stuff he had collected on video, and he could also play me a record which I had yet to hear at the time, I believe it might have been "4th of July" by John Christie, composed by Paul and Linda McCartney. I duly visited Paul and we had a great time watching videos and listening to music and chatting. Just before the closing time at his local pub, we went there for a pint and there was a lady at the piano, entertaining with most patrons participating in a singalong of old music hall tunes.

After having gone back to Norway, Paul Ferguson and I kept in touch by mail, and we exchanged video cassettes, with me sending him stuff taped from TV in Norway and Sweden and he sending me stuff he had taped off British television. He also sent me addresses to other people in the U.K., like Keith Badman, who had rare video for sale or for swapping. Some time later, Ferguson moved to Australia and we lost touch with each other. I have heard that he is no longer with us.

Anyway that was the story of how I got into video bootlegging, thanks to a pub jukebox and The Beatles at Abbey Road show.

[Choking Smoker]

Nice to see photos from the 1983 Beatles at Abbey Road show, since the ones I took came to nothing as the camera got ruined. Still hoping to see myself in someone's photos!
I went to London from Norway all by myself especially for that Abbey Road event, I was 21 at the time. Before the show, I had a pint at the pub which at the time was in the St John's Wood tube station, and in that pub they had a jukebox. Always keen to see what they had, I noticed one Beatles related single, John Lennon's Imagine/It's So Hard. Not wanting to go for the obvious, I selected "It's So Hard". I was then approached by a fellow who was there for the same reason as I, so we chatted about the event we were both going to. His name was Paul Ferguson.

Of course, listening to The Beatles in the same studio with audio that sounded as if they were in the same room (which of course, they were - only through speakers) as us, and with unheard versions of songs, songs and conversation was as magical as it can possibly get.
Always fascinated about film of the Beatles, some of the films they showed were new to me. After the show, Paul told me about his video collection, he had taped stuff off the TV and had a better copy of some footage they had projected at the show. He invited me home to his place the next day or the day after, I don't recall precisely, but he was going to show me some of the stuff he had collected on video, and he could also play me a record which I had yet to hear at the time, I believe it might have been "4th of July" by John Christie, composed by Paul and Linda McCartney. I duly visited Paul and we had a great time watching videos and listening to music and chatting. Just before the closing time at his local pub, we went there for a pint and there was a lady at the piano, entertaining with most patrons participating in a singalong of old music hall tunes.

After having gone back to Norway, Paul Ferguson and I kept in touch by mail, and we exchanged video cassettes, with me sending him stuff taped from TV in Norway and Sweden and he sending me stuff he had taped off British television. He also sent me addresses to other people in the U.K., like Keith Badman, who had rare video for sale or for swapping. Some time later, Ferguson moved to Australia and we lost touch with each other. I have heard that he is no longer with us.

Anyway that was the story of how I got into video bootlegging, thanks to a pub jukebox and The Beatles at Abbey Road show.

What a great show that was and I think that only time has made me realise just how special and unique it would be. When they played those outtakes in studio 2 we really were hearing them for the first time.

A week after the show I got a call from a lady who'd managed to record it, she didn't live very far away so myself and my business partner drove over and listened to her recording which went on to become a bootleg LP. When the first batch of bootlegs of the show surfaced I can remember playing the 1963 version of One After 909 to customers down the telephone line