Bootlegs
This database consists of a very detailed bootleg discography and
is divided into two separate large parts. The first one is dedicated
to The Yardbirds with Jimmy Page. Much larger part is dedicated to
Led Zeppelin. Both sections are simply expanded into three independent
sections of each. Here's a tree:
The
Yardbirds feat. Jimmy Page
Led
Zeppelin
Many say that there's no band that can compare to Led Zeppelin in
concert. The energy, the power and the presence of the band live is
all part of the legend. Despite this, there has been no official concert
recording of the band released for years. The closest thing to a live
album has been for the long time the soundtrack of the film "The
Song Remains The Same". Then, after twenty one years later "BBC
Sessions" was released in 1997. However, since both titles are
a compilations from a number of nights and the material edited (including
overdubs), it can hardly be considered a true representation of the
band in concert. Through the years there have been rumors of an official
live collection. These rumors, like those of a reunion tour, have
been squashed by all three living members of the group, who have voiced
his objection to both, although in May 2003, after many years of waiting,
Jimmy Page finally released the Led Zeppelin live collection. Slated
for a simultaneous 2003 release were "DVD", a two-disc set,
and "How The West Was Won", a three-CD set. Long sought-after
by Zeppelin devotees and collectors, this marks the first-ever official
release of these rare and legendary performances, which span the group's
entire career. Much-rumored and eagerly anticipated, the DVD and CD
sets each contain entirely different material, so there is no overlap
between the two releases. Behind this, one has still to turn to the
scourge of the record industry - the bootleggers: friend of fans and
foe of Feds.
When
it all started
In late 1968 a couple of California teenagers stumbled upon several
reels of tape that had been recorded in Bob Dylan's house. How they
came to acquire these tapes has never exactly been explained and is
the stuff of legend. Before the 1960's, record companies usually held
onto all tapes from artists' recording sessions. But artists like
Dylan and the Beatles took more control of the process of making records,
recording where they felt like it, in a house in Woodstock, for example
and the record labels lost control of the process.
The tapes these two teenagers stumbled upon contained some previously
unreleased Dylan songs and alternate versions of some songs that had
already been released. Open-reel tape decks were expensive at the
time, and beyond the budget of these kids, so they approached a record
manufacturing plant to master and press the tapes in the lowest quantity
allowed, which was 100 pieces.
In the 1960's, cassette tapes were not commonly available, and everyone
had a turn-table, so it was not unusual for people to make records
to pass on information as they do with tapes today. High school bands
made records of their annual concerts and church groups made records
of their favorite hymn performance. Pressing 100 records was considerably
cheaper than buying a tape deck and at the time there was nothing
illegal about it.
The kids made these 100 Dylan records, thinking of them more as novelties
rather than as albums per se. They gave them away to friends and soon
friends of friends began to inquire about them. People began to offer
money for the discs, which were packaged in a plain white sleeve.
A record store approached the kids to ask if they could have 100 copies
at $4 a piece. So the kids made 500 more, started to sell them for
a couple of bucks each, and the modern American bootlegging industry
was born.
The record became known as "The Great White Wonder" and
over the next decade it sold so many copies some claimed it should
have made it onto the Bill-board charts. The teenagers went on to
form the Trade Mark of Quality (TMQ) record label and to become the
biggest bootleggers in music history. Today we recognize The Great
White Wonder as the first significant bootleg album.
Bootlegging itself began back with the invention of the cylinder phonograph;
the earliest bootlegs were of opera legend Enrico Caruso. But bootlegging
didn't begin as an industry until the late 1960's and it continues
to this day as a quasi-underground record industry. And with the exception
of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, no other group in history has
interested bootleggers as much as Led Zeppelin. (The very detailed
history of all the early vinyl bootleg labels, including a history
of persons responsible for these labels, can be found on The
Pink Floyd Vinyl Bootleg Guide excellent site. You can also visit
Wikipedia
site, where a history of bootlegs is available.)
Legal
or illegal
When bootlegging began in the late 1960's, it was not illegal. Those
first copies of The Great White Wonder were sold in legitimate record
stores over the counter and were stuck in the Dylan section in the
records racks. In the early 1970's, every hip record store in town
had stacks of bootlegs for sale, and many times they were cheaper
and occasionally better than the regular record company releases.
The law changed in February 1972, when the U.S. Congress passed a
bill that outlawed the exhumation of pet cemeteries for the purpose
of road construction. In an effort to quickly pass a law to deal with
the increasing number of bootleg albums, the recording lobby persuaded
Congress to attach an amendment to the pet cemetery bill making it
a felony to manufacture bootleg, pirate, or counterfeit sound recordings
for the purpose of resale. The law has been open to interpretation
over the years and though court cases are still occasionally fought
over the specifics of copyright infringement involving, bootlegging
remains illegal.
What
means a bootleg
It is important to distinguish between the different forms of music
piracy. A "bootleg" is defined as an illegally manufactured
disc or tape that includes previously unreleased live or studio recordings.
A "pirate" is considered a copy of a commercially available
recording that has been repackaged in its own unique packaging. A
"counterfeit", finally, is a copy of a commercially available
recording that duplicates all aspects of the original official copy,
including the packaging. These distinctions are important because
the perpetrators of each different level approach the project with
a different intention. Pirates and counterfeits are usually made by
professionals with the sole intent of high profits. Most bootlegs
are manufactured by fans. Even the Recording Industry Association
of America (RIAA), the body that actually takes bootleggers to court)
admits that bootlegging is small potatoes compared to the millions
of dollars in losses record companies face from pirates and counterfeits.
Usually the RIAA does not distinguish between the various forms of
bootlegging when they report on raids or actions they have taken,
so when you read about 100,000 records being seized they usually aren't
talking about copies of The Great White Wonder. Though the moral question
of bootlegging is one best answered individually, the debate generally
comes down to whether the buying of bootleg albums hurts the sales
of legitimatealbums (as the record companies argue) or whether anyone
who would spend money on a bootleg is bound to have all the legitimate
releases already (as many bootleg collectors suggest).
Rolling
Stones Gather No Moss
Shortly after the release of "The Great White Wonder", the
Rolling Stones played a concert at the Oakland Coliseum that was the
talk of the West Coast. The show was taped and released in bootleg
form with the title "Liver Than You'll Ever Be." It was
an outstanding recording of a great performance and it was immediately
recognized by fans, and by critics, as far superior to the official
Stones live album. The record was reviewed in many publications and
treated with all the seriousness that a legitimate release would warrant.
The record sold even faster than The Great White Wonder and the legitimate
record companies began to take notice.
Two or three more titles followed in the next few months, a Donovan
disc and a couple more Dylan titles, and rumor began to spread through
the grapevine about a forthcoming disc from an exciting new live band
by the name of Led Zeppelin.
Peter
Grant
The grapevine was something that Zeppelin manager Peter Grant stayed
in touch with he had virtually created all the excitement for his
new band by word of mouth to start with. Grant heard about this Zeppelin
bootleg and immediately thought it would take money out of his pocket.
The group's label, Atlantic, also was concerned since Zeppelin already
accounted for a high percentage of company profits. Grant set off
to stop the bootleggers before they got started. Grant reportedly
traveled extensively through England and America, went to every studio
that the band had recorded in and to every radio station that had
done a broadcast, and reclaimed any tapes he could find. Shortly thereafter
Atlantic drafted up a stack of cease and desist orders and made it
known that they were ready to deliver them to any stores that sold
bootlegs.
In the October 3, 1970, issue of Melody Maker the headline read "Led
Zeppelin Hammer Bootlegs." The story reported that "two
new Led Zeppelin albums will shortly be in the shops, both unofficial,
illegal bootlegs. But Zeppelin's management immediately blasted back
with a denial that any tapes were in private hands, and added the
threat that anyone who tries to bootleg the group will be promptly
sued. One Zeppelin album is alleged to be studio recorded tracks,
never released, and the other is a live album from Germany. Phil Carson,
European general manager of Atlantic records told me, 'We will be
taking positive legal action against anyone who is found pressing,
marketing or retailing these albums,' and Zeppelin manager Peter Grant
declared this week,' As far as I know there can be no tapes of Zeppelin
available. After hearing some time ago that there was going to be
an attempt to some tapes of the band, I flew to America. We've managed
to retrieve all the tapes and we know of nothing in existence that
can be issued.'" Perhaps no greater misstatement has been uttered
in music business history.
Live
On Blueberry Hill
It was an understandable mistake to make, though. Up to that time
no one believed that you could make a good tape of a band from a seat
in the audience. It was Led Zeppelin "Live on Blueberry Hill"
that changed that misconception forever. The Dylan bootlegs had been
recorded from either the famous "basement tapes", which
were studio quality recordings, or from television outtakes. The Stones'
"Liver" album was so good that everyone associated with
the band, perhaps straight from the mixing board. But there were no
illusions about "Blueberry Hill". This was definitely an
audience recording, complete with whistles and cheering, but despite
that it sounded great.' Legend has it that the recording was made
using a two-track Nagra portable open reel tape deck with a Sennheiser
shotgun microphone. Some argued that this recording from the audience
actually sounded closer to the experience of the show than the sterile
sound on most legitimate live recordings.
"Blueberry Hill" opened the floodgates. The bootleggers
realized that they could get as much material as they wanted, and
more important, they realized that there was a tremendous audience
for these recordings. "Blueberry Hill" is still recognized
by many Zeppelin collectors as being one of the very best Zeppelin
bootlegs. It has several unique features, it was the best recording
from the era (recorded September 1970 at the L.A. Forum, one of the
band's favorite venues), it is still the only bootleg with a decent
live recording of Bring It On Home, it is the only bootleg with live
versions of Out On The Tiles, Blueberry Hill and I Saw Her Standing
There, and the original tape included a live version of Page's instrumental
"Bron-Yr-Aur", which wasn't released on the original vinyl
bootleg, though it was included on the CD releases. There have been
literally hundreds of Led Zeppelin bootlegs since that first one in
late 1970. Even twenty five years after the group's demise, Zeppelin
bootlegs appear on the collector's market at an astounding rate. The
number of Zeppelin bootleg titles is unbelievable. I have found nearly
4,000 titles. There were at least a dozen ten or so album bootleg
sets.
One infamous Zeppelin bootleg set contains a full 70 different discs.
About 325 shows with ten or more repressing on different labels. The
original TMQ bootlegs from the early 1970's are still some of the
most desirable and the most valuable. There were three original TMQ
single albums", Mudslide", "BBC Broadcast" and
"Stairway To Heaven." The label originally issued five double
albums: "Blueberry Hill", "Going To California",
"Bonzo's Birthday Party", "Three Days After",
and "V 1/2". "Mudslide" was actually a reissue
of another bootleg titled "Pb "(reissuing bootlegs is a
very common occurrence and something that you'll see confuses the
number of Zeppelin titles greatly) that had been recorded off the
radio in Vancouver, Canada, and is an exceptional mono recording of
a tremendous performance. "BBC Broadcast" was the first
of a multitude of bootlegs taken from the performance at the BBC's
Paris Theatre in 1971.
Going
To California
"Going To California" was issued right after "Blueberry
Hill " and was touted as being recorded in Los Angeles, though
it actually was from a show at the Berkeley on September 14, 1971.
Bootleggers frequently mislabel the date and place of the shows contained
on their discs, sometimes out of incompetence, sometimes to purposely
throw off authorities as to who recorded the show, and occasionally
simply to try to sell more copies since shows from the bigger markets
usually have more interest for collectors since the market is larger.
Bonzo's
Birthday Party
The next title of note went on to become legendary, perhaps because
the title itself was such a classic. It was called "Bonzo's Birthday
Party" and it featured the performance from the L.A. Forum on
May 31, 1973. The boot contains outstanding live performances of Heartbreaker,
Whole Lotta Love and The Ocean. It was followed up with the title
"Three Days After", recorded at the same venue on June 3,
1973. This release also included some leftover material from the "Blueberry
Hill" tape. The next TMQ title was "V 1/2" which was
recorded in Seattle on June 17, 1973. The recording is not outstanding
but the performance makes up for it. These TMQ titles are considered
to be the mainstays of any Zeppelin bootleg collection, though not
every release came out first on TMQ. "Blueberry Hill" was
originally issued before the inauguration of the TMQ label, so the
very first pressings were on Blimp Records and were packaged in two
single plain white sleeves with two insert covers printed in two colors.
It was later reissued on TMQ innumerable times and on several different
colored pressings of vinyl. Colored wax in the early days was a good
indication of a title being an early pressing of a bootleg (and therefore
having better sound than a bootleg of a bootleg), though in modern
times it is not always the case, some first editions of bootlegs are
on black wax while later pressings are on colored wax and are mistaken
for original pressings.
Other
labels
The next major bootleg label on the scene was the Amazing Kornyphone
Record Label (TAKRL), a business that issued a ton of records though
only a few of their titles were Zeppelin discs (supposedly the people
behind the label weren't big Zeppelin fans). The label released three
single Zep albums; "Ballcrusher", a reissue of an album
by the same name from Flat Records and taken from the 1971 BBC concert",
Live In England 1976", a reissue of the excellent European bootleg
recorded at Earl's Court on May 24, 1975, and "Cellarful Of Noise",
a poor recording from the performance at Osaka Festival Hall in Japan
on September 29, 1971. The label released two double albums of Zeppelin
material: "Live In Seattle", a reissue of the TMQ "V
1/2" and "The 1975 World Tour", from Montreal, Canada,
on February 6, 1975. Kornyphone's releases were some of the most widely
distributed Zeppelin bootlegs and pop up in most collections, but
they are not known for being high quality recordings.
Another early bootleg label was Wizardo Records (WRMB). The only Zeppelin
titles put out by Wizardo were "Plant Waves" (the title
was a takeoff on the Bob Dylan album Planet Waves), and "Caution
Explosive". "Plant Waves" was a compilation of tracks
from Detroit and New York shows on the 1975 tour and the sound quality
was variable. "Caution Explosive" fared a little better
since the source material included, once again, the infamous Blueberry
Hill material along with some from the Winterland Ballroom in San
Francisco 1969.
By the mid 1970's a whole host of smaller bootleg labels had sprung
up including Rubber Dubber, Immaculate Conception Records (ICR), Contraband
Music (CBM), Dittolino Discs, Kustom Records, Idle Mind Productions
(IMP), K&S Records, Berkeley Records, Smilin' Ears, and Ze Anonym
Plattenspeiler. Their product was a thick, black record in a white
jacket. To simplify matters they are referred to in this text as White
Cover Folks (WCF). Most of these labels offered up Zeppelin titles
that were little more than reissues of the early TMQ stuff, though
there were a few notable new releases.
Idle Mind re-released a Japanese bootleg of the show from Osaka 1972
and called the album "My Brain Hurts", which should win
an award for best title of a Zeppelin boot. The release included a
rare and interesting version of the band covering Ben E. King's "Stand
By Me".
K&S was the first label to release the legendary Knebworth shows
on bootleg, and their version of these shows also included material
from the BBC studio sessions and Montreux 1970. Smilin' Ears distinguished
itself by being the first bootleg label to release a four-record Zeppelin
box set, titled "Destroyer". The set originally listed as
a Seattle recording, though it actually featured a concert from Cleveland
in 1977. The set has become one of the best known and loved of all
Zeppelin titles and has been reissued many times.
In 1979 two new labels debuted with Zeppelin releases that stood above
the others available at the time. Phoenix and Toasted Records put
more effort into packaging their material than other labels had, with
full-color deluxe covers that rivaled the official album jackets.
The labels issued a whole slew of double albums, with four-color covers
and featuring artwork by the noted artist Ginger, including "Absence"
(BBC and Earl's Court 1975)", Spare Parts" (BBC and Copenhagen
1969)", "Knebworth II" (Knebworth August 11, 1979)",
Seattle 73", and "Knebworth 79" (Knebworth August 4,
1979). Most of the material on these labels had been previously released
but the packaging on these records made them desired collectors items.
Bootlegs
Forbidden
In 1985 the RIAA and the Canadian Recording Industry Association,
in conjunction with the FBI, mounted a massive campaign to put an
end to the bootlegging problem in North America. The publicity surrounding
raids staged all across the continent sent bootleggers even further
underground. Around this period most major bootlegging operations
moved to Europe or Japan, where bootlegs continued to come out and
get imported into the United States at ever greater cost to the collector.
The
Song Remains The Same
In 1985 a new bootleg label called Rock Solid/International Records
came into operation and in a very short time issued more Zeppelin
work than most other labels put together, most of it previously unreleased.
The single albums included a reissue of a Japanese album called "White
Summer" from a show in Hamburg 1970, a Honeydrippers show from
1981, and "John Henry Bonham: Session Man", a boot that
included all of Bonham's known recordings for other artists.
The multi-album sets included "Listen To This Eddie", "Duck-Walks
And Lasers", "In Person", "In Concert", "Live
On The Levee", "Custard Pie", "Alpha And Omega",
"Winterland". The label even issued two 10-record sets:
"Strange Tales From The Road" and "Led Zeppelin The
Can", which was a 14-inch film can numbered and stickered with
live versions of almost every original song the band ever played live.
1986 saw the rise and fall of Box Top Records. This label re-released
many old classics, most on colored vinyl, from original plates. These
came in a thin cover with a color snap-shot of the artist on the front
and a sticker with the song listings on the back.
1988 saw the short-lived return of Trade Mark Of Quality (TMOQ or
TMQ) and The Amazing Kornyphone Record Label (TAKRL) labels working
together to provide A High Standard Of Standardness. Records came
in energic covers in a variety of colors with the artists name and
the album title on the front and a jacket sized label logo on the
back. These were two separate batches of releases and each had the
song listings for albums in that batch on sheets enclosed in the record
jackets.
One of the strange things you'll notice about Zeppelin bootlegs is
that the bootleggers weren't afraid to mix material from dramatically
different time periods on the same record (including a 1969 performance
on a disc of mostly 1977 stuff), which confuses many fans as to the
original source material. As if the material from Rock Solid/International
wasn't impressive enough, many of the original bootleggers got back
into action in the late 1980's again and Zeppelin was one of their
favorite groups. TMQ returned and, using the original master plates,
repressed Blueberry Hill, this time with a deluxe color cover. Toasted
also returned to the scene, this time with a number of titles made
from unreleased soundboard recordings of the band, and the quality
was phenomenal. Available around this time were rehearsals for "Physical
Graffiti" and "In Through The Out Door", and the legendary
campfire sessions from Bron-Yr-Aur cottage. Also released in this
period were boots of the legendary performance of "Friends"
with the Bombay Symphony Orchestra, Plant and Bonham's recordings
with the Band Of Joy, outtakes from the third record, and dozens of
live concert recordings. On the back of an album called "Last
Stand", featuring the band's Berlin 1980 show, Toasted publicly
announced they would stop making vinyl bootlegs, though other manufacturers
have continued to press their wares on vinyl.
The
Final Option
In the late 1980's, Zeppelin bootlegs, and perhaps bootlegs in general,
hit their zenith with the release of the ultimate bootleg of them
all, a package titled "The Final Option". This set featured
70 different albums of Zeppelin material and included pressings of
almost every Zeppelin bootleg previously made, all seemingly stamped
from the original master plates. This set included material from Rock
Solid, Screaming Oiseau, TAKRL, Toasted, Waggle, and other labels
and represented a major organizational effort on the part of the bootleggers.
The set came in a black acrylic box with black and gold stickers over
it. Only 150 copies were pressed and they sold out immediately. "The
Final Option" is now considered one of the rarest collectibles
in Zeppelin record lore and commands extraordinary prices on the collector's
market.
A
New Mark: CD Bootlegs
"The Final Option" could hardly be topped and that together
with Toasted's announcement essentially spelled the end to Zeppelin
vinyl bootlegs since the compact disc soon became the format of choice,
both for legitimate record releases and for bootleggers. The first
Zeppelin CD bootleg was a European issue of the Zurich June 29th,
1980 soundboard show titled "Tour Over Europe 1980" and
though it was incomplete, the sound quality was outstanding. New digital
technique brought a brand new standard of records. Earlier available
tapes now reissued and revamped due to the modern technique utilised
a new standard of quality. By early 1991, over a 125 Zeppelin CD titles
were on the market, though most of them were reissues of material
previously out on vinyl. At least, their minimal limitation of ones
run size for any type 5" silver discs is 1,000 copies and only
a couple of bootleg companies released their efforts in a highly limited
editions. These causes made CDs not only more compactable but also
much more accessible to fans. (Vinyl have been nearly limited to a
few hundred copies.)
Early
CD Bootlegs
Neutral Zone and Toasted/Condor were the CD labels and the producers
of the CD's only have a partial connection with the earlier producers
of the vinyl labels with almost similar names. All of these labels
were USA based producers. The CD producers used overseas connections
to press their titles and artwork and the vinyl producers mainly pressed
their titles in USA in the days when they could do it in a record
pressing plant. A well connected USA collector acquired the various
tapes and for some of his labels like Neutral Zone and Toasted/Condor
he used a contact from Australia who had connections in Korea and
who speak their language to press the titles. The Australian connection
was the person behind the mid 1990's Apple House/Black Cat labels.
Since the tapes came from the USA collector and he was the one who
organised the labels and paid for the production of the titles it
guess we would have to say the labels were a USA product even though
the discs and artwork were made in Korea. You then have the situation
where the Japs copied the Neutral Zone and Toasted/Condor titles in
the mid 1990's and also later again someone from the EEC copied them
also in the late 1990's. Only the trained eye can pick the difference
between the original pressings and the Japanese copies but the EEC
copies stand out as they have inferior artwork.
The Neutral Zone label has won accolades from several Zeppelin fanzines
for their three discs series titled "Classics Off The Air".
This series features almost the complete BBC performances, all four
shows. As a set this represented for a long time the best way to get
the complete BBC catalog, before the legal release of "BBC Sessions"
and many Japanese releases. Toasted/Condor, another bootleg business,
produced some good titles. Their pairs of "Zeppelin Express/Zeppelin
Ediface" or "World Tour/Wild Side" brought more complete
versions of material available before on vinyl and now remastered
from the original tapes. Hen (US-based), Punjonian Productions (Korea-based
for US distributor), Quality Compact Productions (Korea-based for
US distributor), Sidewalk Music (Italian) and Widget (Korea-based
for US distributor) were another early outfits that started to produce
Led Zeppelin. These Japanese and/or US labels issued only few titles
that copied material known from old vinyl recordings. Other newly
established bootleg labels that have produced Zeppelin material include
Gold Standard Series (GS), Golden Stars (GS or LA), Great Dane Records
(GDR), Kaleidoscopic Music, Koine Records, Living Legend Records (LLR),
Lobster Records, Manic Depression (MDR), Pyramid/Triangle Records
(PY), Seagull Records, and World Productions Of Compact Music (WPOCM).
Many of these labels, although all were from Europe, operate out of
the old continent, where laws allow the bootlegging of concert tapes
from performances a decade old as long as royalties are paid to the
performers. These loopholes in the European laws have made Europe
a hotbed for bootlegging activity and this material inevitably finds
its way around the world.
Early
European CD Bootlegs
Silver Rarities (SIRA), UK label that produced a mass of Led Zeppelin
albums, released in the early 1990's a few dozen of titles, some of
which are still actual in the terms of both sound quality and completeness.
Their package was a standard jewel case with cover that utilized many
live photos. A fold-out insert was added to all of their 3CD sets.
Their most memorable record was famous "Listen To This Eddie",
issued for the first time from the first generation Mike Millard cassette
tapes, without any equalization (later rereleased).
What very interesting, Silver Rarities producer was the (in)famous
Mr. Langley aka Mr. Toad who was accused of bootlegging in Scottish
trial and sentenced to 20-month jail in 2007. As we know he is a UK
resident yet his Silver Rarities label was produced in Germany. (Mr.
Toad used to live in Perth, Australia in the early 1970's.) He made
contact with a German CD producer but it was Mr. Toad who had the
tapes, artwork, finances and distribution so we would have to say
Silver Rarities was a UK label or to make it easier a EEC label.
By the same time a couple of Luxembourg folks under the name of The
Swingin' Pig Records (TSP) issued few titles and with another bootleg
label named Oh Boy also from Luxembourg both produced some good material.
Oh Boy's "Texas International Pop Festival" is still in
the Top 10 of the best sounding bootleg releases ever made after more
than ten years after its release. Mentioned above Gold Standard or
Great Dane Records were another European companies that released some
good material. All that labels issued their titles in a standard jewel
cases, adding sometimes a booklet/fold-out insert (Oh Boy).
Flying Disc Music/Ghost were two European bootleg companies spliced
together that produced many releases in the early 1990's. Most of
them are playing with wrong speed and many of them were stolen in
the late 1980's from Jimmy Page's home studio. Wrong speed of most
of their releases is probably due to the copying with high speed dubbing
machines. Their titles were always issued in a standard jewel cases
(with the exception only for 5CD deluxe set titled "The Trade
Mark Of Quality Masters Volume 1", issued in a form of cardboard
hinged open box that consistsed of four different performances, included
rarely reissued stereo audience source tape for the legendary May
31, 1973 concert, earlier available only on any of the old vinyl bootlegs),
some with a nice artwork but most titles have no stood the test of
time. The tapes were released often incompletely and sound didn't
have the highest quality.
Alegra, American Concert Series (ACS), Aphrodites Studios, Aulica/Aulica
Deluxe, Big Music, Capricorn Records, Chapter One, Classical Shots
On CD, Continental Sounds, Deep Records, Discomagic (a spin-off from
On Stage label), Discurios, Double Time, Eagle Music, Entertainers,
Exile Records, Fancy Pantry, Flamingo, Grand Pick Records (same company
as the Swingin' Pig), Home, Insect Records, Jolly Roger Records, Kobra
Records, Koine Records, Le-Mon, Limes, Live & Alive, Live Experience
(The), Live Storm, Luna Records, Men At Work, Minotaur Records, New
Plastic Records, Oil Well, On Stage, Pacific, Post Script, Rock Calendar
Records, Roundpin Productions, Satelite Records, Silver Shadow, Smoking
Pig (a spin-off from Silver Rarities), Sugarcane Records, Tie Dye
Records, Tintagel and Wild Bird Records were another mostly low budget
bootleg companies that issued some rather not worthwhiling titles
bewteen late 1980's and mid 1990's. Often they just copied material
from older European or early Far East labels, adding sometimes bonus
tracks taken from worn vinyl. (Continental Sounds' 3CD set "For
Badge Holders Only Part 1-3" copied both parts of old vinyl sets
under the same name, where an excellent sounding stereo audience tape
was used. This tape was lost and the remainding title plus another
one, no labelled "For Badgeholders Only" are the only releases
to have this source.)
At last Blizzard and Rabbit Records were an ephemerad low budget labels
from Chech Republic that produced only a few Led Zeppelin titles between
1990's and 2000's. Today the only European bootleg companies involved
into production of Led Zeppelin's music are profesionally labelled
CD-Rs' Beelzebub Records and silver pressed Godfather Records.
Japan
- the land of bootlegs
In the mid 1990's the federal law of European Union and the United
States (along with several other countries) forbidden for ever bootlegging.
All European labels such as Silver Rarities, Great Dane Records, Swingin'
Pig Records and a couple of more ended their activity very quickly.
But the bootleggers didn't want to waste the time and money. They
had been looking hardly for the marker free of unprofitable prohibitions
and they found it in Japan. (For more infos related to copyright laws
and current registrations please try CD
Bootleggers Face the Music and World
Trade Organisation legal texts sites.)
Since the early 1970's Japan had very independent music market with
its own rights. Many records issued in Japan were unavailable anywhere
else. By the end of the 1980's Japanese law allowed publishing tapes
above twenty-five years after its date of recording on their own market
without obeying any copyrights. That was something to what bootleggers
had been looking for a long time. By the early 1990's Japan was just
flooded by many bootleg releases, some of which are still remarkable
and unforgettable pieces.
Mr.
Guru
With no doubt we can say that there was one person responsible for
the flood of bootlegs in the early 1990's in Japan. Mr. Guru aka Mr.
BlackDog is a long standing collector who has contacts all over the
globe going back to the early 1970's. Well known in the inner circles
and very well connected. He has his own home built professional studio
and is a audio/video digital engineer but music is his hobby. Mr.
Guru aka BlackDog's first title that he made was the famous 4CD "Australian
Tour Pt. 1 & 2" on the Australian Black Cat label from early
1990's. At that time his monkier name was Mr. Guru as that was his
nickname given to him by his friends. Mr. Guru was impressed with
production of his first title. He recently purchased a new bootleg
title but found that the audio on it only had 60 minutes when he knew
the tape existed as 90 minutes. (In fact this one and another set
titled "Poles & Sticks" on the Black Cat label was produced
by the guy named Gary and Mr. Guru was contacted by him to access
the tapes for his label.) He hated how some producers were bleeding
the collectors with titles that didn't feature the complete tape that
was in existance. Mr. Guru made contacts in Japan. He offered his
tapes to a producer if they would allow him to have compelte control
on the audio and artwork. He adviused Japan to respect the customer
and start producing quality titles that had correct artwork for the
concert audio and correct track listing and also not to EQ the audio.
He suggested that Japan treat boot CD production the same as any professioanl
business and they will then have a product that can be identified
with quality. Mr. Guru suggested that they should come up with a corporate
logo and label name for each artist so that customers would know which
logo/label was for a certain artist and also customers would know
which label to respect if they produced quality titles. He suggested
a new label name of "Immigrant" and sent them a logo for
it to be for Led Zeppelin titles. This was in the early 1990's. The
first title sold out on day one and word got out in Japan of what
Immigrant was all about. Within three months Tarantura was started
up. Whereas Tarantura EQ'd all of their audio they of course had superb
artwork for each title. Immigrant label didn't EQ'd their audio and
made sure the audio on their discs was the lowest generation available.
Mr. Guru didn't ask or want money for his tapes from Japan. All he
asked for was a box of Japanese bootleg CDs every few months of artists
he liked. Within six months many labels were starting up that were
set aside for just one artist and the boot industry in Japan exploded
in the mid 1990's. This was all credited to Mr. Guru's forsight to
force Japan to treat their customers with respect and produce quality
titles. In the late 1990's the Japanese industry had turned on its
head and they were pumping out trash and volume of titles for the
sake of making money so Mr. Guru cut all ties with Japan.
The
band and bootlegs
As reported in 1999, the British Phonographic Industry released a
survey affirming something all Led Zeppelin fans already knew - that
this band is the most bootlegged act of all time. The record-industry
report suggested there were 384 unauthorized concert and studio recordings
of Led Zeppelin in circulation (no doubt most of them were produced
in Japan), although by Page's own count, that number would be a conservative
estimate. An exclusive interview with Jimmy Page, titled "Page
battles the bootleggers", was found on "Jam!" magazine
from March 4, 2000 issue. Page recalled: "I went to Japan, when
we did the (1992) four-CD box set, to promote it", he says. "I
came back with 250 (bootlegs) the first time ... I went over there
again doing press for 'Un-Leded', and I came back with another 250
to 500. They're all different. I wasn't just taking things off the
shelves, I was taking the ones I wanted. That includes VHS copies
(of live footage), as well ... I have actually got thousands of bootlegs,
plus things that have been sent to me by anti-piracy people, as well.
I have got thousands of them with different covers and the rest of
it ... six CDs from Japan for $1,200, that's obscene. They've got
no overheads whatsoever. Then it is a total ripoff."
During that interview, in later part Page said he has no problem with
devoted fans exchanging home-made concert recordings, he has little
sympathy for professional bootleggers, who he said have been brazen
in their attempts to get at his unreleased work. But he said he is
opposed to people and bootleg companies milking big money from the
fans. "I've had things stolen from my house for people to make
money on and to basically take the piss out of you. Well, I'm afraid
I don't have any sympathy for it, and I am not going to endorse it
at all ... There are rehearsals of Led Zeppelin that were stolen from
my house ... It was a musical rape, and I didn't enjoy it and I don't
like it and I am not going to condone it."
Page was also asked by officials from the British Phonographic Industry
to visit Glasgow following a raid at the city's SECC in May 2005.
It concerned a seizure of CDs and DVDs from Mr. Langley aka Mr. Toad,
a trader/bootleg producer who had been selling goods at the centre.
Page was called to give evidence as some of the material seized included
previously unreleased performances by his band, such as concerts at
Knebworth and in Japan. What very interesting, during that trial defence
lawyer Murray Macara suggested that the rocker condoned the practice
of bootlegging because he thought it was all right for fans to swap
tapes they had made of the band's music. But the Led Zeppelin star,
dressed in black trousers and jacket with open neck white shirt, said
there was a crucial difference between making a recording for friends
and selling it commercially. "The legitimate part is where fans
trade music, but once you start packaging it up and you do not know
what you are getting, you are breaking the rules legally and morally
... There are some of these recordings where it is just a whirring
and you cannot hear the music ... If you have something like this
that appears legitimate then it is just not right."
A rather different opinion about bootlegs comes from John Paul Jones.
During one of some interview, he explained what are his feelings about
them: "There are a lot of people out there paying a lot of cash
for sub-standard recordings. Most bootlegs sound terrible. You hear
some of these things and the sound is completely distorted, or the
mix is off and all you hear are the drums ... On the other hand, it's
hard for me to dismiss bootlegging outright. I haven't heard that
many, but they usually remind me of how tight and good the band really
was. They also serve the function of preserving history that would
otherwise have been lost completely. For example: Recently I was looking
at a book that catalogued live performances of Led Zeppelin, and I
read about a lengthy mellotron improvisation I perfomed in Nagoya,
Japan, in 1972, during our encore of Thank You. I hadn't thought about
that particular performance in years, but as soon as I read that,
I remembered everything about it. Playing a mellotron solo was a very
strange thing for me to do, and it never happened again in the band's
history. It was great to be reminded of it, and I may even look for
the bootleg of it just to see if it was as bizarre as I remember it
to be. That kind of stuff is of interest - and it's fun, too."
In that point it will no mistake to say that every note the group
ever played in the studio and onstage has made it into the underground
bootleg network - either from purloined studio tapes or from recordings
made with recorders secreted into concert venues.
Tarantura
old and new
One of the first large bootleg CD companies was heavier luxury Tarantura
label. Tarantura was a Japanese label dedicated almost exclusively
to the production of Led Zeppelin bootleg CDs. The original Tarantura
was one of the most prolific label producing Led Zeppelin CDs, having
been responsible for over one hundred titles. Whilst Taranturas could
be bought from Japan by mail order, they were primarily sold from
a shop called Iko Iko, located in a suburb of Tokyo. Jimmy Page was
a regular visitor at the shop before it closed and would naturally
be given copies of all the titles available. It is said that he has
two sets, one in his house in London and the other in his house in
the country.
Eastablished in 1993, the label stopped the production in late 1997
(and a big sigh of relief could be heard from all hard-core collectors
bank managers!). However in early 2000 production of a few, very limited
releases started up once again under the name Tarantura2000 or most
simply, T2K. The first releases on the label were "Front Row",
"Tight But Loose" and "Long Tall Sally". The label
prided itself on producing CDs from the best possible source tapes,
though as has since been proved, this has not always been the case.
Production runs tended to be in batches of 300, sometimes 500 per
title. As the Japanese home market got the vast majority of the product,
usually only a few copies ever make it abroad to foreign markets.
According to Leo Ishac, he knows of only three collectors in the world
who have a complete set of all the Taranturas released, one of whom
is the person who was behind the label and produced them, Poor Tom.
His wife was called Mrs. Stout.
Although the source tapes and the subsequent mastering of those tapes
has not always resulted in the best end-product when it comes to CDs,
generally speaking, original Tarantura was able to master their tapes
better than other labels at the time and this has resulted in some
of their releases being easily the best versions on the market. Tarantura
CDs tend to be brighter and have a clearer sound when comparing the
same concert with another label's version.
To illustrate this, here are some details from someone who is called
Mr.Cool MixMan, reputedly original Tarantura and Akashic Records'
sound engineer. “All mono recordings are treated and remixed
in a stereo environment to give them a false stereo feel. Most audio
engineers and recording studios currently only output 24-bit. Cool
MixMan has been mastering at 32-bit for several years due to the higher
quality digital working environment and final audio output that is
achieved. Some say 32-bit is not possible. They are ignorant of the
existing digital mastering capabilities, the process involved and
the higher audio quality that is produced. The audio source is recorded
to the computer at the above line-input settings. Once the audio has
been recorded to computer it is then mastered within the 32-bit resolution
environment.16-bit resolution is the 'default' professional/audio
compact disc setting required to meet the International Red Book ISO
Standard for compact discs. Most compact disc players have a 16-bit
resolution, and generally can only playback audio that is 16-bit.
Higher-end CD players can output audio at 24-bit."
An understanding of 8-bit ~ 32-bit resolution: The number of bits
used in measuring amplitude for an audio sample is defined as resolution.
Choosing 8-bit resolution will provide 256 unique volumes. Choosing
16-bit resolution will provide 65,536 unique volumes, for a 96 dB
signal-to-noise ratio. Thus a much greater dynamic range can be reproduced
at 16-bit resolution than at 8-bit, which only has a 48 dB signal-to-noise
ratio. Obviously working in a 32-bit resolution environment will allow
for a substantially much greater dynamic range than at even 16-bit,
thus achieving a more professional audio output. It is best to remain
at the 32-bit resolution level while mastering the audio and when
the final mix is satisfactorily completed the 32-bit audio is converted
down to 16-bit for output to the audio compact disc. Though the audio
on the final CD is at 16-bit resolution to comply with the Red Book
ISO Audio CD Standard the original audio has actually been digitally
engineered at 32-bit. 32-bit resolution is the highest possible bit
rate capable in today's digital audio mastering environment.
In the early days Tarantura were not averse to using noise reduction
and equalisation; however in the later years they have usually left
any recording untampered, to shine through very much as per the original
tape. Listeners will also find that Tarantura releases are generally
'louder' than other equivalent releases. This is down to better equalizing,
mastering and setting of recording volumes. They are, of course, not
perfect, and have been known to make an awful job of it from time
to time. Dedicated and fanatical collectors who want a particular
release however would not be swayed by any such arguments, the Tarantura
packaging alone being a collectable item in itself.
Tarantura scores heavily with their packaging. This has varied from
boxes to jewel cases to shuffle packs, extravagant fold-outs in slip-cases
and even guitar-shaped packaging. No doubt a high proportion of the
price you pay goes towards the cost of such elaborate covers. One
thing is for sure: no other label can match Tarantura for production
of the very best quality packages.
Prices were in the region of $60 for a single disc, between $90 and
$120 for a double CD and upwards of $145 for a 3 CD release. The 4
CD sets fetched somewhere in the region of $180.
It is very easy to take the view that the prices are exaggerated in
view of the product. However they should be approached not only for
the music, but also for the packaging. When compared to Antrabata,
another luxury label, they are not that much more expensive and generally
better value. Also, most of n original Tarantura production runs are
in fact limited to the stated numbers, although certain titles have
been over pressed to meet demand. "Front Row" for example
finally ended up at 1,000 copies. Some of the second issues had a
yellow or another different coloured cover to denote this.
Whilst it is easy to see which Taranturas are the most valuable and
sought after, it is far more difficult to say which one is the best
all round production for sound and packaging. It is probably a tie
between the following three titles: "The Campaign 1972",
"Get Back To L.A." and "A Week For Badge Holders",
all of these sets being works of art and are truly beautiful artefacts,
(hence the staggering prices asked for them). The 6 CD set of "Knebworth
1979" should also be mentioned as another truly outstanding package,
in a large hardback book, complete with the poster and colour photographs
from one of the concerts.
Perhaps the nicest single issue is "Bonzo’s Birthday Party".
This title has one of the best covers ever, either for an official
or an unofficial release, although it is based on the original Trade
Mark Of Qquality vinyl. This goes to show how inventive and clever
many of the people behind the original vinyl bootlegs were. As a Desert
Island Disc the choice would have to be "A Week For Badge HHolders",
largely for the length, and very high standard of the performances,
together with the sound quality, throughout all six concerts (and
except that they not using all of June 22nd, 1977 performance for
some reasons).
After four years of activity, the original Tarantura stopped their
manufactury. In 2000 they started once again, this time under a brand
new name Tarantura2000, continuing their work in the old style but
some of new titles are still not free of problems that plagued their
old issues. This time their products were strictly limited (100-300
copies per title) and packaged in beautifully issued box sets or card
sleeves, with the exception for few only, which were released in standard
jewel cases.
In few cases, very occasionally, Tarantura likes to issue their products
in very limited outfits under different names. Labels such Flesh or
Nighthawk (see below) and couple of more sometimes rereleased material
known from original Tarantura titles, sometimes adding different mixing
of copied material (as does Flesh's "The Destroyer", whcih
is a straight copy of their "The Destroyers" deluxe box
set but with sound slightly degenerated heavily with equalization).
Some labels just copied Tarantura titles, like Memphis' releases "Front
Row" and "The Complete Geisha Tape ". European Whole
Lotta Live company issued a couple of titles, which are a straight
knock-offs copys of the original Tarantura's as does Thin Men or Nighthawk.
The affordable prices of these labels were also very attractive to
those, who didn't want to pay a small fortune for a title. At last
some very interesting Tarantura2000's spin-off labels such as Black
Dog Rekords, SharakuLed and Trade Mark Of Quality (TMQ) released few
titles in a strictly limited editions with high quality packaging.
Akashic
Akashic is another luxury Japanese bootleg label started to releasing
their titles near the mid 1990's. Akashic and old Tarantura labels
were from the same stable and their packaging was a highly printed
glossy gatefold issues with sticker too. "P&C" are involved
in the production. The releases have almost always extremely high
standard in the aspect of sound quality (excluding "Going To
Auckland", where the sound was just destroyed heavily by equalization)
but also claimed to be from a completely new show or source tape (although
some of titles may be produced from much lower gen tapes than theirs
previous issues). Together with Tarantura label, Akashic products
are now extremely high expensive and very hard to find. Limited numbered
edition of each title varies from 200 to 300 numbered copies only
(sometimes less) and the cost of each package varies from 50-70$ to
100-200$ or more! After few years of absence they released some records
near the mid 2000's.
The
Diagrams Of Led Zeppelin
The next historical Japanese label was The Diagrams of Led Zeppelin
(TDOLZ). It was probably the most prodigious bootleg label ever. Diagrams
produced a mass of titles, which many of them are still the most complete
versions of concerts. The packaging varying from a standard jewel
cases and glossy printed cardboard sleeves to a hinged boxes. Their
all titles were limited to 1,000 numbered copies per title with the
exception of all their boxes, which were limited to a few hundred
numbered editions. The most remarkable boxed issue of this label was
beautifully printed hinged box titled "Power & Glory",
including six complete concerts from the legendary June 1977 six-night-stand
(a 20-page booklet and poster were also added). In the time of its
release it was more complete than the ultra-expensive "A Week
For Badgeholders". The tape for June 23rd was now complete and
there were no other limitations. Sadly, it missed part of the original
tape of June 22nd, removing "Ten Years Gone" and replaced
it by the same song from a different audience source for famous "Eddie"
show of June 21st. Beside that that box remains probably the most
ambitious project of this label and now the collectors must pay 450$
to 600$ to get this item. Another of their most memorable works was
issue of an excellent concert from Madison Square Garden on February
12, 1975, titled "Can't Take Your Evil Ways". They put their
first issue of this show in 1997 and after a year, they decided to
reissued it under the title "Can't Take Your Evil Ways Un-Cut
Version", making this release the definitive version of this
concert. And although equalizing on these both titles is extremely
hard to accept (higher frequencies are just blow your ears), it remains
the definitive version of an audience tape from this evening. In November
2003, after four years after their final title, they reissued four
titles previously available as a "gold CDs" edition box
sets. The reissues were in a standard jewel cases and were containing
of the following titles: "Rock Of Ages", "The Lights
Go Down ", "Copenhagen Warm Ups", and "Hand On
To Your Heads ". The medium price of a single CD is ca. 25-30$.
All the boxes were selling between 130-150$ to 300$ or more as in
the case of "Power & Glory". Some of titles are easier
to find, some not - it depends on title's editing limitation.
Antrabata
Reference Master
Antrabata Reference Master was another luxury label that issued some
of the finest releases. Near the mid 1990's this business produced
some nicely packaged and often good sounding titles. Mr. Toad for
that matter was once again the man behind this famous label which
is attributed to being a Japanese label. Similar to the Silver Rarities
label, Mr. Toad supplied the tapes, artwork etc. to his Japanese contact
so we would have to say this is another UK label. Antrabata was started
by Mr. Toad as direct competition to the original Tarantura as Mr.
Toad and Mr. Pb of Tarantura had a long standing dislike for each
other going back to the mid 1990's. This on-going dispute was a waste
of talent and energy for them both and should not have been. Antrabata's
many releases copied material known from the other labels or released
a sort of new sources (like five "Arabesque & Baroque"
sets including all five Earl's Court 1975 audience sources).
All releases were limited to 325 numbered copies except for "leftovers",
where the number of printed original CDs was much large than its projected
limitation. (Most - if not all - Antrabata titles were created in
1,000 limitation per title. Only 325 copies of each title were issued
and remaining 675 copies of each were expected to be destroyed. Evidently
many of "leftovers" were not destroyed. These "leftovers"
are now available in the following forms: as Antrabata label, as Theramin
Music label, and as unnamed label that published only one title, "Rock
Hour" that in fact belongs to Theramin Music.)
The releases were printed as a jewel cases housed inside a highly
glossy printed slipcases with the exception of boxes. "79"
was a hinged box contained of audience sources for all four 1979 shows
(both from Copenhagen and another two from Knebworth). In opposite
to this one, theirs "The Final Statements" (including famous
"Blueberry Hill" show mix of four different audience sources,
New York July 28, 1973 and "Destroyer" soundboard sources)
and "Grandiloquence" (including both audience and soundboard
of Seattle July 17, 1973, New York July 27, 1973 and Chicago July
6, 1973 soundboards) were created as a opening boxes in a form of
a deluxe cloth bound books that housing CDs inside their own picture
sleeves. Now all three boxed sets are highly seeking by the collectors
and medium price varies between 400$ to 600$.
Jelly
Roll
Jelly Roll was another high quality Japanese label that produced some
excellent releases in a standard jewel cases, sometimes using gold
CDs. Limited to 1,000 copies of each title this label was another
luxury gem and tapes released by these guys were always released in
a highest standards. Covers were printed on a heavy cardstocks with
a glossy finish. Their highlight was "Listen To This Eddie Definitive
Complete Edition" of June 21, 1977 LA Forum concert. For a long
time this was the most complete version or so of this amazing performance.
It uses a second audience source making "Ten Years Gone"
much more complete and the sound is extremely superb. In 2002 they
returned to the business and issued "Knebworth Festival 1979"
but there are some problems with sound that distorted this title -
similar to Tarantura2000's "Knebworth" soundboard.
Last
Stand Disc
Another label that came out from Japan was Last Stand Disc (LSD).
Last Stand Disc was once again a highly standard label that specialized
in utilizing their tapes in the highest standard. Their packaging
varied from standard jewel cases up to the hinged and beautifully
issued box sets. Limitation of their releases was often to 300 numbered
copies, claimed also that all tapes are true 24-bit mastered versions
without any equalization. Beside that this label released some outstanding
versions. "Complete Live In Japan" box set (or two boxes
titled "Live In Japan 1971" and "Live In Japan 1972")
were highest moments for this company.
Image
Quality/Immigrant
Image Quality (IQ) and Immigrant were another Japanese labels that
released many titles in the mid 1990's. Theirs packagings were standard
jewel cases. (IQ shared for all their releases the same style backround
of a film black negative.) Both companies are still very overlooked
due to the releasing many complete and good sounding tapes. Image
Quality's "A Gram Is A Gram Is A Gram" is a tremedous release
of second source for L.A. Forum March 24, 1975 show. Also their "Fourthcoming"
and "Great Taste Last Night" sets are the only two to feature
the complete audience tapes for memorable May 24 and 25, 1975 Earl's
Court shows. Immigrant's "Lyceum Preview", although it was
copied directly from the old vinyl, is still better sounding than
Empress Valley's release of the same concert. Both labels have stood
the test of time. Image Quality was always limited to 1,000 copies
per title nor Immigrant hadn't official limitation.
Cobla/Cobra
Standard Series
Cobla/Cobra Standard Series was a Japanese label that issued their
titles in a glossy printed cardboard sleeves that copied the original
vinyl artwork. Limitation was 1,000 per title with the exception of
all CD-R titles, which were not limited. Between mid and late 1990's
this label almost always reissued material known before from vinyl
and early CD releases. Unfortunately, the heavy equalization distorted
most of their items so a big care must be taken before buying their
products. (Beside that, many titles are still worth having due to
the completeness. Furthermore, their "Lyceum" single CD
of October 12, 1969 was taken from an unedited tape and is bit better
sounding than any of the other releases of this show.) For unknown
reasons, few of titles these folks issued as a CD-Rs not original
silvers (as mentioned).
Led
Note
Led Note was a label that continued the work of Cobla/Cobra and was
made by the same persons whose were repsonsible for that label. Their
all releases were issued in a standard jewel cases and sleeves. Some
of their products are still worth having for their containing, such
as "Fallin' With Love With The Fallin' Angel", which consists
of the most complete release of soundboard tape for Bradford Janunary
18, 1973 concert. "Wild Beach Party" utilises the complete
compilation of three different sources for the legendary Long Beach
June 27, 1972 show.
Celebration
Definitive Masters/Electric Magic
Celebration and its twin label, Electric Magic were another highly
issued Japanese bootleg labels that released some fine efforts in
the late 1990's. Their packaging was usual jewel case or gatefold
sleeves (some were also housed in slipcases). Celebration was specialzied
in issuing soundboard tapes only and its twin brother, Electric Magic
was specialized in utilising audience tapes only. Some of them have
the stood of time (like 12CD "Landover" box in hinged cover
issued by Electric Magic) but many of their titles were plagued by
heavy equalization as was Cobla/Cobra.
Other
Japanese labels
Between early and late 1990's/early 2000's in Japan there were a bunch
of low budget bootleg companies that released sometimes very good
releases. Equinox's 7CD hinged box titled "Thunder Down Under"
consists of four glossy gatefold sleeves that presents all four 1972
Australian concerts. Although today most of these tapes had been succesfully
reissued more completely, this box still remains a definitive tour-de-force
of Led Zeppelin's Australian 1972 period. Midas Touch also did a big
care with releasing their products. Mastered from the original tapes
they sounds really good and for the most cases representing the most
complete versions. Labels such as Amsterdam, Apple Music, ARMS, Atlantic
Ocean Records, Baby Face, Balboa Productions, Black Panther, Black
Swan, Blimp, Blue Hornet, CD Company SRL, Chad, Confusion Records,
Crazy Dream, Digger Productions, Dinopower Records, Dynamite Studio,
Evermore Music, Fire Power, Flagge, Forever Standard Music (People's
Choice) (FSS), H & Y Records (by many called a 'real' bootleg
business 'cause they released titles only in cardboard sleeves without
any high printed artwork, very similar to old vinyl albums), H-Bomb
Music, Holy, Holy Grail, House Of Elrond (what strange, these folks
issued two titles as CD-Rs not original silvers), Keep Out, Lemon
Song (all the releases were highly printed, glossy finished sleeves
except for "Welcome To Disneyland", which was issued in
a standard jewel case), Liver Pool, Mad Dogs (a continuation of Mud
Dogs label that released "DX I ~ X" box set, consisted of
very incomplete and not best sounding tapes, costs the collectors
no less than 450-500$), Memphis, Midas Touch (another rather luxury
label that released their efforts in highly printed glossy sleeves
and in a standard jewel cases), Missing Link, MMachine, Moonraker
Records, Mud Dogs, Neptune, Never End, Nighthawk, Ocean Recording
Corporation, Ocean Sound Studio, Off Beat Records, Patriot, Pot, Powerchord,
Rag Doll Music, Red Hot, Right Stuff, RockWrok, Rubber Dubber, SAKA,
Sanctuary (which "Overture" beautifully long digipack gatefold
box is now very rare), Savage Beast Music, Scorpio (this label's name
was originally used back in the 1990's; it's name has been used loosely
since then, but not actually committing their name in print on the
titles), Shout To The Top, Smile Records, Swansong (not a 'real' Swansong
label), Symbols (The), Tattytura (Mr. Langley aka Mr. Toad released
the Tattytura label to spite Tarantura and Mr. Pb released the "Plays
Pure Bob" title as a pun against Mr. Toad because Mr. Toad's
first name is Robert aka Bob.), Tecumseh (early incarnation of Tarantura),
Thin Men, TNT Studios, Toe, Totonka, Wyvern Legend, Zeppelin Live
Archives, Zoso, Zoso's Company and maybe few more also produced some
worthwhile titles in a more or less limitation and with or without
highly cover printing standard. (Flagge's all 1980 shows with the
exception of "Sudden Attack" were made to look like an original
Tarantura products. Tarantura's paper CD jackets were also used. Together
with Equinox, Flagge is still very worth getting due to the completeness
and high quality source standard of their products but all the collectors
must pay no less than ca. min. 30-50$ or more per Flagge's single
CD.)
The number of these short-lived labels may amazing potential collectors.
But in fact, establishing a silver label is not easy. Once you have
issued the title, then a strong promotion is needed. All of these
labels (minus those, who are already a spin-offs from their more well
known efforts) were only marginally recommended worldwide and, despite
of rather high quality of production and material consisted, were
destinated to be stayed unknown for general customer. Furthermore,
only a small number of them are really worth of having when compared
to today standard of producing bootlegs. Most of them just duplicated
material known from other sources and only few of them were intriguing
in covering either more complete or unreleased stuff.
Thunder
Down Under - Australian labels
The most memorable Australian label was luxury Black Cat Records that
in the early 1990's issued five different titles. Australia, which
just recently became a steady source of supply, quite likely has runs
as small as Japan. The packaging was always highly printed, glossy
heavy cardstock long triple gatefold digipack. Although none of their
release have stood the test of time, now all are very hard to find
and price varies between 50-70$ to 150-180$ for each. At last, this
label still remains one of the most beautifully issued bootleg labels
that ever produced Led Zeppelin.
The other Australian labels were rather low budget Banana, Blue Kangaroo
Records, Joker Productions and Turtle Records, which released a series
of compilation albums in a standard jewel cases and without any strictly
limitation except for Turtle, where two jewel cases, two long book-size
deluxe boxes and one sleeve package were produced.
The person behind the 1990's Apple House/Black Cat CD labels was named
Gary. In the late 1970's thru to the early 1980's he got hold of the
original vinyl boot titles coming out of USA and other parts of the
world and he copied (pirated) the albums including the slick artwork
in his new factory in Korea. He flooded the world with his vinyl boot
copies and to this day you can still find shrink wrapped/sealed vinyl
boots that folks think are new/mint originals when in fact they are
Korean copies! Gary made a mint from his vinyl copies then went legit
in the late 1980's. He then saw the opportunity to make more money
when CDs were invented and he again copied the original boot CD titles
and got back into Korea to make his CDs in the mid 1990's. He found
a legal loophole in Australian copyright law, he then tested that
law in the courts and won and he then quickly started Apple House/Black
Cat Records/Joker labels etc. and mass produced his CD titles copying
as many bootleg CD titles that he could buy and flooded the world
market with his cheap "official" CDs. That loophole only
lasted for two years then was closed but in that time he made a mint
again and went back to being legit.
As said above, Gary gave the access to Mr. Guru's tapes for his label
and "Australian Tour Pt. 1 & 2" and "Poles &
Sticks" boots were made in the early 1990's. Mr. Guru didn't
deal with Gary anymore as the Gary was focused on money and not the
music. Nothing wrong with that but Mr. Guru wasn't into mass produced
titles and money.
Empress
Valley Supreme Disc
Empress Valley Supreme Disc (EVSD) is a premium bootleg label out
of the Far East that came to life out of the ashes of one of the most
sought after and collectable Led Zeppelin bootleg labels of all time
- an original Tarantura. Being known for it's premium packaging as
well as it's use of the best available (at the time) source tapes,
the original Tarantura label had since it's 1993 inception issued
a prolific library of product before operations ceased in late 1997.
The founder of Empress Valley also had his hands in the original Tarantura
label. He is often referred to as P+C on some of the online sites
and as Poor Tom in the Tarantura days. Not long after the closure
of Tarantura, Empress Valley quietly came to market in 1998 with the
release of an Eric Clapton set titled "Eric Clapton's Rainbow
Concert". It would be another year though before a Led Zeppelin
set would make a debut on this new label. Empress Valley's productions,
like those of the original Tarantura, have become highly collectable
presentations prized and admired for their high quality audio content
as well as the use of premium materials in their packaging. Unlike
other labels that exist only to rehash existing concerts, Empress
Valley is one of less than a handful of manufacturers currently releasing
new product. Concerts that have been published by other labels in
the past are usually treated to some form of an upgrade by Empress
Valley prior to release. This upgrade could entail any of a number
of things such an all new source tape, a combining of available tapes
to present a more complete release of a show, or possibly a re-equalization
of the existing audio. It's been Empress Valley's ability, however,
of unearthing and releasing completely new source tapes that has really
made them a hot commodity with tape traders and bootleg collectors
alike. Recent examples of upgraded shows would include "Lifetime
Guarantee" which contains the best available sound for this concert
by far and is a significant upgrade over the previously considered
best version and "Jamming With Simon Kirke!" which has had
the missing sections of the main source tape neatly filled with an
alternate tape. Some of the sets with debut source tape are "Desert
Storm", "Flying Circus", "Florida Sunshine"
and "Bringing The House Down". While their production techniques
are not always appreciated by the critics, many of their releases
are regarded by collectors as the best available.
The only label that released sets that could rival the quality of
Empress Valley has been another Japanese bootleg publisher - Watchtower.
While these two labels had exchanged blows before with their back
and forth releases of the Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego
1973 shows, the summer of 2002 saw an all out battle erupt between
these two heavy weight bootleg publishers. Almost identical releases
from Salt Lake City 1973, Earl's Court 1975 and Knebworth 1979 were
released over a short 4-month period sometimes within days of one
another. As the battle waged on, collectors were often held captive
on the sidelines waiting for the dust to settle to see which title
would emerge in glory before committing their vast sums of moneys
to the winner. Hardcore buyers actively collecting both labels were
inflicted a massive hit to their wallet in a very short time. Some
were forced to jump into one camp and abandon the other due to financial
strains of buying essentially two copies of the same show in different
sleeves from the competing labels. Watchtower even went so far as
to release a free bonus disc of material in the Salt Lake City and
Knebworth sets in an attempt to woo potential buyers away from Empress
Valley. Individual victories would be claimed on both sides but almost
as quickly as it all had begun, it came to an apparent end. Watchtower
is quiet on the Zeppelin front since the fall of 2002 releasing only
a reissue of the Los Angeles June 27th, 1977, "Coherence"
set and a Knebworth August 4th, 1979 DVD while Empress Valley still
releasing a many new sets including some new soundboard tapes that
stunned even longtime collectors.
Before getting into the glory, the rarity and the collectibility that
is Empress Valley, time should be taken to address some of the common
complaints and concerns surrounding the label. The Empress Valley
catalogue of releases has been some what marred over the years by
questionable and perhaps deceptive methods by the folks behind the
label. While deception is not a new concept amongst the bootleggers,
Empress Valley has explored new territory in this area. The pros and
cons of the procedures described below are to this day debated by
those in the collector community. Some of the points that will be
covered in the sections below will address their history of stretching
concerts out over more discs than are actually needed, patching gaps
in source tapes with material from completely different concerts,
and the reissuing of titles several times over with each release in
unique packaging to milk the release for every penny possible (this
is especially hard on the wallet of the hard core Empress Valley collector
that collects the not only all of the separate titles but also the
package variations) - just to name a few. While these less than admirable
marketing tactics infuriate and annoy casual and hard core collectors
alike, the combination of unusually high quality source tapes and
premium packaging keeps the collectors coming back for more with each
new release. Even their scaled back budget minded sets packaged in
jewel cases are top-notch. One could argue that at least Empress Valley
correctly dates their releases!
Empress Valley's habit of releasing multiple versions of a show under
the same name or reissuing existing titles started almost at the label's
inception. The initial Eric Clapton and Led Zeppelin releases - "Rainbow
Concert" and "Bonzo's Birthday Party" respectively,
were both released in two formats each. The Eric Clapton set would
be offered in a 4CD version and also as an ultra limited 8CD box set
geared toward the hard core collector. Led Zeppelin's "Bonzo's
Birthday Party" would eventually be released three times over
as many years. The initial two releases were put out back to back
in 1999 and the last release would be offered in 2002. The original
release was a 9CD ultra rare box set, like the 8CD Eric Clapton affair,
this version was geared towards the hard core collector market. The
second issue came as a repackaged 3CD version titled 'version drei'
that contained only the third set of 3CDs from the original 9CD box
set. Finally, three years later the title would be put out as a 2CD
sound board set that carried the added title "Definitive Version".
In the "Bonzo's Birthday Party" example, the numerous reissues
can partially be justified. Not all collectors are going to want to
shell out the big bucks needed to acquire the rare, excessive and
very expensive 9CD box set. Empress Valley reissued the third set
of 3CDs from the big box as a separate set for those collectors that
balked at the cost of the large set. The collectors with deep pockets
got the excessive 9 disc set and the more casual collector could afford
the revamped 3 disc version. The 2CD "Definitive Version"
was a more complete sound board tape released long after the original
box and 3CD reissue sets were released and was a worthy reissue of
this famous show. Alot of the reissued sets can be looked at from
different perspectives. Several of the individual concerts originally
issued as part of the huge 22CD box set, "Demand Unprecedented
In The History Of Rock Music: The 1975 Earl's Court Tapes", have
since been issued in quad disc jewel cases. One way to look at this
is that Empress Valley wanted to milk these sets for every penny knowing
that the hard core collectors and Empress Valley completists will
buy both the box set and the individual releases thus adding more
coin to the coffers. Another take on this would be that Empress Valley
simply released the individual sets to allow the average collector
that wouldn't (or couldn't!) spend the money for the large and costly
box set a chance to own copies of some of these shows without having
to shell out the cash for the big box version. The argument can go
both ways. A more recent example of releasing the same show in more
than one format is "Florida Sunshine". This title was the
debut of a brand new and almost complete sound board tape. Empress
Valley chose to simultaneously release the show as both a limited
edition 4CD set and also as a standard 2CD version. The packaging
for both sets was near identical but the limited 4CD set also included
the audience tape source in it's complete form. The 4CD collector
set sold out in Japan at an astonishing rate and almost instantly
skyrocketed in value while the 2CD version can easily be located for
under $100.
Another of the complaints among the label's critics centers around
the use of filling gaps in source tapes with filler tape from a completely
different concert. Case in point is the debut of the March 1971 tapes
from Ireland - "Black Velvet" - containing the first ever
live performances of Stairway To Heaven. The folks at Empress Valley
chose to fill the gaps in the source tapes with tape from the Ipswitch
concert in November 1971 causing an outcry from Led Zeppelin collectors
worldwide. If there is not an alternate source tape available from
the same show to fill in any missing sections, collectors argue that
Empress should leave the source tape intact and present it in it's
original form. Why you would feel the need to use tape from another
concert (especially from one eight months later) to fill in the blanks
is unknown. Empress Valley would repeat this procedure in several
releases including "Grand Finale" and "Newcastle Brown
Ale".
If all of this isn't enough, it's not quite over. The common theory
among the collectors about the unscrupulous practice of stretching
shows over more discs than are needed is that Empress Valley does
this to "artificially" inflate the issue prices of their
releases thus earning the label additional profit in return for the
minor added production cost. Hypothetically, let's say it costs Empress
Valley $2 to manufacture a single disc when done in quantities of
300. The difference in the retail price of a 3CD set vs. a 4CD set
might be much as $35 (or perhaps more - it really varies from release
to release). By simply adding a single (but completely unnecessary)
disc to a set, the issue price can now be bumped from, say, $125 that
the original 3CD set should have sold for to an inflated price of
$160 for the artificially extended 4CD set. It only cost the label
$2 in added manufacturing costs to add this extra disc but it returned
$33 in additional profit. Multiply this by 300, which is the average
production run of a premium label release, and one can see why it
benefits Empress Valley to perpetrate these kinds of tactics. Some
of the titles that employ this trickery include "Deep Striker",
"Feelin' Groovy Definitive Version", "Copenhagen Warm-Ups",
"Year Of The Dragon" and several of the sets contained (and
later reissued individually) in "Demand Unprecedented In The
History Of Rock Music: The 1975 Earl's Court Tapes" box set.
On the flip side of all of the complaints, Empress Valley has somehow
also managed to release some exemplary titles. "Lifetime Guarantee"
presents the earliest known tape of a Led Zeppelin concert in the
absolute best audio to ever surface for this concert. A number of
tapes never before known to be in existence have seen the light of
day through Empress Valley. Now considered to be the ultimate Led
Zeppelin sound board tape in existence, "Flying Circus",
presented a February 12th, 1975 New York show in stunning audio quality
and came packaged in a premium trifold digipack case housed in a card
stock outer sleeve. Other sets worth mentioning include the sound
board tape from Orlando 1971 ("Florida Sunshine") and a
rare sound board recordings from 1975-1977 era ("Conspiracy Theory",
"Snow Jobs", "Bringing The House Down" and "Powhatan
Confederacy"). None of these fantastic source tapes had been
in circulation prior to being released by Empress Valley, although
the New York 1975 show had been available in lesser quality in the
past. Perhaps the most lavish, over the top set produced to date would
be the limited edition release of "Demand Unprecedented In The
History Of Rock Music: The 1975 Earl's Court Tapes", a 22CD set
that covering all five performances in London in 1975. This massive
boxed set is packaged in a hard-shell cube box identical in format
to the official "Complete Studio Recordings" from Atlantic.
The box houses the 22CDs in six individual deluxe gatefold paper sleeve
sets worthy of being released without the box. Also included were
replica concert tickets from all five shows, a mini replica tour booklet
and a T-shirt with the Earl's Court program artwork. The source tapes
used are some of the highest quality tapes available for this string
of shows being eclipsed only slightly by the Watchtower releases for
the May 24th and May 25th shows. Not all of the jewels are massive
or exceptionally packaged sets. The Empress Valley version of the
San Diego 1973 show, "Three Days Before", contains more
of the sound board tape and is by far more complete with less tape
cuts than the Watchtower version making it the favored release by
collectors.
When looking at Empress Valley, or any premium label for that matter,
a buyer must take into consideration that a part of the final price
that you are asked to pay reflects the added cost of the premium packaging
used on most releases. Even titles issued in plain jewel cases still
contain high quality package materials and not simply a flimsy paper
J-card. Although not as daring in their use of packaging as Tarantura
was in their heyday, Empress Valley has issued some absolutely stunning
presentations over their career. Packaging has included hard-shell
hinged boxes, hardcover books, replica LP sized gatefold sleeves,
deluxe paper sleeves, obi strips, elaborate fold out paper sleeves,
digipacks, and the standard jewel case. Promotional "gimmick"
pack ins include T-shirts, lapel pins, replica tour programs and concert
tickets to name a few. The elaborate packaging is partially to blame
for the staggering asking prices of some of these sets and this should
be taken into consideration when premium label sets are being considered
for purchase. Another selling point used, but not advertised on any
of the sets that I am aware of, is the occasional use of gold CDs
in some releases. Noteworthy sets with stunning packaging are: "Grand
Finale" (a large hardback book with hard cardboard disc sleeves
and a 17 page booklet were bound to center), "Demand Unprecedented
In The History Of Rock Music: The 1975 Earl's Court Tapes" (came
in a hard-shell cube box that opens to reveal 6 individual deluxe
paper sleeves holding 22CDs. Bonus pack-in items included a mini replica
tour booklet, replica tickets from each concert, and a T-shirt with
Earl's Court graphics), "Burn Like A Candle" (the original
release came in a large replica gatefold LP sleeve and included a
promo T-shirt with the cover art reprinted on the front of the shirt),
"Bonzo's Birthday Party" (the 9CD version came packed in
a hard-shell hinged box that opens up to reveal 3 individual trifold
paper sleeves and a motion card insert affixed to the inside of the
box lid) and much more. One thing Empress Valley can't be accused
of is using cheap package materials. As noted previously, even the
Empress Valley titles packaged in plain jewel cases still ooze class.
The J-cards have been lavishly printed on heavy, expensive papers
using a variety of printing methods ranging from textured surfaces,
embossed text and graphics, high gloss finishes or even metallic like
foil processes that are rarely found on any of the other labels still
issuing Led Zeppelin sets.
The slowing economy in a post September 11th, 2001 world coupled with
rampant CD-R trading by music fans worldwide had probably cut significantly
into the ability to continually market high dollar product. Late in
2002 Empress Valley started to issue the occasional "budget"
title under the "Lifetime Achievement Award" banner. The
sets released under this moniker have so far been reissues with scaled
back packaging or have been compilations of tapes that probably wouldn't
have sold well on their own merit. The "Burn Like A Candle"
2nd version is a good example of a reissue with scaled back packaging.
They discarded the first pressings large LP-sized gatefold sleeve
and promotional T-shirt and placed the set in a more reasonable normal
CD sized gatefold paper sleeve with no gimmick pack ins. Empress Valley
did bulk this set up from a 3CD release to a 4CD release with a bonus
disc containing a chunk of the sound board tape from the Long Beach
June 27th, 1972 show to tempt buyers into purchasing an additional
copy of this show. "Heavy Machinery/The Dirty Trick" is
another "Award" release. This 4CD set is comprised of two
1973 concerts utilizing newly discovered fair/good quality audience
source tapes. These two tapes, while being previously unreleased,
probably wouldn't have sold well on their own merit as the quality
of the audio wasn't the best. Empress Valley keenly bundled these
shows into one plain quad jewel case set and slashed the normal 4CD
asking price in half.
Unlike The Diagrams Of Led Zeppelin or even Watchtower, Empress Valley
cannot be so easily purchased outside of Japan or even online. Each
release is usually limited to 200-300 copies (some sources state that
these are generous numbers) and the vast majority of these go to collectors
in Japan. Of the few outlets that do offer Empress Valley sets to
overseas collectors, the prices tend to fluctuate a bit from one outlet
to another on available titles. Be aware that there is not a set price
based on the number of discs contained in a set. One 3CD set might
cost $125US, another 3CD set might set you back $155, while a 4CD
"Lifetime Achievement" release might sell for as low as
$75. Some of the more elaborate packages will command more money in
part to cover the added cost of that elaborate packaging. When shopping
around for the some of the limited edition sets or titles now out
of print, do so knowing that certain releases are going to be harder
to locate and generally expensive. Be be prepared to spend some time
searching for that elusive title and once you do find it, take a deep
breath and crack open the piggy bank. The "Bonzo's Birthday Party"
9CD set mentioned earlier is one of the more difficult to find items,
commanding in excess of $700US in mint condition. "Deep Striker",
a 4CD release that contains one of the best release to date of the
final Los Angeles concert from 1977 is incredibly difficult to obtain.
Expect asking prices to approach $850-1000 range for this set provided
you can talk someone into selling. The 4CD limited edition version
of "Florida Sunshine" sold out in Japan almost immediately
and has already seen the low $700US price range on the Japanese after
market only a few weeks after it was released. Demand for some of
these sets simply exceeds the available supply in most cases. A collector
may spend months trying to track down a single set as some titles
were released in quantities as low as 200 total copies for global
distribution. Some discs are impossible to locate while others command
astronomical dollar amounts well beyond the means of the masses. Unfortunately
most of the big money sets will never be seen in their original format
by most collectors. Ballpark figures were established around known
worldwide selling prices.
Eelgrass
Eelgrass is a label came out from Japan that reissued a few of Empress
Valley titles in a cheap form of a standard jewel cases. It debuted
in 2003 and the first four titles were simply a straight audio knock-offs
of Empress Valley releases bearing also the same names. In fact the
only information that this is a reissue not an original Empress Valley
title is "e g" printed on the discs of "Orlando Magic"
release.
Watch
Tower
Watch Tower from Japan started producing their releases in early 2000's
as a set up in competition to Empress Valley and was run by the same
people as Scorpio. It's the only true rival to Empress Valley in putting
upgrating releases. In 2003 both labels each released the same concert
in opposition to each other. In some cases, Watch Tower's version
was more enjoyable and great sounding than Empress Valley's, as on
the last two Ear's Court May 1975 nights. "To Be A Rock And Not
To Roll" and "Conquistador" are still definitive versions
of these memorable performances. Also their "Welcome To The 1979
Knebworth Festival" was a big improvement over Empress Valley
after as Watch Tower decided to fill the gaps in soundboard by an
audience sources to making these concerts more complete. Sadly, some
of their releases are married by heavy digital mastering and some
"clicks" and "pops" can be heard. Overall, this
is another luxury label that brought many interesting discoveries.
Now it's seems to be that label is out of business.
Another
Japanese labels
By the early 2000's couple more Japanese bootleg companies started
to producing their items with the music of Led Zeppelin. Cannonball
Records issued in 2004 two Zeppelin titles: "MSG" and "Hampton
1971" and only their second title is an improvement. Amusingly
named Cashmere label also issued some very good titles in the mid
2000's and sometimes still adding another new. Live Remains and Masterport
adding few new titles to the Zeppelin bootleg collection too, rereleasing
material known from the older releases but with a high sound quality
standard.
In opposite to these labels, the Magnificent Disc started releasing
their products as CD-Rs and then started to producing original CDs
in premium prices. In a market only producing premium priced titles
such as Empress Valley or Tarantura2000, news of non-premium label
going all the collectors many. However, the label has proved to be
a total
