Bootlegs       This list consists of a very detailed bootleg discography and is divided into three separate large parts. The first one is dedicated to vinyl albums. Much larger part is dedicated to the CD titles, which consists of thousand of different titles. Third is visual discography, capturing the real DVD format but also VCD and even VHS. All three sections are simply expanded as full relational discographies and they may be easily navigated just by the clicking bewlo categories: -> Vinyl Bootlegs Discography -> CD Bootlegs Discography -> Visual Bootlegs Discography       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. 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, Limes, Live & Alive, Live Experience (The), Live Storm, Luna Records, Men At Work, Minotaur Records, Moonlight Records, New Plastic Records, OffRoadTracks, 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 and Tangerine Records. The Godfather Records found themselfs as deluxe issued packages reissuing titles known from earlier releases, almost always releasing combos of sources. Possibly their most memorable title is "That's Alright New York", that can be called a straight knock-off to Empress Valley's "Flying Circus" because of extremely upgraded soundboard of New York February 12th, 1975 show. The label's other titles are also rather well receipted by the collectors, mostly due to beautiful design and contents. In the opposite, Beelzebub Records is continuously criticited for their equalizing job and also the label pressing on CD-Rs instead of real silvers although their few titles are still worth to mention. 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.       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. 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. 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 ". 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. 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, Artifact, Atlantic Ocean Records, Baby Face, Balboa Productions, Black Panther, Black Swan, Blimp, Blue Hornet, Osoz, 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, Le-Mon (Scorpio spin-off label), 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), 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. 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 waste. Their efforts were always been plagued by the metallic background sound and often these folks just rereleased shows that have been presented before twice times or more.       Badgeholders was another new Japanese label that released another good sounding titles, which almost always reissued material known from the earlier releases but - in the opposite to the Magnificent Disc - some of albums released by this business are still a big improvement in the collector's market (as Long Beach March 11 and 12, 1975 shows available on "Taking No Prisoners Tonight" and "California Sunshine" triple CD packages, where both of audience sources were spliced together to make these concerts much more complete). Metallic sound is present only on their first title", V1/2 Extravaganza".       The other low budget Japanese labels involved into production the music of Led Zeppelin around this period were (or still are) as follows: Beat & Beat, Black Dog Rekords (Tarantura2000 spin-off label), Boogie Mama, Budgie, Bumble Bee, Flesh (Tarantura2000 spin-off label; this could be an upgrated version to that label but their reissue of 6CD "Destroyer" deluxe package is one of the worst bootleg products ever - the heavy equalization plagued both April 1977 tapes available there, making these concerts almost impossible to easier listening), Further Along, Graf Zeppelin, Mandala Records, Nasty Music (Scorpio spin-off label), Neverland, Original Master Series, Pirate Records, Power Archives, Reel Masters (as reported, the label's name implies the music is sourced directly from the masters but it may or may not be true.), Scorpio (still producing - 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), SharakuLed (Tarantura2000's spin-off label), Sodd Singer's Original, Sugar Mama, Trade Mark Of Quality (TMQ - Tarantura2000's spin-off label), Wardour, White Summer, and Wild Card.       Sometimes (very rarely) other countries are involving into producing Led Zeppelin music too, as ephemerad Noise Generation and Starbone Records low budget labels from Canada that released in the early 2000's only two titles, "A Cellarful Of Noise", copied all what is available on any of old vinyl bootlegs for Osaka September 29, 1971 show and "Vienna 1970", a two source mix known from other releases of this show. Red Devil - although many reported to be from Japan - is another rather ephemerad outfit from the Far East. "Stroke In Stoke" and "Robert's Last Stand" have no mention of label credit other than the familiar "P&C" (as on premium Japanese labels such as Empress Valley) and both have the same artwork theme. CDs are professionally labeled. The rest of titles credit Red Devil as the manufacturer. "P&C" is not mentioned. They also share the same artwork theme as the above mentioned two titles. SRS Records from Spain rereleased Watch Tower's "Conquistadir" deluxe set. Whoopy Cat issued twice the same title, "Plays Pure Blues", copied famous Texas Int. Pop Festival August 31, 1969 soundboard tape.       The next rather low budget labels involved or still involving into production of Led Zeppelin's unauthorized music includes a bunch of unlabelled titles plus Alternative Edge, Fundamental Rock Records, Hard Rock Classic Records, The Home(r) Entertainment Newtork, Kiss The Stone, Monument Records, Planet and Tuff Bites from Europe. Wendy Records       Wendy Records is another Japanese label started to putting their releases into the market in 2003. The releases of this label are in a standard jewel cases, some are also housed in obi. As for the sound the main problem is "metallic" background noise presenting on their early releases. As Watch Tower or Empress Valley Supreme Disc, Wendy utilizes many released before shows and completing them adding some never before released fragments or filled gaps by using another sources. Most of their titles are not any improvements because they ripped off material known from different sources. Wendy also has its spin-off label, Flower that debut with the Yardbirds New York March 30th, 1968 show. Azija       This was Russian label established in the early 2000's. These albums are very hard to find outside Russia, because labels such as Silver Rarities, Image Quality and even Tarantura and Watch Tower are too expensive for the fans in Russia and Azija reissued some of these titles. On each album AZIR is written with a backwards R and means nothing but Asian. Many collectors are saying that these CDs are not collectable because they are clones from Japanese import titles, overequed and overedited and the songs of the shows are out of proper running order and the shows are incomplete. Possibly the most intriguing thing is the artwork used for each release - a big, black frame with drawning in the middle. Most of booklets are fold-out to a mini-posters. The Chronicles Of Led Zeppelin       This is the newest output from Japan. Established in June of 2008, The Chronicles Of Led Zeppelin is well-designed as an original successor to the now legendary The Diagrams Of Led Zeppelin label and is set to release many uncirculated sources from the Led Zeppelin live catalogue. From what is reported, the main intention of this newest effort is to release all the tapes without any heavy equalization or editing. The label is planning a big series of albums sourced directly from the masters dedicated to the collectors that are looking for unaltered and straight copies of low gen tapes. It seems that TCOLZ is interesting to be a true rival to Empress Valley Supreme Disc and Tarantura. The main intention of TCOLZ is to start at the point where TDOLZ have stopped releasing their albums and indeed, TDOLZ's first two releases, "How Many More Years Gone With The Wind" and "Long Drive To Seattle" seem to proved that theory because both covered shows that were not released anywhere else on silvers. (In fact, their second title contains the entire alternate audience source of Seattle March 21st, 1975 show that was previously used by H-Bomb Music on "No Quarter" set to complete the encores.) The artwork is very simple and relating to the old vinyl albums, where the band's name and album's title were stamped on the jacket. Their few latest titles are well welcomed by the collectors and always covered something yet unreleased, such as their massive six-disc set "We're Playing Our Balls Out", where the complete, second audience source for Los Angeles March 27th, 1972 mammouth show was presented altogether with famous Millard tape or "One Night Stand In Paris", where, for the first time, pre-FM source of Paris October 10th, 1969 was issued. A brave new standard: DVD Bootlegs       By the mid of 1990's couple of bootleg companies started to releasing their efforts in totally new way, copied many old 8 and 16mm cameras as well as pro shots (which most of them were available only on home-made VHS releases with the exception of Holy Grail and Celebration companies) to DVD, making a brand new standard. Labels such Akashic, Bad Wizard (Scorpio spin-off label), Boogie Mama, Cashmere, Celebration Definitive Masters, Cosmic Energy (which started as DVD-R/VCD-R outfit that published their 1969-1980 catalogue of various amateur and pro shots), Dadgad Prod. (another DVD-R label), Digital Line, Empress Valley Supreme Disc, Eye Thank You, Genuine Bastard, Hercules, Holy Grail, Kanji Flying Dragon, New Depression Music, Room 101, Seymour Vision, Silent Sea Productions, Sugar Mama, Tarantura2000, Toasted Condor (very possible this is not a legendary Toasted/Condor label continuator), Watch Tower, Way Of Wizard, Wendy Records and others done fantastic job in utilizing these important moments of Led Zeppelin history. And although a couple of shots are still not available in DVD format, most of circulating video material is now available in truly upgrating versions. Totally new stuff is also discovered (August 4, 1979 Knebworth full video).       At last an extremely interesting Genuine Masters label taking us to an extremely new standard of DVD-Audio releases (they also producing DVDs). The label isn't a Japanese product but totally created in Australia by Mr. Guru aka Mr. BlackDog. Each of his discs are digital masters not clones off master plates. Each title will only be released if uses the original analogue source so he can ensure his disc title hasn't been butchered by other peoples EQ tampering.       The main profit of a DVD format is the length. The maximum length of each CD was 80 minutes. This time we have for the first time a great opportunity to listen to the whole concert without unnecessary disc changes during playing. But not only the lenght is the main value. Since all the CDs are 44.1kHz, the DVD format offers much more - 48kHz, the spectrum that was previously attributed to DAT tapes only. With this, today is the highest quality audio format. Genuine Masters label always uses the best possible ways to find audience or soundboard sources and compiling them with an excellent visual work (as stated above). The sound is always the best and the overall results are always incredible. All titles issued by this label are a great improvements. Home-made CD-R/DVD-R albums       Since early 1990's few less or more professional amateur bootleg companies that produced CD-R albums were available on the underground market. Cyanine Records, Dadgad Productions, Disc Exploitation, Gusto Productions, Royal Record Productions, Small Fish, Winston Remasters, and Zeppelin Digital - all released or still releasing a bunch of rather nice titles, sometimes using alternate low gen tapes to source released earlier on professional CD bootleg labels. Some - as Disc Exploitation's "The Garden Tapes" (whcih features New York July 29, 1973 complete audience tape) contains material only partially released today on CD.       The first truly professional CD-R/DVD-R label is Beelzebub Records, established near the mid 2000's, that issuing many excellent sounding titles, all with professional equalization and highly printed artwork. Beelzebub sometimes debuts with completely new and undiscovered source (as on September 4, 1970's "Good Times In L.A.", where a complete tape was used and later reissued only by premium Empress Valley and Tarantura2000 labels). Beelzebub's 9CD-R set titled "A Rock 'N' Roll Institution" - together with fan-made CD-R tape transfers - still remains only complete recording of all three nights at Madison Square Garden July 1973, where all available audience and soundboard tapes were used to provided the most complete versions of these legendary performances. The other home-made labels that should be mentioned are Dadgad Prod., Small Fish and Winston Remasters. All are released many very interesting reissues of material previously known from silver pressed boots but in a much higher quality. Their productions such as Winston Remasters' own version of Los Angeles June 21st, 1977 famous "Eddie" show is considered as one of the best if not the best version of this concert available so far.       R&E Music and Vintage Masters are another professional CD-R labels that run out of Japan. They are primarily a CD-R labels but they sometimes release silvers as on Vintage Masters Premium. Vintage Masters was responsible for the old Highland, Gypsy Eye and Heartbreakers labels from years ago but find it more lucrative to produce CD-Rs. Future       After all, what more we could ask for? Probably for undiscovered tapes that are sometimes published by Empress Valley or The Chronicles Of Led Zeppelin. Hope that Genuine Masters will get back and remain the leader of publishing the best quality products. But there's one more thing we would want for sure: many companies should realized that it is the music, not the package, that is the most important thing for any fan.