On The Topic Of Russian Bootlegs, Bootlegs In General and Some Zeppelin Thrown In

For my friend Mark One Zero Eight & Rob Paneeks
Resources for FLACs:
Dimeadozen: www.dimeadozen.org/
The Trader's Den: www.thetradersden.org/
Etree: bt.etree.org/
Resources For Led Zeppelin Bootlegs:
www.royal-orleans.com/phpBB/
www.led-zeppelin.org/online-ma...

[@Chris4127basket]

thanks for sharing!

[@VinylPotato]

very interesting. Japanese packaging is very cool.

[@PieterKleij]

Ah, Zeppelin boots. Still remember my first order in Japan and the waiting after. And still remember the excitement when for example the evening New York show from September 1970 came online and all the discussions it started at the torrent site it was uploaded on. The guy who had the tape thought it wasn't that special. I had about 200 silver pressed bootlegs from Japan at the time.

[@BarakaPDub]

You and me both. I can't tell you how many times I waited for my latest order from Fisheads to arrive from Japan. I think I read through Luis Rey's book twenty times over trying to find the best shows.

[@PieterKleij]

Me to, me too ! The first two i ordered were the last Osaka show from 1971 (Smoke Gets In Your Eyes) and the May 24th Earls Court show on Tarantura (Graf Zeppelin Marsch). Exciting stuff.

[@Afteringboard]

Very interesting, as always!

[@dixielandfarm]

The bootleg stuff I got from Russia was mp3's... back in the mid 2000s the Russian mp3 sites were basically offering albums for a buck and I went on a frenzy. There were some really hard albums to get available, and they sounded pretty good for the price I was paying. When I was done, I change my CC # as a precaution... I love that the internet has basically made all bootlegs of unreleased material free - that's the way it should be (plus the taping trees I used to be involved in was such a pain).

[@BarakaPDub]

Tape trees....I was doing those as well. Waiting for months to get tapes via snail mail was a pain.

[@MarkOneZeroEight]

I haven't thought of, or seen reference to, Hot Wacks in probably 20 years! That Knebworth set looks insane (a die-cut?!?!). I check dimeadozen usually twice a day. You never know what will show up there. My three least favorite words: Official tracks removed. Guitars101 and Zomb Torrents are good sites too. Thanks Paul.

[@BarakaPDub]

Thanks for the references Mark, I haven't heard of those two sites. I hear you about the official tracks removed. It's sad but I am happy they've found a legal loophole that allows them to host all of this stuff.

[@FlipSideCT]

Great info, and the pic in pic was nice. I would not trust any of them either, just low grade pirate copies. Thanks for those book recommendations.....lol Amazon has Rey's book starting at $91. I wasted to much $ early on horrible boots. Only soundboard for me now. But not a high priority. The Japanese come thru again. Thanks Steve

[@BarakaPDub]

It's sad that Rey's book has been out of print so long. I think with the new found interest in Led Zeppelin he would put it back in print. I too wasted money on some terrible bootlegs and found Hot Wacks to be a godsend before the advent of the Internet.

[@billyshears5644]

What is the general consensus on their sound quality? Have heard some have the same quality as the original editions. Sometimes they make bootlegs of OOP cds you wouldn't be able to get if not as a russian bootleg.

[@BarakaPDub]

So most of them sound quite good since it's a bit for bit copy of the original content. Now there are some where they did try and squeeze two albums worth of content onto one CD. They had to use a bit of compression to make it work. This is where you can sense a loss.

[@BlytheWorld1972]

Your observation on Russian bootlegs is way off ..before i start i am a hard core collector who loves all my different prints from all over the world i have some stunning bootlegs from soviet union disco albums that have never been released officially on cd i have superb pressing that sound amazing the art work and inlays are just as good as any official pressing i have records too that sound fab but the cd albums pressed in the early 2002 on words are amazing and i am happy to buy them i suppose it all depends on what you buy and what company the stuff is pressed on but not all Russian bootlegs are rubbish all are pressed on silver discs not like not on cdr copies real discs i have some fantastic kate bush DVD sets from Russia featuring rare TV special art work is fab and so is the picture of the DVD also most cd and dvds from the country are cheep and if the stuff has never been released officially as a collector i buy them ..