The more I buy Boots made by labels like [b]Sabotage[b/] and [b]Thunderball[b/], the more I wonder who are the people behind them.

Are any of these people on this site?? If so, please stand up - I'd like to thank you whole-heartily 4 keeping my faith in the man's music alive and well.

i'm not apart of thoz sites but Props & Pound do got out 2 em. they keep u up 2 speed as 2 what P does & doesn't RELASE... i have a STRONG feeling it's either Prince doing this or people who used 2 WORK 4 P?

I think also that Prince must be connected with it in some way.Other wise he shoud bring them to court , because they steal his work.And Prince had a fight with his record compangies for years , because according Prince they were stealing his work.

Don't buy bootlegs.trade.There are ways and means.

gangadow said:

Thunderball no longer exists.

they
are
the
nicest
people
u
ever
met

Carola said:

U do have a point, but personally speaking if it wasn't for the bootlegs out there I would have probably lost interest in his music somewhere in 1995!

Even though Prince doesn't receive any monies from the sales of bootlegs I do feel that they enhance his appeal to many Prince collectors.

To the bootleggers out there - I SALUTE U! (but bring down ur prices!!!)

True, Prince doesn't get money for some of the bootlegs but how do we know he doesn't get money from Sabotage and some of the others?

gangadow said:

Sad but true I'm sure I would have kept up w/ official releases but w/ him being so underground now & hard to find these days, it's a mess for the more casual listener (and that's what I was becoming, sadly, around NPS time). I swear, people sharing songs w/ me brought me back stronger than I'd EVER been into him, I'm talking a 20+ year journey w/ this dude!

I just wish he'd face this reality (how long has he been so heavily bootlegged? Most of his career, right?) - beat them to the punch! Sell the shows himself, I'm ready to buy. Hell, do a monthly withdrawl from my checking account, LOL! I don't care, just release it! Bataclan anyone?? How about Nighttown??

gangadow said:

There are various rumors doing the rounds about the identities of the caped crusaders behind those labels.

A disgruntled (and broke) ex-sound engineer sold bootleggers a bunch of soundboard tapes of Prince shows from 1980 through to 1987, and these were released as the superb City Lights series.

Otherwise, a lot of the outtakes up until Prince left Warners were apparently "leaked" by the man himself to people he knew would pass them on to bootleggers.

I thought this sounded far-fetched at first, but there are next to no new outtakes doing the rounds now - other than the ones Prince himself has made available - so that might have been the case.
[This message was edited Wed Jan 22 5:37:08 PST 2003 by nas3110]

The above are very interesting theories. But if a Sound Egineneer supplied the bootleggers (or indeed if Prince did himself) why do the sound qualities vary on different releases?

An interesting thing to note was what Prince said at an ONA show in London I attended. He asked if there were any bootleggers in the audience and after a somewhat puzzled reaction from the audience he laughed and said it was cool. So maybe he IS behind some of the bootleg releases afterall!

I wish Uptown would do an in-depth exposé on the bootleggers - if they weren't gagged as a result of the failed lawsuit.

HELLO PEOPLE!!!


prince just sued a guy who only posted links to bootlegged mp3 files ... But you think he is behind the professional bootleggers?

Abrazo said:

Not to mention the fact that Thunderball were unceremoniously put out of business a couple of months ago. Their entire stock of CDs was bulldozed after a raid on one of their warehouses.

.
[This message was edited Wed Jan 22 11:43:26 PST 2003 by giotto]

giotto said:

Damn. That's not very nice

PurpleLove7 said:

Nah. There's no way theres any Prince involvement. There's far too many satisfied customers.

gambool said:

THAT'S some cold shit...

gambool said:

Hah! U're probably right!!