Okay, so we talked about our first and fave shows, how long we've been purpleheads...what was the first concert bootleg you scored?

My first was homemade: I used my boombox to record the Prince and the Revolution Live VHS onto casette. It sounded crappy, but blasted thru headphones and EQd right it was passable!

My first "official" concert boot was Small Club. It was on vinyl, three or four records, with the last side being the HIts medley from Dortmund 88.

FAN-FRAKING-TASTIC!

The first audio bootleg I had was the Black Album on vinyl in the summer of 1988. The first video bootleg I had was the Lovesexy Dortmund show and the Nude Tokyo show in 1991. I also got a HORRIBLE quality show of Wendy and Lisa from some televised concert they did at the same time. I did that too with the Purple Rain Live VHS too!

motherfunka said:

The first audio bootleg I had was the Black Album on vinyl in the summer of 1988. The first video bootleg I had was the Lovesexy Dortmund show and the Nude Tokyo show in 1991. I also got a HORRIBLE quality show of Wendy and Lisa from some televised concert they did at the same time. I did that too with the Purple Rain Live VHS too!

I spent the entire summer of 85 bumping that, Around the World in a Day, Romance 1600 and the Family.

Those were the days...

Funky Party 2Nite and Hallowed B Thy Name

The Paris New Morning 1987 aftershow. (Bootleg title "He's Got The Look")

In 1989 my friend and I were casually flipping through

the Prince record section and then you could

have picked our jaws off of the floor when that

one came up! It opened up that whole other part

of Prince's music that we hadn't heard before.

We were floored.

The Park II, for audio.

For video, I'm not sure what the title of the boot is as I haven't seen the show in 15 years. As far as I remember it, it was a PP show during the Gold era. All I really remember was he was wearing a white outfit that often appeared blue because of the lighting and they did "Ain't No Party Like A New Power Party" and "TMBGITW" mustang mix.

"Pop"

a boot from the controversy tour, New Orleans

Goteborg 1987, Vinyl (2LP), bought 1988 at a record fair or flea market.

Small Club

Wonderboy

First vhs boot was probably Dortmund or Birthday Parade

[delete]

[Edited 8/15/10 9:45am]

The Nude Tour. Kiel, Germany

The purple album with white spots.

1st video boot : Nude tour tokyo and Nude tour Spain

1st audio boots: Dream factory,Black album,Camille (my friend gave these 2 me all at once)

P.S. I miss you PS

1st studio: black album, of course

1st show: Dortmund 88 and Small Club at the same time, summer 1990. I thought this is what all the boots would sound like, and got burned a few times.

1st video: Dortmund 88...

live audio-4 those of you on valium-around Feb 1988 on cassette

studio-the black album outside Wembley Arena July -again on tape

video-cant really say Dortmund or Cobo-as they were actually both on tv-I recorded em' at the time as was Syracruse

my 1st vid boot was Stockholm Parade-i remember cuz the same day I got my mate an MJ live in Japan on the Bad tour vhs-brill quality-even a mad interview where Frank di leo answered every question for him-with MJ right next to him-like a mini mafia made guy doing the interview for MJ-hilarious-man i was a hero in our area for a spell after snagging THAT video-though everyone was blown away by Stockholm Parade-man a real funky show-and if i remember-a fan grabbing incodent-no ? I got those vids around feb 88

man those were the days-and the record fair i always got my stuff from-is still going

but they have zero Prince thesedays sadly

[Edited 8/15/10 12:22pm]

as a side note-i do remember that i went to a fair during the Lovesexy tour-and man one stall was pure Lovesexy shows-all on tape of course-with awful dodgy covers-some just a typed and copied set list-but the sound was ok-you could test em' on a walkman

man EVERYONE there was threr for Prince stuff

that was the only place ive ever seen the real old rare boots on vinyl-like small club-the chocolate box-royal jewels etc

then it progressed to cd's-they really did used to ALWAYS have everything released-though they were never cheap-i think a double cd was about £30

man they earned some lolly offa me-but i don't regret any of it-i'm proud of my music collection alotta sweat-tears and overtime went into it

Small Club

Black Album

Chocolate Box

Charade

Paris 1986

New Orleans 1982

"Sign of the times world tour" double vinyl boot with compilation of stockholm 87 shows.

i guess it was the Syracuse concert (I rented it), we had a tv or maybe the VCR with an auxiliary audio out jack and I used that to record the audio directly to my brothers pioneer stereo system so it was very high quality.

the first one I bought was Lovesexy and soon after the small club 2nd show that night.

[Edited 8/15/10 12:55pm]

ernestsewell said:

Funky Party 2Nite and Hallowed B Thy Name

That also was a phenomenal show... although in a very large venue for an (pre-sold) "aftershow", ther was an incredible energy in the crowd. Gues the Belgians needed to prove a poiunt after the Paradiso Amsterdam shows...

X Records' 'Small Club'.

Marrk said:

X Records' 'Small Club'.

I have the X records Small Club on cd, do you know if this is the original version of Small Club or not? This is what i have heard, that other versions (ie other labels) took their recordings from the X records version.

MikeyB71 said:

Marrk said:

X Records' 'Small Club'.

I have the X records Small Club on cd, do you know if this is the original version of Small Club or not? This is what i have heard, that other versions (ie other labels) took their recordings from the X records version.

the x records was the first release. there were bootleg/pirate/copies of it that just copied the artwork etc. i think the copies had a different insert thing, i'm not sure if the disc "art" was the same or not

MikeyB71 said:

Marrk said:

X Records' 'Small Club'.

I have the X records Small Club on cd, do you know if this is the original version of Small Club or not? This is what i have heard, that other versions (ie other labels) took their recordings from the X records version.

Yes it is. I picked mine up at a record fair here in the UK, possibly 1989. Sadly, I lost the booklet, all the tracks are named weirdly (Rave becomes Raid etc) on the discs. It has that 'Tranny Prince' pic from the Lovesexy era and makes it clear 'only 300 people were present. He Wants To Be Your Lover!' on the back.

Typical 80's bootleggery. Classic.

unique said:

MikeyB71 said:

I have the X records Small Club on cd, do you know if this is the original version of Small Club or not? This is what i have heard, that other versions (ie other labels) took their recordings from the X records version.

the x records was the first release. there were bootleg/pirate/copies of it that just copied the artwork etc. i think the copies had a different insert thing, i'm not sure if the disc "art" was the same or not

No 'art' on my discs, just black font. They're on silvers though and i've had it since '89. i think it's an original. It has that slight hiss that subsequent versions eliminated.

my first boot was 14th august 86 london wembley arena, the gig with ronnie wood and sting on the fantastic version of miss you. this was from the old days of tape bootlegs

i got a few other tapes, i remember getting the 21st march 1987 first avenue show which was the most amazing thing to receive at the time. crystal clear soundboard recording and such a fantastic show. i also remember the day i got the black album on vinyl, it was such an exciting thing to get at the time, an unreleased album by the worlds biggest and hottest star. charade was also cool, but you already had most of it. getting small club on cd was just incredible, it was such a great show and the best quality that you had ever heard from a bootleg, and one of the very first cd bootlegs. it was £40 at the time for the 2 discs, but it was well worth it. then came crucial on cd, that was also fucking amazing. the quality wasn't perfect, but compared to some of the awful shit that was on the royal jewels triple lp it was great. chocolate box was another great lp in the early days, just fantastic music, and back then it seemed like forever for those tracks to get an official release, even if it was just a year or two later

come around 95 when moonraker/thunderball/etc started putting the boots out it was a never ending stream of great new shows with great artwork on a regular basis. i have about a thousand original cd pressed disc boots from whats mainly about a 5 year period. there were a few before and a few after, but come the new millenium filesharing and downloads took the place of spending daft money on boots and come the ONA tour you could get every show of the whole tour, soundcheck, mainshow and aftershow

unique said:

my first boot was 14th august 86 london wembley arena, the gig with ronnie wood and sting on the fantastic version of miss you. this was from the old days of tape bootlegs

i got a few other tapes, i remember getting the 21st march 1987 first avenue show which was the most amazing thing to receive at the time. crystal clear soundboard recording and such a fantastic show. i also remember the day i got the black album on vinyl, it was such an exciting thing to get at the time, an unreleased album by the worlds biggest and hottest star. charade was also cool, but you already had most of it. getting small club on cd was just incredible, it was such a great show and the best quality that you had ever heard from a bootleg, and one of the very first cd bootlegs. it was £40 at the time for the 2 discs, but it was well worth it. then came crucial on cd, that was also fucking amazing. the quality wasn't perfect, but compared to some of the awful shit that was on the royal jewels triple lp it was great. chocolate box was another great lp in the early days, just fantastic music, and back then it seemed like forever for those tracks to get an official release, even if it was just a year or two later

come around 95 when moonraker/thunderball/etc started putting the boots out it was a never ending stream of great new shows with great artwork on a regular basis. i have about a thousand original cd pressed disc boots from whats mainly about a 5 year period. there were a few before and a few after, but come the new millenium filesharing and downloads took the place of spending daft money on boots and come the ONA tour you could get every show of the whole tour, soundcheck, mainshow and aftershow

I had a lot of those you mentioned. That Ron Wood/Sting thing on 7" vinyl with a pic of Salvador Dali on the cover. I..Don't..know..why?? i remember 'The Roof Is On Fire' chant.

Charade, Chocolate Box etc. Exciting at the time, but honestly, i don't miss those days now. As a teen, i found myself spending a lot of money on poor sounding boots ang getting upset about it, i kind of prefer the Recycle bin option!