About Me

Intro:

Hi, assuming you know where you are, this is my bootleg trading page. What is a bootleg?  Assuming you don't know, a bootleg (of a concert) is a recording (audio or video) of a live concert. These are collected by fans of whom may be want to hear more of a band/group. Bootlegging begun when tapers began recording sets from "Grateful Dead" and then pressing these on vinyl's. These recordings then expanded into many other groups such as "The Beatles". Oftentimes, these would be recorded from the audience with tapers strategizing on where to place their equipment and how to get it in. Sometimes these recordings would be poor quality either due to their recording, or generation loss. As it states on the tin, generation loss is the loss of quality from recording to recording, so that the trader can keep their superior copy. Bootlegging has negative connotations of illegality and the Moonshine bootlegging of the 30s.  The official denotation however is "the illegal manufacture, distribution, or sale of goods, especially alcohol or recordings. " . 

What do I collect?  I collect most punk bands but it is rather difficult to locate recordings of many bands such as "Good Riddance" and "Millencoln". The 3 main bands I collect are "Blink-182" "The offspring" and "Bad religion". I only have on bootleg VHS, NOFX in 1996, which features 3 shows (listed on my site). Basically anything listed on my site (ignore the "misc. artists" section but the bands are tiered on my interest for them. 

Bands I have seen live: I haven't had many years on this earth so haven`t had that much of a chance to see many bands, however, I have seen "The Offspring", "The Hives" and "Bob Vylan" live on the 26th November 2021 in Wembley. It was an absolute kick-ass night with all 3 acts that played being nothing short of phenomenal. I recorded audio for all 3 acts, but not all songs, and I was using a shitty phone audio recorder but it is WAV lossless. The audio skips at some points most likely due to the peaking/clipping, Also throughout the 3rd song of The Offspring set, I had a splitting headache (I had it before the concert) and had to miss a few songs to get some paracetamol.  The night was amazing and oftentimes, was unable to believe I was actually there.  Im also seeing Blink-182 live on the 14th October which is nuts!

Trading: I would consider myself easy to co-operate with and I can be fast to upload. I have school so frankly, unless its the weekend or holidays, there may be a bit of wait. In terms of time zones, I am in the United Kingdom which is different to seemingly most traders I have come across. If something is incorrect I will try my best to rectify the situation because frankly, I don`t want to have a negative reputation. Also I am fairly conversational so if we share interests (which if you are emailing, you do), we can converse about related, and fuck it, even unrelated topics :D.

When and why did I start trading?: Despite having a good memory, I`m almost writing this down as to not forget. Anyways, back in 2013 when I was fairly young. "Enema of the state" was playing in the car. I have fond memories of "Wendy Clear" and "ATST" . In 2019, I came across "Adam`s song" and listened to it. The sound of the baritone strat reeled me in and I listened to more Blink. Anyways, in the midst of corona-virus boredom, I came across a bootleg site with Blink, and because of my interest in a multitude of analogue media, I thought it may be cool to get my hands on some of that. Anyways, Im talking on Mark Hoppus` discord server and see a guy asking about bootleg traders. I replied to him and traded him some FLAC and I got 2 shows. I requested Blink shows on a bootleg trading server, and some guy very kindly sent 23.7.1999 Montreal. I traded this with the same guy who gave I traded the FLACs with and got some DVD. He very kindly sent me some DVD and the rest is history.  

Do I play Any Instruments?:  Yes, I play the bass guitar and very rarely, the electric/acoustic guitar. I have a cream sterling MusicMan bass and  a 2014 Fender Jaguar Short Scale. Both are great fun to play. I started playing in September 2019.

Where I Store My Bootlegs?: I store them on a 2TB Segate External HDD (as of 14/10/22). Shows obtained before 07.08.2022 are mostly on a one-drive 500GB External HDD (I have cleared a lot of these so I can install GTA V and other things to my external drive) and assorted USB`S. Also quite a few are on Google Drive so may have very quick sending. 98% (or so) that is listed is on my drive.

Masters: I dont have many masters myself (I taped The Offspring (on my phone) a while back. I also recorded all available sets from Reading Festival 2022 from BBC Radio 1. I was planning to record Kroq Almost Acoustic Xmas 2022 but couldn't get KROQ to work online. Also after seeing the woke shit-show from Imagine Dragons, perhaps it was for the better. I may start trying to audio record small shows from local bands. Any FM broadcast I am aware of however (though increasingly scarce) I will at-least try and record. I taped a small local band back in May 2022 or so however half of it is in MP3 and is in multiple parts. Additionally it's in small 2 minute parts.  When at a concert, I want to experience it, thus my tapings may be flawed. with Blink, Im front standing and thus audio will be distorted (most likely) but it will be MENTAL(!!) to be that close!

Listing shows? I will try and list shows with information accordingly (screenshots) but if there is really technical info you want to know, just email me, am working on adding screenshots and info to shows that don't have it! Ill also try and add my own description of each show but some may not have this. I list shows on the site by (Band name), click to a menu for "DVD (does not always mean every show in there is (X)>DVD, DVD just denotes video", and I list audio usually just as audio! Shows are listed in YYYY/MM/DD as its more convenient)

I want a show from you're list? Well, I am a trader, however, if the show is common, I may send it to you. This depends, if you are unpolite and rude, then the answer is definitely no! 

How do I tape shows? Call me a pussy all you wish, but I have a fear of an expensive audio recorder being seized and destroyed. So for taping of 2023 and for probably a few years after. I may have a work-around. My brothers old phone. I will use a Voice Recorder at highest quality (Parrot audio recorder looks good) and I will try and buy a set of external mics and with that and some help from god. I should be able to tape shows decently. And to people who say taping audio is useless, sucketh by ballsack, I wish to enjoy the see the whole thing with my eyes. That being said, in the future I want to try and tape audio and video simultaneously and hopefully not get thrown in the slammer. In 2021 I recorded bands at the SSE Arena 2021/11/26 with a Motorola E5 play, one of the "lower end" phones. But it did the job very well considering (audio isn't half bad).  When recording the Slam Dunk Festival 2023 with my brothers old phone, the sound was actually pretty decent on some bands, with some being recorded pretty much front row. I also wish to commend its battery on both days. 

Transferring from analogue media? This (obviously) is talking about mostly VHS and Cassette. Apparently it is increasingly outdated to transfer VHS to DVD, and thus have been informed that I need to purchase a better VCR (although I think mine just needs a head clean, its a great VCR), and a capture card. So I am able to create the very sought after AVI file as opposed to VOB. One issue, I am not made out of hard-drive space so I'm not sure how I will work bit-rate on these recordings but who knows. I as of (2023/05/02) own 2 Bootleg VHS tapes (NOFX and New Order) but I know I have some TV shows involving music on my grandparents/ parents VHS tapes. I'm fairly sure there are over 50 of them to go through so that will be fun. Fairly sure I can recount some New Order on there. Unfortunately it cuts off before the first song finishes but on one of the tapes, there is (Monaco (New Order side project) 1998/08/30)). 

Concerts I am attending (or have attened)