Dead right, I miss the head shop era, magical places with their varied stock, Kaftans, Afghan coats, loon pants, joss sticks, patchouli oil, tarot cards beads, bongs, pipes and of course Bootlegs.

No wind, no rain, a mild 52f, pretty good after the constant rain of the past few days, the sun is hiding behind the clouds but the rain has gone that's the main thing, none forecast either..

Yeah I could be a crustier old fart, I've earned that right and believe me the difficulty in finding boots was the magic, I know I was there. They were to be savoured, treasured, they were rare, walking down the road with one under your arm was a badge of honour, you became a member of an exclusive club. They were cheap to buy, the plain rubber stamped covers showed they weren't pretending deceptively to be something official. The internet has taken all that away, now it's as easy to get them as pouring a bowl of Rice Crispies, there is nothing special about them anymore, click and your done, click and your done, where is the magic in that, well it ain't for this old fart. These days I have real difficulty in getting excited about any new boot release, I enjoy some of them marginally the recent upgrade to 29/9/71 for instance was pretty decent, that's had almost a dozen plays, that's good going these days, the Seattle 75 from last year got maybe almost three complete plays, I put it on last week and took it off after less than five minutes, but that's because I prefer pre 75 live Zeppelin. You know maybe I'm a little jealous that todays younger fan has it all so easy, I'm sure they had there own sense of magic in first discovering the world of bootlegs, but it's a different kind of magic to the good old days, now where did I put my zimmer frame. Grumpy old man signing off, until the next old git rant.

Maybe I am being a little harsh. Hunter did after all mention "RO" as being one of his sources, trouble there is "RO" has a members only area with member exclusive content. In the past "RO" have asked that this exclusive content not be shared anywhere else for a number of reasons partly so that their sources will keep providing more unknown/unheard content. Going back ten years or so there was apoplectic uproar when somebody broke this request and shared samples meant to be "For Free Trade Only" that ended up on a Japanese boot.. The beauty of bootlegs used to be that they were hard to find, almost impossible if you were not in the know, that's what made them magic, there were so few what you got you listened to properly over and over because that's all there was. Nowdays it's download 'em and file 'em away because there are so many of them in the main most of 'em just get a cursory once or twice listen, less even maybe a quick scan review before moving on to the next one.

I don't agree, all this guy is doing is gathering stuff from here there and everywhere and putting on his own site and trying to gain credit for other peoples work. It's not hard to do what he's doing oneself. Everything on his site is available elsewhere. Plus he has too much mp3 pollution. Personally, I would not thank him for anything.

Pre 75, any year.

A digital scale is essential, they're cheap too. My amp has a phono stage so a pre amp is not needed. Get yourself a stylus brush, also for cleaning my stylus I use a small slice of "Magic Eraser" glued to a coin for some extra stylus cleaning (cheap and effective, check out a vid or two on YouTube). Have fun. Oh and don't neglect keeping your records clean.

75/77 disappointing, (for me). Give me anything 69 to 73 over those years.

Me old mate MWP and his wife Olivia, at the mo on a short tour are doing a hometown gig next week (22nd), I'll be there..

Setting up is part of the fun, the tracking weight, the bias, cartridge alignment, the overhang etc, all what you do when you have a decent TT.

Oh sugar, not good. Good luck in finding a new job soon.

It's last week compared to 1973 when I bought my first bootleg. I was sort of taking the mickey out of your "Waaaaaaaaaay back" comment.

Waaaaaaaay back in 1984 !!! that's "like" last week. [and] fwwiw I use(d) the Zep Art site for my boot CD covers, I'd pick the ones I like(d) the most so for instance an EV might have a Wendy cover. I'm not very particular about matching my downloads to the correct art, this is of course if the download does not come with cover art but these days most do.

This is what bootlegs looked like when I was paying for them.

I don't get that packaging thing, but if that's your bag.....