Bootleg CDs - Recommended Labels

[Mark Sturgis]

Hello all - I am relatively new to collecting live CDs, having bought 15 shows over the past couple of years.  I now want to expand my collection but see that shows are released on numerous different labels.  I would very much appreciate advice on what labels are best and, perhaps more importantly, what labels to avoid.  

One show I want to buy is Osaka 29/9/71.  What might present a good production of this show?  There seem to be so many versions available. 

Thank you for any advice you are able to give. 

[Xolo1974]

A lot of the time the fan made remasters offer the best sound quality. But if you want the physical product, it really is horses for courses. The Black Beauty website is a great source to sample snippets from different labels for a certain night. 
 

http://starship.mydns.jp/zeppelin/beauty/

Edited December 20, 2023 by Xolo1974

[SteveZ98]

1 hour ago, Xolo1974 said:

A lot of the time the fan made remasters offer the best sound quality. But if you want the physical product, it really is horses for courses. The Black Beauty website is a great source to sample snippets from different labels for a certain night. 
 

http://starship.mydns.jp/zeppelin/beauty/

I'll second checking out Black Beauty so you can hear the various versions of a show before deciding which one to buy. I'd also check out BootLedz, which has explanations of the differences between the various versions.

http://www.bootledz.com/comparisons/6871.htm

[duckman]

Recommended Zep silver labels,....mmm A can of worms, if you ask me.

25/30  years ago I would have recommended Jelly Roll, Silver Rarities, the original Scorpio, Dynamite Studio's/Midas touch, The Diagrams of Led Zeppelin and maybe half a dozen others. These labels are all defunct and the more elite labels such as Empress Valley or Tarantura all have their fair share of issues (brick walling,  expensive,...).  The One label operating from Japan (and one of the most controversial, but -thankfully also the cheapest by a huge margin!) is Moonchild .  

For a newbie their catalog  is hard to resist. Although their packaging is basic and their slimline cases very vulnerable, I think Moonchild is ticking most boxes if you want to collect a nice live Zep catalog.

`Supposedly a spin off Empress Valley franchise, they often dig into the fan remasters (Winstons, matrixes,...) but also budget re issues from Empress Valley. 

I know a lot of my fellow Zepheads here will condemn me, but I can only say this is the safest and cheapest route to the Zep Underground discography. Check out Brannon's Bootledz labels inventory for an exhaustive Moonchild overview. If multiple releases exist from a specific date, the most recent  ones, are the most recommended (Kutabare Moonchild for Osaka 929 for instance). Good luck!

[JMH]

Kutabare moonchild is a good one for 929, except for the WLL medley, but that is not the label’s fault. An audience source should be used for that.

Bootledz is almost a bottomless pit of information.

 

Have a nice ride down the rabbit hole!

Edited December 20, 2023 by JMH

[Mark Sturgis]

Thank you for the very useful advice.  Well, here I go .... placing an order for about 10 highly recommend shows.  

[JMH]

Nice. I have made myself an Excel list of shows with the label and title. Silver’s are nice (have 60 or so) but we wait for the moment when you start to go through Zep Boots/ Northbridge catalogue and make your own hard copies.

Btw. Is the Jon Wizardo 23.6.1977 already on some cheap label. Not that I need it but one for your list. An absolute gem!

[Moby_Dick_Ale]

On 12/20/2023 at 5:58 PM, duckman said:

Recommended Zep silver labels,....mmm A can of worms, if you ask me.

25/30  years ago I would have recommended Jelly Roll, Silver Rarities, the original Scorpio, Dynamite Studio's/Midas touch, The Diagrams of Led Zeppelin and maybe half a dozen others. These labels are all defunct and the more elite labels such as Empress Valley or Tarantura all have their fair share of issues (brick walling,  expensive,...).  The One label operating from Japan (and one of the most controversial, but -thankfully also the cheapest by a huge margin!) is Moonchild .  

For a newbie their catalog  is hard to resist. Although their packaging is basic and their slimline cases very vulnerable, I think Moonchild is ticking most boxes if you want to collect a nice live Zep catalog.

`Supposedly a spin off Empress Valley franchise, they often dig into the fan remasters (Winstons, matrixes,...) but also budget re issues from Empress Valley. 

I know a lot of my fellow Zepheads here will condemn me, but I can only say this is the safest and cheapest route to the Zep Underground discography. Check out Brannon's Bootledz labels inventory for an exhaustive Moonchild overview. If multiple releases exist from a specific date, the most recent  ones, are the most recommended (Kutabare Moonchild for Osaka 929 for instance). Good luck!

To add some: Moonchild is a label pretty easy to buy, where on the other hand labels such as EVSD or Tarantura 2K are much more difficult to obtain let alone the fact they often sell out within minutes after release and most copies are sold in Japan. These 2 labels are pretty expensive, also due to the fact of limited releases (sometimes 50 copies!)

Other labels from Duckman's list are almost impossible to buy when you're a newbie. I've got some SiRa's, TDOLZ's, TCOLZ's, 2 Jelly's, 4X Butamark 06-23-1977 (just for the cartoon cover), 4X Akashic.

'Till april 6th 2022 it was possible for EU and GB residents to buy these labels through https://auctions.yahoo.co.jp but it's been cut off by Yahoo Japan.

Happy collecting!

[Ghaal]

I opt to buy Moonchild titles when the cover is not really bad (as some really are!), but it is the go to label for affordable version of famous bootlegs. Also there are multiple bootleg labels from europe that put out mainly soundboard titles in recent years, but the covers are often photos from different years, so it is not so nice... They also seem to be put out by one label just relabellng itself, because they have the same fonts a and style of listing songs with writing credits, using the same two photos inside and outside, but they are the easiest to find (juno.co.uk for example).

[Xolo1974]

17 hours ago, JMH said:

Btw. Is the Jon Wizardo 23.6.1977 already on some cheap label. Not that I need it but one for your list. An absolute gem!

Will send you a PM on this

[Strider]

Not counting the vinyl bootlegs I have, the bootleg label I have the most CD titles of and found most consistently of high quality, both in the actual sound and in the presentation of the product was Godfatherecords.

After that, it is probably a tie between Eat a Peach (which seem to be the Godfatherecords people under a new name) and Moonchild as to the number of releases I have from them.

Then comes Wendy, Empress Valley Supreme Disc (although not much lately since they decided to put out their shit piecemeal at exorbitant prices), Electric Magic, SIRA, and a few others who went out of business long ago.