Updated January 22, 2012
I’ve (somewhatish) recently come across four more of the Long Beach Bootlegs:
We’ve got New Order, Joy Division, Morrissey, Swervedriver and a Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds 7″!
Also, some new colors have been added to the Cure and the Smiths.
-More about them below…
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As anyone who’s been reading this blog for the past six months has seen, I’m really into bootleg records that have screen printed covers. The origins of these bootlegs and other info about, like press runs and who distributes them have become an obsession for me. Even trying to figure out just how many there are has been quite a challenge.
However, I think I have the answers to all or most of that.
All of the boots are done by two, possibly three, parties. The bulk of them seem to come from Long Beach, California. Many of the boots use fake labels like Alti Philosophi or Arkain Filloux. They also have fake addresses from Germany and Italy printed on them.
I can (almost) safely say that all of the records come from the same pressing plant. I can also (almost) safely say that all of the covers are printed with the same inks on the same blank covers.
That said, there are definitely two (possibly three) series here.
Let’s have a run down, shall we?
The first series started with CDs, I think. I don’t know if the covers were screen printed, but CDs were released by Adam & The Ants, Oingo Boingo and Brian Eno. Since I don’t really care about CDs so much, I’m very glad they moved on to vinyl.
The first vinyl released was an Oingo Boingo bootleg called Marching In Time. It was on black vinyl and originally had a three color printed cover. It was later rereleased with a two color cover and then, more recently, with a one color cover. From there, I don’t really know the order of things, but I’ll try to list them as close to chronologically as possible.
Oingo Boingo – Marching in Time (Polyrhythm Industries) (discogs)
-Black 500(?) (three color print)
-White 75 (two color print)
-Orange 20 (one color print, though there are probably some with two colors)The Boys Next Door – The Lost & Brave Exhibitions Of…1977-1979 (Il Cane Lento Records, Italy) (discogs)
-Yellow 100
-Black 100The Cure – Pillbox Tales 1977-1979 (Arkain Filloux Records, Belgium) (discogs)
-Brown 100
-Black 500
-Clear 100Brian Eno – The BBC Sessions (Il Cane Lento Records, Italy) (discogs)
-Blue 100
-Orange 100
-Black 500?
-Purple 100Echo & The Bunnymen – BBC Radio Tapes ’79 – ’80 (Arkain Filloux Records, Belgium) (discogs)
-Green 100
-Black 500?The Smiths – The Old Guard – BBC Tapes 1983 – 1986 (Alti Philosophi Records, Germany) (discogs)
-Red (first cover) 100
-Black (first cover) 500
-Clear (second cover) 100
-Black (second cover) 500(?)
-Green (second cover) 100
-Red (second cover) 100
-Purple (second cover) 100My Bloody Valentine – Lost Tracks And Rare Cuts (Alti Philosophi) (discogs)
-Test Pressing (white cover/label) 30
-Purple 100
-Clear 500
-Black 500
-White 100The Pixies – Into The White (Tensionesque) (discogs)
-Blue 100
-Green 135
-Orange 100
-Black 500The Smiths – The Old Guard – BBC Tapes Volume Two (Alti Philosophi) (discogs)
-Black 500
-Clear (dark) 100
-Blue 100Siouxsie And The Banshees – Songs From The Void – BBC Recordings 1977-1979 (Alti Philosophi) (discogs)
-Purple 100
-Black 500Slowdive – Hide Yer Eyes (Alti Philosophi) (discogs)
-Black 500
-Mauve 100
-Yellow 100
-Green (tealish) 100New Order – Western Works Demos 7/9/80 (discogs)
-Black 250Joy Division – Autosuggestion (discogs)
-Black 500Morrissey – Reader Meet Author (Alti Philosophi) (discogs)
-Black 500 (with white or brown covers)
-Orange 100 (with brown paperboard cover)Swervedriver – Planes Over The Skyline (Alti Philosophi) (discogs)
-Black 500
-Purple 100They also released three 7″s.
Oingo Boingo – All The Pieces 7″ (discogs)
-Red 200
-Green 200
-Blue 200The Mars Volta – A Plague Upon Your Hissing Corpse 7″ (discogs)
-Clear 300
-Purple 300
-Green 300
-Red 30 (screen printed on the blank b-side – no covers)
-Blue 30Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds – The Willow Garden / The Ballad of Robert Moore and Betty Coltrane 7″ (discogs)
-Black 300
-Red 100
-Clear 100
*Note – “The Willow Garden” doesn’t appear on this release. Instead, “The Ballad of Robert Moore and Betty Coltrane” is where “The Willow Garden” should be. Originally, the covers and labels on the vinyl were wrong, but a new run was made with corrected covers (with the vinyl still wrong). Some of the second covers were also printed on white stock with gray/black and red/black ink.
From what I can tell, the covers have remained the same for all of them, except the first Smiths boot, which was changed once the second Smiths boot was released.
All of these have some copies that were hand numbered, but many of mine are not. This throws into doubt the number of total copies, but from the best that I can tell, my figures are fairly accurate.
Moving on, the second (and possibly third) series, I know much less about.
I believe their first release was the Talking Heads CBS Demos. They pressed 500 (hand numbered) copies of black vinyl and then 250 on very pretty blue.
Talking Heads – The 1975 CBS Demo Session (No Label) (discogs)
-Blue 250
-Black 500The Jesus and Mary Chain – Send Me Away – Early Demos (No Label) (discogs)
-Black w/ white printed label (?)
-Black w/ red stamped label (100)
*Also some with white covers and blank ink.The Cramps – Memphis Poseurs, The 1977 Demos (Embassador) (discogs)
-Maroon (?)
-Purple (500)
-Black (?)The Birthday Party – Welcome to the Car Smash (No Label) (discogs)
-Black (200)Adam & The Ants – The Decca Demos & More (No Label) (discogs)
-Green (100)
-Black (?)
The last two listed might be done by another party, but they’re definitely from the same people as the Adam & The Ants vinyl has a Birthday Party label on it that (on mine) was very sloppily spray painted over. Also, the Talking Heads on blue vinyl seems to have been recently released.
So how did I find this out? For the first series, I’ve talked to the fellow who is responsible for distributing them. He has most of the information, but probably not all of it (thus the random question marks). For the second (and third?) series, the same fellow pointed me in the direction of the person who makes them.
Both of these people sell on Ebay and a quick search, with a little investigation thrown in, will give you all the details you need.
I can (pretty well) safely say that, at the time of this post, these are all of the screen printed vinyl bootlegs from Long Beach, California. Granted, my figures might be off and incomplete, so if you know something different, drop me a line, okay?
Wow I should have checked out more of your blog posts before posting, this is REALLY interesting (the cramps lp is also at the SP i mentioned). I may have to find me a copy of that birthday party one, that Roth screenprint on the b-side looks KILLER!
Let me know if you go to northgate and pick up the boys next door copy (or any other copies/variants).
Looks like seattle is on a the (pseudo) bootleg route from california haha!
Well done!
We are most definitely on the route. Silver Platters and Sonic Boom both get them in, but usually on black vinyl. You can get different colors directly from the guy who “distributes” them on Ebay. I have an Oingo Boingo one on orange vinyl, hand numbered 17/20.
My thoughts now are that they *are* boots done by two or three different parties using the same pressing plant and maybe even the same screen printing shop. Both “distributors” are from Long Beach.
The guy who does most of them is: restlessnativeslbc . He’s also a seller on discogs, here.
And the guy who does the rest is: warfrattales
I check their sites nearly every day hoping for a new release. Nothing but a few color variations since this was posted, however.
$20 for a bootleg is a bit much. I think they should be more in the $15 range. But since they’re hand screened, I guess I can understand that I’m buying the art as well as the music. Still… $15 would be nice.
What’s cool about this is that you’ve still got the Thrill of the Hunt. The internet ruined a lot of the fun of collecting and discovering by making everything way too easy.
That’s so true. Now, I admit, I know where to look online for this stuff, so some of the thrill is gone. However, record collecting in general is very “thrill of the hunt” for me.
Of course, there are also record stores I can’t go into anymore because they have too much stuff that I want and can’t begin to afford (Bop Street Records in Fremont, Seattle, is one).