OFF TOPIC with Steve Mixup. A place for me to tell the odd story or two about the post war rock generation. If they couldn’t change the world at least they brought us some wonderful music.

I saw Pink Floyd in 1974 two days after my seventeenth birthday at the Empire Pool, Wembley. That was the old indoor building they had, built for the 1934 Olympics and somewhat similar in size to a modern day arena. It was originally a swimming pool too. Dark Side Of The Moon had sent the Floyd riding a wave that probably didn’t subside for another decade. They had always had a good following but now they were becoming huge.

As well as DSOTM, new material was being tried out, Shine on you Crazy Diamond, You Gotta Be Crazy (later Dogs), Raving and Drooling (later Sheep) and as an encore Echoes. I certainly got my money’s worth. Add to that, the BBC recorded the night I was there (Nov 16th) in FM quality. It stands up there with the studio record complete with Dick Parry on sax and Vanetta Fields and Carlena Williamson (as the Blackberries) on backing vocals. Amazing. I saw many other bands of great stature that year and although slated by the press, the concert remains fixed in my memory, the sound quality, the simple presentation with their 50ft back projection screen and, of course, the music.

As I left I came across the merchandise sellers. Yes, there was a little in those days. Unlike today when most merch is legitimate and the bands make most of their revenue that way, the sellers I saw were the slightly more unscrupulous sort, selling illegal bootleg records, tapes and other memorabilia. The bands in those days made their money from record sales and gigs. You could often second guess some of the ads in the back of the NME, Sounds or Melody Maker where you might be able to get the illusive live recordings of your favourite band but here they were on the street. I bought two bootlegs there and then and took the impressive looking list they had produced of their wares for sale. This mysterious organisation were called “Jolly Roger Records” and these unmistakable bootlegs with labels like “Trademark Of Quality” “CBM”, “King Kong” and “The Amazing Kornyfone” were a special treasure for the record collector. Agh, the days of the Postal Order and the S.A.E. (Self Addressed Envelope). The Jolly Roger Records list was also on foolscap paper, the traditional paper size used in Europe and the British commonwealth, before the adoption of the standard A4 paper. Foolscap was slightly larger.

I bought more Pink Floyd bootleg records over the next 12 months to satisfy my thirst for their live concerts. Their reputation during the late sixties and early seventies for trippy concerts was formidable. “You’ve got to see the Floyd, man!”. That era of Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun, Saucerful of Secrets, Careful With That Axe Eugene, Cymbaline and Atom Heart Mother was well documented on these bootlegs. I also came across another seller of bootleg tapes, Nigel Van Bradder. I found an ad in the back of the music press and was soon getting his lists monthly. Cassette tapes allowed a wider choice of concerts, radio sessions, demos and other rarities. I invested in more rarities, not just the Floyd, but others too. I later picked up two Syd Barrett (original leader of the band) bootleg vinyl albums too.

The music industry and some of the bands tried to fight back against this illegal activity. There is famous footage of Led Zeppelin’s manager Peter Grant threatening to break some bones (he could too) but this market continued. Where there is a market there is a way. In the eighties, cassettes ruled. A trip to Camden Market would reveal hundreds to choose from. Strange, that as we are a quarter of the way through the 21st century, the bootleg market doesn’t now seem to have any relevance. Most of those old recordings can be found on YouTube with no difficulty and many groups have released live gigs, demos and other sessions as part of their catalogue. Pink Floyd, themselves, released a multitude of rarities called “The Early Years” a box set comprising seven volumes over 33 discs, including CDs, DVDs, BDs, vinyl records, plus memorabilia including photos, posters and tour programmes.

The heyday of the bootleg record may be over but in those old rock days it marked you out as a proper fan if you had some of these golden relics.

JOLLY ROGER RECORDS

N VAN BRADDER