Bob Marley Live Rainbow Theatre Bootleg Tape

I’ve spoken before on the blog about the record fairs of the early 1980s, and the bootleg tapes that featured so prominently in their trade. Extremely erratic in quality, and often pedalled by people who knew little to nothing about the artists, these tapes (usually of live performances or radio sessions) were frequently

1984 Bootleg Audio Cassette The Damned

In my last post I talked about the bootleg audio cassette tapes available from record fairs in early ‘80s Britain. The photo depicted one of the cassettes, but not the case inlay I was describing…

1982 Maxell UL 90 Audio Cassette

These were a common sight in the latter part of 1982 – particularly around the record fairs, where the live gig bootleggers would sit at stalls behind boxes of Type 1 audio tapes. The tapes would feature performances from popular bands of the day, recorded on the sly at various venues, on a pocket tape recorder – typically a Sony Walkman. Names such as The Jam, Echo and The Bunnymen, UB40, Duran Duran, Madness, Bauhaus, Altered Images and Mari Wilson were among those well known from the UK pop charts at the time.