I like my bootlegs. A good bootleg is hard to find and when I come across one, I get all excited. This time was no different. I found this DVD on eBay called Def Leppard – ‘Live Sheffield 1992’ and took a chance. I’m glad I did because the picture quality and sound are all excellent. There is a reason for that. The show was recorded in full both for TV and for Radio as Joe mentions after the first song. But like all Bootlegs, there are a lot of errors on the packaging.
First error, the show is called ‘Live Sheffield 1992’. It was in Sheffield, England that part is true…well that and it was live. The 1992 part was the first error. The show is actually from Don Valley Stadium on June 6, 1993 not June 24, 1992. Then we get to the track listing and obviously this person doesn’t know Def Leppard. The song “Too Late For Love” is called “Too Late Forever” and the song “Rocket” is called “Rock It” ( I can see that as an honest mistake). And the last is “Two Steps Behind” listed as “Too Steps Behind”. There are not a ton of errors, but I do love it when they have them.
This show is not the full setlist. Sorry to disappoint. It is the 1 hour highlight show that was broadcast on Yorkshire TV and on Japanese TV and consisted of only 14 of the 20 shows played that night. It cuts all the solos, but it also cut some really great song choices, however, the quality of the video is so good and the editing is done so well, it feels like a single show and is really enjoyable regardless. Now, an interesting fact, the full show recording is the bootleg that is called “The Circus Comes to Town” which I want to get one day on CD. I believe it might be an audience recording, but still the full show is a great set of songs. Lep has released some of this performance officially on the Video Archive video they released a short time later. Still less songs then on here though. Let’s get in to this show.
Whenever I got to Repo Records, especially on Record Store Day, I tend to find Bootlegs while waiting in line. I think he does it on purpose knowing I’m a sucker for those things (not true as he doesn’t know me from Adam). The last few trips have been very successful and this last trip was no exception. This time I found another Van Halen Bootleg and this one was called ‘Zero Demos’ and it is a collection of the demos produced by Gene Simmons way back in 1976. I have always wanted to hear and have those demos and now I do.
You probably have already heard the story of Gene Simmons involvement in Van Halen so I won’t go in to too much detail. Gene saw them play and fell in love with them. He took them under his demonic wing and took the band in to the studio and they recorded a 10 song demo tape that Gene shopped around to try and get them a deal. He was unable to and his demands with Kiss were huge, so he ripped up the contract and let them find their own way which they did and the rest is history. During this time, Gene had Eddie and Alex help with some demos for Kiss including “Got Love for Sale”, “Christine Sixteen” and “Tunnel of Love” which were long in demand and I have copies thanks to Gene Simmons’ The Vault!!
This bootleg is fairly new as it came out in 2022 from Yellow Dog Records. I like how the front cover is a reproduction of the debut album cover with the ‘Zero Demos’ at the top. The back has a bunch of live shots of the band. And with a lot of bootlegs, there are mistakes and the only one I really see is the “House of Pain” demo is listed as “House In Pain”…close enough I guess. The vinyl is a red/yellow splatter and looks beautiful. The label is easy with the word Zero and Side A or B. Can’t much simpler than that without just putting a blank label on it. What do I have to say about the music? Well, we will see in a minute, but the sound is fantastic for demos from 1976 that have probably been transferred from tape to tape to tape over the years.
With Bootlegs, you never know what you are going to get and that is especially true with concert DVDs. In my search for anything Def Leppard, I came across this live DVD of Def Leppard from their ‘Hysteria Tour’. The show was recorded on August 17, 1988 at the Shoreline Amphitheater just outside of Mountain View, California. The show was recorded using either a still shot of the video screen or the actual footage used for the venue video screens themselves. And the video quality is supposed to be great, along with the sound.
The show itself is the typical ‘Hysteria Tour’ show you would expect from the guys. By this time they were already basically ignoring anything from ‘On Through the Night’ and ‘High & Dry’ except for one song. The set list consisted of only one track from ‘High & Dry’, it included 7 from ‘Pyromania’ and 6 from ‘Hysteria’. No covers, nothing. 14 tracks and a little over an hour and a half long in length.
Earlier, I said the picture quality was supposed to be great, but that was not the case for this copy I have on DVD. I am sure this recorded off a copy of a VHS tape that was recorded of a copy of another VHS tape and another VHS tape and so on and so on. The quality at times is unwatchable especially when the stage is dark. If the stage is all lit up, the picture looks decent considering this is VHS technology on a DVD. However, the sound is spot on through out. Clear and you can hear everybody. This would’ve been better as a CD only concert bootleg in my opinion.
When you compare this set list to their famous live release, ‘In the Round, In Your Face’, it is an identical set list with one exception. In the encore you get an extra song with the band doing “Love Bites”. Otherwise, everything is pretty identical. The other show was recorded 5 months earlier in February 1988.
I normally won’t buy a CD, DVD or anything that is strictly an interview disc. However, this was part of a set of Bon Jovi DVDs I bought and for the price of the 4 DVDs I wanted, I was okay having this thrown in along with “Rock ‘n’ Roll Legends” we reviewed a few weeks ago. This is a Bootleg DVD called ‘Wild in the Streets: Unauthorized’ and as it says on the back cover, it is approximately 55 minutes of an interview with Jon Bon Jovi. This isn’t some big history of the band, nothing like that. It is an interview of a snapshot in time of Jon Bon Jovi (not so much the band). This sounds just like the Bootleg DVD, “Rock ‘n’ Legends”…wait…this is the same damn video…THE SAME DAMN VIDEO!!! Oh, looks like I’ll just cut & paste the last review then. Easy enough.
The DVD was released (unofficially) in 2003 and actually probably should have been reviewed right after everything related to the ‘New Jersey’ album is it took place shortly thereafter. The interview of Jon takes place in Montreal, Quebec around 1989 while Jon was working with Aldo Nova on his ‘Blood on the Bricks’ album which completely surprised me as I wasn’t expecting that. Especially when Aldo was also included in the interview with Jon and by Aldo was by himself. Interspersed between the interview questions, we were able to see some behind the scenes footage of the two working in the studio and getting to hear them working on some of the songs. We learn about when Aldo and Jon met and how Aldo also worked on Jon’s solo album from the ‘Young Guns 2’ movie. It was really cool and my favorite part of the whole interview.
My love for bootlegs started with collecting Kiss Bootlegs and as you can see from the list at the bottom of this post, I have quite a few Kiss Bootlegs and as long as I keep finding them, the more I will buy. It is a never ending cycle as new Kiss bootlegs keep popping up all the time. This one I found over a Repo Records was released in 2022, but it is a re-issue of one that came out in 2012 and it is a little different than the others that I have. Most of my bootlegs are full shows, parts of one show or a collection of demos.
This one is different in that is a collection of live tracks from various shows and not one show in particular. That to me is odd. What is the purpose of this one? I can’t seem to find out. The timeframe of the shows range from 1974 up to 1978 so they are the peak years of the band. But it is still a strange collection.
What is not strange and rather cool is the packaging. The cover is a cool live shot of Gene as the Demon and the back cover is the Kiss Alive II photo of Gene with the blood all over his face. It is an awesome shot. The inner sleeve is a couple of cool band photos on bot sides. And the final piece is a cool colored vinyl in the color of purple. I don’t have too many purple discs, so very nice. The picture from the cover is on one side of the vinyl and the Kiss logo on the other, both with the Diamonds in the Dust title. I don’t have much info on this so let’s get to the music.
SIDE ONE:
The first track is “Room Service” which was taken from Fremd High School Gymnasium, Palatine, Illinois April 19, 1975 and it sounds like it was. It is very hollow sounding and not from a soundboard. It sounds like I am outside the gym getting refreshments and the sound is bleeding from the closed doors. Paul sounds good though.
Next up is the “Love Theme From Kiss” from the Bayou Theatre in Georgetown, Washington D.C. from March 25, 1974. You hear Paul say this is one we never perform live which is not true because they use to play it when it was called Acrobat. This is definitely an early version since it is 1974 and a month after the release of the debut album.
After it fades out we get “You’re Much Too Young” from Lafayette’s Music Room in Memphis, Tennessee on December 2, 1976. A song the band would never release, but I have several versions of it live. A really cool mostly instrumental piece with basically Gene saying “You’re Much Too Young” several times during the show. The band is jamming and Peter is killing it on the drums. An interesting cool piece that sees Ace ripping a cool solo and an all around killer track. The album jacket says The Lafayette show is from that same night as the next song “Strutter”, but at a different arena. Kiss are good, but I don’t think they are that good. That means the Lafayette show from “You’re Much Too Young” is probably from April 18, 1974. And I have that show down below in the Bootleg Series list. Just my guess.
Then we get a twofer with “Strutter and “Hard Luck Woman” back to back as they are from the same show at the Mid South Coliseum in Memphis, Tennessee on December 2, 1976….wait a freaking minute…”Strutter” just ended and so did Side one. Where the heck is “Hard Luck Woman”. I think I just got ripped off. And I did. The 2022 version is missing a couple songs that were on the 2012 release. Oh well. “Strutter” was pretty good though.
SIDE TWO:
Side Two kicks off with “Ladies in Waiting” which was played at the National Guard Armory in Rockford, Illinois on November 15, 1975. The sound is really rough, it sounds like it was taken from a tape that was taken from a tape and then taken from a tape again. It is muddied and almost unlistenable. I can make out Ace’s killer solo, but the vocals are tough to hear and so are the drums, but Gene’s bass is pretty loud. All simply horrible.
Next up is a group of shows from the same show starting with “Watching You”, then a Peter Criss drum solo and lastly “Flaming Youth”. These are taken from the Roosevelt Stadium show in Jersey City, New Jersey on July 10, 1976. The sound is really good on these tracks (compared to the others). Gene sounds menacing and you can hear Peter on backing vocals really well. Peter’s drum solo is typical Peter or I should say classic Peter. It sounds great, if not a little simple. He definitely is beating the crap out of the skins, but he’s doing it as well as Peter can. You can hear the crowd scream out a few things during it. He bangs the gong and then rips a drum roll before it fades out in to “Flaming Youth”, a personal favorite. Paul’s vocals sound so deep as the tape this taken from drags a little. Man, oh man.
For the last track, we get the classic Kiss song “Deuce”. This one is from the Roberts Municipal Stadium in Evansville, Indiana on January 23, 1978. Roberts Municipal Stadium what a boring name, I guess company’s didn’t fork out millions to sponsor stadiums yet. Anyway, on to the song. Paul introduces and says this isn’t one they’d done in a long time which surprises me. When the band kicks in the sound is horrible. I can’t make hardly any of it out. I can hear Gene, but it is distant and not all that clear. Man, it is hurting the ears the high pitch it is all coming out at. I hope this ends soon as my ear might actually be bleeding.
This is a very skippable bootleg except maybe real diehards. This one makes no sense being a collection of songs from various shows. The only real cool thing about it, other than the packaging, is the fact it isn’t the standard fair of songs. You get some deep cuts and thankfully no “Rock & Roll All Nite” as I could do without that one. The sound sucks at times and sometimes not, but overall this is not one I’ll pull out very often as I prefer to hear full shows. My Overall Score is a 2.0 out of 5.0 Stars and that is being generous. It gets points for great artwork and a cool Purple vinyl. I took one for the team on this one, but still glad it is in the collection because I didn’t have it. Thanks for hanging around.
I normally won’t buy a CD, DVD or anything that is strictly an interview disc. However, this was part of a set of Bon Jovi DVDs I bought and for the price of the 4 DVDs I wanted, I was okay having this thrown in. And this is a Bootleg DVD called ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Legends’ and as it says on the back cover, it is approximately 55 minutes of an interview with Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora and those are both wrong. It is an interview with Jon Bon Jovi, but no Richie Sambora and it was only around 40 minutes. This isn’t some big history of the band, nothing like that. It is an interview of a snapshot in time of Jon Bon Jovi (not so much the band).
The DVD was released (unofficially) in 2002 and actually probably should have been reviewed right after everything related to the ‘New Jersey’ album is it took place shortly thereafter. The interview of Jon takes place in Montreal, Quebec around 1989 while Jon was working with Aldo Nova on his ‘Blood on the Bricks’ album which completely surprised me as I wasn’t expecting that. Especially when Aldo was also included in the interview with Jon and by Aldo was by himself. Interspersed between the interview questions, we were able to see some behind the scenes footage of the two working in the studio and getting to hear them working on some of the songs. We learn about when Aldo and Jon met and how Aldo also worked on Jon’s solo album from the ‘Young Guns 2’ movie. It was really cool and my favorite part of the whole interview.
Since I collet Def Leppard music, I also collect videos too. And yes, even bootleg videos. This one I found on eBay and was a collection of everything Def Leppard’s ‘Pyromania’ that appeared on TV. It didn’t matter what show, what country or anything. Someone took the time and pieced it all together to celebrate that album. And I think that is pretty cool. The collection comes in a slim DVD care and contains not one, but two DVDs. And it is around 3 1/2 hours long between the two discs. This is for Lep fans because you get a ton of Joe Elliott, Rick Allen, Rick Savage, Steve Clark and new comer Phil Collen.
DISC 1:
The video kicks off with ‘Heavy: The Study of Metal’ that was on VH1 and showed only the parts related to Def Leppard and ‘Pyromania’. The show talked about the impact Lep had with videos and how they were one of the first rock/metal bands to really break through due to their good looks, good videos and good songs. After that we got a video of “Photograph” from their appearance on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand on May 21, 1983. Of course it is lip synced, but who cares. The picture was a little grainy, but again, who cares. This was around 1983 and there was no HD or even 4K for that matter. We even got to see Dick come over and talk to the boys. They then play “Rock of Ages”. I don’t know if I even saw this back in the day, but so cool to have this now.
We then jump to Australia with an interview in 1984 with them on a boat sailing by The Sydney Opera House. It then cuts to the video for “Let it Rock” which I’m not sure why as that is not ‘Pyromania’ and then back to the interview. The interview gets interrupted by the boat crew dropping anchor. And then to “High & Dry”, interview and “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak”…hmmm…maybe the videos for ‘Pyromania’ weren’t available yet. Nope, now we get a clip of “Rock of Ages” more interview and then “Foolin'” and “Photograph”. It is great to see an interview with Steve Clark…he is sorely missed.
The tour for Def Leppard’s ‘Pyromania’ album started on February 9th, 1983 in London, England and would go on for 11 months, travel the world on and on December 18th, 1983 in Dortmund, West Germany. The tour was massive and a huge success. They even recorded the show at the L.A. Forum on the September 11th which was released as Live at the L.A. Forum which we reviewed last week. But being a such a fan of the band, I like to collect as many shows as I can get and I found one from a month earlier that was recorded in Seattle, Washington on August 3, 1983. Yes, it is a bootleg, but it is a radio broadcast so they sound is going to be pretty good…and it isn’t bad.
The show as recorded at the Seattle Center Colesium and it is the EXACT same setlist as the LA Forum show the band released. But the show is slightly different and the sound doesn’t sound the same as the other show so it does sound like a different show despite no variations in the setlist. First off, Joe Elliott’s voice is super high in this mix and the guitars are pushed a little to the back. Some songs I notice the bass is even higher then the guitars. The crowd noise isn’t as prominent so sometimes you forget they are there except when Joe interacts with them. The set I have was released in 2022 and on a 2 CD set split identical as my vinyl splits the LA Forum show.
The show kicks off with the air raid sirens, bombs bursting in the background and machine guns firing and it sounds way better and clearer then the Forum show. There is a gap in the track and and it makes it feel like the intro was not even a part of the show. Then the band goes in to “Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)”, Joe’s vocals are a little rough and super loud along with the background vocals while the guitars don’t have the crunch or power you’d hope. But the energy is high and the tempo is really quick. “Rock Brigade” is up next and it sounds a little muddy and again, Joe’s a little rough around the edges and is sounds a little shot. The solo is ripping and they stick to the original song with not much extra added.
July was the month of local record stores. I spent a lot of time at a couple this month, Noble Records and Hardy Boys, both excellent local shops. First, we made a trip to Noble Records and I actually had a good trip for vinyl. Meaning I bought a handful not just one here and one there. I grabbed some I’ve been meaning to add to the collection and Tim Durling is to blame for 3 of them as he’s been talking about them a lot.
And if that wasn’t enough, I was scanning the cassettes and I found a ton of Kiss cassettes, those are hard to come by so I grabbed them even though they weren’t in the best shape. I didn’t care too much about that as I just wanted them in the collection. They needed a new home anyway, so why not…I adopted a bunch…
Bon Jovi the touring act was extremely fresh and new as the band hadn’t been together for very long. Even Jon said the band was terrible until their third album when things started to click. While out crate digging years and years ago, I found a Bon Jovi bootleg of a radio broadcast from only 2 months after their debut album, ‘Bon Jovi’, was released. A great snapshot of the young band in all its rawness and newness.
The show takes place on March 17th, 1984 at the Agora Ballroom in Cleveland, OH. The show was broadcast on WMMS-FM Radio so of course we get some of the radio DJs on here during the show. The bootleg I have was released in 2015 and 2 LPs (both black) and it was limited to only 500 copies. The cover is pure Bon Jovi with the denim blue jeans with a picture of Jon on the front and the band on the back. I mean, it is Jon’s band don’t forget. The band plays all but “Burning for Love” from the debut and you get a Sly & The Family Stone cover. Let’s get to the music.
The album opens with a Radio DJ introducing the band and they come out slowly with a very long drawn out build which you mostly hear the crowd screaming. Some weird distorted voice says something and then the guitar kicks in and we get the opening to “Breakout”. There is no doubt it is live as it is rough, raw and not very tight. Jon actually sounds pretty decent, still a little unpolished, but he can still hit some high notes that he can’t now. And he should be able to hit them since he is only about 22 or so here. Richie lays down a great solo and things start getting better as the band jams it up a little here.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 