Saturday, July 05, 2025
Sabbath '75 Bootleg
Friday, January 31, 2025
No Love At The L'Amour
Sunday, September 08, 2024
Eddie Rips Up London
Iron Maiden live boots are an instant buy for me. I own 10 or 11 Maiden bootlegs, and will not hesitate to buy a new one if the cover catches my eye. I just can't say no to a good looking Eddie cover... especially since the bootleg fan art tends to look better than what Maiden puts on their studio covers.
Back in 2005, I was really getting back in to heavy metal after distancing myself from that style of music through the 90's. Iron Maiden was touring and playing only the early shit, from the self titled album through Piece Of Mind, and made a stop in Massachusetts. At that time, while I was starting to listen to more and more metal, I was not going to see the bands play live... and after the band came and went, I deeply regreted not going to that show. Fun fact, after that Eddie Rips Up The World tour in 2005, I've seen Iron Maiden play every tour since then (with the exception of them touring for The Final Frontier album when they didn't play Massachusetts that time around) for a total of six times... with my seventh time coming up in a couple of months when Maiden hit Massachusetts for The Future Past tour.All of this is to say that I'm happy to finally have a live boot from that 2005 tour. I love all eras of Iron Maiden, but man, this setlist of early songs is just so good. Makes me wish that they would do another tour playing this older stuff.Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Rattle Your Boots
Tuesday, January 30, 2024
Reign In Pain
Wednesday, August 16, 2023
Sometimes I'm Happy
A couple of years back I was buying a lot of live boots, but I got to a point last year where I made a conscious decision to ease up and put that money towards records that were more important. A year had passed since I'd bought my last one, and that itch came back, so I started looking around at what was easily available.
This Black Sabbath bootleg is from a series of three shows that the band did in Italy in February of 1973. This double LP captures the full live set from their Bologna date, and it sounds fantastic. Recorded on their tour for Vol. 4, we get a bunch of songs from that album, plus an early recording of Killing Yourself To Live that Sabbath would include on their next album, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath... plus the song Sometimes I'm Happy, which will end up being torn apart and pieces will show up in Symptom Of The Universe a couple of years later. Overall, a very cool setlist.The packaging for this is well done with the Vol. 4 layout, but with Geezer on the front cover and Ozzy on the back. Looking good!Friday, May 20, 2022
Show No Mercy Tour '84
Wednesday, May 18, 2022
World Vengeance Tour '83
While this bootleg doesn't give me a vinyl copy of what would eventually be released as Live Vengeance '82, it is still from the World Vengeance Tour and brings back a lot of memories from that concert that I'd recorded from MTV.
This bootleg is from Judas Priest's live set at the US Festival in '83, and while I wish that they had kept songs like Bloodstone and Devil's Child in the setlist for this show, this is still a strong representation of Priest at the time. The recording is from the soundboard so it sounds absolutely fantastic for a boot. The songs from Side D are from a live show at Hammersmith Odeon in 1980, which was the first time that Priest played Breaking The Law and Grinder live, so it was cool to have this tacked on at the end of the US Festival set.This bootleg was pressed on a few different color vinyl options...because everything needs to be on a stupid amount of different colors today... but seeing how Screaming For Vengeance is known for the yellow cover, the yellow vinyl was the obvious choice for me.Tuesday, December 28, 2021
Sabbath Bootleg Haven
Sunday, November 14, 2021
This Is Boston, Not LA
Monday, November 08, 2021
Never Say Die Tour
Sunday, October 10, 2021
Bare Breast Boogie '85
Sunday, August 29, 2021
Speak Of The Live Bootleg
Monday, July 05, 2021
Seventh Bootleg Of A Seventh Tour
Saturday, February 13, 2021
Killers World Tour '81
Saturday, December 19, 2020
Virtual XI Japan Tour
Monday, December 07, 2020
Praying To Satan
Saturday, October 03, 2020
Legacy Of Brazil
When I saw someone on Instagram post a photo of a bootleg from the Legacy Of The Beast tour, I started my desperate search to get my hands on a copy. I checked eBay and a number of overseas sellers had the record available for around $70 which was disappointing, but I did find one seller with an auction starting at $50. Even at $50, I thought it was too expensive, but I was so desperate to get my hands on a copy, so I placed a low bid and hoped that no one else made a play for it.
Immediately after placing my bid, I remembered that Hells Headbangers distro sometimes carries Maiden bootlegs, so I quickly checked their store and sure enough, they had the record available. $30. Fuck. Not wanting to miss out on this great price, I quickly ordered one and then just hoped that I was outbid on eBay. Thankfully, it all worked out, as seconds before the auction ended, someone came in and placed a bid higher than mine.
This bootleg delivers the goods. The sound quality is great, and the packaging is absolutely stunning.
From the amazing cover art, to the gatefold packaging with some great photos from the tour...bootlegs are some next level stuff these days. Boots didn't look like this when I was a kid.
The OBI strip shows that there are three other records in the Legacy Of The Beast series for shows in Sweden, France and England. They all look great, but I think that I'll just stick with this one from Brazil...especially since Maiden announced their official live record from their Mexico shows on this tour, which will be released next month, and of course I'll need to get that one.
Monday, August 31, 2020
Mother Sun
Honestly, the bootleg recording of the song isn't that impressive. I mean I'm a huge fan of the first couple Priest records, but this live recording of Mother Sun from 1975 is a bit shaky and rough to listen to. The band Portrait recently recorded a cover version of the song, and their version is actually quite a bit better. Still, I needed the Priest live version in my collection, so I grabbed the bootleg LP.
As a whole, this is a really good bootleg. Side one is just a killer recording of Priest live in the BBC studio from 1978. That opening riff for White Heat, Red Hot is fucking killer and it is nice to hear a live version of Starbreaker. Side two has the two songs that the band recorded for the Old Grey Whistle Test...and while I've seen the live videos for those songs on youtube, it is cool to have them here.
Monday, February 03, 2020
Bootleg Of The Beast
Iron Maiden has released a ton of live albums over the course of their career, but they do have some holes that haven't seen an official release. One of those tours that did not get documented with a live album was the Ed Hunter tour in 1999. This was the first tour that Maiden did after reuniting with Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith, but before they entered the studio to record the Brave New World album. The band kept three songs from the Blaze Bayley era in the set for this tour... The Clansman, Futureal, and Man On The Edge... and I hadn't heard Bruce do a couple of those songs, so I was very excited to hear them here.
This double live record is a true bootleg, and not something that was released as a live radio broadcast, but the sound on this is still really good. This is a great recording, and it is always fun to listen to Bruce's un-edited rants and between song banter.
Nice gatefold packaging with the tour dates listed.





























