Concerts

Mr E

I was at Gemma Hayes last night in Limerick, and she was absolutely brilliant. I was thinking during the gig that I'd love to have a copy of this to listen to at a later date

Has anyone here got experience at bootlegging concerts ?? What are the best tools of the trade ?

(I know this is one of those 'grey area' questions... If the mod wants to lock/delete it, I'll understand! )

- Dave.

bugler

I don't know how grey an area it is. Would it not depend on the artist? Then again venues insist you don't record stuff inside don't they? Mercury Rev are one band who actively encourage their fans to record their gigs, even going so far as trying to set aside some space by the console for this purpose. I'd imagine that the best, most easily concealble tool would be a minidisc with a mic, which you keep clear and free of obstruction at all times. Probably not the easiest thing to do when trying to avoid catching the eye of security staff

Gordon

Bootlegging concerts is a bad idea.

I went through a phase of collecting real sounds to sample them for my music - footsteps for drums - bus' brakes squeaks for effects (great when slowed down) etc etc. I got a bit self conscious walking round with a microphone in my hand connected to a walkman so I fed my mic through my jacket sleeve and made sure my sleeve didn't brush against the microphone or it went all bwmmmfff on me.

I really really wanted one of those tie clip mic's though, they would have been perfect for capturing "Nature" onto Minidisk - they're so small y'know.

col_nicholson

Did you ever read the Led Zep biography "Hammer of the Gods". It says they were playing a concert and they saw a microphone on a stick above the crowd and they got tthe rodies to get the guy holding it, and they bet the **** out of him and it turned out he was a government guy testing for sound levels.

That oughta teach him

Kali

for smaller gigs it shouldn't be a problem.. the larger the venue the more moaney the security/band get, again as already stated a decent mic connected to a minidisc is the prefered option these days.
if it is a small gig though, just arrive early and chat-to/annoy the sound engineer or the band themselves, they may already be recording the show themselves, or may (if they're really nice) allow you to plug directly into the equipment... as long as you don't go around saying "woohoo can't wait to sell this down the local afterwards"

Dustaz

yeh like kali said, smaller bands not only dont mind but are usually happy to have ppl record the gigs as its good word of mouth marketing. Its not like a lot of these bands are anywhere close to releasing a live album.

Pigman

Originally posted by TmB
I was at Gemma Hayes last night in Limerick, and she was absolutely brilliant. I was thinking during the gig that I'd love to have a copy of this to listen to at a later date

Has anyone here got experience at bootlegging concerts ?? What are the best tools of the trade ?

(I know this is one of those 'grey area' questions... If the mod wants to lock/delete it, I'll understand! )

- Dave.

Funny you should mention it but my first (and to date only) bootleg attempt was done at a Gemma concert at Whelans this year. I just used a sony minidisc recorder connected to a simple microphone thru the arm of my jacket and the thing came out fine.

CHRISTYG

A story (Well, I think it's true, but as I wasn't there, I can't vouch for it) A few years ago (1991 I think) when U2 played a series of concerts at the Point, I heard there were lads on the bridge 5 minutes after the end of the show selling bootleg tapes. Were you one of those guys?

Mr E

Thanks for the feedback, everyone.
Currently looking around ebay for a cheap minidisc recorder :-)

- Dave.