Black October (bootleg)

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A two-LP bootleg recorded live during the Black October Tour in 1984. One of the concerts with plenty comments from Andrew Eldritch between songs.

This vinyl bootleg is an "anomaly" with regard to the sound quality of the two existing editions. Only very few bootlegs (if any) show such a tremendous difference in sound quality between editions as is the case here, so that it seems, in fact, reasonable to assume that the second pressing is just a low-quality fake of the original.

Black October - Cover (front)
Black October - Cover (back)
Black October - Black and red labels of first edition


Release Notes

  • Label: Merciful Release (allegedly)
  • Catalogue#: MRT033-T, MSR-63, L-29797
  • Format: 2 LP
Black October - Overview of the second edition


Remarks

This playback crystallizes from the crowd noise and fades over into the opening track Burn.
  • Notably, the last song of the actual concert, Sister Ray, is not featured on this bootleg.
  • The front cover art shows a highly contrasted image of Andrew Eldritch's face.
See a simulation of the cover art creation down in the image section.


Backsleeve-Notes

  • Special Thanx To "The Phantom Twins"
    - but this does not mean, the item were a Palazzograssi produce!
  • Keep Watching the Western Sky


Apart from a test pressing, this vinyl bootleg is available in two editions:

Press snippet with a photography (right) of Andrew Eldritch by "Big Daddy" Sheehan -
This nickname might refere to Tom Sheehan.
This image was the template to the coverart of the album.
(See pictures further down.)
An image of the snippet with higher resolution can be found here

First edition:

  • Audibly based on a soundboard recording.
  • The labels on record one are plain red,
the labels of record two are fully black.
  • The runout grooves are MSR-63-A to D
plus some further symbols, most of them crossed out.


Second edition:

  • The cover is nearly identical to the first edition. Only the colour of the track list differs slightly.
The letters of the 1st edition are dark pink or rather purple, while those of the present edition are pink.
  • The sound quality is rather poor and disappointing.
There are up and down turns of the volume, one channel is even silent at times.
Skips and bucles, as if the needle had been jumping on the turntable while ripping,
make it seem likely that this second edition is just a sloppy copy taken from the vinyl of the first edition.
  • Record one has plain white labels and the labels of record two are plain beige, nearly white.
  • The runout grooves are SOM-001-A to D.

See the pictures below for more details.


Source

  • This bootleg exists in two formats: the present 2LP vinyl version and a CD.
  • Furthermore, a CDr with that title but from a different concert turns up in auctions time and again.
  • In addition, a further bootleg CD called Enter The Sisters has the subtitle A Black October ...


For recent price developments see sistersbootlegs/Black October ...


Track Lists

RECORD ONE RECORD TWO
Side One Side Two Side One Side Two
A1   Burn B1   Body And Soul C1   A Rock And A Hard Place                                D1   Gimme Shelter
A2   Heartland B2   No Time To Cry                                C2   Train D2   Knockin' On Heaven's Door
A3   Marian B3   Anaconda C3   Floorshow D3   Adrenochrome
A4   Walk Away                                B4   Emma C4   Alice
C5   Body Electric


Additional Pictures

- Please click into files for larger views -

Black October - LP Covers (back) - left: 2nd edition / right: 1st edition - different colours of the track-list print
Black October - Details of the vinyl run-out grooves (Side A)
left: 1st edition / right: 2nd edition  -  The width of the run-out groove of the second edition is smaller than on the vinyl of the first edition, possibly due to a longer recording time caused by skips and bucles as mentioned above. Anyway, this shows that the two pressings do not come from the same acetate.



Simulating the creation of the coverart

Black October -
Image cut out of the newspaper and turned
Black October - Borders painted black and image cut to a square
Black October - Image with a strong filter of contraste