Black October (bootleg)
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.
Release Notes
- Label: Merciful Release (allegedly)
- Catalogue#: MRT033-T, MSR-63, L-29797
- Format: 2 LP
- Date of Release: 1987 (USA, according to the Reverberation Across The Nation booklet)
Remarks
- The concert starts with an excerpt of the song Perfect Day by Lou Reed from his album Transformer.
- 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
- A Merciful Release - not true, either
Apart from a test pressing, this vinyl bootleg is available in two editions:
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
- Recorded live on October 22nd, 1984 at Top Rank, Brighton, England, UK.
- 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 - 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
