Cathy Demos - Volume 5

The Cathy Demos is a five volume set of Kate's unreleased demos, which were pressed onto these bootleg 7" singles - this is the fifth and final volume in that set. Each volume features anywhere from 3 – 6 songs on it, and despite the fact that these are bootlegs, attempts have been made to make these look more “official”.

Each sleeve has a similar clean and simple design to it, and features an image from the Cathy book. They're actually nicely done. Different coloured vinyl is used for each volume, so there’s red, yellow, green, orange and blue. The colours are actually fairly translucent, which doesn't come across very well in my scans, so I've kept one of my original photos from this post so you can see what I mean. There are also fake messages scratched into the run-off vinyl area on both sides to try and create a more legitimate feel. Kate is fairly well known for putting scratch messages onto the run-off area on her vinyl LPs and most first issue 7” singles. The ones on these bootlegs are in no way done by Kate. Each single has a double message scratched into it – one for each side. The scratch messages on this volume are:

Side A: Please Don’t Hurt My Baby

Side B: I’m So Happy, ‘Cause I’m So Stupid

Each sleeve comes with a printed catalogue number and a so called limited edition number out of 600. The Catalogue numbers run from KB001 – KB005, but it's the limited edition numbers you really need to pay attention to. Supposedly there were only 600 copies made of each volume, but I highly doubt that. There are two ways the limited edition numbers are stamped onto the backs of the sleeves. The first way is partially handwritten. I've seen copies where the bottom portion of the limited edition number is already printed into the paper and the top number is handwritten. I've also seen copies where both the top and bottom numbers are completely handwritten. Then there are copies like the ones I have where there are no limited edition numbers stamped or handwritten onto them at all. Considering that quite a few copies have missed being numbered, and considering that I've seen quite a few copies over the years with the same so called limited edition numbers printed onto them - the simple conclusion is that there's far more copies than the alleged 600 out there. Either way, limited edition numbers on bootlegs doesn't mean anything anyway.

The bottom line is that these are a huge waste of money. There isn’t anything on any of these volumes that you can’t already find on some other CD or LP demo collection… or better still, from this site.

These rarely ever turn up as complete sets anymore. Normally they're broken up and sold separately, and any one volume can sell for a disgusting amount of money these days. Attempting to collect all five volumes can set you back a nice bit of money if you aren’t careful, and the “limited edition” numbering is a con… so don’t be lured in by the low numbered editions because it really means nothing at all. Since my copies never got any so called limited edition numbers on the back of the sleeves, it would be very easy for me to fake these and sell them all as number one. See my point?