Cathy's Album Too! - Home Demo Recordings (Bootleg)

Cathy's Album Too is sort of a second volume to Cathy's Album, which you can see right here.

This one was also manufactured in the USA and features 12 of Kate's early demo recordings. Like Cathy's Album, the record labels on this bootleg don't list the tracks or Kate's name.

If you want great quality MP3s of most of Kate's demos, then visit this site right here, if you aren't already aware of it.

Live in Manchester 1979 - Bootleg LP

Like many of the bootlegs that were produced during the '80s and early '90s, this one was also manufactured in the USA by Rock Solid Records. Rock Solid Records went by several different manufacturing pseudonyms. If you happen to come across another bootleg from this time that has a different name on it, chances are it was manufactured by these same people. Also, don't assume the quality is going to be any better - it won't be.

This is a double album bootleg of the Manchester concert from ’79, and it's nearly the entire thing. As far as I know, there are a couple of tracks missing from this recording, along with some in-between bits and pieces between songs missing as well. As for the quality, it's a fraction better than most of the sound recordings out there on these early bootlegs, but it's still nothing to get excited about.

It's a huge shame about these because this is another bootleg that came in a very nice looking, full colour laminated album jacket. The front borrows the artwork found on the Japanese 7” single for Them Heavy People (which originally came from one of her Japanese Seiko ads) and the back uses the artwork that's found on the Experiment IV single.

The biggest reason why a lot of this stuff has such horrible sound quality is due to the fact they were recorded by fans on domestic recorders at the time. From what I've heard through the years there is only one known tape source from each of these concerts, and these recordings were a straight transfer onto vinyl.

This was also the last live bootleg LP I ever personally bought. They were never worth the kind of money they used to sell for, and they certainly aren't worth the kind of money they still sell for today. I lost interest in them fast due to their horrible sound quality, and buying one of these is just flushing your money down the toilet.

As a side note, there have been some other live bootlegs that I almost had through the years, but I passed on them for one reason or another. I also had the misfortune to hear other ones.

Dreamtime: Live at the London Palladium – I actually held this one in my hands one time, and even debated buying it… until I saw the back of the record jacket. I thought it was beyond tacky that they used nude photographs on the back of Kate Simmons and her Penthouse spread from ’78, in a pathetic attempt to pass them off as Kate. People are still buying this bootleg today just for the photos because they’ve been led to believe they are of Kate – they aren’t. I never regretted passing on this bootleg, and even though this one contains the full London Palladium concert, the sound quality is just as bad as the rest of them.

Moving - This is another one I held in my hands at one point. This is just another repackaging of the double “Wow Live” bootleg. If you don’t know what's in that one, it’s just a bootleg of the Hammersmith concert and the Christmas Special. Such a shame about this one because the packaging is really nice. I almost bought it for the packaging alone, until I saw what it contained, so that one was a pass for me.

Temple of Truth – This one is a complete cringer. Not only does it have an odd looking sleeve, but the quality of the album is beyond excruciatingly bad. In fact, I would easily place this as the worst one out of the entire lot. A friend of mine had this album at some point and he played it for me. Not only do I not know which concert this is from, but it’s also a very incomplete recording. Avoid this one like the plague.

A Bird in the Hand – This is another one I had the misfortune of hearing years ago. This one has a very bad quality copy of the Hammersmith concert, not to mention that it's also incomplete. It's a huge rip-off.

Why To Avoid These Things:

I always tell people to avoid these things like the plague for a number of different reasons. In the end, I have no control over what anyone else decides to do with their own money, but people seriously need to keep these things in mind before throwing their money away:

1. The sound quality on these are pure crap. I cannot stress that enough to anyone who reads this. If you think for one second you're going to hear a great quality live Kate concert on one of these bootleg LPs, then think again! You're going to be so disappointed and frustrated with these records that you will feel like smashing them against a wall.

2. A lot of these live concert LPs (and CDs) are notorious for repeated material. The Hammersmith concert and the Christmas Special are most often used on these things, but you don't always know that because the tracks are usually listed in a random order on the jacket, and it's not until you get these things home and play them that you make this discovery – that can be a huge frustration as well.

3. Money. I remember how expensive these things were to buy back in the day, and it looks as though they still sell for stupid amounts of money these days when they do show up. It absolutely kills me to see people wasting good money on this rubbish… and that's all these things really are is rubbish. There have been very few bootlegs that I've bought through the years that I've been pleased with – most are a pointless waste of money.

Cathy's Album - Home Demo Recordings (Bootleg)

Cathy's Album is an LP bootleg of some of Kate's early demo recordings. It was manufactured in the USA, and I like to look at this as 'Volume 1' as there's another bootleg LP that sort of goes along with this one called: Cathy's Album Too!

This one features 16 demo recordings, and even though I haven't listened to it in years, it has roughly the same quality you'd find on any other release that features the demos. These bootlegs have always sold for stupid amounts of money, which seems to be worse these days, and they aren't really worth the money.

Live in Europe 79 & 80 - Bootleg LP

Live in Europe is one of the earliest live bootlegs that was manufactured in the USA by Rock Solid Records. The earliest made bootlegs came in plain white cardboard jackets that were accompanied by a loose, photocopied piece of paper that usually had a picture of Kate and the song titles typed up onto it using a domestic typewriter. What you see in the first scan is just the loose piece of paper included with the album and not the album jacket itself. The album jacket is completely blank on both sides, so it isn't even worth showing. This was done for two reasons.

Cost was one reason, but the biggest reason was being able to find a way of manufacturing this stuff and getting it out into the market without being caught. Don't forget it's illegal, and back then they took this kind of thing more seriously than they probably do today. When you factor in the blank record jackets, the cheap photocopies and the record labels, which had fake song titles printed onto them, it was a pretty clever way of doing things.

This is nothing more than a reissue of "Wow Live", which was the first Kate bootleg LP ever made. The sound quality isn't too bad, but when you consider it's just the Hammersmith concert and the Christmas special, it's not really worth having.

Live in Europe 1979/80 - Bootleg LP

This triple LP bootleg was put out by Continuing Saga Records in the USA. If you look at the back of the album jacket it says International Records, which means it was probably put out by the same distributors of Rock Solid Records. These guys went under several different pseudonyms to avoid detection.

The record jacket is pretty nice, if somewhat flimsy. This is also the first vinyl bootleg to have a full colour cover. The spine of the record is the only area that lists the title of the album.

The back of the album jacket is also a prime example of how vague these early bootlegs really were. They listed the songs in most cases, but they didn't list the source of the content. The order of the tracks were usually random, and it wasn't until you actually got one of these things home that you could finally figure out which show or performance they came from. Many of these bootlegs have repeated material that you normally find on most other bootlegs, and the sound quality tends to be horrendous. The Light Blue album contains the BBC Christmas Special, the Dark Blue album contains the Hammersmith Odeon performance and the Red album is the German show.

The other interesting thing are the record labels. In many cases Kate's name was never mentioned anywhere on them. In this particular case they're listed as "THE WIZARDS QUEST". Bootlegs were hugely illegal back then. They still are today, but with the internet and all the technology we have today it's much easier to distribute this stuff. There was no internet in the '80s and early '90s, so putting dummy labels on these records was a clever way of illegally manufacturing them and exporting them.

Live in Bristol England 1979 - Bootleg LP

The really cool thing about this one is the packaging, but that's really where it starts and ends. The front has a unique gatefold opening, which opens up from the middle. The inside has a die-cut flap, which acts as a pocket and keeps the double LP into place. It's a pretty interesting design layout - just an absolute shame it's a bootleg, especially as the quality of the recording totally lets the whole thing down.

Put out by Rock Solid Records in the USA, the live LPs are hugely disappointing on many levels and are hardly worth the vast amounts of money they seem to go for these days. The quality of these albums is poor, and I do mean extremely poor.

As was the case with all of these live bootleg LPs, the original source recording was used for the Bristol LP, and in many cases they were the only recording of a particular show. Also factor in that the recordings were made using domestic '70s recording equipment and you're left with something pretty horrific sounding.

Live in Bristol is a completely unedited concert performance of the Hippodrome show. That means all the interludes with poetry readings and everything else is included here. However, the biggest shame is how horrendous the quality is overall.

BBC Christmas Special - 12" Picture Disc

This is a 12" Picture Disc featuring Kate's 1979 Christmas special for the BBC. It's also a bootleg. The same photo is featured on both sides. There's nothing listed  anywhere on this record to tell you what it is or what's on it. Basically, if you found this somewhere, you wouldn't know what you had until you got it home and played it.

It features the entire Christmas special, including Peter Gabriel's bits, and it's actually not bad sound quality for a bootleg. I have absolutely no idea who manufactured this one or when it was made, but I can tell you I've had it since the '90s, so it's been around since the mid to late '80s.

Passing Through Air - Bootleg LP

Bootleg release manufactured in the '80s by Rock Solid Records. The people behind Rock Solid Records were responsible for quite a few of these bootleg releases back in the day, and considering how horrendously bad the sound quality is on a lot of their live LPs, it's more than surprising how decent the sound quality really is on this one.

The really interesting thing about LP bootlegs are the record jackets. When they were first being produced, the jackets were very low grade and amateurish. They basically started out as a white blank jacket with a loose photocopied piece of paper that listed the tracks and had a really low grade photo of Kate printed onto it. By the time Passing Through Air was made, the sleeves had improved 100% in quality. They were full colour and even had a laminated finish. In fact, the quality of them was so good, they actually looked like legitimate record jackets you'd find in a record shop.

Being a double vinyl release, this bootleg offered quite a few b-side songs which, at that time, could only be found on The Single File box set. The box set for This Woman's Work hadn't even been conceived at that point. It also featured some live tracks and some remixes. You'll note that the remix for The Big Sky is incorrectly named. Bootlegs are famous for their grammatical errors and other blunders.

Another thing you never saw on these record labels was Kate's name - partially or in full. The really early produced bootlegs even had fake song titles listed on the labels. This was done to avoid getting caught, and it made it much easier to distribute and sell this stuff.

 
This is probably one of the very few really nicely made bootleg LPs that's worth having. It has a great quality sleeve and the sound recording is pretty fantastic.

I should also probably point out that there's a bootleg CD with the same title and cover art as the LP version. The CD version does not have the same material as the LP bootleg. The CD version actually has a collection of demos on it, so just keep in mind that the LP and CD versions are completely different if you go looking for them.