Cathy Demos - Volume 3

Just to recap on some of my other posts regarding these: This is a five volume bootleg set, which is supposedly limited to 600 pressed copies only. The so called limited edition numbers are supposed to be printed or handwritten on the back of each sleeve in the lower left-hand corner. My copies were never issued with numbers and I've seen several more over the years without any limited edition numbers on them as well. If I was planning on selling these, which I’m not, I could very easily write low limited edition numbers on the back of each sleeve and people wouldn't know the difference. Limited edition numbers on bootlegs mean nothing, especially on these things.

All five volumes have fake scratch messages in the run off area on both sides. These are not official in any way. The messages on volume 3 are:

Side 1: Gee, our old lasalle ran great

Side 2: Big Black Beard

The message on side one is most likely a line taken from the theme song from All In The Family, an American television series from the ‘70s. Most of these scratch messages tended to be pointless and downright stupid.

Each volume has a different coloured vinyl, which is translucent. Despite the orange colour of the scans, this vinyl is actually a light golden yellow colour. I'm including one of my old photos here to show this.

There really isn't much more to say about these things. I've pretty much covered everything else with volumes 1, 4 and 5. I still need to post volume 2, but at the moment I have no idea where I've poked it. I’ll eventually unearth it again.

Cathy Demos - Volume 1

This is volume one of a five volume set of 7" singles containing Kate's early unreleased demos. Finding a complete set of these today can be near impossible, but also prove to be extremely costly if you aren't careful. These are also supposedly limited edition to 600 pressed copies, but I really have my doubts about that. On the back of the sleeve, in the lower left-hand corner, there is supposed to be a limited edition number stamped. In most cases, the numbering system is completely hand numbered, but in other cases only the top number is hand printed and the bottom number is printed into the paper as part of the sleeve design. Then there are copies like mine where there's no numbering at all. I've seen quite a few of these over the years with no limited edition number attached to the sleeve, but it doesn't really matter either way as these are bootlegs, so limited edition numbers or not – it means squat!

Each volume has a different coloured vinyl and features fake scratch messages in the run off vinyl on both sides. The colour of this vinyl is red. The scratch messages are in no way official or done by Kate. The messages are:

Side 1: She smokes the blackest hash

Side 2: Fan fan, Cecile Jackie

It's been suggested that Cecile and Jackie are the two fans who created these bootlegs to begin with. I used to have more info about these two, but that part of my brain is totally fried.

Truthfully, these things aren't worth going after these days. They're hardly worth the money they sell for, and you could easily waste a lot of time searching them out. There are loads of bootleg CDs out there these days with all the demos on them, so there’s really no need to waste time or money on these things. Even better, go to this site “HERE” and download them all for free.  The person that posted the MP3s on there took the time to clean most of them up, and they sound much better than you could hope to get anywhere else.

I'm including one of my original photos with this post so that people can see how translucent the vinyl really is.

Cathy Demos - Volume 4

This is volume four of the Cathy Demos, from a set of five 7” bootleg singles that was released years and years ago. All the sleeves in this set have a similar simple design to it, and they all feature different images from the Cathy book.

Each volume has a different coloured vinyl, which are also more translucent looking than my scans probably show. I've kept one of my original photos so you can see this. Each volume also has two fake scratch messages on the run off area of the vinyl – one on either side. None of them are in no way done by Kate. The scratch messages on this volume are:

Side A: I should be at college or sailing

Side B: Zezezozee zadfrack glutz

The quality of the demos on these singles is fairly typical to what you would find on any other bootleg release. The only difference is that these tend to go for far more money now, which really isn't worth it in my book.

Supposedly there were only 600 copies of each volume released. Each one featured a limited edition number on the lower left hand corner of the back sleeve only. There were also a lot of these that missed being numbered, including the set I have.

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?