As yet another Deep Purple concert from 1985 (Paris) is about to be released (October 23) on CD, again with a terrible cover, the collector in me is just about to give up. I remember the reunion era when the bootlegs started to pop up (some with really nice covers), at least you felt that it mattered as a collector even if you were ripped off in one way or another. People like me are the target audience for the rare stuff, and it has been like that for decades (ever since the early 1970s). I have a healthy collection but I stopped buying everything in the 1990s, simply because there was too much. The Purple Family has always been heavily bootlegged. Enter the 2020s and a flood of radio and television broadcasts are licensed on small labels (not just Purple Family stuff, but Classic Rock acts in general), only this time around you get shitty covers. For some reason, the fan made products from way back looked (and still do) way better. When I saw the cover of “Live In Paris 1985” I decided that enough is enough. If you are going to spend three minutes on the cover then I am not going to buy it. Not unless the gig in itself is from a period that can not be refused. But the reunion era Purple of say 1984-1987 produced some fairly mundane shows. The source of the Paris show is (likely) the well known television broadcast from France, but it never sounded great and Ian Gillan had a bad day. If you want me to buy that for the collection you better have a pretty great cover. The quality of the old bootlegs were on such a level that some of it was copied and released officially in the “Collectors Edition – The Bootleg Series 1984-2000” some years ago. I would rather see classic stuff in boxes like that and have the money going to the right people than seeing all these dubious releases now. Even if some money is going to the guys for something like “Live In Paris 1985” I doubt that the players enjoy seeing it the way it is presented. I guess maybe they never did enjoy this side of the business, or perhaps on rare occasions only, but at least some of the old inofficial stuff looked great and captured some excitement. In this day and age, when money can be spent on fantastic boxes and reissues that actually looks better than ever in some cases, the second rate stuff is something that I will have to let go. On top of this, there are great bands around now that I would rather support as well (old and new). And that would include what these guys are doing today. But any bootlegs or anything like that (official soundboard stuff included) better look darned good or I will not care. Those days are officially over.
Seen here is the following Purple bootlegs from the reunion period: “Nobody´s Home” (Detroit 1985), “Call Of The Wild” (Stockholm 1987), “Hungary Days” (Budapest 1987), “Third Night” (Stockholm 1985), “The Return Of The Knebworth Fayre” (Knebworth Festival 1985), “Highway Stars” (Adelaide 1984), “Back In Action” (Melbourne 1984). Three of these has been copied and released officially: “Hungary Days”, “Third Night” and “Highway Stars” (three of the six they put out in the box I mentioned above).
(My shot of some of the classic reunion era bootlegs from back in the day)
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trinkelbonker 