Hi all:

I'm new on the message board. I'm a frequent visitor for many years on Shidoobee, the big Rolling Stones message board, so I know what these communities are like.

Anyway, I'm interested in learning the "101" of Tom Petty bootlegs. I have a lot of the great Stones boots from their glory years that I'd be willing to exchange for anyone interested.

One question I have is, does anyone have a cd version of "High Grass Dogs"? That was a great show.

Also, what are the "cream of the crop" of Tom Petty bootlegs? I'd be interested in hearing some soundboards or very high quality shows from the 90s to the present.

Any help would be appreciated. Feel free to email me at mudflaps2002@aol.com.

Cheers,

Jon

Hey Jon,

Well first off I should let you know that while the soundboard bootlegs are quite often the most common and obviously best sounding shows out there, I've found in my almost twenty years of collecting TP&HB rarities that very few of them rank among my personal favorite TP&HB concerts.

Its not that they aren't great but if you are looking for that "unique performance" or "rare song" you are going to have to explore the audience pulls as well.

Anyhow since you asked about soundboards - Here is most of what is out there, most of these are in very good-flawless quality and I've indicated with a (*) which are essential listens although they are all pretty enjoyable and any one of them would be a good way to start your collection:
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1977
6/14/1977 - Koln, West Germany (Rockpalast 77)

1978
*7/16/1978 - Boston, Massachusetts("Breakdown In Boston")

1982
12-04-82 - Utrecht, Holland ("Straight Into Darkness"/"Europe Calls Petty")

1985
8-6-85 - Los Angeles, California ("Pack Up The Plantation At The Wiltern Theater" audio transfer from vhs)

1987
7-24-87 - Jacksonville, Florida ("Any Way You Want It")

1989
*9-13-89 - Chapel Hill, North Carolina ("Free Fallin'")

1991
*11-23-91 - Oakland, California ("Learning To Fly")

1995
10-06-95 = Tuscaloosa, Alabama ("Wild Heart")

1997
*2-7-97 - San Francisco, California ("20 Nights At The Fillmore")

1999
*4-24-99 - Hamburg, Germany ("Hamburg Rocks"/"Echo In The Dark")

8-03-99 - Minneapolis, Minnesota ("On Target!")

2002
*10-16-02 - Los Angeles, California ("The Last DJ Live!")

2003
*4-19-03 - Chicago, Illinois ("Maybe We'll Just Move Here")

*4-21-03 - Chicago, Illinois ("Soundstage")
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That should get you started. The titles in parentheses identify the shows under the titles they were referred to when they were released as bootleg silver cds, but each show listed can be found quite easily by just using the date and location on such browsers such as etree.

I know nothing about bootlegs but after reading John Mills post and seeing on target from minneapolis in 1999. I was wondering if anyone could tell me where I could get that from. It was my first concert and would be very cool to have.

1st Tom Petty & Heartbreakers concert in good audio======PRICELESS ...Iwazzabadboy

Thanks for the tips. What is the best way to go about obtaining some of these boots? I am willing to trade some Stones shows I have that are really cool...

Jon

girlonlsd.blogspot.com
you'll find awesome bootlegs to download there, and if I'm not mistaken they have one from 1999 in Mineapolis.
And if not every a great quantity of JohnMill's list.

The problem with that blog spot is that everything posted there is mp3 which given Jon's earlier comment that he is a long time Rolling Stones trader he might not be interested in.

Mp3 is lossy, most traders won't deal with them and discourage other traders from burning them to disc and passing them off the The Real McCoys. Bottom line is that mp3s are fun to listen to but are in the end lossy sound files.

There are many ways you can go to obtain TP&HB rarities in the best possible quality. There is a YAHOO GROUP called "Petty-Boots" which has a great deal of traders some of which will help out newbies. There is always "Dime A Dozen" for lossless FLAC downloads and of course there is always sites like etree out there which is home to tons of traders as well.

Good Luck!

I'm curious as to how the soundboard boots are obtained, not where to find and how do I download, But how are the files recorded? Is it someone who works at the venue "stealing" it? Someone who works with the band "leaking" it????

Forgive my ignorance if that is a stupid question

There are two main sources

First back in the 70s security at concerts was a lot more lax than it is now, so in some cases some bootlegs came about from third parties either plugging into the soundboard or a leak of some kind from someone on the "inside".

A few examples of these type of soundboards would be the entire canon of bootlegs that are available from the "Lawsuit Tour". Three concerts (Salinas, Santa Cruz and Sacramento) were booted off the soundboard and have made their way into trading circles. In the case of these shows, a third party was either allowed to tap into the soundboard or someone just "walked off" with a copy of the sbd. feed from that night's concert
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A much more common source however is the radio & television broadcast. Starting in the 70s, "King Biscuit" would broadcast live concerts from a variety of rock acts. One of the first TP shows they broadcasted was the aforementioned show in Boston in 1978 which was of course dubbed off the air and later bootlegged most notoriously I believe by the German bootleg outfit "The Swingin' Pig".

So most of the soundboards out there come directly from the radio because they've been broadcasting TP shows for thirty years now. In fact I recall "Mystery Man" saying on here that out of all the major tours TP has done, only the "Hard Promises" tour from 1981 did not have a show broadcasted on the radio. So the vast major of these are taped directly off the air and then pressed onto disc and sold by the bootleggers at $50 a pop.

Television broadcasts have also been the source for several bootlegs. Three TP&HB concerts performed in Germany between 1977-1999 (with the 1983 show being only a partial broadcast) have been bootlegged in amazing sound quality. These are known as the "Rockpalast" shows and both the 1977 and 1999 performances are among the band's best.

Two years ago I believe another ancient TP&HB broadcast turned up on Vh1 Classic and that was the band's appearance on the "Old Grey Whistle Test" in 1978. Again this was taped off the air and began "making the rounds" soon after.

I remember Clinton Heylin in his groundbreaking book "Bootleg: The Secret History Of The Other Recording Industry" saying something to the effect of "As long as concerts continue to be broadcasted on radio and television, bootleggers will continue to roll their tapes taking advantage of this seemingly endless source for quality concert recordings".

That about pretty much sums it up.

I don't know how many soundboard shows are available, but I am 95% sure that the 11/4/93 Homecoming show from Gainesville is a soundboard. I haven't listened to it in a couple years, but it is a real gem.

Love Is A Long Road
Into The Great Wide Open
Listen To Her Heart
I Won't Back Down
Free Fallin'
Psychotic Reaction
Ben's Boogie
Don't Come Around Here No More
Something In The Air
Mary Jane's Last Dance
King's Highway
A Face In The Crowd
Ballad Of Easy Rider
Take Out Some Insurance
Thirteen Days
Southern Accents
Yer So Bad
Driving Down To Georgia
Lost Without You
Refugee
Running Down A Dream
Learning To Fly
Rainy Day Women
American Girl
Alright For Now

He even pays respects to River Phoenix during the show (who died a few days before the show, on 10/31) before "Ballad of Easy Rider."

^ Yeah it is - I somehow always manage to forget that one, probably because it wasn't part of a major tour.

Its a 100% soundboard although the thing to remember with that show is it got at least three bootleg releases and only one of the three ("Homecoming Concert" I believe) contains the full show.

Yeah I had at least two versions of it and I don't even remember if one of them was the full version or not. I just loved that show for some reason. It wasn't his most diverse show by any means but there were some good rarities on there. Thanks for clarifying that for me JM. Your knowledge is a great asset to this board, as I have stated many times before.