Sneaking A Tape Recorder into concerts in the 70s-90s

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by sheeerheartattack, Jun 2, 2021.

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  1. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    Snuck a Sony D6C into one of the October 1987 "Garcia on Broadway" shows and none other than Bill Graham caught me taping, took my tape, and started escorting me out of the venue.

    But at the door to the street when he saw me all sad and I was saying "Jerry says once he's done playing the music we tapers can have it" he softened up and let me go back to my seat and reclaim the recorder from security at the end of the show.
     
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  2. tdcrjeff

    tdcrjeff Senior Member

    Location:
    Hermosa Beach, CA
    "Which Doobie you be?"

    Both episodes (it's a 2-parter) are on dailymotion.
    https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x61y3qt
    https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x61y3qv
     
  3. sheeerheartattack

    sheeerheartattack Well-Known Member Thread Starter

    Been having a great time reading all these stories! Would love to know if anyone here tape Queen or Genesis? Currently those are my favourite bands, besides that, love the stories!
     
  4. Marty T

    Marty T Stereo Fan

    Location:
    NM - North of ABQ
    I snuck a video camera into the Gibson Amphitheater to record The Ventures who were opening for The Brian Setzer Orchestra holiday show in December of 2009. I realize that is outside the parameters of this post but I didn't have a smart phone just yet so it was still a challenge on the level of what it was during the 70's thru '90's. I recorded almost the whole show with my largely concealed camera pointed at the large monitor above the audience near my section. During the drummer's drum solo in their last tune, a rousing rendition of "Caravan", I saw a security guard motioning me to come with him. He'd seen a light emitting from under my jacket. I was taken to a security office and given a ticket which would allow me to retrieve the camera after the show. They didn't ask me to erase the recording. It was a particularly mild slap on the hand. For the Ventures fans, here is a clip from that performance:
     
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  5. Russ_B66

    Russ_B66 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vermont
    An usher might ask "Is that recording equipment between your legs or are you actually a man who is really excited to be here?"
     
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  6. ajax25

    ajax25 Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Always carry an extra blank tape that you can switch with the recorded one if you get caught.
     
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  7. Partyslammer

    Partyslammer Lord Of The New Church

    I should add, the last few decades, there's been a few shows I've been to where the band(s) actually encouraged recording the show. I've recorded bits of shows in the past 20+ years using various small cameras from time to time but find it cumbersome to do and I hate distracting others. Plus, I like being right up front and when the show is GA or has some sort of pit, it can be really chaotic and not a lot of fun. Not to mention they usually come out awful. Here's one example:



    I'll refrain from posting any more stuff, but anyone can check out my YouTube page under uploads/videos and see other clips.
     
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  8. F-Stop Fitzgerald

    F-Stop Fitzgerald Full Fathom Five

    Location:
    La Crosse, WI
    I remember that ep. And I remember thinking, "There are people bootlegging Doobie Brothers concerts? Is that even a thing?" I mean, I love me some Doobies, but I never saw any recordings of them in the bootleg bins. Then I wondered if Warner Bros had held a gun to the band's head to perform a public service announcement on this Very Special Episode.
     
  9. Chemguy

    Chemguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Western Canada
    Supertramp, 1980, Calgary.

    Outdoor concert. Taped it on the tiny boombox mic. Not half bad when I listened to it again last fall for the 40th anniversary!
     
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  10. Cue Burn

    Cue Burn Senior Member

    Location:
    California
    Great videos. Enjoyed them.
     
  11. HotelYorba101

    HotelYorba101 Senior Member

    Location:
    California
    Ha it is funny how nowadays it is the complete opposite - people will use their devices the entire time while talking the entire time lol
     
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  12. Partyslammer

    Partyslammer Lord Of The New Church

    I audio taped Queen during their Hot Space tour at the Irvine Meadows show on 9/11/82. Another tape that's long since has been lost or stolen. Going by my notes, these are my audio recordings I taped with the ones still have noted.....

    Van Halen - 6/20/81 - LA Forum * 1st time, deck ate tape, jammed and refused to work.

    Van Halen - 6/21/81 *Full show, good recording, well circulated among bootleggers. Recorded from 18th row floor.

    Bruce Springsteen 8/20/81 Told this on a few posts earlier this thread.

    Electric Light Orchestra 9/23/81 Long Beach Arena - Solid recording from 6 rows off the floor at halfway back. Tape stolen.

    Ozzy Osbourne 6/12/82 - Irvine Meadows - Decent recording of show with Brad Gillis on guitar. When the japanese laserdisc came out from this show, I threw away my recording.

    Billy Squire/Queen - 9/11/82 Irvine Meadows. One of my best recordings had a great sweet spot about 20 rows back from the stage dead center. Tape was stolen.

    The Lords Of The New Church - 2/26/83 - Perkins Palace. Fantastic show. Had front dead center seats. I was readdy to record and enjoy the show and as soon as the band started in, all hell broke loose. Seats getting ripped up big crush against the stage which was neck high (no barracade). My gear most of my clothes were barely hanging on me and I was literally pushed *under* the stage. I stripped off my gear, rolled it up in my shredded shirt, hid it dark corner under the stage, managed to get back out in front of the stage and Stiv had a couple roadies help me and a few other beat to hell fans get up on stage and watch the rest of the show from the sides. It was a pain in the ass getting back under the stage to scramble for my gear (thankfully intact) but I got only half of the first song.

    US Festival 5/28 to 5/30,1983 Devore park/hellhole - We went as a group of 4 friends. One Camaro loaded with a makeshift army tent, cots, everything for camping for the festival but no food or drink. After cooking like fried eggs in the morning son and realizing the small cooling river we had our lawn chairs in was actually run-off from the dozens of porta-potties a quarter mile up the hill at the entrance gate, we decided to buy tickets and go ahead and see the rest of "New Wave Day." More importantly to get a show (no luck, water was turned of by noon) and get some food and drink. I think we caught The Stray Cats and The Clashes sets in their entirety but it was all pretty haphazard that night. Next day, "Heavy Metal Day" was the big one I snaked in a backpack of spare tapes, batteries a tripod, all sorts of **** and planned on recording every act the entire day. That quickly became a real challenge. It was either Motley Crue or Quiet Riot's set when we were pretty far up front of the stage in a severe crush. I stepped on a full tube of sunscreen which squirted straight up at me into my face and eyes and stung like a mofo. I spent the next hour or so buying overpriced bottled water (no drinking fo9untains worked) to get cleaned up. Oh, did I mention is was incredibly smoggy and hot? Once I was settled down about halfway back where people were more of less lounging like at the beach, I taped Ozzy, Judas Priest, some of Triumps set, Scorpions and Van Halen's complete sets.

    The next day, all of us were pretty fried from the heat, smog, drinking, awful food - the mission was get to the showers before they turn them off around 11am. Much of the day we mostly relaxed pretty far back. The big challenge was finding a safe place to take a crap - by day 3, all the porta potties had literal piles of poop, barf and other bodily excrements heaped high of every toilet seat, spilling down to the floor and out the door like a mud flow. The ones that were still arguably usable typically had long lines of very impatient people waiting their turn. We say a group of people who'd had enough yelling at the guy to finish up inside so they began tipping the porta-potty back and forth until it tipped completely on it's side leading to the occupant spilling out the door in a near coma covering in filth.

    I was in this final days torment to see and record Bowies closing set that night. Naturally, this was when my little AIWA started eating blank tapes. I got that thing home after the weekend and took it apart - there was fine sand in it, some sunscreen clogging the buttons, it was pretty thrashed, poor guy.

    I still have all those US fest tapes though.
     
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  13. GerryO

    GerryO Senior Member

    Location:
    Bodega Bay, CA
    Finally "released" this freely recently and it has been pretty weird reading comments about it and its' liberation, and seeing all of the bootleg activity. Who is making the money and how?



    Seemed things really got out of control with that first Stones bootleg live album in 1969...
     
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  14. PrineHootieWho2000

    PrineHootieWho2000 Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    Did you make it through all these shows without getting chewed out by security?
     
  15. sheeerheartattack

    sheeerheartattack Well-Known Member Thread Starter

    Damn, sucks that you lost all those tapes. still good that you have some of them!
     
  16. jimjim

    jimjim Forum Resident

    Hear hear...esp those hardy souls who taped the VU back in the day when no-one was buying their records. I'm of the opinion that without those boots & their reputation, the band would have been forgotten about or even just seen as Lou's tryout band before going solo.
     
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  17. slipkid

    slipkid Senior Member

    I have a ton of stories from over the years, either myself taping or friends doing the deed, could fill an encyclopedia with tales that might be of interest, some are rather crazy, but alas no time now....
     
  18. Paul Gase

    Paul Gase Everything is cheaper than it looks.

    Location:
    California
    It was a two parter!
     
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  19. drpep

    drpep Whizzing and pasting and pooting through the day

    Location:
    Corning, New York
    Went to a Jefferson Starship or Starship concert in the early 90s and security snatched the micro cassette recorder out of my friends hand.
     
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  20. trd

    trd Forum Resident

    Location:
    Berkeley
    Except Pearl Jam was open taping at the time so you weren’t bootlegging and were free to share the tape with whomever you like, including those nice women
     
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  21. R. Totale

    R. Totale The Voice of Reason

    I was at this show, and my friend taped about half of it on a portable cassette recorder which we listened to for months afterward. Somebody else did a better job - the commonly circulating boot is not from his tape and sounds a lot better.

    Genesis Setlist at Academy of Music, New York
     
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  22. trd

    trd Forum Resident

    Location:
    Berkeley
    They were doing him a favor :D
     
  23. sheeerheartattack

    sheeerheartattack Well-Known Member Thread Starter

    Oh wow, that’s really cool that your friend taped it.
     
  24. Chee

    Chee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver
    U2 on the War Tour in NYC at the Pier. Right up front holding that Panasonic cassette recorder and a TDK tape from Times Square bought that afternoon. Sounds like I'm right there at the show again. Got caught going into a New Barbarians show in '79. I wanted that one.
     
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  25. HelpfulDad

    HelpfulDad Forum Resident

    Location:
    El Cajon, Ca.
    I’m with the taper. It’s a concert we paid to hear a band. Not some fool hooting at a silent passage of music
     
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