Funny when you go to a gig now and everyone's there with their mobile in the air.
I was mates with Louisa and Cap knew who I was and spotted me pogoing in the crowd.
Did you catch the support band at Rios one year? It was "Orange Alert" now 4 More Heroes (first time I saw them). Also, can you remember that gig at Rios where the girl had to be stretchered out? Not nice - I was right next to her when it happened.
Jim
markorbit wrote:Jim, The Damned don't approve of any unofficial filming of gigs. Now that you can record stuff on mobiles it is very hard to stop. There was a period in the early 90s however when they regularly did allow someone from their own team to do it. I believe that all the master tapes of these were sold on ebay a couple of years back.
I would have been at that Bradford gig but I don't collect video bootlegs. Not for any snotty reason, I just find the official release is all I need, I'm a stickler for a decent sound these days.
I delete any posts offering bootlegs and such, it's just the way I set the stall out at the beginning when I was very wary of getting into legal trouble - it doesn't happen much at all and there is actually another board that someone set up to discuss rarities and such. So they can go there and I'm happy not to go there too often but all in all I don't come across much bootleg stuff myself.
Tell you the truth, some of the 70s/80s gigs were great, but you had to be there to appreciate it! Whereas even back in the 70s The Stranglers were very 'professional' live. So I would actually enjoy an old Stanglers boot more. These days the Damned can bring a much more progressive/psychedelic vibe to the evening which I prefer.
Is it an interesting story why you got namechecked Jim?
Oh - glad we had the explanation Dom. Makes sense.
theraven1979 wrote:Was gonna ask you a question but you answered it in your last sentance. You ever thought about something similar? I guess Cap wouldn`t mind? There always seems to be a bloke with video camera at every Damned gig. I`m after a gig of theirs from Bradford Rio's about 5 years back when I get namechecked.
Jim
markorbit wrote:End of the day it should be The Stranglers (& management) decision and we have to respect that. I'm not totally au fait with the extent of what was available but I thought it was rare demos, live MP3s, radio sessions, odd video footage - but nothing on commercial release.
Does it harm the band? That's very hard to quantify - but you can be sure that there will always be somebody out to make a quick buck and it is probably those people that have prompted the band to take action.
At the JJ event in Leeds my mate asked him about his thoughts on MP3 downloads and the response was (along the lines of) - live stuff he doesn't mind but something that has been worked on is a finished, polished body of work and that is different.
To be honest I think that upload/download area was just TOO GOOD!! Perhaps if it had not been so damn extensive things would've plodded on. Couple that with the recent ebay sellers and it gets iffy.
What is a shame though is due to all the licensing costs to make all those clips commercially available they would never see the light of day officially.
Oh well. I can't whinge as I don't encourage it on The Damned message board either!