Concert Bootlegging Revisited…The good, the bad and the down right dreadful.

It is interesting researching bootlegging practices by different nationalities around the world and within the fandoms I am interested in.  When Canadians go to concerts and in particular to large festivals in Canada there are some photographs but very few bootlegs. They are more interested in the music and their present company than in hits on YouTube and strangers.

Some Americans just seem to have the need to bootleg and are more interested in the hits they will get on YouTube and the comments they will receive and sharing on Facebook and Twitter with strangers than experiencing the music at concert with their partners and friends. It must be uncomfortable to say the least to sit and watch a concert through the lense of a camera. The majority of bootlegs in these fandoms to the best of my knowledge come from Americans and occasionally Canadians. 

Recently Alan Doyle retweeted someone who had shared one of Lyndahere’s bootlegged videos of Cory Tetford’s performance of Georgia at a concert on this year’s American Fall tour. To me Alan Doyle’s bootlegging policy is pretty clear although not officially stated. He doesn’t mind the odd bootlegged performance of another artist and musician’s performances and of songs that are not his own and in which he doesn’t have the copyright ownership. But Alan never retweets or shares his own music and in particular that copyrighted to others. He has retweeted I Am A Sailor but this song to the best of my knowledge was given as a complementary song to the digital copy of the So Let’s Go album.

Lyndahere’s description informs us Alan Doyle has stood aside to let his fellow Beautiful Gypsies band mate Cory Tetford perform his interpretation of the song Georgia. She writes on the description of the bootleg loaded up on to her YouTube site Between the Rock and dated 24 September, 2015  “Alan steps out of the spotlight (and watches from the audience) as Cory accompanied by Kendel, amazes everyone at The Egg in Albany”. For someone who has attended recent concerts at the Fat Cat in St. John’s, Cory’s shows in Halifax and the five concerts on the American Fall tour she has an awfully short memory. Alan Doyle had gate crashed three of Cory Tetford’s shows, one in St. John’s and two in Halifax. So I guess it is a generosity on both sides. I definitely think Cory’s loyalty and assistance in making albums and performing on stage has earned him some solo time in Alan Doyle’s concerts. And the fans definitely appreciate his talents.  

I have recently been exploring the musical talents of Cory Tetford on YouTube after coming across a wonderful bootleg of Proud Mary bootlegged at one of his favourite haunts in Halifax in 2011. Again this bootleg fits all the criteria I have of an excellent bootleg. Well recorded, with great sound and only one or two songs of the whole show.  There are quite a few bootlegs and pirated copies already of Cory Tetford singing Georgia on YouTube including more than a couple of copies by Lyndahere.

Lyndahere had just recently bootlegged Georgia as part of a collection of songs at the Fat Cat in St. John’s a couple of weeks earlier. Although I didn’t watch the bootleg of Cory’s performance on Alan Doyle’s American Fall tour I did watch the copy at the Fat Cat in St. John’s. And to be honest it wasn’t great. The recording sound level was way too high and resulted in static all the way through. Lyndahere who bootlegs concerts for a career and has for over 10 years, I had to wonder why she hasn’t sorted this common problem she has out. This doesn’t take away from the brilliance of Cory’s guitar playing, singing and performance.

I question her reason for her bootlegging the performance and circulating them. Two other performances circulated by Lyndahere on the Alan Doyle’s American Fall tour have been bootlegged many times before by herself including Fast As I Can (someone’s request) and Where I Belong. Lyndahere has bootlegged Where I Belong over 20 times on her YouTube site Between the Rock at various concerts over the past couple of years. And while all concerts are special experiences and unique for fans that attend I really don’t see any point in bootlegging the same songs over and over from the same spot in prime notice me position in the front row.

Recently on the Online Kitchen Party Facebook page for the Great Big Sea community a whole concert was bootlegged and distributed by a regular Great Big Sea and Alan Doyle bootlegger Squinty4e. I really don’t like bootleggers who record whole concerts without much thought or consideration for the consequences of their actions. Bootlegging concerts in their whole derail future projects and quality projects in which the creators make a profit. The bootlegger Squinty4e had his five minutes of fame when Russell Crowe shared one his bootlegs of Scenes From An Italian Restaurant with Alan Doyle and Scott Grimes at a concert in New York City. Although Squinty4e has over 4000 subscribers on their YouTube account and is a regular concert goer and bootlegger this was not reflected in the number of views of his bootlegs. It didn’t take long to find out why.

I was all excited when I thought I was going to watch a whole concert but all the anticipation soon evaporated. The concert bootlegged was in Hartford on the 25 September 2015. I began by watching the second song of the night I Can’t Dance Without You. For the first couple of minutes or so I was looking at the back of someone’s head with an out of focused, overexposed Alan Doyle in distance until he stepped out from behind the microphone. The bootlegger alternated between close ups of Alan and his band mate Kendel Carson. I quickly moved onto the next song When I am Up from Alan Doyle’s Great Big Sea days. Pretty much more of the same as the camera moved from a close up of Alan Doyle to a close up of Kendel Carson. It was difficult to see the whole band on stage due to the bootlegger sitting down. Even when people got up to dance the bootlegger remained seated and I saw a lot of the back of people’s heads and the guy in front singing along.

I decided to give Squinty4e and his whole concert another try a couple of days later for this blog post. As the bootlegs were numbered I headed towards the end of the concert hoping the bootlegger would find his feet. I watched Alan Doyle perform Fast I Can. The bootlegger had zoomed in Alan Doyle and his guitar Stickman. Although Alan is delightful and funny and I enjoyed the story telling and humour brought to the song and he looked beautiful I really didn’t like the quality of the bootlegged video. Then I watched Shine On. I love the interpretation of the song which I had seen before of Alan starting the song and the rest of the band coming back on stage. But again the audience really did get in the way. The sound of the recording was not too good either. Due to the position of where the bootlegger was sitting it was hard for him to be inclusive of others in the band caught brilliantly by other bootleggers. The bootlegger was all over the place zooming in on people through the audience.  Fortunately there are already so many professionally made videos and good bootlegs I didn’t need to watch any more. 

As the readers of my blog know I am not particularly fond of bootlegged videos. However, every now and again I will see something created by a fan that is totally awesome. Larry Steves I am going to say is a star when it comes to bootlegging Alan Doyle and the Beautiful Gypsies. I love some of his bootlegs which I shared via Google +. There are about 20 bootlegs all recorded at the beginning of the So Let’s Go tour. The bootlegs fit all the criteria I have of what makes a great bootlegger. The whole concert was not recorded and loaded up onto Youtube and there was a clear indication the bootlegger had favourites including the songs Stay and Laying Down to Perish which were recorded several times. There were also a couple of Great Big Sea songs for example Sea of No Cares. The bootlegger was sitting further back and was inclusive all the members of the band. The sound quality was okay too.  They thought about what songs they would put up and only the best.

As much as I like watching good bootlegging like Larry Steve nothing beats a professionally made video, the quality of the sound and the stories they tell. By the hits on YouTube for professionally made videos compared with bootlegs concert goers do too. 

Correction...In March/April 2014 Alan Doyle retweeted on Twitter two of Lyndahere's bootlegs of new music, the songs Stay and Laying Down to Perish. It was almost a year before they appeared on the So Let's Go album and to the best of my knowledge he did have copyright. His book Where I Belong was released later in the year.