Bootlegs and all that

Some independant labels managed to get recordings into record shops, unofficially. All this really began back in 1978 with the Nutmeg label which put the 1968 Scene Club jam into the shops (see Various Labels below). Then, after a very long gap, the CD era brought a proliferation of unofficial releases on the market. So, parrallel to the carefully prepared and steadily dosed output from the Hendrix estate came a flood of recordings, mainly from Ed Chalpin!

All these releases were good news for the maniacs among us who wish to sit through the various stages of completion of studio tracks, jam sessions and live performances of varying quality. Some live albums enabled many fans to get their hands on live material that had/has been deleted officially for some time (Winterland 68, LA Forum 69, San Diego 69, Atlanta 70 …). Unofficial recordings do often allow us to hear unedited concert performances (Winterland, Band Of Gypsys, Woodstock,…) or songs rarely performed live. The studio material is also fascinating, with tracks that never made it to Jimi’s albums and all the work-in-progress jams and mixes.

Here are reviews of the unofficial albums that craftily found their way into some regular distribution outlets. For that very reason, they deserve attention on this site. Many of the albums can still be found on purchase sites around the planet. Pretty well all the source materiel had already appeared on other bootleg labels in the past.

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