In the 80s and 90s heyday of the “VHS tape trading underground”—from whence oozed choice fare like Jeff Krulik and John Heyn’s “Heavy Metal Parking Lot,” Todd Haynes‘ unorthodox Karen Carpenter bio Superstar and Apocalypse Pooh—the territory was covered in every major city and college town by a small cast of characters—often marginally employed losers who gained a certain amount of notoriety and geek pecking order prestige by the scarcity of their video treasure chests.
These social outcasts and otaku misfits usually kept tight reins on what they had. The less uptight of these guys would trade a full two hour tape for another full two hour tape, whereas others would demand two tapes for every one they traded you. Many were real pricks and would only trade for something they wanted, not something that you wanted. (The sort who might say “Sorry man, but rules are rules.” You know the type.) In this way, back then bootleggers and tape traders were the clutch point between collectors and what they coveted most. It wasn’t unusual for bootleg VHS tapes to sell for $50. “Deals” would be brokered between two assholes, one with a pristine 2nd generation of the demented TV movie Bad Ronald, the other frantically bargaining with him because, of course, acquiring a copy of a shitty movie like Bad Ronald was a matter of extreme importance. With Bittorrent, and before that eBay, this vibrant—albeit somewhat stunted and idiotic—fanboy culture eventually evaporated.
I cannot tell you how many of these dumb “negotiations” I was involved in myself, often with some pretty petty Gollum-like characters. Luckily I had several good “trading cards” in my hand to play, so I always got what I wanted. Three “top traders” that I will admit to back then were Robert Frank’s rarely seen Rolling Stones documentary Cocksucker Blues that I got via a guy I worked with who had himself transferred the film to tape under Robert Frank’s personal supervision; another was the oddball black and white latenight TV commercial for Captain Beefheart’s Lick My Decals Off, Baby album (dubbed by me from an ancient 2” videotape master possessed by an MTV producer who told me to make a copy for myself) and a sharp, first generation dub of an off air recording of Public Image Limited on American Bandstand.
I bring up the PiL clip in particular just to mention that the version that was used on a well-circulated bootleg PiL DVD anthology—one which Amazon used to sell like it was a legit release—that came out about 15 years ago was a grandchild (at least) of my Bandstand clip. I could tell this—definitively—because of the split-second of what preceded it, an outtake of the same Cramps set that was shot for Urgh! A Music War. The clip had been trading around for maybe fifteen years at that point and now it had come full circle. (As for Cocksucker Blues, if you see a brief videotape warble just as the title card fades out...)
But that’s how those things used to get around. They were quite literally copied one at a time and spread from hand to hand. Which brings me to the topic of this post, another PiL performance—unquestionably the greatest live PiL performance on video—director/editor Paul Dougherty‘s short document of PiL performing at the Great Gildersleeves, a low rent heavy metal bar in NYC, on April 22, 1980 that was bootlegged on this very same DVD. When I bought my copy—at the Pasadena Flea Market—as I scanned the contents and saw that this was on it, I thought I’d hit bootleg PiL paydirt. Sadly it was poor quality.
Now I know Paul. I actually met him at a screening of the PiL Tape, his video for Suicide’s “Frankie Teardrop” and his classic clip for Pulsallama’s “The Devil Lives in My Husband’s Body” when he was showing them at the ICA in London. Many times over the years I’ve asked him for a copy of the PiL Tape—he knows that I’m a complete PiL freak—and every time he just firmly said “No.”
He gave an interview to the The Filth and the Fury fanzine about the so-called PiL Tape in 1999:
Have you any idea how the bootleg videos of your film surfaced? The amazing thing is that until a couple of years ago no one even knew PiL had played the gig, let alone knew that it was filmed!
Paul Dougherty: I have a strong hunch how it leaked but I’m not certain. Because I know all too well how easy it is to copy videos, I was able to keep it bottled up for over 15 years.
They updated the interview on the PiL fansite Fodderstompf in 2013 to indicate “the offending leaker has been identified, case closed.”
There have been crappy uploads of this material from time to time on YouTube. They come and go, but I’ve never seen all of it in one piece and in quality as good as the embedded clip below (although it’s variable in places, too). Other than the precious few TV clips of the original band—John Lydon, Keith Levene, Jah Wobble, Martin Atkins—this is the ONLY live footage that exists of this line-up. It was shot with two cameras and they took sound from the audio board. It’s very easily the best PiL bootleg—and that’s not just my opinion, the webmaster of the definitive PiL website feels the same way:
This video recording features the classic 1980 Lydon, Levene, Wobble & Atkins line up playing live in New York. The best PiL bootleg EVER!! Filmed by two cameras, one at the back / middle, and one on the left-hand side of the stage. This recording is not really a bootleg, BUT neither is it an official release…
NY filmmaker & producer Paul Dougherty had full permission to film the band, however, it was never intended for an official release. It is unknown how ANY recordings of this tape circulated, Dougherty has closely guarded the footage all this time, and is very disappointed about the leak. In fact, he is very keen to find the source of the leek, so if you can help, get in touch…
Obviously, it’s well filmed, there are some great close ups of the band (even though John spends most of the time crouched down at the front of the stage). The colour is a bit faded here and there, but despite the age of the recording it’s decent quality. Unfortunately it’s only four songs, although ‘Careering’ from the gig has also surfaced separately, but the footage is absolutely superb! Look out for when John gets a young, hip looking, black kid up on stage to dance with him during ‘Bad Baby’, superb stuff (Lydon later claimed the kid was a transsexual!!).
This has to be one of my favourite PiL videos, it’s an absolute must have for PiL fans. It’s also the only concert footage of the 1980 line-up I know exists…
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