Roots Archives Forum

Just wondering what the general consensus is on unauthorized represses... Good or bad for the business?

If you look at Ernie's and count the number of unauthorized 7" represses that he sells it seems almost equal to legit ones :

to name a few (as listed in his best sellers)

Courtney Melody - Screechie Across the Border
Lt Stitchie - Story Time
Peter Tosh - Bumbo Clot
Tenor Saw - Jah Guide and Protect
Tenor Saw - Victory Train
Jacob Miller - Tenament Yard
Keith & Tex - Stop That Train

Much of the Jah Guidance and Firehouse 7" from Europe are also most likely unofficial represses. Unofficial meaning they are not coming direct from nor authorized by the producer nor the artist.

I buy them and I'm sure others do to, but at the same time I feel that the resellers should take more responsibility in what they sell. Artists get screwed all the time and it seems like Ernie and others are just looking the other way in order for self profit. Who's more at fault, the bootlegger or those who sell bootlegs? Or those who buy them? It's too easy for Ernie and others to just respond with "its so difficult to determine what is legit and what is not" or "JA copyright laws are so unclear" etc...

Any thoughts?

The Jah Guidance reissues of 1998-2001 are not bootlegs you can tell by the quality of the press.
I think its bad for the industry and reggae with bootleg presses and those that sell them.
These days copyright dont mean a thing.
Same with fake dubplates, you can hear they recorded a session ina dance and then put the recording on a dubplate.
These days they are all scraping the barrel to make some money.
Also they put the bootleg records through computers and editing software to try and clean up the sound which makes the timing and vibes all wrong.

peace

the jah guidance repress of barry browns give another israel a try is from vinyl (from the original Jah Guidance 7").. the others (or most of them) were never released on original 7" in the past .. I would imagine they come from the Greensleeves CDs which is why they sound 'clean' ! I guess Greensleeves could tell us whether it was done with their 'permission' or not..

I heard a Firehouse 'unauthorised repress' King Kong 7" recently that was virtually unplayable, even though it was supposedly brand new. The disc wasn't warped, but the sound was definitely taken from a warped source. Very shoddy.

Jah Guidance label is owned by VP Records.
Most of the Greensleeves tunes came on Jamaican presses first.
Now that VP has bought up greensleeves its now repressing greensleeves tunes on Jah Guidance label
But Jah Guidance Label was coming out with original records in the late 70`s and early 80`s.
It depends on what batch of pressings to the quality of sound which can vary from source and repressing of today.
You notice that the greensleeves tunes starting going on the Jah Guidance label after Greensleeves got bought up. 2006-2007.
The early ones repressed on Jah Guidance were from releases on Volcano Junjo`s Label. For instance Barrington Levy - English Man Volcano 7".

peace

stepping razor wrote: Most of the Greensleeves tunes came on Jamaican presses first.

They actually didn't .. look at the first 100 GRED 12"s for example.. how many came out on JA press ? hardly any!

The repressed 7"s of Ice Cream Love, Man Of Jahoviah, No Lollipop No Sweet So only came out on LP, and the dub came on Scientist Wins The World Cup Greensleeves CD (as bonus tracks - previously unreleased to my knowledge). The Barrington Levy Jah Guidance 7"s also came from Greensleeves LPs & their Scientist versions.. I'm pretty sure they never came out on Jamaican 12" or 7"..

e.g. Original JA presses of Ice Cream Love (Volcano 7"), Give A Little Love (Arrival 7" , Jah Guidance 12") have completely different mixes to the Greensleeves mixes.. same with Police In Helicopter (Volcano 7" & 12" & the US(?) Holt 12" have sirens & different mix to the Greensleeves 12").. with the LPs as well, I think they were licensed for release in the UK first & then released in JA which is the reason many of them have the same (but in worse quality) cover art as the UK releases..

The recent Jah Guidance pressings are nothing to do with VP or Greensleeves.

Originally it was VP that had Jah Guidance as one of its labels mainly cos VP was a distributor for many JA label along with Sonic Sounds and others.
Its the same with the Attack label that is now own by Universal Music Group but before Attack was bought up by Sanctuary there repress thier back catalogue. Sanctuary was a subsidary of Universal Music Group.
A lot of the tunes released on greensleeves were then released by the real people themself on a JA label cos greensleeves ripped them off. So I would prefer the original done later without the greensleeves package/production and greensleeves dont own the masters.

peace

i have a few clocktower represses like tristan palmer 'showcase' and a jackie mittoo showcase and they're obviously bootlegs and terrible quality... not scratchy just really quiet.... dont waste your money on them!

Jah Guidance label has always been and is still owned by the Chin family in NY (VP records).