The cover illustration of Buer, the 10th spirit comes from the 18th century grimoire (a textbook of magic, typically including instructions on how to create magical objects like talismans and amulets; how to perform magical spells; charms and divination; and how to summon or invoke supernatural entities such as angels, spirits, and demons) Pseudomonarchia Daemonum . Its Wikipedia entry mentions this bootleg: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buer_demon
The third UD title to be sourced from a Japanese concert performance, note how the back cover avoids mentioning this/feigns amnesia for legal reasons. This left Western Sabbath collectors speculating for several years that the album originated from a series of performances at London’s Hammersmith Odeon – specifically the 20 January 1981 3rd of 4 shows, since Ronnie can be heard saying “…to see you again, some of you the third time”!.
Japan: 1981
Source: Audience recording from the Nippon Seinen Kan on 17 November 1980
Side 1: Supertzar (02:21) / War Pigs (07:29) / Neon Knights (04:55) / N.I.B. (05:23) / Children of the Sea (06:05) Side 2: Sweet Leaf (incl. Drum Solo) (07:41) / Lady Evil (04:30) / Black Sabbath (09:06) Side 3: Heaven and Hell (13:05) / Iron Man (07:24) / Guitar Solo (incl. Orchid) & Band Jam (11:49) Side 4: Guitar Intro & Die Young (05:19) / Paranoid & Heaven and Hell (Reprise) (03:30)
“Quality very good.” Legendary Japanese taper ‘Mr. Peach’ attended and taped this show as well but in this case his source does not seem to clearly trump the first one (that was used for this LP and later circulating from the master and on CD) as is often the case with Mr. Peach sources.
Matrix: Z G UD 6546 A 111 Matrix: Z G UD 6546 B 111 Matrix: Z G UD 6547 A 111 Matrix: Z G UD 6547 B 111
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The tour announcement, not mentioning this concert on the 17th, so it must have been added due to strong demand.
A copy of this mega-rare Euro bootleg on the Stoned Records label:
Above: First pressing, wrong spelling. I guess bootleggers tend to be dyslexic.
Second pressing with corrected spelling.
Source: Audience recording from April 21, 1977 recorded at The Olympen in Lund, Sweden
A1 Symptom Of The Universe A2 Snowblind A3 War Pigs B1 Black Sabbath B2 Dirty Women / Rock ‘N Roll Doctor (Medley) C1 Electric Funeral / N. I. B. (Medley) D1 Gypsy D2 Paranoid D3 Children Of The Grave
AC/DC opened, until they were reportedly kicked off the tour, however they did play in Lund and there was only one more show after that, so it was not a premature departure by any means: “On April 5th 1977, AC/DC would begin a tour of Europe in support of Black Sabbath, taking them through France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and Sweden.
While in Sweden, Malcolm was involved in an altercation with Black Sabbath’s bass player, which led to AC/DC’s expulsion from the tour. Malcolm recalled the incident during an interview with UK music magazine Q in 2003 “We were staying in the same hotel, and Geezer was in the bar, crying in his beer, ’10 years I’ve been in this band, 10 years–wait till you guys have been around 10 years, you’ll feel like us.’ I said ‘I don’t think so.’ I was giving him no sympathy. He’d had many too many [drinks] and he pulled out this silly flick knife.” The last concert of the tour took place on April 22nd at the Scandinavium in Goteborg.”
05 April 1977 : Paris, France (Pavillon de Paris)
06 April 1977 : Colmar, France (Parc des Expositions)
07 April 1977 : Offenbach, Germany (Stadthalle)
09 April 1977 : Köln, Germany (Sporthalle)
10 April 1977 : Nurnberg, Germany (Messezentrum Halle)
11 April 1977 : Ludwigshafen, Germany (Friedrich-Ebert-Halle)
13 April 1977 : Geneva, Switzerland (Salle Des Fetes de Thonex)
14 April 1977 : Zurich, Switzerland (Volkshaus)
15 April 1977 : Odense, Denmark
16 April 1977 : Brussels, Belgium (Cirque Royal)
17 April 1977 : Amsterdam, Holland (De Nieuwe Rai Congrescentrum)
18 April 1977 : Hamburg, Germany (Ernst Merck Halle)
19 April 1977 : Copenhagen, Denmark (Falkoner Centret)
20 April 1977 : Stockholm, Sweden (Konserthuset)
21 April 1977 : Lund, Sweden (Olympen)
22 April 1977 : Göteborg, Sweden (Scandinavium)
23 April 1977 : Oslo, Norway (Njardhalle) [canceled]
24 April 1977 : Helsinki, Finland (Kulttuuritalo) [canceled]
A few comments from Sabbath collectors sites and an eBay listing, where this item usually goes for $100 – $200:
“The quality of this is good to very good the show it self is EX Ozzy and Sabbath at there best…” “Sound: 9/10 (IMO)”
“Company and/or Label: Stoned Records, Schweden Catalogue-Number: STD 4 Comentarios: Excelente stereo in deluxe colour gatefold sleeve. Group shots, autographed on back by band. Available in two versions. First one has misprinting on front cover ‘Killing Yorself To Die’ while the second one is showing the correct title. One of the best Sabbath boots and also one of the most expensives. I did receive an e-mail from a guy who was involved in that bootleg. He said that the number of all bootleg-lps printed by Stone Records including Sabbath and Hendrix as well as others were 16.000! The ladder [sic] were the best selling. So you can judge yo(u)rself how many copies of “Killing Yo(u)rself To Die” were made!” [As they only ever produced six titles – and reportedly just under 1000 were pressed of the Queen title Invite You For A Night At The Warehouse – that still leaves more than 2500 copies per release on average. Not that rare really.]
“Black Sabbath: “Killing Yourself To Die” (2 LP) 1977, Sweden/Stoned 4. Holy grail of Black Sabbath LPs, when this turns up it’s always a counterfeit edition with blurry label art or a colored vinyl re-press, this is a genuine first edition. Killer sounding document of the band’s appearance at The Olympen in Lund, Sweden in 1977. Long considered the best Sabbath live LP and the hardest one to get, this is the sh*t!”
Source: Legion Arena, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, 2/9/1978 (* Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, 6/8/1975) [correct location and date for those three tracks is: Convention Hall, Asbury Park, NJ on August 5, 1975] Side 1: Snowblind / Black Sabbath / Iron Man Side 2: Paranoid / Killing Yourself To Live*/ Hole In The Sky*/ War Pigs* Stencil Side 1: 1-29-A Stencil Side 2: 1-29-B Company and/or Label: Impossible Recordworks, USA Catalogue-Number: IMP 1-29 Comments: Very good/excellent stereo in fine black and white artwork sleeve with etching of an angel on a hill before a crowd of wanderers and group shot on back. Last 3 tracks from “Gr’ndlepol”.
[This website (http://www.black-sabbath.de/bootleg2.sab) claimed this album was “very rare” but this is not true at all, even before it was repressed recently. Very rare is when your internet search engine has no clue what you are talking about after you have entered the artist and album title.]
Repressed in 2011 (!) on clear vinyl (are vinyl boots back?):
Comment from a collector: “I truly am an incurable ‘anorak’ / ‘geek’ – the title of this boot has been bugging me since I first bought a copy in 1975… anyone have any idea what it means, if anything? Or is it just a made up word that the original bootleggers came up with?”
For the past 30+ years I have asked myself “what the … is a “gr’ndlepol”? ” …and it looks as if I was not alone in that. Well, now we have Google and it seems that the only thing on the planet that is called that is the title of this album. Well, done TAKRL in providing us with this head scratcher.
Source: Originally believed to be from the Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, July 31, 1975 (and * California Jam 6/4/1974) True location & date: Convention Hall, Asbury Park, NJ on August 5, 1975 Side 1: Killing Yourself To Live / Hole In The Sky / Snownblind Side 2: Killing Yourself To Live* / War Pigs/Embryo / Children Of The Grave both versions: Matrix Side 1: TAKRL 1379-A Matrix Side 2: TAKRL 1379-B 1st version: Company and/or Label: Kornyfone reissue series, white label Catalogue-Number: TAKRL 1379-BS 2nd version: Company and/or Label: Kornyfone reissue series, black label “World Records” Catalogue-Number: TAKRL 1379-BS Comments: Plain white cover with pink sheet depicting a house on a hill. Excellent stereo. Two different covers available. One shows only the artwork while the second is the same but with the track list printed on a free part of the cover. One copy is known with a black label saying in silver letters “World Records” and some track listing – but this one could be self-made.
I believe that this was the first vinyl issue of this material.
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From the now defunct site sabbathlive.com: A highly respected Sabbath collector contacted King Biscuit to inquire about the full release of their 1975 show, which was thought to be from Philadelphia by most people at the time. King Biscuit had been taking requests for future releases, so this was a completely legitimate request. Their initial response was that the show “wasn’t good enough”. But once the KB engineers had a listen to the tapes, they quickly discovered how wrong their assessment was. One of them even asked the collector to identify a song for them. It turned out to be “Spiral Architect”! Also, the tapes were identified as being from the Asbury Park show, NOT Philadelphia as previously thought. [Note: However, the engineer did claim the date was still 8/6/75, although the Asbury Park show has been proven to be a day earlier. Sabbath performed in Philadelphia on 7/31/75.]
The King Biscuit kindly sent the collector a complimentary copy of the show, since there were now plans to release it officially. But when he tried to follow up on this release a few months later, the King Biscuit employee no longer worked there and the release was apparently nixed. And it was from this ‘advance promo’ that the current slew of Asbury Park bootlegs originated from.
More collectors feedback: “For anyone who is a nerdy trivia bonehead like me, if you listen to this version, it has the siren in “War Pigs”, just like the studio version… all other versions have the siren mixed out completely… one has to wonder WHY was it mixed out? were the suits afraid that the siren cause American radio listeners to freak out and think that an invasion was occuring, when this was broadcast on King Biscuit back in the day, like the original War Of The Worlds radio broadcast? LOL this one also contains all the little bass and guitar tune-ups between songs, like when Geezer tests each of his four strings in turn, like “dum, dum dum..dum” kind of thing.. those are also mixed down so quiet in other versions that they are almost not there.”
“I ordered this boot from Kornyphone in Chapel Hill North Carolina along with Queen’s “Sheetkeeckers” in 1975. They cost $12.00 a piece with the postage included. It was like Christmas to me when they arrived! Yes you are correct about “Grndl Pol” having the loud bass tune ups and the missing siren! When I first heard the Asbury Park boot “Heaven & Earth”, I knew what I was listening to. It’s possible that these boots are from to entirely different recorders in the hall that night!”
From collectorsmusic.com: “King Biscuit Flower Hour’s recording of Black Sabbath’s show at the Astbury Park Convention Hall in 1975 must be considered one of the Holy Grails for collectors, for sound quality, performance, and set list. Recorded just days after the release of their sixth studio record, Sabotage, the band has incorporated three new tracks into the set. From looking over collectors audio lists it looks like a 30 minute show was compiled but do not know the songs that were broadcasted. […]Why Black Sabbath has not officially released this show is beyond me, the performance is staggering and must be heard at loud volumes. A Must Have.”
Listener comment that sums it up quite nicely: “I can actually hear the 100watt Laneys breathing on this recording geeeez this back in 1975 musta been the end of the world!”
