Leo Ishac Led Zeppelin Gets Booted "The Sequel" - Reprint

Leo Ishac is known and respected in Zep circles as the man behind Whole Lotta Zep Down Under, the Australian Zep fanzine, and in the last few years he has turned his efforts to bootleg guides, producing a Tarantura discography in 1995 and the original Led Zeppelin Gets Booted in '96.

Now comes Led Zeppelin Gets Booted The Sequel, same size and format as its predecessor, but featuring a color cover and center spread with illustrations of some great Tarantura CD covers.

The new edition differs from the previous one in several ways, all of them for the better. For one thing, almost half the original book was taken up with Tarantura titles, including track listings, some of which were repetitive of the previous Tarantura discography. The new edition's information on all releases is entirely in line listing format, eschewing track listings but adding a full section of bootleg vinyl LPs to the CD listings, as well as extensive information on the bootleg labels themselves, both CD and vinyl. What The Sequel lacks in detail from the original edition, it more than makes up for in sheer volume of information.

Ishac's writing is clear and informative, and his editorial comments in the introduction are right on the money, talking about some of the reasons people collect (love of the music vs. investment value), the advent of the CDR, and the astronomical value of some collectible boot CDs-it's fascinating stuff.

The listings themselves are very concise. Releases are listed alphabetically by title and are rated 1 to 5 stars. Then the label & catalog number, show date(s), number of discs, country of origin, and market dollar value are provided. Though any rating system is inherently subjective (and Ishac shows his love of Zep with quite a few five-star ratings), his judgments are generally well-measured and fair.

Bottom line is, if you're serious about collecting Zep boots, this is an essential little volume. In fact, you might want to buy two copies, because one is bound to get worn out as you carry it around to conventions and thumb through it constantly-every page is a goldmine of information!

Review By George Pickingale