(TV) The man who recorded the original "Arrow" boot says:

[Keith Allison <keith@thewonder.co.uk>]

I moved to New York in the spring of 1977, following a weekend jaunt 
which included a trip to CBGB for a first taste of live Television. 
Returning to Ohio, I spent a trial night in an apartment at The Plaza in 
Cleveland recently vacated by an aspiring Contortion. As I surveyed the 
frozen parking lot next morning to make sure my Studebaker was still 
there, I decided that if I was going to move someplace scary and bleak, 
I might as well think big. But by the time I got back to Manhattan, 
Richard Lloyd was in rehab in preparation for Television's European 
debut, so almost a year passed before I got the chance for a recharge. 
When show day finally came I hid my Nakamichi 550 in the bottom of a 
crumpled bag of thrift store shirts and set out for Long Island, where 
the expected fireworks ensued. A couple of years later a friend with a 
mail order record business (another big Television fan) suggested a 
bootleg of the big night. Most of them went to an exporter he worked 
with, but I would visit Bleecker Bob in the West Village a couple of 
times a week to sell to this notorious cheapskate, a pitiful few copies 
at a time. Although it was a steady seller in his shop, he refused to 
tie up his working capital. He always complained about the cover, too. 
At some point, Neil Cooper of ROIR decided to make a play for the 
cassette masters, advising my partner in crime that he intended to 
reissue with or without our cooperation. We eventually gave in, 
surprising Verlaine with a modest royalty payment the next time he came 
around to unload dispensables from his record collection - like the 
L'Intrepide Bavon Marie Marie LP I took home. Whenever our little 
project is mentioned, there's always a disclaimer that the original 
vinyl boot sounds better than the Blow Up reissue. Well, we tried. Disc 
mastering was done at an upper crust Hollywood establishment when 
Lindsey Buckingham had finally run out of coke and gone home for the 
day, the metal stampers came from Europadisk, the first high-end 
facility of its kind in the US. I also rejected test pressings from 
three boroughs plants before I found one in outer Jersey that could 
handle grooves narrowed by the twenty-five minutes per side running 
time. It was only as I was preparing this post that I discovered The 
Blow Up omits Poor Circulation, Arrow's rarest gem.

television
arrow (bootleg)
double exposure f-85 (1980)

01 Fire Engine 4.19
02 Poor Circulation 5.31
03 Little Johnny Jewel 14.44
04 Knockin' On Heaven's Door 8.07
05 Prove It 5.20
06 Friction 4.58
07 (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction 7.11



and:

Mitali du Monde said...
Being that "mail order" dealer
referred to here, I can verify that the author (who was always an 
extremely tasteful gentleman,and though we're out of touch,one of the 
persons in my life I will always have a warm spot for) took exceptional 
effort to asure a quality release. We were proud when Tom Verlaine 
wanted to "legitimize" the recording, and it was mainly done for the 
love of the music. The "master" was sold for a very nominal fee to ROIR, 
and indeed,several royalty payments were made directly to the artist.(I 
embarassingly refused a 20% "tip" Tom offered me, and some of my mail 
order customers got a unique bonus when Verlaine defaced the covers of 
the Italian "Eno demos" LPs I had by writing legends such as "the info 
about these recordings is pure bull.." on each and every cover!)
And I still listen to a Bavon Marie Marie LP I also got when purchasing 
one of Tom's collections!!


found here: 
http://luckypsychichut.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/television-arrow-bootleg.html


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