Major Illegal Vinyl Plant Raided In Britain

[Aussie0zborn]

June 15, 2010
Major Illegal Vinyl Pressing Plant Raided in Britain...

Following on from the original raid of Scenario Records in Kensington, BPI APU, together with Police officers from the Met and Bedfordshire, have raided an illegal vinyl pressing plant. Officers, having forced entry, found hiding inside two German nationals who were operating 7” and 12” vinyl presses producing illegal coloured vinyl discs. They were found to be in possession of over 200 stampers – including ‘rare’ Rolling Stones Bootlegs.

Enquiries are ongoing, but it is believed that this plant is responsible for producing the majority of the illegal vinyl discs currently circulatin

http://www.thedailyswarm.com/headlines/major-illegal-vinyl-pressing-plant-raided-britain/

[cymbalism]

i was wondering who was doing those and when they'd get popped. all you tool fans, hold onto those coloured "re-issue" of aenima and that salival album in the silver plastic you got a hold of on ebay! hehe

[piaptk]

The music industry is saved! Back to business as usual (pre 1997) everybody!

Now everybody can go back to buying multiple copies of the same 4 or 5 official live albums that the Rolling Stones released, since they were obviously passing those up to buy one of the 2000 copies of the crappy sounding bootleg these guys were selling. How was Keith affording his junk during the lean times that these guys were around?

[flozki]

there are bootlegers out in the vinyl manufacturing scene?
zzzzzz uuuuf.. i'm shocked !

[Aussie0zborn]

This is one of the undergound plants referred to in our "List of Confirmed Pressing Plants" as being "under the radar". The plant was not a typical plant that offers a record pressing service. This plant was establsihed for the sole purpose of producing counterfeit, pirate and bootleg records. They dont wait around hoping a band will come in today and order 300 pressings or something for a few pence per record. Every record they pressed was sold at wholesale price - not manufacturing price. Without having to pay royalties, I would think they made a small fortune.

The two German nationals are brothers. They did not own that plant.

[mossboss]

Well This is interesting I wonder where it was located in the UK the article does not give much away apart from the fact that there was a raid
We always wanted to find its location so we could complete the list of known plants
Never mind I am sure we would get more info as the story unfolds
Funny thing is about the German nationals
It seems that the Germans do not do bootlegs so they get them done in Britain
Yeah Right
Cheers

[Nottinghamtoolexalpha2]

Thought the majority of the coluored vinyls were coming in off the continent, not from the UK - they certainly always seemed to be sold by eastern european guy's at utrecht whenever I see them for sale.

Even lving in England, I'd not heard of these guy's - but there were an awful lot for sale on ebay UK these past couple of years, that was proberbly there downfall....

[fraggle]

it might be more profit in the uk?

[cymbalism]

so i wonder if since it was shut down by the authorities if the machines and equipment would be coming up for public auction? i'm not sure how things are done overseas but here if someone get arrested or in trouble for something, police seize things and sell it off at auctions.

[Nottinghamtoolexalpha2]

....don't worry, I'm already on the trail.....

[Monkey]

http://newsblog.thecmuwebsite.com/?tag=/scenario+records

UK's biggest vinyl piracy factory busted?
by cmumusicnews 24. June 2010 12:17

According to reports, police and anti-piracy officers from the UK record industry recently raided a property west of London where illegal vinyl records were being manufactured.

According to the Music Industry News Network, 200 'stampers', used to press vinyl records, were seized during the raid, including some used to press copies of rare Rolling Stones bootleg recordings. Two German men were apparently at the property when police entered, both of whom were charged with copyright offences. It's been suggested that the plant might have been responsible for producing the majority of illegal vinyl releases in the UK.

It seems that this raid was linked to another that recently took place at Scenario Records in the Ladbroke Grove area of West London, though the exact link isn't clear.

[Monkey]

Nottinghamtoolexalpha, have you got your plant up and running now? i did try to ring you on that number but i think it was wrong, and have not seen you on here for a while

[Aussie0zborn]

This plant is now sold.

[Monkey]

Any ideas who to?

[mossboss]

Monkey, Does it matter to who it was sold to? I am sure we will all know sooner or later Just stand by! Are you in the UK by the way?
Cheers

[Monkey]

yes i am in the uk, thats why i was interested in the possability of seeing these press's come to auction, so when you said these were sold i was amazed as this story only broke 2 weeks ago and knowing our great british system i would have thought that it would be closer to 2 months for any thing to be orgainised! than 2 weeks. And with that in mind im guessing you know some details such as who to and where sold etc.

[Aussie0zborn]

Another underground plant was just raided in England.. I'm beginning to think that if there was enough business in the UK these plants would not have to resort to pressing records which they and their clients have no right to manufacture.

The minute you see street vendors selling CDs and DVDs you know they are illegal. But to be selling vinyl records? That's plain stupid and a dumb way to sell their product which just cheapens the perceived value of the product and attracts attention.

At least the one plant in Australia that pressed bootlegs and counterfeits in the short time before they got busted in the late 80s were able to sell their illicit product through distributors and exportes by mixing it in with legitimate product. Amongst their pressings were David Bowie's K-Tel album (highly collectable) Metallica, Velvet Underground, Prince's "Black Album" on white vinyl with plain black label (years before it was officially released), Michael Jackson, and plenty of 70s disco classics.

The only reason they got busted was thet their new factory manager was not impressed and went to the authorities. Their product was never noticed in the marketplace even though I saw many of their pressings in record stores with labels printed "Made In Holland", "Made In Brazil" etc. Every record had their cutting engineer's mastering mark (a coat hanger) and the plant's matrix number! Pretty dumb too, although that's not what got them busted.

[mossboss]

yes i am in the uk, thats why i was interested in the possability of seeing these press's come to auction, so when you said these were sold i was amazed as this story only broke 2 weeks ago and knowing our great british system i would have thought that it would be closer to 2 months for any thing to be orgainised! than 2 weeks. And with that in mind im guessing you know some details such as who to and where sold etc.

Hey I only said does it matter I never posted the news It was Mike that did
I am sure that sooner or later the word would be out like it normally does
Cheers

[mossboss]

Just by the way, the authorities are really on the job at present as there has been a lot of the above going on
Duping buyers with counterfeits as well as depriving all concerned of some revenue, the artists labels etc
It is not that hard to do the right thing I am sure they will be succesfull if they have followed precedure and bought licences or got permission to re-issue
We do and pay the rightfull owner of the work an agreed sum of money It works out quite well for all concerned
It had to come as it was getting rather bad there was more bootlegs around than new releases for a while
Hopefully it will get back to normal as it should be
Cheers

[JayDC]

funny.. right around the time this all happened, i lost my vinyl P&D that was from the UK... I dunno if these guys where making counterfits.. more likely white label dance remixes... Which sucks for me, coz i finially got a record deal, and after making one, they are not going to distribute vinyl anymore..