A beautiful copy of the first-ever Bob Dylan bootleg of The Royal Albert Hall Concert 1966– though it wasn’t recorded at the Royal Albert Hall.

As Dylan collectors know, the show endlessly bootlegged as being from London’s Royal Albert Hall was actually recorded on May 17, 1966 at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall.  The confusion began with this album.  Issued on the West Coast of the United States in the early 1970s, this album mistakenly confused the recording’s venue with a different one on Dylan’s 1966 UK tour.

Released at a time when bootlegs were first flourishing, the astonishing quality of Dylan and the band’s performance, coupled with the recording’s high fidelity, resulted in this album being re-bootlegged many times over. And not surprisingly, all of the subsequent issues continued to mis-identify the location of the recording.  The generally reliable website Bobsboots.com mistakenly lists a UK bootleg as possibly pre-dating this, but this was actually the original issue, and the source of all of the others that followed.

The fold-open cover (with unprinted gatefold) is in near mint condition, with the original price tag on the fully intact shrink wrap.  The deep groove disc is in Mint condition.  The finest example we’ve seen of this very scarce and important album.