Kajagoogoo Russian Bootleg Flexi Discs
Kajagoogoo Russian Bootleg Flexi Discs
Kajagoogoo are not a band bootlegged often, but occasionally something appears that bucks the apparent trend. Regular readers to KajaFax will remember our posts on bootleg albums ‘Over the Top’, ‘Thanks Japan’ and ‘Kajagoogoo and Culture Club Live’…
https://kajafax.co.uk/2011/03/18/kajagoogoo-and-culture-club-bootleg/
https://kajafax.co.uk/2011/01/12/white-feathers-tour-bootleg-album/
https://kajafax.co.uk/2011/01/16/kajagoogoo-live-in-tokyo-1984-cdr/
The Thanks Japan CD comes in the form of an ‘official’ bootleg (available via KajaShop as ‘Live in Tokyo’):
…and in this form, as an unofficial factory pressed CD, available by cover of darkness under plain brown paper wrapping… J
Here we have one such group of unofficial items in the form of flexi discs, rather crudely manufactured inRussia.
The translation of the Russian writing on flexis/sleeves reads:
‘Association of Music Lovers’ Clubs’ (on top of the label)
‘Budkon’ (a label name) underneath it
‘45 Mono’ on the right side, and what appears to be a catalogue number on the left side
‘Recorded by transmission’ (on the bottom)
A fansite dedicated to punk band The Stranglers managed to get further information on these discs from a Russian fan who writes:
“I guess they might have made a number of such releases, most likely a very limited amount of each (like several dozen copies – maybe even less). All I can say about the date of release is that I don’t think it is later that ’95. The vinyl market in Russia died a very quick death in 1992-94. I doubt anybody would bother to release anything of this sort knowing that most people had thrown away their record players…and soon after ’95 everybody started making and selling pirate CDs, so based on this speculation I’d put the dates of release somewhere between 1992 and 1995. I vaguely recall seeing flexis like this shortly before I left Russia in early 1993, but I can’t remember any details”
The discs are a real oddity and have occasionally been available in record fairs since the 1990’s and more recently via the internet. The discs are 6 inches square and are single sided. They vary in colour, are usually seen in green, red, blue or clear variants, and contain a very poor quality mono recording of the song in question. Most of the discs contain incomplete versions of the track named, as they are ‘edited’ to fit the disc. Cover art is very crude – black and white paper in a polythene slipcase, and often bears no relation to the artist on the disc!
The records were pressed by Budkon Records inRussia– does anybody know anything about this label???
KajaFax is aware of the following Kajagoogoo/Goo related titles available
Kajagoogoo Titles:
Frayo
Ergonomics
Too Shy
This Car Is Fast
White Feathers (live)
Magician Man (live)
Limahl Solo Titles:
I Was a Fool
Tonight Will Be the Night
Cheatin’
Shock
That Special Something
For My Heart’s Sake
Someone Else
The Greenhouse Effect
Love in Your Eyes
Never Ending Story
Do you know of any more of these flexi discs? If so, please let us know at:
2011 KajaFax
kajafax.co.uk 
I have seen a great number of these on Ebay over the years for Duran and Culture Club but never for Kajagoogoo. I tend to stay clear of them but they look like fun. I would imagine it was very hard, not to mentione expensive, to get official recordings so bootleggers were on to a winner with whatever Western music they could copy.
that’s an accurate take on them, Denny. They are fun, but the quality is absolutely dreadful! I do have a contact who can supply me with a whole bunch of these and so I intend in time get more, but they are what you may call ‘for completists only’ in terms of their practicality. You wouldn’t want to play them!!
I’m a fairly hardcore collector though…… 🙂
…..