| Rude Bootleg | |
| Type: | Live album |
| Artist: | Cardiacs |
| Cover: | Rudebootlegfront.jpg |
| Border: | yes |
| Released: | 1986 |
| Recorded: | 24 August 1986 |
| Venue: | Reading Festival, Reading |
| Genre: | Rock |
| Length: | 38:04 |
| Label: | Alphabet Business Concern |
| Prev Title: | The Seaside |
| Prev Year: | 1984 |
| Next Title: | Big Ship |
| Next Year: | 1987 |
Rude Bootleg (subtitled Live at the Reading Festival, 1986) is a live album by the English rock band Cardiacs. It is the band's first live album, and was originally recorded at the Reading Rock Festival on 24 August 1986.
The original source material for Rude Bootleg was a "very rough and ready" cassette recording taken from the onstage sound mixing desk during Cardiacs' performance. Despite this, the album has excellent sound quality given the circumstances of recording.
Rude Bootleg was originally released as a free cassette, bundled with orders of Cardiacs' 1988 album A Little Man and a House and the Whole World Window: this package was available for a short time as a special value pack. A number of 12" vinyl LP copies were released, all as white-label releases in a plain white sleeve (although some had an A4 white (or pastel blue) paper insert. For these vinyl releases, the only markings were a rubber stamp on the cover, repeated on the centre labels (although some later pressings omitted the cover stamp.
The album was reissued on CD as part of Cardiacs' 1995 reissue programme on Alphabet Business Concern.
All songs written and arranged by Tim Smith unless otherwise indicated.
According to Eric Benac:[1]