Triumph Previews New Official Bootleg Series

Triumph has announced they will begin releasing official concert bootlegs from their long history. You can hear the first offering below, a live version of "Lay it on the Line."

The song, which was originally released as part of 1979's Just a Game album, was recorded live at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto on April 11, 1985, a concert which also featured fellow Canadian rockers Honeymoon Suite on the bill.

Rik Emmett, Gil Moore and Mike Levine were out touring in support of Triumph's Thunder Seven record, which had been released in November of the previous year.

Looking back, as the band notes, things were going well, especially there in their home area. "Due to popular demand, we played MLG with Honeymoon Suite twice in the same week," they shared, regarding the live version of "Lay it on the Line."

What Fans Can Expect to Hear on the Official Bootlegs

During a recent interview with UCR, Moore revealed that they're looking to offer up a variety of other different recordings caught live during the band's extensive touring in their classic era and it's something he's excited for fans to hear.

"I think [what's cool] about those things is they're so different than studio recordings because, if you think about it, it's being recorded at front of house, so it's like what the audience heard that night," he explains. "It's not like what was put together in the studio and mixed and all that sort of stuff."

"So there's stuff that's missing this and missing that and this is out of tune and, holy smokes what happened there? That solo was twice as long, all the stuff that, I'll call them the anomalies," the drummer continues. "You know, the good, the bad, the incredible and the ugly, it's all there on those bootlegs."

Listen to Triumph's 'Lay it on the Line' Recorded Live at Maple Leaf Gardens

Triumph's Reunion Tour Will Continue in November

The Rock & Roll Machine Reloaded tour did big business when the band hit the road earlier this year with April Wine supporting, for their first tour with Emmett since the '80s. More than 135 thousand tickets were sold for the initial dates which ran from April through early June.

The second leg launches in November in Grand Rapids and Moore said fans can expect some changes for the upcoming concerts.

"We're bringing out lasers this time, which we didn't have lasers on the first leg of the tour," he shared. "But we've got some really great smoke and lasers planned on this leg. There’s some changes to the pyro lineup and a couple of tricks that we've got up our sleeves too."

Triumph Has Your Chance to Be in the Band

Okay, not literally. But in addition to the official bootlegs, Moore is excited about a new documentary that's taking shape about the current reunion tour, which he says, will essentially pick up the story where their previous film, Triumph: Rock & Roll Machine, left off.

"It'll give fans like a point of view of literally being in the band, like, backstage, catering, the bus, you know, tuning the guitars, all the stuff that you don't get to see when you're in the audience will all be in there as well," he says. "Of course, the the show itself from the audience's perspective, so that'll be fun."

The drummer says he expects the new documentary will land sometime in 2027. In the meantime, he's excited for fans to check out the official bootlegs, for more of that type of experience.

"These are essentially our board tapes from our soundman from back in the day, like [him] recording the show from the console and just saying, 'Hey, listen to the tape and see how you guys did last night," Moore explains.

"So those things we've picked, you know, some of those different shows, [come from] different cities," he continues. "They're from all over the great American states and all over the Canadian provinces in the in the various cities that we played."

Details regarding additional releases will be announced in the future. Will there be any material from the post-Emmett touring that the band did with Phil X in the early '90s? That's a good question.

"I don't know if they have any of the Phil stuff in the queue, but that's a really good point, actually," he says. "I should investigate that and it's a really great idea. We didn't have that many shows because we only played one tour with Phil, but you're right. We should have some of that material in the archives of Metalworks [Moore's recording studio]."