These Boots...

[King of Snake]

seeing that auction, i would have been VERY sceptical about it from the start. But that's just me talking after the fact of course

[big screen satellite]

i have more news....on these 'GENUINE' boots...

my bid is being maintained....

details following shortly....

[big screen satellite]

ok then this is the reply i got back from the guy running the auction:

Dear Matt,

To give you a bit of background on the boots - they were part of a joint venture between Doc Martens Airwair and the National AIDS Trust (NAT), which took place between 1998 and the present day. They were done to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS in the UK. Doc Martens handled all the celebrity side of the project, including approaching celebrities and asking them to customise a pair of boots. The boots were then donated to NAT, and we are now giving people the opportunity to buy the boots on Ebay while at the same time raising money for the important work we do.

Sadly, Doc Marten's legal department have misplaced all the certificates of authenticity. However, I can assure you that the boots were genuinely signed by Underworld. Since then, they have been displayed at the opening of the new Doc Marten store in The Triangle in Manchester and in a museum in Northampton (the home of Doc Martens in the UK). I have included a photo of the Underworld boots from the time they were first displayed in 1998 at the DM store in Covent Garden.

I also have a press cutting from 1998 which details Underworld's participation in the project, in which band members give some explanations of why they decorated the boots in the way they did - mainly the boots are decorated with allusions to lyrics in "Born Slippy". It seems that the local press, particularly around the Romford area where the band are from, were very interested in the story, and this cutting ran in several local newspapers between 2 and 4 December 1998. I have sent you the cutting if you would like to see it. I have also sent you the official press release from DM - if you look down the list of celebrities involved, you will see Underworld mentioned.

see cuttings via links below

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...utting1web.jpg
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...utting2web.jpg
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i2...al1/Steve1.jpg


it appears that Darren Emmerson may have been the instigator in 'designing' these boots rather than R&K, but nonetheless at the time he was in Underworld and these are the genuine artile after all, so i am maintaining my bid, on these Underworld Designed boots...

Matt

[Stephen]

"Three cans of lager were tied to the back of the boots, which had been painted white to represent 'mega mega white things'"

No they're fucking not.

[holden]

Not too interested in this sort of item, but i finally had a look for myself, esp. after Karl writing today that he's never seen the things...

Sorry, but those boots are tacky as hell. Save your dough for something you can use or at least enjoy looking at, imho!

[potatobroth]

Originally Posted by lloyd

'why on earth would people want to chip in so that you could keep them for that small a price?'

My idea was/is, when underworld construct a piece of art to be sold in an auction to raise money for a good cause, then we all can donate to it by chipping in or topping up Matts bid.

oh, THAT IS a cool idea, lloyd, and id be totally down for that.

but helping someone buy an item for their collection is kinda weird.

[stimpee]

Originally Posted by potatobroth

oh, THAT IS a cool idea, lloyd, and id be totally down for that.

but helping someone buy an item for their collection is kinda weird.

i thought potatobroth would be complaining that there was only a limited amount of these boots and that they should be available via underworldlive.com

[BeautifulBurnout]

Matt

Great minds think alike

I too emailed the Fundraiser from the NAT charity to find out what his take was on this and got an almost identical reply. Makes me feel a bit better to say the least, as i was the one inferring that this was a pukka deal.

Anyway, I'm still in.

[potatobroth]

Originally Posted by stimpee

i thought potatobroth would be complaining that there was only a limited amount of these boots and that they should be available via underworldlive.com

at least the laces should be >:|

[TheBang]

Yup, I contacted the seller also, and got pretty much the same reply as you guys. He stated that he would like to get in touch with Underworld to sort it out, so I pointed him in the direction of some of the e-mails listed on underworldlive.com.