Trade Mark Of Quality

Trade Mark of Quality (Often abbreviated as TMQ or TMoQ) started in the early 1970s by Ken Douglas (3) and Michael "Dub" Taylor in Los Angeles, California. The duo pressed bootlegs of live rock shows and leaked studio outtakes. They used colored vinyl whenever available and started with rubber-stamped blank covers before introducing the traditional bootleg style printed slick stuck to a blank cover. They eventually progressed to printed black and white before progressing to full-color covers and had a reputation for quality work. Prior to establishing Trade Mark of Quality, the pair released albums on labels such as Lurch and Blimp, and were responsible for albums like "Great White Wonder" and Liv'R Than You'll Ever Be.

The duo split after a few years, and Dub kept the original Trade Mark of Quality going with the "farm style" pig logo and coloured vinyl, while Ken started using the cigar smoking "Pig Daddy" logo . Ken would issue every new release from Dub's label by convincing the pressing plant to press records for him from Dub's plates. TMoQ2 pressed on black vinyl and used less expensive covers. Soon, Dub started adding "Accept No Substitutes" to his releases. Where as Dub was quality conscious, Ken was all about quantity.

Ken stopped his branch of TMOQ circa 1973-1974 , starting up Saturated Recordworks, which made copies of TMOQ and TAKRL records with higher quality color. Dub shut down his branch of TMOQ in 1974, taking a break from bootlegging. Dub revived his TMOQ in 1976 for a few releases but quickly folded.

In the 1980s, the TMOQ name was revived by Ken, creating well-made, colorful packages that rivaled major label quality. Most of these later TMoQ's are re-pressings from Ken's other labels. Though technically TMoQ as a label didn't get into the CD game, Ken continued into the late 1980s to be among the first bootleggers to press CDs. Many classic TMoQ titles were reissued by Ken on CD.

In the mid-1980s, a German bootleg label "The Swingin' Pig" used Ken's "Pig Daddy" logo on their boots. Then in 2001, both label logos resurfaced on some re-issues coming from Japan. In 2008, another bootleg label used the "farm style" logo, though it is unclear if there is any connection to the original TMOQ people.