
The
Fanfare bootleg was probably issued around 1999. TDC put a warning on their website at the time :
"Crime Watch Update: It has been brought to our attention that some illegal bootleg CD copies of
Fanfare for the Comic Muse have been made available for sale at a few retail outlets in the UK. Please do not buy any copies you find as they are unauthorised and serve only to help line the pockets of illegal profiteers. Thank-you for your support!"
All the bootlegs seem to be similar. Here are the properties of them:

- On the back, on the insert and on the CD, a standard typeface was used for the credits and info.
- On the CD, the names 'THE DIVINE COMEDY' and 'fanfare for the comic muse' are also printed with a standard typeface.
- The greyed out 'THE DIVINE COMEDY' is printed in a typeface that looks likes both the one used on the original and that used on the re-issue, but it is actually none of those. The greyed out 'fanfare for the comic muse' text has a new typeface (look at the r!).
- The bar code has the same number than the original but is a bit different than that of the 2nd edition.
- 'John McCarthy', instead of 'John McCulagh', is credited on both the back of the insert and the back cover.
- On the CD the dot between 'Titles' and 'Neil' is lower than on the official releases.
- Around the centre of the CD, we can see: A0100247807-0101 24 A2