The 1984 World Tour.

[Dirty Duck]

At the time this Tour ruled the world I was 10 years old and obviously couldnt see the concert. I wanted to know who out there saw this concert and I would love to hear some memories or stories. I heard from a few people that you could see the tension between the band, and they all seemed seperated from each other. I'm sure this has been done before but I'm really curious. Please share some stories...I'd love to hear em'

[Va Beach VH Fan]

I'll start it off, what the hell...

The concert, of course, was sold out for a while... I actually got my ticket a day or two before the show because a classmate of mine couldn't go (I was in Navy "A" School in San Diego at the time in May '84)....

The whole week was nothing but Van Halen in San Diego... On the beach, downtown, in fucking Tijuana, EVERYWHERE.... The radio played nothing but VH....

My ticket (along with my buddy's) were in the upper deck, but we never even headed that way... We snuck our way to Eddie's side of the stage not on the floor, but on the seating area.... By the time the house lights went down, we were 20 feet away !!!

Honestly, I don't remember a whole helluva lot of the show... The best thing I remember about the entire night is that I've never seen a crowd, even to this day, that was in such a frenzy for the entire night !!! I'll never forget that much...

The best part ?? The Navy chick I was banging at the time couldn't get a ticket and wouldn't talk to me for 3 days, which just happens to be the same amount of time that my ears were ringing....

[Fairwrning]

I remember it was my last year of high school..1 of the last times I ate blotter..sold-out(of course)crowded as hell..we were on the floor roughly mid-way in an 11,000 seat house..so pretty damn close to the stage..February 4th..
elbow to elbow and TRIPPING..so i can honestly say i dont recall alot of details..stage was huge..opened with "unchained".. one of the best opening song's in history of rock!!!
I swear i thought Eddie was passing joints into the crowd..he was passing something..and not sure why you would pass a cig at that point..but always wondered if he was possibly switching out joints and cigs from the end of his guitar..

[diamondsgirl]

I saw them right around St. Pattys Day so it was cool. Also, I remember VH being given the key to the city (Worcester, MA) and also a a radio station started a petition to have them play a second (or maybe it was a third) night. I can't remember the details. But, I think it was Charles Laquedera from either WAAF or WBCN who was involved because he was a huge Roth fan. Anyone around these parts remember him?


Anyway, the set list was incredible, each song I was high fiving everyone around me. I was shakin' my money maker(s) to Hot For Teacher. They played old stuff and new stuff.

It was a BLAST.

[Terry]

Don't recall any tension between band members onstage at all on the 1984 show I saw.

I do remember that it was by far one of the biggest concert productions I'd seen in an indoor arena, and got one of the loudest audience responses I'd ever heard. Also remember finding it weird that the band only did a few songs at a time then went into a drum break, bass solo, Dave rap or Ed's 10 minute guitar solo. Was definitely there to see Ed play more than Dave at the time, and remember during Ed's solo, towards the end of it, that people were yelling out "Play a fucking SONG!"

Tickets for it were somewhere around $16. Had a tour shirt with the top-hatted pesticide logo guy with the hammer, but eventually got ripped to shit.

[conmee]

Gentlemen,

Part of the requirement for being a Webbie, and at one time, a requirement for being a mod, was to be an old ass fucker like VA Beach, with verifiable proof that you'd seen the original Classic David Lee Roth-led Van Halen in front of your very own steaming naked eyes!!!!

Since I'm almost as old as VA Beach, and in the same ballpark as Pojo and Brownsound... I'll let you guys know that they kicked ass in '82 and '84... Here's the link to another thread where I posted my sophomore high school picture, and I'm wearing the 1984 world tour concert shit... lmao... yeah, I was a dork, but I wasn't a virgin, unlike VA Beach....

So... the 1984 tour rolled into Las Vegas and, well, the chemistry was fantastic.... truly one of the best days of my life... For memories of that night, check this thread... http://www.rotharmy.com/forums/showt...threadid=27412

I really feel bad for the youth of this country who will grow up never knowing what it was like to be at a Van Halen concert.... lol

Icon.

[conmee]

Speaking of memories.... I'm in 8th grade, and we're all going to Disneyland as part of this field trip... my girlfriend at the time is Gail Davis, the niece of the principal... so we get down to Anaheim, and boys and girls are separated after dinner... EXCEPT for Gail and her three friends, me and my three friends... we're all goofing around in Gail's hotel room, playin' truth or dare, spin the bottle, etc... I'm torturing the group by playing my Diver Down cassette over and over again on one of these small boom boxes, and my first real girlfriend kiss on the lips make-out action occurred that night to the strains of Pretty Woman and Little Guitars!!!! lol

Van Halen and DLR have been my guide through thick and thin, first kisses, loss of virginity.... DLR has led the way for me.... rotflmao!!!!!

GOD BLESS VAN HALEN AND DLR!!!!

Icon.

[MAX]

Originally posted by conmee
Gentlemen,

Part of the requirement for being a Webbie, and at one time, a requirement for being a mod, was to be an old ass fucker like VA Beach, with verifiable proof that you'd seen the original Classic David Lee Roth-led Van Halen in front of your very own steaming naked eyes!!!!

Since I'm almost as old as VA Beach, and in the same ballpark as Pojo and Brownsound... I'll let you guys know that they kicked ass in '82 and '84... Here's the link to another thread where I posted my sophomore high school picture, and I'm wearing the 1984 world tour concert shit... lmao... yeah, I was a dork, but I wasn't a virgin, unlike VA Beach....

So... the 1984 tour rolled into Las Vegas and, well, the chemistry was fantastic.... truly one of the best days of my life... For memories of that night, check this thread... http://www.rotharmy.com/forums/showt...threadid=27412

I really feel bad for the youth of this country who will grow up never knowing what it was like to be at a Van Halen concert.... lol

Icon.

Cool to see you Icon.

It may sound crazy but I'm STILL beyond thankful that I was fortunate enough to see The Mighty VH Live in my lifetime. To this day I still fucking remember that concert like no other.

Tis' cool talkin' Halen on here.

And by Van Halen, I mean Dave.

[MAX]

Yup.

[rustoffa]

I saw 'em alot earlier than that. It was the WACF tour in ActionJacksonville....I looked for the post I made previously to no avail. A friend and I weasel'd our way into going with his older hoodlum brother and friends. We were way too young to appreciate it, and just ran around making fun of people smoking dope and shit. It'll never be like that again...the dude that was driving stopped on the side of I-95 to puke on the way home, then kept driving. We were laughing about it, and he told us to shut up or he'd throw us out of the car.....we shut the fuck up.

[MAX]

Stoff,

My brother, why tis' it that soooo many stories involving puking, shitting and other disgusting bodily functions seem to follow you?

Poor guy.

How about some mac and beef? Followed by a soiled baby diaper and some ground beef to top it off? :p

[Romeo Delight]

I was front row right in front of Ed's mike stand.

All I see is Dave...coming across stage towards me doing about twenty flips as Edward lays down mighty riff of motherfucking Unchained!!!

Hard to put into words what that was like...

Best thing about the show that I have never heard before or since was that the crowd was at least twice as loud as the band.

Ed wore my frankensteined baseball cap, got Ed's and Mike picks...a pretty good night for a teenage headbanger

[Nitro Express]

My friends mom worked at the university that Van Halen was playing at. She managed to get us all access campus security passes. Things were a lot less regulated in 1984 and that was my senior year in high school so we could pass off as college students who were hired to work security for concerts, sporting events, and other big goings ons at the sports arena.

We watched them set up the stage and even helped carry cables from a truck. I was amazed at how fast the roadies could put all that complicated shit together.

The highlight was not the concert, in fact, we were backstage and could see it from the side or even go into the barracade area but you didn't get a very good view of things. The highlight was getting to watch Mike and Ed warm up for the show. Mike told us to help ourselves to the catering which some of it was pizza from my favorite local pizza parlor. Alex was eating spagehtii and made some funny jokes about this fat ass 300 pound dude in a orange security shirt. Mike was tottaly nice to anyone backstage. He realized it was a very big deal for many people and wanted us to have a good time. Eddie was very quiet and reclusive. Alex was sarcastically cocky and kind of annoying. He seems buzzed on something. Eddie just seemed shy. Mike was just a normal dude. Dave was nowhere to be found. The only time I saw Dave was when he was onstage and he was great.

[fryingdutchman]

Fuck....1984.

I was a sophomore in high school and got tix for the show at the Philly Spectrum.

It was one of the first really "big" shows I ever went to. We were on the second level, Mikey's side of the stage. To this day, the night is a sonic blur. I can't put my finger on any one specific memory, because I was so blown away by the spectacle. Eddie must have thrown a hundred picks into the audience during the course of the show...and I remember thinking how I'd give my left nut to get down there to catch one.

I had just started playing guitar about 3 or 4 years prior, inspired by EVH....and I remember thinking that getting one of his picks on a chain would be SWEET!

I do recall Dave telling everyone that the show was being filmed. He didn't need to, because everybody in the fucking place was going INSANE.

But every time I see the video for "Panama", I'm transported back to that night. A lot of the footage for that vid was shot in Philly.

[Fairwrning]

Now that i am thinking a bit about that show...Quiet Riot was in town about a week before..even the local paper ripped on em'..saying something to the effect of
"true rock fans have no fear..Van Halen is on its way"..
They had only started the tour a couple of weeks earlier so i found it very cool that i was getting an early look at the show..