Hi from the UK

[bang 2 rites]

Hi everyone, been a fan of Van Halen since 1984, and i saw them live at the Donnington Monsters of Rock Festival in the UK on 18th August 1984, one of their last shows with Roth before they split.

[Sarge's Little Helper]

Hi bang 2 rites! It is my pleasure to be the first JACKASS to welcome you to The Diamond David Lee Roth Army! IN ROTH WE TRUST.

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Welcome....

[SunisinuS]

Cheers POM! Welcome!

[sadaist]

Hi everyone, been a fan of Van Halen since 1984, and i saw them live at the Donnington Monsters of Rock Festival in the UK on 18th August 1984, one of their last shows with Roth before they split.

Awesome! Welcome to the asylum!

Is that Donnington show the one we can see the Hot For teacher footage? Bet that was a helluva show.

[bang 2 rites]

Yes, the BBC filmed parts of the 1984 Castle Donington Monsters of Rock Festival, and your right, they were awesome. I was still a school kid, 15 years old. Motley Crue, Gary Moore, Ozzy Osbourne and ACDC were all on the same bill, but Van Halen were so on form, at the height of their career, and they blew everyone else off the stage that day. Roth even pinched some woman's ass, I don't know why she was in the VIP area of the stage, whether she was a journalist, a photographer or whatever, but she was furious with him, spun round, and slapped him, real hard. He didn't care, didn't give a stuff, he was flying that day.
I remember the sky full of 2 litre bottles of coke flying overhead above the crowd, only by the time Van Halen took to the stage, they no longer contained coca cola, they were now full of piss. Roth did his now infamous 'Hey who threw that bottle on stage? But it's ok, cause I know who threw that bottle, and after the show pal, I'm gonna f*ck your girlfriend'. The crowd were like barbarians, and they were going crazy for Van Halen. Later in the set the same plastic bottles were being burnt in fires on the outside of the field sending thick black smoke high up into the sky.
Roth did say towards the end of the set, when they were playing You Really Got Me, 'were gonna take a little bit of film back to the US, to show them how England F*cking well does it!' and addressing the crowd, and probably referring to the comparisons of the bands that would be made by the media, 'Castle Donington Rock Festival, you are the stars of the show today', and again the cowd went absolutely wild. Roth knew exactly what he was doing that day and he had the whole of the 68,000 crowd lapping it up.
The UK press were already looking for cracks in the Van Halen camp. I read that while they were at Donington, Roth had slept with Alex's wife, Alex wasn't talking to his wife, blaming her, but was still talking to Roth. It upset Eddie so much that he refused to talk to Roth, and also wasn't talking to his brother Alex, cause he, Eddie couldn't get over that Alex was still talking to Roth. At the same time, Michael Anthony wasn't talking to Roth, cause Roth wouldn't let him borrow his hairdryer. The BBC were supposed to film an interview with the band, but only could interview Roth and Alex, cause the were the only two willing to talk to each other on camera. What a mess. No wonder it all fell apart. I will look out the newspaper clippings that broke this news at the time. Watching them onstage that day, you never would have guessed, that behind the scenes they were falling apart.

[Seshmeister]

I think maybe the hair dryer thing, at least, was a joke.

[SunisinuS]

Yea well I have seen you Seshmeister when your hair dryer goes missing and you go apeshit.

[fifth element]

Hi everyone, been a fan of Van Halen since 1984, and i saw them live at the Donnington Monsters of Rock Festival in the UK on 18th August 1984, one of their last shows with Roth before they split.

Welcome!

[VAiN]

Welcome aboard! Maybe you'll get some VH in 2012!

[GennyVH]

Welcome!!!

Hi from Italy!!!

[Diamondjimi]

[PETE'S BROTHER]

welcome to the show

[bang 2 rites]

Yes, the BBC filmed parts of the 1984 Castle Donington Monsters of Rock Festival, and your right, they were awesome. I was still a school kid, 15 years old. Motley Crue, Gary Moore, Ozzy Osbourne and ACDC were all on the same bill, but Van Halen were so on form, at the height of their career, and they blew everyone else off the stage that day. Roth even pinched some woman's ass, I don't know why she was in the VIP area of the stage, whether she was a journalist, a photographer or whatever, but she was furious with him, spun round, and slapped him, real hard. He didn't care, didn't give a stuff, he was flying that day.
I remember the sky full of 2 litre bottles of coke flying overhead above the crowd, only by the time Van Halen took to the stage, they no longer contained coca cola, they were now full of piss. Roth did his now infamous 'Hey who threw that bottle on stage? But it's ok, cause I know who threw that bottle, and after the show pal, I'm gonna f*ck your girlfriend'. The crowd were like barbarians, and they were going crazy for Van Halen. Later in the set the same plastic bottles were being burnt in fires on the outside of the field sending thick black smoke high up into the sky.
Roth did say towards the end of the set, when they were playing You Really Got Me, 'were gonna take a little bit of film back to the US, to show them how England F*cking well does it!' and addressing the crowd, and probably referring to the comparisons of the bands that would be made by the media, 'Castle Donington Rock Festival, you are the stars of the show today', and again the cowd went absolutely wild. Roth knew exactly what he was doing that day and he had the whole of the 68,000 crowd lapping it up.
The UK press were already looking for cracks in the Van Halen camp. I read that while they were at Donington, Roth had slept with Alex's wife, Alex wasn't talking to his wife, blaming her, but was still talking to Roth. It upset Eddie so much that he refused to talk to Roth, and also wasn't talking to his brother Alex, cause he, Eddie couldn't get over that Alex was still talking to Roth. At the same time, Michael Anthony wasn't talking to Roth, cause Roth wouldn't let him borrow his hairdryer. The BBC were supposed to film an interview with the band, but only could interview Roth and Alex, cause the were the only two willing to talk to each other on camera. What a mess. No wonder it all fell apart. I will look out the newspaper clippings that broke this news at the time. Watching them onstage that day, you never would have guessed, that behind the scenes they were falling apart.

I think maybe the hair dryer thing, at least, was a joke.

I'm not too sure that it was a joke as it has since been referred to, on various occaisions, in the media in europe. Maybe it started out as joke on Dave's part, but all indications are that Michael didn't see it that way. The tension between David Lee Roth and Michael Anthony over his hairdryer had been running all the way through the 1984 tour.

It's even documented on the Panama video, see the attached still below, where Roth is exclusively giving the benefit of his hairdryer to Eddie. And look at Mike's face, his expression is worth a thousand words.

In 1991, as part of the promotion for 'A Little Aint Enough', Dave was being interviewed by a French TV production company for a programme called Rapido, in which the presenter Antoine de Caunes stated that 'Van Halen band members fell out and broke up in 1985 after David Lee Roth refused to let the Van Halen bass player (note that he didn't name him which has become typical of Roth) use his hairdryer because the bass player was ugly.'

Not sure how to validate this without questioning Roth or Anthony directly, unless some crazy person walked into a Chickenfoot concert, with a hairdryer and held it up when Mike was on stage, and noted his reaction. I don't know if anyone on this site knows anyone crazy enough to try and smuggle a hairdryer into a Chickenfoot concert?

[chefcraig]

I seriously doubt anyone on this site is dumb enough (or for that matter knows anyone dumb enough) to attend a Chickenfoot concert.

There, fixed that for ya. It seems to flow a bit better.

[binnie]

New blood from the UK?

Good times.

[little_dreamer]

Hi and welcome from another one in the UK.