'Could This Be Magic: Van Halen Before 1978' by Elizabeth Wiley (New Book)

[VHscraps]

Pics of the band that you have never seen before in this book, Could This Be Magic: Van Halen Before 1978 by Elizabeth Wiley.

I originally posted this somewhere else in a thread about what books people were reading, but it'll get lost there, and I figured you'd all want to see these images.



I just downloaded it on Kindle for £2.66 - it is a very sparse memoir of the time the author knew the guys in the band. Well worth the small cost. She apparently worked for Roth's father at some point, and followed Mammoth and Van Halen around, starched up Dave's denims, and took pictures, a lot of which are lost (or were given to an early manager).

There's 3 pics of Dave with an acoustic guitar when, in her words, 'he was playing clubs as a solo artist'. She is not very good on remembering dates, but it seems this was probably 1972. One photo from around this time has been in circulation on the internet for years, but these three I have never seen. Interesting to see how Dave is dressed - flared kind of check / tartan strides with turn-ups and platform shoes.

4 pics of Alex, rehearsing at a practice room with Mammoth. These, she says, were taken a year before the performance shot on the cover, which was 1973 - that means 1972.

3 Ed pics from 72-73. Performing at some outdoors highschool venue (1973), and in the rehearsal room (1972). Like the Dave and Alex ones, I have seen one shot before which is not in the book, but has been circulating for years on the internet.

2 pics of Mark Stone at rehearsal (he's on the cover as well), 1972. He has one of those plexi-glass basses.

4 pics of Van Halen on stage - Dave, Ed and Al. She says 'it could be as late as 1975 or 1976', but earlier she says that she never took any photos with Mike Anthony in the band, so it is probably more like '74, before Mike joined. These are interesting for the period detail. Dave has a very glam hairdo that to me says '1973' or '1974'. I remember as a kid when people wore their hair like that. If he wasn't wearing denims, he could fit right into The Sweet, or something.

I'd recommend it - it costs very little on the Kindle.

See: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1466929294/ref=rdr_ext_tmb

[chefcraig]

Totally unseen VH pics?! I'll be taking a look at this - if only for the pics. I think I've seen some of her photos, and always wondered where / when they were from.

See more at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1466929294/ref=rdr_ext_tmb

GOOD LORD, THAT WAS ME IN 1977! Strangely enough, I don't recall visiting California in the late seventies, then again I fail to recall very much of the 1980s, either. Hell, a good part of the 1990s are a blur as well.

[VHscraps]

I have read it - it's only a few thousand words set around the photos.

She is the 'Liz Wiley' who is on the thanks list on the first VH album. It rambles a bit at times, but there are enough interesting little nuggets of detail in it. Her sister managed Dave's band, Red Ball Jet, and then for a while the early incarnation of Van Halen.

She mentions VH playing at what sounds like sex industry parties a couple of times - 'Freaker's Balls'... that was a new one on me.

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Loving the Mark Stone pic....

[Romeo Delight]

GOOD LORD, THAT WAS ME IN 1977! Strangely enough, I don't recall visiting California in the late seventies, then again I fail to recall very much of the 1980s, either. Hell, a good part of the 1990s are a blur as well.

Are you kidding me?

When I saw that pic I was saying to myself...imagine being that guy just standing there listening to a Cream jam or something.

Very cool

[VHscraps]

Loving the Mark Stone pic....

A detail of one of the other Mark Stone pics taken as a screenshot on my iPhone from the kindle reader

[TJMKID]

Any chance you can scan all the photos from this book and post them here?

[chefcraig]

Any chance you can scan all the photos from this book and post them here?

From a legal standpoint, that could be a very tricky situation, since the material is clearly listed as copyrighted.

[DavidLeeNatra]

From a legal standpoint, that could be a very tricky situation, since the material is clearly listed as copyrighted.

post them at the links or some other Hagar-site and link them here...so they got sued

[Momshell]

Pics of the band that you have never seen before in this book, Could This Be Magic: Van Halen Before 1978 by Elizabeth Wiley.

I originally posted this somewhere else in a thread about what books people were reading, but it'll get lost there, and I figured you'd all want to see these images.

Thanks for the info VHScraps - just ordered my copy on Amazon!

[Diamondjimi]

I heard Mark Stone went into cartoons after VH...



;biggrin:

[Cato]

cool Ampeg bass....

[DLR Bridge]

Man, when I watch the VH Early Years Documentary, I always feel so bad for this guy. He probably spent a lot of time reliving the day Ed and Al gave him the boot in his head. He should write a book.

[VHscraps]

Didn't Eddie once say he left to go to college to study to be a chemist, or something?! Or he was too fond of building LSD molecules, whatever that means ... yeah, there's got to be a lot of people in his position, just missing the big breakthrough. Pete Best of the Beatles, who was replaced by Ringo when they were in Hamburg, is one of the guys who must've been wondering 'what if' (reputedly he was too good looking and got too much female attention).

There's a wiki page for Mark Stone (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Stone_(musician)). It says he was at Eddie's 1981 wedding, so must've been in touch at some level back then.

Someone should insert that pic on the wiki page - I dunno how to do it.

[VHscraps]

I don't want to infringe this lady's copyright, so I won't scan the images - she deserves to make some cash for the pics alone, seeing as these are the only ones of real early Van Halen.

But, I have taken a photograph of a page spread with a CD to give you a sense of the size of the book. I don't think these can be copied and reused in any useful way. The book's on Letter size paper, a very thin book, but obviously the photographs are the main selling point. It's a pity, as she says in the book, that these are all that's left of the photos she took.

[VHscraps]

One thing I've noticed in some of these early pics in the book is that there is a guy playing keyboards - a Wurlitzer and Farsifa. On the cover pic, at the top of this thread, you can see his gear and the top of his head, just between Alex and Mark Stone.

Anyone know anything about the identity of this guy?

In the last page-spread image I posted, his gear is also onstage to the right of Dave as you look at the pic - although you can't see him in those shots.

[Monkeeman]

It might have been cool if the lady who wrote the book had got in touch with Mike Stone and got him to add his rememberances to flesh out the text. I am sure Mike must have some photos and memorabilia that he could have added to the book too.

[DLR Bridge]

Alex would mention from time to time in earlier interviews that when he first met Dave, he had the "Bowie Haircut". I would say that pic on the right smacks of Bowie.

[TJMKID]

Alex would mention from time to time in earlier interviews that when he first met Dave, he had the "Bowie Haircut". I would say that pic on the right smacks of Bowie.

Dave was heading down the path towards being a Ziggy Stardust clone ---- thankfully he caught a Black Oak Arkansas gig on the Sunset Strip and things turned out for the better

[FORD]

Alex would mention from time to time in earlier interviews that when he first met Dave, he had the "Bowie Haircut". I would say that pic on the right smacks of Bowie.

Actually, I was about to say it looked identical to Mick Ronson's haircut at the time. Same band anyway......

[DLR Bridge]

Good pernt!

[jst4horses]

I wrote this book because my son found the negatives, and I was working on a project to build three tiered housing and therapy villages for veterans. I gave the entire book and every single penny it earns to the National Homes for Heroes/Spirit Horse II program. They do not use one penny of the money for administrative costs. It all goes to the horses and to support the equine therapy program, and to build the tier one and two housing. If anyone knows Cathi's last name, or where she is, she probably has all the rest of the photographs from those years. The keyboard player is Pewsey, from Altadena. He declined to put on the glitter and glam wear and moved on to a different type of life.

[jst4horses]

I ran into Mark one day when I was living in Sierra Madre, and just came out and asked him if he felt bitter or bad over not being in Van Halen. He said no. I believe him. His cartoons are really fun and I think his life seems happier now than when I knew him. Maybe he was just meant to be a happy cartoonist, than a late to rehearsal one too many times guitar player

[SunisinuS]

I ran into Mark one day when I was living in Sierra Madre, and just came out and asked him if he felt bitter or bad over not being in Van Halen. He said no. I believe him. His cartoons are really fun and I think his life seems happier now than when I knew him. Maybe he was just meant to be a happy cartoonist, than a late to rehearsal one too many times guitar player

Hard life to be in Van Halen...like Dave later and many of us....just nice to watch those Horses and Dogs run.....

[VHscraps]

I wrote this book because my son found the negatives, and I was working on a project to build three tiered housing and therapy villages for veterans. I gave the entire book and every single penny it earns to the National Homes for Heroes/Spirit Horse II program. They do not use one penny of the money for administrative costs. It all goes to the horses and to support the equine therapy program, and to build the tier one and two housing. If anyone knows Cathi's last name, or where she is, she probably has all the rest of the photographs from those years. The keyboard player is Pewsey, from Altadena. He declined to put on the glitter and glam wear and moved on to a different type of life.

Thanks for putting out the book, Elizabeth. I love your pictures. It is not only very rare to see photos from before 1978, but also to hear stories from those days, and what it was like around the people who became the band. They have never really revealed much about their early years, so as someone who has been interested in those early years, I found your stories fascinating.

As to the identity of Cathi - was her second name 'Coutant', I wonder?

The reason that occurs to me is that for years some of your pics, which are not in your book (so maybe some of the ones you lost or gave away), have been floating around the internet - except no-one knew who took them. The source for these pics was a website that seemed to be about types of microphones used in recording!

http://www.coutant.org/

There's three Van Halen pics, and I'm wondering if the are negatives that ended up with Cathi? The text on the page refers to a 'Kathy', whose hands can be seen on the keyboards in one of the pics:

http://www.coutant.org/vanhalen/index.html

So, perhaps this Kathy is your Cathi, and connected to this 'Coutant' person - Prof. S. O. Coutant, who taught at Pasadena City College, according to the signature at the bottom of this page:

http://www.coutant.org/1.html

[katina]

I wrote this book because my son found the negatives, and I was working on a project to build three tiered housing and therapy villages for veterans. I gave the entire book and every single penny it earns to the National Homes for Heroes/Spirit Horse II program. They do not use one penny of the money for administrative costs. It all goes to the horses and to support the equine therapy program, and to build the tier one and two housing. If anyone knows Cathi's last name, or where she is, she probably has all the rest of the photographs from those years. The keyboard player is Pewsey, from Altadena. He declined to put on the glitter and glam wear and moved on to a different type of life.

I apologize for posting so late here. Just last week I recieved your excellent book with your fascinating stories from the early VH years.
I am also glad for contributing with this purchase with National Homes for Heroes/Spirit Horse II program.

[WhoCares?]

I believe I remember reading an interview with Eddie where he states they used to play with a keyboard player & how he hated it because the keyboardist was a very busy player & it didn't allow Ed to play his fills

By the way, since I now know why this book was written, I too will be ordering & will tell friends about it too

[ZahZoo]

Alex would mention from time to time in earlier interviews that when he first met Dave, he had the "Bowie Haircut". I would say that pic on the right smacks of Bowie.

Back around 75 we had two kids who'd moved to California from London, UK and went to my high school... they had the same hair cuts. We called them "Fag-Shags" back then...