When did you first get floored by VH and what were you doing...

[Carloscda]

For me it was a Friday night around 12:30am, watching this little show on ch 17 Don Kirshner's Rock Concert. The Mighty Van Halen come on with the 3 Holy Grail videos...Hear About it Later, So this is Love followed up by Unchained!!

Dave flying all over the stage, Al massive kit going crazy, Ed blazing away & Mike on vocals.

Hooked every since!!

[BumBahDeeDah]

A display for VHII fell on me in Sam Goody when I was 12.....

[DONNIEP]

A display for VHII fell on me in Sam Goody when I was 12.....

Post of the day right there - don't even try to top it

[fraroc]

Unfortunatly being so young, I can't relate to many of these stories....but what really got me into Van Halen was hearing Jump and Runnin' With The Devil when I was only four years old. Then in 2004 when I was 12 years old, I began to listen to whole albums using Windows Media Player and my world was blown open. I remember being so jealous of my dad when he saw Van Halen on his own in 2004 at the Meadowlands. I regret that now, hearing all of the horror storries from that tour about Ed being drunk and playing like shit. And of course Mr. Banana (awful yellow outfit, you should know who I'm talkin' about) didn't help either.

[Bowanna]

it was Summer of 1979 in my friend, Epo's garage. He was 5 years older than me and he not only had had VH ll on cassette but he also had a tape recorder to play it on. The boombox craze was a couple christmas' away. I really can't remember hearing VH l until after these episodes. I remember "You're no good", "Women in love" and beautiful Girls being my favorite at the time. I was 10 years old so as I got older and could understand the content of songs more the others appealed to me more. I remember enjoying the heaviness of their pop so much. I grew up listen to The Beatles, Motown R&B and Soul from my mom and Deep Purple, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper from my step dad so their sound was truly the best of both worlds to me... No pun intended. The following spring break, Epo came down to the pool we were hanging out at with his new LP, Women and Children First.

I was a big KISS fan until I heard VH... KISS who?

[ELVIS]

I was riding my bike with my cassette recorder radio in Panama City on friday night in 1980...

I listened to the entire debut of WACF and was blown away. I remember it like it was just the other day...

The following christmas I got VHII and it's been my favorite ever since...

[ZahZoo]

There was a thread or two around here on this subject... Feb 1978... I was working at the Record Plant studio in Sausalito, Ca cleaning up Studio A after an all-nighter recording session. My close friend and bass player walked in with the record and said... "Remember that punk we've been in hearing about in Southern California? You got to listen to this shit..." We spun it up and cranked the studio monitors and everything in the complex stopped and everyone proceeded to listen to it 3 times... with their jaws on the floor...

[ELVIS]

How did they get their jaws off of the floor ??

[chefcraig]

From the "How many of you actually have seen Van Halen live?" thread.

It was April of 1978. My friends and I had gone to Sid's Records in the Lakes Mall to get tickets for Ronnie Montrose, who was touring on his amazing Open Fire instrumental solo album. We were perplexed that Montrose was not at the top of the bill, instead sandwiched between two bands we'd never heard of, Journey at the top and Van Halen at the bottom. Having unknowns open the show was nothing new at the Hollywood Sportatorium, which was little more than a concrete bunker with a leaky roof a million miles from no where in the middle of the Everglades, used to promote live stock sales, car shows and the occasional concert. Usually, these groups would be made up of has-beens and never-will-be types like Ginger Baker's Air Force, delivering unwanted drum solos on unsuspecting ticket buyers.

So it was with this sense of chagrin the news that VH and Journey were on the bill was greeted by me and my friends. That was until one of the record shop workers spun the first VH album for us, as a preview. The album had only been out for a couple of months by then, and since there was no radio play (let alone no internet), nobody had ever heard of it. Needless to say, it sounded pretty good, this despite the fact that the singer apparently stole everything he had from Black Oak Arkansas' Jim Dandy Mangrum. The guitar player was pretty astounding, too. Right then and there, it was agreed that we'd get to the show and rather than kill time in the parking lot getting loaded in order to miss the opening act, we'd get there early in order to get loaded in the parking lot and not miss the opener.

Van Halen did not disappoint, even though they only played for what seemed like 25 minutes. The singer pointed to the back in order to acknowledge his grandmother, who lived locally and never missed Dave when he pulled through town. (True story, this delightful little old lady became quite the fixture at VH and Roth solo shows over the years. I met her a few times, and she was always charming as hell. She really seemed to enjoy the attention she was receiving from all of the concert goers, and seemed to become everyone's favorite grandma.) The band played about seven or eight songs from that first album, the guitarist did a jaw-dropping solo, and then they were gone, despite pleas from the audience for more (so much for being a band low on the totem pole).

Ronnie Montrose came on, standing center stage and surrounded by two keyboards, a massive drum set and bassist, who were all above him on these tower-like structures. It was an astounding performance, as he worked his way through his solo record and one or two Montrose tunes done as instrumentals. To say these songs were vastly improved without Sammy Hagar's caterwauling would be an understatement. Anyway, these losers Journey (touring the ghastly Infinity album) finally came on, and roughly 3/4 of the audience headed for the exits, us included. Nobody had ever heard of them, and the reason for this was made abundantly clear by their first song, which consisted of some la-de-dahs, some fruity chord changes and a lead singer who seemed to believe he was the white Sam Cooke.

That was my very first exposure to live VH. Even playing for less than a half hour, they managed to make an impact on me during that first tour, and it would appear that I was not alone in that reaction. It also probably explains my life-long, sheer and utter contempt for Journey.

[Yount]

1984 came out when I was barely 1 year old, but with hypnotherapy, I'm sure I will tell you that my dad would play the video to jump almost every day on his VHS and my ears were saturated with VH goodness from a very early age. An exact moment? Harder to pinpoint.

In a weird way, being a sort of "B-type Van Halen fan" is a blessing. Van Halen have ALWAYS EXISTED in my world!! ha ha

I have many moments, each one escalating my interest to new heights.

But Cant get this stuff no more/Me wise magic and being in the moment of the '96 reunion was the flooring moment. And then reading Crazy From The Heat... that really knocked me for 6...

[motherchicken]

My best friend and myself end up right in front of the stage at The California World Music Festival as Van Halen hit the stage. We were so fucked up I don't even know how we managed to get there. I already liked Van Halen at the time but after that I was hooked. The only other band that played that show that was nearly that impressive was Cheap Trick. Van Halen didn't have any funky stage toys or scripted shenanigans. They just rocked the fuck out.

[knuckleboner]

borrowed a cousin's walkman in 1985. i hadn't ever heard one, and didn't care what was in it. as a 10 year old, my concept of rock and roll was billy joel's "it's still rock and roll to me" which i got on 45 for christmas. cassette in the walkman was 1984. i burned the batteries out playing, rewinding, and playing before i ever discovered side 2. when i finally found it? hot for teacher. now THAT'S rock and roll to me...

[ZahZoo]

How did they get their jaws off of the floor ??

This was the notorious studio that installed gas masks and had nitrous oxide delivered weekly... When the Grateful Dead or Fleetwood Mac worked there that place was a fucking party zoo.

[Never was]

March 31, 1980 I picked up Rush Permanent Waves and Van Halen Women and Children First from Record World on LI. Bought both because it was a sale get the second half price.

Was already a Rush fan but only heard a few VH tunes. Slapped the vinyl and was blown away. The energy jumped off the record and stuff like Loss Control was just stuff you did not hear, very unique. Went back next week this time the two I picked up were I and II. Was hooked till Dave left then bought another VH record till her returned.

[Hardrock69]

Sept. 29, 1978

I was watching them open for Black Sabbath in Seattle at the Seattle Center Coliseum.