Van Halen Donnington 1984

[Seshmeister]

If he bought it from the Noel Monk estate, he may actually "own" it.

That would need to be a court looking back at the original contracts but I doubt Monk would have paid for it out of his own pocket which would mean it was either owned by the band or the record company or jointly since Monk would be using band money as their agent. Since Van Halen by all accounts signed a terrible 'Motown' style 1970s record contract IMHO chances are there will be a clause that gives ownership to the record company.

[Von Halen]

I might agree, but this was a public auction. You think WB didn't know what stuff Monk's estate was selling? If they owned that, they'd have claimed it. Same with Al or Fatgang.

[Seshmeister]

I might agree, but this was a public auction. You think WB didn't know what stuff Monk's estate was selling? If they owned that, they'd have claimed it. Same with Al or Fatgang.

I could totally imagine them all missing this. They will all know now though when it's all over the Classic Rock site(s) and you have Neil Schone tweeting the end of the video @ Yoko Bertinelli.

[Seshmeister]

[Terry]

I think the current internet theory based on some evidence is that this is a collector/dealer who bought the tape from Noel Monk's estate. He had been selling it to private collectors and one of them decided it should be made public either because he is just a fan and thought that after 39 fucking years we deserved to see it or because the sale had been made under the terms of it being exclusive and then then found out he had been conned because it was being sold to multiple people.

I've seen some sheepish fans on social media say that the guy who put this into the public domain should be outed so he can be punished by Van Halen lawyers and I couldn't disagree more.

39 years they have done nothing with this or anything else - footage of a public event in front of 65 000 people. Plus presumably Noel Monk's estate got a little bit of cash for it and maybe he could have been treated a bit better by VH Inc back in the day. Who knows but he did help generate an huge amount of money for WB especially and tens of millions for the band members.

I understand bands (and obviously record companies) want to get paid for their work.

With Van Halen, I've basically had a "fuck 'em" attitude toward when the bootlegs surfaced, in that - as you say - the band have done ziltch over the years with the live Roth stuff...yet the band put out...what...3 live video releases with Hagar and a live album with Hagar?

I'd a been happy to pay over $100 a decade back for a multi-disc live CVH set. Wouldn't have been upset in the least with shows such as Donnington in terms of the quality of the footage or audio.

Now - again, as you say - it's too late for a dvd format release. The Van Halens waited too long and that technology has passed them by. If bootleggers wanna upload the stuff online and I get to watch it for free, I'll feel about as bad as I did during the late 1990s through 2010 or so when I was trading for boots of 1982 Largo or 1981 Memphis or 1983 Argentina, which is to say I won't feel bad in the least.

I don't even blame Ed's kid for this stuff not being out there for sale, because this stuff should have been out there for sale before the kid was even in the band.

It was cool to see the Donnington show beyond that previously circulated HFT clip.

[Seshmeister]

Van Halen are that rarest of things a band that signed a shitty record contract who were so successful they still made(and have) tens of millions of $ in the bank.

One of the reasons for this is they just happened to be lucky enough to have their albums all bought twice because they were in the sweet spot when CDs came out so tbh I have zero worries about the tiny loss of income to them that this release hypothetically costs them. It's their fault not mine that they made and continue to make so many bad decisions about how to sell their work.

This is the equivalent of taking something you spot sitting in the garbage can of your super rich neighbor.

[Nickdfresh]

Didn't Monk get them out of their initial contract (that was to be a permanent recurring one) by "throwing sand in their eyes" and throwing WB off so they missed the deadline resigning the contract?

[Von Halen]

Didn't Monk get them out of their initial contract (that was to be a permanent recurring one) by "throwing sand in their eyes" and throwing WB off so they missed the deadline resigning the contract?

Not sure if it was Monk, but that did happen.

[Terry]

Van Halen are that rarest of things a band that signed a shitty record contract who were so successful they still made(and have) tens of millions of $ in the bank.

One of the reasons for this is they just happened to be lucky enough to have their albums all bought twice because they were in the sweet spot when CDs came out so tbh I have zero worries about the tiny loss of income to them that this release hypothetically costs them. It's their fault not mine that they made and continue to make so many bad decisions about how to sell their work.

This is the equivalent of taking something you spot sitting in the garbage can of your super rich neighbor.

Particularly with the Roth stuff, where I purchased all that stuff on both vinyl and cassette in the 1980s, then repurchased it all again in the 1990s on cd.

At this point it was cool just to have the concert made available to watch simply to...you know, watch it. Before stuff like this degrades and is lost forever. Frankly, I don't care about what Eddie would have wanted or what his wishes were re: people seeing/hearing this stuff.

That's one aspect of boots I've always liked, in that despite the varying degrees of quality sound-wise you get a truthful representation of a live show rather than a show that has been fiddled with and overdubbed post-performance.

[Silexxx]

Someone made a "multicam" edit with the BBC footage of HOF.

[Vinnie Velvet]

Someone made a "multicam" edit with the BBC footage of HOF.

Wow thats great.

[Seshmeister]

At this point it was cool just to have the concert made available to watch simply to...you know, watch it. Before stuff like this degrades and is lost forever. Frankly, I don't care about what Eddie would have wanted or what his wishes were re: people seeing/hearing this stuff.

That's one aspect of boots I've always liked, in that despite the varying degrees of quality sound-wise you get a truthful representation of a live show rather than a show that has been fiddled with and overdubbed post-performance.

If you were just listening to this as an audio bootleg you would think that Eddie's lead up to the solo in 'On Fire' (12:40) was a bit sloppy and slightly below his usual level. Watching it you get to see he was playing it one handed while frantically signalling probably to get the drums louder through the monitor. It's not an impossible bit of guitar playing but it's pretty cool given the open E and he's probably rarely if ever played it that way before. He then goes straight from that to playing the solo absolutely perfectly while in his head he will still be processing the conversation wondering if he was understood and maybe even thinking about whether Roth just put his strapped up knee out because he just hobbled across him. Oh and did I mention knowing that the 130 000 eyes are now all staring at him because it's a guitar bit?

This is the difference between a total pro and all those people that can post a good take of the solo on YouTube sitting in their bedroom...it's an order of magnitude.

[Seshmeister]

Someone made a "multicam" edit with the BBC footage of HOF.

The BBC footage was always so fucking annoying because either the cameraman had fallen sudden and madly in love with Michael Antony or he somehow managed to mistake him for the lead guitarist. I had forgotten about the huge number of bottles the crowd were throwing at each other, the ones that landed on stage were probably accidental misses aimed at someone else.

[Vinnie Velvet]

If you were just listening to this as an audio bootleg you would think that Eddie's lead up to the solo in 'On Fire' (12:40) was a bit sloppy and slightly below his usual level. Watching it you get to see he was playing it one handed while frantically signalling probably to get the drums louder through the monitor. It's not an impossible bit of guitar playing but it's pretty cool given the open E and he's probably rarely if ever played it that way before. He then goes straight from that to playing the solo absolutely perfectly while in his head he will still be processing the conversation wondering if he was understood and maybe even thinking about whether Roth just put his strapped up knee out because he just hobbled across him. Oh and did I mention knowing that the 130 000 eyes are now all staring at him because it's a guitar bit?

This is the difference between a total pro and all those people that can post a good take of the solo on YouTube sitting in their bedroom...it's an order of magnitude.

It showcases that Ed and the rest of the band really paid their dues and perfected their chops playing clubs and backyard parties for years before areans.

[Terry]

If you were just listening to this as an audio bootleg you would think that Eddie's lead up to the solo in 'On Fire' (12:40) was a bit sloppy and slightly below his usual level. Watching it you get to see he was playing it one handed while frantically signalling probably to get the drums louder through the monitor. It's not an impossible bit of guitar playing but it's pretty cool given the open E and he's probably rarely if ever played it that way before. He then goes straight from that to playing the solo absolutely perfectly while in his head he will still be processing the conversation wondering if he was understood and maybe even thinking about whether Roth just put his strapped up knee out because he just hobbled across him. Oh and did I mention knowing that the 130 000 eyes are now all staring at him because it's a guitar bit?

This is the difference between a total pro and all those people that can post a good take of the solo on YouTube sitting in their bedroom...it's an order of magnitude.

You wonder how many of these bedroom youtuber guitarists would even be able to avoid shitting themselves in front of 130,000 in a live situation when you've got that one shot at getting it right vs. sitting in the comfort of their houses recording as many takes as needed to get the perfect one to post online. Never mind the chances these youtubers will ever be able to come up with something of their own worth hearing vs. copying someone else's material.

I caught that On Fire pre-solo bit where Ed's sort of legato hammer fretting the riff while simultaneously signaling offstage to have Al's drums turned up louder in the onstage monitors...he was a total pro, indeed.