Van Halen Donnington 1984

[Rikk]

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.

See, this is where having guitar players on the site helps. I play drums and sing...I would never have noticed that.

Edward was truly amazing. (I still maintain that his playing never got technically better after the 1984 era, but maybe guitar players here would know better than me.)

[Seshmeister]

Dunno never listened to it.

[Seshmeister]

I'm exaggerating but only a bit. I pretty much didn't listen to 23 years of his career at all.

Quite a lot of people don't improve a huge amount after a certain point. I now practice mainly to not get worse. I remember reading an interview with Hank Marvin where he said he hadn't improved at all between 1964 and 1989.

It's a bit odd when it's your full time job though. Look at Lars Ulrich.

[Rikk]

I'm exaggerating but only a bit. I pretty much didn't listen to 23 years of his career at all.

I won't lie and claim I didn't listen to Eddie the years after his work on 1984...but not with the same closeness and admiration. I never noticed him truly develop past that. But just from my ears alone (again, I don't play guitar), TOP JIMMY sounds pretty insane compared to some of the stuff off the first album (which was also stunning work).

But after that, Eddie just didn't seem inspired to be a guitar hero to the same degree. I love A DIFFERENT KIND OF TRUTH, but he's still using his same bag o' tricks (even down to the songs themselves).

[Rikk]

It's a bit odd when it's your full time job though. Look at Lars Ulrich.

As a drummer, I can say I agree with you about Lars. He hasn't improved in any way since, at least, ...AND JUSTICE FOR ALL. But I won't buy some people's claims that he is a bad drummer. That's nonsense. He's still creative and plays with dexterity and skill.

He's just no Dave Lombardo...or Nick Menza...or John Bonham, for that matter.

[Seshmeister]

Don't want this thread to go off topic too much (yet at least) but this is probably the worst attempt at a cover by a professional drummer I have ever seen.

Why didn't he just say no guys I can't play that. Actually why didn't the rest of the band? Its totally inexplicable...

[Terry]

I won't lie and claim I didn't listen to Eddie the years after his work on 1984...but not with the same closeness and admiration. I never noticed him truly develop past that. But just from my ears alone (again, I don't play guitar), TOP JIMMY sounds pretty insane compared to some of the stuff off the first album (which was also stunning work).

But after that, Eddie just didn't seem inspired to be a guitar hero to the same degree. I love A DIFFERENT KIND OF TRUTH, but he's still using his same bag o' tricks (even down to the songs themselves).

Post-1984, Ed didn't do much that wowed me from a guitarist standpoint, or much of anything that made me want to learn how to play it. About the only thing after Roth left that I recall trying to figure out was the title track from 5150. I also thought Pleasuredome was interesting in terms of the guitar work.

[Rikk]

Post-1984, Ed didn't do much that wowed me from a guitarist standpoint, or much of anything that made me want to learn how to play it. About the only thing after Roth left that I recall trying to figure out was the title track from 5150. I also thought Pleasuredome was interesting in terms of the guitar work.

Yup. There are some admirable tracks here and there. Sammy just tends to ruin them.

But PLEASURE DOME is maybe the only thing I can say I actually like off F.U.C.K. (in my opinion, the worst VH album ever...even worse than VHIII). It's proggy, it's interesting (musically)... But those were certainly the times of slim pickins from VH.

"5150" (the song) is also pretty good for Van Hagar. I also like BLACK 'N' BLUE (though, lyrically, it's fucking terrible).

[Terry]

Yup. There are some admirable tracks here and there. Sammy just tends to ruin them.

But PLEASURE DOME is maybe the only thing I can say I actually like off F.U.C.K. (in my opinion, the worst VH album ever...even worse than VHIII). It's proggy, it's interesting (musically)... But those were certainly the times of slim pickins from VH.

"5150" (the song) is also pretty good for Van Hagar. I also like BLACK 'N' BLUE (though, lyrically, it's fucking terrible).

Pleasuredome I like far as the guitar work because it was creative...something that didn't sound lazy or recycled, two words that describe the bulk of Van Hagar's output...even in terms of the instrumentation, most of the Van Hagar stuff didn't come off as inspired or smack of the band making much of an effort. With 5150, the band was for the most part making an effort. Didn't care for the bulk of the results, but they were still trying. Black and Blue always came off to me as something lazy and recycled.

But, yeah, by and large for me the best Ed had to offer was served up on those first 6 albums.

[Silexxx]

Another one. Uploader says in the description that he tried to clean up the video and improve the audio. Now it's maybe little bit out of sync but hey, they haven't taken this down.. Yet.

One thing I have noticed that every one of these uploads have easily have almost 100k views in a very short time before they have been taken down. So I would say there's definitely interest for official CVH video release.

I would also argue that it could still sell even if the days of music dvds are over. Box set could be cool. But I remember many GnR fans were pissed when they finally last year released the Ritz '91 show on a shiny 4k remastered bluray and it was only available if you ordered this the huge ass Use Your Illusion box set. But they still bought it because it was something that was never released.

[Rikk]

I would also argue that it could still sell even if the days of music dvds are over. Box set could be cool. But I remember many GnR fans were pissed when they finally last year released the Ritz '91 show on a shiny 4k remastered bluray and it was only available if you ordered this the huge ass Use Your Illusion box set. But they still bought it because it was something that was never released.

You're 100% right on this one.

I have noticed that there has been an increasing number of physical releases in the last year. Disney made a vow a couple years back that they were almost done with physical releases. THEN...they not only released the entire Star Wars series in 4K (Episodes I-IX...really good set...I bought it, though I hate THE LAST JEDI and RISE OF SKYWALKER) but now they just announced the first two seasons of THE MANDALORIAN in Blu-Ray. There is a market for physical releases still.

I just bought the box set of Clapton's 24 NIGHTS series. 6 CDs, 3 Blu-Rays. Great set.

Creedence Clearwater Revival found all the film cans of their 1970 Royal Albert Hall concert and the multi-track masters. They put together a brand new concert film, newly-mixed, edited & remastered. The box set is limited (official website only)...I got one. Beautiful set. BUT...it's also showing on Netflix.

There is a market for this sort of stuff still...even just streaming sometimes.

If the original Van Halen released a concert film, there would be a market.

FUCK WOLFGANG! That walking giant plum may try and keep disrespecting fans, but the hunger for original VH archive material will be there.

...even the reunion years. Could he really justify not releasing a Blu-Ray of the reunion band doing a concert? Would it be so bad for him to have a concert film out there of he and his dad playing together in Van Halen? I wouldn't be as excited about that as I would something from the original years, but it would still be Dave...it would still be something. (The band apparently not only archived digital multitrack of every single show since Dave rejoined but they also kept an archive of each show, professionally-shot.)

[ZahZoo]

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 found some more details on the origins of this gem... allegedly someone stole a copy of this from Pacific Titles. This is the very tapes listed on the inventory sheets that have circulated on the net for years every time discussions come up on what's "in the vaults".

Here's 2 posts from the guy who put this up on YT...

https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/van-halen-live-at-donington-1984-16mm-transfer-mono-audio-67-min.1182362/

Here's the deal...
I got sent a link to download this show if I promised to create a YT Channel and upload it for all the fans.

This is the best footage of VH on the 1984 tour. It's killer.
Four shows later they were done, never to play again together in the original lineup.

Technical details and other nerdy stuff:
This was shot with one camera on 16mm film
by British Cinematographer Steve Alcorn.
The audio is mono, and is not soundboard.
It's a single mic onstage, near the speakers
and you can hear everything clearly.

There was another camera at this show, covering part of it for the
BBC show "Old Grey Whistle Test".
That video is on YT as well and that's the only the footage
everyone has seen from this show until now.

My guess is that this camera was working for Van Halen/Warner Bros.
because he has access to the whole stage and is allowed to go anywhere.
This footage was probably transferred at Pacific Title to video tape
and put on a shelf at Pacific Title until someone "liberated" it a few years ago.|
Here's a one page photocopy of the original ledger of VH media at Pacific Title.
Donnington footage is listed at the top.

archive08 — Postimages


Enjoy!
And NO BOZO's
Last edited: Sunday at 9:08 PM
jammybastard, Sunday at 9:00 PM#1

Just to be clear this doesn't come from VH world. This show was released in Japan on DVD earlier this year b/c someone stole a copy from the VH media vault.
[IMG]

I got the link to the master file from someone who's well known in the VH fan community but wanted to remain anonymous.
They offered me the master file if I would create a YT channel and put it up in an effort to beat the bootleggers.
Now the link to the master file has been posted to Reddit as well.
Good times if you are a fan. We'll see how long it all stay online and available.

[Vinnie Velvet]

Seeing Mike, Al and Dave at the bottom of the staircase getting ready for the show is so great. Its truly like time travelling to that period.

You can see Noel, Big Ed Anderson.....Pete Angelus is off to the right and everyone else in the VH crew.

And then Rudy Leirin conversing with Dave before going on stage and then actually seeing him deliver the famous "...mighty Van halen!!" intro.

[Rikk]

Seeing Mike, Al and Dave at the bottom of the staircase getting ready for the show is so great. Its truly like time travelling to that period.

You can see Noel, Big Ed Anderson.....Pete Angelus is off to the right and everyone else in the VH crew.

And then Rudy Leirin conversing with Dave before going on stage and then actually seeing him deliver the famous "...mighty Van halen!!" intro.

I was literally scrolling through YouTube in my home theater a few nights ago (to be honest, I was clicking on some freaking Karen videos because they crack me up).

THEN...I see something saying "Van Halen Donington"...and at first, I was going to skip over it, thinking it was just the same HOT FOR TEACHER footage. Then I saw how long the video was and I suddenly stared at the link pic.

I then clicked on it, furrowing my brow. I started staring at the footage, seeing Alex, Dave and everyone walking up that staircase. I then started watching the concert. I FREAKED!

I ran upstairs, ran over to my computer, copied the link into my YouTube downloading program and immediately DOWNLOADED THE FUCK OUT OF THE FOOTAGE. It took about 45 seconds to download the hour plus footage, but I was nervous that somehow the link was going to be taken down before it finished downloading.

The Holy Fucking Grail. I still can't believe we have this footage now.

[Seshmeister]

Seeing Mike, Al and Dave at the bottom of the staircase getting ready for the show is so great. Its truly like time travelling to that period.

You can see Noel, Big Ed Anderson.....Pete Angelus is off to the right and everyone else in the VH crew.

And then Rudy Leirin conversing with Dave before going on stage and then actually seeing him deliver the famous "...mighty Van halen!!" intro.

And then forgets to give Dave the fucking mike.