The Great Mystery Of Rock -- Why No Live DLR DVD or Video?

[hambon4lif]

... the largo show almost feels like an intense dress rehearsal. are they really performing in front of an audience?
... touch the largo show up with an audio remix with bob rock or mike "the phrase that pays" fraser at the controls or with nothing at all and it's ready for immediate release ...

I dunno...I'm quite happy with the Largo & Venezuela vids I have already, as well as 2 different versions of the USfest.

What I'd love to get ahold of is any video pre-Fair-Warning, or especially '78 or '79, when they were young, hungry, and beat the living shit out of every other rock band on the planet. There has to be some footage, and they've got to know by now that there's a demand for it, and if they'd only put it out, it would sell. They're in "cash-in" mode more than ever right now, so WTF?!??

'79 Fresno....there's so much audio out there that there has to be video somewhere.

I refuse to think to this day that they didn't tape these shows...

[Va Beach VH Fan]

'79 Fresno....there's so much audio out there that there has to be video somewhere.

I refuse to think to this day that they didn't tape these shows...

Here ya go...

Dance the Night Away, You're No Good and Bottom's Up from Fresno '79...

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[Carloscda]

Here ya go...

Dance the Night Away, You're No Good and Bottom's Up from Fresno '79...

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Where's Mike at the end?

[hambon4lif]

Here ya go...

Dance the Night Away, You're No Good and Bottom's Up from Fresno '79...

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I dig these vids...these are the goods!

Bruce Gowers directed these vids (the current producer of American Idol). These are 3 clips. This was the very first show of their first headlining tour, and my guess is that, with someone like Dave in the band, they taped this entire show for posterity(?).

This show is most likely in the vault and doing nothing more than collecting dust. This was a brilliant show....their first headlining gig, and the '79 show had more improv musically than any other show that came after, and showed the band when they were establishing themselves. They could release the entire Fresno '79 show, and it would literally fly off the fucking shelf.

I guess you'd have to make them realize that by using marketing terms like "low-cost, high overhead", but I dig this fucking show....even if it's raw footage, and I know I'm not alone here.....

If nothing else, it could wake the band up to the fact that there's more than just a few million dollars laying right there in Eddies vault.

C'mon Ed....gimme a fuckin' break!!!

[dave_is_vh]

Here is the link Zahzoo provided sometime in the last two years regarding what was stored at Pacific Archives. Makes you wonder where this stuff is now.

VHTrading.com - The Van Halen Trade Site - Tour Files - Pacific Titles Archives List

This seems to indicate that there is a pro shot of the 1984 tour at the Capital Center.

If they have pro shot 1984 tour stuff and don't release it they should be shot.

http://www.vhtrading.com/vault/archive01.jpg

[FORD]

Never heard of Dragon or any demos... it's possible.

Dennis Dragon is the brother of Daryl "the Captain" Dragon (of Captain & Tennille fame) and he's also a founding member of the Surf Punks.

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That's him on the drums.

Though this is the first I've heard of him recording any VH demos. The only demos I ever heard of were the Cherokee studios demo from 74 (when Mark Stone was still on bass), the Gene Simmons demo, and the WB demo. If there are any others in the vaults of 5150 or Dennis Dragon's place, they certainly haven't been circulated.

[Va Beach VH Fan]

This seems to indicate that there is a pro shot of the 1984 tour at the Capital Center.

If they have pro shot 1984 tour stuff and don't release it they should be shot.

http://www.vhtrading.com/vault/archive01.jpg

From the VH encyclopedia:

3/25/84 Capital Centre, Largo, MD
Notes: Warner Brothers films this show.

3/26/84 Capital Centre, Largo, MD
Notes: Warner Brothers films this show.

[Terry]

For once, King Edward speaks the truth. The performance by the band is really crummy, with the instrumentalists at times sounding like three guys playing entirely different songs. And Roth's voice is in rough shape, sounding hoarse and out of breath throughout. This was at the point that the band really didn't seem to care about the quality of the shows all that much.

Once every six months or so, the footage from the US Festival shows up repackaged at Amazon. These releases are completely unauthorized, more often than not coming from an outfit named Classic Rock Legends. The reproduction is in most cases either ghastly or absurd, with misleading titles like Van Halen: Live Rarities. This release from 2008 featured a bizarre red, white and blue American flag border around the video image, thus letter boxing the footage into a strangely small window. (See below)

Do not purchase these things, as they are little more than hastily created rip-offs. There are far better recordings of this show out there on boots anyway (even though the performance itself is way below par), and more importantly, you can get them for free from many sources.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/02pmNMEu6Eo&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/02pmNMEu6Eo&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

At one point, Netflix had Van Halen Rarities slotted as soon to be available, than changed the status to unavailable.

The US Fest performance is probably the single most heavily bootlegged live show CVH ever did, in terms of what is on trading lists and availability. I'd have to agree with chef in advising newcomers NOT to pay for that show. I bought my own copy on vhs at a Mom and Pop record store around 1995, a year before I started going online at home, and quickly found out that the US Fest is one CVH show most traders will either give away as a bonus in a multi-disc trade or throw in for a couple of blank discs...I mean, when I was seriously trading, I'd get so many unrequested copies of the US Fest sent to me as a bonus that I actually had to state at the outset of a new trade that I did NOT want another copy of the US Fest.

If a newcomer wants it that badly to the point where they're willing to pay for it, PM me. I'll dupe a copy and mail it to you, FOC. There is CVH footage out there that is far more rare and actually worth paying for if one has to have it and can't get it in a trade than the US Fest.

[Hardrock69]

My 2 cents....I would love a pro-shot CVH show. No two ways about it.
But, as I have 4 or 5 good bootleg videos (Largo and US Fest are pro-shot obviously), I am not going to cry too much if it never happens.

I DO wish there was a pro-shot vid of them released from the first or second tours.

[dave_is_vh]

From the VH encyclopedia:

3/25/84 Capital Centre, Largo, MD
Notes: Warner Brothers films this show.

3/26/84 Capital Centre, Largo, MD
Notes: Warner Brothers films this show.

I would kill for good quality copies of these shows. Does anyone know where I could get a copy?

[PETE'S BROTHER]

call eddie, he's got 'em locked up.

[dave_is_vh]

I have Ed's mailing address. Maybe I should send him a letter.

[Va Beach VH Fan]

I would kill for good quality copies of these shows. Does anyone know where I could get a copy?

I've never seen the Largo '84 show anywhere....

'82 - yes, '84 - no....

[chefcraig]

I've never seen the Largo '84 show anywhere....

'82 - yes, '84 - no....

The closest I found was from the night before, in Veterans Memorial Coliseum - New Haven, CT - March 24, 1984. And that was an audience tape, not video.

[FORD]

If WB filmed both the Largo shows in 84, then there's no excuse not to put out a DVD from at least that show.

The reason it didn't come out at the time was obvious enough. Such a project would logically have been in production in the first half of 1985 (as the band was still touring through most of 1984, and then Dave did the Crazy From The Heat EP).

Of course then the band broke up. And Eddie probably wasn't about to release anything with David Lee Roth on it, at that point.

Actually this explains why WB was so eager to put a Van Hagar video on the market from their first tour.... because they got "cheated" out of their original video release and had to settle for &