Happy 22nd Birthday "A Little Ain't Enough" - 1/15/91

[jhale667]

OK, but I'm also curious...who was the guitar player? Joe Holmes?

[DONNIEP]

OK, but I'm also curious...who was the guitar player? Joe Holmes?

I have no idea. I was there to see Dave . Sorry for the lack of info but I was 20 and it was a long time ago

[Seshmeister]

Yo donnie you saw ALAE who was the guitar player?

I was at the first gig of the World tour, it was Joe Holmes and Desi Rexx.

Holmes did all the solos and was average ducking the most difficult Vai, Eddie and Becker stuff. Rexx (real name?) seemed to be there more for his backing vocals.

[vandeleur]

I can't remember who the other guitarist was but desi Rex or whatever was one of them when I saw them at Whitley bay ... Even tho the boots say Whitley bay Scotland lol.
I do remember the band fucked up a song so bad dave told them to start it again which I have never seen before or since .

[Seshmeister]

So you saw them the second night of the tour.

You know now you remind me I think he made them stop and restart a song at our show too. Can't remember which, I think it was an ALAE song.

I also remember a few things being out of sorts and Roth having a tantrum about his mike and throwing it at a roadie.

I was disappointed in the lack of EEAS/Skyscraper stuff.

Setlist

1. Intro
2. You Really Got Me (Kinks)
3. Baby’s On Fire
4. Panama (Van Halen)
5. A Lil’ Ain’t Enough
6. Lady Luck
7. Piano Intro - Brett Tuggle
8. Easy Street
9. Unchained (Van Halen)
10. Drum Solo - Greg Bissonette
11. 40 Below
12. Shoot It
13. Beautiful Girls (Van Halen)
14. Just a Gigolo [I Ain’t Got Nobody] (Louis Prima)
15. Hammerhead Shark
16. Hot For Teacher (Van Halen)
17. Tell The Truth
18. Just Like Paradise
19. Yankee Rose
20. Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love (Van Halen)
21. California Girls (Beach Boys)
22. Acoustic Guitar Solo - David Lee Roth
23. Ice Cream Man (John Brim)
24. Happy Trails (Roy Rogers)
25. Jump (Van Halen)

[vandeleur]

Thinking back I did think Dave was great ... Even extra Dave plus .. But the guitarists were well average .
So the world tour started at Glasgow ?
Now I am thinking of it I want to get that audio boot of the whitley show

[VHscraps]

Thinking back I did think Dave was great ... Even extra Dave plus .. But the guitarists were well average .
So the world tour started at Glasgow ?
Now I am thinking of it I want to get that audio boot of the whitley show

Yep - I walked out of that gig after a handful of songs. It just seemed like Dave was on a total downward spiral with some pick-up band. Plus it was a very bad sound mix, and I'd probably had a few too many! I always hated when bands played the SECC in Glasgow and just used standing only. It always seemed to me that bands only ever got a good sound if they erected the temporary seats to give it an arena kind of feel.

And people forget Steve Hunter played guitar on ALAE, and wasn't on the subsequent tour either - he was a guitarist with a great pedigree. One of the best guitarists of the 70s - so Dave wasn't just touring without the hotshot replacement for Vai, but without Hunter, who co-wrote a lot of songs and played guitar on the album as well.

[Seshmeister]

I remember the gig starting flat but in my memory it definitely picked up as it went and you can see the idea from the set list above.

Towards the end Roth pulled out every novelty item in his kitbag with the boxing ring, devils pissing JD, flying surfboard and all that crap which hadn't been on the European Skyscraper tour because it had been just theatres so I think people went home happy.

It was a bit like the 2007/8 Van Halen tour whereby Dave had to really raise his game because he was carrying the whole thing himself.

As you say the sound at the SECC back in those days was not good, it seems to be better now with new technology and we are about to get a lovely new arena up here to replace it.

http://www.thehydro.com/the-hydro/about-the-hydro.aspx

[VHscraps]

Now that I think back, I also remember that the UK tour was sponsored by Virgin 1215, which was an AM Radio station at the time. Dave was interviewed by one of the DJ's, who happened to be Jools Holland (a musician, well known to anyone from the UK, but maybe not well known to non-Brits), who had a mischievous sense of humour.

The interview with Dave had been trailed in advance, and at various points during the interview, Jools Holland was (supposedly) reading out questions sent in on postcards (!!) by listeners, but I suspect he was just making them up. At one point he said to DLR, something like:

"So, David, here's a question from Tracey in Essex - Jools, can you please ask Dave, who I have always fancied, what jism is?"

Dave collapses in gales of laughter and that was the end of it, I think.

[vandeleur]

I loved the alae gig , hell I loved the album to .
I went with a couple of friends who were not really big Dave/vh fans and they were fucking knocked out by him and the boxing ring etc etc

For downward spiral see yflm tour , gig got down graded from ice rink to Newcastle city hall due to poor ticket sales on the day !?!? and I wasn't impressed by the show at all .... Am shocked even saying it .

[VHscraps]

I remember the gig starting flat but in my memory it definitely picked up as it went and you can see the idea from the set list above.

Towards the end Roth pulled out every novelty item in his kitbag with the boxing ring, devils pissing JD, flying surfboard and all that crap which hadn't been on the European Skyscraper tour because it had been just theatres so I think people went home happy.

It was a bit like the 2007/8 Van Halen tour whereby Dave had to really raise his game because he was carrying the whole thing himself.

As you say the sound at the SECC back in those days was not good, it seems to be better now with new technology and we are about to get a lovely new arena up here to replace it.

http://www.thehydro.com/the-hydro/about-the-hydro.aspx

I have driven past the Hydro recently, Sesh - looks good. A proper purpose built arena.

I saw the boxing ring on the Skyscraper gig in Paris in '88. I think you mentioned once before that he brought the props out at the '91 show - for the short amount of time I was there, it never seemed like there'd be anything like that.

[vandeleur]

I have huge regrets over the Dave skyscraper gigs , I went to Donnington . But I wanted to go see more of the actual gigs but was fucking skint at the time ... I was using every penny I had to keep my flat I had foolishly bought above my head . I should have sold my car or a kidney or something and just Fucking went .

[DLR Bridge]

You know now you remind me I think he made them stop and restart a song at our show too.

Perhaps, that was that tours blower rant.

[vandeleur]

Perhaps, that was that tours blower rant.

Mmmmm at our gig he seemed really pissed off ...

[VHscraps]

I have huge regrets over the Dave skyscraper gigs , I went to Donnington . But I wanted to go see more of the actual gigs but was fucking skint at the time ... I was using every penny I had to keep my flat I had foolishly bought above my head . I should have sold my car or a kidney or something and just Fucking went .

I think I saw the Skyscraper tour in 5-6 places, plus Donnington - that was the year it was badly oversold and those kids got crushed to death. The Hammersmith gigs the first time around (he came back and did Wembley Arena a few months later) were hot tickets because I think initially there were only going to be to Hammersmith gigs for the whole UK. I was living in the South East at the time.

I remember standing outside the Hammy Odeon waiting for the touts to drop the prices - they were still selling tix at £100+ a go until just before the start of the gig. Think I eventually got one for £25 - this was 1988, remember ...