Are we seriously never getting a 2008 DVD?

[Nitro Express]

Most of the bands who are considered 'legendary' or who have outlived the era they emerged in did serious work on their own mythology - they had fucking journalists, filmmakers, photographers, etc etc catalogue their every doing (The Stones being the prime example - every tour from 69 was filmed for cinematic releases, although not all made it to the cinema; 'embedded' writers on tour, etc).

VH never really went in for the self-mythologising, and it is why they suffer in the public imagination. You know, aside from people like us, most fans of rock music probably do not think they were one of the great bands. By not releasing retrospectives or box sets they do their legacy immense harm. They need to let someone do a dirt-dishing book, as well. If the backstage was so excessive and so legendary, then why not let us in on it? I mean, who will get hurt now.

Look at those two Best Of compilations - absolutely shoddily thrown together with garbage art work, stock photographic images. An egg balancing on the horn of a guitar, anyone - please (Balance)... what kid is going to buy into that?

Rock bands need their myths, or they won't be remembered. But VH live in denial of their past - or some of them do.

It is just so fucking disappointing.

I've watched and read enough interviews with Alex and Eddie where it's pretty apparent they despise being called rockstars. They consider themselves musicians. They hate the whole rockstar thing actually and they think merchandising and marketing the band is dumb and below themselves. I wish they thought a little more like Gene Simmons. Give the fans what they want and charge them. Alex and Eddie are musicians and nope we ain't rockstars and you don't own us. You bought your ticket and we played. Now buzz off! That's kind of how the Van Halens are.

[Kristy]

You snd my 14 year old son must be the minority... took him im to see =VH= in 2012 he loved it.. he listens to Halestorm , Avenge Sevenfold. =VH=. Pink Floyd he loves classic rock. Couldnt ask for a better kid...

Can he get cure cancer? Help old ladies across the street? Write fantastic poetry?

[DONNIEP]

I think Van Halen needs to do what the Stones did and release their archives on line.

Online is fine, so long as they release it on DVD too. You gotta keep in mind that a hell of a lot of 40 year old + fans don't wanna sit in front of a computer OR screw around with logging in on their TVs to watch this stuff. They want to pull it out, stick it in, and enjoy it. So they need to put it out on DVD.

I know a lot of people think maybe some day Wolfie will "cash in" and release the stuff. Who the fuck is he gonna release it to? All the original fans will pretty much be old as hell or dead. Maybe he'll release it to the younger generation that bought the living hell out of the last record. Because the younger kids bought the record in, well, record numbers. Right?

IF they put out a DVD/CD box set, it would sell. It wouldn't be in the multi millions, but it doesn't cost millions to slap it together these days. Plus, since they OWN all this great footage and it's just sitting around in 5150, they wouldn't have to pay anybody but a handful of people to compile and edit it and the company to crank out the discs. Of course, that's assuming they OWN all this great footage and weren't just living life and having a hell of a time. Before they turned 30. Because back in the early 80s everybody secured rights to the footage, right?

[FORD]

I think Van Halen needs to do what the Stones did and release their archives on line. Only they need to release the REAL files in the US and not force us to download from pirate sites like the Stones did by limiting US downloads to shitty MP3 files.

http://www.stonesarchive.com/bootlegs/

[VHscraps]

I don't know. The Van Halens always kind of viewed marketing the band or merchandising as being stupid and below them. That being said, Ed has his own brand he markets. I just think Van Halen at this point have the main selling point of being a nostalgia band. Play the oldies. Good to see Eddie still can play them. I remember being dragged to see Paul Revere and the Raiders after work. They were playing a big outdoor festival. The audience were old drunk people reflecting on the good old days and reliving it for an hour or two. Paul Revere was old but his jokes were still funny. He had the sparkle in his eye and he was going to give you a good show. His band was tight.

Go to a VH show if there is ever going to be another one. Roth will have the sparkle in his eye. The band will be pretty good. The audience will be a bunch of drunk old fuckers reliving the old days for an hour or two. The 20 somethings might appreciate something in the music kind of like I thought Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman were kind of cool when my dad played their stuff but it's still old and the glory days were a long time ago.

Most of the bands who are considered 'legendary' or who have outlived the era they emerged in did serious work on their own mythology - they had fucking journalists, filmmakers, photographers, etc etc catalogue their every doing (The Stones being the prime example - every tour from 69 was filmed for cinematic releases, although not all made it to the cinema; 'embedded' writers on tour, etc).

VH never really went in for the self-mythologising, and it is why they suffer in the public imagination. You know, aside from people like us, most fans of rock music probably do not think they were one of the great bands. By not releasing retrospectives or box sets they do their legacy immense harm. They need to let someone do a dirt-dishing book, as well. If the backstage was so excessive and so legendary, then why not let us in on it? I mean, who will get hurt now.

Look at those two Best Of compilations - absolutely shoddily thrown together with garbage art work, stock photographic images. An egg balancing on the horn of a guitar, anyone - please (Balance)... what kid is going to buy into that?

Rock bands need their myths, or they won't be remembered. But VH live in denial of their past - or some of them do.

It is just so fucking disappointing.

[Terry]

I don't know. The Van Halens always kind of viewed marketing the band or merchandising as being stupid and below them. That being said, Ed has his own brand he markets. I just think Van Halen at this point have the main selling point of being a nostalgia band. Play the oldies. Good to see Eddie still can play them. I remember being dragged to see Paul Revere and the Raiders after work. They were playing a big outdoor festival. The audience were old drunk people reflecting on the good old days and reliving it for an hour or two. Paul Revere was old but his jokes were still funny. He had the sparkle in his eye and he was going to give you a good show. His band was tight.

Go to a VH show if there is ever going to be another one. Roth will have the sparkle in his eye. The band will be pretty good. The audience will be a bunch of drunk old fuckers reliving the old days for an hour or two. The 20 somethings might appreciate something in the music kind of like I thought Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman were kind of cool when my dad played their stuff but it's still old and the glory days were a long time ago.

I actually thought Ed had some balls in 1996 not to tour with Roth, and his stance that Van Halen were moving forward as a band and not looking backward or wallowing in nostalgia was understandable. It's not necessarily what I wanted from the band (I wanted a full-length new CVH album and a tour), but I could see where it made sense to Ed not to do a reunion tour back then if he was looking at Van Halen as a viable, creative rock band and he wanted to break new ground.

However, after the Van Halen 3 tour included 50% CVH stuff in the set list (kind of a necessity, as the Cherone lineup had only recorded one album), and after Charvel released multiple EVH Franky models, and after Eddie authorized (another) Franky model, and after a decade of putting the CVH red/black/white stripe logo on everything from effects pedals to sneakers, and after doing a reunion tour with Hagar, and after doing a reunion tour with Roth, and after recording a new album with Roth (50% of which was reworked demos from the 1970s) and after doing ANOTHER reunion tour with Roth...

At THIS point Van Halen IS a nostalgia band. And that's what it is. However, if the choice to release a CVH dvd comes down solely to the Van Halens wanting to do it or not (and not working out licensing fees and legal hassles with the footage), it makes no sense given what has transpired since 1998 for the band NOT to do it.

[Nitro Express]

Glenn Miller dispersed the negative waves, stumbled onto a hidden Nazi treasure stash and disappeared into the sunset in a Tiger tank.

[DLR Bridge]

Yeah, but even the Glenn Miller Band has multiple boxed sets. Granted, they're approved by the estate of Glenn Miller as his ass went missing during Dubya Dubya II. He's probably kicking it on an island somewhere.

[Nitro Express]

I don't know. The Van Halens always kind of viewed marketing the band or merchandising as being stupid and below them. That being said, Ed has his own brand he markets. I just think Van Halen at this point have the main selling point of being a nostalgia band. Play the oldies. Good to see Eddie still can play them. I remember being dragged to see Paul Revere and the Raiders after work. They were playing a big outdoor festival. The audience were old drunk people reflecting on the good old days and reliving it for an hour or two. Paul Revere was old but his jokes were still funny. He had the sparkle in his eye and he was going to give you a good show. His band was tight.

Go to a VH show if there is ever going to be another one. Roth will have the sparkle in his eye. The band will be pretty good. The audience will be a bunch of drunk old fuckers reliving the old days for an hour or two. The 20 somethings might appreciate something in the music kind of like I thought Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman were kind of cool when my dad played their stuff but it's still old and the glory days were a long time ago.

[Terry]

It's just weird.

When you look at the amount of stuff that The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, KISS and any other number of bands up there with Van Halen have put out in the last ten years, it's just mind-boggling that none of those late 1970s/early 1980s Van Halen concerts which were filmed have seen the light of day re: a restored, official release. Few years ago, when I was still trading boots, I got a Largo 1982 show a fellow fan had tweaked and cleaned up visually using home equipment, and it looked and sounded much better than any other Largo 82 boot I had seen. Imagine that stuff being professionally restored.

Nitro probably has it right, in that Van Halen's audience is an aging one (the last two tours - at least the shows I saw - were 80% middle-aged audience members). It'd be good if that stuff got released before the dvd format begins to go the way of VHS. Maybe Warner Brothers thinks there wouldn't be much of a market for such a dvd now.

It's just discouraging to see stuff like Quiet Riot At The US Festival hitting the dvd shelves while all that Van Halen footage is rotting away somewhere. IN the early 2000s, I rationalized that there probably wasn't much out there beyond what was already being traded, but as the years roll by you see an entire Memphis 1981 show shot from the soundboard on a camcorder floating into circulation, then some new FW tour footage surfacing. I'd say I have a pretty extensive collection, but it makes me wonder if what I have and what we've seen is just the tip of the iceberg.

Frankly, I don't care too much about the last two tours with Roth as much as the CVH era stuff. I want CVH live video. When the band was in their prime and peaking. Can't say I'd be as interested in an audio-only live CVH release, either. I want the visuals.

[FasterPussycat]

it turned out there were no filim in the main camcorder, someone screwed up

[Nitro Express]

Like I said y'all got a lot of work ahead of you... get you an old beat up guitar and a tattered tube amp... learn it and go missionary on your pals and preach the gospel of Rock!!

You preach it by TURNING IT UP! Kids today listen to music through ear buds. Blast the speakers! Piss people off and have the cops pay you a visit. Escape the smart phone fagginess.

[Nitro Express]

I got out of the Navy in 84. 30 years ago last month. Partied my ass off for the next six years. Straightened up quite a bit when I turned 30 in 1990. Life ain't what it used to be but it's still better than the alternative.

If I wasn't at work or school it was PARTY! The goals were simple. Graduate from college, get good grades and that was the main concern. Four years seemed like an eternity and it was live in the moment. There was no terrorism. Flying was still enjoyable. Healthcare was affordable. If you worked hard and smart you could bring in the money. The 80's was a cake walk compared to today.

[Nitro Express]

They filmed shows, so what the fuck? Dallas 2008 would be the perfect release. Don't they want money?

Alex talks about money all the time in interviews. I'm sure Al would be for it. Eddie seems like the hippie dip idiot where money is evil. Look. Ed and his ex-wife are still good friends. From what I hear Vallerie never took Ed to the cleaners over the divorce. Eddie seems to be into marketing his EVH brand but doesn't seem to care about the Van Halen brand. What can I say, the guy seems into himself and selfish actually. 5150 is his own little world, he lives an isolated life so he can do whatever he wants on his terms. The problem is the guy can't function on his own. He produces shit songs and albums on his own. He crawls into a bottle if nobody pulls him out of it. For Eddie it's not money. It's him having full say and doing whatever he wants. He accuses everyone else of not being a team player but he's the one who seems to be the problem as far as working as a team is concerned. Once that guy built that studio and forced the band to come over to his house and wait for his drunk ass to crawl out of bed and get up there and do something it was the beginning of the end. It was better when Ed had to be down at Sunset Sound on time or Mr. Templeman was going to be angry.

[ZahZoo]

Let me rephrase that to "The majority of my generations taste in music sucks ass" haha

Like I said y'all got a lot of work ahead of you... get you an old beat up guitar and a tattered tube amp... learn it and go missionary on your pals and preach the gospel of Rock!!