1984 Fan Documentary - 5 Part Miniseries

[Vinnie Velvet]

The blurring out the videos and not playing actual VH tracks is ridiculous.

Al is a cunt.

[ZahZoo]

I agree... Van Halen loses nothing if the original music and videos were included. In reality, they will miss revenue opportunities from people with little to no VH history who viewed this decided to purchase some of their music. The generic filler doesn't capture the power of the original stuff...

But frankly the story is the critical part of all this... or at least the part I find most compelling.

[Silexxx]

Episode 3!

[Von Halen]

I wonder if Dave's "AI Voice" sings better than Dave these days?

[Von Halen]

I feel bad for you Alan. You put in a lot of work, for those idiots to fuck it up.

For those of us that have been around from the beginning of this band, we know just how un fan friendly they were/are. It's a shame you put in all that work, to have it fucked up by the record company and what's left of the band. Why they seem to not want any free promotion, is beyond me. Hell, why they seem to not want any promotion, is beyond me. I've always said I wished Van Halen were more like Kiss and Gene Simmons, and gave the fans the opportunity to purchase more from them than we already did. I have so longed for an official pro shot release of one of the old live shows. I can get one from 99.9% of the bands out there, even going way back before it was customary to film live shows. I just don't get it. Never will.

[ZahZoo]

I enjoyed Episode 3... there was a few things I don't recall hearing before like the full details about Michael McDonald's involvement with I'll Wait and the Simmons drum approach with the intro to Hot For Teacher.

Looking forward to episode 4!!

[Rikk]

I feel bad for you Alan. You put in a lot of work, for those idiots to fuck it up.

For those of us that have been around from the beginning of this band, we know just how un fan friendly they were/are. It's a shame you put in all that work, to have it fucked up by the record company and what's left of the band. Why they seem to not want any free promotion, is beyond me. Hell, why they seem to not want any promotion, is beyond me. I've always said I wished Van Halen were more like Kiss and Gene Simmons, and gave the fans the opportunity to purchase more from them than we already did. I have so longed for an official pro shot release of one of the old live shows. I can get one from 99.9% of the bands out there, even going way back before it was customary to film live shows. I just don't get it. Never will.

Whether people like or hate the Grateful Dead (I do like them), Van Halen could have used a page out of the Dead's playbook. When most bands were freaking out about fans taping shows or trading tapes (including soundboard gigs), the Dead embraced it. Some years back, they took literally every soundboard show they had in their archives onto the web for free downloads. Now, they release multiple shows every year on CD (and download) and even vinyl. In amazing quality. They even listen to fans about what gigs they want or from what period. During COVID, they threw something like eight unreleased filmed concerts on YouTube for free (the shows are still on their official YouTube channel).

THAT is how you treat fans. You encourage the fandom...give the fans things to look forward to. VH fans have to make do with a handful of albums, two live albums (one with Sam, so that doesn't really count) and a few bad bootlegs. That's it. And it sucks. It makes it harder to keep listening to the band if there's so little to listen to that you haven't already heard a million times.

It sucks even more when one reads books about the making of albums like 1984, reading song titles of songs that WERE recorded...knowing we'll probably never hear these songs.

Christ, when the Dead did remasters of all their studio albums, even those came with virtually all the band's unreleased songs as bonuses for each album.

NO BAND hates their fans like Van Halen.

[FORD]

The Grateful Dead box set of their Warner Brothers years, "The Golden Road" is a textbook example of how a box set should be done. All of the albums are pretty much double the original length with bonus tracks & live material. Even the Europe 72 album - which was originally a triple album on vinyl - managed to find some extras for the remaster. And there's a 2 disc set of the bands early stuff before they signed with WB. Not to mention the packaging itself was first class.

They did a similar box set for their Arista years, but I never got around to buying that one.... wasn't sure I wanted to pay for those disco-saturated albums from the late 70s, and I already had the discs from before and after that period.

I have said several times (everytime rumors of a VH box came up) that they would do wise to follow the Grateful Dead's example.

[AlanCBerry]

I feel bad for you Alan. You put in a lot of work, for those idiots to fuck it up.

For those of us that have been around from the beginning of this band, we know just how un fan friendly they were/are. It's a shame you put in all that work, to have it fucked up by the record company and what's left of the band. Why they seem to not want any free promotion, is beyond me. Hell, why they seem to not want any promotion, is beyond me. I've always said I wished Van Halen were more like Kiss and Gene Simmons, and gave the fans the opportunity to purchase more from them than we already did. I have so longed for an official pro shot release of one of the old live shows. I can get one from 99.9% of the bands out there, even going way back before it was customary to film live shows. I just don't get it. Never will.

Thanks, man! I did this to myself, I knew it was a gamble. Of course, I disagree with WB/Al but it's 100% their right. From what I understand Al is not a great person to deal with. I feel bad for him that he can't enjoy the legacy that he help built. He should be having a fun with re-releases, digging through the archives, creating new merch, etc. Ride the Van Halen train out in style, etc. Now I do feel bad for Mike, Roth and even Sammy. They want to glorify VH etc, yet it always goes back to Debbie Downer Al saying "no".

[AlanCBerry]

Whether people like or hate the Grateful Dead (I do like them), Van Halen could have used a page out of the Dead's playbook. When most bands were freaking out about fans taping shows or trading tapes (including soundboard gigs), the Dead embraced it. Some years back, they took literally every soundboard show they had in their archives onto the web for free downloads. Now, they release multiple shows every year on CD (and download) and even vinyl. In amazing quality. They even listen to fans about what gigs they want or from what period. During COVID, they threw something like eight unreleased filmed concerts on YouTube for free (the shows are still on their official YouTube channel).

THAT is how you treat fans. You encourage the fandom...give the fans things to look forward to. VH fans have to make do with a handful of albums, two live albums (one with Sam, so that doesn't really count) and a few bad bootlegs. That's it. And it sucks. It makes it harder to keep listening to the band if there's so little to listen to that you haven't already heard a million times.

It sucks even more when one reads books about the making of albums like 1984, reading song titles of songs that WERE recorded...knowing we'll probably never hear these songs.

Christ, when the Dead did remasters of all their studio albums, even those came with virtually all the band's unreleased songs as bonuses for each album.

NO BAND hates their fans like Van Halen.

Want to hear something crazy? The president of Rhino, Mark Pinkus, is a huge Dead fan. Yet his company is the one who sent me the cease and desist. I'd really like to ask him why.

[AlanCBerry]

I got my hands on one of the best David Lee Roth interviews I have ever heard. Down to earth, open, funny, intelligent, coherent, self-deprecating, and honest. I'd love to know what you all think of it. I posted it on my podcast and YouTube channel if you want to check it out. I have an Eddie one coming too.

[Rikk]

Want to hear something crazy? The president of Rhino, Mark Pinkus, is a huge Dead fan. Yet his company is the one who sent me the cease and desist. I'd really like to ask him why.

That's incredible.

My God, the ONLY thing a film like yours can do is make fans even more excited about the band. It can whet their appetites for OFFICIAL archive releases or an OFFICIAL documentary.

I was SO, SO psyched to watch this freaking thing. My daughter & I were going to sit and marathon watch all 5 parts. I'd still like to see it...but I can only imagine the effort you put into the final edit, with REAL Van Halen music backing up what's happening in the film.

[AlanCBerry]

Just a heads up! Coming this week, Ep4.
Ep4 coming this week.jpg

[ThatArtGuy]

Part 5 will be.... interesting, I think.

[AlanCBerry]

Part 5 will be.... interesting, I think.

I think it's my favorite episode.