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EDIT: PREVIOUSLY THIS WAS ON YOUTUBE BUT IT KEEPS BEING TAKEN DOWN. YOU CAN DOWNLOAD IT AT THIS LINK
Finally the long lost video of Van Halen at the Monsters Of Rock Festival at Donington Park on the 18th August 1984 has come to light.
After a set-closing Panama, frontman David Lee Roth famously told the crowd, "we're going to take a little bit of film back to the United States, and show them how England fucking does it." Four more shows and Van Halen was over.
It's not perfect and the sound drifts in and out but it's kind of unique in that it's a single onstage camera kind of like your view if you were the keyboard player.
There are audio decent bootlegs of this so it won't be long until someone marries the two up.
The full set on the day was
Unchained
Hot for Teacher
On Fire
Runnin' With the Devil
Little Guitars
House of Pain
Bass Solo
I'll Wait
Everybody Wants Some!!
Oh, Pretty Woman
1984
Jump
Guitar Solo
Panama
Encore:
You Really Got Me
Origins:
This footage was shot 39 years ago with a single camera "documentary" style on 35mm film,
with exc mono sound (maybe stereo, but def not soundboard) probably recorded on a Nagra tape recorder.
The crew consisted of a cameraman, sound recordist and a camera assistant.
The camera operator had only about 10 minutes of film, before he had to switch to a new magazine and continue shooting. That's why there are so many edits.
It's my guess that this footage was paid for by the band for their personal archives, and eventually it was edited and transferred via telecine to videotape.
If you read this photocopy of the ledger from the Van Halen archive at Pacific Title
(https://postlmg.cc/G4SFsYYg) you can see this footage listed at the top of the page.
It lists the length at 67min total, which what this footage is which means that this is all the footage from this camera from this show that exists.
BUT
If you watch this film closely you can see two other camera crews shooting this show.
So you had:
1. This camera, 35mm film, hired by the band.
2. A BBC 35mm film camera, shooting for "Old Grey Whistle Test" in the pit in front of Ed during "Hot for Teacher". That footage is already on YT.
3. A video crew as well shooting for the IMAG video screens at the festival. Those cameras consist of 2 handheld tube video cameras in the pit downstage left and right, as well as a tube video camera on a dolly on Ed's side that doesn't move much. You can see the video truck these cameras were connected to early on in this video behind Ed and Al when they were waiting to go onstage.
Who knows where that footage is?
This footage was shot 39 years ago with a single camera "documentary" style on 35mm film,
with exc mono sound (maybe stereo, but def not soundboard) probably recorded on a Nagra tape recorder.
The crew consisted of a cameraman, sound recordist and a camera assistant.
The camera operator had only about 10 minutes of film, before he had to switch to a new magazine and continue shooting. That's why there are so many edits.
It's my guess that this footage was paid for by the band for their personal archives, and eventually it was edited and transferred via telecine to videotape.
If you read this photocopy of the ledger from the Van Halen archive at Pacific Title
(https://postlmg.cc/G4SFsYYg) you can see this footage listed at the top of the page.
It lists the length at 67min total, which what this footage is which means that this is all the footage from this camera from this show that exists.
BUT
If you watch this film closely you can see two other camera crews shooting this show.
So you had:
1. This camera, 35mm film, hired by the band.
2. A BBC 35mm film camera, shooting for "Old Grey Whistle Test" in the pit in front of Ed during "Hot for Teacher". That footage is already on YT.
3. A video crew as well shooting for the IMAG video screens at the festival. Those cameras consist of 2 handheld tube video cameras in the pit downstage left and right, as well as a tube video camera on a dolly on Ed's side that doesn't move much. You can see the video truck these cameras were connected to early on in this video behind Ed and Al when they were waiting to go onstage.
Who knows where that footage is?
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