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VAN HALEN!


Toronto Zeppelin

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9 hours ago, luvlz2 said:

Soundboard audio of Van Halen final concert.

I saw the last Tom Petty concert before he died. I saw the last Van Halen concert.

Come to think if it...I saw the last Sex Pistols show before Sid Vicious died and I saw the last Germs gig before Darby Crash killed himself.

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It boggles my mind that Mike Millard did not record any Van Halen concerts, particularly from the golden age 1978-1982. He recorded Suzi Quatro opening for Alice Cooper in 1975 and Thin Lizzy opening for Queen in 1977 but can't get it together to record any of the several times Van Halen opened for Black Sabbath and other bands in Los Angeles/Southern California during 1978? Let alone all of the headlining shows they did in Southern California from 1979-1984. A shocking void in the Millard tape archives.

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Here are the dates that Van Halen opened for Black Sabbath on the UK leg of their 1978 Never Say Die tour.

May 16: Sheffield City Hall

May 17: Southport Floral Hall

May 18: Glasgow Apollo Theatre

May 19: Aberdeen Capitol Theatre

May 21: Newcastle-Upon-Tyne City Hall

May 22: Manchester Apollo Theatre

May 23: Hanley/Stoke Victoria Hall

May 25: Portsmouth Guild Hall

May 26: Bristol Colston Hall

May 27: London Lewisham Odeon

May 28: Ipswich Gaumont Theatre

May 30: Coventry Theatre

May 31: Leicester De Montfort Hall

June 1: London Hammersmith Odeon

June 2: Oxford New Theatre

June 3: Southampton Gaumont Theatre

June 7: Bradford St. George's Hall

June 8: Preston Lockley Grand Hall

June 10: London Hammersmith Odeon

October 22: London Rainbow Theatre

June 5 & 6 Birmingham Odeon was rescheduled because of "P.A. failure". The new dates were June 12 & 13, with Tanz Der Youth opening the 12th and The Damned opening the 13th.

June 11 London Hammersmith was cancelled because of "P.A. failure".

Tanz Der Youth opened the rest of the June 1978 UK dates. But Van Halen was back in the opening slot for Black Sabbath's next round of U.S. tour dates from August 22 Milwaukee to December 3 San Diego.

So, this is what I want to know. I see all sorts of articles on the web and elsewhere about the friendship between Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Did any of Led Zeppelin see Black Sabbath on this tour, and therefore see Van Halen? I imagine Robert Plant was still grieving over Karac and not inclined to go out to a show. But what about the others? Jimmy Page could not have seen Van Halen and not been struck by Eddie Van Halen's guitar playing.

Edited by Strider
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20 minutes ago, Strider said:

Here are the dates that Van Halen opened for Black Sabbath on the UK leg of their 1978 Never Say Die tour.

May 16: Sheffield City Hall

May 17: Southport Floral Hall

May 18: Glasgow Apollo Theatre

May 19: Aberdeen Capitol Theatre

May 21: Newcastle-Upon-Tyne City Hall

May 22: Manchester Apollo Theatre

May 23: Hanley/Stoke Victoria Hall

May 25: Portsmouth Guild Hall

May 26: Bristol Colston Hall

May 27: London Lewisham Odeon

May 28: Ipswich Gaumont Theatre

May 30: Coventry Theatre

May 31: Leicester De Montfort Hall

June 1: London Hammersmith Odeon

June 2: Oxford New Theatre

June 3: Southampton Gaumont Theatre

June 7: Bradford St. George's Hall

June 8: Preston Lockley Grand Hall

June 10: London Hammersmith Odeon

October 22: London Rainbow Theatre

June 5 & 6 Birmingham Odeon was rescheduled because of "P.A. failure". The new dates were June 12 & 13, with Tanz Der Youth opening the 12th and The Damned opening the 13th.

June 11 London Hammersmith was cancelled because of "P.A. failure".

Tanz Der Youth opened the rest of the June 1978 UK dates. But Van Halen was back in the opening slot for Black Sabbath's next round of U.S. tour dates from August 22 Milwaukee to December 3 San Diego.

So, this is what I want to know. I see all sorts of articles on the web and elsewhere about the friendship between Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Did any of Led Zeppelin see Black Sabbath on this tour, and therefore see Van Halen? I imagine Robert Plant was still grieving over Karac and not inclined to go out to a show. But what about the others? Jimmy Page could not have seen Van Halen and not been struck by Eddie Van Halen's guitar playing.

My friend from up the street saw that show (in bold) and was awestruck by EVH. Said the entire crowd did nothing but talk about VH after the show. Ozzy was a mess at that point, as we all know. You gotta believe at least one member saw this double bill somewhere that spring. I remember SAJ or someone talking about Alex approaching Bonzo in LA at the Whiskey and Bonzo dismissed him. ‘75 I think. Interesting there isn’t more about Zep and other bands interacting or even being spoken about in the mid-late 70’s. 

Edited by Walter
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1 hour ago, Walter said:

My friend from up the street saw that show (in bold) and was awestruck by EVH. Said the entire crowd did nothing but talk about VH after the show. Ozzy was a mess at that point, as we all know. You gotta believe at least one member saw this double bill somewhere that spring. I remember SAJ or someone talking about Alex approaching Bonzo in LA at the Whiskey and Bonzo dismissed him. ‘75 I think. Interesting there isn’t more about Zep and other bands interacting or even being spoken about in the mid-late 70’s. 

Alex Van Halen mentioned in a book or an interview about how impressed he was that Ozzy and Bill Ward were out in front of the venue before the show in Leicester (or maybe it was Manchester), drinking and chatting with fans. No rock-star bullshit.

Robert and Jimmy are much more approachable and chatty with fans now than they used to be.

Edited by Strider
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4 hours ago, Strider said:

So, this is what I want to know. I see all sorts of articles on the web and elsewhere about the friendship between Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Did any of Led Zeppelin see Black Sabbath on this tour, and therefore see Van Halen? I imagine Robert Plant was still grieving over Karac and not inclined to go out to a show. But what about the others? Jimmy Page could not have seen Van Halen and not been struck by Eddie Van Halen's guitar playing.

No one in Led Zeppelin saw Black Sabbath (or Van Halen) on that tour.

Jimmy, to my knowledge, has never claimed to have seen EVH perform. Eddie said he saw Led Zeppelin at The Forum in 1972 and presumably in '73 & '75. Alex Van Halen approached Bonzo's table at The Rainbow, but Bonzo wasn't interested and dismissed him. Doubtful Bonzo knew who he was even if he told him, as their brief encounter was likely around March 24, 1975.

Jimmy and Eddie did socialize a bit in 1991, particularly when both were in Vancouver recording albums in October 1991. In April 1993, Jimmy & David (Coverdale) met with EVH at 47 Park Hotel in London. Van Halen played the Wembley Arena on 4/29/93 but to my knowledge neither of them attended the show. It was EVH who inducted Jimmy into the Hollywood Rock Walk in Dec 1993. When Jimmy was in LA for a few days in Jan 2004, Eddie called Ross about 20 times trying to reach Jimmy. Jimmy called EVH back on Sun, 1/18/04 and they had a great chat.

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13 minutes ago, SteveAJones said:

Jimmy, to my knowledge, has never claimed to have seen EVH perform. Eddie said he saw Led Zeppelin at The Forum in 1972 and presumably in '73 & '75. 

Pretty shocking, then, that EVH would make those disparaging "broken fingers" or whatever comment when asked about Page's live playing.  (Although I suppose in '73 and '75 Page literally did have physical hand problems.)  Even in '77 (esp. LA) Page wasn't even remotely so sloppy as to justify that kind of assessment.

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29 minutes ago, JohnOsbourne said:

Pretty shocking, then, that EVH would make those disparaging "broken fingers" or whatever comment when asked about Page's live playing.  (Although I suppose in '73 and '75 Page literally did have physical hand problems.)  Even in '77 (esp. LA) Page wasn't even remotely so sloppy as to justify that kind of assessment.

Well, as I've said before I think that comment should be taken with a grain of salt. That was EVH the newly minted young gunslinger, full of arrogance and attitude. 

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8 hours ago, SteveAJones said:

Well, as I've said before I think that comment should be taken with a grain of salt. That was EVH the newly minted young gunslinger, full of arrogance and attitude. 

Maybe.  Cockiness would simply involve claiming he's doing stuff light years ahead of the old guard, etc.  Saying that Page plays live like his fingers are broken is just a gratuitous insult, and completely untrue to boot (esp. if based on seeing Page in his prime, i.e. pre-75).  Who knows, maybe he was on something when he gave the interview (EVH wasn't exactly a teetotaler even before his serious substance abuse problems).

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12 hours ago, JohnOsbourne said:

Pretty shocking, then, that EVH would make those disparaging "broken fingers" or whatever comment when asked about Page's live playing.  (Although I suppose in '73 and '75 Page literally did have physical hand problems.)  Even in '77 (esp. LA) Page wasn't even remotely so sloppy as to justify that kind of assessment.

 

12 hours ago, SteveAJones said:

Well, as I've said before I think that comment should be taken with a grain of salt. That was EVH the newly minted young gunslinger, full of arrogance and attitude. 

That has always been my take on it and people ascribed more importance to it than warranted. Kind of like Robert Plant asking the bar to turn off a Radiohead song and all of a sudden it turns into a "Robert hates Radiohead" battle, when I know for a fact that he likes Radiohead (or at least some Radiohead) because I have seen him buy Radiohead albums. He just didn't like whatever song the bar was playing at that particular time.

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3 hours ago, JohnOsbourne said:

Maybe.  Cockiness would simply involve claiming he's doing stuff light years ahead of the old guard, etc.  Saying that Page plays live like his fingers are broken is just a gratuitous insult, and completely untrue to boot (esp. if based on seeing Page in his prime, i.e. pre-75).  Who knows, maybe he was on something when he gave the interview (EVH wasn't exactly a teetotaler even before his serious substance abuse problems).

Or maybe EVH heard the1980 Berlin White Summer/Black Mountain Side? Or the second Knebworth of August 11?

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13 minutes ago, Strider said:

Or maybe EVH heard the1980 Berlin White Summer/Black Mountain Side? Or the second Knebworth of August 11?

Yeah, I guess.  No idea at all if EVH was a bootleg fan or even a big enough Zeppelin fan to seek out underground tapes, but who knows.  The context of his comments seemed to me that he was basing his opinion after having actually seen Page live.  And they went a bit further than simply wanting someone to change a particular song on the radio.

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48 minutes ago, JohnOsbourne said:

Yeah, I guess.  No idea at all if EVH was a bootleg fan or even a big enough Zeppelin fan to seek out underground tapes, but who knows.  The context of his comments seemed to me that he was basing his opinion after having actually seen Page live.  And they went a bit further than simply wanting someone to change a particular song on the radio.

I was just kidding around. 

Frankly, I take whatever a young band says in an interview with a grain of salt. Especially Van Halen, who were always taking the piss in interviews (they bagged on everyone from AC/DC to Kiss to Rush in the early days) and were most likely hammered. I know a couple of writers who covered Van Halen for rock magazines. The stories they tell. One guy hung out with them writing about the 1979 and 1980 tours and he said there was so much drinking and partying he barely escaped with his life.

One fact is indisputable. Eddie Van Halen has always said he was inspired watching Jimmy Page perform "Heartbreaker" at the Forum and seeing Jimmy Page bend the string behind the nut gave him the idea that lead to his tapping.

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3 hours ago, Strider said:

I was just kidding around. 

Frankly, I take whatever a young band says in an interview with a grain of salt. Especially Van Halen, who were always taking the piss in interviews (they bagged on everyone from AC/DC to Kiss to Rush in the early days) and were most likely hammered. I know a couple of writers who covered Van Halen for rock magazines. The stories they tell. One guy hung out with them writing about the 1979 and 1980 tours and he said there was so much drinking and partying he barely escaped with his life.

One fact is indisputable. Eddie Van Halen has always said he was inspired watching Jimmy Page perform "Heartbreaker" at the Forum and seeing Jimmy Page bend the string behind the nut gave him the idea that lead to his tapping.

Absolutely true. 

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