Comments on: Van Halen’s “Almost Infamous”

By: Jeffrey Liles

Jeffrey Liles — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 09:51:31 +0000

Thank you so much for reposting my story.

Bless your hearts.

myspace.com/Liles
myspace.com/cottonmouthtexas
myspace.com/historyofdallasmusic

By: stramann

stramann — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 08:56:35 +0000

hey, why cant i share this on (off my) facebook?

By: John Greggs

John Greggs — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:25:49 +0000

that`s pretty cool….but I have worked the Van Halen shows and actually played the Frankenstrat…awesome memories

By: paul wilkinson

paul wilkinson — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 23:41:23 +0000

i once had a drunken conversation with an older guy who went to see sabbath at the manchester apollo,england in 78 or 79. he told me that no one had really heard anything about the support band so everyone was upstairs in the bar drinking ‘newcastle brown ale’.then for no apparent reason,everyone started to hurry downstairs.it turned out that someone had ran up to the bar and shouted something along the lines of ‘you wanna get down here and see this fucking kid on guitar!!!’ every time i go to the apollo now, i always wish i could go back in time to see a skinny young eddie and the guys when they blew sabbath off stage that night.it is well documented that ozzie knew sabbath werent the kings anymore!

By: Brian

Brian — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 14:20:50 +0000

The story from the guy who’s Dad moved to Cincy and turned everyone on to VH is very reminiscent of my first VH experience.

Living in Indianapolis, a new kid moved in down the street, he was from Southern Calfironia. He was a few years odler than me and my friends, but being the new kid, he just wanted someone to hang out with, and show off to.

I was 13 in 1979. I, like many, had been listening to all the wrong stuff without knowing it.

So anyway, we burn our usual one after school, and Barry says “Hey, come up in, you guys need to hear something”. Like many of you have said, I still remember this detail for detail after all these years, such an impression it had on me, like people remember the Kennedy assasination or the moon landing. We goes upstairs to his room, and he breaks out the VH album. The guys looked cool on the album, and a little scary. Pulls the record out with a knowing smile, lays the needle on the record, and man, it was on. From the opening sound of Ed’s guitar on Running with The Devil, my jaw hit the floor. What in the hell was this??? Then eruption blows your head completely apart, and on and on and on. We listened to the whole album like 3 times all the way through. Ed’s playing was so obviously way ahead of his time, head and shoulders above everyone else. Dave’s vocals were so cool, as was Alex’s drumming and Mikey’s vocals and pumping bass.

Just like all of you, my life changed that day. Fuck the Boss, (the first concert I ever went to), and all the crap I had been into, I was now a rocker!

Didn’t make a concert until 1984 tour, but what a tour! The band was peaking just before the fall. Saw every single tour since then, front row for the F.U.C.K. tour, and made two shows for the Reunion Tour. One was early, in Oct. 2007, and then the very last show in Grand Rapids. Pretty big difference. I’d thought the first show was great, but they were much better the second half of the tour. I’ve seen a lot of videos on YouTube, and from what I can see, the Grand Rapids show was the best the did. Dave’s voice was at it’s best, and Ed just got better and better after coming out of rehab again. Was 3rd row in the Pit for that show, unfreakinreal.

Zepplin and Hendrix were great, AC/DC is awesome. Skynyrd kicked ass. But Van Halen rules the universe!

I heard there was supposed to be a video of the reunion tour out for Christmas, guess it’s not gonna happen. Read in a article here that Ed is waiting for Wolf to get out of school in the spring to start recording next album. Just counting the days.

Rock On Van Halen fans!!

By: Bill

Bill — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 04:22:26 +0000

Those of us the same age as Van Halen have many stories. Here’s one:
Van halen was the opening act for some friends of mine’s progressive rock (Genesis type) band at the local junior high auditorium in La Canada, Ca. My friend went to the sound check (for our friend’s band) and heard Van Halen. We were in a band together waiting to rehearse at his house. He pulls up and says “We got to go early and catch the opening act, Van Halen”. We were’nt even hard rock fans at that time. We had moved on from Zeppelin and Sabbath to King Crimson type prog rock.
Well VH blew our friend’s band out of the water so bad that we left after just one song. This was 1975, and from that point on I was a VH fan, seeing them dozens of times way before they ever got a record deal. I got to tell you all, they were every bit as good as they ever were back then. They had their act together before they ever did a single gig, and they had a good deal of their material already written, songs that even appeared all the way thru “1984″
I met all of them thru the early years. I grew up close to Pasadena. Knowing they were going to make it, I saved several flyers they used to hang on telephone poles. I’ve got so many old VH stories, I should write a book!
Bill