VAN HALEN NEWS DESK

“Unchained” from French TV ’81

October 27, 2009 80 Comments

Believe it or not, someone actually uploaded a Van Halen video to YouTube today that almost no one has ever seen since it only once… on French TV, back in 1981! Until today, this lip-sync Van Halen footage has barely circulated among bootleg collectors. Enjoy!

Filed Under: Van Halen

http://vhfrance.activebb.net/ VHFrance

VH Dude: sure, check out our youtube channel, there’s a lot of cool stuff there: http://www.youtube.com/user/VHFrance
wmarkl5150

We need more people like VH Dude on this site… Too many people are so uptight! I would have loved this video in 1981, do you remember how hard it was to see your favorite bands on tv in the late 70′s & early 80′s? This is the very reason why MTV was started, we all wanted to see the bands perform. Yes, it was lip synced, but so was every early video on MTV. Everyone needs to chill out and enjoy the long history of Van Halen… This is why we love them.
http://cheeseburgerpicnic.com Skutch

No Scottso, that was Mike on bass. The guy who Eddie played the bass line for on all the albums.
PJ

Terribly awesome!! LOVE it!!!
lucky

Funny video. At some point all bands were asked to lipsync, especially back then. no biggie.
SCAR

Look, they were probably wasted at the time and thought, hmmm, lets give Dave a guitar and lets lip sync this and ham it up a bit! Shit, we can get away with this, because we are the mighty VAN HALEN!!!!!
phillster

That was Great!Roth doing kicks with a guitar?-HI-larius
KTC5150

IMO, I thought it was funny to see VH try to keep up w/ a fast-pace background song to lip-sync to, while you can tell they were ALL wasted! It was a one-take thing & they were outta there, to party some more!I guess thay gave Dave a guitar cuz they didn’t have any microphone stands laying around… luckily they didn’t lower the Discoball this time, or let Dave do one of his flying splits… He probably woulda cracked his skull open again… Thank you to the VHFrance team for unearthing this old gem!!!
kayser sozay

I wonder how many of you people bitching about this video are the same people who’ve been bitching constantly how there’s never anything about VH on this site.
RA 8 1 2

WOW! That was the most SCUMTASTIC bit of VH I think I have ever seen. I f ing love it. It really shows how far the band has come and grown, and how styles changed, etc.
Canes_fan5150

Sherman T. Dog -
“Promo shit like this really sucks, I feel sorry for the band for being forced to do something like this. Kinda reminds me of the Jump video, cheap!”

-you are humping the wrong leg if you are going to diss the jump video. That vid is sick as shit.
bosox

I never would have thought that the French would be cool enought to like VH in the first place. Viva la Van Halen!
john

This used to circulate on bootleg videotapes back in the 80s – I used to have tapes with all sorts of stuff that’s never yet appeared on the likes of youtube. Long lost now – VH did a lot of those lip-synch things (really the only music on TV before the promo video age fully kicked in). Yeah, so they were crap at miming – and probably all drunk as drains anyway.

Anyone seen Dave doing in the promo for the film Amadeus? 1984 – it’s a compilation of rock vid clips set to Mozart that was made to promote the film on MTV – Dave does a spoken intro as ‘the conductor’ wearing a ludicrous cheetah patterned suit and bowtie. Hilarious.
Scottso

Hey Skutch,

So then that must be Wolfie on drums, right? Oh wait, no, that’s Alex, the guy who Eddie played all of the drum tracks for on all of the albums.
phillster

grow up
jano2412

i remember watching this live, long,long time ago!
VH FRANCE, do you remember the video from WACF on french tv also:” loss of control” was the song!They did it in a hospital room!
http://vhfrance.activebb.net/ ed5150

Hi, I’m the one from VHFrance who posted this video. Would have been cool to have some credits for that.

Like I said on youtube, the purpose wasn’t to show a great performance, but a rare video. If you’re seeking for real live music, we have plenty of it on the youtube channel.

@jano2412 : So you’re French too ? Glad to see we’re not the only ones here to like VH ! Yes indeed I know the video you’re talking about, but I’m way too young and didn’t see it “live” on TV.
If you wish to talk about VH in French, you’re welcome to our forum, as everyone else !

@VH Dude : You can check the VHFrance youtube channel for more videos (mostly live from bootlegs).
RA 8 1 2

There are some videos out there of VH playing in Tokyo in 1988 and Eddie is wearing that same red and white shirt. not the socks though!
vaijuju

Yes jano, I have it on my computer “loss of control” with girls
Kevin Malone

This video may have led to the original line up breaking up.

I hope Eddie doesn’t see it. If Eddie watches Dave hogging the camera while making believe he’s playing the guitar it will drive Eddie back to drinking and end any new reunion!

God that was awful!
Doug

This was on youtube before. I remember forwarding it to a bunch of friends and I also remember commenting on it.

It is totally sensational.
Doug W

This was simply great! I can see the producer of that frog tv show telling the band what to do, and they just completely messed with it. I love this, hell they should put this on there bnext dvd
RememberThePromQueen

Dave had a guitar because they wanted him to cover his trouser snake!

Love it!
http://vhnd exodus

This site should include “Mammoth” material and should include Mark Stone.
phillster

heh,heh, yeah it`s not classic=VH=without Mark Stone!!!!!
god that`s funny
http://vhnd holmes

Their spinal tap moment.
Rocko

What do you expect, that’s TV for you.
ME!!

Considering when this originally aired the most likely explanation for Dave having a guitar is the French TV producers probably didn’t want Dave gyrating or perhaps they may have thought he would look “out of place” or “wrong” unless he had a guitar in hand since “that’s what people expect from a rock band”. The idea it was just the band being goofy is highly unlikely since it never happened anywhere else that we know of.
BrianG

Oh my god, I nearly pissed myself watching that.
Mark

In some places it seems they transposed the negative as everyone is playing left handed.