Unearthed Photos: Van Halen 1978 In-Store Appearance

@whispergirl: haha great dramatization! Sort of reminds me of 1984 for myself. Couldn’t go to the concert cuz I was to young and VH were bad boys (my 84 yr old mom loves them now!) and I remember the disapproval on my moms face after I bought 1984 with my allowance. The smoking angel didn’t really fly with my mama…haha!

What a time to be alive. Were is that album jacket. Thats so cool.

@whispergirl: Loved your dramatization! (lol) That was awesome!!

That’s not Zloz in that pic with Al,that’s the Soup Nazi

@ Whispergirl —-

We’d be lying to ourselves if we didnt think many female rock music fans wanted to get “squeezed” by Sir Diamond Lee in the 80′s —- that’s like climbing Mt. Everest for a groupie chick! Ah well, it’s only good fantasy, eh? Personally, my fantasy would be to go back in time and hang out with Dave after a Fair Warning concert and throw back some shots of JD while hearing him tell cool stories about the road —- and then head over to the local nudie bar and snort lines of coke off strippers’ bums. I’m not even a druggie —- but this is fantasy so anything goes.

As far as meeting up for a drink, I’m an East Coast turd stuck in the doldrums of winter so probably not anytime soon. However, I’m liable to do wacky stuff once this massively glorious 2012 Van Halen World Tour kicks off so maybe you’ll be seeing me in Crazy Cali after all. Pick out your local watering hole and make sure they play CVH at obscene levels, OK?

These photos ere gold , thanks VHND for the early chrissy presant , now just waiting on Eds n Daves

@Gotta Love Eddie: thanks. I guess you are a different kind of mom!!

@Leaps: I’m ready. Haha (Should I find some 70s jeans?)

@ Whispergirl —-

“I’m ready. Haha (Should I find some 70s jeans?)”

Yeah, bring out the Jordaches — or was that the 80′s? I remember the late 70′s somewhat — I was in grade school but I recall the high school girls wearing that same outfit as the girl in pic #2 getting Eddie’s autograph — tight jeans with shirt tied up in the front and bare midriff, platform shoes and Farrah Fawcett feathered hairdos. They need to bring that look back!

@Leaps: Yes, on the tied-up shirts. That was the only way to wear a blouse. But the less racy girls just tied it at the waist. FYI, most of us were growing out the Farrah-do by 1978. Mine was all the way grown out. We still had curls though. Every girl took her curlers “out” in the bathroom at school. Our lockers were full of “supplies”. You would have loved it. Get a Freddiegirl’s time-Delorean, and let’s all go back for a visit. We’ll take my friend’s 1967 Mustang (for which we were stopped “cruisin’” one night for “indecent exposure” because we had tied our bras all together and hung them from the radio antenna) and play VHI on the 8-track. Could you imagine seeing that (the bra display) now? We started a trend too. Lots of girls started to do that. Memories…..And I’m glad I did not meet Dave in 1978; I would have been waaayyy too nervous. And it would have meant I had nothing to live for the many years for which that was the goal in going to a VH concert.

And you know I love you freddiegirl

Oh and I will leave it up to the chicks here to debate who was/is the hottest guy in the band.

And someone suggested Zloz was in the photos – no way that is Zloz – he was too young to be that guy, plus it just doesn’t look like him.

That is without a doubt the coolest thing I have seen in a very very long time.

I dreamt last night that VH was playing a concert, everyone who had ever been a member of the band was there, and they were playing an awesome VHalenized version of Cashmir. It was awesome. You shoulda seen Big Al thumpin out that Bonham beat. Now I have to go to work.

Is the blonde in the overalls a young Lita Ford? Great smile too. If these pics were shot in TX, probably not…amazing pics, thanks for sharing VHND.

dude, you’d have to find a record store first!

@ whispergirl-yes I knew that was a dramatization. Yes, I confess-I and my family lived next door to you-I have had a crush on you ever since.lol Take care!

Halen High- <3 <3 <3 You know for me it'll always be Ed..I strayed as a girl to Randy Rhodes, John Sykes and right now I seem to be completely enamoured with Bo Diddley but I always return home to Ed..

whispergirl-See, I was younger than you, only 8 years old when my older sister's cool high school boyfriend played VH1 for me and I just remember being astounded by those first few notes beginning with the car horns of Running With the Devil. Then Eruption! Segueing into You Really Got Me..! Somehow I thought all these amazing sounds had to come from some 'serious' fellow like Jimmy Page or perhaps some scary looking wildman like Ted Nugent so imagine my surprise when I looked at the album cover and saw this adorable young man who was even cuter than my sis' cool boyfriend…basically EVH looked like the cutest high school senior to ever walk the planet…not to mention playing that guitar like a demon possessed. I fell in love with Eddie and VH hook line and sinker and went and promptly bought VH2 and WACF with my chores money soon after that. I remember being fascinated with that pic of Dave on the back of VH1 though…but for an 8 year old he was a bit too much 'man' for me at the time. I will say he got my big sister's attention though..she grudgingly admitted that DLR gave her beloved Robert Plant a run for him money in the 'sexy' department! It's funny, I still think Ed's a cutie and I always will but it's only as an adult that I can look back at pics like these and see what a sexy beast that Dave was..I totally understand why you love him.. I'm a loyal gal though, Ed's my guy, my first 'love' and my musical hero. I've always said my 4 biggest pop culture heroes are…in no particular order, EVH, Bruce Lee, Boba Fett (yes, I am a Star Wars Nerdy McNerdyson!) and the great soccer/footy player Zidane. Bon Scott and Micheal Jordan are close runner-ups. Like your mum, my mum didn't care for VH either although she loved AC/DC, Cheap Trick and Meat Loaf. *shrugs* Have no idea why she didn't care for VH but she was always yelling at me to turn it down when I played them or to put on the head phones. This coming from the same mum who made me an Angus Young costume once for Halloween….

GottaLoveEddie-Good for you! I started on a second-hand and rather beat up Les Paul (ugh! so heavy!) and later as an adult I bought a Daisy Rock as I'm a small girl and have small hands. I later upgraded to a Jackson Dinky and I highly recommend it…it's a wonderful guitar and it's become the one I play the most. I've got a guitar kit guitar that's waiting for paint when the weather is better, I'm making Ed's Bumblebee but in hot pink and black instead of yellow and black. My DR and my Dink are pink as well.. I say put some stripes on your Strat like the original paint on Frankie; love that first incarnation of Ed's famous axe. Also think it's great that your kids play instruments as well, hopefully more kids do the same and continue to rock on! I'm tired of all the over-produced and shallow stuff that music has become. We need another young band to shake things up like VH did back in '78. And yes, one day I'd like to be able to get a Wolfgang as well..

ba-I'd love to hear that too. Big Al is seriously underrated and is probably our last great rock drummer living. He would play Bonham stuff amazingly I would think.

Leaps-I think Atomic Pete has that time machine almost done; start getting ready! "I'm takin' whiskey to the party tonight and I'm lookin' for somebody to squeeze!"

Wow!!! Man, talk about a blast from the past!!!! Those photos are incredible! Almost like taking photos of the Beatles on their 1st ever world tour!! Amazing.

P.S. Check out Alex’s platform shoes…LOL!

I never would have guessed that Dirk Diggler was a Van Halen fan (pic 14). Alex could have been Dirk’s accomplice in porn, Chest Rockwell.

I have one the 4ftX4ft promo posters autographed at Record Town in Austin Texas….bought it from the manager in 1980 for $5….he said former employees had scribbled on it but he’d let it go for $5….the employees turned out to be the band! Killer find I wouldn’t take $5000 for it!

WOW!! Time machine! Growing up in Pasadena with Mammoth & Genesis & DLR’s RED BALL JETS those pictures bring back memories of GREAT ‘open parties’ in and around our city. They would do cover songs…..Humble Pie, Zepplin, Deep Purple etc. We would squish into the Velasco’s living room and the guys would be up against the fireplace and man oh man that was the bomb. Thanks for those great pictures. Good memories.

I saw them at this time in the Cleveland suburb of Willowick,Ohio. At a Peaches record store they arrived at the store in a horse drawn carriage from who knows where,cool vivid vivid memory for me a 11 year old atomic punk.

@Freddiegirl: Hey I loved Eddie too. And I know your stories there. So adorable. Our moms could have talked rock n roll together. I think DLR was a bit too much man for me at 15 too, even 17 when I saw WACF, but it did not stop me. LOL. Gotta love those memories. I love messing with you. We keep it stirred up; the only way to be. Hey, and I really tried to corrupt me little sis; I was very successful with my best friend’s sis, so you would have been a really good underage corruptee (started taking sis to clubs when she was 14 under my able care).

@Eric Whitesides, the store in the pics was Hastings Books & Records in Amarillo, TX. They still exist but not in the form that it was back then. They were originally a pretty small, local record shop and over the years have become a large, corporate, national entertainment store. gohastings.com will get you their website. That particular store was remodeled and expanded several times and eventually relocated across the parking lot into a much larger location and now has recently been relocated to a brand new building across the street from the last location. I can pretty much guarantee that there are no left overs of any of that stuff. I’ve had many friends over the years work for that company in store and in corporate that know I’m a huge Van Halen fan and it would’ve found it’s way to me.

Coopster is correct. It was the former Hastings in Wolflin Village in Amarillo, TX. I was there and still have the album sign with the white pen by all four of them and I have THE concert poster over Dave’s shoulder in the first picture. They were in town June ’78 soon after the album was release for an outdoor concert with Rick Derringer and Savoy Brown. This was 2 weeks prior to the appearance at the first Texxas Jam in Cotton Bowl in Dallas. Also great to see an old pic of Store Manager Bobby Harper with Alex in the last picture.

I recognize Nancy (Boom Boom) Barrett in the photos, the blonde. My brain is too fried to know anyone else.