Screen capture from the 1978 footage, embedded below
Van Halen’s first world tour absolutely STUNNED unsuspecting audiences around the world. Watch INCREDIBLE audience-filmed footage from that tour below!
On September 22nd, 1978, Van Halen performed at the Selland Arena in Fresno, California. On this special night, Van Halen owned the stage. Thanks to a very clever rock concert enthusiast, who smuggled in his 8mm film camera, we are able to relive this night, “…Live in front of your naked steaming eyes!”
Note: Some of the Fresno ’78 footage was available online previously. But now, finally, the rest of the footage has been released on Youtube for your viewing pleasure. (The 25-minute video below consists of ALL the footage that was taken).
(This is not to be confused with the Fresno 1979 footage, which was released in its entirety earlier this year).
David Lee Roth, Michael Anthony, and Eddie and Alex Van Halen – unleashed upon the world at an average age of just 24 – were already ROCK GODS, as this footage proves.
The amazing video shows what an unstoppable force the band was in the early years. You can see that no rock band was EVER as fierce, energetic, and as entertaining as these four boys from Pasadena. There’s precious little footage that proves this, making these clips a real treat! So crank it up, crack open a beer, set your setting to widescreen and 720p, and ENJOY!
Screen capture from the 1978 footage, embedded below
The history of this bootleg footage from Fresno, 1978:
Back in the ’80s, a 10 or 15 minute clip of this footage started circulating amongst bootleg collectors. It was extremely blurry, but it was the only audience-filmed footage from the ’70s that existed. Then in 2012, an upgraded version of this footage hit YouTube, and fans went crazy, finally having some decent-quality bootleg footage of early Van Halen. (The uploader boasted that the footage has been “Remastered Frame by Frame HD Uncompressed…from my original Fuji single-8 films.”) The upgraded footage was a bit longer than the blurry footage that circulated previously, but still wasn’t ALL the footage that the bootlegger shot. That footage was on-and-off YouTube ever since, getting taken down and then re-uploaded a few times.
And now, in 2019, a new YouTube channel appeared which contained ALL the Fresno footage, some of which has never been seen on Youtube (or anywhere else online) before.
As you watch the incredible footage, you’ll notice that there are few complete songs. This is because the film camera recorded onto 8mm reels, which were only about three-and-a-half minutes long. So, every three-and-a-half minutes, the aspiring bootlegger had to reload the camera with a new reel, all the while avoiding the gaze of the band’s and/or venue’s security.
And be sure to also watch the 1979 footage from Fresno, which is every bit as good!
