VH 1988-06-11 Philadelphia (CBG)

http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=507788

Van Halen
John F. Kennedy Stadium
Philadelphia, PA
June 11, 1988

CBG Classic Master Video Series Vol.26

video: (CBG) Ricoh R-600 (same spec as Sony CCD-V5) 8mm camcorder (w/ 2X teleconverter lens) master tape; copied using a Digital8 camcorder with Time Base Correction connected to another Digital8 camcamcorder via firewire; video capture, editing, and 2-pass VBR encoding done with Sony Vegas Pro 12 at 8.2K max, 8K avg, 1K min (both discs); authored to DVD in Sony DVD Architect Pro 6.

audio: Aiwa CM-30A mic recorded through the Ricoh R-600′s external mic in jack; captured with the video from the master 8mm analog tape; audio tweaking done using Sony Vegas Pro 12′s 10-band EQ plug-in; LPCM 1536 bit.

All video work and DVD authoring by Silver Stallion.

disk 1 (55 mins)
1. A.F.U. (Naturally Wired) (cut)
2. Summer Nights
3. There’s Only One Way To Rock
4. Panama
5. Mike’s bass solo
6. Runnin’ With The Devil
7. Why Can’t This Be Love
8. Mine All Mine
9. Al’s drum solo
10. You Really Got Me
11. Sucker In A 3 Piece
12. When It’s Love

disk 2 (44 mins)
1. Eagles Fly
2. I Can’t Drive 55
3. Best Of Both Worlds
4. Ed’s guitar solo
5. Black And Blue
6. Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love
7. Superstition
8. Rock ‘n Roll

I only have one request, that you don’t take these files and post them on other torrent sites. I have many shows to upload. I will upload, let them get seeded by others and after a majority have downloaded the files completely, remove my files so I can seed something new. I prefer to manage my own shows on DIME and The Traders Den. I will upload to other sites when I wish to for select shows. Thanks for honoring my wishes in advance.

This is “CBG Classic Master Video Series Vol.26”.

So it is the summer of 1988 and I have filmed some pretty good shows to this point and was branching out to other cities too. No more were the days of thinking I could only film in Springfield, MA or New Haven, CT and that is it. The press release in the spring was that the Monsters of Rock stadium festival tour was coming to North America for the first time on a more extensive tour than it traveled through Europe in the past. Then the word was Van Halen would be headlining with Scorpions, Dokken, Metallica and Kingdom Come. I had already filmed David Lee Roth a few times at this point and this would be my chance to get one of my all-time favorite guitarists Eddie Van Halen and favorite bands Van Halen. The tour started in Miami, Florida at the Orange Bowl and my friend Ryan filmed 4 of the 5 bands and mailed them to me immediately so I could watch them before I went to go see them. The tour dates would go from Miami to Tampa, then Washington DC and Philadelphia. I was only in Philadelphia for one other show to this point, and that was in 1982 at JFK Stadium to see The WHO’s so called farewell tour. So when the Monsters of Rock tour was announced at the same JFK Stadium, I thought of my last trip there and decided to make the drive and attempt the first Monsters show in the northeast.

It was a long ride down I-95 for 4 and a half hours and it was a very hot summer day. It was a Saturday and I drove past the stadium looking to park and most everyone appeared to be inside by this point when I arrived. It had to be over 90 degrees F, probably something like 97F and I am wearing long pants and a jean jacket that was lined for winter. I don’t know why I just didn’t buy an unlined jean jacket to use for the sole purpose of getting the camera strapped on my back into shows in the summer, but I didn’t. I parked way down a side street on the west side of the VET / Spectrum / JFK Stadium sports complex where there were housing developments. By the time I walked to the stadium, I was sweating profusely on the forehead, chest and down my arms. Like streaming water. I had to stand out like an odd ball, and thought if you want to search someone, I would be the one to search. I will never forget this,…as I walk towards the stadium entrances on one side, there are dudes with no shirts and wearing only shorts and they look sunburned and parched from the whole day in the sun and I am bundled up like a snowstorm is coming!! There is no one going into the stadium at this point. Everyone is in. The Scorpions are playing as I can hear from outside. One last time wiping the sweat off my brow and I walk up to one entrance through the maze of metal barricades that guide you in a zig-zag motion to the entrance. I am the only one going through. I come to the door and there is like an army of yellow shirted security guys and women. Maybe 30 security people all amassed there at that entrance just inside under the shade of the stadium concrete drinking water bottles and sweating from the heat. They all look well done! And here I am with a ticket in my hand and a camcorder strapped to my back with all the accessories and a winter type coat on and not one of them questions it. Nobody says ‘search him’. No comments to me about it being really hot (which it was) and I am wearing a coat!? No, the security man attending the entrance gate looks at me and I hold the coat open to him and he takes and tears my ticket stub and says have a good time. That is it! Unreal. They were searching people I can guarantee it when they opened the doors and most everyone entered. But not me. Not the one guy in the whole stadium you wanted to search. I started to feel the brotherly love. Thanks Philly! I go on inside as quick as I could and go up the side of the metal bench seats on one side of the stadium and sit. Time to get this jacket and camera off my back. It was bright daylight and the Scorpions were playing. I don’t know what people thought around me as I took my shirt off and this backpack was on my back of sacks and camera stuff. I took it off and put it on the floor and just cooled off for a little while.

I then assembled the camera, which would entail putting on the removable 8 inch long eyepiece, attaching the 4 inch external microphone, attaching the 3 inch diameter 2x magnification lens, sliding on the removable hand grip that was about 6” by 3 inches, inserting a 5 inch battery into the hand grip, inserting a blank 8mm tape into the camera. They I would put the 3 other spare batteries and extra blank 8mm tape into my pockets. It was a lot of equipment. What was stupid of me was that at this time, I didn’t use a black t-shirt to cover the camera. I just stood and held this massive (18 inches x 8 inches x 4 inches camcorder to my face and filmed. It was pretty intimidating to those around me. People would say ‘how the heck did you get that in?’. I would tell them ‘in my coat’. And they would say ‘I was frisked all over’ and look at me in amazement. Well, I had the camera all together and went to a position on the right side facing the stage within the crowd on those old metal benches and waited. Shows in Philly at this stadium always started earlier than most other shows on the east coast. When I saw The WHO there in 1982, Santana went on at 12 noon and The Clash went on at like 1:30 and then The WHO at 3pm. The show was over at like 5:30pm. The WHO played in total sunshine, something they didn’t do at all on that 1982 farewell tour.

Well, this Monsters show also started earlier than most and Van Halen played in daylight for the beginning of the show. It was June, and some of the longest days of the year are at that time, but the show started earlier also. I remember moving one time during the show a little lower on the side. You could see the NFL Philadelphia Eagles practice bubble behind the stage as I filmed. I don’t remember much about this show (as I am writing this before I watch the produced DVD from Silver Stallion) other than I did have some issues filming along the way. I will have to see what those are when I watch it in its entirety for the first time. We are covering those spots with slo-mo footage of the show just to remove black screen from the video and make it a little more enjoyable to watch. I do remember filming with that camera to my face standing in the daylight and feeling so out in the open. I was up some 20 rows off the floor but the angle looked like I was level with the stage. The JFK Stadium was a very flat open bowl. So I was something like 50 yard line and to the right side which looked somewhat straight on for the video. I do also remember the MTV contest winner being brought up on stage for a song, the girl won an opportunity to be onstage with Van Halen. But I do not remember much else. That is why I film, because you can relive the day that was some 26 years ago and have a better recollection than a memory. It was great to add EVH to my list of accomplishments as this is one of my favorite guitarists. And being able to film Van Halen for the first time also made the trip all the way down to Philly worth it. It gives you a nice boost of adrenaline to make that long dark drive home up I-95 after the show. To me, like it must be for sports athletes, there is nothing like that boost of energy you get walking out the door after a successful night filming one of your favorite bands. This show was also one of those foundation building blocks that gave me the confidence to make the long trek to a stadium or arena that I never thought I could film in and branch out across the northeast (and beyond) to attempt filming the bands I loved so much. So, enjoy the Mighty Van Halen at the ‘old and gone’ JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, my first VH film! CBG5150 Posted to DIME 2014-10-17.

In the comments below, I have attached 2 pictures of the Ricoh R-600 (same spec as Sony CCD-V5) 8mm camcorder with all of the accessories that I used to strap on my back in sacks to give you an idea of the size and quantity of the hardware that would need to be brought into a typical show to film it in 1988. There is also a short video at the end of the Van Halen Giants Stadium 1988 DVD that I posted on DIME that shows the camera hardware as well. I also put the Canon ES5000 handycam, which is about 6 inches long and 4 inches high into the picture as well so you can look at a comparison to a typical handycam of the 1990′s to relate to. The 2x magnification lens in the picture is the smaller one I bought to replace the original that was used to film this Philly VH show. I guess I threw out the old one or it is packed away in some box as a historical relic. The eyepiece that is flipped up on the camera would also dismount like the hand grip next to the camera, but I left it attached to the camera for the picture. The hand grip would take the batteries, which as you can see, I would bring in 4 separate 5″ long, 1.5″ wide and 1″ thick batteries that lasted 40-45 min each. Also, pictured is the AIWA CM-30A external microphone I would use to get better sound than the camera mic. What is not pictured is the extra 8mm tape and sometimes a dummy 8mm tape that could be used to give to security as ‘the tape’ if I were to be caught and try to somehow keep my filmed on tape without the security knowing. So, all of this hardware would be strapped on my back and I would go into a show and assemble it on the floor (people would look at me thinking I was about to do something bad or say to me WTF?, how’d you get all that in?). Then I would stand and hold that to my face steady and film without putting a black-t-shirt over it. It was crazy and I probably could have took better precautions, but I did it my way. I stood and filmed just about every show I did. I didn’t sit and put the camera on my knee to steady it. I tried to shoot over people and not look for the few places I could be in the front row of a balcony to get a clean shot. I tried to find that myself within the people all standing around me in a section as I stood and filmed.