CREDIT to ByTorX1
Van Halen
21 August 1982
Venue: Richfield Coliseum
Location: Richfield, Ohio
Source: Soundboard (Master)
Lineage:
Maxell UDXL-I C-90 cassette > Nakamichi DR-1 (azimuth adjustment) > Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD > Audacity (24-96) > FLAC 6
01 Intro
02 Romeo Delight
03 Unchained
04 Drum Solo
05 The Full Bug
06 Runnin' With The Devil
07 Little Guitars (cut)
08 Where Have All The Good Times Gone!
09 Bass Solo
10 Hang 'Em High
11 Cathedral
12 Secrets
13 Drum Solo II
14 Everybody Wants Some!!
15 Dave Talks
16 Everybody Wants Some!! (Reprise)
17 Dance The Night Away
18 Somebody Get Me A Doctor / I'm So Glad
19 Intruder
20 Pretty Woman
21 Guitar Solo
22 D.O.A.
23 Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love
24 Bottoms Up!
25 You Really Got Me (cut)
26 Happy Trails
27 You Really Got Me (Reprise)
Notes:
Here we have a totally unheard, uncirculated soundboard recording, capturing the Van Halen concert in Richfield (near Cleveland) during their Diver Down tour (Hide Your Sheep tour) in 1982. Not even an audience recording of this show has circulated previously.
This show features something very unique during the Doctor / Glad jam, which would slowly evolve and extend over the course of the tour. Exclusively here in Richfield, Eddie plays a bit of Panama, showing us just how early the idea for the song was in his head.
Unfortunately this show is as close to a trainwreck as you'll get. No doubt it'll be the worst you'll hear from this tour. It's hard to not write an essay pointing out every little issue, so I tried to keep it summarized. It's really something you have to experience yourself.
This is easily the worst night for Dave the entire tour. It's hard to be sure if he had a cold, as there were subtle signs of this a week prior in Detroit. Perhaps it's a combination of that, and/or substance abuse. Throughout the show you will hear various instances where he's really struggling, often times not even trying to hit the notes, rather just sort of speaking through the lyrics. Even Eddie isn't totally on point tonight, throughout the show there are instances where he fumbles his parts. Not all the issues are his fault though, which comes to the biggest flaw with this show: the sound system.
There's no explanation for what was going on with the sound system tonight, but it is certain that all the issues noticeably plagued this concert, for the crew, band, and audience. For the first few songs, and at some points later, there is a constant clicking noise, which I believe is related to one of the drum mics. Secondly, the mix is awful. The vocal and instrument levels are individually at times either loud and blown out, or very quiet, sometimes nearly inaudible. Sometimes the levels go up and down during a single song. A good example is Unchained, which has weird wavering. Another good example is The Full Bug, which is further plagued by mic feedback. Other notable examples are the guitar dropout during Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love, and the delays prior to Happy Trails. During Eddie's guitar solo there are parts where he starts having issues, and pauses longer than he usually would.
The climax of these issues start being heard during Cathedral, then right as they start Secrets, the issues finally derail the show. Ed's guitar isn't coming through, causing the band to stop playing. Dave tries to play it off and blame the sound crew, but it doesn't hide the fact that the entire night had been cursed. Perhaps all the issues during this show in Richfield could've been due to exhaustion of the band and sound crew, having been the fifth night in a row without a day off. This was also the last show of the first leg of the tour, until resuming on the west coast on September 1st.
Interestingly, this was the only tape in Roy's collection that was unlabeled. Perhaps he intended to record over it. Perhaps he didn't want to remember it, which clearly wasn't a shining moment for his career.
The first cut in the recording is where Roy would often pause to save space, during the break where Dave would talk to the crowd following Runnin' With The Devil. It seems on this night that he must've forgotten to start recording again, since it cuts Jamie's Cryin' and the first half of Little Guitars. The first side of the 90 minute master tape ends during Dave's Everybody Wants Some storytime interlude, though the tape is flipped very quickly and not missing much. Roy later paused the tape after Somebody Get Me A Doctor, so did not capture any of Dave's acoustic solo or Ice Cream Man. The tape starts again in time for Intruder. Lastly, Roy paused during the encore breaks, but forgot to start again in time, so most of the first part of You Really Got Me is cut.
Huge thanks to those who significantly helped with the absurd pricetag that was required to liberate this VH collection, most of which would've been impossible to save otherwise.
Enjoy the music and be grateful we are able hear these special recordings. If you have uncirculated tapes, please consider sharing them before they end up forever lost to time.
