Dokken
Monsters of Rock
Oxford Plains Speedway
Oxford Plains, Maine
June 25, 1988
CBG Classic Master Video Series Vol. 44
video: (CBG) Ricoh R-600 (same spec as Sony CCD-V5) 8mm camcorder (w/ 2X teleconverter lens) master 8mm analog tape; NTSC, 4:3 PAR, 29.97 fps; transferred to harddrive via a firewire using a Sony TRV-330 8mm digital camera w/ Time Base Correction. Video capture, editing, and 2-pass VBR encoding done with Sony Vegas Pro 13 at (both discs) 8.2K max, 8K avg, 1K min).
audio: (CBG) recorded w/ Aiwa-CM30A mic through the Ricoh R-600's external mic in jack; captured with the video from CBG's master 8mm analog tape; LPCM 1536 bit.
Authored to DVD in Sony DVD Architect Pro 6 by Silver Stallion (guitard on Dime).
1. Standing In The Shadows (cuts in)
2. Heaven Sent
3. Mr Scary
4. It's Not Love
5. Alone Again
6. Into The Fire
running time: 34 mins (partial show)
This is “CBG Classic Master Video Series Vol. 44”.
For this show, Ryan from Miami, Florida, just 16 years old at the time, wanted to come up to see a few of the Monsters of Rock shows in the northeast and go with me. He was the one who filmed all of those shows at the Hollywood Sportatorium before they tore it down when the Miami Arena was built. He had already filmed the opening night of the Monsters of Rock tour on June 4th at the Orange Bowl in Miami and mailed it to me to check out before I went to the shows in my area. That was a cool time to see shows on tape before you would get to see them in your area. No Youtube then.
So our plan was to go to this speedway in Oxford Plains, Maine and then go the next day to the Meadowlands and see them in Giants Stadium. This was the first time Ryan had been out of the state of Florida. His parents were trusting me (being an 'adult' at age 25) to take good care of him, he was just 16 years old. At that point we had only talked on the phone. I didn’t know what he looked like and he didn’t know what I looked like. There was no facetime. Well, he flew up on June 25th and I met him at Providence Airport. It was easy to spot him as he was a tall blonde and he was wearing these short shorts and was all tan. He stood out in the Providence airport crowd. We then drove directly to Maine. The venue was out in the country in Maine. There was not adequate road infrastructure to bring this many people into this site. There was a traffic jam for miles away from the venue. We got there and Ryan brought the shoulder mount camcorder he would always use in Miami. We walked the front of the venue as Metallica was playing on stage and he decided to put his bag under the fence at one spot and then go through security and go get his bag. I went in with my camera the same way I always did, with the thing strapped on my back and wearing a lined jacket. It was sort of cool up there even in June, so it looked OK to wear a jacket. I wasn’t sweating down my arms like I was in Philly and Foxboro a couple weeks earlier.
Everything worked out, amazingly, since we were getting in large cameras and we both got them in! To me it was a very non-traditional way of putting a bag under a fence and then going and getting it. We were in though and went to some seats in the bleachers straight on from the stage in the back of the field floor. Then it started to rain. And the temperature was dropping. Metallica had finished their set and we were up on the bleachers in the rain. I had a large hefty bag that I brought in and cut holes in the sides and bottom for my arms and head. Ryan didn’t have anything and for some reason (this is 1988), he was wearing these real short shorts. I had on pants. As I said it was cool there, maybe 58-60 degrees. And now it was raining. I think he thought it was going to be like Miami. This was Maine!! Not Miami. So I decide to film Dokken because I didn’t film them in either of the other two shows I went to in Philly and Foxboro. It was a wet, foggy show and the only heat you got was from the crowd around you. You can see the rain drops in the lens as I am filming. I just put the camcorder on my lap and covered it with the hefty bag. You can even hear the rain drops in the sound captured on the camcorder. So after the set was over, Ryan started to complain that he was cold. If you wear short shorts to Maine from Miami, yea, you will be cold when it is 60 degrees out. Plus it was raining so it was cold. He must have been even colder. So we decide to go down into the crowd on the floor thinking it will be warmer in the crowd of everyone. We work our way up front of the people holding those tarps over their heads that you can see on the floor in the Dokken video. The Scorpions hit the stage but I decided not to film that close because I didn’t want to be caught. And I didn't have a good way to cover the camera from the rain. I was there for Van Halen. After 1-2 songs, it starts to rain again and it starts to lightning real bad. You can see lightning bolts striking behind the band through the back of the stage since there was no backdrop and just a clean view of the trees. After 3 and a half songs, they stop the Scorpions and pull them off the stage really quick. The lightning booms are almost immediate right now around us and I was kind of fearful being next to this errected metal structure in an open field with the bolts coming down around us. By then I am soaked and starting to feel cold too. I thought it would be warmer in the crowd like that all huddled together, but I started to shake from the cold. After hearing Ryan complain more about being cold, and it looking like it is going to be a while until Van Halen played, if they played, we decided to leave and return to my home in Connecticut. We figured we could dry out, recharge (ourselves and our batteries) and go to the Meadowlands show the next night in NJ anyway. So that is what we did. As it turned out, we woke up the next morning and it was raining and damp at my place. We drove down I-95 to New Jersey and as we got to New Haven, it started to clear and by the time we reached the Meadowlands, it was beautiful. We ended up walking up to Giants Stadium as Dokken was onstage playing.
It turned out that Van Halen did eventually go on stage with a big delay and played an abbreviated short set. The Scorpions never returned to the stage. It’s funny how Sammy, and most bands really, have purposely distorted memories and say things like ‘we played 2 and a half hours’ after that for the diehards who stayed. He said that in some interview later on. But I know it isn’t true at because I have the audio someone recorded of the Van Halen show in Oxford Plains and it is like 80 minutes and it is complete. That's one hour 20 minutes Sammy, Not two and a half hours. But they were diehards who stayed for that show. I believe Sammy said they were going to play 2 and a half hours in Jersey, but it was only 1 hour and 35 minutes actually.
It was so nice to actually get in the car in Oxford Plains and change out of the wet clothes and turn on the heat in the car. What a long day, 4 hours up to the show and another hour in traffic, then 4 hours back. At least the next night in Giants Stadium was successful (already posted here as a 3 camera mix in 1988!!!) Anyway, try to enjoy this Dokken show in the rain of Oxford Plains, Maine (my one an only time there) on the Monsters of Rock tour!
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