Van Halen 1978, Manchester Apollo

MCFCTrick

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Stuff yer Pistols at the Lesser Free Trade Hall, this was the Manc gig of the decade .... the breath of fresh air to hard rock that was Van Halen on their first UK tour, as support to Black Sabbath. Having bought their debut and being amazed a such a new guitar sound courtesy of Eddie Van Halen, and loving Dave Lee Roth's OTT frontman act we were all looking forwards to it.

They were young, different and fresh .... Sabbath were old, tired and about to sack the (even then) punch drunk Ozzy ... it was a massacre. VH blew Sabs offstage .... embarrassed them really. When they (Sabs) returned to the Apollo for another night, on the second leg of the (ironically named) Never Say Die Tour, they had booted VH off it, and had the awful Tanz der Youth as support (Brian James ex Damned's new band) to ensure it didn't happen again ....

Van Halen went on to world dominance and Sabs went with Dio and never sounded the same ...

Just recently found the soundboard recording from it.
http://www.themightyvanhalen.net/1978/05/22/1978-manchester-england-manchester-apollo/
 
My dad had a bootleg of this i think. do they do a cover of you really got me by the kinks?
 
Wasn't there, as wasn't a big Sabbath fan, but my friends went and came back raving about this great new band and guitarist doing stuff they'd never seen before. Regretted not going at the time. So nearly 40 years later I get to hear that night. Great find.
 
Sabbaths 10th anniversary tour Van halen took them to the cleaners and blew them off stage
One of the few shows that the support was decent and worth seeing instead of staying in the bar,which I was doing till my mate dragged me out saying you got to see this band caught the last 4 numbers they did
 
Sabbaths 10th anniversary tour Van halen took them to the cleaners and blew them off stage
One of the few shows that the support was decent and worth seeing instead of staying in the bar,which I was doing till my mate dragged me out saying you got to see this band caught the last 4 numbers they did
Saw a few great support bands around that time, Iron Maiden with Priest springs to mind and Saxon with Motorhead.
 
What about Mott the hoople at the opera house 1973 with Queen as support playing a selection from the queen2 album
Or Whitesnake at rotters
 
The manc rock gig of that decade was Lynyrd Skynyrd at the Free Trade Hall.
Despite the Kestrel Lager.
 
Stuff yer Pistols at the Lesser Free Trade Hall, this was the Manc gig of the decade .... the breath of fresh air to hard rock that was Van Halen on their first UK tour, as support to Black Sabbath. Having bought their debut and being amazed a such a new guitar sound courtesy of Eddie Van Halen, and loving Dave Lee Roth's OTT frontman act we were all looking forwards to it.

They were young, different and fresh .... Sabbath were old, tired and about to sack the (even then) punch drunk Ozzy ... it was a massacre. VH blew Sabs offstage .... embarrassed them really. When they (Sabs) returned to the Apollo for another night, on the second leg of the (ironically named) Never Say Die Tour, they had booted VH off it, and had the awful Tanz der Youth as support (Brian James ex Damned's new band) to ensure it didn't happen again ....

Van Halen went on to world dominance and Sabs went with Dio and never sounded the same ...

Just recently found the soundboard recording from it.
http://www.themightyvanhalen.net/1978/05/22/1978-manchester-england-manchester-apollo/

Great post. My first ever gig. 13 years old. Older cousin took me to see Sabbath but VH changed my life forever that night. We were about 10 rows back, centre stage.

Your first gig is always special but to experience a young, hungry VH was a complete mindf**k. I found the gig on Youtube a few years ago. It is astonishing.

They will always be my favourite band. Their albums were so well produced and engineered by Ted Templeman and Don Landee that the music simply doesn't age. Live, they were untouchable. I was front row both nights on the next 2 tours (the biggest lighting rigs I ever saw at the Apollo) and all 3 gigs are the best I have ever experienced.
 

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