Notice How...

[RevolutionMan]

Van Halen is one of the only bands in rock music of their calibre to never ever put out released such as live albums, demos, yadda yadda in every format (other than the few we already know)

maybe its that record company situation but still any year prior to that dating back to like 1980 or something i mean... they coulda done it! gee wiz.
however there is an audience shot bootleg of the stones in 78, and apparently the filmer also filmed van halen's set who opened for them. i wonder if that is around? could be something until the big van halen box set that may come when we are all 70 and can't hear anymore.

[Bad to the Bone]

Vh is pretty stingy when it comes to unreleased stuff, ever since 5150 was built pretty much nothing gets out, we've gotten 2 unreleased tracks that I can think of I want some action and TWILY. I can find demos of EEAS and some unreleased sammy demos like Fallen from Grace, which ended up being on a Heart disk but nothing from the entire band. I don't think we ever will...it's a shame cause they could probably make a killing off of this stuff.

[RevolutionMan]

tis frustrating for the regular vh fan. its unfortunate. i mean almost all their demos from the early days before the first release and many shows are around which is more than anyone can ask but really they are sitting on an assload of incredible music and footage that no one other than whoever is in 5150 or wherever the reels are stored, will ever see and hear and that really sucks. i mean if the band as a band, not separate players, is really finished you'd think they (or the suckers in 3 pieces...) would put this material out.

[smithjc]

Sometimes it truly sucks to be a VH fan.

But in a good way.

[loveevhsince79]

In a strange way, maybe it does make sense. They are one of the top traded bootleg bands out there. At this point in time, would people spend $10 - $15 for something they can trade for if they don't already have it? And if they did start to release the old stuff without putting out something new, people would say it was only a last ditch cash grab ala Gene Simmons. They did a full blown tour and people criticized them that it was only for the money. Why bother? Plus, if Oakland 81 is sitting there, maybe it's their children's trust fund.

[smithjc]

Well sitting on it is just plain cruel and unusual punishment, IMO.

Oh to be a diehard U2 fan.

[RevolutionMan]

yup. well theres this stones boot ive seen on like dimeadozen.org from 1978 and its audience shot and van halen opened up that show. it is entirely possible the dude filmed their set but who knows.