Saturday, April 12, 2014

VIDEO: Van Halen rock On Fire on opening night of 1979 tour



Vintage concert footage of Van Halen performing “On Fire” at the Selland Arena in Fresno, California in 1979 on the opening night of their second world tour, in support of “Van Halen II”, has surfaced.

The clip the track from the band’s groundbreaking 1978 self-titled debut follows recently-posted clips from Fresno shows in 1978 and 1979 that were remastered frame by frame in uncompressed HD “from my original Fuji single-8 films”, according to the source.

Some of the videos have been removed from YouTube by the source.

The release of “Van Halen II” recently marked its 35th anniversary; the follow-up to the group’s groundbreaking 1978 debut was recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood less than a week after the end of the band’s first world tour.

“Van Halen II” was certified gold (500,000 copies) in the US just 10 days after its release, and platinum (1 million) a month later. The project eventually reached No. 6 on the US Billboard 200 album chart and went on to sell more than 5 million copies in the States alone.

Van Halen kicked off their “World Vacation Tour” in Fresno two days after the sophomore album's release; the band went on to play 97 shows by the time the trek wrapped up October 7, 1979 at The Forum in Inglewood, California.




See also:

Bruce Springsteen performs Van Halen’s Jump in Dallas
Van Halen tops the hennemusic Hot 10
VIDEO: Van Halen rock D.O.A. on opening night of 1979 tour
VIDEO: Eddie Van Halen at Six Flags Magic Mountain
Search Van Halen at hennemusic