[do we have an existing thread for the collection of Club Days stuff?]

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2015/may/20/blurt-drummers-dance-mr-booze/

[Dave] Madden’s musical career has spanned decades, from being a 15-year-old drummer for his band Jepetus, opening for Van Halen in a bowling alley in Pasadena, to playing in popular Doors tribute band Wild Child.

ron: [do we have an existing thread for the collection of Club Days stuff?]

It’s been a while since we’ve had anything club days related, so my guess would be no. That last topic I remember seeing was one I started: http://www.vhtrading.com/topic/early-vh-pics

We also had a discussion about Ed’s Franky in the Rare photos section, but that’s it I think. Maybe Greg’s book will spark some renewed interest. I personally hope so…

Can’t say I remember anything about VH playing a bowling alley….nor seeing any flyers with an opening band named Jepetus.

Maybe it is the same bowling alley as that picture of Dave from 1975 with Charlie Herdandez. ( ?? )

http://noisey.vice.com/blog/smokey-was-too-gay-for-the-70s-but-theyre-the-perfect-amount-of-gay-for-2015

NOISEY: Tell me about the time you opened for Van Halen.

John “Smokey” Condon: In 1976 we got booked into this roller rink in Norwalk, and we’d never played outside of L.A. before. So it’s out in the boonies outside of L.A., and Van Halen was supposed to open for us but they were real assholes. They insisted that we go on first because they had Warner Brothers executives looking at them. Most of the crowd was there to see them anyway, and didn’t know who we were. There was some drunk guy who was trying to electrocute himself in front of me. It was a real weird scene–just a horrible, horrible, experience. But we did our thing. Hester, the girl on our song “Dance The Night Away,” had on a purple parachute that you could see through, and no underwear. She squatted onstage and showed her pussy. She did the squat-and-gobble and the whole thing.

EJ Emmons: [Laughs] She was a great gal.

Smokey: Van Halen did not do a song called “Dance The Night Away” at that time. So it really threw me over the edge when they came out with a song called “Dance The Night Away” a few years later.

Emmons: That was a bad couple of days at home there.

LOL! Wasn’t Van Halen’s song originally, “Dance, Lolita, Dance”? Either Ed or Ted didn’t like the title, so they changed it, is what I recall reading or hearing. Love the title of this article, too. Too gay for the 70s but the perfect amount for today. HAHA!