Van Halen 1982-10-07 New Haven, CT (SBD)

Once again, here is yet another unheard, uncirculated soundboard recording, capturing the Van Halen concert in New Haven during their Diver Down tour (Hide Your Sheep tour) in 1982. It’s worth noting that an incomplete audience recording of this show does also exist in circulation.

This is the first show of third leg of the Diver Down tour, with the band starting on the east coast after having had nearly two weeks on break away from the tour.

There are only a couple minor oddities to note. Dave’s mic seems to be having issues during Everybody Wants Some, as you’ll hear his voice keep quickly phasing in and out. This issue continues into his storytime interlude, during which Dave pauses so the problem can fixed. When he comes back in, he apologizes and makes his usual joke about the crew being “on heavy narcotics tonight”.

The only other little oddity of note is the transition from Intruder into Pretty Woman. Barely worth mentioning, but it’s very noticeable, almost sounding like Ed was about to start playing D.O.A., though this is likely just a coincidence since the song never would’ve been played following Intruder anyway.

As usual, Roy paused the tape during the break where Dave would give an extended talk to the crowd prior to Jamie’s Cryin’. The first side of the 90 minute master tape runs out right near the end of the first part of Everybody Wants Some, and while no songs are missing in between, the second side of the tape starts a minute or so into Dave’s storytime interlude. Then as usual, Roy pauses the tape after Somebody Get Me A Doctor, so does not capture Dave’s acoustic solo or Ice Cream Man. The recording starts again about midway into Intruder. The tape is paused again during both encore breaks.

After pausing during the second encore break, it seems Roy forgot to start recording again on time, because the entire first part of You Really Got Me was not captured. Instead, the tape starts again right before Happy Trails. Due to this, the recording runs through the end of the concert and captures the outro music that would play over the speakers after the band walked off stage, that being Kid Creole’s “Imitation”. There is about 30 seconds of silence before the outro music starts, not because the tape had been stopped, but because Roy seemed to have shut off all other mics that may have picked up any crowd noise. This silence has been left intact. This outro music had been captured before on only a small few of the tapes from earlier in the tour. After “Imitation”, a few seconds of second song can be heard, called “Harder Than Diamond” by Chubby Checker. The only other time the latter song is ever heard is on the Rockford soundboard tape, in the notes of which I mistakenly claimed it was the “only” time we hear it. This would be the last time though, as when we do hear a second outro song later in the tour, it will always be Van Halen’s own “Big Bad Bill”.

Track Listing:

01 Intro [0:00]
02 Romeo Delight [0:47]
03 Unchained [4:11]
04 Drum Solo [8:00]
05 The Full Bug [10:44]
06 Runnin’ With The Devil [14:17]
07 Jamie’s Cryin’ [17:25]
08 Little Guitars [20:44]
09 Where Have All The Good Times Gone! [25:20]
10 Bass Solo [28:38]
11 Hang ‘Em High [32:58]
12 Cathedral [36:16]
13 Secrets [37:54]
14 Drum Solo II [41:10]
15 Everybody Wants Some!! [43:12]
16 Dave Talks (cut) [45:35]
17 Everybody Wants Some!! (Reprise) [50:42]
18 Dance The Night Away [52:29]
19 Somebody Get Me A Doctor / I’m So Glad [55:30]
20 Intruder (cut) [1:00:56]
21 Pretty Woman [1:01:57]
22 Guitar Solo [1:04:54]
23 Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love [1:15:00]
24 Bottoms Up! [1:20:31]
25 Happy Trails [1:24:10]
26 You Really Got Me (Reprise) [1:25:58]
27 Outro Music [1:28:35]

Lineage: Maxell UDXL-I C-90 cassette / Nakamichi DR-1 (azimuth adjustment) / Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD / Audacity (24 bit – 96 khz) / FLAC 6

Liberating unheard soundboard tapes, and other significantly rare master tapes, is absurdly expensive, and we release everything for free. If you appreciate what we do, any donations will help recoup the massively accumulating expenses of acquiring these tapes.
Donation link: https://ko-fi.com/musicmediaarchives

Enjoy the music and be grateful we are able hear these special recordings. If you have uncirculated tapes, please consider sharing them before they end up forever lost to time. If you recorded audio tapes, video tapes, or film at concerts of classic bands/artists, and would like help digitizing them free of charge, you can contact us at musicmediaarchives@gmail.com