How many of you are going crazy from shelter in place? The local Wal-Mart here is now requiring all of its employees to wear masks and may soon require customers to as well. Thank goodness I stopped shopping there. I think I have enough peanut butter and crackers to ride this pandemic out, but we'll see. I've survived this week so here's another look back at a Sunday Showcase. The April 20, 1986 edition's cover boasts Dorothy Hamill who is coming to town for a Festival On Ice, some scary clowns from the Shrine Circus, Garrison Keillor, Billy Sherrill, and Van Halen who would be playing at Municipal Auditorium on that very night.
The Shrine Circus made the cover, but there's a big ad in the Showcase for Ringling Bros. Barnun & Bailey Circus which would be coming to town in June. Talk about advance notice. Apparently they had gone back to the P.T. Barnum adage about a sucker being born every minute since this circus would have a real live.....UNICORN.....oh my gosh!
Another circus had been going on in rock and roll with David Lee Roth leaving Van Halen and then the subsequent joining together of Sammy Hagar and Van Halen. Some, like myself, dubbed this union Van Hagar. I was a fan of Sammy's solo work and knew a little of Montrose, but Van Halen with David Lee Roth was one of my favorite bands ever. The first big concert I ever saw was Van Halen on the 1984 tour. I was pretty much crushed with the development, but I thought the 5150 album wasn't too bad. I felt Sammy's lyrics were pretty awful at times and I wasn't too keen on the ballads, but Eddie was still the greatest living guitar player in my eyes. Since I had seen them with Dave I didn't even think about going to this show, but the Gonz called me up and insisted we go so off we went to Municipal Auditorium not really knowing what to expect with Sammy as frontman. There had been lots of vitriol from the Van Halen camp as you can see from this interview with Alex Van Halen and I didn't like that at all.
I ended up having a great time at the concert. I didn't like Sammy running Dave down which he did at times and his stupid lyrics like "US prime grade A stamped guaranteed grease it up and turn on the heat...." and "wanna play some love with them human toys" from "Good Enough" and "Summer Nights" were still stupid even if the music was great. "Summer Nights" was especially cool that evening, but the track that blew my mind live was "5150." I might prefer the Dave years, but "5150" may be my favorite Van Halen track. Eddie's solo that night in Nashville was better than the one on the 1984 tour too. I strongly recommend you watch the entire Live Without A Net concert on YouTube. There was no ads for the concert in this Showcase or any of them up to a month before. There was really little promotion out there for the 5150 tour at this point.
"5150" from Live Without A Net New Haven, Connecticut
The only thing that can top Van Halen live might just be Chuck Norris. So be sure to grab your Invasion U.S.A. videocassette at your local Xanadu store. Invasion U.S.A. should be considered a Christmas movie classic.
The circus wasn't the only thing being sold months in advance. The Charlie Daniels Band's Volunteer Jam wasn't going to happen until July 12 at Starwood Amphitheatre, but you better get your tickets before it sold out. It would be the 12th one and I assume it was for charity. It may be because I was born in Tennessee, but I love Charlie Daniels and I might just fight you if you say mean things about him.
From Volunteer Jam XII Starwood Amphitheatre
I did a whole post about Sal's Rock-n-Roll Club, but I missed this ad where they featured a "Rock Video Night" on a Thursday night. Yes, children, there was once a world where rock and roll music videos were so popular that a night club could get people in the door just to watch them. Rox Sedan were from Indiana and they had a cool tune called "Better Off Dead" which is on YouTube.
Rox Sedan
The Top 10 records are about as Eighties as it gets. Just take a look at the artists listed. Sly Fox is the only one on the list that rates as a one hit wonder to me and what a great hit "Let's Go All The Way" was that spring. Prince gets 2 cuts in the Top Ten since he wrote the Bangles "Manic Monday" along with "Kiss" which blew our minds back then with its minimalistic funk.
Sly Fox original promo video
It is a Sunday....Showcase review
you don't have to be beautiful
And here's Prince doing Manic Monday
That's all for this Sunday Showcase. Next week I'm heading to a year that I've not ever ventured to before.
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