AN UNRELEASED Van Halen song called “Glitter” is about to finally see the light of day, as an added extra in a high-end book.
The live recording from 1974, featuring the band’s original bassist Mark Stone, will come out as a seven inch picture disc with the anthology Van Halen, written by drummer Alex Van Halen.
The initial run of 350 ‘deluxe boxed set’ copies is already sold out in advance of the November release, but you can score one of the 1150 ‘collectors editions’ for a mere A$732.
Genesis Publications has confirmed the disc will feature artwork based on the band’s 1984 tour design. Featuring Alex Van Halen and Eddie Van Halen alongside David Lee Roth and original bassist Mark Stone, “Glitter” “captures Van Halen at the very beginning of their story.
It will mark the earliest Van Halen recording ever to be officially made available.”
The disc will also include a spoken-word recording from Alex Van Halen drawn from new interviews conducted for the book. The 1974 recording was made at the home of Dr Nathan Roth, a Pasadena ophthalmologist and father of David Lee Roth.
The tapes were sent to club bookers around Los Angeles as the band sought work. A version has circulated as a bootleg for decades.
Van Halen is an official chronicle of the band published in an edition of 1,500 signed and numbered copies. “Van Halen opens the Van Halen family archive for the first time,” Genesis says. “From the brothers’ arrival in California from Holland in 1962 to backyard parties in Pasadena, their 1978 debut album and the chart-topping success of 1984, the band’s story is told through an extraordinary collection of correspondence, tour memorabilia, album artwork, press material, musical equipment, unpublished photographs and much more.”
The 312-page book combines rare and previously unseen images, correspondence, tour memorabilia, album artwork, press material, musical equipment and other archival items. The photography covers the band’s early years, their first tours of Japan in 1978 and performances including the US Festival in 1983 and 1984’s Monsters of Rock.
At its centre is an original manuscript by Alex Van Halen based on new interviews, described as his most sustained reflection on the band’s formative years. It is accompanied by archival texts from Eddie Van Halen and contributions from fellow musicians, friends and artists.
Each collectors edition is quarter-bound in black vegan leather with silver page edging and carries a silver debossed Van Halen logo from the 1978 world tour.
It is housed in a black clamshell box with the Van Halen emblem and Alex Van Halen’s burning-ring design. The set also includes a 1979 Van Halen Productions keychain, three replica Eddie Van Halen stage-used guitar picks and six 6″ × 4″ art postcards.
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Features and stories:
Johnny Diesel and the Injectors
Johnny Diesel and the Injectors (1989)
Audio interviews:
Vivian Campbell | Def Leppard/Last In Line | 2016
Markus Grosskopf | Helloween | 2015
