In 1980, Van Halen played live at The Piper Club in Rome, Italy on May 21, 1980. This video of Fools was recorded and aired live on the sixth episode of the TV show Superstar, which aired on September 4, 1980. They also played You Really Got Me as well. It’s pretty apparent that Dave is lip-synching, which was done quite often back then for live performances on TV. No matter though, because that gave Dave more time for all of us trademark theatrics!
Here’s an interesting tidbit about this show:
“In a subsequent video Dave jumps and hits his nose on a low-hanging mirror ball over the stage. A three foot ball of light was lowered over the stage on the darkened television studio. DLR, unaware of this, made one of his famous leaps, crashing into the light fixture resulting in his nose being broken in two places multiple contusion and a possible concussion. This had them cancel the next two shows until five days later on 5/26 at Pinkpop where Dave’s nose is taped up.”
via Van Halen Italia 2
Enjoy this look back at a rare live performance of Fools from Van Halen in Italy back in 1980 as well as another rare look at Van Halen live at Pinkpop when Dave’s nose was bandaged up!
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