Epic five-part documentary focusing on Van Halen's crucial 1983-1984 period announced

Jackson Maxwell
·2 min read
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David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen perform onstage with Van Halen in San Diego, California on May 21, 1984
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1983 and 1984 were two of the most pivotal years in Van Halen's four-decade-plus career.

It was a period that saw Eddie Van Halen build 5150 Studios – a location that would serve as the electric guitar hero's headquarters and creative laboratory for the rest of his life – and Van Halen play their biggest gig ever at the mammoth US Festival.

Of course, it also saw them record 1984, a smash hit album that contained their first and only chart-topping hit, the synth-powered Jump, and subsequently embark on the biggest tour of their career up to that point. It would also – with frontman David Lee Roth leaving the band in 1985 – mark the beginning of the end of the band's first era, after which they would begin another with new singer Sammy Hagar.

This crucial period for Van Halen is the focus of an upcoming documentary by Alan Berry, the man who made the 2022 film, Steve Vai: His First 30 Years.

You can see a trailer for the film below.

The documentary will be split into five parts, which will focus, in order, on: the construction of 5150 Studios, the lead-up to, and aftermath of, the band's performance at the US Festival, the making of 1984, the 1984 tour, and what led to frontman David Lee Roth's departure from Van Halen.

The first two parts of the film premiere this Wednesday, May 24, with the third, fourth, and fifth segments set to be released on June 7, 14, and 21, respectively.

All five parts of the documentary will be free to watch on The Tapes Archive YouTube channel.

In a 2014 interview with Guitar World, Eddie Van Halen himself reflected on the importance, and hectic pace, of that time period.

"We did the US Festival in the middle of recording the 1984 album, and before that we toured the U.S., Canada, and South America and played about 120 shows," Van Halen said. "And I also had to build the [5150] studio during that period, too! I don’t know how I pulled all of that off."

"Having built 5150, it was a very special time in my life, and that shows in the music."

For more on the Van Halen film, and Berry's other work, visit The Tapes Archive's website.