In the late 1980s, hard rock ruled the airwaves and MTV. They also ruled the tour circuit.

It wasn’t just that hard rock was in at the time, but the bands that were at the top during the period were also at a particular high point in their careers. Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Poison, Whitesnake, KISS were all top draws as headliners from 1988 to 1990.

For whatever reason….despite the many popular tours…Almost none were documented!

Bon Jovi was THE ticket for two tours running…Slippery When Wet (1986-87) and The Jersey Syndicate Tour (1989-1990.) The world got a demonstration of the live performance ability of Jon and Richie via their infamous unplugged performance on the 1989 MTV MV Awards. The public appetite for Bon Jovi was huge! The Jersey Syndicate tour saw the band playing at their best, making their music something that HAD to be heard live to be truly appreciated. In addition to the sonic glory, the stage show was comprised of dramatic pyrotechnics, Jon Bon Jovi arriving on the stage through the floor, an elevated ramp above the audience and a very physically active band executing some entertaining choreography.

When the dust settled, all that came out of it was a documentary, Access All Areas… and 5 songs on the Moscow Music Peace Festival video and two video compilations for Slippery When Wet and New Jersey.…..mere bread crumbs. The documentary itself went to great pains to avoid showing any true tour footage. Viewers would only get quick and sparring glimpses of the actual touring show. Performance clips were relegated to one off shows without the stage set up. The Slippery compilation included the clip of Living on A Prayer that the band gave to MTV for use in the 1987 music awards (a testament to the hell wrought on Jon’s vocal chords on that particular tour and reason enough to not have released a concert video of it. The New Jersey compilation included a beautifully shot live clip of Blood On Blood that would only leave any viewer salivating for the complete show. There was official talk of a live album to be released at tours end…obviously this never happened. It was as if pains were taken to prevent any official live documentation of what would be Bon Jovi’s peak in popularity.

Fans wouldn’t see a concert video from the band until 1995, Live In London. However, it was a documentation of a new period for the band and their stage show had since changed. The choreography had completely disappeared and the theatrics were toned down in favor of a more relaxed approach.

There are a fair amount of Pro shot videos circulating in the bootleg world of the Jersey Syndicate Tour, however the best of the lot are in pretty poor quality. The Slippery When Wet tour has little more than two very poor and rare Pro shot shows available.

KISS, which had been experiencing a downturn in tour attendance in the first half of the 80s saw a resurgence in 1990, with the help of the hit, Forever. The tour was not to be missed. It marked the first time the make-upless KISS had rolled out a theatrical stage show that could go head to head with their glory days. Featuring pyrotechnics, dramatic laser effects, immaculately designed lighting, choreography, a giant moving/talking Sphinx head (dubbed Leon,) a Geiger inspired stage design, and a cameo appearance by the band’s stage center piece…the KISS sign. The set list alone was enough for any fan of the band’s overall history to drool over. Prior to that tour, they had a set list that for the most part remained pretty static and predictable. They threw that out the window and opened with two songs back to back that hadn’t been performed live since the 1970s (I Stole Your Love and Deuce.) It was the tour that featured the perfect balance between 70s and 80s material. Additionally, it was the final tour with drummer Eric Carr, who would succumb to cancer post-tour.

The tour was never filmed. There are two Pro-shot bootlegs existing from two separate dates in Detroit at different legs of the tour, but they are in poor quality and the cameras fail to capture the show (the earlier date video fails miserably at capturing many of the theatrics taking place, focusing on a band member’s face or foot instead.) These two shows were shot by the venue, not the band. There were initial plans to finally release Alive III out of the tour, but that would not become reality until the next tour. As a result, there is no official live album with Eric Carr, their drummer of 10+ years. The only official documentation is Animalize Live Uncensored, a chart topping music video released in 1985. The band didn’t release a full length concert video until last year’s Alive IV: Symphony.

In 1989, Motley Crue finally became fully realized, The band had sobered up (at least for a while) and released their masterpiece…Dr Feelgood. The tour followed suit. It featured lasers, scores of pyrotechnics (opening number Kickstart My Heart featured 13 blasts alone) Tommy Lee and his drum kit elevating out over the audience during his solo, and the Nasty Habits (Donna and Emi, two female back up singers who made their tour debut with the band on the Girls Girls Girls tour.) When the dust settled, the public was left with nothing but a single live recording of Kickstart My Heart on the band’s best of compilation: Decade of Decadence. Like KISS, only a small handful of poor quality Pro shot bootlegs surfaced, failing to capture the show.

Def Leppard was a triumph to witness. Having already experienced their first wave of popularity with 1983’s Pyromania, 1987’s Hysteria took it all to the next level. The band was simply HUGE. They had overcome a string of difficulty and tragedy while between albums. The Hysteria tour was a hot ticket and justifiably so. In keeping with the band’s trailblazing reputation, the stage was completely “In The Round,” something none of their peers had ever attempted prior. A review of the staging used by the bands mentioned above demonstrates Lasers were a hot theatric on late 80s tours, credit must be given to Def Leppard for being the first to use them to that extent (the Hysteria tour concluded before the previously mentioned tours began. Ozzy Osbourne had used laser effects in 1982, though relatively sparingly.) All 5 band members had grown and developed distinct stage personas…with Steve Clark and his stage moves stealing the show.

Not only did the band have a distinction of trailblazing, but they are also the only hot ticket of that period to release a (mostly) full length concert video that documents it all. Their only misstep was releasing it in mid 1989, a bit too late, when the public had been overstuffed with all things Leppard. Oddly enough, there is not a single Pro Shot bootleg of the tour circulating.

When it comes down to it..the question is…why was this period so poorly documented? Surely it was pretty much a given that live video releases of hit tours would have only raked more money in. Official releases aside…even the world of bootlegs fails to adequately capture the late 1980s. This makes little sense when one can obtain a near mint quality Pro-shot KISS show from the 1970s as far back as 1974! In the 1990s and on…high quality bootlegs from the bands mentioned above (with the exception of Whitesnake) became readily available. Motley Crue didn’t release a live concert video until they were past their prime and had lost drummer Tommy Lee. Bon Jovi seems hell bent on ensuring their most intense performances are kept under wraps. Their first live album wasn’t released until 2001, it was bits a pieces from various shows…edited versions of some of their most uninspired performances save for 2 or 3 tracks. One can compile a better live album from their private bootleg collection. Their first live video came out in 1995 and while it captures a high point in the band’s performance history…it’s heavily cut..leaving many of the songs performed on the cutting room floor. They released another live video that was close to complete…but completely fails to demonstrate the band’s live prowess…catching them walking through the set.

Is there a rational explanation for why things turned out as they have? Is it poor business planning? It seems the industry views concert video releases as something to be done during a time of less demand. What data have you noticed yourself as working for other artists that have done otherwise in their own respective times of popularity (for example, Metallica’s Live Sh** Binge and Purge in the wake of the Black album tour and AC/DC’s Live at Donnington on the heels of the Razor’s Edge comeback.)