I attended Musician's Institute 1988-89 in Hollywood, studying guitar performance, and I lived at the Oakwood Apartments on Barham Blvd, between Hollywood and Burbank. One day I went to the laundry room like normal, and when I walked in, I saw Brad Gillis loading his laundry into the washing machine! I almost crapped myself. Not the warmest of personalities, but he said hi, and he was friendly. When I went back down to grab my stuff, Jeff Watson was sitting on top of a washing machine with an electric guitar, waiting on the dryer. Again...nearly crapped. Jeff was very friendly, and we spoke about what they were doing in town. He said that they were staying at the Oakwood Apartments while they were recording their next album (turned out to be "Man in Motion"). Man....I sure had a cool story to tell the other students the next day!
I drove Jeff and Brad from the station I worked at to the Aladdin performing arts center and they wanted me to get them a good pie in Vegas so I took them to an awesome pizza place, ate. On to sound check. It was such a good show ! Don’t tell me you love me. The 80’s Rocked.
True. I was playing in a number of L.A. bands in this era and there were some terrific amps and gear. I was mostly using shred sticks like what Brad's playing, either Kramers, Hamers, Charvels, ESP, etc., usually with a Duncan JB, Custom or Full Shred, rarely ever using a neck pup. Simpler times. I miss them.
The difference in USA capacitors and electronics and things like that everything the USA built was more better quality in less maybe you got it from a place like Japan this is why I strive to buy like 80s equipment if you want vintage sound they’re trying to duplicate it as best they can but they’re finding out that some of these capacitors and things just produced a better sound probably the biggest example is the knons Jesus win people paid $5000 for a pedal you know there’s got to be something in there they like better and everyone that’s got one says oh no that’s the best
I was a small independent label in the 1980s when I went to see a band called Ranger at the Phoenix theater in Petaluma. After seeing an incredible show I went to talk to them and said I wanted to work with them. They said they had a label talking to them about a deal. That was the beginning of Night Ranger. What a killer band. We had some incredible talent in norcal then including Tesla. What a time to be alive.
Crazy thing about night ranger was they attracted mostly chicks too their shows but they were such a technical guitar band that dudes would appreciate.
They were both at the Dallas guitar show in 1987. Me and a friend of mine hung out with them all day then Brad jammed on my guitar the next day before they both signed it for me. I still have it.
Holy smokes, they're at the Paul Chandler Guitar booth. A guitar brand that came and gone, but I was lucky enough to buy a Chandler body and neck in 1987, and I still have it and it plays and feels fantastic. To this day it's still my main "go to" guitar of all my other newer guitars.
I was 19 music and in this time frame music was freaking out of this world those are actual musicians that wrote and composed arranged and played their instruments and sang their songs live in front of packed arenas some can play all the instruments and sing in front and backup vocals .it was mind blowing the amount of work that went into each show. I was blessed to have the greatest sound in my life in the 80s and all the concerts every weekend to go to and see them all live Brad Gills thanks for all the floyd rose whammy tricks I learned from and Jeff Watson the 8 finger technique thanks again
I too was an 80's kid and grew up in the midst of this madness. Heavy metal musicians were like our superheroes fighting all evil. Great times. Yes sounded better, girls were hotter, the 80's ruled.
I was a 13 year old VAN HALEN FREAK at this time..loved other Metal and hard rock as well had all of Night Rangers albums..love those guys..I remember that late summer of 86 I bought saved up and bought 5 cassettes in one weekend..it was Metallica Master of Puppets, Cinderella Night Songs...Van Halen 5150 , Dokken Under lock and Key , and Tesla Mechanical Resonance..that was a fun weekend for a 13yr old kid who mowed lawns and washed cars for cash!!! Those days were EPIC Denim vest an all!!!
Awesome 👏. Ozzy’s Speak Of The Devil was the first album I ever purchased and I even prefer some of those Sabbath renditions with Brad Gillis to the original. What a great guitar duo these guys were. Ahead of their time
Gillis had huge shoes to fill. I have heard him talk about stepping in post Randy. I for one thought he did an incredible job. I have that album too. Think I need to pull it out now.
Absolutely I have " Speak of the devil album " Ozzy & Gillis it's practically brand new it's the CD I reordered it not to long ago cause I wore out my old one the remastered versions , Anyways ....... I'm a Guitarist and I always Jam alot of Randy Rhoads and Gillis Material !! My favorite songs from SOTD album is Sweet Leaf & Symptom of the Universe & more ... However that's my favorite especially sweet leaf , I actually play it just like Gillis if your or anyone that's a Guitarist like me would play it beginning Open Riff tune to E - flat Opening riff Open A Second fret , anyways ....... Check this out there is the entire footage the Camera man also filmed that entire show of all Sabbath Covers !! There's a teaser on TH-cam here that Ozzy put out on a DVD & someone posted it on TH-cam I have the link I can send here & Anyways it's " Fairies wearboots " of course from that Show which everyone knows it was actually a 2 - Night sets of all Sabbath tunes ( Live at The Ritz New York ) arranged in the same order beginning the show with Opening Rockin' Symptom of the Universe anyways long story short I can't wait I wish they would go ahead & Get that Whole Film Dubbed on DVD & freakin' put that baby out man I freakin' Love it man 😎🤘🤘
I rehearsed at the same place as them this year, Brad had like three or four Mesa boogie heads in a road cabinet, they were loud as hell. It was cool being that close to them rehearsing. It was at Hun sound in San Rafael, CA and Metallica was across the hall when they were in between bass players, Tony McAlpine was next-door. Those were good times. Night Ranger had filmed the Sister Christian video at my high school, which was a couple miles away about three years before. This is an awesome video, so cool that somebody had a video camera in 1986 and caught this jam!
These guys rocked so damn hard! I was a huge fan. They performed at Disney World's Grad Night in '84. I recall it being 3 performances so people could see the other bands; I only remember The Dazz Band. Needless to say, I saw Night Ranger all three times. Got as close to front and center as I could with some of my classmates, and even managed to catch one of Jeff's picks when he flicked them out into the audience. I also later saw them perform at Sunrise Musical Theater in Fort Lauderdale with The Outfield opening. The Outfield sucked, but only because their guitarist was so damned intoxicated he kept falling over. But Night Ranger's musicianship and vibe continues even today to me. Thanks for this video and spiking some memories!
I was there. I remember watching Weird Al and when he played “Eat It” , the whole band came out from back stage and started throwing food at him. They put on a great show. Dazz band was good too. 👍
How Cool! I was just a few feet from you taking pictures of this whole thing! I saw myself for about 1 second in your video. I wondered if anyone was there taking video. Jeff was a really cool guy, we talked, and he took a picture with me, Brad on the other hand was was too "rock star" that day. He was with a couple of bimbettes and didn't have time for a picture, or an autograph.... The dude in the white suit is PJ Marx, he was pretty cool also. Had a blast that week! Thanks for the great 80's memory!
Met Night Ranger backstage in '83 in Huntsville, AL when they were opening up for Quiet Riot. Brad Gillis was a total dick. Jeff was great and Jack Blades was probably the nicest guy you could ever meet.
Was never really a fan of night ranger until I heard ozzy live album “ speak of of the devil” and then I heard Brad’s take on faeries wear boots, I changed my mind about him and the band after that..
It seemed like that that was always a thing with Jeff--in this clip too. Jeff did/does this magnificent eight-finger tapping...but his lead tone seems to FADE when he's doing it. Jeff, get a booster pedal--with an EQ pedal--or coach whoever is doing the producing/engineering. You seem to fade out when soloing, especially when eight-finger tapping. I'd like to hear you MORE.
Great video! These are tough to come by and so worth sharing the good ole days! They are playing Chandler guitars, so could this be the Chandler booth?
They look like copies of Kramers right down to the headstock shape. Kramer were ESP Japan made parts with Schaller hardware, Schaller made Floyd Rose bridges, and Seymour Duncan pickups before they put Seymour Duncan logos on the bobbins. That applied to the high end guitars and even the Focus branded ones. I don't recall when the lower end Kramers were moved to Korea but Korea wasn't a great place for guitar manufacturing at that time. Some time in the very early 2000s Korea became a place of much higher quality output and one would have a hard time finding a poorly made Korean guitar now.
@@smorgdonkey I have an 84 Kramer Pacer Imperial and an 84 Kramer Pacer Deluxe. The Deluxe came with a JB in the bridge and the Imperial had Schaller pickups similar to a JB and 59. Kramer outsourced some parts, I think mostly necks, when demand exceeded what they could produce and that's when ESP and a Canadian company got involved. The original Floyd on the Imperial still looks brand new and it's never been cleaned. They were so well built.
@@dougs6433 yes, before Seymour Duncan they did use Scaller pickups. I have a 1986 Delixe that I bought new in 1987. I used to have many Kramers when Ihad a bad guitar addiction including a beak headstock 83 Deluxe, an 85 hockey stick Deluxe, a Focus like a Baretta, a Custom 1, a couple of Custom 2... they were fantastic.
I attended Musician's Institute 1988-89 in Hollywood, studying guitar performance, and I lived at the Oakwood Apartments on Barham Blvd, between Hollywood and Burbank. One day I went to the laundry room like normal, and when I walked in, I saw Brad Gillis loading his laundry into the washing machine! I almost crapped myself. Not the warmest of personalities, but he said hi, and he was friendly. When I went back down to grab my stuff, Jeff Watson was sitting on top of a washing machine with an electric guitar, waiting on the dryer. Again...nearly crapped. Jeff was very friendly, and we spoke about what they were doing in town. He said that they were staying at the Oakwood Apartments while they were recording their next album (turned out to be "Man in Motion"). Man....I sure had a cool story to tell the other students the next day!
I drove Jeff and Brad from the station I worked at to the Aladdin performing arts center and they wanted me to get them a good pie in Vegas so I took them to an awesome pizza place, ate. On to sound check. It was such a good show ! Don’t tell me you love me. The 80’s Rocked.
Considering today's political landscape, you can still ROCK in America should be our second national anthem.
I was 16 and a sophomore in high school in 86, the 80s where the best times, I feel so bad for the kids today.
I saw Night Ranger open for. 38 Special in 1986.... you're right saying today's kids have no idea how awesome it was in the 80s.
@@thelonelypamphleteer5722
Yup I seen Night Ranger right before Jeff left the band around 2000 they had so much energy and sounded great.
Class of 84! Agreed. 70's and 80's were great decades. 💚🎸
That's what we use to say in the 70s dude
@@bigbadbamboo1 The 80's were all of the best parts of the 70's, and then some, on steroids, minus the disco.😏
Say whatever you want about Night Ranger, but they were one of the best parts of the 80's.
Don’t Tell Me You Love Me is such a brilliant composition.
Still one of my all time favorite guitar duos!
Everything sounded better back then. The guitar tone, the playing style, the technique even the backing drum track.
True. I was playing in a number of L.A. bands in this era and there were some terrific amps and gear. I was mostly using shred sticks like what Brad's playing, either Kramers, Hamers, Charvels, ESP, etc., usually with a Duncan JB, Custom or Full Shred, rarely ever using a neck pup. Simpler times. I miss them.
The difference in USA capacitors and electronics and things like that everything the USA built was more better quality in less maybe you got it from a place like Japan this is why I strive to buy like 80s equipment if you want vintage sound they’re trying to duplicate it as best they can but they’re finding out that some of these capacitors and things just produced a better sound probably the biggest example is the knons Jesus win people paid $5000 for a pedal you know there’s got to be something in there they like better and everyone that’s got one says oh no that’s the best
I was a small independent label in the 1980s when I went to see a band called Ranger at the Phoenix theater in Petaluma. After seeing an incredible show I went to talk to them and said I wanted to work with them. They said they had a label talking to them about a deal. That was the beginning of Night Ranger. What a killer band. We had some incredible talent in norcal then including Tesla. What a time to be alive.
Tesla rocked my world… nothing got me higher!!💋
Met both bands.
And both were the most cool and humble! Compared to bruce dickinson, for example, he was a jerk.
Crazy thing about night ranger was they attracted mostly chicks too their shows but they were such a technical guitar band that dudes would appreciate.
Love seeing the old hair styles. I was 20 years old stationed in Germany and we rocked to this band for many many hours. Rock on America.
Much love for Germany! 💚🎸
I was 22 and stationed in Germany as well. They were one of my favorite bands and still are.
Yeah, but you guys have got Accept & Scorpions! 🤘
Phenomenal bands! ❤️
They were both at the Dallas guitar show in 1987. Me and a friend of mine hung out with them all day then Brad jammed on my guitar the next day before they both signed it for me. I still have it.
Back to the good old days where every booth on a music trade show had endorsees playing all day long. Those days are gone forever
You can blame rap, hip hop,Jay Z, Kanye,and all those other thugs for brainwashing America's musical youth..
Now it's full of TH-cam bedroom players lol.
Saw Night Ranger a few times in the 80s and they were always amazing.
I graduated HS in 85. I would love to go back to a time when RnR ruled the airwaves and Culture
What culture? Culture club? 😂🎉
Holy smokes, they're at the Paul Chandler Guitar booth. A guitar brand that came and gone, but I was lucky enough to buy a Chandler body and neck in 1987, and I still have it and it plays and feels fantastic. To this day it's still my main "go to" guitar of all my other newer guitars.
I was 19 music and in this time frame music was freaking out of this world those are actual musicians that wrote and composed arranged and played their instruments and sang their songs live in front of packed arenas some can play all the instruments and sing in front and backup vocals .it was mind blowing the amount of work that went into each show. I was blessed to have the greatest sound in my life in the 80s and all the concerts every weekend to go to and see them all live Brad Gills thanks for all the floyd rose whammy tricks I learned from and Jeff Watson the 8 finger technique thanks again
Brad is on par with everyone who was every considered one of the greatest
Great filming. Missed the legendary 8-finger tapping of Jeff.
Yah, I never knew that Watching it right now on the 'Big Screen' with serious sound... for like the 10th time!!
I too was an 80's kid and grew up in the midst of this madness. Heavy metal musicians were like our superheroes fighting all evil. Great times. Yes sounded better, girls were hotter, the 80's ruled.
Brad is the reason I play
I was a 13 year old VAN HALEN FREAK at this time..loved other Metal and hard rock as well had all of Night Rangers albums..love those guys..I remember that late summer of 86
I bought saved up and bought 5 cassettes in one weekend..it was Metallica Master of Puppets, Cinderella Night Songs...Van Halen 5150 , Dokken Under lock and Key , and Tesla Mechanical Resonance..that was a fun weekend for a 13yr old kid who mowed lawns and washed cars for cash!!! Those days were EPIC Denim vest an all!!!
I had the pleasure of meeting Brad Gillis around 1990 and and him and Jeff were one of the great guitar duos of the era for sure.
Oh man, the good old days. Great video!
80's - so many happy and free people.
Awesome 👏. Ozzy’s Speak Of The Devil was the first album I ever purchased and I even prefer some of those Sabbath renditions with Brad Gillis to the original. What a great guitar duo these guys were. Ahead of their time
Gillis had huge shoes to fill. I have heard him talk about stepping in post Randy. I for one thought he did an incredible job. I have that album too. Think I need to pull it out now.
Absolutely I have " Speak of the devil album " Ozzy & Gillis it's practically brand new it's the CD I reordered it not to long ago cause I wore out my old one the remastered versions ,
Anyways ....... I'm a Guitarist and I always Jam alot of Randy Rhoads and Gillis Material !! My favorite songs from SOTD album is
Sweet Leaf & Symptom of the Universe & more ... However that's my favorite especially sweet leaf ,
I actually play it just like Gillis if your or anyone that's a Guitarist like me would play it beginning Open Riff tune to E - flat Opening riff Open A
Second fret , anyways ....... Check this out there is the entire footage the Camera man also filmed that entire show of all Sabbath Covers !!
There's a teaser on TH-cam here that Ozzy put out on a DVD & someone posted it on TH-cam I have the link I can send here & Anyways it's " Fairies wearboots " of course from that Show which everyone knows it was actually a
2 - Night sets of all Sabbath tunes
( Live at The Ritz New York ) arranged in the same order beginning the show with Opening Rockin' Symptom of the Universe anyways long story short I can't wait I wish they would go ahead & Get that Whole Film Dubbed on DVD & freakin' put that baby out man I freakin' Love it man 😎🤘🤘
th-cam.com/video/RKZ2GKi3tZA/w-d-xo.html
I’ve heard some of that tour here on TH-cam with them playing the Randy material and I thought he was pretty darn great.
Such cool footage, thanks for posting it!
Two of the baddest ax men during the 80's!!!!!
I rehearsed at the same place as them this year, Brad had like three or four Mesa boogie heads in a road cabinet, they were loud as hell. It was cool being that close to them rehearsing. It was at Hun sound in San Rafael, CA and Metallica was across the hall when they were in between bass players, Tony McAlpine was next-door. Those were good times. Night Ranger had filmed the Sister Christian video at my high school, which was a couple miles away about three years before. This is an awesome video, so cool that somebody had a video camera in 1986 and caught this jam!
They were all wearing their “Miami Vice” sport coats, they just needed the Ferrari Testarossa😜
The pink suit... Painful.😊
These guys rocked so damn hard! I was a huge fan. They performed at Disney World's Grad Night in '84. I recall it being 3 performances so people could see the other bands; I only remember The Dazz Band. Needless to say, I saw Night Ranger all three times. Got as close to front and center as I could with some of my classmates, and even managed to catch one of Jeff's picks when he flicked them out into the audience. I also later saw them perform at Sunrise Musical Theater in Fort Lauderdale with The Outfield opening. The Outfield sucked, but only because their guitarist was so damned intoxicated he kept falling over. But Night Ranger's musicianship and vibe continues even today to me. Thanks for this video and spiking some memories!
I was there. I remember watching Weird Al and when he played “Eat It” , the whole band came out from back stage and started throwing food at him. They put on a great show. Dazz band was good too. 👍
Sunrise was awesome. My last show I saw there was Pantera and sepultura
CHANDLER booth!! Such great stuff they made!!!!!
Totally forgot about those guitars. They were good
These two look like they never aged. Love the band never seen them.
God the boogies sound amazing
I saw Night Ranger in concert at Busch Gardens in Tampa way back then, great show.
NAMM in the 80s that is where it was at.
The most talented rock guitar duo.
Pleasure to see these guys around this time in concert , They do sound great live ad rocked the house. Ty for this upload
SO much fucking techNIQUE!!! BOTH were far beyond their contemporaries and ANY "guitar hero" of today.
How Cool! I was just a few feet from you taking pictures of this whole thing! I saw myself for about 1 second in your video. I wondered if anyone was there taking video. Jeff was a really cool guy, we talked, and he took a picture with me, Brad on the other hand was was too "rock star" that day. He was with a couple of bimbettes and didn't have time for a picture, or an autograph.... The dude in the white suit is PJ Marx, he was pretty cool also. Had a blast that week! Thanks for the great 80's memory!
I met Brad years ago and he was the same way lol.
Pure natural talent!!!!
Wow incredible. The 80's bro....yeah it was awesome.
Brad was the inventor of the chirping cricket on whammy bars
Met Brad at a bar outside of Philadelphia in the 90s. He was really cool.
I see Brad at NAMM all the time. Met Jeff at a Hamer guitar clinic when I was a kid. We are FB friends now.
Jeff no longer seems to be in Night Ranger?
@@gtdcoder Yes he left years ago.
loved the lead guitar in song don't tell me you love me
Met Night Ranger backstage in '83 in Huntsville, AL when they were opening up for Quiet Riot. Brad Gillis was a total dick. Jeff was great and Jack Blades was probably the nicest guy you could ever meet.
You can still rock in America!
I love the haircut - business on the front, party on the back 😜😉😂😂😂😂
Brad is so serious looking all the time! 😆
Awesome players.
best rock guitarists these guys
Hard to keep it in tune back then.
Yea they're both amazing in their own right. NR was a great band!!!! Great times back then.
I didn’t realize how popular sport coats were back then ….🤘🏻
Miami Vice😂
They're at the Chandler Guitar Industries booth who were based in San Francisco, which is also the area where Brad and Jeff were from
The Boss and the Wonder Kid Rock On
I’m amazed they’re not tuned up correctly.
Funny you caught this , I thought the same. but to their credit it was for a quick promo
@@thedude7099 right on..
I'm amazed no one else in the comments seems to notice!
@@MrMatthiasSchneider right??
I was at that NAMM show. I worked at J.B. Player Guitars with Dana.
Was never really a fan of night ranger until I heard ozzy live album “ speak of of the devil” and then I heard Brad’s take on faeries wear boots, I changed my mind about him and the band after that..
Looks like Brad's boosting the Boogie with a BK Butler.
‘Chandler’ Tube Driver, but same exact pedal.
How did Andy Summers "Throb" book get back there? Andy signed one for me after one of his jazz trio shows back in 1997. @3:50
Stars and guitars. Not even the same show now.
Jack Blades is AWESOME 👌
Perfect
It seemed like that that was always a thing with Jeff--in this clip too. Jeff did/does this magnificent eight-finger tapping...but his lead tone seems to FADE when he's doing it. Jeff, get a booster pedal--with an EQ pedal--or coach whoever is doing the producing/engineering. You seem to fade out when soloing, especially when eight-finger tapping. I'd like to hear you MORE.
Shredders!🤟🏻🤙🏻
Too bad Jeff isn't a part of Night Ranger anymore. I think NR needs him. To me the magic is gone.
When they played the guitar, Jeff's amp volume was always too low to hear his play.
This was a great guitar duo
Miss my 80’s hair.
I own the 1986 one of a kind custom bass with no volume knobs on it. Paul built it custom.
Watson's guitar sounds like the strings are like ten years old, all the intonation is out?
They look so much as Spinal Tap.
Cool blast from the past. The audio is right, but the video seems like charlie chaplin super sped up. Why's that?
At the chandler booth with a young paul chandler!
Take THAT, Kurt Cobain
Well said
Yeah. Cobain sucked
@@SS-gn1wj
He did. A .12-gauge.
@@iliafigueroa4820 🤣
@@iliafigueroa4820 🤣
masters!!!!
They could of at least tuned those guitars 😂.
公的にイングヴェイ登場前の、ジェフのエコノミーピッキング！
Ahhhh yes , back in the good ol days. The most recent NAMM should have been very disappointing. They now resemble AARP conventions.
Gilies. Play in band of david lee roth??
Great camera work
That 1st jam sounded like they had some tuning issues and they weren't jamming in the same key.
Saw Brad with Ozzy
Impressive
For those of you wondering NAMM stands for North American Mullets of Music
Great video! These are tough to come by and so worth sharing the good ole days! They are playing Chandler guitars, so could this be the Chandler booth?
I have a Chandler neck on one of my guitars. The logo is on the back of the headstock though.
They look like copies of Kramers right down to the headstock shape. Kramer were ESP Japan made parts with Schaller hardware, Schaller made Floyd Rose bridges, and Seymour Duncan pickups before they put Seymour Duncan logos on the bobbins. That applied to the high end guitars and even the Focus branded ones.
I don't recall when the lower end Kramers were moved to Korea but Korea wasn't a great place for guitar manufacturing at that time. Some time in the very early 2000s Korea became a place of much higher quality output and one would have a hard time finding a poorly made Korean guitar now.
@@smorgdonkey I have an 84 Kramer Pacer Imperial and an 84 Kramer Pacer Deluxe. The Deluxe came with a JB in the bridge and the Imperial had Schaller pickups similar to a JB and 59. Kramer outsourced some parts, I think mostly necks, when demand exceeded what they could produce and that's when ESP and a Canadian company got involved. The original Floyd on the Imperial still looks brand new and it's never been cleaned. They were so well built.
@@dougs6433 yes, before Seymour Duncan they did use Scaller pickups. I have a 1986 Delixe that I bought new in 1987. I used to have many Kramers when Ihad a bad guitar addiction including a beak headstock 83 Deluxe, an 85 hockey stick Deluxe, a Focus like a Baretta, a Custom 1, a couple of Custom 2... they were fantastic.
Yes, this was the "Chandler" Paul C's booth. I was there. Great Video! And a great memory.
Dig the vintage Tube Driver pedal
Jack Blades is there. I thought only musicians could attend 🎱
This was NOT recorded on a phone...shocking I know!!
I was there....no woke, no p.c, no dei.....
When merit still ruled....when hard work, talent and drive earned success.
Si sad that Jeff has been out of the spotlight for so long after night Ranger. A few records, live shows and nothing else
Wow
I don’t think this is 1986. The NAMM show at McCormick Place in Chicago left a few years earlier for good.
The NAMM website shows the last Chicago show was in 1990.
Killer playing. Shame about the tuning..😀
Chandler guitars (booth)
👍😃
we are (loosebank)
Mulletfest ‘86
everyone is dressed like Miami Vice
Brad Gillis (on the left) stepped in after the death of Randy Rhoads to help Ozzy complete his 1982 tour.
Truth.
Speak Of The Devil
Men with perms