After years of rumour and speculation, a long lost video of Van Halen rocking out in front of giant statues has been unearthed. 

For decades, die-hard fans have pondered over the existence of the clip which was filmed for an Italian TV show called Happy Circus, during their 1981 Fair Warning tour. As the Van Halen News Desk notes, in 1995, a Van Halen roadie sparked the decades-long mystery when he shared pictures of the band performing in front of the giant dinosaurs with The Inside magazine. A caption noted that they were "rare, never before published photos of Van Halen in 1981 ... we’re not quite sure which song the video is for, but we do know the dinosaurs never made it off the cutting room floor.” 

Like a scene from The Twilight Zone, the clip finds the band rocking out in front of a mammoth brontosaurus which, for some reason, David Lee Roth serenades suggestively; while cutaways reveal a whole park of inanimate dinosaur statues watching on. Enjoy below. 

Van Halen | “So This Is Love?” [Happy Circus]

“At the end of 1981 Van Halen filmed some video clips settled in a Jurassic park in Italy, the ‘Prehistoric Park’ of Rivolta D'Adda (near Milan),” writes YouTuber, Kosmo VanHalenItalia in the video caption.  

“These videos aired on Italian state television, RAI 1, during a TV show called Happy Circus,” Kosmo continues, clarifying that it was the “Van Halen Italia Fan Club” who uncovered the long-lost footage.

“So This Is Love?” was released as a single from Van Halen’s fourth LP, Fair Warning, a Top 20 single on the U.S Mainstream Rock chart when it was first released in 1981. 

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