Van Halen to tour with David Lee Roth

marker

It's official:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070203/ap_on_en_mu/people_van_halen

No Michael Anthony though. :mad:

Lsi9

Diamond Dave has taken alot of crap from the Van Halen Bros. but it its good to hear he is making a buck.

Danny Tse

But no Michael Anthony on bass. Is it really a reunion? Can Eddie's son handle the rigors of a tour?

It'll be interesting to see the VH brothers and Dave, plus Sammy and Michael, on stage together as they get inducted into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame in March.

Lsi9

Nothing like vintage Van Halen when Diamond Dave flipped, split and kicked **** along side Michael Anthony and his Jack Daniel's Bass guitar

Ron-P

Dave made Van Halen, that band become nothing once he left. Sammy was a joke.

TroyD

Van Halen is now, officially, a joke regardless of WHO is fronting.

BDT

Johncan

TroyD wrote:

Van Halen is now, officially, a joke regardless of WHO is fronting.

BDT

Maybe, but I will still pay to see Diamond Dave singing the old VH classics. I stopping paying attention to Van Halen in the late 80s. This should be a fun show.

John

Toxis

TroyD wrote:

Van Halen is now, officially, a joke regardless of WHO is fronting.

BDT

+1

Dave might've been good back in the day but he's going to suck total donkey balls now. I wouldn't to go this concert if I was paid $100.

marker

Danny Tse wrote:

But no Michael Anthony on bass. Is it really a reunion? Can Eddie's son handle the rigors of a tour?

I'd say he could prolly handle it better than the others at this point.:p

It'll be interesting to see the VH brothers and Dave, plus Sammy and Michael, on stage together as they get inducted into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame in March.

I read an interview somewhere a year or two ago where Sammy wanted the '04 tour to include DLR AND himself, but his suggestion was shot down, or so he claims.

marker

Lsi9 wrote:

Nothing like vintage Van Halen when Diamond Dave flipped, split and kicked **** along side Michael Anthony and his Jack Daniel's Bass guitar

Vintage is the key word there. You'll come closer to seeing MA's JD bass than you will DLR's cheerleader splits and karate kicks on this forthcoming tour.

marker

Ron-P wrote:

Dave made Van Halen, that band become nothing once he left. Sammy was a joke.

I used to feel the same way 20, hell, even 10 years ago, but as I'm getting older, I'm actually starting to like the Sammy era better.

IMO, he definitely had/has a much better voice, plus he brought something to the band that DLR never could have in terms of a second guitar player. For example, that was Sammy's lead break solo on Love Comes Walkin' In, not Eddie, but they kind of got away from that for the most part after 5150.

marker

TroyD wrote:

Van Halen is now, officially, a joke regardless of WHO is fronting.

BDT

Much as I hate to admit, I have to agree. This is nothing but a last ditch cash grab, and I hope I'm wrong, but I think it could turn out to be ugly, and fast!

marker

Johncan wrote:

Maybe, but I will still pay to see Diamond Dave singing the old VH classics. I stopping paying attention to Van Halen in the late 80s. This should be a fun show.

John

Lets hope, if nothing else, for the pure nostalgia of it.

Still, it just won't seem quite right with Michael not there. :mad:

shack

I liked OU812. At the time Van Halen was still a good R&R band.

Just like I wouldn't pay money to the the geriatric Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, etc....no way I would go to a reunion Van Halen concert. I'll save my money and listen to the CD when they were a REAL band.

marker

I used to hate that album. Now, I actually like it.

Danny Tse

marker wrote:

IMO, he definitely had/has a much better voice, plus he brought something to the band that DLR never could have in terms of a second guitar player. For example, that was Sammy's lead break solo on Love Comes Walkin' In, not Eddie, but they kind of got away from that for the most part after 5150.

Personally, I like Sammy's version of the band better. His superior voice allowed the songwriting to open up and perhaps let the songwriting be more "mature". I know VH is suppose to be a party band but I don't think the band would've lasted this long if their style didn't change. Just imagine Diamond Dave still doing what he did well into the 90s :eek: On the other hand, Dave does bring a certain amount of "danger" to the whole mix that was lacking in the Sammy era.

I wish the band good luck on the tour, but I really don't feel it's a real reunion unless MA is there. Whatever you think about his bass playing, his distinctive background vocals is part of VH's trademark sound. Which kind of begs the question....who will handle background vocals on the tour?

avguytx

I liked Sammy better before his Van Halen days when his songs didn't have the word "love" in every other one. Especially his albums like "Standing Hampton", "Three Lock Box", etc...or even Montrose!

I was a bigger VH fan when Roth was there but I agree...there is too much turmoil there to make it work, I fear. I'll just remember the years I DID see them at their finest from the 1st Van Halen album (1978 self titled) until the "1984" tour. Those were the days I'd rather remember and listen to. Same with Sammy...the early years. The ones when he was with VH were ok, though. Only saw that era on tour maybe twice versus about 10+ times with the original crew.

steveinaz

David Lee Roth is a pillow-biter. I'll bet Eddie fires him before the tour starts...LOL.

Van Hagar forever.

Michael Anthony/Sammy Hagar are good friends and play in Sammy's band together last I heard.

zombie boy 2000

HA!!

Actually I think he looks like the Crypt Keeper in spandex. Bedazzle me Baby!!

skibb- idi--ibidi-bop Ba-daisy!!!!

FicmanS

Saw David on the Dave and Sammy tour, he was ok... Would not pay money to see him in anything again... Although it was REALLY funny to see him do the KungFu stuff, everyone in the crowd I was in was laughing at his attempts...

I was waiting for him to plant that sword in the middle of his own head, now that would have been a great show...

avguytx

I miss those days when concerts were anywhere from $10 to $20. That's the main reason I don't care to go to them now. I don't want to fund their Geritol addiction for the next decade! lol I'll just listed to to the CD's and LP's plus watch any old videos...lol.

Lsi9

marker wrote:

Vintage is the key word there. You'll come closer to seeing MA's JD bass than you will DLR's cheerleader splits and karate kicks on this forthcoming tour.

Heh, With DLR you never know!

Danny Tse

VH's tour with Dave has been put on hold "indefinitely".

You guys didn't actually think this reunion will work, right?

marker

Link?

No, it's not at all surprising. If Sammy and Michael couldn't even get along with them, they should already know DLR won't.

Danny Tse

marker wrote:

Link?

No, it's not at all surprising. If Sammy and Michael couldn't even get along with them, they should already know DLR won't.

From LA Times....

On again, off again

For Van Halen, the stars seemed aligned for a triumphant 2007. Next month, the group will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the plan was to follow that with a summer reunion tour that would feature David Lee Roth back at the mike for the first time since the Reagan years.

But, once again, the backstage soap opera of Van Halen is the story of the day.

The Van Halen tour has been "shut down," according to a top official at Live Nation, the huge concert promoter that finally surrendered in the face of the chaos surrounding guitar hero Eddie Van Halen. Roth, meanwhile, says he is unsure whether the mercurial guitarist will even travel to New York for the Hall of Fame induction on March 12.

"We have fragile politics in Van Halen; please accept that as a partial answer," Roth said. "But I don't know if the Van Halens are going to go....I hope they do, but right now, I just don't know. Hope springs eternal."

Eddie Van Halen declined interviews through his publicist and girlfriend, Janie Liszewski. Conversations with the business team behind the tour paint a picture of a rock star who is somewhere between Axl Rose and Michael Jackson on the music industry scale of eccentric recluses. The result is that the Van Halen venture imploded before takeoff, even as the Police, the Eagles and Genesis have efficiently geared up for lucrative reunion tours.

"I cannot tell you how frustrating and completely nuts this has been," one key business figure in the tour said while asking not to be identified on the outside chance that the reunion might be salvaged. "Right now, I have to say, I don't see that happening."

It's a disheartening situation for the fans who pine for a Roth-led lineup of the iconic metal band. Among those devoted is Wolfgang Van Halen, the 15-year-old son of Eddie and, according to Roth, a key force behind the reunion.

Wolfgang, a precocious musician, was "the maestro" at the reconstituted band's lone rehearsal, picking the set list and using his iPod to remind his father of the nuances of his solos on the old albums. Wolfgang was tapped by his father to play bass on the tour too, replacing founding member Michael Anthony, a jolting choice considering the child's age and Anthony's status as one of rock's best backup singers and most relentlessly cheerful presences.

Eddie Van Halen remains, by all accounts, a gifted guitarist and rock auteur, but the decision to jettison Anthony in favor of a teenager may have been the first sign that the new enterprise was guided by creaky logic. Now all eyes will be on the Hall of Fame banquet to see who shows up, who performs and how Roth interacts with old rival Sammy Hagar, the man who replaced him as lead singer in 1985 and who will be inducted as an equal.

On Valentine's Day, when the tour still looked viable, Roth was all smiles as he sat down for an interview in a bungalow at Chateau Marmont. The 52-year-old was wearing a snappy black suit and the short haircut that has recently replaced his old pro-wrestler cut. He still flashes a karate smile, but the singer seems calmer and more focused than in years past. The reason, he said, is that he's fresh from working as an emergency medical technician in New York. It's a longtime dream of his to be a paramedic, and the unglamorous gurney and rubber-glove duty humbled him, he said.

"I was working in neighborhoods that were almost exclusively black and Spanish-speaking, so only maybe twice out of 200 clients was I recognized.... I was joking about this in the truck on New Year's Eve, which was my last shift — I was working in Brooklyn, down in Coney Island — I said that I've been in more project apartments than Jay-Z and Diddy combined."

Roth was the rock frontman on top of the world when he went solo, but — as Mick Jagger and Robert Plant also learned — fans treasure him more when he was side-by-side with an equal on guitar. Roth seemed like a vainglorious sex panther in Van Halen, but on his own he often came off as a relentless jive salesman whose only product was his own past. Roth is still "on" all the time — he calls it his "incandescent personality" — but lately he comes off as the voice of reason, a pretty stunning change.

That, and the financial prospects, made him jump at the chance to work with Eddie Van Halen again. Of the old days, he says: "There was a lot of sparks and a lot of tension, like your favorite movies, especially those underground ones.... There was a lot of anxiety too, but it was about ambition, not ego."

Roth was optimistic that the band would follow up the tour with new music; he also pointed to the cache of 1996 recordings that he did with Van Halen during an earlier reunion flirtation. Now it appears the entire output of this new reunion was a single rehearsal in January and a photo shoot with Roth and Eddie, Wolfgang and Alex Van Halen. Alex is Eddie's older brother and the band's drummer.

"Hearing it again, that's an elixir.... What we sell is that we make all the guys feel young and invincible and all the girls feel young and desirable," Roth said. "I watched it happen to everybody that was listening in the studio."

Van Halen was a monster of rock and, for a time, arguably the biggest band in the world. According to the Recording Industry Assn. of America, Van Halen albums have shipped more than 56.5 million copies, which is more than the career totals of U2, Celine Dion, Shania Twain or Prince.

Roth said that he and Anthony will be in New York for the Hall of Fame, as will Hagar, the affable "red rocker."

Last month, Hagar publicly chided Eddie Van Halen for taking his son on tour. He also added that "the guy is a genius, but he's just out there and it's hard for people around him."

In 2004 and 2005, Van Halen toured with Hagar and, according to Pollstar, grossed $55 million playing arenas. But Hagar said that Eddie Van Halen was drinking heavily and, on some nights, it showed. In Chicago, Eddie stumbled throughout the set and, at one point, quit playing and sacked out, telling the crowd: "I done run outta gas."

There were tender scenes too. With the tour winding down in Los Angeles, for instance, Wolfgang came on stage at the Staples Center to play. The body language of father and son made it clear that they reveled in the shared spotlight. Roth said that that affection led to the hopes for the Van Halen reunion.

"I'm going to put some words in Ed's mouth," Roth said. "Whatever explanation he may give about having his son in the band, I'm going to superimpose: He wants to play with his kid while he's still at the top of his game and able to ... and that's also the same reason I'm in the band in its current configuration. No questions asked. He said, 'Hey, c'mon up the hill and make some music.' I said, 'Great. I'd love to play with you while you're still on the top of your game.' "

Roth smiled, but a moment later, when he was asked about what he feared most about the reunion, he didn't hesitate with his answer: "The two worst words in the English lexicon are 'band meeting.' "

Dean guitar pla

Eddie played a bit at the NAMM show recently this year for the Fender line. He was drunk and seemed to get lost

If he can stay out of the bottle and Dave can keep his mouth shut, it should be a good show

Too bad about Michael Anthony, hopefully Wolfgang will work out ok