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Van Halen

Honestly, did anyone think that he would like it?!?

Hagar blasts new VH album

Rocker Sammy Hagar has blasted his former Van Halen bandmates’ comeback album, revealing it left him cold and unimpressed when he heard it.

The band’s former frontman was not asked to be part of the group’s 2012 plans and now he’s glad he missed out because he’s convinced the band’s February album will leave fans feeling cheated.

He tells Radio Metal, “What I’ve heard so far, I wasn’t impressed with at all, personally… I think they chose to take the easy route and take some of their old stuff and re-record it instead of writing new songs… I don’t think the fans are going to be happy with it.

“I couldn’t care less if it’s the biggest album of the year; that wouldn’t be important to me. What is important to me is that, as artists, why would you do that? They haven’t released an album since my last album in something like 1991 or 1992, and then they just go back. To me, it makes a strange statement, it kind of says, ‘We don’t have anything, we’re not a band anymore, we’re not creative.’

“To be honest with you, the last time I was around those guys was in 2004 on the reunion. It was a disaster, it was horrible… I don’t know what they’re thinking, to be honest with you.”

And Hagar believes the pressure to record finally got to his former bandmates: “I don’t think they had any choice. If they had had a choice they would’ve done all new stuff. From today. They would’ve written together like a band… I think there’s zero inspiration and zero creativity.”

Replacing Hagar and longtime Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony in the group is original singer David Lee Roth and Van Halen’s son Wolfgang.

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Van Halen

Here is the complete list of just announced Van Halen Tour Dates…and even though there isn’t one in Saskatchewan, I am still stoked!!!!!

Van Halen Tour Schedule 2012

Sat 02/18/12 Louisville, KY
KFC Yum! Center

Mon 02/20/12 Auburn Hills, MI
The Palace Of Auburn Hills

Wed 02/22/12 Indianapolis, IN
Bankers Life Fieldhouse

Fri 02/24/12 Chicago, IL
United Center

Tue 02/28/12 New York, NY Madison Square Garden Arena

Thu 03/01/12 New York, NY
Madison Square Garden Arena

Sat 03/03/12 Uncasville, CT Mohegan Sun Arena

Mon 03/05/12 Philadelphia, PA Wells Fargo Center

Fri 03/09/12 Buffalo, NY First Niagara Center

Sun 03/11/12 Boston, MA TD Garden

Thu 03/15/12 Montreal, QC Bell Centre

Sat 03/17/12 Toronto, ON Air Canada Centre

Wed 03/21/12 Ottawa, ON Scotiabank Place

Sat 03/24/12 Atlantic City, NJ Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall

Wed 03/28/12 Washington, DC Verizon Center

Fri 03/30/12 Pittsburgh, PA Consol Energy Center

Sun 04/01/12 Rosemont, IL Allstate Arena

Tue 04/10/12 Sunrise, FL BankAtlantic Center

Thu 04/12/12 Tampa, FL Tampa Bay Times Forum

Sat 04/14/12 Orlando, FL Amway Center

Mon 04/16/12 Jacksonville, FL Jacksonville Veterans Mem. Arena

Thu 04/19/12 Atlanta, GA Philips Arena

Sat 04/21/12 Greensboro, NC Greensboro Coliseum Complex

Wed 04/25/12 Charlotte, NC Time Warner Cable Arena

Fri 04/27/12 Nashville, TN Bridgestone Arena

Tue 05/01/12 Tulsa, OK BOK Center

Sat 05/05/12 Tacoma, WA Tacoma Dome

Mon 05/07/12 Vancouver, BC Rogers Arena

Wed 05/09/12 Calgary, AB Scotiabank Saddledome

Fri 05/11/12 Edmonton, AB Rexall Place

Thu 05/17/12 Winnipeg, MB MTS Centre

Sat 05/19/12 Saint Paul, MN Xcel Energy Center

Tue 05/22/12 Kansas City, MO Sprint Center

Thu 05/24/12 Denver, CO Pepsi Center

Sun 05/27/12 Las Vegas, NV MGM Grand Garden Arena

Fri 06/01/12 Los Angeles, CA Staples Center

Sun 06/03/12 Oakland, CA Oracle Arena

Tue 06/05/12 San Jose, CA HP Pavilion At San Jose

Tue 06/12/12 Anaheim, CA Honda Center

Thu 06/14/12 San Diego, CA Viejas Arena

Sat 06/16/12 Phoenix, AZ US Airways Center

Wed 06/20/12 Dallas, TX American Airlines Center

Fri 06/22/12 San Antonio, TX AT&T Center

Sun 06/24/12 Houston, TX Toyota Center

Tue 06/26/12 New Orleans, LA New Orleans Arena

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Van Halen

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!!!!

Van Halen Rocks Again

The Rock and Roll Hall Of Famers announce their 2012 tour during a warm-up gig in New York City.

Van Halen – brothers Eddie and Alex plus Eddie’s son Wolfgang on bass and David Lee Roth – will launch the long-anticipated tour in Louisville at the KFC Yum! Center Feb. 18. Van Halen’s first new album with Diamond Dave since 1984 – A Different Kind Of Truth – will be released Feb. 7 on Interscope but you can pre-order it beginning Jan. 10, the day the album’s first single and video – “Tatoo” – drops.

The Live Nation-promoted tour has all the stops you’d expect for a Van Halen road trip. For Detroit the band will play the Palace Of Auburn Hills Feb. 20; Chicago’s United Center is scheduled for Feb. 24; New York City will host the boys at Madison Square Garden Feb. 28 and March 1; and Philadelphia at the Wells Fargo Center is slotted for March 5.

Other destinations include Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena April 27; Denver’s Pepsi Center May 24; Los Angeles at the Staples Center June 1; Oakland at the Oracle Arena June 3; and San Jose at HP Pavilion June 5. Last stop on the schedule so far is New Orleans at the New Orleans Arena June 26.

Kool & The Gang will appear on select dates.

Van Halen started stirring things up during the Christmas weekend when the band posted a video on its website stating the first round of tickets would go up Jan. 10. However, tonight’s official announcement states ticket sales for dates through April 1 will begin Jan. 14. VIP packages will be handled by VIPNation.com.

Check out Van-Halen.com for more info.

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Van Halen

FANTASTIC NEWS!!!

VAN HALEN: ‘Tattoo’ Single To Premiere Next Week

According to the Van Halen News Desk web site, VAN HALEN’s new single will be titled “Tattoo” and it will premiere on January 10. The band’s much-anticipated new album — which will be its first with original singer David Lee Roth in 28 years — will arrive on February 7.

VAN HALEN’s upcoming tour will kick off next month in Louisville, Kentucky, with tickets set to go on sale on January 10.

As previously reported, VAN HALEN will perform at the Cafe Wha? in Greenwich Village, New York City this Thursday. It is rumored that the band will play a 45-minute set at the 250-seat venue, which was once owned and operated by VAN HALEN singer David Lee Roth’s uncle Manny Roth, providing a stage to then-up-and-coming acts such as Jimi Hendrix, Bill Cosby, Bob Dylan, Richard Pryor and many others.

VAN HALEN recently gave fan site VHLinks two exclusive videos of the band reminiscing about Eddie Van Halen’s old Volvo and judging wet T-shirt contests back in the Seventies. The site also says that a “trusted source” tells them the band has been “busy booking rehearsal space and hotel rooms for the band and their crew for [this] week in NYC.”

VAN HALEN didn’t just use the Roxy nightclub on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip to shoot a music video. According to a post at the venue’s web site, the reunited band has been rehearsing there for their upcoming tour for the past two months.

The November 14 shoot was reportedly for a video for the song, presumably “Tattoo”, that the band is seen but not heard playing in the tour announcement clip.

VAN HALEN’s new record deal with Interscope was finalized in November and marks the first time the band has recorded away from Warner Bros. Records, which signed the group in 1977.

VAN HALEN reunited with Roth in 2007 for a successful year-long reunion tour — minus original bassist Michael Anthony, who now plays with ex-VAN HALEN singer Sammy Hagar in CHICKENFOOT.

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Van Halen

It isn’t quite the original lineup – you are missed MIchael – but I hope to see a show or two on the tour!!

Van Halen announces tour (and, yes, David Lee Roth’s singing)

There are some universal truths that most rock fans can’t deny, be they punkers, funkers, rockers or metalheads: That at their prime in the 1970s and ’80s, Van Halen was one of the greatest flat-out rock bands on the planet, and that the combination of David Lee Roth, Eddie Van Halen, Michael Anthony and Alex Van Halen was a force of nature. The band, which rose in Los Angeles in the mid-’70s, announced on Monday an extensive 2012 tour — minus bassist Anthony, unfortunately.

At their peak, the best rock band to ever come out of Pasadena had all the bases covered: As a rhythm section, Alex Van Halen and Anthony worked as a solid but fluid unit in support of Eddie with the magic riffs and fingers, who showboated his technique but understood the importance of a solid melody. (That’s him, remember, soloing on Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.”) And “Diamond” David Lee Roth: There was no better lead singer in all of rock in the ’80s than Roth at his peak, a funny, charismatic charmer whose onstage scissor kicks created a template for dozens of lesser hair metal singers who arrived in his wake.

Van Halen’s evolution has tested the limits of its fan base. There was that whole Gary Cherone nightmare of 1998; and, at the risk of taking sides in a long-running argument, the Sammy Hagar years – for some – are best left unmentioned. In 2007 three of the original members — without Anthony, who was replaced on bass by Eddie’s son Wolfgang Van Halen — undertook part of a tour. Then, in 2010, rumors started flying about Van Halen being in the studio, and upcoming tour plans. The band signed to Interscope Records in November 2011.

No word yet on a release date for the record or specific stops on the tour. But videos on the band’s website say that tickets will go on sale on Jan. 10, and show a revived band doing their best approximation of its ’80s peak — absent, unfortunately, Anthony, swinging across the stage slugging Jack Daniels. And it’s a pretty good bet that Diamond Dave won’t be singing “Right Now,” “Why Can’t This Be Love?” or anything else from the Van Hagar years.

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Van Halen

I want the new music now, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!!!!

Van Halen Sign to Interscope Records

Van Halen has signed to Interscope Records, a source with knowledge of the talks tells Rolling Stone. The news was first reported by the Hollywood Reporter, which wrote that Interscope chairman Jimmy Iovine was personally involved with the negotiations, and quoted an “insider” as saying, “He heard the band was available and wanted to work with them. It was decided at the eleventh hour.” The deal reportedly includes touring, merchandising, marketing and recording.

Rumors were swirling a few months ago that the band was going to sign with Columbia, but supposedly Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth didn’t want to sign with a label on the East Coast. “He was never on board [with Columbia],” the Hollywood Reporter’s source said. “It was as complicated as anyone would imagine, when one side says black, the other says white. The label was pretty skeptical that things would work out.”

Van Halen haven’t released an album of new material since 1998’s ill-fated Van Halen III, which featured Extreme’s Gary Cherone on vocals. They reunited with Sammy Hagar in 2004 for a tour, but shortly afterwards parted ways with the Red Rocker and founding bassist Michael Anthony. They toured in 2007 and 2008 with David Lee Roth and Eddie’s son teenage son Wolfgang Van Halen on bass. There have been numerous reports that the band was recording a new album over the past few years. It will be their first record with David Lee Roth since 1984.

On November 3rd, the Grammy Foundation posted a Tweet that strongly implied that Van Halen would perform at their nomination special on November 30th: “Who do you predict the reuniting band will be @GRAMMYnoms?. Does this hint make you wanna ‘Jump’ & ‘Dance The Night Away?'” However, a source tells Rolling Stone that the band will not appear at the event.

A spokesperson for the Grammys did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.

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Van Halen

Sweeeeeeeeeeeet!!!

Van Halen’s ‘Frankenstein’ guitar museum-bound
WASHINGTONóOne of Eddie Van Halen’s guitars will have a home at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
The museum announced Monday that it has acquired the “Frank 2” guitar that Van Halen used during his 2007-2008 North American tour with original lead singer David Lee Roth.
The red, white and black guitar is a replica of the original “Frankenstein” guitar that Van Halen used for more than 30 years. Van Halen constructed the “Frankenstein” guitar himself to suit his playing style.
Museum director Brent Glass says the guitar reflects Van Halen’s innovation, talent and influence. It will be part of the museum’s instrument collection as a more contemporary piece.
A museum spokeswoman says there are no current plans to put the guitar on public view.

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Van Halen

I want it now!! I want it now!! I want it now!! I want it now!! I want it now!! I want it now!! I want it now!! I want it now!! I want it now!! I want it now!! I want it now!! I want it now!! I want it now!! I want it now!! I want it now!! I want it now!!

Van Halen Album, Tour Expected In 2011?
Welcome news for Van Halen fans: The clearest signs that an album and tour are in the works for next year have emerged.
While the webosphere has bantered rumors and various reports about a possible album with original frontman David Lee Roth since last year, a recent release announcing a re-upped deal between publisher Warner/Chappell and Eddie and Alex Van Halen stated that the band “is currently in the studio recording an album with Roth that is due for release in 2011.”
Meanwhile, Van Halen manager and Live Nation Entertainment executive chairman Irivng Azoff mentioned on a conference call last month and an earning’s call last night that Van Halen was expected to tour next year. That’s good news for Live Nation as a disappointing 2010 season is hitting the touring giant’s earnings. Van Halen’s 2008 reunion tour with Roth was a massive success. It raked in a total gross of more than $93 million and close to one million in attendance from 74 shows, according to Billboard Boxscore.
A new Van Halen album would be the band’s first studio album since 1998’s “Van Halen III,” which featured vocals by Gary Cherone, and the first with Roth since 1983’s “1984,” one of the band’s best-selling albums.

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Van Halen

So, work faster Eddie!!!

Van Halen ‘too slow’ for Hagar
Rocker Sammy Hagar would only consider a return to Van Halen if band leader Eddie Van Halen agreed to work faster.
The singer is disappointed the reformed Van Halen haven’t returned to the studio with original frontman David Lee Roth – and he claims any new material will be a long time coming if his experiences with guitarist Van Halen are anything to go by.
The Chickenfoot star tells the San Gabriel Valley Tribune newspaper he’s amazed the band hasn’t released a new studio album in 17 years and recalls his last studio experience with the group was not fun.
Hagar reveals that he recorded new songs with Van Halen for the band’s Best of Both Worlds compilation – slowly.
He explains, “We tried to make a record, but, y’know, it just was taking so long we only got three songs done, and not ’cause of me, I’ll tell ya straight up. If anyone ever says anything like that I was the problem on that record, they’re crazy. I had my stuff totally together.
“I went in, I knocked my stuff out, and then Eddie would take months to do a guitar solo or something. It was just way too drawn out. I can’t work like that.”

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Van Halen

Oh, man!!! I want it now! Now, now, now!!!!!

ìGuitar Hero: Van Halenî Due December 22nd: Full Track List
For those Van Halen fans who still had a glimmer of hope that despite Rock Dailyís news that Guitar Hero: Van Halen was a David Lee Roth-only affair, somehow Sammy Hagar songs would make the game, weíre sorry to report that the gameís final track list has been revealed ó and itís all Diamond Dave.
However, the 28 Van Halen songs on GH:VH represent the best of the bandís first era, with hits like ìJamieís Cryin,î ìPanamaî and ìAinít Talkin About Loveî alongside more obscure tracks like Women and Children Firstís ìLoss of Control and Fair Warningís ìHear About It Later,î MTV reveals. Other artists on the gameís on-disc track list include cuts from Blink-182, Weezer, Foo Fighters and the Clash.
As Rock Daily previously reported from the E3 Expo, both Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony are excluded from the game, replaced by Roth and new bassist Wolfgang Van Halen. At the gameís onset, players will take the guise of Van Halenís current incarnation, but can unlock the spandex era of VH with the big hair and tight pants throughout the gameplay, even though Wolfgang wasnít even alive at the time when the band recorded half the songs here. When performing the non-VH songs, players will assume Guitar Heroís more traditional characters and not Van Halen, so performing Billy Idolís ìWhite Weddingî as David Lee Roth is sadly not an option.
Guitar Hero: Van Halen is due out December 22nd, giving consumers a pretty awesome last minute gift-buying option for Christmas. Hereís the full track list:
Van Halen Songs
ìAinít Talkin Bout Loveî
ìAnd The Cradle Will Rockî
ìAtomic Punkî
ìBeautiful Girlsî
ìCathedralî (solo)
ìDance The Night Awayî
ìEruptionî (solo)
ìEverybody Wants Someî
ìFeel Your Love Tonightî
ìHang ëEm Highî
ìHear About It Laterî
ìHot For Teacherî
ìIce Cream Manî
ìIím The Oneî
ìJamieís Cryinî
ìJumpî
ìLittle Guitarsî
ìLoss Of Controlî
ìMean Streetî
ìPanamaî
ìPretty Womanî
ìRomeo Delightî
ìRunning With The Devilî
ìSo This Is Loveî
ìSomebody Get Me A Doctorî
ìSpanish Flyî (solo)
ìUnchainedî
ìYou Really Got Meî
Other In-Game Tracks
Alter Bridge – ìCome To Lifeî
Billy Idol – ìWhite Weddingî
blink-182 – ìFirst Dateî
Deep Purple – ìSpace Truckinî
Foo Fighters – ìBest Of Youî
Foreigner – ìDouble Visionî
Fountains of Wayne – ìStacyís Momî
Jimmy Eat World – ìPainî
Judas Priest – ìPainkillerî
Killswitch Engage – ìThe End Of Heartacheî
Lenny Kravitz – ìRock And Roll Is Deadî
Queen – ìI Want It Allî
Queens of the Stone Age – ìSick, Sick, Sickî
Tenacious D – ìMaster Exploderî
The Clash – ìSafe European Homeî
The Offspring – ìPretty Fly For A White Guyî
Third Eye Blind – ìSemi-Charmed Lifeî
Weezer – ìDope Noseî
Yellowcard – ìThe Takedownî