Van Halen Finally Commits to Tour

It may not be the tour that numerous fans would consider a true Van Halen reunion, complete with original singer David Lee Roth, but after many rumours and false starts, they're back and they're quickly selling out tour dates.

It's been 22 years since the band has toured with original lead singer David Lee Roth, but some may feel that there is something missing, as big smiley Michael Anthony will not be present with his bass or distinctive backing vocals. Instead he's been replaced with Eddie Van Halen's 16 year old son Wolfgang as was previously reported on Digital Journal earlier this year. Fans of the original lineup will no doubt delight in the possibility that they will likely be able to hear many classic Van Halen tunes that have not been played live since the mid 80's. Indeed the official website which is supposed to launch in September is using the original Van Halen logo and only uses pictures of the album covers that were recorded before David Lee Roth left the band to pursue his solo career in 1985.

image:32947:0::0

Tickets for some of the tour dates went on sale this weekend and disappeared in a hurry. Charlotte, N.C., Detroit, Toronto, Chicago and Philadelphia were all sold out immediately. A quick look at the tour schedule shows that there are 29 dates listed so far and the official website says that 'additional announcements regarding on sale dates will be made in the coming weeks.' The original announcement of the tour happened way back on January 24th, 2007, when Billboard announced a 40 date summer tour. For the better part of the year, it's looked like the tour was going to go ahead, but there always seemed to be delays and conflicting information. Van Halen was to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and supposed to release a "Best Of (1978-1984)" to coincide with the event, but in late February conflicting messages came out from various sources that both the tour and the CD had been postponed. Billboard, one of the more reliable sources of information reported on February 23rd that the delays were "not due to any internal strife among band members", which was probably a thought that many people were having because of the bands membership issues in recent years. On March 8th, just days before the Hall of Fame ceremony Eddie Van Halen announced that he would be going into rehab and wrote a letter to fans explaining that he needed to work on himself so that he could deliver a performance at a higher calibre than he was capable of at the time. The only mention of the tour was 'Some of the issues surrounding the 2007 Van Halen tour are within my ability to change and some are not.' which was rather vague, but put in context he was talking about his ability to rehabilitate himself and get off the booze. The saddest part of the events this year is that only Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony, both ex-members of Van Halen showed up to the Hall of Fame Induction, which should have been a milestone in the band's career. About the new lineup, David Lee Roth was quoted on SignOnSanDiego.com as saying "This is not like the Police (reunion). The idea is that this will continue...This is not a reunion. This is a new band. ... Usually when a band comes back like us, it's rockers with walkers and this is everything but. Meet us in the future, not the past." Missing man Michael Anthony has not given any recent media interviews, but on August 21st he posted on his blog, an answer to some of the questions that he's no doubt been plagued with this year.

First of all, I hope all of you are having a great Summer!! I want to thank everyone for all the support you're shown me during the past months. I'ts all been pretty crazy, and I just wanted to bring you all up to speed. Alot of you have been asking about the upcoming Van Halen tour and my response to it. It's not that I'm not touring with Van Halen because I'm going out with Sammy, I'm going out with Sammy because I was not invited to do the VH tour.

Sammy told me that if I was asked to be part of the VH tour and decided to do it, it would be totally cool, and it would not tarnish our friendship in the least!! Well it's not to be, and life goes on. I'll still be out there with Sam, and I can't wait to do some partying with all of you. One last note from myself to all the Van Halen fans out there who will be attending their shows...Wolfgang is a great kid, so don't judge him too harshly. I'm sure he'll do just fine!!....See you all soon, Mike

Michael Anthony

image:32949:0::0

Much has been written about storied history of Van Halen and their influence on rock music, arena rock, infamous riders (ever heard about the brown m&m's?) and the controversy that has whittled away at their reputation. I won't go into all of it here, but would recommend reading the Wikipedia article which has a good synopsis of the highs and lows of their career, including infamous incidents like the apparent reunion of the original four members in 1996, and sudden departure of Roth in what he called a 'publicity stunt' in an open letter, but the Van Halen brothers insisted was only the intention to record two songs for their greatest hits album. Personally I've been a fan of the band's music for over 20 years and I saw them live in 1991 in the heyday of the Sammy Hagar era. It was an amazing show and the band also put out a live double album in 1993 called Live: Right Here Right Now which showcases the power they had back then. After the 1996 incident with Roth, I stopped paying attention to them, figuring that they had their day, but every time the band was without a singer, like the period between 2000 and 2004, there were occasionally rumours about a reunion with the original lineup. Now it's here and there's no way that I'll be paying $150 to go see them live. Note that there are cheaper tickets available, but not in my city, due to the fact that they're selling out so fast. I do hope that young Wolfgang does well and Eddie manages to keep himself clean and sober. If ticket sales are any indication, they can still draw a huge crowd.