Official VH Street Team Sign-up
The official Van Halen street team is run through a company called Fanscape. They were hired by VH's label to get in touch with all the hardcore fans and help get the word out about their upcoming greatest hits set, Best of Both Words, which I'm sure you've probably heard all about by now.

Spread the word about the team and get all the fans onboard!! The team signup link can be found at this URL: http://www2.fanscape.com/vanhalen/signup.asp

The link should be up on the Official Van Halen Site (www.van- halen.com) very soon.

Sign-Up Page for Official VH Team:
http://www2.fanscape.com/vanhalen/signup.asp

The ILAA shirt, trucker hat & laminate.

Also shown: my ticket, a VH wristband, and a pick that Mikey gave me.

Courtesy of Ed's Van Halen Domain at www.evh-domain.com

A great EVH story
Posted on VHLinks Forums:

what up guys, first night in worcester, when i was in the pit, i met this cool guy named lou...guitar player himself...has a cover band that plays much of the same stuff we do...fellow VH freak...

he told me this story that the night before (6/18) he was at daddy's junky music in boston (the one right across from berklee college of music - i went to boston university so i know the store he's talking about). it was around 9pm and there was hardly anyone in the place...he went inside and heard this guy playing guitar...he got closer and realized it was EVH...he said the staff had no idea who he was...there was no entourage around him...just him.he also said that he was dressed kinda like how we comes out on stage...with the toe-less boot (he said he kind looked like a homeless guy)...

anyway, he said that ed had a sandwich with him in a bag. when he went to take a bite out of it the guys behind the counter told him that he has to eat that outside...they didn't know who he was! treated him like a bum...

so instead of ed saying "do you know who i am - i'm "f"in eddie van halen!"...he went outside to eat his sandwich...that's why ed is god!

anyway, lou followed him outside and told him that he was a huge fan...ed thanked him, asked him if he was going to be there the next night, lou said "of course".

as lou tells it, at this point one of ed's techs comes out of a black SUV and motions to ed that they have to leave...

ed tells lou..."see ya tomorrow night!" and hops in the SUV...

lou goes back inside daddy's and yells at the guys behind the counter..."that was eddie van halen that you guys threw outta here...see those guitars over there...he designed those...see those amps over there...he designed those!"

..then he left...

Moline presale & Gold Ring Seats
Finally found it! AOLVH12 is the password and the presale started this afternoon at 4pm!!! It would have been nice to have some kind of prior announcement. I pretty much had given up on the presale.

Ticketmaster is showing Gold Seats (standing) for the $79.50 price.

The arena refers to the 79.50 tickets as "Gold Section" tickets, which are NOT the same thing as Gold Ring seats. Gold Section is only a name they gave to the most expensive tickets and should not be confused with the Gold Ring areas located within the stage. (Thanks to the Dwyer and Michaels show for this update).

You can get involved in the pre-sale even if you don't have AOL. Just go to ticketmaster.com and get to the part where you buy the tickets -
that's where there is a box for you to put the password in and buy tickets in advance.

Van Halen proves naysayers wrong - Entertaining show refutes notion that it's all about money
By CHAD BERNDTSON , The Patriot Ledger

OK, so it can be love. Van Halen is back, and playing to a sold-out crowd in the first of a two-night stand at Worcester's Centrum Centre on Saturday, they seemed to methodically blow away every criticism (''They won't do David Lee Roth-era tunes,'' ''They'll be sloppy,'' ''It's only for the money'') lobbed since the tour was announced.

There they were - Sammy, Alex, Eddie and Michael - drenched in a hail of strobe lights and dwarfed by a gigantic video screen. Not all the music lived up to the energy that radiated from the band members' affection. But it was clear from the get-go that this reunion isn't purely a cash machine - even if the $89 ticket price suggested otherwise.

Sammy Hagar, invited back after an eight-year rift, continues to look the part - yellow pants, a ''Red Rocker'' embroidered shirt, sandals and the curly blonde coif that makes him look like a deranged Muppet - and back it up with roof-raising pipes. Blowing a few cues and flubbing a few lyrics, he merely laughed things off, bounding around the ovular stage.

Rhythmically and foundationally, the band remains as consistent as ever, even if Michael Anthony's bass was turned up a bit too high. Anthony, who donned a Red Sox jersey halfway through the show, screeched vocal harmonies and ripped it up on his Jack Daniels bottle look-alike bass, and Alex Van Halen smacked away on drums as a sweatband-wearing picture of vitality.

Throughout the evening, Hagar reminded the audience that it was in the presence of a rock guitar demigod. If Eddie Van Halen has lost a step over the years, it wasn't visible on Saturday. Shirtless, cargo-panted and sporting a toned, Keith Richards bod and a sumo pony tail, Eddie Van Halen looked happy and healthy, ripping cacophonous solos, heavy with feedback and his usual rock star antics, playing at certain points using a nip bottle as a pick. His inevitable 15-minute solo spot near the set's end developed gracefully, beginning with showy histrionics, then fluid rocking-out, and finally, eye-popping virtuosity. In a genuinely touching display, he was joined by his son, Wolfgang, who trotted out with one of Dad's axes and lay down with him at the front end of the stage for some rock 'n' riffing.

The main set mined nuggets largely from the band's Hagar years, such as ''Dreams'' and ''Poundcake,'' with a few Sammy solo tunes and a new rocker from the band's second greatest hits volume due in July. ''Right Now'' was as poignant a rave-up as ever, closing the set with a balance of paranoia and humor and a video montage updated with many contemporary references - ''Right now, someone is illegally downloading this song'' - and a political barb or two, including a video of President Bush signing a war declaration and a caption that read ''Right now, regret is very expensive.''

The Roth years, too, were ably represented, book-ending the show with the opening ''Jump'' and the encores of first The Kinks' ''You Really Got Me'' and then a roaring ''Panama.'' The finale was ''When It's Love,'' a sizzling closer, if not as wholly satisfying as the omitted ''Runnin' With the Devil'' would have been.

Overall, it was a night of giddy nostalgia for the audience, whose skeptical smirks became ear-to-ear grins once it was clear that the show would be far from the train wreck skeptical observers had predicted. -

As Uncle Sammy himself said, ''We're not (fooling) around. We're back!'' Although that statement rarely holds water anymore in the ranks of the Van Halen faithful, it's not without considerable optimism this time around.

Openers Silvertide have enough vintage metal sizzle and stage presence to evolve into able thrashers, but many of their originals failed to notch them above bar band level Guns 'n' Roses knockoffs.

VAN HALEN
Saturday night at the Worcester Centrum. Repeated last night.

Copyright 2004 The Patriot Ledger
Transmitted Monday, June 21, 2004

Van Delivery
Van Halen live! The best and worst moments. EW.com checked out the band's reunion-tour stop in New Jersey -- here are the highlights by Brian Hiatt

'WHEN IT'S LOVE' Hagar and Van Halen reunited, and it looked so good

Sammy Hagar ought to send Gary Cherone some flowers -- or at least a bottle of Cabo Wabo tequila. It took former Extreme frontman Cherone's brief, hapless turn as Van Halen's lead singer -- which produced 1998's odious ''Van Halen III'' -- to make the prospect of Van Hagar appetizing again. Hence the largely middle-aged masses' rapturous reception of the reunited pop-metal titans at their June 22 stop at East Rutherford, N.J.'s Continental Airlines Arena. Some highlights:

MOST ASTONISHING MUSICIANSHIP
Eddie Van Halen's technique-heavy guitar solos -- which use all 10 fingers and, seemingly, a few toes -- are as out of style as big hair and leg warmers. But he remains one of the most astonishing rock guitarists ever -- capable of conventionally virtuosic, note-heavy runs (like the solo in concert opener ''Jump'' and the squealing, alien noises in ''Runaround'') that put Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave's Tom Morello to shame. He's also one of the few players who can make an unaccompanied 10-minute guitar solo (played spine-shatteringly loud, through 12 separate amplifiers) seem too short.

BEST USE OF A POWER TOOL
Eddie held an electric drill to his guitar strings for the opening of the heavy-riffing romp ''Poundcake,'' creating a uniquely cool whirring effect that some canny young band (or hip-producer) would be smart to rip off. Lil' Jon, are you listening?

BEST FAN RAPPORT
Hagar's melodic shriek was once one of hard rock's best -- it's what Jack Black wishes he sounded like in Tenacious D. His vocal power has faded, leaving him to struggle with high notes even on David Lee Roth-originated tunes such as ''Jump'' (although his version of ''Panama'' was dead-on). But Hagar -- in a clownish all-yellow outfit -- showed an admirable connection with the fans. Every item thrust onto the stage found its way onto his body -- he donned a baseball hat, a sports jersey, and a T-shirt, and then wrapped a fan's banner around his waist like a skirt. Too bad no one threw women's underwear.

BEST HIDDEN VOCALIST
Bassist Michael Anthony's pure, Beach Boys-style harmonies have always been key to Van Halen, especially on early power-pop-ish tracks like ''Jamie's Crying.'' At the New Jersey show, the mullet-sporting Anthony -- his high notes intact -- even briefly took over lead vocals on songs including ''Somebody Get Me a Doctor.''

BEST TIME FOR A BATHROOM BREAK
Eddie, Anthony, and drummer Alex Van Halen all made good use of their unaccompanied solos (a dinosaur-rock cliché that may be hip again -- blink-182 drummer Travis Barker takes such a solo on the band's current tour). But Hagar used his solo opportunity to play two heartfelt but excruciatingly maudlin ballads -- including ''Eagles Fly,'' which he described as a song about being born. But even childbirth can't be that painful.

WORST NEW SONG
The band played several new tracks featured on its upcoming greatest-hits collection, and most weren't bad -- the fun, bluesy ''Up for Breakfast'' was better than much of the band's '90s material. But the final new song of the night, ''Learning to See,'' was a power ballad that took way too long to get to the ''power'' part. ''That SUCKED!'' one astute fan yelled.

MOST UNLIKELY CAMARADERIE
Eddie and Sammy -- who by all accounts detested each other until recently -- seemed downright chummy. Sammy even teased Eddie about his bizarre new hairdo -- a Flea-like topknot -- and Eddie didn't kick him out of the band. Yet.

Courtesy of Entertainment Weekly

Still smokin': Sparked by Eddie's riffs, Van Halen takes up where it left off
BY JAY LUSTIG
Star-Ledger Staff
THE BIG NEWS from Tuesday's Van Halen concert at the Continental Airlines Arena is that Eddie Van Halen is alive and well.

Over the past six years, the guitarist, now 49, has undergone hip-replacement surgery and treatment for tongue cancer, and made few public appearances. He's now cancer-free, and on Tuesday, the only sign of lingering difficulties was the roughness in his voice when he made some brief between-song comments. (His occasional backing vocals were mostly inaudible).

Performing the entire show shirtless, he looked fit, and frequently flashed his usual goofy grin. More important, his health problems and the long layoff between tours don't appear to have had any effect on his guitar playing. Throughout the show, he proved he should still be considered one of the hard-rock world's most inventive guitarists.

Extended solos by his brother Alex Van Halen, on drums, and Michael Anthony, on bass, represented lulls in the mostly high-energy concert. But Eddie's 10-minute solo was a riveting, albeit slightly disjointed, display of riffs that other guitarists can only dream about. After it was over, the crowd chanted, "Eddie! Eddie!," and he covered his face with his hands, as if overcome with emotion.

Then, to cap this uplifting portion of the show, his 13-year-old son Wolfgang walked out with a guitar, and joined his father for a duet -- mellow at first, then loud. They embraced, and the video camera focused on the "Wolfgang" tattoo on Eddie's right shoulder.

This tour, which reunites Anthony and the Van Halen brothers with singer Sammy Hagar, picks up where the foursome left off in 1996. The less said about the 1997-99 stint with replacement frontman Gary Cherone, the better.

Hagar, who replaced original Van Halen vocalist David Lee Roth in 1986, cannot match Roth's madman charisma. But he has a powerful voice and is a hard-working entertainer. He tirelessly raced around the stage, appearing to have the time of his life. He sang "Top of the World" while standing in front of a video screen high above the stage, and "Dreams" from a catwalk connected to the lighting rig above the crowd.

His solo guitar-and-vocals versions of his own songs, "Eagles Fly" and "Deeper Kind of Love," offered an effective, low-key break from the band's usual hard-driving rock. But his singing on Roth-era Van Halen material like "Jump," "Panama," "Unchained," "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" and "You Really Got Me" (a Kinks cover that was Van Halen's first Top 40 hit in 1978) seemed tame in comparison with the originals.

Michael Anthony and Alex Van Halen did a solid job, though they contributed to the plodding quality of songs like "Why Can't This Be Love" and the new "Learning To See." Like two other songs performed Tuesday -- "It's About Time" and the double entendre-filled "Up For Breakfast" -- "Learning To See" will make its recorded debut on Van Halen's two-CD greatest hits collection, "The Best of Both Worlds," due out July 20 on the Warner Bros. label.

None of these songs made a strong impression on Tuesday, though. Van Halen has a long way to go to prove its future can be as glorious as its past. (The current tour is scheduled to run until the end of September. After that, the band's future is unknown.)

The last song before the encores was "Right Now," a seize-the-day anthem that was accompanied by written video-screen messages. Among them: "Right now just happened," "Right now, guilt is turning someone inside out," "Right now a 13-year-old is downloading this song" and "Right now, Van Halen is kicking ass in East Rutherford."

The one that got the biggest cheer was just three words long: "Eddie feels great." The feel-good vibe lasted just minutes, though, since the guitarist came out for the first encore smoking a cigarette. Smoking, after all, is considered a leading cause of tongue cancer.

Courtesy of NJ.com

It's About Time" on the charts
Summary: "It's About Time" drops one place from 6 to 7 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks Chart."It's About Time" holds steady at #3 on the Radio & Records Rock National Airplay Chart.
http://www.billboard.com/bb/charts/airplay/mainstream.jsp
Issue Date: July 3, 2004
:
: TW LW Title, Artist
: 1 1 Slither, Velvet Revolver
: 2 2 Cold Hard Bitch, Jet
: 3 5 Feelin' Way Too Damn Good, Nickelback
: 4 7 Cold, Crossfade
: 5 3 Running Blind, Godsmack
: 6 11 Just Like You, Three Days Grace
: 7 6 It's About Time, Van Halen
: 8 8 Lying From You, Linkin Park
: 9 9 Duality, Slipknot
: 10 10 Step Up, Drowning Pool

Strung out
After 6-year gap, Van Halen is outta sync

Eddie Van Halen at the Meadowlands Tuesday night.

Be careful what you pray for.
For years, Van Halen fans have been hoping the band would reunite with whichever big-name lead singer Eddie could stand to be with for more than five minutes.

On Tuesday, a recently reconstituted version of the group, with Sammy Hagar on the mike, hit the stage at the Meadowlands. It was the first Van Halen road show with that lineup in nine years and the first with any singer in six.

We should have been left to our memories.

The performance revealed a group as disjointed musically as they've ever been personally. While the foursome certainly seemed to give their all, they never coalesced as a band. Hagar was in horrible voice, and the sound system pummeled much of the sound to mulch.

While there were no dancing trolls or exploding drummers, there was something a wee bit Spinal Tappish about the whole thing.

Certainly, the show didn't want for a dramatic back story. First, there were the complicated hiring issues, with the band having a) canned their last singer, the ghastly Gary Cherone, b) once again shunned their first vocalist, David Lee Roth, and c) hired back the yutzy Sammy.

There were also medical issues: Eddie was playing in public for the first time since beating tongue cancer.

Small wonder he reacted so emotionally to the crowd's rousing ovation for his trademark extended guitar cadenza.

He cried.

Twice.

It should also be said that, at 49, Eddie looked great. He still has the ripped bod of his youth.

But you knew the band was in trouble when even an uplifting song like "Jump" stumbled. It had almost no lift, and what little there was came from prerecorded synthesizers.

For large portions of the show Eddie Van Halen seemed to be playing in his own world, concentrating more on his admirably zippy leads than on enhancing the rhythm of the band or fleshing out the melodies.

That left bassist Michael Anthony and drummer Alex Van Halen to bash and flail, together creating a great sense of fury but little groove or momentum.

In hard-rocking numbers, like "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" or "Best of Both Worlds," the punch of the pieces came through more than their swing. In their most pop-oriented songs, like "Dreams" and "Right Now," Hagar couldn't navigate the high notes that highlight their melodic sweep.

As personally sweet as Eddie Van Halen's comeback may have been, the 10-minute solo that inspired his emotional outburst only indulged his greatest excesses. One section, which started like an sonic exploration of the heavens, ended up more like an exploration of Eddie's navel.

As with the whole show, you wanted to cheer the return of a good band, but — as a unit — they didn't seem quite there to receive the applause.

Originally published on June 24, 2004
Courtesy of NYDAILYNEWS.com

Veteran rockers still create magic on stage
Thursday, June 24, 2004
By MATTHEW G. PHANEUF

WORCESTER - There is still only one way to rock.

Eight years after his split with Van Halen, Sammy Hagar has rejoined the group for a summer tour that comes to the Hartford Civic Center Monday night. Two performances last weekend at the Worcester Centrum.

ReviewCentre offered proof that Van Halen hasn't lost its magic.

With a stage setup second to none, the "winged VH" logo features "inside" seats for two dozen fans, the boys just rip it up.

Huge monitors, showing Eddie Van Halen doing his famous "flying Eddie" jumps, laughing and having a lot of fun on-stage with Mike Anthony and Hagar, hangs in the middle and on each side of the stage. The camera work is awesome, with some shots coming right from the drum kit (Alex Van Halen's hi-hat) and the guitar (on the end of Eddie Van Halen's ax).

The band sounds good, looks good and appears to enjoy its time together. Playing live brings technical problems, but when a guitar or a microphone stops working, the boys just give it a laugh. Even when a particular song, played 1,000 times before, goes awry, no one notices.

"Up For Breakfast," one of the band's new songs, featured Eddie Van Halen on a red striped "Frankenstein", the guitar that put him on the map with fans.

Similar to the "VH3" tour, Anthony, equipped with his signature Jack Daniels bass, sings lead vocals on "Somebody Get Me A Doctor", with Hagar and Eddie Van Halen backing him up. Hagar climbs up into the rigging again for "Dreams."

Eddie Van Halen's solos these days are meaner, with a lot of bits and pieces from years back, culminating with "Cathedral" and "Eruption." His 13-year-old son, Wolfgang Van Halen, came out on-stage to play "316" with his dad.

Hagar's solo, "Where Eagle's Fly," was first done acoustically, then transformed to a harder, meaner electric version that morphed into "Deeper Kinda Love."

With a few David Lee Roth-era songs thrown in for good measure ("Unchained," "Jump," "Panama," and Eddie Van Halen starting his solo out with "Spanish Fly"), the band cuts into tracks like "Humans Being," "Seventh Seal," "Runaround," "Poundcake," (featuring Eddie Van Halen's striped cordless drill) "Finish What Ya Started," and a new song "It's About Time."

Watching Eddie Van Halen jump around, hearing Anthony hit the notes only dogs hear, seeing Alex Van Halen play his drum kit faster than anything you've ever seen, and watching Hagar throw his arms around everyone in the band makes you forget, at least for a couple of hours, that there is a crueler world outside.

The magic is happening this summer and Van Halen is out to prove that, according to Michael Anthony, "We're back!"

Thank you for your ordering Van Halen's The Best of Both Worlds CD. It has come to our attention that the shipping options presented to you may have been unclear about which option would guarantee delivery on the release date, July 20th.

Your pre-order currently shows that you selected Standard shipping, which will ship on Friday, July 16th and arrive within 7-10 business days.

If you wish to have your order guaranteed to arrive on the release date of Tuesday, July 20, you will need to upgrade your shipping method to Express Shipping. Only orders with Express Shipping are guaranteed to arrive on the release date. If you would like to upgrade your shipping method, please respond to this email and authorize the shipping upgrade. An additional $4.00 charge will be added to your pre-order.

If we do not received a response by June 28th, your shipping method will remain with Standard shipping.

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

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Sound Bites From The Road
Click here for more photos from the road.
Yo! Red Heads, I think “It’s About Time” You heard from me. Well, first off things are going great out here. VH is playing great! I’m having a blast! The fans are over the top. It’s beyond my expectations. It feels as good (if not better) than it ever did. Every night I see all you red heads out there flying your CW colors. (Awesome). It puts a big ass smile on my face. It really makes me feel good and comfortable. Come on baby, the Wabos are great. I talk to them almost daily. They are excited about playing Tahoe Wabo July 3 with Vince Neil. I think it’s so cool they can play with anyone, they are bad ass. The Tahoe Wabo is doing unbelievable. I’m so proud of my Wabo’s!!! (A few more to come but one at a time, they got to be right). No cookie cutters, please.

The Tahoe grand opening was something I will never forget. Wow, what a party!! Just talked to Toby and Ted they want to know what’s next? Guess we’ll have to meet up out here, too much fun ooohhh. Going out to dinner tonight in Boston with all the VH gang for Mikey’s B-Day, ouch! Wish we were in Cabo!! But Boston will Wabo tonight. Thanks for it all. See ya wherever, whenever, can’t wait for 10/13/04!! Many surprises for ya all. See ya in Cabo… Peace, much love & happiness.

He told staff some autograph hounds were following him earlier that day.

Hagar and the newly reunited Van Halen played the Wachovia Center last night and plays again tonight.

He's been to Saloon before, and the Italian spot knew he was coming in and was sure to stock his Cabo Wabo-brand tequila for his party's margaritas.

The party had a few veal dishes, some stuffed peppers, broccoli rabe and fried calamari, and sipped red wine.

Hagar paid by AmEx, tipping about 25 percent.

For Van Halen, a sense of deja vu
Sammy Hagar's back with the boys.
Someone up there must really love Van Halen.

It seems the band has gone to great lengths to sully o­ne of the biggest names in American rock. There was the messy split with second singer Sammy Hagar; the botched reunion with original mouthpiece David Lee Roth (he's still the tops); an abominable album with bush-league third singer Gary Cherone.

But the group is back together with Hagar now, o­n an arena tour that will hit the Wachovia Center Wednesday and Thursday.

"We've made some silly choices; I'll be the first to admit that," drummer Alex Van Halen says of the band's rather checkered days since his brother Eddie fired Hagar over the phone in 1996.

"Some things just weren't meant to be. That's the best way I can say it. What was meant to be was this thing with Sam. And we've been asked, 'How long do you think this is going to last?' Well, we don't know. I wish it would go o­n forever. I know that's a silly answer, but we make great music together and we get along great."

Three new songs with Hagar appear o­n the forthcoming double-disc retrospective, The Best of Both Worlds, due out July 20. The 36-track compilation features songs from both the Roth and Hagar eras, something Alex Van Halen says will be reflected o­nstage.

"On prior tours, there were certain things Sammy didn't want to do, and we respected that," Van Halen says. "But he's been very open in wanting to take all these songs and do as much as we can within 2-2? hours. Nothing's safe. We're going to attack it all."

Courtesy of Philly.com

Reenergized Van Halen is happy Hagar is back
Singer Sammy Hagar admits he didn't think a reunion with Van Halen was possible until he phoned their camp last fall. He had just been part of the tension-filled "Sam and Dave" tour with another ex-Van Halen singer, David Lee Roth, where both had played their versions of Van Halen hits as well as solo material.

The controversial tour (which didn't have Van Halen's blessing) taught Hagar a lesson the other members of Van Halen learned years before: "I realized that you can't work with (Roth). He's unworkable. I tried. God knows I tried."

"Now, you know," says Alex Van Halen, the band's drummer who recently took part in a joint Globe interview with Hagar to discuss the group's latest chapter. Hagar's return marks another round of lead-singer musical chairs for the hard-rocking Van Halen. Roth was replaced by Hagar, who was replaced by Boston-based singer Gary Cherone, who, in turn, was replaced by Hagar.

But everything is hunky-dory now, to hear Hagar and Alex tell it, with Van Halen launching a reunion tour that takes the band to the Worcester Centrum Centre tomorrow and Sunday.

"This tour is like one giant celebration with all the fans that've been there forever," Hagar says. "People are really excited about this, and it makes me want to give everything that I've got."

Hagar, who lives in the Bay Area, called Alex last fall while vacationing in Southern California, not far from Alex's home. The two got together and "we're like old friends again," says Hagar, who had been estranged for seven years. "It really was the right time, and that's what our new single, `It's About Time,' is really about." (It's o­ne of three new songs o­n a "Greatest Hits" album due out July 20.)

The timing was also right for guitarist Eddie Van Halen, Alex's brother who was regaining his strength in recovering from tongue cancer. "Ed went through a very difficult time," Alex says. "It was a health scare and, believe me, as his brother who didn't know if he was going to make it through the next week, it was a very strange experience. It's not something that you'd expect at his age."

Eddie, 49, has been avoiding the media, perhaps because he doesn't want to be asked about his health.

"There's a story about that, but now is not the time to talk about it," Alex says. "We're looking foward. We're not looking back. We went through some hard times with Ed and with some other things, but we're through that. We came out the other end stronger -- and let's do what we do, which is to make music."

Van Halen has rehearsed more than 30 songs. They include several of Eddie's famed guitar instrumentals, often departing from the band's hard-rock slant to include classical music passages and free-form jazz improvisations, which the Van Halen brothers learned to appreciate from their father, a professional jazz musician in Europe. (The brothers were born in Holland, before the family moved to Pasadena when they were young.)

"When you think of great guitar players from the '80s, you think of The Edge from U2, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Eddie Van Halen," says Carter Alan, music director of rock station WZLX-FM (101.7). "That's why there's so much buzz for this tour, because people haven't seen Eddie in a while."

"No o­ne can play guitar like Eddie," says Aerosmith axman Joe Perry. "He took everything that went before him and said, `I've heard all of that before.' And then he introduced all the finger-tapping stuff that he does. And not o­nly is he a great player, he's a great showman, and that's what it's all about."

Another key component of the new tour is that Hagar promises to dig deeper into the Van Halen catalog and perform more songs first done by Roth -- something he resisted in the past.

"This is about the Van Halen era from beginning to end. It's not just about when I was in the band," says Hagar, who performed with them from 1985 to 1996. "Everybody knew that I didn't like to sing certain songs, but now -- and I don't want to give the set away -- we do plenty of old stuff, and I think I'm singing it very well."

"There's no rust o­n Sammy," Alex says.

Van Halen achieved 16 Top 40 hits from 1978 to 1995 -- starting with a cover of the Kinks' "You Really Got Me," followed by their biggest hits ("Jump" in 1984 and "Why Can't This Be Love" in 1986), and ending with "Can't Stop Lovin' You" in 1995. Hagar was around for the majority of those hits but was replaced in the late '90s by Cherone, though that move didn't work out. The album they made together, "Van Halen III" in 1998, was poorly received.

"In essence, the chemistry with Gary was wrong," Alex says. "It wasn't his fault, and it wasn't the band's fault. It just wasn't right, and we all recognized that. We had a friendly parting and that was that."

So what did Alex think of last year's "Sam and Dave" tour?

"I've seen stranger things," he says with a chortle. "I'm laughing about it because I can o­nly quote something that Ed said, which was `Having gone through cancer and come out the other end, some of the stuff that normally used to drive you nuts doesn't bother you anymore. You look at life a lot differently.'

"It's not like Ed and I have a direct path to the man upstairs to tell him, `You know, I hope Sammy calls some day or whatever.' But we truly believe that when things are meant to be, they fall into place naturally. They're not forced. I know that sounds overly simple, but that's how it happened."

Courtesy of the Boston Globe by Steve Morse, Globe Staff

The Following Dates now have a setlist/review page setup

06-11-04
06-13-04
06-14-04
06-16-04
06-17-04
06-19-04
06-20-04

Official Track Order for the double cd "Best of Both Worlds"
Word is circulating that the running order prevously announced for Van Halen's upcoming double CD "Best Of Both Worlds" has been significantly revamped. All the same tracks are expected to appear on the release but the three new songs have been moved from the end of the second disk to early on the first and the formerly chronological track order is now almost entirely a patern of alternating Sammy then Dave then Sammy songs.

The album art previously rumored now appears to be confirmed as well.

Disc One:

1. Eruption
2. It's About Time
3. Up For Breakfast
4. Learning To See
5. Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love
6. Finish What Ya Started
7. You Really Got Me
8. Dreams
9. Hot For Teacher
10. Poundcake
11. And The Cradle Will Rock
12. Black And Blue
13. Jump
14. Top Of The World
15. (Oh) Pretty Woman
16. Love Walks In
17. Beautiful Girls
18. Can't Stop Lovin' You
19. Unchained

Disc Two:

1. Panama
2. Best Of Both Worlds
3. Jamie's Cryin'
4. Runaround
5. I'll Wait
6. Why Can't This Be Love
7. Runnin' With The Devil
8. When It's Love
9. Dancin' In The Street
10. Not Enough
11. Feels So Good
12. Right Now
13. Everybody Wants Some
14. Dance The Night Away
15. Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love (live)
16. Panama (live)
17. Jump (live)

Courtesy of VHND.com

You can order the new CD now: http://www.van-halen.com/newsite/index2.html

Scroll down a bit and you'll see the cover art.

There are some cool opportunities available at the pre-order site too. Like this T-shirt to the right.

For those that don't see it, all pre-orders will be delivered by the CD's release date on July 20.

Another great way to buy the cd pre-sale is at vanhalenstore.com! The Best Of Both Worlds (2CD set)

Hagar's Van Halen a sweet substitute

The band is not the same without Roth, but his replacement did a fine job on their greatest hits.

By Patrick Berkery

That soothingly familiar mountain of shred and hooks engulfing the sold-out Wachovia Center on Wednesday might have seemed like the real Van Halen, but it was just a sweet-sounding consolation prize.

Sammy Hagar - not David Lee Roth - was belting out "Panama" and his own, milder contributions to the VH canon, such as "Dreams." Certainly not the genuine article, but better than nothing.

The Van Hagar boys have reunited in support of their forthcoming greatest-hits set, and they trotted out those hits for the first show of their two-night Wachovia Center stand. "Jump" (which opened the two-hour set), "Runaround," "Poundcake" and "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" all sounded - in three words - awesome, totally awesome.

Not so awesome were three brand-new songs (that will also appear on the hits album). New single "It's About Time" was the best, but that isn't saying much.

The songwriting chops need honing, but Van Halen still delivers as players. Eddie Van Halen (shirtless and fit in cargo pants, hair stacked above his head samurai-style) remains a finger-tapping, monster-riffing, dive-bombing guitar god, while brother Alex laid down the grooves like a caveman with perfect meter.

Bassist Michael Anthony is the secret weapon with choirboy harmonies and the ability to fill in the upper-register blanks Hagar couldn't handle.

Hagar, thicker in the middle and raspier of voice, still aims to please, trying on every T-shirt and pair of sunglasses hurled his way, even tackling Roth-era material such as "Unchained," which he previously avoided.

But he's still an outsider. To wit: The opening figure of Sammy's "Why Can't This Be Love" elicited enthusiastic applause. But when Eddie laid into the gargantuan opening of "Unchained," you seriously feared that the roof might cave in from the crowd's euphoric reaction. The people had spoken: They like Sammy, they want Dave.

Northeast Philadelphia's Silvertide opened with a cocksure 30 minutes of swaggering big rock and boogie. Had filmmaker Cameron Crowe not concocted the fictitious band Sweetwater for Almost Famous, these denim-clad merchants of dirty riffs would have been perfect.

Courtesy of Philly.com

Message from sammy on redrocker.com!
Hello Redheads! I'm sorry I haven't been active here lately, but I've been a bit, um, busy. The Van Halen tour has been great fun. Band is getting along great and of course, Mikey and I have been having a blast out here. It's been so awesome seeing the huge amount of Redheads in the crowd flying the Cabo Colors high and mighty and proud.
During the tour, I'm gonna try to give you guys some insite from my perspective on life on the road with a few messages a week.( I'm gonna try, anyway.)
All roads lead to Cabo and the Birthday Bash.
See ya there, if not before!

Sammy

VH retrospective on The Daily Vault

Reminder: in honor of the reunion tour, for the next two weeks, The Daily Vault is featuring a retrospective with reviews covering all Van Halen studio albums. Today (6/17), we're up to _Diver Down_... stop by and enjoy!

Courtesy of Dailyvault.com

Van Halen weekend on XM 41 The Boneyard
On June 19th starting at Noon Eastern, XM's The Boneyard (channel 41) will be playing 420 Van Halen songs in a row to celebrate the biggest tour of the summer.

VH entered the Billboard "Mainstream Rock" charts
VH entered the Billboard "Mainstream Rock" charts last week @ #14 and moved up a few notches to #10 this week.

Here's the chart: http://www.billboard.com/bb/charts/airplay/mainstream.jsp

A EVH Trivia Question!
During the show Eddie tossed us lots of picks-I ended up with about 10 picks in my pocket, and my buddy probably had 5 or so. There were two different types of picks. One, a fairly thick pick, yellow with Eddie's signature on one side, and "Bring on the Donkey" on the other side.

Trivia Question: Any idea what "Bring on the Donkey" means?? Email

The other pick was thin and green, again with Eddie's signature on it, but blank on the other side. My guitar playing buddies suggest that the yellow pick is probably what Eddie uses to play (based on the thickness/stiffness of it) and the thin green ones were likely just for tossing to the crowd.

Response from I Love All Access about the 4 star package
Thanks for writing. Of course it is our intent to have 100% satisfied customers at all shows! Four Star packages were never instructed to be at will call at 4pm, that is the Five Star. It might seem that some people were reading both package descriptions and assumed Four Stars would be available at 4pm as well. What we have already changed in our program, is that Four Star packages will be available for pickup earlier in the day, as long as the will-call window is already open. We are notifying all Four Star fans from Hershey on forwards, to that effect, just to be clear. Neither Four Star nor Five Star, for that matter, offer a meet and greet with Van Halen. Four Star fans are eligible for 'possible additional surprises'. We gave out Van Halen merchandise, including t-shirts, as well as upgrades into the 'Golden Ring', in Greensboro.

It is always possible that a member of the general public could walk up to the box office on the day of the show and get a top priced seat. Van Halen does not allocate all the first 20 rows to iloveallaccess! They want fans to be able to purchase tickets through the conventional channels if they wish! What iloveallaccess does do, though, is GUARANTEE a seat in the designated rows.

We really appreciate your feedback, thanks.

Your I Love All Access Team

Band Photo & Statement handed out at the gig in Hershey
They were handing out free papers to everyone and on the front page it had a color picture of the new logo and band photo. Underneath this reads as follows, which i thought was really cool:

"From the moment Edward Van Halen kicked cancer in 2002, a reunion of the "real Van Halen seemed inevitable. Whether this is actually it depends on the flavor of Van Halen that best suits you. This isn't the vanilla of Gary Cherone, a fine singer in over his head in the late 90's, trying to lead a veteran band that had alrady sold nearly 50 million records. Neither is it the spumoni of Diamond David Lee Roth, who took himself out of the game by suing the band, then portraying himself as it's heart and soul, even though it's been 19 years since he left them(aside form the ill-fated reunion of 1995). Tonight's show, my friends, is from the rum-raisin' Van Halen, with the social director of Cabo San Lucas, Sammy Hagar, keeping things wild, fun and slightly more sane than Diamond Dave."

It's About Time - The First Bootleg of the Tour
It's About Time
Format: 2 Compact Discs (Homemade CD-R)
Label: (none)



Source: Greensboro Coliseum - Greensboro, NC - June 11, 2004

Disc 1
Intro 1:04
Jump 4:54
Runaround 4:59
Humans Being 6:11
Up For Breakfast 5:00
Bass Solo 1:56
Somebody Get Me A Doctor 3:56
Poundcake 6:29
It's About Time 4:30
Drum Solo 4:30
Top Of The World 6:05
Unchained 4:10
Why Can't This Be Love? 3:21
Eagles Fly 4:49
Deeper Kind of Love 3:04

Disc 1 Time - 64:44

Disc 2
Learning To See 5:16
Best of Both Worlds 4:54
Guitar Solo 13:05
Dreams 4:59
Ain't Talkin' Bout Love 4:57
Right Now 7:29
You Really Got Me 4:25
Panama 4:10
When It's Love 6:29

Disc 2 Time - 55:44

Total Show Time - 120:28

Notes
Opening night of the 2004 tour.
The source for this recording is: Core Sounds Binaurals > Sony TCD-D7 > DAT @32k > Goldwave > dEQ > CD Wav Editor > WAV.
The front artwork contains an empty stage shot with the VH globe design in each upper corner and the set title, "It's About Time", in the center of the stage screen. The location and date is along the bottom in white text.
The rear artwork contains a stage shot as the background. It has the track listing for each disc as well as the source information.
Released on June 12, 2004.


The back of 'Its About Time'

Courtesy of VHBoots.com - http://www.vhboots.com/itsabouttime.html

The official VH online store is now open and features selected merchandise from the tour: http://vh.feamerch.com

Van Halen Setlist Revealed
Van Halen kicked off the first show of their world tour in Greensborough, North Carolina on Friday night (June 11) but it wasn't exactly the all hit setlist fans were expecting.

The first show was heavy on the Hagar era with only six of the 23 strong setlist dating back to the David Lee Roth era.

An interesting (and surprise) inclusion were two songs from Sammy's solo albums. 'Eagles Fly' from 1987 and 'Deeper Kind of Love' from 2000 were placed back to back in the middle of the setlist. Missing completely were the better known 'Jamie's Crying', 'Running With The Devil', 'Dance The Night Away' and 'Hot For Teacher'.

Van Halen play their second show tonight (June 13) in Hershey, PA. The tour ends in Lubbock, Texas on September 29.

Here is the setlist for June 11, 2004:

1. Jump (from 1984, 1984)
2. Runaround (from For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, 1991)
3. My Generation/Humans Being (Who cover/from Twister soundtrack, 1996)
4. Up For Breakfast (from Best of Both Worlds, 2004)
5. Mike Solo
6. Somebody Get Me A Doctor (from Van Halen II, 1979)
7. Poundcake (from For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, 1991)
8. It's About Time (from Best of Both Worlds, 2004)
9. Alex Solo
10. Top Of The World (from For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, 1991)
11. Unchained (from Fair Warning, 1981)
12. Why Can't This Be Love? (from 5150, 1986)
13. Eagles Fly (from Sammy Hagar solo I Never Said Goodbye, 1987)
14. Deeper Kind Of Love (from Sammy Hagar solo Ten 13, 2000)
15. Learning To See (from Best of Both Worlds, 2004)
16. Best Of Both Worlds (from 5150, 1986)
17. Eddie Solo
18. Dreams (from 5150, 1986)
19. Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love (from Van Halen, 1978)
20. Right Now (from For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, 1991)

Encore:
21. You Really Got Me (from Van Halen, 1978)
22. Panama (from 1984, 1984)
23. When It's Love (from OU812, 1988)

Courtesy of Paul Cashmere of Undercover.com.au

VAN HALEN RETROSPECTIVE
Twenty-six years ago, a legend was born in a blaze of pounding rhythms, wildman screams and stunning, virtuoso electric guitar work. At least three times since, it appeared the legend -- never lacking for internal drama -- might be done for good. But you can't keep a good band down, it seems, so this June 11 will see the return to the stage of the one and only Van Halen (well, okay, the one and only Van Halen mark II, a.k.a. Van Hagar).

Whatever you think of one lead vocalist versus another -- and Lord knows no one's ever argued about that -- there's no getting around the fact that the appearance of Van Halen on the scene set off multiple revolutions in music. Guitar strings could be tapped and hammered... hard rock could be intensely melodic... age-old rock classics could be transformed into heavy metal gems.

In any case, ye humble Daily Vault writing crew can't think of a better way to welcome VH back to the live stage than with a two-and-a-half week, 13-album retrospective kicking off the same day as the band's 2004 tour -- Friday, June 11. Be there and bring your lighter!

Courtesy of DailyVault.com

Don't have high expectations if you have a 4-star package from iloveallaccess.com
First of all, it’s great to have the best band in the world back up on stage. I made the trek from Kenosha, Wisconsin to Greensboro, North Carolina to see the greatest band in the world because who knows how long it’s going to last! So, to put it in more familiar words… Enjoy the moment for what it is… Right Now!

Now, for this whole ticket thing and “I Love All Access.” Personally, I wasn’t able to get a 5-star package, but I did score a 4-star. I’ve read a couple of reviews that are somewhat accurate, but I think there’s a lot of rationalizing going on here. Why? People have to justify the outrageous prices they paid. I met a lot of 5-star hopefuls that assumed they were “meeting” the band. Well, as we’re finding out that’s not true at all. Besides, there was never any guarantee of actually meeting the band. After meeting up with 5-star ticket holders this is what I found out: What they did make good on was the sound check, backstage (no VH members present!!!), and some awesome seats (first few rows on the floor). I have to say that’s very cool. You be the judge if you think it’s worth $375. Everything else wasn’t really a big deal. Seeing the merchandise first… that was bullshit. Anyone at Greensboro could have walked in at 3 P.M. and bought a shirt. The pass…? Come on! We’re talking cents on the dollar!

Here’s where I have to extend a warning to the 4-star ticket holders. Be prepared to accept the fact that you paid for a good seat because that’s all you’re getting. As a 4-star ticket holder, the following is an accurate depiction of the events before the start of the Greensboro show on June 11: To start, as a 4-star ticket holder I never received any instructions as to when I should show up to redeem my tickets. Naturally excited, I showed up at the Greensboro Coliseum around 3 P.M. There I had a great time talking with other Van-Fans. (Thanks again for the beer). Everybody was guessing, but nobody really knew what was going on. Supposedly, the 5-star ticket holders received information to line up at the Will Call window at 4 P.M. Again, as a 4-star ticket holder, I had no instructions. At 4 P.M. when about 200 5-star ticket holders were lined up, some girls in black escorted them in saying it was going to be an exciting night. They said basically nothing to the 4-star ticket holders, except that our tickets weren’t there yet and to wait two more hours until 6:00 P.M. While waiting at the Will Call window, we were asked to step away and line up at a table off to the side. As we were in line, people who bought tickets from Tickets.com were then going to the Will Call window to receive their tickets. 4:30 came and went by, 5:30 came and went by, and finally a few fans with balls started asking questions. The misinformed staff at the Greensboro Coliseum didn’t know what to tell us. All they could say to us was, “We’re not part of I Love All Access… They’re separate from us…” Here’s where my red flag shot up! Hang on, because it gets better. Soon, 5:30 turned into 6:00. At this time all other ticket holders, including people who paid normal price were lined up. A few minutes later, these people were being let in while we, the 4-star ticket holders, we’re standing off to the side beginning to wonder if we were even going to see the show. Finally, at about 6:30 or after, a woman came out, said nothing, sat down at a table and started handing us tickets. Keep in mind that we, the 4-star ticket holders, WERE THE LAST TO BE LET IN!!! I received my envelope, which included my ticket and a laminate pass of a big, bald guy. I was happy to see that my ticket put me in the 17th row and towards the center. At these prices, at an event this huge, poor communication is unacceptable!!! This wasn’t just poor communication; this was poor business practice worth being investigated! The Better Business Bureau’s phones will be ringing off the hook on Monday. People in line were contemplating phoning their attorneys, right there in line!!! At no time, were any updates, an explanation, or an apology given to any of us at any time. The folks at the Greensboro Coliseum are very lucky in that Van Halen fans are pretty easy going. There were a few instances where I thought a riot was going to break out. Think, how would that have looked if a riot broke out at Van Halen’s first show of their benchmark reunion tour? I should clarify that I, personally, didn’t buy the ticket. My wife actually bought it for me as a gift for my birthday and just graduating with my Masters degree. Maybe I should also mention, as a diehard Van-Fan from Wisconsin, I also had to pay for plane tickets, hotel, and cabs – all on a teacher’s salary. Oh, and the additional surprise mentioned by I Love All Access…? The only surprise I received was the frustration that I described above.

Keep in mind, don’t feel as if you have to come out and defend the integrity of Van Halen or the show itself. What I’ve described in no way took away from the MAGIC I witnessed on stage the other night. This is no more than my account of the events that I witnessed firsthand before the show, along with a few strong opinions. I’m really looking at the bright side of things, though. My wife and I will be traveling to Worcester, MA to see Van Halen again. I can’t wait to see the band, but I won’t wait in line again three and a half hours to receive my 4-star ticket that will let me and my wife in last. This will be my wife’s first Van Halen show, and I don’t want it to be tainted by a company, that it my opinion, needs serious reevaluation into their business practices and ethics.

Here’s a simple recommendation for I Love All Access that I think makes sense. Get rid of 4-star and only sell 5-star. Lower the price on 5-star, but sell a few more.

God Bless Van Halen,
R. Thompson
Kenosha, Wisconsin

Basic rundown on what they're offering, and prices for the official T-Shirts
LOTS of shirts! Probably well over a dozen different designs. Prices ranged from $35 for the standard shirts to $50-$55 for tie-dyed ones.

They had several different womens tops available as well. Nice designs.

They had 5150 striped can coolers, a 4-pack of coasters, a VH license plate, a wallet on a chain, some VH wristbands. Just a TON of stuff.

I think the can coolers were $10 bucks. They had an outfit for a small child (Jumper?) for $35 I think. There was a VH nylon jacket for $150.

But the biggest thing was all the different shirt designs. Some older designs, like from the 1993, Balance, 5150 eras as well as an Eagle design that seemed to be from 1984. Very cool stuff. More more than I was expecting.

The band continues to stick to the forward-looking approach to Van Halen in the year 2004 and is not asked any questions that are even remotely taboo.

The program runs 60 minutes, including commercials, with around 20 - 30 minutes of interviews with all four guys interspersed with the following songs:

Poundcake
Finish What Ya Started
Learning To See (w/ intro)
It's About time
Up For Breakfast (w/ intro)
Dreams
Can't Stop Loving You
Right Now
Runaround
Why Can't This Be Love

Courtesy of VHND.com

WESTWOOD ONE PRESENTS VAN HALEN 2004 TOUR SPECIAL AND WORLD PREMIERE
New York, NY - June 3, 2004 - Westwood One (NYSE: WON) presents "Van Halen " 2004 Tour Special and World Premiere", airing on the weekend of June 11-13, 2004. The one-hour special marks the legendary band’s first radio interview in more than eight years. The special includes an exclusive interview with Eddie, Alex, Michael and Sammy discussing their upcoming tour and the new album, "The Best of Both Worlds."

"Van Halen " 2004 Tour Special and World Premiere" on the Westwood One Network will air on more than 120 stations nationwide in top US markets including WAXQ-FM, New York; KLOS-FM, Los Angeles; KCBS-FM, Los Angeles; WLUP-FM, Chicago; WZLX-FM, Boston; WARW-FM, Washington D.C.; WRIF-FM, Detroit; KZPS-FM, Dallas; WZGC-FM, Atlanta and many more.

The upcoming tour marks the return of Sammy Hagar who fronted the band from 1985 to 1996. In addition, the special will showcase three new Van Halen tracks included in the upcoming 36-song, two-disc Van Halen - "The Best of Both Worlds."

For more affiliate information please contact:
Roy Dvorkin
Westwood One
212.641.2040

"Van Halen - 2004 Tour Special and World Premiere" STATION LIST UPDATED 6/09/04

WAXQ - New York, NY
WTBT - Tampa, FL
KLOS - Los Angeles, CA
KRFX - Denver/Boulder, CO
WLUP - Chicago, IL
WDVE - Pittsburgh, PA
KSAN - San Francisco, CA
KUFO - Portland, OR
KEGL - Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX
WMMS - Cleveland, OH
KZPS - Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX
WOFX - Cincinnati, OH
WMMR - Philadelphia, PA
KSEG - Sacramento, CA
KLOL - Houston, TX
KCAL - Riverside, CA
KKRW - Houston, TX
KYYS - Kansas City, MO/KS
WARW - Washington, DC
KUFX - San Jose, CA
WZLX - Boston, MA
KZEP - San Antonio, TX
WRIF - Detroit, MI
KURR - Salt Lake City, UT
WZGC - Atlanta, GA
KBER - Salt Lake City, UT
WBGG - Miami, FL
WLZR - Milwaukee, WI
KDKB - Phoenix, AZ
WHJY - Providence, RI
KQRS - Minneapolis, MN
WLVQ - Columbus, OH
KGB - San Diego, CA
WRFX - Charlotte, NC/SC
WBAB - Nassau/Suffolk, NY
WHTQ - Orlando, FL
WIYY - Baltimore, MD
KKLZ - Las Vegas, NV
KSHE - St. Louis, MO
WAFX - Norfolk, VA
WFBQ - Indianapolis, IN
KFRQ - McAllen-Brownsville, TX
KLBJ - Austin, TX
WRCZ - Albany, NY
WKRR - Greensboro, NC
KMOD - Tulsa, OK
WRNO - New Orleans, LA
WKLQ - Grand Rapids, MI
WNRQ - Nashville, TN
WLAV - Grand Rapids, MI
WRDU - Raleigh-Durham, NC
WRQC - Ft. Myers, FL
WBBB - Raleigh-Durham, NC
KSEG - Fresno, CA
WKGR - West Palm Beach, FL
KRZR - Fresno, CA
WSRR - Memphis, TN
WEZX - Wilkes Barre, PA
WCCC - Hartford, CT
WZZO - Allentown, PA
WFYV - Jacksonville, FL
KZRR - Albuquerque, NM
WGRF - Buffalo, NY
WIMZ - Knoxville, TN
WBUF - Buffalo, NY
KEZO - Omaha, NE/IA
KATT - Oklahoma City, OK
KKCD - Omaha, NE/IA
WCMF - Rochester, NY
KHIP - Monterey/Salinas, CA
WQMF - Louisville, KY
WRDX - Wilmington, DE
WKLR - Richmond, VA
XEPR - El Paso, TX
WZRR - Birmingham, AL
WTPA - Harrisburg, PA
WTUE - Dayton, OH
WTKW - Syracuse, NY
KPOI - Honolulu, HI
WZLX - Springfield, MA
WXKR - Toledo, OH
WWFX - Worcester, MA
KOOJ - Baton Rouge, LA
KPAW - Ft. Collins, CO
WSFL - Greenville, NC
KKQZ - Ft. Collins, CO
KILO - Colorado Springs, CO
WRRX - Pensacola, FL
WNCD - Youngstown, OH
KRNA - Cedar Rapids, IA
KKPT - Little Rock, AR

Heard Any New Van Halen Lately?
Van Halen fans have waited six years for new music, and the band has finally released three of their long-awaited new songs, for inclusion on the band's "The Best Of Both Worlds" 36-song greatest hits album, due in July.

The three new songs are titled, "It's About Time," (IAT) "Up For Breakfast," (UFB) and "Learning To See" (LTS). IAT was released to radio stations about two weeks ago, and UFB and LTS are just now starting to be rotated into broadcasts by radio stations around the US.

All three can be downloaded as MP3 files for your listening pleasure at the following URL's:

It's About Time
Up For Breakfast (recorded from FM broadcast)
Learning To see (recorded from FM broadcast)

The three new songs will also be played on Westwood One's one-hour "Van Halen – 2004 Tour Special and World Premiere," on the weekend of June 11-13. Besides the new music, the show will also feature the band's first radio interview in more than eight years, as Eddie, Alex, Mike, and Sammy discuss the tour, the new music, and their upcoming album. This broadcast also coincides with the band's first tour stop, June 11th in Greensboro, NC.

120 stations nationwide will broadcast this special show.

Courtesy of VHLinks.com

Reunion Boosts Van Halen Back Catalogue Sales
By Paul Cashmere

Getting back together has made good business sense for Van Halen. Sales from their back catalogue are booming.

Five of their old album earned a extra platinum award in May. The reunion talk and then tour announcement has generated sales for '5150', 'OU812', Van Halen II', 'Balance' and 'The Best of Van Halen Volume 1'.

Interestingly, the sales growth appears to be coming from the Sammy Hagar albums. Hagar sang on '5150', 'OU812' and 'Balance' as well as half the songs from 'The Best of' album. David Lee Roth was lead singer on 'Van Halen II'.

Looking at studio albums by lead singer, Van Halen with David Lee Roth sold 34 million albums. With Sammy Hagar they have sold 16 million and with Gary Cherone, 500,000.

The Best of album has sold 3 million and the live 'Right Here Right Now' album has sold 2 million.

In total the Van Halen catalogue was know turned over more than 55 million units in the USA alone.

Van Halen Brings the Very Best Rock Back to Greensboro
Van Halen kicks off summer tour in Greensboro

That’s right rock and roll ruffians and heavy metal hooligans, Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, Michael Anthony, and Sammy Hagar have set June 11th at the Greensboro Coliseum as the kick-off for one of America’s top rock band’s historic reunion, marking their first concert tour in more than nine years, and an unlawful carnal reunion the likes of which the Triad won’t forget for a long time.

Warming up the audiences for the first leg of this monolithic tour will be Philadelphia quintet Silvertide, who also scored the first round of dates opening for near-Guns N Roses-reunion rockers, Velvet Revolver. In addition to granting the fans at least one last chance to jump, Van Halen has teamed up with iloveallaccess.com to put together the ultimate fan experience featuring a variety of premium ticket packages for the Greensboro, Hershey, Philadelphia, Worcester, East Rutherford, Washington, D.C., Detroit, Auburn Hills, St. Paul, Kansas City, St. Louis, and Las Vegas concerts that will include guaranteed great seats and cool VH extras that you apparently won’t find anywhere else on the planet.

Courtesy of ESP Magazine

Hear the Westwood One Interview Here!!!
This is the Westwood One interview, as hosted by Tommy Nast and recorded from the 97.7 Hitz FM web stream from Thursday, June 10th.

97.7 broadcasts out of St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada and they've always been a kick ass rock station. They're one of the last great radio stations left!

Note: there are now higher quality versions of the interview here.

http://www.s87574465.onlinehome.us/part1.wav
http://www.s87574465.onlinehome.us/part2.wav
http://www.s87574465.onlinehome.us/part3.wav
http://www.s87574465.onlinehome.us/part4.wav

Part 1 (MP3) - [Link 1] and for a limited time @ [Link 2 (Edit)]
Part 2 (MP3) - [Link 1] and for a limited time @ [Link 2 (Edit)]

Links Courtesy of Chrisluckhardt.com & VHReunion.com

An internet presale is in the works.....

Brad
The Official Van Halen Web Site
http://www.van-halen.com

This week's Van Halen Presale Password is: AOLVH88
This week's Van Halen Presale Password is: AOLVH88

Step 1: Write down your password. This password is good for this week's presale only.
Step 2: Choose the show you'd like to see and click on the "Get Ticket Info" link.
Step 3: Enter the password and select how many tickets you want.
Step 4: Grab your credit card and complete your purchase. Enjoy the show!

This Van Halen presale begins 4pm Wednesday, 6/9 & ends 10pm Friday, 6/11.

7/23/2004 Green Bay, WI Resch Center

Van Halen Interview on WLUP THE LOOP!
This Sunday night at 10, The Loop presents a one hour Van Halen Special!

Eddie, Alex, Michael and Sammy are back in their first radio interview in 8 years! Get up close and personal with Van Halen as they discuss their reunion, their music, the upcoming tour and what the future holds for Van Halen!

Plus, you'll hear the 3 new songs from the upcoming "Very Best Of" album!

Listen this Sunday night at 10 as the Loop presents a one hour Van Halen special, exclusively on Chicago's station for Van Halen - 97.9 The Loop!

http://www.wlup.com

Only one way for Van Halen to rock: As one
By Edna Gundersen, USA TODAY

No wounds were reopened, no scores settled and no blame assigned before Van Halen buried the hatchet, ending a feud even its fomenters found baffling.

Van Hagar, Vol. II: After a stint with Gary Cherone and a brief reunion with David Lee Roth, Sammy Hagar is once again manning the mike for Van Halen. Photo By Kevin Westenberg

Singer Sammy Hagar, 56, explains in overlapping metaphors, "Maybe I've got my head in the sand, but I don't believe in digging up the dirt."

He can't see the sense of dissecting unresolved squabbles, as Metallica does with its traveling therapist in the new documentary Some Kind of Monster.

"We already went through the misery once," says Hagar, newly reunited with guitarist Eddie Van Halen, drummer Alex Van Halen and bassist Michael Anthony. "Why relive a horrible experience? If you take a spiritual approach, you can rise above it. It's working for us so far."

Van Halen formed in 1978 with flamboyant singer David Lee Roth, who was replaced in 1985 by Hagar, who quit or was fired or both in 1996 after five No. 1 albums and rising rancor. Diamond Dave returned for two songs on a greatest-hits album and was again banished. Extreme singer Gary Cherone took the mike for one studio album before getting his pink slip.

"I'm the new guy again," Hagar says. "And this thing is moving like a rocket ship."

Will it flame out like one?

"We've matured," Alex Van Halen, 54, says. "It's a bad word that I don't allow in my household, but there's truth to it. The creative tension is still there, which is great. As for other stuff, I'll speak for myself. We made a mistake. The whole thing unraveled. We were buddies for 11 years, and all of a sudden it stopped. We were rash, things blew apart very fast and uncontrollably, and it ain't going to happen again.

"We're all grown-ups," he says, "and we'll take full responsibility for what happened, but there were outside forces that tried to drive wedges between people, and you don't always get the full picture. Before you know it, decisions are being made for you and you look back and say, 'How the hell did that happen?' "

Now they're looking ahead and asking: Why can't this be love? Less a democracy than a "four-way musical dialogue," he says, the new Van Halen should thrive on push-pull dynamics as long as individual egos don't get in the way. With the Rolling Stones as its lodestar, Van Halen hopes to endure indefinitely.

Their optimism has been fanned by the unfailing allegiance of fans and by Eddie Van Halen's full recovery from tongue cancer. The guitar whiz, 49, also has emerged from hip-replacement surgery and a divorce from actress Valerie Bertinelli. He's been ducking most media but told Guitar World: "I'm not in remission; the cancer is gone. There is nothing that can keep me down."

During his treatment, he and his brother continued composing and recording.

"Maybe some of it shouldn't have been recorded, but it was a good creative outlet," Alex Van Halen says. "It was therapeutic for what Ed was going through with his health. In times of doubt and when you're depressed, you tend to go to what gives you comfort, and that's music."

He won't discuss details of his brother's cancer except to say, "It's all gone, and it ain't coming back. It made Ed stronger. The back story will come later.

"He's very thankful for all the letters and e-mail he got while he was going through it. Now we're focusing on the moment. There's so much on our plate. We don't have time to look back."

The revived lineup will unveil new songs It's About Time, Learning to See and Up for Breakfast during its first radio interview in eight years, a Westwood One special airing on 120 stations this weekend. (Check local listings or www.van-halen.com.)

The tunes also appear on The Best of Both Worlds, a 36-track retrospective due July 20. Like the tour starting Friday, the two-disc set sports hits from the phases fronted by Sammy (Right Now, Dreams, When It's Love) and Dave (Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love, Panama, Jamie's Cryin').

Judging by the tour's rapid sellouts, pop's altered landscape and the band's seven-year absence haven't dampened fan fervor.

"Van Halen has never been a trend chaser," Hagar says. "We hope the fans can still handle music that has some thunder to it. We don't want to hurt them."

Alex promises the set list will be adjusted to accommodate fan favorites, though online requests won't carry much weight.

"There are too many snipers in those chat rooms," Hagar says. "You hear someone complain, 'Sammy's version of that stunk,' and it could be coming from Dave himself."

Van Halen is Artist of the Month at Empyrelounge.com
Van Halen has confirmed the routing for its summer tour, as well as the return of vocalist Sammy Hagar after an eight-year absence. The group's official Web site features the greeting "Eddie, Alex, Mike & Sammy Hit the Road" as well as a new photo of the foursome. The trek will play North American arenas beginning June 11 in Greensboro, N.C., and wrapping Sept. 29 in Lubbock, TX.

Van Halen – guitarist Eddie Van Halen, drummer Alex Van Halen and bassist Michael Anthony – has not toured since 1998 and is currently without a record deal after splitting from longtime home Warner Bros. in 2002. However, June will see the release of a greatest hits album via Warner Bros., featuring three new Hagar-voiced tracks, "It's About Time," "Up for Breakfast," and "Learning to See." The double-disc The Best of Both Worlds picks up the Van Halen story with the iconic "Eruption" from the group's self-titled 1978 debut. Every major hit is present, from the David Lee Roth-era smashes "Jump," "Panama," "I'll Wait" and "(Oh) Pretty Woman" to such Hagar-associated material as "When It's Love," "Why Can't This Be Love" and "Finish What Ya Started."

Also featured are live versions of "Ain't Talking 'Bout Love," "Jump" and "Panama" from the 1993 concert set "Right Here, Right Now."

Van Halen is hitting the road this summer for the first time in eight years, and drummer Alex Van Halen and vocalist Sammy Hagar promise it will be well worth the wait. "This set we're playing right now is better than any set we ever played before," Hagar said during a teleconference today (May 27). "I used to be a little sensitive to the old material, but I'm not now. We have a whole different outlook on everything. Let's make this the greatest songs the Van Halen fans have ever heard. The set list will kill you!"

Although neither artist would reveal specifics, the show will find Hagar singing many more songs from Van Halen's David Lee Roth era than he did during his first stint in the band. "I'm really digging 'Jump' right now," he said. "In the old days I never got off on singing that song. I would pull a guy out of the audience to sing it. Now, I want to sing this song better than it has ever been sung. I'm tearing it up!" He also insisted "there's a couple of surprises in [the set], one in particular that is completely oddball."

"[Alex and guitarist Eddie Van Halen had been] jamming in the studio for years putting ideas down," he continued. "I'd say, 'that song's great, let's work on that.' But then they'd say, 'listen to this.' It was never-ending. There's so much material that needs to be finished for sure. It became a heavy workload on me as soon as we started getting into it. We had to kind of pick and choose. I took about two hours of stuff home with me and used to work out to it every day. That's really how it got defined."

Both artists said any ill will they may have harbored following Hagar's rancorous 1996 exit from Van Halen is now water under the bridge, but Hagar admitted that before last fall, he hadn't even spoken to Eddie Van Halen in at least six-and-a-half years. "Not even one conversation," he said. "The first one, I was a little nervous. It was kind of like a little uncomfortable. It actually got heavy fast."

"[But] when you see a person you truly have a deep relationship with, all the sudden you realize after time that, hey, forget it. We decided rather than go to therapy, no, no, we're going to pretend like it never happened. We're going to rise above it."

The tour will be documented for potential release on DVD or a live album. "We're very particular about how our music is presented," Van Halen said. "When we do it, we do want control over it. But these days with all the different technologies, we might just join the bandwagon and do our own bootlegs." Either way, Hagar stressed the impact of experiencing the show first hand: "the only way you're gonna get fulfilled is to sit right there in that front row and just get your face bashed in."A tour spokesperson says the upcoming shows will offer such David Lee Roth-era classics as "Panama" and "Jump" plus Hagar-associated tracks like "Why Can't This Be Love," "Right Now," "Dreams," "Top of the World" and "Best of Both Worlds."

Courtesy of Empyrelounge.com

Van Halen unveils stage design, ticket auction
by Jon Zahlaway
liveDaily Staff Writer

June 09, 2004 12:29 PM - When Van Halen hits the stage on Friday (6/11) to kick off its first tour with Sammy Hagar at the mic in almost a decade, some fans will find themselves right in the middle of the action.

The group's stage, which is designed to look like the band's swirling "VH" logo, features two standing-room-only pits that will corral a limited number of concertgoers. Tickets for the special seating area--which is dubbed the Golden Ring--are available for various stops on the outing via an online auction hosted by Ticketmaster. (Ticketmaster is liveDaily's parent company.)
A portion of the proceeds from the auction will benefit the 1736 Family Crisis Center, a nonprofit agency that provides prevention and treatment services for women, children and families in severe crisis, according to organizers. More information--including a diagram of the stage--is available at the auction's webpage.

Fans also have a chance for a spot in the Golden Ring by entering a contest at the band's official website.

Despite the unique stage design and elaborate production, drummer Alex Van Halen said during a recent interview that the heart of the show is still the band's music.

"Do we bring the largest production that we've ever taken on the road? Absolutely," he said. "Did we hire some of the top-notch designers to help us out with this? Absolutely. But the most important thing is [that] where it begins and where it ends is with the four guys on stage, and the music that we play, and, I think, the connection with the audience that we've had over the years."

This weekend (6/11-6/13), Van Halen will debut three new songs--"It's About Time," "Up for Breakfast" and "Learning to See"--during a Westwood One radio special. The one-hour program, which features the band's first radio interview in more than eight years, will air on more than 120 U.S. stations.

A list of stations currently scheduled to air the program is posted at the band's website.

The three new cuts--which have already been leaked by some radio stations, and have turned up on the Internet--will appear on the group's forthcoming hits package, "The Best of Both Worlds." The two-disc, 36-track retrospective is due in stores on July 20.

Courtesy of LiveDaily.com

Van Halen "Mature" But Not Ready For Therapy
After years of being split up, Van Halen is back with Sammy Hagar at the mic. What brought them together again was not, as seems to be the trend with rock bands these days, band therapy. Hagar told USA Today that kind of thing is not his cup of tea, saying: "We already went through the misery once. Why relive a horrible experience?" Drummer Alex Van Halen echoed the sentiment, adding that they've matured - even though he says that word is banned in his house. He added: "We made a mistake. The whole thing unraveled. We were buddies for eleven years, and all of a sudden it stopped. We were rash, things blew apart very fast and uncontrollably, and it ain't going to happen again." Van Halen finally bring the fruits of their labor to the concert stage tomorrow, when the tour opens in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Courtesy of VH1.com

Exclusive Guitar World Magazine Interview w/ Van Halen on Newsstands Now!
In a true world exclusive and his first major interview in five years, the rock and roll god talks exclusively to Guitar World in the August issue on newsstands now about his battle with cancer and the triumphant return of his band.

Here's an excerpt from the interview:

Eddie Van Halen on the last six years out of the spotlight: "Well, a lot happened to me. I had hip-replacement surgery; I beat cancer and my marriage ended. Those were all important and difficult events, and I needed time to deal with them. There was nothing really mysterious about any of it, but all three of those things were extremely personal, and I didn't feel the need to share them with the public. But I never stopped making music. I worked through them, and I discovered there was a light at the end of the tunnel. And it wasn't an oncoming train. It changed my life forever. I'm back, I'm black and I'm chasing young white meat! [laughs] There is nothing that can keep me down. Whatever stands before me I will deal with."

[CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE]

Courtesy of Guitarworld.com

Van Halen Reunion Tour Offers Old, New, 'Wacky'
The Van Halen reunion is looking to be o­ne of the biggest tours of the summer.

It marks the first time in almost a decade that Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, Michael Anthony and Sammy Hagar have graced the same stage.

"It just felt right," drummer Alex Van Halen says. "Sammy and I got together, and it was like we hadn't missed a beat. The moment we hit the studio and started making music, that was it. Making music is what is the center of this band -- that and the friendship."

The tour, which kicks off Friday in Greensboro, N.C., has seen record sellouts. The Aug. 6-7 shows at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas sold out in 30 minutes -- the fastest sellout in the venue's five-year history. The tour ends Sept. 29 in Lubbock, Texas.

While the tour has been all the buzz in the music industry, promotion and publicity for the reunion was purposely underplayed, band manager Irving Azoff says.

"Because the whole Van Halen reunion had been shrouded in secrecy and admittedly dysfunctional, the band and I felt that less is more," he says.

The group did very few interviews and did not release new promotional video footage.

Hagar has been very visible during the past 10 years reactivating his solo career and building his Cabo Wabo franchise. Bass player Anthony also has been o­n the scene, often touring with Hagar. The Van Halen brothers have been more or less out of sight. Guitarist Eddie had been battling cancer, undergoing a divorce and also had a hip replacement.

Hagar says he hopes the reunion will give fans a sense of completion. "We left o­n a high note," says Hagar, who served as the band's lead singer from 1985-96. "We had a No. 1 album and a sold-out world tour, and then it was over."

Fans are going to get all the Van Halen hits o­n this tour. "This set we're playing right now is better than any set we've every played before," Hagar says. "I used to be sensitive to the old material; everyone knows that. And I'm not now. We have a whole different outlook o­n everything.

Hagar admits that the vibe now between him and the Van Halen brothers is "intense and wacky," but despite their highly publicized breakup, music and friendship are the ties that bind them.

When you spend that much time with somebody, you really do have a deep friendship," Hagar says. "We decided rather than go to therapy like some of these other bands and give them the dirt, we said, 'No, no. Here's what we're gonna do. We're going to pretend like it never happened. We're going to rise above it. That's done. This is right now. We're going for it.' "
The group has recorded three new songs to add to the Warner Bros. Records best-of album to be released next month.

Hagar says if time had permitted, they would have recorded a new studio album. However, when pressed about whether the group might go back into the studio after the tour, Hagar says: "One thing at a time. I think it can last, and I hope it can ... (With) four personalities, anything can happen."

Courtesy of Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

For a reunited Van Halen, there's no turning back

Now Van Halen is back to finish what it started. Friday, singer Sammy Hagar, guitarist Eddie Van Halen, drummer Alex Van Halen and bassist Michael Anthony will reunite onstage in Greensboro, N.C., first stop on a blockbuster summer tour.

"It's shaping up as one of the top tours of the year," says Ray Waddell of Billboard. "Tickets blew out very quickly. The band had very hard-core fans at their peak, and there's a real thirst to hear those songs again. Plus, there's a strong curiosity factor about Eddie."

Two years ago, fans were losing faith. The band remained idle after firing Gary Cherone, the voice on 1998's poorly received Van Halen III. Eddie was in isolation battling tongue cancer. Hagar and original frontman David Lee Roth, both on the outs with Van Halen and barely civil to each other, launched the gimmicky Sam & Dave tour. A reunion seemed unthinkable.

Then, in mid-2002, Eddie announced he was cancer-free after two years of treatment. Last winter, Hagar initiated casual chats with Alex and Anthony.

"We didn't plan this," Hagar says. "I called Al about a dream I had, strictly personal. It had been seven years, and we just started laughing. He said, 'Let's get Ed on the phone.' Then I'm talking to Ed, who says, 'Come on over; I've got some music I want you to hear.' Next thing I know, we're in the studio."

Alex adds, "It's like an old shoe. It fit. It's what we were born to do."

Spanning three decades, the set list boast three new songs and hits predating Hagar, who no longer balks at taking on Roth's role.

"In the old days, I had a bug up my butt about doing their early hits," Hagar says. "I was more interested in doing what we'd just written. This time, I was the first one to say, 'Let's open with Jump.' It's one of the most important songs in the band's career, and I love singing it now.

"It's a humbling experience the second time around, and I have a new appreciation for the band's history. There's not a better catalog on the planet."

Courtesy of USAToday.com

Learning to See Lyrics
Time after time we walk past a window
And never see the ashes on the ground

( awesome chime from eddie)

Night after night
Watchin the sky move
and never feel the Earth spin around

I didn't see you fallin
I couldn't hear you callin
All with eyes wide open
Never Learned to see

I Never meant to Hurt you
Was right there cryin with you
Why do we harm the only thing we wanna be

Tryin to follow every footstep and feel so lost along the way
Reading the Scripture straight from the Gospel
Never understanding what they say

YEAH

I didn't see you fallin
I never heard you callin
I got my eyes wide open
but haven't Learned to see

I Never meant to Hurt you
Was right there cryin with you
Why do we harm the only thing we wanna be
and I just gotta be ... me
I just gotta be ... me

YEAH....................

I didn't see you fallin
I never heard you callin
got my eyes wide open
but Never Learned to see

YEAH

I Never meant to Hurt you
Was right there cryin with you
we only cage the thing that we wanna free
I just wanna be ... me
I just gotta gotta be ....
i just wanna be ..

yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
(scratch)

Courtesy of TXTWANG77@aol.com

Radio presales for Green Bay this week
Watch for WAPL and WOZZ to do some radio presales for Green Bay this week.
Tune in Thursday and Friday...

Van Halen prepares to kick off tour in Greensboro
By Mike Kernels, Staff Writer
News & Record

GREENSBORO -- The first of 12 tractor-trailers rumbled to a halt outside the Greensboro Coliseum around midnight Saturday.

Van Halen — (from left) drummer Alex Van Halen, bassist Michael Anthony, singer Sammy Hagar and guitarist Eddie Van Halen — will kick off its national tour Friday at the Greensboro Coliseum. (Courtesy photo).

Six hours later, it opened its doors to reveal black and silver containers. Lots of them, stacked high and tight. Each one handled as if it were a newborn. And on each, written in magic marker, a household name: Van Halen.

After nine years away from the stage, the band reunites in Greensboro on Friday for a 47-date tour.

In a nationwide conference call with reporters last week, vocalist Sammy Hagar, the band's on-again, off-again and now on-again frontman, promised: "The set list will kill you."

But before that show can begin, another one began to unfold Sunday.

The crates came off the trucks and the crew began the massive chore of setting up lights, sound and sets so the band can start rehearsing today or tomorrow.

Greensboro has seen its share of great acts come through, but seldom do they start here. The last time one did was AC/DC in 1996. Before that, it was The Cars in the late 1980s.

This tour was originally scheduled to begin in Richmond, Va. -- only multiple days couldn't be secured there for rehearsal. So band organizers looked for another point on the map that was within a day's drive of the tour's second stop, Hershey, Pa.

They chose Greensboro, a city where they've always been warmly received.

"It's always been a great market for us," Alex Van Halen said during last week's teleconference. "We'll go to Greensboro and hang out for a week and get to a know a few -- and make a few new friends."

Putting together their show is a massive undertaking. It takes five tour buses, 12 53-foot tractor-trailers, 3,000 amps of electricity and 92,000 pounds of equipment. When it's all assembled, three large video screens will surround a simple stage of two simple letters -- V and H -- that you can see from at least a half block away.

Right now, an electrician is checking outlets. Carpenters are swinging hammers. Riggers are working in the rafters.

On the arena floor -- an area off-limits to the uninitiated because of the potential for falling objects -- chains used to hoist lights hang like strands of metal spaghetti.

Exit right and you're backstage.

Ahead is a control panel straight out of "Star Trek," a series of monitors displaying scantily clad women and stickers that say "Vote For Joe Walsh."

Step over the bundles of cable on the floor, nod to the security guard and pause before the door with a sign that reads: "Restricted Area: Do Not Enter."

Enter anyway.

Go down the hall. Behind Door No. 1 will be the dressing room for the Van Halen brothers, guitar god Eddie and drummer deity Alex. Behind Door No. 2: Hagar and bassist Michael Anthony.

By contrast, the promoter whose Bishopville, S.C.-based company Van Halen tapped to set things up gets no star treatment.

He has a makeshift office in the coliseum -- but he's never there. And good luck finding him, too.

You're looking for a 40-year-old man with a key hanging from his neck, a walkie-talkie attached to his hip and an empty Krispy Kreme coffee cup in his hand.

His name is Allen Corbett and everyone has seen him, like, just a minute ago.

One roadie points you to another roadie who, in turn, points to someone else.

"I don't know," he says with a shrug. "I'm just a runner."

Two roadies later, you have your man. Now, you just have to keep up.

Corbett weaves his way through a maze of equipment and a barrage of black-shirted workers on the arena floor down a hall to, ultimately, the kitchen. He stops, looks around and is off again.

"I'm just walking around making sure everybody is in their zone," he said. "Right now, everybody's good."

Corbett's another story.

He did a Harry Connick Jr. show in Charleston, S.C., the night before, then came here right after to make sure the arena would be ready when the band arrived.

"I got in here this morning at 3:30," he said with a yawn. "I came here and laid straight on the couch. I'll get me a shower in about another 15 minutes and I'll be good to go.

"I'm going to go check e-mail -- just don't go out on the floor."

Noted.

By 6:34 p.m., it's the end of the day for the crew -- and the beginnings of a major show.

The stage is almost assembled, complete with drum kit. A worker is sweeping the floor while above him a test pattern plays on one of three video screens.

You want to get a better look when you hear a voice caution you -- it's Corbett.

He's pushing a cart with a box full of towels past you and, without breaking stride, says, "Just don't go out on the floor."

Courtesy of News & Record

93.3 The Bone: HEY VAN HALEN FANS!
HEY VAN HALEN FANS!!

In my never ending quest to bring you the best Bone music FIRST, I've got my hands on the next TWO new songs from Van Halen's upcoming Best Of CD. The songs are called "Up For Breakfast" and "Learning To See". And even though I'll probably get in trouble... I'm GONNA PLAY THEM FOR YOU TODAY AT 5pm CST!!! So, round up all your Van Halen buddies and forward this email to all your friends.

--TODAY at 5pm 93.3 The Bone ROCKS HARDER with brand new Van Halen!

For up-to-the-minute Van Halen news and to see what the stage will look like for the upcoming tour click here
http://unitymail.lrmproject.com/UM/T.asp?A8.8.124.1.589656

http://www.933thebone.com/
http://www.933thebone.com/vanhalen.htm

Eddie Van Halen: "Sammy and I got together [late last year] and it was like we hadn't missed a beat. We picked up right where we left off. The moment we hit the studio and started making music--which, for us, is ... where it [all] began--that kind of solidified it. That was it. Making music is the center of this band--that, and the friendship. So it was a no-brainer."

Sammy Hagar: "Ed and Al probably had 10 other songs that we could have worked on, and if there'd have been time, we'd have loved to have done a whole record. But the idea of, 'Do you wanna go out on tour this year or next year?' was like, 'Let's go now! Let's go now!'"

Steve Lukather: "Yes I DID do some BG's on the new Van Halen stuff. Ed and Al are brothers from the 70's and I love those cats alot! The new stuff is REALLY cool and sure to make VH fans rabid for more. It was cool they asked me. I think I am a good luck charm for them. Every VH record I have sung on entered the charts at #1! Too bad it doesn't work for me, hahaha."

1 Eruption (Van Halen)
2 Ain't talkin' 'bout love (Van Halen)
3 When it's love (Van Halen)
4 Finish what ya started (Van Halen)
5 You really got me (Van Halen)
6 Feels so good (Van Halen)
7 Jamie's cryin' (Van Halen)
8 Black and blue (Van Halen)
9 Runnin' with the devil (Van Halen)
10 Poundcake (Van Halen)
11 Beautiful girls (Van Halen)
12 Runaround (Van Halen)
13 Dance the night away (Van Halen)
14 Right now (Van Halen)
15 And the cradle will rock… (Van Halen)
16 Top of the world (Van Halen)
17 Everybody wants some!! (Van Halen)
18 Can't stop lovin' you (Van Halen)
19 Unchained (Van Halen)
20 Not enough (Van Halen)
21 Dancing in the street (Van Halen)
22 It's about time (Van Halen, 2004)
23 Learning to see (Van Halen, 2004)
24 Up for breakfast (Van Halen, 2004)
25 (Oh) Pretty woman (Van Halen)
26 Hot for teacher (Van Halen)
27 Jump (Van Halen)
28 Panama (Van Halen)
29 I'll wait (Van Halen)
30 Why can't this be love (Van Halen)
31 Dreams (Van Halen)
32 Best of both worlds (Van Halen)
33 Love walks in (Van Halen)
34 Ain't talkin' 'bout love (Van Halen, live)
35 Jump (Van Halen, live)
36 Panama (Van Halen, live)

Musicians:
Sammy Hagar - vocals
Eddie Van Halen - guitar, keyboards, vocals
Alex Van Halen - percussion, drums, vocals
Michael Anthony - bass, vocals
Steve Lukather - background vocals

Courtesy of SteveLukather.net

Setting aside well-publicized differences, Van Halen reunites
The joy in Sammy Hagar's voice is palpable, the sort that can o­nly be summoned when a love relationship gone awry has somehow stumbled upon reconciliation, while wandering deep in the desert of things left unsaid. It's the sound of a man well aware of how lucky he is.

"Last time, wrong time/Outside, out of line/But this time's our time/Right o­n, we'll let it shine!"

The tune is o­ne of three brand new o­nes recorded for "The Best Of Both Worlds," a new Van Halen greatest hits retrospective to be released this month, just in time to coincide with the band's reunion tour, which hits HSBC Arena o­n June 14.

Hagar verily bubbles above the cacophonous din of Edward Van Halen's idiosyncratic fret-board genius and the thunderous-yet-lithe rhythm section of Alex Van Halen and Michael Anthony, as the propulsive "It's About Time" explodes out of the car radio's speakers; yup, Van Halen Mk II is back after nearly a decade apart.

There is some unfinished business to attend to.

"There is no other way to describe it than to say that this was the right time for it to happen, and so it happened," says Alex Van Halen, the Dutch immigrant who, with his prodigiously talented younger sibling Edward Van Halen, formed Van Halen from the ashes of the aptly named Mammoth, a decade after the Van Halen family immigrated to California in 1962.

Alex is referring to the reunion of the band's core - the Van Halen brothers, and bassist Anthony - with its second lead vocalist, the former Montrose frontman and erstwhile solo artist Hagar, who joined the band in 1985, following the acrimonious departure of original vocalist/motormouth David Lee Roth.

Van Halen's "true voice'

Few felt that Roth - a dynamic performer, an acrobatic singer o­ne part Ian Gillan and two parts Al Jolson, the throat behind now-classic VH platters like the eponymous debut, "Fair Warning" the mega-platinum "1984," and the megaphone for the most hilarious o­ne-liners in rock history - could ever be replaced. But Hagar made it clear immediately, upon the release of the 1986 tour de force "5150," that he was, as Edward was fond of saying at the time, "the true voice of Van Halen."

Fans, despite some naysaying among loyalists, agreed. "5150," like all of the albums Hagar would record with Van Halen over the next 11 years, went multiplatinum, yielding hit singles and sold-out world tours. Even as grunge was sounding the death knell for '70s-era arena rock, Van Halen was still o­ne of the biggest bands in the world. And then, seemingly out of the blue, Hagar quit.

"What are ya' gonna do?," Hagar laughs, speaking by phone in a conference call with Alex last week, during a break from rehearsals for the first Van Halen Mk II tour in a decade. "We lived o­n top of each other for all that time; there are bound to be things that come up. It's all ancient history now, but at the time, it seemed like a bigger deal than it was."

"This may sound overly simple, but I can't help it; when you're a musician, the music comes first, and all the other b
- second," interjects Alex Van Halen, as he is prone to do from time to time; in conversation, the two play off of each other like a seasoned comedy team, finishing each other's sentences, lending an assist when things start getting weird, poking fun mercilessly not o­nly at each other, but also at the entire interview process itself. They are in this sense representative of all that rock o­nce was - fun, irreverent, intelligent, humorous.

Alex Van Halen is, of course, skirting the issue of the whole sordid break-up of the Hagar-fronted VH, with all its attendant bickering in the press, and the relative failure of its post-Hagar pairing with former Extreme vocalist Gary Cherone, which yielded the uneven "Van Halen III" and a soggy world tour.

Is it all water under the bridge, then? o­ne has trouble doubting his sincerity, as he claims that the band's reforming was as simple as a random phone call from Hagar, an ensuing enthused "hang," and later, a visit from Hagar to the recording studio located inside Edward Van Halen's house, where the brothers have been working o­n new material - "pretty much every day," according to Alex - since splitting with Cherone in 1999.

"Sammy called me, and it was pretty much like nothing had ever happened," says the drummer. "We got together, and it was just like old times - we have a very similar sense of humor, and we just fell right back into our old dynamic. There was no thought involved. We hung out as friends. It was entirely natural."

Hagar concurs. "It was as easy as breathing, really. I went with Al to visit Edward, and they played me some of the stuff they were working o­n. I had no intention of singing when I went there, but by the end of the day, we had a bunch of material nailed into pretty good rough shape. I was making up lyrics o­n the spot, just totally getting into it. It happened, without us planning it."

Hit the ground running

According to Hagar, there is more than enough material for a full-length Van Halen studio album in various stages of completion. That said, no o­ne is looking too far into the future.

"We're going o­n tour, and then, who knows?" says Alex Van Halen. "We're not being overly analytical here. It's an organic thing, and we'll know what to do when the time comes."

The two babble enthusiastically, like teenagers in their first band, when they look ahead to the tour, which kicks off Friday in Greensboro, N.C., and runs through at least early fall.

It's clear these guys can't wait to get out there, to experience what Alex calls "the truly unique relationship between band and audience that we've always had."

"At our shows, it's about creating that moment in time, and the audience is as much a part of that as we are."

Note: Source from Buffalo News

The Van Halen Tour Stage shaped like the VH swirl logo!
It looks as if the stage setup for the upcoming tour will be quite different from any stage that Van Halen has ever used. The stage will consist of a modified Van Halen swirl logo with the band performing on the "VH" with what looks like a catwalk as the swirl encompasing either stage seats or the lucky 76 5-Star package holders per concert. The swirl and the point of the "VH" extend beyond the front edge of the stage. Mandalay Bay has revealed this design in their seating chart for the Van Halen concerts only. Below is that seating chart for your viewing.

This is all speculation of course, but it looks probable. If the 5-Star package owners are guaranteed a seat in the first ten rows, it doesn't necessarily mean they will be the first ten rows of the regular floor sections. They could be located in a special section within the logo either on the stage or on the floor. I will report the details as they come to light, so stay tuned!
Courtesy of EVH-Domain.com

NOTE: These seats are NOT part of the 5-star & 4-star packages.

“Van Halen – 2004 Tour Special and World Premiere” on the Westwood One Network will air on more than 120 stations nationwide in top US markets.

The stage is in the design of a giant VH logo and a pair of lucky fans will get to sit inside the rings of the stage for selected shows throughout the tour. That's right, you'll be right in the stage with the band all around you! If you could get any closer, you'd be in the band!

The first contest kicks off with a pair of stage tickets in Greensboro, NC. ENTER THE CONTEST

In addition, a very limited amount of Golden Ring tickets are being auctioned off with a portion of the proceeds being donated to charity.

Golden Ring Auctions for Philadelphia, Worcester, East Rutherford, Washington D.C., Albany, Hartford, Cleveland, Louisville, Columbus, Grand Rapids, Detroit, Auburn Hills, Chicago, St. Paul, Kansas City, St. Louis, Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Jose, Sacramento, Fresno, Anaheim, Los Angeles, Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa, Jacksonville, Dallas, San Antonio, Green Bay, Biloxi, Atlanta, Cincinnati and Toronto will be available Soon!

Golden Ring Auctions for Greensboro, Oakland and Oklahoma City will be available HERE

Sammy Hagar has a New Tatoo!
Some rockers are so inked it looks like their tats are all that holds them together, but Sam has always been a bit more sparing with the indellible epidermal arts. Bogus Otis has graced his right arm since the 70's and we saw it touched up in the video for Amsterdam, but the Red Rocker now bears something a great deal more complex on his left arm.

Who said there wouldn't be any Cabo Wabo Tequila promotion on the new VH tour?


Courtesy of VHND.com

Small production company based out of Washington, DC throws its hat in the independent film arena. Loosely based on real life events, Meetings is a hilarious short film about the drudgery of 9 to 5 office life and meetings in particular. Meetings is funny and relatable with an unanticipated twist.

The Blue Wave has assembled a multi - talented cast and crew resulting in a laugh out loud film.

Meetings has already captured celebrity attention including musician Sammy Hagar who has authorized product placement of his tequila, Cabo Wabo, for use in the film. He has also donated rights to his popular song “Make it All Right”. Meetings has also created an alliance with the fourth largest rock station in the Country, Clear Channel’s DC101.

Although, we would not recommend going to your office drunk, this cast might. With the notion that they have “nothing to lose,” four best friends who hate their jobs decide to make it through the day at all costs. They alter fate by drinking heavily the morning of their monotonous weekly meetings. This non-conventional coping mechanism….is sure to elicit lots of laughs! In the end they all develop what you might call, let’s say, a new - found appreciation for meetings.

Courtesy of Meetings

"This is it, this is the beginning," Van Halen bass player MICHAEL ANTHONY tells ET. "It's been nine years since the last time us four appeared together on stage and in front of an audience!"

The other three bandmates joining him on the 80-city tour, beginning in Greensboro, N.C., on June 11 and finishing in Lubbock, TX, on September 29, are brothers EDDIE and ALEX VAN HALEN and singer SAMMY HAGAR. The band is also releasing its two-disc set The Best of Both Worlds on July 20th.

Courtesy of ETonline.com

"We just felt like, 'Wow. The time is right,'" Hagar added. "If we'd have tried it maybe two years ago, it could've blown up, or maybe two years from now, it might be too late. Who knows? It just feels right."

In the months following Hagar's 1996 departure, both parties fired bitter parting shots at each other in the press, but all of that has been forgotten, according to Hagar.

"The whole point of being older is time going by, water going under the bridge, whatever it is, you kind of forget what happened, or why you were mad to begin with, or what you said," said Hagar. "All that stuff goes out the window. ... We decided that, rather than go to therapy like some of these other bands and dig through the dirt, we said, 'No, no, here's what we're gonna do: we're gonna pretend like it never happened. We're gonna, like, rise above it.' It's really what we did. I think we elevated, and it hasn't even come up."

Hagar recalled his return to Van Halen's recording studio, 5150, which is located on guitarist Eddie Van Halen's Southern California estate. The singer said the visit was planned as nothing more than a social encounter, but that a jam session quickly ensued.

"We jammed probably for five or six hours, 'til my voice was completely worn out," he said. "The chemistry between the four of us is very, very special. Even as long as we did it, you start taking it for granted--you forget about it--and then you come back and you walk in and you go, 'Oh, wow! This is exactly like it always was.' And that's a great, great thing to still have it sitting there waiting for you, and not have to look for it and not have to reinvent it."

Hagar, the Van Halen brothers and bassist Michael Anthony launch a summer tour in Greensboro, NC, on June 11, and will issue a two-disc hits compilation---originally billed as "The Very Best of Van Halen," but since renamed "The Best of Both Worlds"--on July 20. The new title--which is also that of a song housed on 1986's "5150," the group's first album with Hagar--is a reference to the compilation's inclusion of material that the band recorded during Hagar's tenure, as well as material from its days with original frontman David Lee Roth.

Ironically, it was Hagar's opposition to releasing a best-of set in 1996 that contributed to his departure from the group. The singer said that the circumstances are much different this time, however.

"I'm not down on doing a greatest-hits record at all this time," said Hagar. "Last time I was ... I didn't wanna do it at that time in my life, for whatever reasons. But, at this time in my life, it's the only way we could've gotten this tour out this year, and I think the fans need it, and we need it. We want it. It just has to happen."

The band recorded three new songs with Hagar for the best-of set, one of which--titled "It's About Time"--hit radio stations on Wednesday (5/26).

"Ed and Al probably had 10 other songs that we could have worked on, and if there'd have been time, we'd have loved to have done a whole record," Hagar said. "But the idea of, 'Do you wanna go out on tour this year or next year?' was like, 'Let's go now! Let's go now!'"

Hagar said the group had been working on a fourth song, but had to abandon the idea of including it on the hits package in order to focus on tour plans.

Alex Van Halen said that the band was not concerned about fans downloading the three new songs from the Internet rather than purchasing the complete hits compilation.

"No concern at all," he said. "The music is there, and if people figure out a way to get it, more power to 'em. I think the ultimate goal of music is that, once you've made it, as many people as possible hear it. That's basically our feeling about it."

Courtesy of LiveDaily.com

Sammy Hagar says the magic's back with Van Halen

Humble, happy and itching to get o­n the road.

Fontana native son and all-around good-time guy Sammy Hagar says he's back where he belongs:

On tour with Van Halen.

In a teleconference with drummer Alex Van Halen, Hagar said the band's much-anticipated reunion and a 42-city tour that begins June 11 brings his tumultuous turn with Van Halen full circle.

It's been six years since Van Halen released a new song and almost a decade since Hagar left the band after 11 years as a replacement for original singer David Lee Roth. The split was less than amicable, caused in part by Hagar's refusal to take part in a greatest hits package.

A phone conversation and meeting with Alex Van Halen sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas changed all that.

"I've been saying this for 100 years: 'I've got to call Alex' - and I finally did," Hagar said.

Alex met with Hagar and called his brother, guitar legend Eddie Van Halen.

"I said I had lunch and I had dinner and whatever you eat after dinner," Alex recalled, "and I said, 'Let's make a record. Let's make some music.' There comes a point in time you've just got to drop it and forget it."

This time around, Hagar fully supports a two-CD greatest hits package due out July 20. "Best of Both Worlds" includes three new songs.

Once in the studio, Hagar said he knew the magic was back. "It was there, boom, pure spontaneous creativity," he said.

Hagar said the bandmates quickly realized they needed to get back o­n the road and began work o­n a tour that brings Van Halen to the Arrowhead Pond Aug. 16, San Diego's Coors Amphitheater Aug. 17 and the Staples
Center Aug. 19 and 20.

"It all happened so fast and freaky," he said. "It snowballed, and we're still running and full speed trying to catch up."

Alex called it "less of a reunion than it is a continuation." Hagar agreed.

"I think the fans need it and we need it and it has to happen," Hagar said. "It's a great, joyful thing."

Van Halen Revitalized For Summer Tour
Van Halen is hitting the road this summer for the first time in eight years, and drummer Alex Van Halen and vocalist Sammy Hagar promise it will be well worth the wait. "This set we're playing right now is better than any set we ever played before," Hagar said during a teleconference today (May 27). "I used to be a little sensitive to the old material, but I'm not now. We have a whole different outlook o­n everything. Let's make this the greatest songs the Van Halen fans have ever heard. The set list will kill you!"

Although neither artist would reveal specifics, the show will find Hagar singing many more songs from Van Halen's David Lee Roth era than he did during his first stint in the band. "I'm really digging 'Jump' right now," he said. "In the old days I never got off o­n singing that song. I would pull a guy out of the audience to sing it. Now, I want to sing this song better than it has ever been sung. I'm tearing it up!" He also insisted "there's a couple of surprises in [the set], o­ne in particular that is completely oddball."

The group will issue its first new material since 1998's "Van Halen III" o­n the upcoming "Best of Both Worlds" retrospective, due July 20 via Warner Bros. Hagar boasted that "there were 10 other songs we could have worked o­n. If there'd been time, we'd love to have done a whole record."

"[Alex and guitarist Eddie Van Halen had been] jamming in the studio for years putting ideas down," he continued. "I'd say, 'that song's great, let's work o­n that.' But then they'd say, 'listen to this.' It was never-ending. There's so much material that needs to be finished for sure. It became a heavy workload o­n me as soon as we started getting into it. We had to kind of pick and choose. I took about two hours of stuff home with me and used to work out to it every day. That's really how it got defined."

Both artists said any ill will they may have harbored following Hagar's rancorous 1996 exit from Van Halen is now water under the bridge, but Hagar admitted that before last fall, he hadn't even spoken to Eddie Van Halen in at least six-and-a-half years. "Not even o­ne conversation," he said. "The first o­ne, I was a little nervous. It was kind of like a little uncomfortable. It actually got heavy fast."

"[But] when you see a person you truly have a deep relationship with, all the sudden you realize after time that, hey, forget it. We decided rather than go to therapy, no, no, we're going to pretend like it never happened. We're going to rise above it."

The tour will be documented for potential release o­n DVD or a live album. "We're very particular about how our music is presented," Van Halen said. "When we do it, we do want control over it. But these days with all the different technologies, we might just join the bandwagon and do our own bootlegs." Either way, Hagar stressed the impact of experiencing the show first hand: "the o­nly way you're gonna get fulfilled is to sit right there in that front row and just get your face bashed in."