EVH SOLO IN PHILADELPHIA OCTOBER 1, 2007
IT'S BEEN A LONG 12 YEARS FOR US VAN HALEN FANS SINCE THE LAST VAN HALEN ALBUM CAME OUT (9 YEARS IF YOU COUNT THE VH3 ALBUM). HOPEFULLY ITS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME TIL WE GET SOME NEW MATERIAL.
I'M JUST YOUR AVERAGE RABID VAN HALEN FAN WHO JUST THREW THIS SITE TOGETHER FOR ALL OF US VH FANS.
I'VE BEEN A FAN SINCE VIRTUALLY THE BEGINNNING.
IN 1978 I WAS AT SEASIDE HEIGHTS, NJ WITH MY FRIEND BILL PLAYING THE WHEELS ON THE BOARDWALK. I WON MY CHOICE OF ALBUM AND MY BUDDY RECOMMENDED THIS NEW BAND CALLED VAN HALEN BECAUSE HIS OLDER BROTHER HAD HEARD THEM AND SAID THEY WERE PRETTY GOOD. SO I PICKED VAN HALEN I (ON 8-TRACK OF COURSE). YOU OLDER FOLKS MIGHT REMEMBER THOSE PORTABLE 8-TRACK PLAYERS THAT CAME IN DIFFERENT COLORS (MINE WAS BLUE)
I WAS INSTANTLY HOOKED AND THE REST IS HISTORY. I'D LIKE TO READ YOUR STORY ABOUT YOUR "FIRST TIME", JUST SEND A COMMENT.
CHEERS
Alex Van Halen on drums with I believe to be Jan Van Halen (Alex and Eddie's father) on sax.
..Eddie and Alex Van Halen were raised in Pasadena, the children of Dutch immigrants who immigrated to California in 1967. The Van Halen brothers grew up taking classical piano lessons, switching to guitar (Eddie) and drums (Alex) as teenagers. In 1974, they hooked up with David Lee Roth (vocals) and Michael Anthony (bass), while gigging around town in their band Mammoth. Within a few years, they had become one of the most popular draws on the Los Angeles scene. Fans packed L.A.'s smoky rock clubs to check out Eddie's unconventional guitar riffs and Roth's over-the-top showmanship.
The band got a break in 1976 when Kiss bassist Gene Simmons noticed them at a local club and financed a recording session for the band. On the strength of Simmons' recommendation, as legend has it, Van Halen was signed to Warner Bros.
Their debut album, Van Halen, was released in 1978 and included the hit singles "Runnin' With the Devil" and a cover of the Kinks' "You Really Got Me." Eddie Van Halen took electric guitar technique to new heights with his patented two-handed tapping and pull-off effects, while Roth's tongue-in-cheek histrionics proved to be a refreshing alternative in an industry chock full of self-important rock stars.
Within six months of its release, Van Halen was certified platinum. The album not only launched Van Halen's career, but it came to influence countless American rock bands during the next decade.
During the next few years, Van Halen became one of the hardest working and most profitable bands in the recording industry, releasing a string of multi-platinum albums in quick succession; 1979's Van Halen II, 1980's Women and Children First, 1981's Fair Warning and 1982's Diver Down.
But it was the album 1984, released on New Year's Day of that year, that solidified the band's superstar status. The album contained the mega-hits "Jump," "Panama" and "Hot For Teacher," with their accompanying raucous videos that received seemingly non-stop airplay on MTV.
All was not well within the band, however. Rising tensions between Roth and the other band members were increasingly evident; on their 1984 world tour the band didn't even play on the same stage, but rather performed on four separate platforms, symbolic of the escalating rift among its members. Finally, in 1985, after taking time off to record a successful solo album (and delaying work on the follow-up to 1984) Roth parted ways with Van Halen.
..Van Halen's period with Sammy Hagar was marked by two somewhat opposing trends: expansion of the band's commercial success and acceptance by a wider audience while at the same time experiencing a growing sense of fan resentment regarding the departure of Roth. Hagar's musical sensibility enabled Van Halen to become accessible to a wider audience, with lyrics that were more introspective and dreamy. This was coupled with expanded instrumentation by Eddie, which demonstrated tighter thematic elements and more advanced blending of sonic textures within each song. The result was a more mature, integrated sound, markedly different from the hard charging, rollicking riffs of the group's earlier work. Die-hard "old Van Halen" fans referred derisively to the new "Van-Hagar" sound as "soft" or "fluffy" compared with the raucous, hard rock Roth-era--an attitude which Roth once described as "a mixture of religion and hockey".
During Hagar's tenure, the band established a musical formula that proved commercially successful in the United States. All four studio albums produced during this period reached the #1 on the Billboard pop music charts. Also during this time, 17 singles breached the top 12 of the mainstream rock tracks chart. In addition, Van Halen was nominated for two Grammy Awards, winning the 1991 Best Hard Rock Performance with Vocal award for the album For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. Van Halen continued to enjoy tremendous popular success throughout the mid-90's, while many of their hair metal contemporaries, (such as Guns n' Roses and Poison,) fell from favor, overtaken by anti-corporate, "Grunge Music"
The second incarnation of Van Halen also saw broadened use of the Van Halen brand, as they expanded their reach into other media, with high-production films, live concert footage, and even their own cantina in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. If David Lee Roth's innovative, over-the-top style turned Van Halen from a member of the hard rock pack to it's leader; Hagar's more conservative 'working man' persona turned Van Halen into a franchise and an icon.
The hit single and award-winning video Right Now was used to promote the ill-fated soft-drink Crystal Pepsi. The band's Roth-era remake of The Kinks You Really Got Me was used in a Nissan commercial.
During the recording of their contribution to the film Twister, escalating tension between Hagar and the Van Halen brothers boiled over publicly as Hagar departed on Father's Day, 1996. Hagar claimed that he was fired; Eddie Van Halen claimed that Hagar quit. The final Hagar single, Humans Being, and the instumental Respect the Wind can be found on the Twister soundtrack, with the latter credited to Eddie and Alex Van Halen.
..Soon after Hagar's departure, David Lee Roth entered the studio with the Van Halen brothers, Michael Anthony, and producer Glen Ballard. Two songs from those sessions were added to the band's Greatest Hits album, (with the Roth single Me Wise Magic reaching #1 on the mainstream rock chart; the album The Best of Van Halen, Vol. 1 peaked at #1 on the pop charts). On September 4, 1996, the four original members of Van Halen made their first public appearance together in over eleven years, presenting an award at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards. This appearance was greeted with a standing ovation, and fueled hopeful speculation for a reunion tour. However, backstage, old wounds re-opened, and the relationship between Eddie Van Halen and David Lee Roth soured again. Several weeks later, Roth released a media statement, and became the ex-ex-Lead singer of Van Halen.
..In need of a lead singer to continue their work, Van Halen recruited Gary Cherone, the frontman of the defunct Boston-based band Extreme. The result of their collaboration was the experimental Van Halen 3, which alienated entrenched Van Halen fans and did not attract a new audience. Sales were lackluster compared to previous albums. The VH3 album peaked at #4 on the charts, (it was Gold certified,) and produced a #1 Mainstream Rock Track hit, Without You. However, no tracks from the album ever appeared on the pop music charts, confirming the limited popular appeal of the new sound. In 1999, Cherone split amicably with Van Halen after the VH3 tour. In 2002, Warner Bros. dropped Van Halen (still without a lead singer) from the label, after having released all of their albums since 1978.
..In March 2004, Van Halen and Sammy Hagar announced that Hagar would reunite with the band for an album release and a summer concert tour. In June, Warner Bros. released a second Greatest Hits compilation, featuring a new Hagar track called titled It's About Time.In July 2004, Van Halen released its second greatest hits collection, Best of Both Worlds. The album featured three new tracks recorded with Sammy Hagar.
THE 2007 EDITION OF VAN HALEN
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