Official thread for discussing the unconfirmed bulllshit Clear Channel tour rumors

[firestarter]

there is no clear channel conspiracy theory case closed...get real!!

[Daniel9]

Just saw this..sorry if its already been posted!

Melodicrock.com issued a Van Halen update in response to the rumors yesterday, saying in part:

"I am told that this postponement should be just that - a temporary situation that can be sorted so that the dates that had been arranged can be re-booked and announced down the track somewhat. The band is unlikely to comment beyond the fact the tour will (at this stage) start later than originally planned. The line-up for this tour remains Eddie, Wolfgang & Alex Van Halen and frontman David Lee Roth."

Also, the VHND's own sources are telling us not to worry and that the tour is indeed going to happen. We know that the date that the tickets were to go on sale has been pushed back from late February to sometime in March. We are hoping that the main reason for this delay is to coincide the official announcement of tour dates with Van Halen's March 12th induction to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

Another rumor we want to address - we are surprised to see that some websites are saying that Van Halen is currently being managed by Eddie's girlfriend (Janie Liszewski/High Profile Media). While it is true that Eddie's girlfriend is the band's publicist, the band's manager for the last three years is Irving Azoff.

[Irving Azoff]

I'm thier manager?

[diamondsgirl]

I think we found the problem.

[binnie]

So, in reality, we still don't know what the fuck is going on?

[Vinnie Velvet]

Latest from melodicrock: (not much here is new -- but at least I didn't put it in a new thread! ).

Van Halen news. I don't expect any further news or information until closer to the Hall Of Fame event March 12.
I will re-state the facts as they stand though.

There are outlets reporting the tour is off for good, while an "insider" or two are stating that it is still on. The truth lies somewhere between. As posted here yesterday, the tour as it was set to go, is off for now and promoter Live Nation have confirmed this. However, there is extreme confidence that the tour will still go ahead during 2007.

There is also speculation that a push to have Michael Anthony return to the line-up is behind the new problem. That might be a point of contention (I'm sure everyone would love to see Mike return), however it is not the issue behind the current headlines. The line-up remains the one publicized in recent weeks.

[diamondsgirl]

This is so fucked up.

[PlexiBrown]

It will be tough enough for Ed to make it through a tour. Taking Wolfgang out of the mix now and inserting Mike will give it no chance at all because Ed will resort to his 2004 tour behavior and he will be bitter beyond belief. Mike deserves to be there but there is no way it will work at this point with him in the band.

[Vinnie Velvet]

Originally posted by PlexiBrown
It will be tough enough for Ed to make it through a tour. Taking Wolfgang out of the mix now and inserting Mike will give it no chance at all because Ed will resort to his 2004 tour behavior and he will be bitter beyond belief. Mike deserves to be there but there is no way it will work at this point with him in the band.

Exactly,

Which is why Mike isn't the issue at hand.

What it is, who knows.

[diamondsgirl]

Maybe Ed seriously is in rehab. Maybe Dave or Val put their foot down.

[hideyoursheep]

Originally posted by PlexiBrown
It will be tough enough for Ed to make it through a tour. Taking Wolfgang out of the mix now and inserting Mike will give it no chance at all because Ed will resort to his 2004 tour behavior and he will be bitter beyond belief. Mike deserves to be there but there is no way it will work at this point with him in the band.

Being pissed at mike was only an excuse to get Prodigy into dad's band.How could he think Mike quit to play with Sammy? Is he really a threat to undermine VH? All he has to do is pick up the phone and Mike's back.Ed wants this probably more than Wolfie does.
If he were pissed at Mike for jamming with Sam, he should still be pissed at Dave over the Sam and Dave tour.

Cause he's an addict and cannot release a grudge.

Or he's retarded.

[hideyoursheep]

Originally posted by diamondsgirl
Maybe Ed seriously is in rehab....

If that's true, then getting him on a tour as soon as he checks out will be catastrophic.

[svrwthr]

Van Halen's road plans have taken a rocky turn

February 22nd, 2007

From: http://www.latimes.com/

By Geoff Boucher, Times Staff Writer
February 23, 2007

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[LoungeMachine]

*** NOTE TO FORD ***

I think it's time to change the "unconfirmed" part of the thread title, now that DAVE doesn't even know if spED will make the HOF, let alone tour....