ICM Partners deal - a sign that something is happening?

[thepunisher]

Hell if I know. Is he leaving VH or does this mean some new VH news on the way.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/david-lee-roth-signs-icm-partners-1042057

[ZahZoo]

One would only need a talent agency if... 1. they got talent... 2. they want to work... and 3. somebody wants to hire their talent. Maybe Dave's got more private party gigs lined for his Leisure Suit Gigalo Extravaganza!!

Dave was with Azoff along with Van Halen... He may still be within that business arrangement. I use the word business loosely... Somebody has to be doing something in order to claim business exists. I assume answering the phone and telling all prospects that the band isn't available at this time constitutes "business"... as in "Ain't nobody's..."

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Yeah, I would concur with the "Hell if I know", that's for sure.....

That said, if we assume for a second that the 40th anniversary stuff will come to fruition, and further assume that it would start in, say, February-March like it did for the ADKOT tour, then something like this would fit.... I know, I'm reaching....

We all know by now that Van Halen goes against all logic when it comes to advertising.... Yes, they did do some prior to the ADKOT, but that only started two months before the ADKOT release and the tour started! We got word from Shelly at DDE at Christmas time, 2011. it was only after that with the New Year's Eve advertisement in Times Square, then Café Wha, then Henson's, then the Forum, etc..... Most major bands nowadays start advertising their albums and tour like 9 months out....

So, yeah, this could be nothing.... But, it could be one of the many things that happen behind the scenes before they officially announce the 40th tour....

[ZahZoo]

Logic doesn't apply with these guys... but why sign to a new talent agency for potential VH 40th Anniversary activities, when the band already has long standing representation in place..?

Just adds cost and complications... those are prime things to avoid when funding one's retirement account.

[Seshmeister]

I was going to say Dancing With The Stars but I see it's already started.

[Nickdfresh]

Seriously, it could be something non-musical like that as a judge on one of those awful reality shows....

[Nickdfresh]

I thought Dave represented himself...

[VHscraps]

I seem to remember reading something years ago, before the reunion, about Dave being represented by some agency (a non-rock agency) that promoted him as a speaker, a special event guest, etc.

Maybe it is something along those lines. After all, as it says at the top of this page ... 2054 days since the last Van Halen studio album. That's almost as long as the time between the recording of Van Halen (late '77-ish) and 1984 (summer/autumn 1983).

Maybe he is putting out feelers to try and see if there is any work for him out there ...

[vandeleur]

He missed the new pennywise gig

[Terry]

I was never really clear on if Roth was personally represented by Azoff when [Roth] began working with Van Halen again, or if Roth was just doing a contract with Azoff whenever Van Halen toured/worked. But, like ZahZoo said, one would only NEED to sign on with a talent agency if one is going to be actually DOING something...

2018 is right around the corner, and that will have been 3 years since Van Halen popped out of their hidey-hole...which seems to be the modus operandi since Roth rejoined (working for a year, then a 3 year layoff), so MAYBE this has something to do with a potential Van Halen tour next year.

I can't imagine what else it could be linked to. I don't get the feeling Roth is in any type of demand for anything else these days other than fronting that band.

Who the fuck knows?

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Maybe you guys spotted it, but I glossed over it initially, somebody pointed it out to me on FB....

ICM - Ice Cream Man?

Who knows....

[Seshmeister]

Possibly just a coincidence. They would have had to name their corporation years before the release of VH1 predicting that Ice Cream Man would be on it and that 42 years later they would subsequently get Roth as a client.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICM_Partners

ICM Partners is a talent and literary agency with offices in Los Angeles, New York, Washington D.C. and London. ICM (International Creative Management) Partners is a full-service agency representing clients in the fields of motion pictures, television, music, publishing, live performance, branded entertainment and new media. Its corporate headquarters are in Constellation Place in Century City, Los Angeles.


History

ICM was formed in 1975 through the merger of Creative Management Associates and International Famous Agency. In 2005, the company raised equity financing to fund strategic growth, and in 2006, ICM acquired the literary agency Broder Webb Chervin Silbermann. In 2012, the agency completed a management buyout and formed a partnership with the new name, ICM Partners.

Motion pictures

ICM Partners' motion picture department represents Academy Award-winning film actors, actresses, directors and writers from around the world. The department also features a division dedicated to key production professionals such as cinematographers, editors, 2nd unit directors, composers, production designers, costume designers and visual effects supervisors.
ICM Partners' International and Independent Group structures and arranges financing and packaging, and secures distribution for independent motion pictures.

Television

ICM Partners' television department represents Emmy Award winning on-air and creative talent in all segments of the industry, including network, cable and first-run syndication.[6]
ICM Partners represents several noted executive producers and other showrunners and has successfully packaged hit shows such as Grey’s Anatomy; Scandal; The Black List; The Big Bang Theory Dancing with the Stars; Modern Family; Criminal Minds; Undercover Boss; Cougar Town; House; Breaking Bad; Mike & Molly; The Simpsons; Two and a Half Men; Sons of Anarchy; Psych; The Ellen DeGeneres Show; America’s Next Top Model; Kitchen Nightmares; Last Comic Standing; Don't Forget the Lyrics; Friends; Army Wives; Cheers; Sex and the City; Frasier; Scrubs; and The X-Files.

Publishing
ICM Partners represents recipients of the Nobel Prize, Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award and many other prestigious literary honors. Among the agency’s clients are Patricia Cornwell,[8] Thomas Friedman,[9] Anna Quindlen, E.L. Doctorow, Walter Isaacson, Carl Hiaasen, [1] Tom Bissell, Anthony Swofford, Chris Cleave, Candace Bushnell, John Feinstein,[10] Ann Patchett, Carol Higgins Clark and Steve Martin. In addition, the agency represents the estates of Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss), Arthur Miller,[11] E.B. White, and Tennessee Williams, among others. The agency routinely represents more than 100 titles on the New York Times Best Seller list annually.

Music and comedy
ICM Partners' concert and live appearances department represents artists in all musical genres as well as comedians and lecturers. The agency arranges engagements and tours in venues around the world for a wide range of acts.Branded entertainment

ICM Partners’ global branded entertainment division’s services range from celebrity endorsements, product placement and music tour sponsorship to brand integration, such as the creation and packaging of original branded films and television shows. The agency's celebrity endorsements department services all ICM Partners' film and television talent for on-camera, print and voiceover commercial work as well as for paid media campaigns in the U.S. and overseas.

[ZahZoo]

ICM = International Creative Management Partners... They were formed in a merger back in 1975. Looking at their artist base it's dominated by mostly washed up entertainers and acts that are decades past their prime. Looks like a good fit...

Music and comedy:
ICM Partners' concert and live appearances department represents artists in all musical genres as well as comedians and lecturers. The agency arranges engagements and tours in venues around the world for a wide range of acts.

PS... Oh crap!! Sesh and I appear to be on the same page!! Maybe there is some truth to an Apocalypse projected to occur today!!

[Terry]

From a cursory glance, it looks like the bulk of ICM's biggest successes that they were willing to name came in the form of packaging tv shows, a good portion of which were very successful but are now defunct although there are several which are still currently popular. Exactly to what extent ICM was involved with the packaging - and specifically who they were representing with said packaging - is vague.

I think as ZahZoo said, ICM handles talent a bit past their prime (odd in that they don't actually have a roster or list of current talent by name under management), possibly because ICM itself is a bit past its prime. Wouldn't be surprising that Roth would sign with such an agency, where the cachet of their name is a bit antiquated and based on residual past glories: Roth came of age in the entertainment business in an era where record companies and traditional talent agencies were much more dominant than they are now. I mean, the whole 2012 strategy of actually releasing a new album on a record label and actually doing television advertising for it itself was a bit of a blast from the past. I'm glad they did it, because back then I still bought cds, but Roth and Van Halen missed opportunities to sell the product in new and innovative ways I think in large part due to a mindset that is stuck back 30 years ago.

[VHscraps]

Maybe this is just some agency trying to throw out press releases about the latest washed-up stars they have got some arrangement with, to get some media attention?

I was thinking it is something about Dave putting himself up for 'speaking engagement', after dinner kind of things, and I Googled something I remembered seeing years ago: "David Lee Roth is a speaker for [I forget the rest]". And what do you know ... there are multiple search results leading to websites of agencies seemingly representing (or who have represented, if it is out-of-date websites) Dave.

Here's another acronym for you to add to ICM - CTI. Celebrity Talent International - here's Dave. Yours for $500k-$1m per engagement (fundraisers, corporate events, speaking engagements):

http://www.celebritytalent.net/sampletalent/3727/david-lee-roth/

Okay, whatever is going on, maybe Dave just needs to earn some cash? Remember his gripes about getting no royalties worth speaking of from VH1, so he didn't care if people stole it, copied it, or etc?

Could it all just be the celeb equivalent of some guy in his bedroom putting all of his home-made movie masterpieces on ... YouTube, on Vimeo, Veoh, etc? Dave tried that, but no one really watched the Roth Show apart from sad gits like us. We weren't rushing out to the stores clamouring for that song about the plastic chair, were we? Hell, no - cos there are no fucking stores left. So what does that leave poor old Dave, when he has to buy food for his dog?

And Dave is one of that generation of 'in front of the people' entertainers at heart, so maybe he has just engaged a number of little celeb 'recycling talent' agencies to try and dig up speaking gigs for him, where he can tell the same stories that we, here, have all heard a million times, but which the great unwashed general public (or corporate away-dayers at their evening entertainment event) have not heard ...