Can you think of a band that has treated its fans worse than Van Halen ?

[Panamark]

Which band has treated its entire fanbase worse than Van Halen ??

We are talking, unrealeased live concerts, compromised lineups,
utter arrogance and contempt towards the fans by the Van Halen
brothers. Is there a band that is worse in this respect ?

I think Van Halen wins easily.

[The Scatologist]

What about Motley Crue? I heard some HORRIBLE things about Vince Neil from my friend.

[Panamark]

Motley Crue are reuniting with the original lineup.
With DVD's and CD's to back it up.

What more could you want if you were a CRUE FAN ?

No dice, Scatman..

[Rikk]

I used to be really pissed at LED ZEPPELIN for sitting on miles of film, multi-track tape and video footage...until the excellent releases of 2003. Also, they've always been stand-up guys that stayed true to themselves and the original band by breaking up once Bonham died.

As for a band as bad as what you describe... NO.

Hell, KISS oversell themselves with old concert footage and multiple reunion tours. But hey, the fans wanted the original line-up back, so it came back for three tours. Of course, what they're doing now is pretty disgusting. But KISS has usually been there to accept that they're no-nonsense salesmen. So, they treat their fans relatively well compared to SCAM FAILIN'.

If you want to talk about a band that also made a major lead singer chang but treated their fans (and their history) with utmost respect, look at GENESIS. They changed from Gabriel to Collins. Gabriel was more showmanship and theatricality...Collins was more arena rock singer with a sense of humor. But in the fifteen years that Collins toured with GENESIS following Gabriel's departure, he very happily sang a large amount of the band's truly vintage material during each concert. Hell, seven years after taking the lead spot, he was still singing the 22-minute SUPPER'S READY in every show. Plus, he still had time to play some drums. That man made sure old-school GENESIS fans got to hear plenty of material from NURSERY CRYME, FOXTROT, SELLING ENGLAND BY THE POUND, THE LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY and even TRESPASS. That's a fucking class act. Furthermore, he even sang the stuff well. He sang it with conviction, understanding the lyrics and sounding a lot like Gabriel. Sometimes you couldn't even tell the difference, but it was still his own personality.

Also, he remained great friends with Gabriel and even encouraged the band to reunite the original line-up for one show at the Milton Keynes in 1982 to help Gabriel's WOMAD charity with their financial woes. Again, talk about a class act.

Sammy Hagar and VAN HALEN chose the other route: shit on the fans, be complete assholes, insult the history and legacy...

[Panamark]

Good point about Kiss, Rikk, but as you stated, even these guys gave the fans the original band.

I know someone will chime in with Guns'n'Roses, but I dont agree,
AXL is the asshole, not the original band. If we were talking individuals,
I think AXL would come in near the top of the list. Actually Ed and
Al would probably be on that one too..

[UGS]

As much of a dick as Axl is, an early eighties Van Halen equivelent to GnR Live Era 87-93 will NEVER happen. GnR fans were lovin' it when that came out! The guitar player had a top hat, rather than a bucket of KFC on his head. One is a legend, the other looks like a joke. Like Dave and Sam.

[The Scatologist]

ok, but a year before, Vince Neil was playing, and my friend was there. He said vince was all fat and stuff, then through a hissy fit like 15 minutes into the set, then the band just kept playing the Girls Girls Girl chorus so my friend jumped on stage to take over but the band was like, Naw dude sorry but Vince will bitch at us later.

[Panamark]

SO who is your friend ? Rob Halford ?
Or some unknown ?

[Nickdfresh]

From what I have gathered, it seems Sammy has more class than the sisters do. I don't want him singing with the Van Halens, but I'll give Sammy this much; I think he shares many of the same opinions of those in this forum that the sisters are greedy, lazy, contemptuous assholes that treat their fans like dirt (i.e. "some people are not as into fan interaction") I'll be fucked before I by anything with this band that doesn't either say David Lee Roth in the linear notes, or featuring David Lee Roth on vocals.

[ZahZoo]

I'd put the Beatles above VH... they just quit fucking touring and interacting with their fans at the height of their career... split up over stupid shit like ugly women... then spent the past 30 years tormenting us with music that was almost there but not quite. They had a trillion more better reasons to reunite than VH ever did and they couldn't do it.

[Matt White]

Les Paul & Mary Ford. How long could we wait?!?

[CVHfan]

Metallica. After "The Black Album", they just changed their whole attitude. In the 80's, they were very independent and said they did what they wanted to do and the fans they had LOVED them for it. Lived their lives by them. They never would sell out. But after Black, they cut their hair, started playing more alternative based music and when their record sales started to suffer, they blamed Napster and went after their fans just for downloading their music. They get mad about being cheated out of money when they have more money than God. I thought that what they did was vile. Especially since they were into trading tapes back in the 80's. That is part of why Jason Newsted quit because he thought it was bullshit too.

[Rikk]

Originally posted by ZahZoo
I'd put the Beatles above VH... they just quit fucking touring and interacting with their fans at the height of their career... split up over stupid shit like ugly women... then spent the past 30 years tormenting us with music that was almost there but not quite. They had a trillion more better reasons to reunite than VH ever did and they couldn't do it.

Yes, but I wouldn't call it 30 years. I would say 10 years they teased fans with BEATLES reunion rumors. It was almost impossible to see a Beatle playing Beatle material in concert. George only did one tour (and a lacklustre one at that...in 1974), Paul toured with Wings but only did a few Beatles song, John didn't tour at all (only a few sporadic shows with almost no Beatles material) and Ringo...eh, who cares. But the point is, after 1980, there was NO hope for a Beatles reunion anyway. It's pretty well a given that the band would have done something at some point had Lennon not been murdered. Lennon sais himself that he imagined the band getting together for some reason at some point and they were feeling better about the past by the end of the Seventies.

What's more disgusting about Van Halen is that all four original members are still alive, but because Alex and Ed are greedy, they will try and downplay the importance of the past.

God, I hate them. I'm glad that sham of a tour was a fucking failure. I hope everyone that was stupid enough to buy tickets for it had a shitty time afterwards knowing that most of the rock world was laughing at this hoax.

[academic punk]

I dunno. All this stuff is kinda bad, but...

There was one band called Ultra Bidet that used to play here in NYC. The lead singer was this crazy asian chick who would do somethign absolutely IN-FUCKIN'-SANE every show. One time at the Knitting factory she ran off the platform with a live chainsaw and ran around the audience who were all TERRIFIED (I was there, I know!). Another time she lliterally shit in a bucket filled with sand and then reached in and threw it all around to the audience(I wasn't there, but they were banned from ever playing the knitting factory again).

So that...That strikes me as pretty rude and treating your fans with a smidge of disrespect.

[Bill Lumbergh]

I just can't believe how they continue to piss on hardcore CVH fans. Why cant they just acknowledge Dave's importance, and move on?! So they're not the best of friends..........WHO GIVES A FUCK???!!!! I would pay through the nose for more CVH material(live shit, demos, dvds WHATEVER!). Ed's done, so they might as well start embracing the past.