Has Dave lost credibility?

[binnie]

I think the album should be almost completed by now.

Really?

Why do you think that?

[ELVIS]

Dave did just fine on the last tour. Even my brother, who is the biggest skeptic in the world and has slagged off on Dave for years, was impressed...

It's too bad they had a high school student playing bass, and a sub-par Edward. Even Alex was playing it safe, probably trying not to throw Edward off anymore than he already was, but Alex was good...

At least I got my money's worth with Dave. And there were a few moments where Edward played nicely, but they were far in between the mess of crappy bass and piped in background vocals...

I still say the bass was piped in as well. Maybe not all of it, but enough. I know what i was hearing...

[Vinnie Velvet]

I think the album should be almost completed by now.

[jharp84]

What happens in 2010, will clearly answer this question!

[NATEDOG001976]

Or maybe they've all grown up and starting acting like adults.

Funny things like that happen when people realize that they have few paydays left.

Maybe they're not drunk and stoned 24/7 anymore. I'm sure they were a lot of the time when they were trowing shit around at each other back in the day.

[Terry]

Nah, not really.

Even back in the day (1974-1985) when Roth was in Van Halen, whatever headaches he had he kept to himself...or at least out of the press.

No reason why that should change.

Maybe there isn't even a gag order. Maybe Dave just plain sees the value in not airing any negative comments about the state of the band in public now that he's back in the band. I mean, if he has problems with what is happening in Van Halen, wouldn't he be better off addressing them with the other band members directly, rather than via interviews? Otherwise, he'd be coming across like the person at work who constantly moans about their job to everyone BUT the person or persons who could actually change the process (am sure most of us have dealt with someone like that at least once sometime down the line).

He made no secret about wanting back in the band and wanting to work with Eddie again. He has wanted it since 1996. Yeah, it is a bit of a shame he didn't insist Anthony be included or he wasn't interested, as he had previously claimed he would. However, his career outside of Van Halen, while interesting, wasn't gonna be filling 15,000 seaters as a headline act.

I got no problems with him compromising a bit to go out on top with a final payday flogging the oldies for one tour.

If Van Halen continues down that road for tour after tour and Dave goes along with it, THEN I'd say he might lose a little credibility...I'd personally rather see him go back to the solo scene and put out some new material than be part of an oldies act (although in essence his solo tours from 1999 to 2006 were a bit of an oldies act, seeing as he played at most one or two tunes from the DLR Band or Diamond Dave on those jaunts).

However, Roth doubtlessly isn't the least but interested in what I'd like to see. He's gonna go where the money is. As a fan, I can either take it or leave it.

Whatever. "Van Halen" have been pretty much all done for so long now...from what I've read and the current pace of productivity, it'd be a long shot this current lineup will release new material at all, never mind it being any good or not. Hard in a way to accept what the band is at the moment, but after 8 years of relative sludge by Van Hagar and 11 years of false starts and worng turns by the Van Halens, it's hard to really give a shit anymore.

The classic era of the band and the music they made still resonates. Perhaps a case of appreciating what they did, rather than selfishly wanting more (especially since they no longer seem capable of delivering the goods 100&#37.

[Sensible Shoes]

I think the album should be almost completed by now.

I love you Warf.

[Halen High]

I still do not believe that Dave has been "gagged". I think he has learned not to say anything that might come back to bite him in the ass. So, he chooses to say nothing.

I agree. Dave has not been gagged.

He did almost all the talking at the press conference to announce the tour, then gave an interview to Rolling Stone where he talked about the tour, Wolfie and doing a new album, and talked to the LA Times about the HOF.

So why now, after a hugely successful tour, would the VH bros have him gagged?

So I agree he's not gagged - he just doesn't want to make any announcements knowing that Eddie could pull the pin and let us all down again.

[ELVIS]

Hence...GAGGED!

[Halen High]

Hence...GAGGED!

You mean he's gagged himself? Yeah I suppose that's what I'm saying.

He won't say anything until there's something worth telling us about.

[Halen High]

I think the album should be almost completed by now.

Well they recorded 5 or 6 tunes back around 2000 that Dave said were so great "the hands fell off the clock" or something like that. So it can't be hard for them to knock off another 4 or 5 and get it out.

I don't think that's the problem... it's probably Eddie wanting to change direction again and knowing that this could result in failure. But who really knows?

[DaveTheScott]

I think Roth ain't talking because as diamondsgirl and Halen High both noted, he doesn't want to say anything that might blow up in his face later. Who knows wtf the sisters are gonna do next? Wolfie's chick on backing vocals? Alex on the clarinet? The soundtrack for AssBlasters Vol. II? Or worst of all - nothing. Shit, not even Dave knows. But at least he's smart enough to know what he doesn't know...

Me thinks if it were up to him there'd be a new album out already.

Fuck it, grab Steve Vai and Les Claypool, get the guy from Slipknot on drums, and start a supergroup. Record an album in six weeks, market the hell out of it and tell everyone you're not in it for the money. Call the group Sonic Tonic or something dumb (can't be as dumb as Chickenfoot, tho) and play a gig anywhere there's a bar and a shitter (doesn't have to be working) at $35 a head. Wash, rinse, and repeat three times, take your dough, retire, and blame the demise of Van Halen on the fuckers that caused it - the Van Halens.

Hell, I'll take a deluxe CD, a t-shirt, four concert tickets, a website membership, and some fucking sunglasses. I'll also take a case of the booze that Dave will have created by then (also called Sonic Tonic - gin, preferably) - throw in a beer coozie, and I'm sold. Throw it all on my amex, then make me feel better about it by telling me how thankful you are at every fucking show you play. Finally, disappear and then start a forum where thousands of your hardest fans will log on every day and debate when the fuck - if ever - you're going to get back with the Halens.

Fuck them. Dave should tell the Halens to kick rocks.

[ZahZoo]

I agree. Dave has not been gagged.

He did almost all the talking at the press conference to announce the tour, then gave an interview to Rolling Stone where he talked about the tour, Wolfie and doing a new album, and talked to the LA Times about the HOF.

So why now, after a hugely successful tour, would the VH bros have him gagged?

So I agree he's not gagged - he just doesn't want to make any announcements knowing that Eddie could pull the pin and let us all down again.

I think y'all are overlooking a key fact... Yoko VH II aka Janie Van Halen is the exclusive publicist for Van Halen through her former Porn Publicist company High Profile Media.

In the past VH hired publicists... but their primary function was to book EVH for the cover of GW every couple of months and pick up Alex's dry cleaning. So the band left the public speaking up to whichever mouth was fronting the band...

Today we have a new Sharon Osborne-in-the-making who's ruling the Van Halen empire with an iron fist. Who's she gonna look out for first? The meal ticket of course...

Check out Van-Halen.com, EVHgear.com or highprofilemedia.com this is the voice of Van Halen. Make note of how little you read about and see Diamond Dave... It's all about the new EVH image. Nothing more... nothing less...

[Vinnie Velvet]

I think y'all are overlooking a key fact... Yoko VH II aka Janie Van Halen is the exclusive publicist for Van Halen through her former Porn Publicist company High Profile Media.

In the past VH hired publicists... but their primary function was to book EVH for the cover of GW every couple of months and pick up Alex's dry cleaning. So the band left the public speaking up to whichever mouth was fronting the band...

Today we have a new Sharon Osborne-in-the-making who's ruling the Van Halen empire with an iron fist. Who's she gonna look out for first? The meal ticket of course...

Check out Van-Halen.com, EVHgear.com or highprofilemedia.com this is the voice of Van Halen. Make note of how little you read about and see Diamond Dave... It's all about the new EVH image. Nothing more... nothing less...

Yup.

This is all true.

[Big Troubles]

Well they recorded 5 or 6 tunes back around 2000 that Dave said were so great "the hands fell off the clock" or something like that. So it can't be hard for them to knock off another 4 or 5 and get it out.

I don't think that's the problem... it's probably Eddie wanting to change direction again and knowing that this could result in failure. But who really knows?

IMO I think back in 2000 when Dave stated "The Hands Fell off the Clock" was in reference to one of the 3 songs that came out for the 04 tour. "It's About Time", possibly partially written by Dave???

Its also not that there isnt music for the band to put on a new album. Its playing those new tunes as they were intended to be heard. Most bands play the CD on stage, or backing tracks because quite franly, they didn't bring the entire studio with them on tour or the people that filter out voice overlaps or guitar overlaps (techs) are not there, hence not sounding like the new stuff.

personally Id rather a "whats old is new again" approach. A CD filled with outtakes, unreleased songs, some covers from early dayz, along with 8 or 9 NEW songs. So when the summer tour begins, we get a few new ones, the rest older ones that were not played on the 07/08 tour (drop dead legs/girl gone bad hear about it later fools, take yer whiskey home etc) and some interviews or lost clips like from the 79 tour or 81 Oakland show.

That would sell and hype Van Halen more than what this last tour is seemingly looking like....Nostalgic.