Some thoughts on the whole 3/4 reunion thing...

[Terry]

The thing that left a lousy taste in my mouth was the "3/4 original, 1/4 inevitable" tag line that went along with this deal. There was something callously dismissive in that statement, and it had parallels to the way the band's private affairs were handled publicly back in 1986, and have been pretty much ever since. All of those shots at Dave Roth's expense that came primarily from the band's (then) new singer seemed totally unnecessary, (particularly when the other three bozos in the group started chiming in) mainly because they were a gigantic slap in the face to the fans that supported the band up until then. To compound matters, material from the CVH incarnation of the band was outright ignored, and even when it was performed the band did so in a half-assed, sloppy manner. Shit, the lead singer even refused to sing the band's biggest hit "Jump", preferring to drag some kid out of the audience or a local celebrity of dubious status to chortle through it. That in and of itself should tell you all you need to know about that singer's bizarre inferiority, let alone complete ineptitude at following Roth, let alone stepping into his shoes.

Now one of the reasons I was drawn to this outfit to begin with was the playing of it's hot shot guitar player. But as this band continued, that once brilliant guitarist seemed to fade into the background, to be replaced by keyboards, moronic, chest-beating bluster and worst of all, insipid power ballads. There wasn't a damned thing I or any other fan could do about the situation other than to pretty much ignore the band, which is something that a great percentage of other fans started to do as well. (Check the band's RIAA figures regarding the other singer's tenure in the band. You'll note that each album sold progressively worse than the one that preceded it.)

So when it was mentioned on MTV that Roth was returning in 1996, I (and untold others) felt the first true rays of sunshine from this band in about a decade...only to once again be slapped in the face by the very public fiasco that followed the MTV awards and the announcement of Gary Cherone. What fresh hell was this? The album sucked, the tour was actually not bad, yet it didn't matter: For all intents and purposes, other than breaking the hearts of the faithful once again with another rumored stab at getting Roth back, Van Halen was done for another six years.

The 2004 Re-Hagar sham meant as little to the audience as it did to Edward Van Halen, who appears not to have bothered to sober up once for the occasion. Considering how false the whole enterprise was from the beginning (as well as who he had to share the stage with), I can't say that I blame him for phoning in his performances from the hotel bar, but it once again was a sign of the (by now) standard approach to not giving a flying crap about the fans, only turning to them when the cash flow seems to be faltering.

So finally in 2007, the moment most had been waiting for since the mid-eighties comes along, yet with the caveat that Mike Anthony would not be part of the proceedings. I won't even go into that can of worms, other than to say if you paid cash for the shows and enjoyed them, then good for you. Yet here we sit years later, and the only new VH products to surface have been a bunch of guitars and gizmos that have never even been featured on a Van Halen album. Ed states "It's what I use", to which the only logical response can be "Use on what?"

I don't find it cynical to be highly skeptical of this outfit given it's history of indifference to it's fan base, regardless of era. It has been nebulously reported recently that the Van Halen brothers are working with Roth on a new studio release. Personally, I see no reason for anyone to get their hopes up until they have the album in their hands. Until that day occurs, it will simply be "business as usual" in the land of Van Halen, a place that is second only to a third world dictatorship in it's indifference to the suffering of it's citizenry.

Well, I think Dave's comment about the lineup in the 2007 pre-tour press conference was just his way of throwing out a tart one-liner that would cover the topic. I presume Roth must have intimated that Ed didn't want Anthony around, and that it could have been a deal-breaker for [Roth] to have pushed the issue. Probably a measure of how much Roth wanted the reunion to happen that he wouldn't insist, as he had previously claimed, that all the CVH members participate ("all or nothing").

Would agree 100% that the amount of EVH-licensed guitar gear currently on the market would make sense if the band were still releasing records. Seems like the band exists so Ed can plug the VH logo merchandise line, rather than the merchandise being secondary to the music.

[ZahZoo]

Would agree 100% that the amount of EVH-licensed guitar gear currently on the market would make sense if the band were still releasing records. Seems like the band exists so Ed can plug the VH logo merchandise line, rather than the merchandise being secondary to the music.

Makes sense in that Ed has retired to building bird houses in his garage... sounds like a good segway into a reprise of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest...

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[ThatArtGuy]

Or raising Shetland Ponies for racing, or creating a folding wine glass like Nigel Tufnel.