"Van Halen dates are getting locked in,” music reporter Nui Te Koha announced Wednesday morning (Feb 9) on Triple M Melbourne's Hot Breakfast. “They'll be here with David Lee Roth. Van Halen representatives were here with The Eagles during The Eagles tour in December.”
(Ed note: Irving Azoff manages both bands)
Koha added: "They're recording a new album at the moment. Eddie Van Halen says he doesn't want to do any shows until there is new material. And that new material should be out by August."
Check out the Triple M report here.
Sounds promising.
Let’s rewind to last November, for a moment, when Aussie paper, the Herald Sun reported, “Van Halen and frontman David Lee Roth are close to confirming a visit next year.”
Melodicrock, who have an impressive track record in breaking VH news, also reported this story, along with information that the band was in the studio, which led to a call from VH representatives to shoot it down (I’m unaware if the same call was made to the Herald Sun).
On November 18, Melodicrock’s Andrew McNeice posted the following:
“Earlier today I was contacted by the office of Larry Solters – spokesman for Van Halen asking me to give him a call. I did so and was asked to pass on clarification of my Van Halen news item earlier this week. It seems there was some surprise in the VH camp following my news and the official word is that…"none of it was true."
Yep…incredibly, the official word is that there is "no tour on the books" right now and "no new album on the books."
Mr. Solters did concede that the guys hung out together "working on stuff," but as of right now – no album, no tour in 2011. He kindly added that I'd be the first to know when there was news.
That's all I have to add right now. Safe to say that this rebuke has not put me off digging deeper into this and I'll report back when possible. I'll leave it up to you Van Halen fans to choose what to believe!”
As I mentioned in my original post on this, Andrew has an impressive track record in breaking VH news, which is usually denied by VH reps soon after he breaks it, and then revealed to be accurate, sometime later.
What it seems like the VH team forgot, at the time, was that Warner/Chappell issued a press release last August regarding the administration of publishing by Eddie and Alex Van Halen. The flag-raiser in that release was the final line, which read: “The group is currently in the studio recording an album with Roth that is due for release in 2011.”
Hmm.
So Melodicrock reported something that VH’s publishers announced three months earlier, and were told they had their story wrong.
Hmm.
Well, we know Van Halen are now in the studio, so the VH team can’t really deny that one. Let’s see if Melodicrock and/or Triple M are contacted about this latest news…or if VH reps issue a statement about it.
Van Halen
Van Halen – Hear About It Later
Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, CA – June, 1981
See also:
Eddie Van Halen’s guitar enters The Smithsonian
Van Halen tops the hennemusic Hot 10
Michael Anthony looking forward to hearing new Van Halen
Van Halen begin recording new album
VIDEO: new Eddie Van Halen gear introduced at NAMM
hennemusic Hot 10: Van Halen hits #1 for 2nd week in a row
