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Colt1861Navy

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Re: Colt1861Navy post# 896

Wednesday, 07/17/2002 6:32:12 AM

Wednesday, July 17, 2002 6:32:12 AM

Post# of 1767
Rock 'n' Roll Artists A-Z...Van Halen

http://www.van-halen.com/newsite/index2.html

http://www.vhnd.net/

http://www.vh-faq.com/

The brothers Alex and Edward were born in Holland in 1953 and 1955 respectively, where they lived until 1962, when the Van Halen's moved to Pasadena, California. They were a musical family. Jan, their father, was an accomplished clarinet player and Alex and Ed were both originally trained as concert pianists. Their interests then shifted towards more popular music, so they changed their instrument of choice; Ed's being drums and Alex's the guitar. Ed had a paper route to pay for his drum set, so while he was out delivering them, Alex would play his drums. Eventually Alex's talents surpassed Edward's so he started playing Alex's guitar. This seemed to work out rather nicely, so this way it stayed.

After high school, playing in various cover bands, Ed was handling the lead singing duties. They rented their P.A. from David Lee Roth, who was in a local band The Red Ball Jets. He had moved to Pasadena with his father from Bloomington, Indiana in 1972. Ed, hating to sing lead vocals, convinced Dave to join the band which was later named Mammoth.

One gig they shared the bill with a band called Snake, who's lead singer and bass player was Michael Anthony, from Chicago, Illinois. The band invited Mike to jam with them, then later asked him to join the band. Being very impressed with them, he agreed and joined Mammoth.

Realizing another band had layed claim to the name Mammoth, the boys tossed around some new names, (one of them being Rat Salade), until they finally decided upon Van Halen.

While playing at an LA club called The Starwood, Gene Simmons spots them and decides to produce a demo for them. (On it was an early version of "House of Pain" and "Runnin' with the Devil", complete with car horns which served as a transition between the two songs.) Ed was a little uncomforable in the studio, playing on someone elses equipment and not being used to the idea of multi-track recording. The demo is rejected by all major studios.

In 1977, a year after making the demo, Warner Brothers producer Ted Templeman spots them at the same club that Gene first saw them. He convinces partner Mo Ostin to sign the band, and in February 1978, Van Halen is released.

And the world was a little better place.

Six platinum albums later, in 1985, Dave decided to leave the band to pursue solo interests. The band tossed around the idea of doing an album with different singers on each song before deciding to look for a permanent replacement.

While at a Lamborghini repair shop called Claudio's, Ed mentions that he is looking for a new singer. Claudio, in turn, mentions Sammy Hagar, who was in the band Montrose and now a successful solo artist, who's Lamborghini is also in the shop. Ed calls him, and they set up a time for him to meet the band.

After a short business meeting, they decide to jam. Eddie plays a song he had been working on, to which Sammy began singing impromptu lyrics. This song, with much of these original lyrics intact became "Summer Nights." They got along great, and a new line-up was found. Their next album was 5150, with every one of their studio albums with Sammy (as with Dave) being certified multi-platinum.

After a total of 4 studio albums, 1 live album, and several successful tours, things took a turn for the worse. Following the recording of the song "Humans Being" for the soundtrack to the movie "Twister", a press release was issued on June 26th, 1996, saying that Sammy had left the band. The circumstances of his departure were the cause of much controversy in the media, as was Roth's departure in 1985. Whether or not Sammy quit or was fired is the major subject of speculation. Sammy insists he was fired, while Ed maintains that he thought Sammy left of his own volition, and amicably at that.

Before Sammy left, Van Halen had been working on a "Greatest Hits" CD. Former front man David Lee Roth contacted Ed to discuss which songs would be featured on it. Ed then asked Dave to collaborate with the band on some new tracks to be included on the upcoming CD. The result ended up being two songs: "Can't Get This Stuff No More" and "Me Wise Magic".

On September 4th, 1996, Van Halen, with David Lee Roth, made an appearance on the MTV Video Music Awards. It was their first public appearance together in 11 years, and they received a standing ovation.

Unfortunately, this was also not to last. Many fans who thought that Dave had returned to Van Halen saw that this was not to be when they read an open letter from Dave stating that he would not be returning to Van Halen, even though he felt that he that he had been led to believe so by Eddie. This only fueled the controversy surrounding the band, which was still without a lead singer.

Ray Danniels, who now managed the band after the death of their previous manager and friend, Ed Leffler, also managed the group Extreme. He suggested Gary Cherone as a possibility, since their guitarist, Nuno Bettencourt, had decided to leave the group to pursue solo projects. Gary met with Van Halen, jammed on some old VH songs, and was immediately accepted into the band. (According to Eddie, they started writing together that day.) The result of this collaboration, Van Halen 3, was released on March 17, 1998, and the first single, "Without You", debuted at #1 on the Billboard mainstream rock charts.

This partnership did not last long, either. After fans' lukewarm response to the CD (Van Halen 3's sales barely managed to go top 500,000) and mediorce support on the concert trail (although Gary wowed show antendees with his exuberant stage energy), the new vocalist decided to part ways with Van Halen. Why, exactly, the general public may never know. Many speculate that various parties ranging from Warner Bros. Records to VH's management (or perhaps it was the band themselves) persuaded the Van Halen brothers to terminate Gary. Whatever the case may been, the split was thankfully a peaceful one. Currently, the group's plans for the future are unknown.

Bios of Band Members

http://www.van-halen.com/newsite/band.html

http://www.vhlinks.com/links/David_Lee_Roth/

http://www.vhlinks.com/links/Sammy_Hagar/

http://www.vhlinks.com/links/Michael_Anthony/

http://www.vhlinks.com/links/Alex_Van_Halen/

http://www.vhlinks.com/links/Eddie_Van_Halen/

http://www.vhlinks.com/links/Gary_Cherone/

Timeline

http://www.van-halen.com/newsite/vault.html

Album Discography

http://www.van-halen.com/newsite/music.html

Singles

http://www.van-halen.com/newsite/singles.html

Videos

http://www.van-halen.com/newsite/videos.html

Photos

http://www.van-halen.com/newsite/gallery.html

The Charts

http://www.van-halen.com/newsite/charts.html

Movie Soundtracks

http://www.van-halen.com/newsite/soundtracks.html

Side Projects

http://www.van-halen.com/newsite/sideprojects.html



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