Well, Van Halen fans, the day you’ve been waiting for has come. Last night, for the first time since 2008, the band stood on stage together. Not only that, it was with original lead singer, Diamond David Lee Roth, and marked the launch of the band’s long-awaiting reunion tour.
Van Halen fans will be happy to know that the rock band will be hitting the stage in 2012. Through a video, Van Halen announced that the first tickets will go on sale January 10. Now, the big question is, will there be a new album to support on this tour? Details below.
Knock the Hardees bags out of the front seat of your Camaro, bust out your old copies of Metal Hammer, and unroll that poster of David Lee Roth with the lips mysteriously kissed rubbed off – Diamond David Lee Roth is now recording a new album with Van Halen, according to Spinner. The original and best (sorry Gary Cherone fans) Van Halen frontman is reportedly returning for his first VH album since 1984’s cleverly titled 1984. Even further, rumor has it that the reunited greatest pop metal act of the 1980s will hit the road after the new album’s release.
If all the Beatles hullabaloo is fraying your last nerve, perhaps a little (free) Van Halen video game action will make things better. Activision is offering a free copy of Guitar Hero: Van Halen with its latest Guitar Hero 5 game that debuted last week.
The Van Halen freebie deal requires only proof of a GH5 purchase ($59.99) before October 1st, when the free offer ends and the long wait begins for December 22 when Guitar Hero: Van Halen is officially released.
The Van Halen classic “Runnin’ With the Devil” might very well be changed to “Runnin’ With the Scalpers” now that the rock band has been alleged to have conspired with ticket scalpers during a fall 2007 tour in order to reap an extra $1 million, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.
The plan, part of a Ticketmaster initiative named “Project Showtime,” was devised to grab a piece of the exorbitant prices charged by scalpers, which sometimes surpass a general ticket’s face value by hundreds (often thousands) of dollars.
The final track list is out for Guitar Hero: Van Halen and lo and behold — it’s all Diamond Dave all the time. There’s nary a tune from the Sammy Hagar era to be found anywhere among the 28 Van Halen songs featured on GH:VH.
Guitar Hero: Van Halen will be released on December 22nd, just in time for a rockin’ Christmas – plenty of time to debate whether at least one song from the ‘Van Hagar’ days should have been included.
Perhaps even more astounding (and egregious) is the exclusion of founding bassist Michael Anthony. An Activision/RedOctane rep confirmed only David Lee Roth and Wolfgang Van Halen (Eddie’s son) will appear in GH:VH alongside Eddie and Alex Van Halen, according to a Rolling Stone report.
Activision Blizzard is releasing a total of four new music-based video games later this year. We had already guessed that DJ Hero, Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero were on their way, but now the company has also confirmed the existence of Guitar Hero: Van Halen to videogame blog Joystiq.
Guitar Hero: Van Halen will feature some of Van Halen’s greatest hits as well as music from Queen, Weezer, Blink-182, The Offspring and Queens of the Stone Age. Also, the first screens of the DJ Hero peripheral have been revealed. It’s a turntable controller, with three buttons to press while spinning a “record”, check out the photos after the cut:
With the election coming up tomorrow, here is (presumably) the final list of artists whose music John McCain was told to stop using:
The Jackson Browne complaint is the most serious for McCain – Browne is suing because McCain used his song in a commercial, while the rest were just used at live events.
Image via Public Domain Clip Art
