Van Halen

VAN HALEN

Formed: 1974, Pasadena, California

Members: Michael Anthony, bass (born Chicago, Illinois, 20 June 1954); Alex Van Halen, drums (born Nijmegan, Netherlands, 8 June 1950); Eddie Van Halen, guitar (born Nijmegan, Netherlands, 26 January 1955). Former members: Gary Cherone, lead vocals (born Malden, Massachusetts, 26 July 1961); Sammy Hagar, lead vocals (born Monterey, California, 13 October 1947); David Lee Roth, lead vocals (born Bloomington, Indiana, 10 October 1955).

Genre: Rock

Best-selling album since 1990: For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991)

Hit songs since 1990: "Right Now," "Poundcake"

Since 1990 Van Halen has spent more time in the gossip pages than on the album charts. The band began the decade at their commercial height, but a series of drastic missteps found them at a career low just a few years later. Despite their personal problems and frenzied lead-vocalist changes, Van Halen remained the premiere American party rock band, buoyed as ever by Eddie Van Halen's showy guitar technique and escapist songwriting.

The Van Halen brothers, Eddie and Alex, began playing music together while growing up in Pasadena, California. The sons of a Dutch musician, the boys received classical music training throughout their childhood. After discovering rock and roll, Alex took up guitar and Eddie learned to play the drums. They soon switched instruments and, after forming the band Mammoth, Eddie developed into a guitar virtuoso, creating a signature stock of sound effects and tricks (including "tapping," in which the fingers on the strumming hand bang out a flurry of notes on the neck of the guitar) that eventually became de rigeur for heavy metal guitarists. While playing in the Southern California circuit, they recruited David Lee Roth as their singer and Michael Anthony to play bass. They changed their name to Van Halen in 1974 and soon became the most popular band in the Los Angeles area, with a reputation built on Eddie's guitar playing and Roth's outlandish showmanship. The band released their first album, Van Halen, in 1978, and it promptly went platinum. Less ponderous than the heavy metal of the era, their pop hooks and playful performances made an instant impact on the mainstream. The band released an album every year until their masterwork 1984 (1984), which includes the party staples "Jump," "Panama," and "Hot for Teacher."

By the mid-1980s, tensions between Roth and Eddie Van Halen sent the singer packing and on to a solo career. The band recruited the arena rock journeyman Sammy Hagar as lead vocalist, which began a more earnest but no less successful chapter for the band. Fans and critics initially balked at the news, but the results were surprisingly solid—Hagar brought a credible party persona as well as a penchant for straight-ahead balladry that satisfied the core audience and broadened the band's mainstream appeal. 5150 (1986) and OU812 (1988) sold millions and produced a number of hit ballads. For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991) saw the band pumping out anthems with renewed energy and scoring a best-selling single with the uplifting "Right Now." The songs on the album are arena-ready, with big choruses driven by Eddie's blinding guitar work and Hagar's warm heavy metal wail. The 1991–1992 tour was a rousing success. The band ripped through their catalog with energy and conviction. The tour was documented and released on album and home video under the title Van Halen Live: Right Here, Right Now (1993).

The band reconvened to record Balance in 1995, but new tensions between Eddie and Hagar made for less focused work. Eddie, fresh out of an alcohol rehabilitation program, tired of Hagar's hard-partying ways, and the tour was less successful than its predecessor. A year later the band began to prepare a greatest hits compilation against Hagar's wishes and even recorded two new songs with David Lee Roth. It has never been revealed whether Hagar then left the band or was fired. The original Van Halen lineup appeared in public for the first time in twelve years on the MTV Video Awards in September 1996 to overwhelming applause. Days later, the band issued a statement claiming that Roth had not been rehired as singer and that they were searching for a new vocalist.

The band eventually enlisted Gary Cherone from the band Extreme and recorded Van Halen III (1998), a winking nod to their rotating vocalist situation. The lineup change gave the music a sharp edge—the single "Without You" in particular sounds fresh and forceful. But many tracks feel awkward, mainly because of Eddie's sincere attempts at expanding the band's musical scope with new rhythms and topical lyrics. The audience was not won over. The album and subsequent tour faltered, and Cherone was released from his duties in 1999.

All signs pointed to another reunion with Roth, who confirmed unofficially that he had been recording new material with the band. News that Eddie Van Halen had been battling cancer halted the momentum. In 2001 the band left the Warner Bros. label and admitted that they were still without a singer. Eddie emailed the band's official website in May 2002 reporting that his doctors had given him a clean bill of health, but the band's future was still uncertain. While many fans hope for a successful reunion with Roth, Van Halen has proved that they can retool their music to fit a new lead singer. The rock solid musicianship of its core members keeps the band relevant, and the lead vocalist slot remains one of the most coveted in rock music.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Van Halen (Warner Bros., 1978); Van Halen II (Warner Bros., 1979); Women and Children First (Warner Bros., 1980); Fair Warning (Warner Bros., 1981); Diver Down (Warner Bros., 1982); 1984 (Warner Bros., 1984); 5150 (Warner Bros., 1986); OU812 (Warner Bros., 1988); For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (Warner Bros., 1991); Van Halen Live: Right Here, Right Now (Warner Bros., 1993); Balance (Warner Bros., 1995); The Best of Van Halen, Vol. 1 (Warner Bros., 1996); Van Halen III (Warner Bros., 1997).

WEBSITE:

www.van-halen.com.

sean cameron