MR

As you may know, The Velvet Rope is a forum for music industry insiders. Withiin a thread regarding the VH shows, a person who works for a Southern venue posted the following:

Looks like rehearsals are taking place in Greensboro, NC as well as the first show, some time close to mid October... I'm also told that there are no where NEAR 50 dates in the books for this first run. VH will likely announce 12-18 on Monday. Floor seats @ $200 and $60 to get in the door

Take it for what it's worth...I am but a messenger.From VHLINKS.....

200 bucks per ticket and Eddie is not about making money??

Isn't it "hearsay"?

NealIsGod wrote:Isn't it "hearsay"?

And the point would be.. Geeze... , someone around here always has to point out a mispelling around here. It was so early when I posted this stuff, that everything was a copy/paste.

My bet for rehearsals would be Dodge Music Theater in CT. ALOT of bands use it as a rehearsal and launching spot.

memberzonly wrote:My bet for rehearsals would be Dodge Music Theater in CT. ALOT of bands use it as a rehearsal and launching spot.

VHLINKS-
Originally Posted by AndrewThomas.net

"Are you ready to be bombarded with questions, Andrew?"

"That's what happens when you check in with tid-bits of info."

"LOL. Don't have a city, literally just the DATE! Could be CT.
I did hear Oct 7 for Toronto and Montreal Nov 9 or 10. But to confirm....wait until Monday I guess!"
Our very own Drew..

Hmm. Greensboro is a little over an hour from here. I might would consider riding up there to see if I heard some VH being rehearsed inside if I got just a little more confirmation.

That will make me very happy if they are rehearsing AND going to start the tour there.

piecesofeight wrote:As you may know, The Velvet Rope is a forum for music industry insiders. Withiin a thread regarding the VH shows, a person who works for a Southern venue posted the following:

Looks like rehearsals are taking place in Greensboro, NC as well as the first show, some time close to mid October... I'm also told that there are no where NEAR 50 dates in the books for this first run. VH will likely announce 12-18 on Monday. Floor seats @ $200 and $60 to get in the door

Take it for what it's worth...I am but a messenger.From VHLINKS.....

if they are charging 200 dollars for good seats they may be in for a rude awakening, LOL, I love this band, but 200 bucks? HELL NO

I saw Dave's solo show in '03 for free...it was a fun time, but Dave in his current state is worth about $20-30 tops...he just doesn't have it anymore. Sammy's really taken care of his voice and his appearance....Dave hasn't aged anywhere near as well, plus I'm guessing a lot of people who go to these VH shows probably havn'et seen him perform in decades and subconciously will be expecting something that looks and sounds like the "Panama" video. (And for $200, I can't blame them) They're going to be in for a surprise...I expect the reviews of this tour to be fairly scathing.


As a side note, shouldn't the ticket price be lowered by 1/4, since 1/4 of VH (Mikey) isn't going to be there?

WalrusOct9 wrote:I saw Dave's solo show in '03 for free...it was a fun time, but Dave in his current state is worth about $20-30 tops...he just doesn't have it anymore. Sammy's really taken care of his voice and his appearance....Dave hasn't aged anywhere near as well, plus I'm guessing a lot of people who go to these VH shows probably havn'et seen him perform in decades and subconciously will be expecting something that looks and sounds like the "Panama" video. (And for $200, I can't blame them) They're going to be in for a surprise...I expect the reviews of this tour to be fairly scathing.

vhroth wrote:

WalrusOct9 wrote:I saw Dave's solo show in '03 for free...it was a fun time, but Dave in his current state is worth about $20-30 tops...he just doesn't have it anymore. Sammy's really taken care of his voice and his appearance....Dave hasn't aged anywhere near as well, plus I'm guessing a lot of people who go to these VH shows probably havn'et seen him perform in decades and subconciously will be expecting something that looks and sounds like the "Panama" video. (And for $200, I can't blame them) They're going to be in for a surprise...I expect the reviews of this tour to be fairly scathing.

From what I hear,they sound better than ever. Plus a you can see a future rock legend,Wolfgang Van Halen just starting out. Kinda like seeing Eddie in 1978.

WalrusOct9 wrote:As a side note, shouldn't the ticket price be lowered by 1/4, since 1/4 of VH (Mikey) isn't going to be there?

Thats ridiculous. If you love Mike so much go see him with Sammy playing in theatres this fall.

VAN HALEN is back!

VAN HALEN is back!

The fact of the matter is, Dave has NEVER sung well live, at least not on a regular basis.

Back when he was in Van Halen, it didn't matter....they were young, energetic, ridiculously popular, and you didn't have millions of critics on the internet that reported every single thing Dave did or said during a show, so most everyone always thought that Dave only "forgot the fuckin' words" at THEIR show, or said "I'm gonna fuck your girlfriend" at their show.

I know I did when I saw them in 1982.

We didn't know that he said and did that stuff every night, and had for years....until you saw them a few times, anyway.

So people didn't pay as much attention to Dave's vocals back then. It was all about the SHOW that Dave and the boys put on.
Dave's actual singing has never been up to par with the rest of any band's playing.

But again, it didn't matter back in the day. Dave could swagger around on the stage, interact with the audience, work that awesome scream that he used to have, and get away with only singing half the lyrics....and only singing most of them half-ass.

Now, I'm afraid it's going to be a different story. VH didn't have tons of amphitheaters and 20+ thousand seat arenas to play in 1982. Now, practically every decent-sized city has either a big amphitheater, big sports arena, or both.
In the arenas, they'll probably be perceived as better, because the sound sucks and people are closer to the stage.
In amphitheaters, the concert is just a rumor, visually, from the lawn, but the sound is pretty good up there.....and that's why Dave was considered to have been pretty much blown away by Sammy in 2002......doesn't matter what kind of show you're putting on to the people on the lawn....but they can damn sure tell if you're a good singer or not.

Dave's been trying to do a better job at singing the last few years, but that's like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.
He's a showman. When he had his looks, his youth, his scream, and smaller venues, Dave was in his element. He could throw those screams in whenever he didn't feel like singing, and we all loved it.
That scream is long gone, as are his looks...obviously, and all that's left is whether the man can sing live or not.

My prediction is this: People in the front rows are going to give great reviews. You can't hear a damn thing but noise up close, anyway. It won't matter how Dave sounds.
If they play amphitheaters, people on the lawn are going to come out saying Dave can't sing. Just like on the Sam/Dave tour in 2002. That old schtick of his doesn't cut it anymore. Hopefully, he won't jack off on some chick in front with a Jack Daniels bottle like in 02. Just doesn't work for folks over 50 years old. I remember people just shaking their heads and groaning when he did that.

Regardless, I will be there, as will lots of other people. Closest I'll ever get to reliving my high school days, I guess.

Pacfanweb wrote:
Now, I'm afraid it's going to be a different story. VH didn't have tons of amphitheaters and 20+ thousand seat arenas to play in 1982. Now, practically every decent-sized city has either a big amphitheater, big sports arena, or both.

I went to see VH in 1981 in a sports arena that they sold out 3 nights in a row in Detroit. They also played Madison Square Garden almost every year and the LA Forum for multiple sold out nights. So you may want to refresh your memory about where they used to play. Don't forget they headlined the US Festival in front of 300,000 people in 1982 and set a record for the the highest paid band for a performance at the time. $1,500,000 for one show.

Dave sang good up until the 1984 tour. He didn't sound that great then. But he sings way better than Mick Jagger live. Listen to some of Dave's live 2006 songs on you tube. I think he sounds better now than he did in 1984.

vhroth wrote:

Pacfanweb wrote:
Now, I'm afraid it's going to be a different story. VH didn't have tons of amphitheaters and 20+ thousand seat arenas to play in 1982. Now, practically every decent-sized city has either a big amphitheater, big sports arena, or both.

I went to see VH in 1981 in a sports arena that they sold out 3 nights in a row in Detroit. They also played Madison Square Garden almost every year and the LA Forum for multiple sold out nights. So you may want to refresh your memory about where they used to play. Don't forget they headlined the US Festival in front of 300,000 people in 1982 and set a record for the the highest paid band for a performance at the time. $1,500,000 for one show.

Dave sang good up until the 1984 tour. He didn't sound that great then. But he sings way better than Mick Jagger live. Listen to some of Dave's live 2006 songs on you tube. I think he sounds better now than he did in 1984.

I never said there weren't a few large arenas. The LA Forum wasn't that big back then, I'm pretty sure, so you might want to check again. You also might want to re-read what I wrote. There wasn't a gigantic, 20k seat venue in Detroit. Or Chicago.
The USA was not full of 20k+ seat venues back then. There were a few, but they were the hallowed places, like MSG.
And yeah, VH headlined the US Festival, but there was a metric assload of other bands. 300k people didn't come to see Van Halen. VH never was a headlining stadium act with Dave. I'm not saying they weren't popular....hell yes, they were. But they played on average, to about 8-13k per night. Some bigger places, some not as big.
I saw them twice in Raleigh in Reynolds Coliseum. 1982 and 1984. No way there was more than about 9k. It only held 12,500 for basketball, and VH took the whole end of the place for their end-stage setup. It was still loud as hell, though.
Dave sang better in 84 than in 82, from my perspective.

My point is not to bag on Dave. His voice is what it is. I'm just afraid that people are going to expect them to sound pretty close to what the old records sound like....and that was NEVER the case, even back then. I saw Dave in 94 in a club, and his scream was still awesome. He sang better than either VH concert I saw with him. In 2002 with Sammy, Dave was trying, but damn....he was a parody of himself. The blond wig, the shiny satin Vegas outfits....he looked pathetic. He didn't sing that bad, I didn't think...but the scream is gone. Completely gone. That was really as much a Van Halen cornerstone as was Eddie's playing and Mikey's background vocals.
If you wanted the concert and singer to sound anything like the recording, then you needed to see them with Sammy. (and not on that 2004 tour...Eddie sucked a lot of nights on that one)

Again, Dave-era VH was all about the show. These days, I think people are more concerned with the sound and performance. I hope I'm wrong and Van Halen conquers the world again, though.

The venues may have been smaller then but they played two and three nights in one city in the 80's. If there were 20,000 seat venues back then they would have sold them out. Raleigh is not a very big city either. They don't even have pro sports teams so its a lot different from the major cities where VH would pack them in for two or three nights in a row. So if they played three nights in a 12,000 seat arena thats 36,000 people.

I wish the official site still had all the old tour dates posted.

I just want to add that VH never failed with Dave. They failed with Sammy in 1988 when they tried playing stadiums on the Monsters Of Rock tour. The first failure for VH. 1998 was a total failure and again in 2004 was a failure with Sammy again and the promoters lost a lot of money on that tour.

I know there were other bands at the US Festival but VH headlined it and set the record for the highest paid performance at the time.

vhroth wrote:I just want to add that VH never failed with Dave. They failed with Sammy in 1988 when they tried playing stadiums on the Monsters Of Rock tour. The first failure for VH. 1998 was a total failure and again in 2004 was a failure with Sammy again and the promoters lost a lot of money on that tour.

Incorrect. The 2004 tour did 40 million. That was one of the top tours of the year. It had absolutely non-existent promotion, and Eddie was drunk most of the time.
1998...the concerts were well-received. Did good business. The VH III album....not so much. I'll agree that the album was a failure. The tour was not a failure.

Monsters of Rock...how did that fail? They sold out most of the stadiums, as I recall. Not hardly a failure, that tour.

I know Roth-tards love to say that the 04 tour with Sammy was a failure, but they are wrong. There are 40 million reasons that isn't true. Not to bad with a sloppy drunk on guitar and zero promotion of the tour.

vhroth wrote:The venues may have been smaller then but they played two and three nights in one city in the 80's. If there were 20,000 seat venues back then they would have sold them out. Raleigh is not a very big city either. They don't even have pro sports teams so its a lot different from the major cities where VH would pack them in for two or three nights in a row.

Obviously, you don't know much about Raleigh. We have the nicest arena in the country, the RBC center, which is home to the Carolina Hurricanes....who won the FREAKING STANLEY CUP LAST YEAR.
NC State also plays in that arena.....they have won 2 NCAA titles. UNC and Duke are within 20 miles....you might have heard about them, too. We have plenty of sports. Best college basketball in the country.

Not to mention the Carolina Panthers, who played in the Super Bowl a few years ago...just over 2 hrs away in Charlotte.

But again....nobody is saying VH wasn't popular with Dave back in the day. But what I am saying is the venues are DIFFERENT. The audience is DIFFERENT.

Again, I hope I'm wrong, but I'm expecting some scathing reviews. If Eddie is on his game, and Wolfgang can pull his weight, I'm expecting most reviews to focus on Dave. And I don't expect them to be pretty. They mostly weren't in 2002, the last time anyone much cared to review one of his shows, and he isn't any better now.

Take it for what it is.....it's a half-assed reunion, lots of people want to see it, (me being one) and it will do good business. Probably better than the 2004 tour, which seemed like they were trying to sabotage by not promoting it, but it won't be anywhere near what it COULD have been if they'd have gotten it together in 1996. That opportunity is gone.

What I'd really like to get out of this is a new album with Dave.

Pacfanweb wrote:

vhroth wrote:The venues may have been smaller then but they played two and three nights in one city in the 80's. If there were 20,000 seat venues back then they would have sold them out. Raleigh is not a very big city either. They don't even have pro sports teams so its a lot different from the major cities where VH would pack them in for two or three nights in a row.

Obviously, you don't know much about Raleigh. We have the nicest arena in the country, the RBC center, which is home to the Carolina Hurricanes....who won the FREAKING STANLEY CUP LAST YEAR.
NC State also plays in that arena.....they have won 2 NCAA titles. UNC and Duke are within 20 miles....you might have heard about them, too. We have plenty of sports. Best college basketball in the country.

Not to mention the Carolina Panthers, who played in the Super Bowl a few years ago...just over 2 hrs away in Charlotte.

But again....nobody is saying VH wasn't popular with Dave back in the day. But what I am saying is the venues are DIFFERENT. The audience is DIFFERENT.

Again, I hope I'm wrong, but I'm expecting some scathing reviews. If Eddie is on his game, and Wolfgang can pull his weight, I'm expecting most reviews to focus on Dave. And I don't expect them to be pretty. They mostly weren't in 2002, the last time anyone much cared to review one of his shows, and he isn't any better now.

Take it for what it is.....it's a half-assed reunion, lots of people want to see it, (me being one) and it will do good business. Probably better than the 2004 tour, which seemed like they were trying to sabotage by not promoting it, but it won't be anywhere near what it COULD have been if they'd have gotten it together in 1996. That opportunity is gone.

What I'd really like to get out of this is a new album with Dave.

The RBC center wasn't there in the 80's. Raleigh is not a major metropolis like Detroit,NYC,LA,Philly etc.

As for the reviews,the critics never did give VH good reviews even when they were the the biggest band around in the 80's. So fuck the critics. They're just washed up musicians that never made it so they make a living criticizing bands that have because they're jealous.

Bottom line,Van Halen is back. The band NEVER said this is a reunion,the media has labeled it a reunion. Its the new Van Halen and its going to rock.

Detroit - October 22nd
San Diego 11/25

Does anyone have a line on actual ticket prices (face value, not the brokers...)?

Pacfanweb wrote:

vhroth wrote:I just want to add that VH never failed with Dave. They failed with Sammy in 1988 when they tried playing stadiums on the Monsters Of Rock tour. The first failure for VH. 1998 was a total failure and again in 2004 was a failure with Sammy again and the promoters lost a lot of money on that tour.

Incorrect. The 2004 tour did 40 million. That was one of the top tours of the year. It had absolutely non-existent promotion, and Eddie was drunk most of the time.
1998...the concerts were well-received. Did good business. The VH III album....not so much. I'll agree that the album was a failure. The tour was not a failure.

Monsters of Rock...how did that fail? They sold out most of the stadiums, as I recall. Not hardly a failure, that tour.

I know Roth-tards love to say that the 04 tour with Sammy was a failure, but they are wrong. There are 40 million reasons that isn't true. Not to bad with a sloppy drunk on guitar and zero promotion of the tour.

OK,so your not here to put down Roth but now we are "Roth-tards"? The 04 tour made over 40 million but the band was guaranteed over 600,000 per show and most of the arenas,if any,were not sold out. So most of the money went to the band and the promoters lost big time.

Monsters Of Rock tour failed because there were to many bands to pay. It wasn't just Van Hagar and some warm up band playing stadiums and again,the promoters lost money. Van Hagar never tried to play stadiums again.

1998 was a complete failure. Most of the arenas were only half full. Maybe in your medium sized city and the medium sized venue was almost full but they bombed in the major cities.

vhroth wrote:OK,so your not here to put down Roth but now we are "Roth-tards"? The 04 tour made over 40 million but the band was guaranteed over 600,000 per show and most of the arenas,if any,were not sold out. So most of the money went to the band and the promoters lost big time.

Monsters Of Rock tour failed because there were to many bands to pay. It wasn't just Van Hagar and some warm up band playing stadiums and again,the promoters lost money. Van Hagar never tried to play stadiums again.

1998 was a complete failure. Most of the arenas were only half full. Maybe in your medium sized city and the medium sized venue was almost full but they bombed in the major cities.

1: Calling myopic, Dave or the grave people "Rothtards" is not in any way putting down Dave. That term refers to people who think you aren't ever allowed to say anything negative about their hero. I tell it like I see it. I don't care if I like a band or person and I'm a fan or not. Being a fan does NOT mean you have to defend every little thing anyone says about them. And for the record, I am a HUGE Van Halen fan, with a strong preference for the Dave years....that's what I grew up with, but I still liked them a lot with Sammy.

2: How about a link to that Monsters of Rock failure? Sure, Van Hagar never toured stadiums again, and neither did the original Van Halen as a headliner. Neither would have sold out with just the VH band and one opening act. Van Halen did a stadium tour, but it was with The Outlaws, Poco, and Boston was the headliner. Besides, stadium shows suck anyway. One of the problems that Dave cited when he left the band originally was that he would rather play indoor, more intimate venues where he could do his thing with the crowd, and the rest of the band was wanting to play bigger and bigger venues.

3: Doesn't matter what size the city is. Most amphitheaters are practically identical...right at 20k seats. Same general size everywhere you go. I saw them twice in 1998. Charlotte and Raleigh. Neither were sellouts, but they were much closer to full than half-full. And that was the case everywhere.
Saying either of these tours was a failure is simply repeating a lie that's been told for so long that people start to believe it.
That's like saying that Van Halen 2 was a failure because it only sold 4-5 million copies after Van Halen 1 sold over 10 mill.
Back in 1998-99, after the VH3 tour, the word was, the album was a failure, but the tour was a success and well-received.

Plus, let's see a link to where the band was guaranteed 600k per show in 2004. I remember the anti-Sammy contingent saying the band was guaranteed 1 million per show just a year or so ago. Now it's only 600k? The profit margin is going up every time that guarantee goes down.
I found the figures:

Rank...........6
Gross..........54.3 million
Avg Tkt.......76.44
Avg. Sales...9,868
Total Tkts....710,504
Avg. Gross..754,392

So, for the "failure" of a tour, as you claim, in 2004, Van Hagar...with ZERO promotion...NOTHING like we saw yesterday for an announcement, no hype whatsoever, they still played to right at 10k people per night. And I was wrong, it grossed 54.3 million, not 40 million. Grossed 710k per night...so even if they were guaranteed 600k as you claim, (which I doubt, you have no way to know that), the tour still made 150k+ every night after paying the band. And that doesn't include concessions, t-shirts and memorabilia sales. Both Van Halen and the promoters did well. Maybe not as well as in the past, when they were actually touring behind a new record, but not bad for what was basically an impromptu tour with a drunk on the guitar.

Now I'll agree that the current tour is going to beat that. I don't think anyone ever said or expected that it wouldn't. But that in no way means the 04 tour was a failure. Everybody involved got paid, well.

And anyone involved in this new tour is going to be very well-off indeed. I know I'll do my part to help them out.

Pacfanweb wrote:

vhroth wrote:OK,so your not here to put down Roth but now we are "Roth-tards"? The 04 tour made over 40 million but the band was guaranteed over 600,000 per show and most of the arenas,if any,were not sold out. So most of the money went to the band and the promoters lost big time.

Monsters Of Rock tour failed because there were to many bands to pay. It wasn't just Van Hagar and some warm up band playing stadiums and again,the promoters lost money. Van Hagar never tried to play stadiums again.

1998 was a complete failure. Most of the arenas were only half full. Maybe in your medium sized city and the medium sized venue was almost full but they bombed in the major cities.

1: Calling myopic, Dave or the grave people "Rothtards" is not in any way putting down Dave. That term refers to people who think you aren't ever allowed to say anything negative about their hero. I tell it like I see it. I don't care if I like a band or person and I'm a fan or not. Being a fan does NOT mean you have to defend every little thing anyone says about them. And for the record, I am a HUGE Van Halen fan, with a strong preference for the Dave years....that's what I grew up with, but I still liked them a lot with Sammy.

2: How about a link to that Monsters of Rock failure? Sure, Van Hagar never toured stadiums again, and neither did the original Van Halen as a headliner. Neither would have sold out with just the VH band and one opening act. Van Halen did a stadium tour, but it was with The Outlaws, Poco, and Boston was the headliner. Besides, stadium shows suck anyway. One of the problems that Dave cited when he left the band originally was that he would rather play indoor, more intimate venues where he could do his thing with the crowd, and the rest of the band was wanting to play bigger and bigger venues.

3: Doesn't matter what size the city is. Most amphitheaters are practically identical...right at 20k seats. Same general size everywhere you go. I saw them twice in 1998. Charlotte and Raleigh. Neither were sellouts, but they were much closer to full than half-full. And that was the case everywhere.
Saying either of these tours was a failure is simply repeating a lie that's been told for so long that people start to believe it.
That's like saying that Van Halen 2 was a failure because it only sold 4-5 million copies after Van Halen 1 sold over 10 mill.
Back in 1998-99, after the VH3 tour, the word was, the album was a failure, but the tour was a success and well-received.

Plus, let's see a link to where the band was guaranteed 600k per show in 2004. I remember the anti-Sammy contingent saying the band was guaranteed 1 million per show just a year or so ago. Now it's only 600k? The profit margin is going up every time that guarantee goes down.
I found the figures:

Rank...........6
Gross..........54.3 million
Avg Tkt.......76.44
Avg. Sales...9,868
Total Tkts....710,504
Avg. Gross..754,392

So, for the "failure" of a tour, as you claim, in 2004, Van Hagar...with ZERO promotion...NOTHING like we saw yesterday for an announcement, no hype whatsoever, they still played to right at 10k people per night. And I was wrong, it grossed 54.3 million, not 40 million. Grossed 710k per night...so even if they were guaranteed 600k as you claim, (which I doubt, you have no way to know that), the tour still made 150k+ every night after paying the band. And that doesn't include concessions, t-shirts and memorabilia sales. Both Van Halen and the promoters did well. Maybe not as well as in the past, when they were actually touring behind a new record, but not bad for what was basically an impromptu tour with a drunk on the guitar.

Now I'll agree that the current tour is going to beat that. I don't think anyone ever said or expected that it wouldn't. But that in no way means the 04 tour was a failure. Everybody involved got paid, well.

And anyone involved in this new tour is going to be very well-off indeed. I know I'll do my part to help them out.

From Rolling Stone:

11. Van Halen
$30.2 MILLION

ON THE ROAD High hopes for the first Van Hagar tour in eight years led to guarantees of up to $1 million a night, but ticket sales fell short. So, even as it counts a $38 million 2004 gross, the band will have to settle for less upfront next time.
ON CD Catalog sales amounted to slightly fewer than 500,000 units in 2004; publishing royalties brought in nearly $2 million.
ON THE SIDE The band added to tour revenue by selling T-shirts and hats at the impressive rate of ten dollars per person.

http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/van ... ney_makers

The bands management never confirmed figures but it was over 600,000 per show that VH was guaranteed,it could have been a million.