RIP Eddie Van Halen

[GoGo Yubari]

 

[ThrillhouseMAX]

Damn. That really sucks to hear. 

[Bobfoc]

I was hoping Van Halen would tour over here one day so I could see them. They were very close to agreeing to headline the Download Festival a couple of times. That won't happen now, sadly.

[Schlitzbrille]

How I was introduced to VH

[Adam]

Sad news, and surprising to me at least as I wasn't aware he had cancer.

1 hour ago, Bobfoc said:

I was hoping Van Halen would tour over here one day so I could see them. They were very close to agreeing to headline the Download Festival a couple of times. That won't happen now, sadly.

Yeah, they did tour a few years ago with Motley Crue and I think maybe Def Leppard but the tickets were really expensive. Another legendary band of the past that I've missed the opportunity to see now.

[Hellraiser]

20 minutes ago, Adam said:

Sad news, and surprising to me at least as I wasn't aware he had cancer.

There had been rumors for a while that his cancer was back and that he was travelling back and forth between the USA and Germany to get treatment. Mostly on gossip sites. The Van Halen family never confirmed these rumors though. 

[Bobfoc]

46 minutes ago, Adam said:

Yeah, they did tour a few years ago with Motley Crue and I think maybe Def Leppard but the tickets were really expensive. Another legendary band of the past that I've missed the opportunity to see now.

You must be thinking of another band (Poison, maybe). Van Halen last toured the UK in 1996, and that was with Sammy Hagar. As far as I can tell, their last UK show with David Lee Roth was as far back as 1984 at Monsters of Rock.

[METALMAN]

I had no idea he was ill, and Van Halen are a band I'd have liked to have seen at some point too. I don't by any means have a great deal of knowledge about them, but Eddie Van Halen and his band were great. It's so ubiquitous that I think it's quite hard to imagine, but in the late 70s there wasn't really any other rock music that sounded as slick and shiny or had the production levels of the first Van Halen album. They pretty much invented the mainstream hard rock style for the decade to come, and I think this might be one of the reasons Van Halen tend to be overlooked a little bit by critics: great as they were, they paved the way for an awful lot of dross. But it's not necessarily Van Halen's fault that pretty much everyone that followed them was shit.

Anyway, Eddie Van Halen - tremendous guitarist. Van Halen - really good band. This is a real shame.

[Adam]

1 hour ago, Bobfoc said:

You must be thinking of another band (Poison, maybe). Van Halen last toured the UK in 1996, and that was with Sammy Hagar. As far as I can tell, their last UK show with David Lee Roth was as far back as 1984 at Monsters of Rock.

I must've done then, cheers. Either way, they're a band I'd have loved to see live and Eddie is one of the all-time greats.

[Nerf]

9 hours ago, E X P A N D said:

How I was introduced to VH

I'd never played GT4 but I just sensed that Panama was coming. It fit perfectly.

[DFF]

I've been working through their discography on the back of the awful news. So many great tracks - the debut album opens with Runnin' with the Devil, Eruption, You Really Got Me (great cover) and Aint Talkin' Bout Love. What an opening four song salvo to your first LP. 

RIP EVH

[Hellraiser]

Sammy Hagar and Eddie Van Halen made peace before Eddie's death. Hagar says that they had started communicating via text earlier this year. They both agreed not to tell anyone because of the reunion rumors that would have ensued. 

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/sammy-hagar-eddie-van-halen-made-peace/