Van Halen is my favorite band of all time. They stand out as
much as any band I've ever seen. Ever since the first time I saw
them I knew they were different, there was something special about their
music...
The first time I saw them was back in 1998 on a #1 Hit weekend broadcast
on Much Music. They played "Jump", and I instantly reconized it and
from then on I became a fan. They have always been leaders in both
creative and technical abilites, pushing music to its boundries.
I learned from them that there's much more to music than three or four
chords...after listening to them I learned that there's no boundries to
music, the only limit is one's imagination. There have been many
artists with a somewhat similar style, but I've yet to hear anyone match
the magic of Van Halen. Van Halen was originally formed with Edward
and Alex Van Halen, David Lee Roth and Mark Stone on bass. Mark departed
from the band in their early days and was replaced by bassist Micheal Anthony.
The band played clubs in the L.A. circuit for about four years and was
signed to Warner Bros. They became an instant phenonomn with Edward's
introduction of a guitar technique known as "Tapping". They constantly
toured and realeased an album for six years straight, then it happened,
Dave quit. Many didn't know what the band would do to get a replacment
for such a flamboyant frontman. Some even suggested the band change
their name if they were considered a replacement. The band found
their perfect match, former Montrose vocalist Sammy Hagar. With Hagar's
joining the band had more freedom in creating music with diversity, and
the music took a change I believe for the positive. Hagar stayed
with the band for eleven years before a bitter split. The band then
hired Gary Cherone as the 3rd vocalist. The album with him wasn't
percieved as well as other records they realeased, however I saw Gary with
the band and it was the best concert I've seen to date. Gary left
on amiciable terms about two years ago. Today Edward is in cancer
recovery as the band works on an album. The future is uncertian,
but which ever direction they take I'm sure it will be a great one.
