It wasn’t long ago that Van Halen announced that they will be touring and releasing a new album, the first with David Lee Roth since 1984 was released in, of course, 1984. And now the dates for the tour have finally been released along with the album release date. A Different Kind of Truth will be released on February 7 on Interscope Records, and the tour will kick off shortly thereafter on February 18 in Louisville, Ky. at the KFC Yum! Center. The extensive 45-date North American tour will last through June 26 when it concludes at the New Orleans Arena in New Orleans. Major cities that will be hit throughout the tour include Philadelphia, Toronto, Washington, D.C., Houston and a two-night stand at Madison Square Garden in New York.

On Thursday, the band performed a brief set at New York’s very small, underground venue Café Wha? The band chose the venue because it has been owned by Roth’s uncle in its sixties heyday when artists like Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix performed there. During the brief performance, the band made no official announcements about the upcoming tour or album, but did play a previously unreleased song Roth introduced as “She’s the Woman.” The band also tore through renditions of hits like “Jump,” “Hot for Teacher” and “Panama.”

This incarnation includes all original members of Van Halen other than bassist Mike Anthony, who currently plays in the band Chickenfoot with former Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar. Anthony is replaced by Eddie Van Halen’s son Wolfgang Van Halen. Alex Van Halen rounds out the lineup on drums. Roth sung for the band sporadically since he originally left in 1985, and has been touring with the band since 2006, though they have released no new music. 1984 was one of the band’s most popular albums, both critically and commericially, and “Jump,” “Hot for Teacher” and “Panama.”

Well, folks, it looks like the rumors that have been flying around for the past few months are true: Van Halen has indeed reunited with original lead singer David Lee Roth. The announcement, which was made via a series of videos on Van Halen’s official website, also confirmed a major tour and new album will follow next year as the band celebrates its 40^th anniversary. Dates are promised to be announced soon.

In addition to Roth, the lineup will feature founding brothers Alex and Eddie Van Halen, as well as Eddie’s son, Wolfgang Van Halen, on bass. Original bassist Mike Anthony currently is playing in the band Chickenfoot with ex-Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar.

Also putting to rest additional rumors of a record deal, it is reported that the band has signed a new deal with Interscope Records, and currently is working on its latest record. This record will be the first studio album of the band to feature Roth on lead vocals since 1984, released, appropriately, in 1984. After that album, Roth was replaced in the group by Hagar, who served as the singer through 1996. At that point in the band’s tumultuous history with lead singers, Roth briefly rejoined, but left shortly thereafter and was replaced by Gary Cherone. Hagar came back in 2003 and recorded three new tracks with the band for a compilation, and finally was replaced again by Roth in 2006. Since that time, the band has toured sporadically.

Van Halen was originally formed by the Van Halen brothers in 1972 as Mammoth before changing their name to Genesis. They settled on Van Halen after the discovery of the band of the same name that included, at one time or another, Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel. The group became known around the world after the success of a self-titled debut album, which produced hits like “Running with the Devil,” “Jamie’s Cryin’” and a cover of the Kinks “You Really Got Me.”

It appears Van Halen, with David Lee Roth, could be playing this year’s Grammy Nomination Concert later this month. That is, if Twitter is correct.

Posted on the official Grammy Twitter feed was the following message, which doesn’t seem very cryptic:

Who do u predict the reuniting band will be @ #GRAMMYnoms? Does this hint make u wanna “Jump” & “Dance the Night Away”?

The Grammy Nominations concert will be held on November 30 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, and will feature performances by Lady Gaga, Sugarland and Ludacris, among others. The Grammy’s also released a statement via press release implying that Van Halen may perform at the Grammy Awards ceremony in February of next year, though that is still unconfirmed.

It is assumed that, if this happens, David Lee Roth will be the lead singer of the Van Halen, since he reunited with the band in 2006, and toured North America with the band in 2007 and 2008.

Perhaps more importantly, fans also are wondering if the Grammy Nomination concert will lead to a new recording by the band. There have been reports that the band signed to Sony’s Columbia Records earlier this year. If so, it would be the group’s first recording with David Lee Roth since 1984 was released in, of course, 1984.

The previous tours with Roth have not featured the full original lineup, as guitarist Eddie Van Halen’s song Wolfgang has been playing bass for the group, instead of original bass player Michael Anthony.

After 1984, Sammy Hagar replaced Roth in 1985 and he stayed with band through 1996, when Roth briefly reunited with the band. In 2003, another Hagar was back in the band and recorded three new tracks with the band for a compilation. Finally, Roth rejoined the group in 2006.

Ironically, the band has only won one Grammy throughout its career, which was in 1991 for the album For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. Hagar was the lead singer for that album.

Soundwave Revolution, the rock festival with Van Halen as the headliner, has been canceled. It had been scheduled to be held in Melton on September 30. Other scheduled performers had been Hole (Courtney Love’s band), Sum 41, Panic at the Disco and Alice Cooper.

The event was axed by promoters after they failed in securing any co-headlining act. Last week, they had been scheduled to announce it.

Promoter AJ Maddah said, at the very last moment their circumstances changed. They were forced to withdraw. There isn’t enough time, unfortunately, to find a replacement. We really did not want to proceed with a lineup that was incomplete.

Tonight, it is expected that a full announcement will be made. Many of the acts scheduled for the festival are expected to still tour Australia.

Maddah said many of the bands will still be visiting Australia. We will create packages for them so that can perform at clubs as well as other venues.

Whispers from the industry however suggest that David Lee Roth and Van Halen won’t be touring Down Under any longer.

Soundwave Revolution ticket holders will be refunded via their credit cards. Soon more details about the refunds will be announced.

Maddah said, we could have decided to link through using our current lineup. The outcome financially would have been much better, obviously, for us. However we didn’t want to bring an inferior product to market.

In February, Maddah will still be running the normal Soundwave Festival.

Van Halen fans may be jumping for joy.

Reportedly, the hard rock band will be headlining a music festival in Australia with David Lee Roth, their original lead singer.

It will be the first time that the 56-year-old singer will perform live with the band since 2008. However, Roth has attempted several Van Halen comebacks since first leaving in 1985 amidst the peak of the band’s popularity.

After Roth was kicked out of the band by Eddie Van Halen in October 1996, he wrote a scathing letter that he released to the media and called his former collaborator a liar.

Shortly after that, Eddie Van Halen released a statement that said, 11 years ago we parted ways with him for many reasons. His letter reminded of us some of those reasons.

Earlier this year a report in Rolling Stone magazine said the former enemies are recording an album with new material. It is their first since “1984”, their multi-platinum set, was released over 25 years ago.

According to a report from Scripps News, with Roth as their singer Van Halen has sold a total of 35 million albums and without him they have sold 20 million.

Roth will be joining Alex Van Halen, drummer and bassist Wolfgang Valen Halen (Eddie’s son) to perform at the Soundwave Festival. It runs in Brisbane through September 24 and in Perth through October 3. Some other big names on the bill include Panic! At the Disco, Bad Religion, Hole and Alice Cooper.

Mike Anthony, the band’s original bassist, won’t be back performing anytime soon with Van Halen. He and Sammy Hagar, another former Van Halen singer, have joined as part of a super group called Chickenfoot.

Sammy Hagar, of Van Halen fame, indicates in his new book that he thinks he was once the victim of an alien abduction.

The singer gave and interview to MTV Hive in support of his recently released autobiography, “Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock. During questioning, the interviewer asked Hagar if he thought he had been the victim of an alien abduction.

Hagar said, “I think I have.”

He also stated that he thought that aliens, “plugged into me. It was a download situation…or, they uploaded something from my brain, like and experiment.”
In addition, the singer talked about Van Halen’s recent recording circumstances. The group is currently engaged in working with original lead singer, David Lee Roth to record a new album.

Hagar said, “I heard it’s not going so good. This is what I’ve heard through the gravevine, that they’ve already fired one producer and Ed [Van Halen – guitarist] and Dave [Lee Roth] supposedly can’t be in the same room together.” He indicated that he thought he was “doing Van Halen a favor with my book. It may put a fire under their assess to swallow some pride and make another record for the fans.”

Hagar talked about his notorious feud with David Lee Roth. He said Roth is “no freakin’ fun” and “not a nice guy at all.” Hagar thinks Roth is “scared of him” because he “sings too well.”

For the first time in 26 years, Van Halen is recording an album with David Lee Roth back as the lead singer.

It was leaked last year that the band was going to record with John Shanks, who is known for his work with Take That and Bon Jovi. Shanks himself has revealed some hints that he has indeed been working with the band.

Shanks sent a tweet from his Twitter account (Twitter.com/johnshankes1) that said, “Here we go kids…VH”. In addition, he uploaded a photograph of Eddie Van Halen’s amplifier for his guitar.

A year ago, Van Halen verified that they were to begin writing for a new album. They also indicated that it would include David Lee Roth for the first time since the album “1984” was dropped in 1984. In 1985, Roth went his own way and Sammy Hagar joined the band. In 2006, Roth returned to the group.

According to a recent press release, Van Halen is currently prepping for a new album – their first with original vocalist David Lee Roth after almost 30 years – that is slated to surface next year. The album will still be under the Warner/Chappell Music label as they decided to extend their contract with Eddie and Alex Van Halen and the entire band.

The record label confirmed the news on Thursday, August 5, through an official statement. The album marks Roth’s return to the recording scene with the band since his departure in the late ‘90s and was replaced by Extreme’s Gary Cherone.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press came out with a report that Van Halen will be touring next year in support of their forthcoming album, along with “Bionic” songstress Christina Aguilera and country superstars Kenny Chesney, Fleetwood Mac and Neil Diamond.

Speaking with Live Nation CEO and Van Halen manager Irving Azoff, the Associated Press quoted him in saying “their livelihood depends on touring”, referring to the future of music acts including Van Halen in an industry where touring is not as lucrative as it was in the past. “Acts are not going to stop touring. They’re just going to try and tour smarter”, Azoff said.

If Van Halen would take Azoff’s advice seriously, their supposed 2011 tour will be the first time for the band to go back on the road with Roth after three years, after the conclusion of their ’07-’08 tour.

Well it’s official. 2009 is days away from coming to a close so it’s time to pull out all of those best of the decade lists. They are exhaustive, tedious and largely subjective, but this one is interesting. Pollstar has released a list of the most successful touring artists over the past decade judged by box office receipts. The touring machine that is Dave Matthews Band took top honors pulling in $529.1 million on 11.6 million tickets sold. Celine Dion, Kenny Chesney, Bruce Springsteen and the Rolling Stones round out the top 5 with James Taylor sliding into the number 50 slot. $116.3 million still isn’t a bad haul for a man long past his prime. There aren’t too many surprises snuck in here. Most of your arena bands are represented. Who will be the topping the charts when we look back in 2019? Only time will tell.

1. Dave Matthews Band; $529.1 million; 11.6 million.
2. Celine Dion; $522.2; 4.
3. Kenny Chesney; $455.6; 8.6.
4. Bruce Springsteen; $444.3; 5.7.
5. The Rolling Stones; $426.9; 3.2.
6. U2; $391; 4.4.
7. Madonna; $325.3; 2.1.
8. Eagles; $313.4; 2.8.
9. Elton John; $286.4; 2.5.
10. Jimmy Buffett; $285.8; 4.5.
11. Toby Keith; $273.8; 6.4.
12. Cher; $263.5; 3.5.
13. Elton John/Billy Joel; $261.6; 2.3.
14. Bon Jovi; $241.4; 3.2.
15. Metallica; $225.5; 3.6.
16. Rascal Flatts; $222.4; 4.5.
17. Paul McCartney; $221.4; 1.4.
18. NSYNC; 196.4; 3.8.
19. Britney Spears; $195.7; 3.5.
20. Trans-Siberian Orchestra; $194.9; 4.7.
21. Aerosmith; $193.2; 3.2.
22. Tim McGraw/Faith Hill; $189.9; 2.7.
23. George Strait; $184.7; 3.1
24. The Police; $181.2; 1.7.
25. Neil Diamond; $179.4; 2.7.
26. Barry Manilow; $173.9; 1.7.
27. Bob Dylan; $161.1; 3.4.
28. “American Idols Live”; $156.8; 3.
29. “Ozzfest”; $154.9; 3.4.
30. Rod Stewart; $153.9; 2.1.
31. “Vans Warped Tour”; $152.9; 5.1.
32. Van Halen; $147.8; 1.6.
33. Fleetwood Mac; $146.2; 1.7.
34. Brooks & Dunn; $144.4; 3.8.
35. AC/DC; $144.3; 2.1.
36. Coldplay; $142.9; 2.6.
37. Eric Clapton; $139.3; 1.9.
38. Luis Miguel; $137; 2.1.
39. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers; $136; 3.
40. Nickelback; $135.8; 3.3.
41. Dixie Chicks; $134.9; 2.6.
42. Tim McGraw; $133.7; 2.7.
43. Backstreet Boys; $132.4; 2.6.
44. Brad Paisley; $129.7; 3.3.
45. Tina Turner; $127.9; 1.7.
46. Bette Midler; $126; 1.1.
47. Billy Joel; $123.4; 1.4.
48. Barbra Streisand; $119.5; 0.4.
49. Phish; $116.7; 2.6.
50. James Taylor; $116.3; 2.6.