If you were putting aside savings from that rumoured Van Halen tour, you can stop now, as the veteran American rock band have once again cancelled any plans to visit Australian shores.
Rumours have persisted of a return from ‘Diamond’ David Lee Roth and the Van Halen family since they pulled the plug on their September 2011 appearance as headliners for Soundwave’s Revolution Festival, but unfortunately their supposed in-fighting brought the event to a miserable end.
Classic Rock now reports the band have scuppered all plans to visit Down Under. They were in talks with promoter, Patrick Prendergast of When The Lion Roars, for a visit in November but have now pulled the plug. Prendergast remarking, “[Van Halen] have passed on playing this year, which is a shame.”
Rumours of an Australian tour from Van Halen have persisted since the release of their latest studio album, A Different Kind of Truth, the band’s twelfth in their forty-year career. Whispers first beginning when music journo-come-scuttlebutt Nui Te Koha began plugging a Van Halen tour in February.
Later, the Triple M music reporter changed the date to a touted October visit, delaying an originally touted August/September visit after “talks with two promoters to down to Australia.”
“They’re going to do Japan in November and one major promoter is talking to Van Halen about October, so it looks very good,” said Te Koha at the time. Although the tour of Japan is going ahead, Australia will once again miss out. His reports weren’t unfounded however, with David Lee Roth himself hinting at Aussie plans in a promotional video from the frontman (in full fishing gear with his dog Russell) from last May.
“The band is getting along famously, better than we have in quite some time; and I think the shows reveal that,” said Roth in the video. Adding that “through the miracle of YouTube”, fans can see their revitalised energy. Also encouraging fans to film their concerts, saying “we’re one of the few bands who relishes you bringing whatever camera… if you can carry it in and pull the trigger on it yourself – then please do.”
There’s plenty to capture too, thanks to Roth’s recent band-vs-fan antics, including admonishing some brawlers for starting a fight in the crowd in March; and busting an audience member’s chops after he threw trash onstage during their cover of ‘(Oh) Pretty Woman’.
It looks like it’ll be some time before Australian fans catch such antics in the flesh.
