Van Halen show postponed
Charlottesvillians hoping to “Jump,” “Dance the Night Away,” and go “Running with the Devil” tonight will have to wait a little longer. Van Halen’s concert at John Paul Jones Arena scheduled for tonight has been postponed to an as-yet-undetermined date in the future, according to a press release from JPJ officials.
A call to Arena manager Larry Wilson was not immediately returned, so there’s no word yet on whether the icy forecast, the not quite 100 percent ticket sales, or something else is to blame for the last minute postponement, but reviews from Wednesday night’s show at the BankAtlantic Center outside Palm Beach, Florida indicate that the band is still in fine form.
12:37pm update: The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Van Halen’s equipment trucks were already at the arena at the time the show got postponed. In other, most likely unrelated Van Halen news, actress Valerie Bertinelli admitted to Oprah Winfrey in an interview to be aired Monday that she cheated on Eddie Van Halen during her 20-year marriage to the guitar god. Bertinelli is also the mother of 16-year-old bassist Wolfgang Van Halen.
1:39pm update: According to the band’s website, Van Halen has also postponed their show at Gwinnett Arena outside Atlanta, which they had scheduled for this Monday, February 25.
Until the real thing arrives, here’s a taste of what JPJ has to look forward to via YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUpVPNTch9A
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Listen to 106.1 The Corner for details on the rescheduled date as soon as we have them.
Meanwhile, opening act Ryan Shaw (A Corner favorite!) is in Charlottesville, and will still appear in “The Corner Lounge” around 12:30pm Friday for an interview and acoustic performance. We’ll see if Ryan knows anything further about the reason for the postponed show during this interview. Corner listeners will recognize Ryan’s songs “Nobody” and “Do The 45″ which have received good exposure on the station.
Sick of the Local Rambos-
I bet the cops had something to do with the cancellation. Can you come up with a good conspiracy theory on this??
Nice Jeff.
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Likely a performer illness - severe flu, strep throat, or otherwise. If the gear is there, then weather is not the issue. Probably rescheduled both shows to give recuperation time, as well as not set up the Duluth fans for a last minute cancellation if the performer has not had enough time to get over it by that show day. Look at their schedule - they are now off until March 3; plenty of time to recover.
Not quite 100% ticket sales? Doubtful. 10,000 tickets at an average of $90 = $900,000 gross. Nothing to scoff at and it surely covers production costs and allows for a very healthy profit. They will reschedule, as $900,000 is a nice incentive.
The Hook just ran a blog post about ticket sales being approx. 12k, so the gross is a bit higher, but still, even a million bux ain’t great given that Pollstar reported VH’s avg. gross per city and avg. ticket price at $1,482,167 and $115.49.
While 900k is certainly nothing to scoff at, I wonder if it really does leave a “very healthy profit” for the band. It’s not like the band puts the gross minus the production costs directly into their pocket.
Also, just because the gear made it to the venue, doesn’t mean weather isn’t an issue as the band could be stuck at an airport. IIRC, the gear - and even the rest of the band, were at the Paramount while Ryan Adams was stuck on the tarmac due to bad weather.
Given that the show on the 25th was also nixed, it probably is an illness, but who really knows, maybe the wheels are starting to come loose a bit?
May be bogus, but fitting, check c’ville craigslist under musicians.
E V H and DLR are welcome to my basement. I’ve got beer, too. Mmm, beer.
Ok, here’s the rumor: the band had a blow-up in Downtown Charlottesville coming out of a bar, lots of yelling and throwing things, and someone said in so many words “that’s it!”. Can anyone substantiate?
No Jeff, I will not take that bet. They were involved.
The Van Halen show in Ft. Lauderdale was HORRIBLE! The first hour, all was normal…but as the show progressed, it was clear Eddie was under the influence of something. He wobbled all over the stage..missed solos, fell during his “solo” which was essentially feedback, missed a cue in Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love, fell again over his monitors and then proceeded to botch the solo in Jump.
The key element was Wolfie…who was visibly upset. He threw his bass across the stage when the show was over…never acknowledged his Dad and then knocked over 2 cabinets when he went backstage. Clearly a son, not happy with his father’s actions.
After that show…I was expecting a “rehab” notice. The fact they’ve canceled 2 shows, only backs up what I saw Wednesday. Eddie…GET HELP.
what do you expect? this ain’t VH-1, this is real life. they’re old. washed up. probably broke. go listen to something that’s less than a quarter-of-a-century old news.
I’m just totally pissed, I know people who drove 10 hours to meet us only to get boned, something is up with these guys.
Jeff…..your the man, good one. Sick, I’ll check my sources on how the cops pulled this one off. If you check badcopnews.com you’ll probably find out faster than me though.
Sheep Dog, I’m only trying to be helpful… Can I suggest you watch your grammar? You’re terrible in the incorrect usage of words such as “your”, “you’re”, “they’re” and “their”. We expect cops to be just a little brighter than this. If you make the mistakes here, you probably make them in reports too. Yesterday you used “they’re” incorrectly. Today it’s “your” being used incorrectly.
I wish I could have said this by Private Message, but that is not an option here. I don’t want you to look stupid while preparing police reports. And please don’t be hating on me for this suggestion, OK?
> > Just got back from drowning my sorrows regarding the
> > postponement, and I heard about the “Big Fight” on the
> > Downtown Mall at Rapture as well last night.
> > Charlottesville is not a big town, so word gets around
> > fast. Apparently it was Ed vs. Wolfie, with the end
> > result being Wolfie saying something to the effect of
> > “I quit!”. The guys I heard it from were all older
> > good ‘ol boys who heard it straight from the source,
> > i.e. someone who was there in person when it all
> > happened. Again, take it for what it’s worth, but I
> > think it has some plausibility to it. Maybe they’ll
> > take the week or so off and just cool off before
> > resuming the tour, I don’t know. All I know is, my
> > fingers are crossed!
> >
> > I think this story may hold water… it’s the one I’ve
> > heard several times. 2 people that work on the mall
> > have called me in the last 15 minutes and 1 that works
> > at JPJ. * they all know how bummed I am* I wonder how
> > they’ll fix it? Strange how Wolf was theh reason this
> > sort of all took off and now he may be the end of it
> > as well… DLR is likely sitting back thinking
> > “shit*and ED thought I was a big ol pain in the
> > ass!!!!”
I saw them in Atlanta and they were terrible. Most reviews I am seeing are saying the same thing in other cities. As the show progressed I found myself staying only to see what other blunders were going to happen because it surely wasn’t the music that kept me there and I am VH fan and have seen them 7 times throughout.
Consider yourselves lucky and go get you money back. If you don’t then go to the rescheduled show and see what all of us who have already seen them are talking about. This tour is an ABOMINATION!
All I can say is that the show on 2/16 (Jacksonville, FL) was outstanding. This was the third time I’ve seen VH with DLR as the frontman (78 and 84 were the other two) and they were MUCH tighter than on the ‘1984′ tour. Only complaint I have is that Dave’s mic had intermittent issues at a couple of times, including when he was trying to talk to the audience. The problems seemed to be quickly remedied and in no way had any real negative effect on the show.
EVH was the best I had ever seen him, and his solo was, in a word, mindblowing!
I am one of the pissed off who managed to scrape together the price of two tickets, hotel, travel, & two days off work for the show at Gwinnett Center tonight. I think one only has to look at an after Oscar party picture of Eddie in the Washington Post to see what the problem is.
The only photos of Eddie I can find at an Oscar after-party are from 2006. He attended the Elton John party. He had long hair then — not the short style he’s sporting on tour. I couldn’t find any current Eddie photos in the Washington Post Oscar photos.
GaPeach64, I have to agree on the photos. Have yet to see a geniune pic of EVH trashed, though there are a few photoshop versions floating around.
What everyone has to remember is that there are more than those four guys onstange involved in this deal. As a guy who used to do sound enforcement for smaller bands back in the 80s, crap happens that has to be dealt with on the fly. Add to this that in this day and age you have computerized control of some of the mixdown functions that are supposed to “help” the crew that don’t always funtion as they are supposed to, you are going to have some glitches in shows, just think of how a ‘minor’ glitch in your home/work PC can screw up your whole day. If the mixing board crew is on their game that night, it may be a minor issue, if not, its going to be a disaster. The only show I have heard extremely negative comments on is the second BAC (Sunrise, FL) show, where there seemed to be technical issue after issue. Those that I have talked to firsthand that were at the first Sunrise/Lauderdale show were very happy with their experience.
I am not going to say that the band, or an individual member cannot have an off night, but remember that there are others involved. IMHO, a lot of the mess ups seem to be tied to the “canned” portion of the 1984/Jump encore; if they were to eliminate that and close with something else they could eliminate a lot of the problems.
Whoops, my mistake on the photo. Thanks for pointing that out.
I saw Van Halen in Orlando on Valentine’s Day ‘08 with my wife. Awesome show! Check out youtube clips: 2/14 Orlando. The entire guitar solo is posted and it rocks!!!
I also saw Van Halen in Dallas in the 1980’s at the Texas Jam and some other shows with the Red Rocker. Rockin’ shows! Huge shows in Texas where they often kicked off their tours!!
The Orlando show was equally entertaining. Diamond Dave displayed fewer acrobatics, but that’s a sign of age I’m sure. They still rocked and the Amway Arena has got to have the poorest acoustics of any Arena in the US.
Too bad about the cancellations in GA. I’m sure that the show will be rescheduled, a brief spat never stopped the Van Halen brothers from regrouping to jam some more.
hs78ta — I went to the Atlanta concert. The worst thing that happened there was Eddie’s sound cut off during his guitar solo. All we could hear were his onstage amps. It was the end of a long line of Dave’s mic going in and out and giving him feed back. They switched out his mic about three times. The intros to the songs were so muddled it sometimes took the chorus to completely recognize the song. Several of us would look around at each other puzzled at times — also — I was on the floor and we would glare over at the mixing board. I was still thrilled to be there — just shocked at the poor sound quality.
Reb-L — sure thing. I get Google alerts for some artists and sometimes I get something that seems new and then it isn’t. When I Googled for Van Halen & Eddie & Oscars — this time last year the tour rumors were hot & heavy — there was a Rolling Stone article — Some of that stuff came back up too. It picked up the 2006 Elton John Oscars. I think it was the same photo the Atlanta Journal used to announce the Duluth postponement. They took the photo off after several posters ripped on the AJC. LOL. There were plenty current tour photos they could use.
Nice reporting Hook. Yea Val admitted to cheating BY KISSING A WOMAN!!!! You Jackasses should know this is not cheating. I heard ol wolfie was runnin his mouth again young buck with a big head makes sense. Is the hook run by females only? Are there not any males on staff who can splain the difference between a woman cheating and a woman kissing another woman? What guy would be offended?> Maybe some hook fancyboi? Makes sense.
The Charlottesville show has been rescheduled for March 11 and the Duluth show has been rescheduled for Marh 19. It looks like a couple of shows that were originally scheduled for those nights nave been rescheduled for dates in April.
I had tickets to the Dallas show on March the 3rd. It got cancelled also. I saw them in Dallas on Jan 26th, 2008 and they were at their absolute best!! That was my seventh time to see Van Halen and I have never seen them this good!! I hope the Dallas show get rescheduled and that there’s no problems.
I was front and center for FEB 20 Sunrise , FL show (last show ?) and THEY LOOKED AND SOUNDED WONDERFUL ! I did notice and have photos of Eddie wearing a wedding ring. Does anyone know if he married Janie his girlfriend ? Are they still together ? If it’s his old wedding ring from Valerie, that’s so sad.
To the poster who said Wolfie quit… they can pick up another bassist in 10 mins.