December 4, 1997 - Van Halen have officially started their media campaign to promote the forthcoming album, Van Halen III, due for release in the USA on February 24, 1998. This week they will be doing international magazine and television interviews. Next week will be spent on promotion in the USA.

The INSIDE magazine will be at 5150 next week to interview the band and review the new album for Issue 10. Issue 9 will be mailed out to International subscribers today (Dec 4), USA subscribers on Dec 8. Canadian subscribers will have to wait until the postal strike is over.

Update: December 6, 1997 - We have further information on the rumour of Ace Frehley recording Eruption for the forthcoming Kiss studio album Psycho Circus.

The series of events claimed by Circus magazine in regards to Edward helping Ace out with Eruption are *completely* untrue. Based on that, the remainder of the report is more than likely false as well. - Official Van Halen Web Site

(Original VHND report follows)

November 26, 1997 - Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley will be recording his own rendition of Edward Van Halen's classic guitar piece Eruption for the next Kiss studio album, according to Circus magazine. When Circus asked why he would do this, Ace replied:

I called Ed on the phone and told him that I was planning on performing Eruption on the new KISS album as a kind of vindication. Ed thought it was a hoax at first and then he was a big help. I might play it backwards just to mix it up a bit.

When searching for more info about this rumour, we found a few reports that conflict with the information printed in Circus magazine. AceFrehley.Com's sources close to Ace say it's "just a rumour". The webmaster of Kiss Otaku says "I really don't see Ace thinking he has to cover Eddie to show the world he's not a substandard player", and, "Circus has a reputation of being as accurate as Hit Parader". We'll keep you posted!

December 16, 1997 - Head on over to the Official Van Halen Web Site for the latest info on Van Halen III. Brad just returned from 5150 and has all the details on the first single and an altered track listing for the album.

Without You will be the first single and video - look for it in January. A new track titled Josephina has been added to the album in place of That's Why I Love You. The latter is likely to show up as a B-side or an extra track on the Japanese release.

As you can see from the banner at the top of the page, CD Universe are taking orders for the Japanese import version of Van Halen III. They have the release date as January 13 1998, but it's extremely unlikely that the album will be released at that time. The official release date is still February 24, 1998.

Updated track listing:

December 16, 1997 - The Official Van Halen Web Site has some more goodies for Van Halen fans. Hot off the scanner are brand new pictures of the band taken last week at 5150! Click on Edward to go to the official site where you can find more great pictures!

Over the coming weeks the official site will be presenting an online tour of 5150, including video clips, sound bytes, and exclusive pictures of the studio where our favourite band works their magic!

Both the Van Halen News Desk and the Official Van Halen Web Site are experiencing record web traffic at the moment. The VHND had 3000 visitors yesterday and 4000 today! Thanks a lot for supporting both sites and helping us edge towards 1 million visitors!

December 22, 1997 - More pictures of the band have been uploaded to the Official VH Site, including Alex & Gary together, Edward playing a riff from the new album and Alex's drum kit.

December 25, 1997 - Click on a link below to view a special Christmas message from Edward Van Halen, thanks to the Official Van Halen Web Site. The RealVideo version will play as it downloads.

• VH Xmas Greeting (Windows AVI video - 4.6MB)
• VH Xmas Greeting (RealVideo stream) - 36KB)
• VH Xmas Greeting (Macintosh Quicktime) - 5.5MB)