There are many moods to the Van Halen frontman psychodrama, but only one hard truth: nobody bothered to ask the fans how they felt.

Until now, that is. VH fan Keith Gerard recently conducted a poll of users of the alt.music.van-halen news group, seeking their reaction to the latest face change.

The story so far: Gary Cherone, singer of the recently split pop-metal band Extreme, will become the new permanent VH singer. He takes over from band veteran Roth, who just weeks ago had resumed his old job from Hagar, who had fronted VH for the better part of a decade.

Gerard asked the VH news group to choose one of four options, completing the sentence, "If it's true that Gary Cherone is the new frontman for Van Halen I would:

A. Definitely give Van Halen a chance;
B. Probably give Van Halen a chance;
C. Probably NOT give Van Halen a chance and just listen to past VH;
D. Completely write off VH for good."

Gerard received 79 responses via e-mail, and the results aren't good for Van Halen. In fact, they could hardly be worse.

A majority of fans, 54 per cent (43 votes) said they would write off Van Halen forever. A further 29 per cent (23 votes) said they would just listen to the old stuff. Taken together the votes cast for options "D" and "C" show 83 per cent (66 respondants) want nothing at all to do with Cherone as VH singer.

Just 17 per cent of resopndents (13 people) chose the options saying they'd "probably" or "definitely" give Cherone a chance.

Gerart told me via e-mail that most respondents "clearly support the asumnption that VH was involved in a shameless publicity strunt."

VH fans have set up the Van Halen News Desk to handle all the fast-breaking VH changes. It's right up-to-date with the comings and goings, excuses and squabbles. There are also links to sites where you can download the two new songs that Roth recorded with the band for its forthcoming greatest hits package.

The Van Halen News Desk: http://www.vhnd.com

Typed by Kevin Derbyshire from the Van Halen List.
Thanks Kevin!