On the same night, Michael Anthony was seen at the Sammy Hagar gig at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles.

The movie is due for release on March 9, 2001.

View Trailer

Today at the "Pleasure Dome", the message board at the official Van Halen web site, a number of posts appeared from an anonymous person with the username of "Michael Jackson". In his replys to several threads, "Michael" gave the impression that he knew what was going on with the band. When asked to elaborate, "Michael" had no hesitation in opening up and spilling some dirt.

A link to "Michael's" message is provided below if you want to read it all for yourself, but here is a quick summary of what he said. Please remember that these are his words, not mine!

• Dave is back.
• The new album is finished, the artwork is done and the title has been chosen.
• It will be a full album with 13 tracks - not another 'Best Of'.
• The health of band members is not the reason for the delay.
• The announcement will not happen before Christmas.
• The announcement and first single will be forthcoming before Groundhog Day (February 2).
• The album will be released before St. Patrick's day (March 17).
• A tour will begin shortly after the album is released.

Normally I'd put this sort of information on the rumours page, but "Michael" seems pretty convincing. Sure, anybody can register as a user on the Van Halen Message Board and post whatever they like, but not many people have come forward with this sort of information.

I'll leave it up to you whether to believe him.

Link: Read the "Michael Jackson" message
Link: The Pleasure Dome - Official Van Halen Message Board

Edward Van Halen is expected to appear at the NAMM convention in Anaheim on January 20, 2001 at 2pm. This has not been officially confirmed yet, but Peavey reps are already spreading the word that it will happen.

Michael Anthony will be in the Yamaha booth at NAMM to promote his new Signature Bass, the BB3000MA. For more details on Mike's new bass, check out the inaugural issue of Yamaha All Access magazine. This is the full interview that I quoted from in July, when Mike's reply to the Van Halen singer question was:

"All I can say is, it's going to be huge. It's a name people will know."

The Miss Slawterhouse Fall 2000 contest at David Lee Roth's official web site has mysteriously gone AWOL. Voting was set to be held between November 17 and 27, but didn't happen. There have been no updates to Dave's site since the last Daily Catastrophe on November 17. The promised new David Lee Roth solo album containing the controversial Look At All The People Here Tonight has also failed to materialize. The single was released to radio on November 5 but failed to gain airplay on any major stations.

Now for the latest rumour! A listener to WRIF in Detroit just emailed me to say that they have promised to play the new Van Halen w/ David Lee Roth song tomorrow (Dec 20) at noon. I like rumours like these because they can be proven true or false very quickly. It's highly unlikely to be true. Update - Dec 20, 2000 - WRIF didn't play the song.

Yesterday I was contacted by Daedalus Howells, a journalist and novelist who wrote and directed the short film, Hold Me With Your Robot Hand. Here's a brief synopsis of the movie...

Neil Alden may have an artificial arm, but he has no tin ear. Despite being born without his right arm, Neil has yearned to play bass like his hero Michael Anthony of Van Halen. Through a chance encounter with a German engineer, words of wisdom from Michael Anthony himself and a little help from his friends, Neilís dream may come true...

After more than a year of no news from Van Halen, this short film helps to fill the void. If you enjoyed Spinal Tap and are a fan of Van Halen, you will love it. Click on the link below to view the film from CinemaNow.

Hold Me With Your Robot Hand

VAN HALEN IS NOT BOOKED IN JACKSONVILLE!! My name is Mike K and I am the systems manager for event tickets (we will be selling all tickets for starlight amphitheater). NO bands have been positively booked for our theater yet! There ARE ads running on the radio that state "starlight amphitheater WILL BE BOOKING acts "LIKE" Van Halen, Bob Dylan, etc." but NONE HAVE BEEN BOOKED YET! We will not be booking ANY acts until the 2nd or 3rd week of January 2001. Wherever you received this information from is false. I am sorry that somewhere along the line somebody mis-informed you, but we WILL have an answer about groups and tours by the end of January. You will be able to go to www.starlightamphitheater.com in order to confirm ANY events that will be booked.

The wait continues....

As you may already know, Van Halen are yet to be featured on VH1's Behind The Music, and currently have no plans to do so. That hasn't stopped the guys at UnderGroundOnline from creating their own special dedicated to Van Halen. The latest in their Behind The Music That Sucks animated series is dedicated to, you guess it, Van Halen!

Behind The Music That Sucks

Despite the lack of real news, traffic on this site continued to increase. On the busiest day this year, the Van Halen News Desk was visited 44,630 times. Average traffic increased from 6,000 to over 13,000 daily unique visitors.

Now that the year has come to a close, I present to you the year in review. The year 2000, as seen by the Van Halen News Desk. Happy New Year!

October 1999 - Van Halen fans are treated with the first new guitar work from Edward Van Halen since Van Halen III, in the form of a duet with Roger Waters, titled Lost Boys Calling.

Wire services report that David Lee Roth is suing his former manager, Edmund "Big Ed" Anderson, for allegedly creating a Web site to sell his memorabilia.

November 1999 - Gary Cherone departs as the lead singer of Van Halen. In a press release announcing Cherone's exit, the band say the split "was both mutual and amicable" and "they remain good friends". Cherone keeps busy during 2000 with acting commitments on both the stage and screen. He also forms a new band and records an album that is expected to be released early in 2001.

The minute that Gary Cherone's departure is officially announced, fans begin speculating about whether he will be replaced by David Lee Roth or Sammy Hagar. Hagar makes his feelings about a reunion very clear from the start. One quote reads: "If they called me up, I would puke." Roth, on the other hand, spends the entire year 2000 in the cone of silence. Fortunately for us fans, his cone of silence is about as reliable as the one used by Maxwell Smart and the Chief in the classic television series, Get Smart.

Roth keeps busy during November by continuing to tour, despite receiving eleven death threats while in Lubbock, Texas. Edward Van Halen undergoes hip replacement surgery on November 16, and records the whole thing on audio tape! Van Halen releases their Video Hits Volume 1 compilation on DVD. Sammy Hagar gets most of his hair cut off on the Jay Leno show.

December 1999 - Rumours emerge that David Coverdale will be the new lead singer in Van Halen. VH1 and Rolling Stone are among the notables reporting the story. Van Halen's media blackout helps the false rumour to spread. Sammy Hagar releases a new single with Mickey Hart on the Internet, titled Code War Y2K. On December 27, David Lee Roth records Ashley Abernathy, a song for a girl by the same name who is suffering from Leukemia.

January 2000 - David Lee Roth plays his last shows with his "DLR Band" in early January. Within weeks of these final gigs, speculation about his return to Van Halen is reported on every major Internet music news site. His official site reports that the next project for Dave is a new DLR Band album, due for release by "summer at the latest".

February 2000 - Nothing much happens, so the VHND gets a new design. The rumoured appearance by the reunited Van Halen at the Grammys doesn't happen.

March 2000 - Michael Anthony is spotted at a Nascar race. The Bob Kulick-produced Van Halen tribute album is released in the UK to rave reviews by fans. A ticket broker sends out a flyer to subscribers stating that Van Halen will be playing RFK Stadium on July 4.

April 2000 - The VHND has a poll asking visitors if they believe Dave is back. Almost 24,000 people respond, with 70% saying YES. Sammy Hagar launches his cabowabo.com web site, and announces that he has begun working on another new album. Four songs have been recorded and are being shopped around various labels.

The Van Halen tribute album Runnin' With The Devil, is released in the USA. (This isn't the same as the album produced by Bob Kulick.)

Rumours about the split of David Lee Roth's solo band prove to be true when drummer Ray Luzier announces that he has joined The Nixons. It is later speculated that Dave's band were dismissed in mid-February.

May 2000 - David Lee Roth's official site is relaunched. Van Halen and Sammy Hagar appear on The Simpsons in an episode titled Behind The Laughter.

News leaks out that Edward Van Halen is participating in a clinical trial at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

June 2000 - Sammy Hagar starts his own label, Cabo Wabo Records. The Trump Marina casino in Atlantic City issues a $10 Van Halen chip. The photo on the chip features the 1998 lineup of the band.

The Official Van Halen site is relaunched. Days earlier, some fans are able to view the new design before it is unveiled, after someone stumbled across a secret subdirectory containing the new site. Fans who thought the promise of "all the Van Halen you can handle - in cyberspace and beyond" meant that there would be an announcement are again disappointed.

July 2000 - Mike Hartman, one of the three guitarists to appear on David Lee Roth's DLR Band album, dies from complications due to Cystic Fibrosis.

Warner Bros. Records announces that the first six Van Halen albums will be re-issued with remastered music, original artwork and liner notes. Launch tries to convince its readers that the Van Halen reunion with David Lee Roth was not happening with this article.

A new interview with Michael Anthony is printed in the inaugural issue of Yamaha's All Access trade magazine. When quizzed about the Van Halen singer situation, Mike says "It's a name people will know."

A rumour circulates that the new Van Halen album will be titled Tabula Rasa.

David Lee Roth's official site launches the "Miss Slawterhouse Summer 2000" beauty pageant. Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys tells the Boston Herald that his favourite cover version of one of his songs is David Lee Roth's remake of California Girls.

When quizzed during a nationwide radio broadcast about who would replace him as lead singer of Van Halen, Gary Cherone replies "I think we all know who the singer is going to be".

August 2000 - David Lee Roth holds an auction on his official site for the only other copy of the Ashley Abernathy single, raising $3,300 for charity. Dave is also featured on the cover of Spin magazine, and in a new television commercial for Gateway computers. On the last day of the month, an unreleased song titled "Seriously Affected" makes its debut on Dave's web site.

Edward Van Halen is spotted at the Britney Spears concert at the LA Forum with his wife, Valerie and son, Wolfgang.

September 2000 - The first six remastered Van Halen albums are released. The official Van Halen site has a remasters competition, with the winner receiving all six remastered albums, signed by the band. David Lee Roth's signature is notably absent.

MTV deliveres the ultimate snub to Van Halen and their fans when they include our favourite band in the VMA Awards tribute to the "artists no longer with us". Others included in the "tribute" are Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer.

Sammy Hagar tells interviewers that David Lee Roth has been kicked out of Van Halen again after completing only 4 songs. Sammy's entire Ten 13 album is found on Napster.

October 2000 - It is revealed that an unknown singer named Mitch Molloy was offered the job as lead singer of Van Halen before Gary Cherone.

Sammy Hagar is all over the place, promoting his new album, Ten 13, which is released on October 24. Sammy reveals in an interview that he is working on his autobiography and plans to release it sometime in 2001. The first six dates of Sammy's tour are cancelled.

The hot rod driven by David Lee Roth in Van Halen's Hot For Teacher video is put up for auction at Dave's site.

November 2000 - Sammy Hagar's new album debuts at #52 on the Billboard album chart with sales of 25,061. Let Sally Drive, the second single from the album, is released on mp3.com.

David Lee Roth releases Look At All The People Here Tonight to radio via a secret link on his web site. Radio doesn't play it and many fans ask "WAWAZAT!!". A few days later, Dave is spotted with old bandmate, Billy Sheehan at a Hollywood club catching a band called Floor.

While doing a promo interview for his new solo album, David Coverdale again denys that he has ever worked with Van Halen. He goes on to say that he'd heard the previous day that David Lee Roth is back in the band.

Edward, Valerie and Wolfgang Van Halen are spotted at the 'N Sync concert at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

December 2000 - David Lee Roth is spotted leaving the Atomic Punks gig at Scruffy O'Sheas early. Michael Anthony is allegedly in attendance at the Sammy Hagar gig at the Universal Amphitheater on the same night.

Rumours of a Van Halen concert booking at the yet-to-be-finished Starlight Amphitheater in 2001 are confirmed to callers of a hotline set up for the new venue. A press release is issued the following day to deny all.