December 1, 1996 - Congratulations to Brad Starks whose web site, the Van Halen Encyclopedia, has become the inaugural winner of the Van Halen Site Of The Week award! The vote was never really close. The VHE managed 31.86% of the total votes, with it's nearest rival, the Van Halen Pleasure Dome, scoring 13.27%. Thank you to the 113 people who participated in the poll.

We can only guess how many hours of work has gone into Brad's site. The VHE is fast approaching it's 1 year anniversary, and looks like reaching the magical 100,000 visitor mark within the next few days. The Van Halen Site Of The Week award adds to the swag of other prizes won by the VHE, including the prestigious Point Top 5% award.

December 2, 1996 - The January 1997 edition of Guitar magazine featuring Eddie on the cover is on the news stands now. The magazine features an exclusive interview with the man himself.

December 3, 1996 - A lot of people have been emailing me recently asking what Mike has to say about the whole Van Halen controversy. Mike doesn't usually give a lot of interviews, but in recent times he has been the main spokesman for the band in the European press while Edward and Alex handled the media in the U.S.A.

On August 6 this year, Mike was interviewed by the President of the Dutch 5150 fan club. The interview was posted to the Van Halen Mailing list last month and can also be found on the Van Halen Encyclopedia. Its appearance here on the News Desk is a little late, but I'm sure many of you haven't seen it yet. Enjoy!

Michael Anthony Interview

December 5, 1996 - Randy Canis, webmaster of the Official Zakk Wylde Site, also has a page dedicated to the Jason Becker ALS Benefit which was held in Chicago last month. Many more pictures from the benefit are now available from his Jason Becker Benefit page. The recently added photographs are all from the private party held at the Hard Rock Cafe on the night before the benefit. More photographs will be available soon featuring highlights from the benefit show and some backstage shots.

December 8, 1996 - The hunt is over for the Best Of Van Halen CD with the Peavey Wolfgang certificate. A lucky winner from Dallas, TX will be flying to California on December 13 to meet Edward Van Halen and receive their autographed Peavey Wolfgang guitar.

For a list of other winners who have emailed the Van Halen News Desk, click on the link below. If you won a prize with your "Best Of" CD and your name isn't on the list, please email me with your name, the state you won the prize in, and the prize you won. I still require somebody to scan a picture of the autographed CD, so if anybody can help out with that I'd appreciate it!

BOV1 Prize Winners

December 8, 1996 - Congratulations to David King whose web site, The Brown Sound, is this weeks winner of Van Halen Site Of The Week! The voting this week was neck and neck all the way. The Brown Sound scored 12 of the total 86 votes, or 13.95%. Second place once again went to the Van Halen Pleasure Dome which scored 10 votes - 5 down from last week but still good enough for second. Thank you to the 86 people who participated in the poll.

The Brown Sound is a relatively new Van Halen site, focusing mainly on guitars, but there is heaps of other Van Halen related content to keep you busy! If you are in the market for a new Peavey Wolfgang guitar there is a section dedicated to "Wolfgang Sitings". There are also a few tips on how to build your own guitar.

December 9, 1996 - Early reports put the release date of Sammy Hagar's new solo album at around March 1997. Entitled Kama, it will be Hagar's first solo release since his much publicised split with Van Halen earlier this year. We also hear that Hagar will be interviewed this week on WWBR in Detroit by Ted Nugent. Nugent has been saying on air that there will be a party at Cabo Wabo (Hagar's club in Mexico) to celebrate the release of the new album, and that MTV will be among the guests in attendance. WWBR are hoping to broadcast live from the party. After that, Hagar will begin a tour in Japan on April 1, 1997.

Reports also say Nugent has also been claiming there will be a new band next year including Hagar and Nugent ala Damn Yankees. This is speculation at the moment. Detroit fans, stay tuned to WWBR as Ted Nugent looks to be a pretty good source of Hagar gossip at the moment!

Note: An earlier version of this report stated that Ted Nugent was on WRIF. This is incorrect. Ted is at WWBR. Thanks to everyone who emailed the correct station name. (One disadvantage of the VHND editor being located in Australia!) WRIF in Detroit will be interviewing Edward Van Halen this Friday. We are unsure at this stage when the interview will go to air.

December 13, 1996 - Two regular readers of the Van Halen News Desk have kindly donated some of their pictures from the ALS Benefit for your viewing pleasure. Special thanks to Andrew Parr and Rob Schroeder for scanning these photos and sharing them with us. Andrew and Rob can be contacted via email at vanhalen@execpc.com - please drop them a note and show your appreciation.

Andrew and Rob's ALS Photo Album

December 14, 1996 - The lucky winner of the "Best Of Volume 1" autographed Peavey Wolfgang guitar met Edward Van Halen yesterday at 5150 to collect his prize. It was like every Van Halen fan's dream, going to the place where every Van Halen album since 1984 was recorded. Throw in a tour of the studio and a free guitar lesson for your 11 year old son from the master himself, and you have the ultimate Van Halen experience.

December 13, 1996 - Congratulations to Peter Schmidt from Toronto, Canada who is the lucky winner of a Peavey Wolfgang guitar autographed by Edward Van Halen. Peter also won the entire Van Halen catalog on CD and the new Video Hits on VHS.

Peter contacted me on Tuesday after he found out he was the lucky winner of the Rock Radio Network Van Halen competition. He will be presented with his prize today, the same day as the major prize winner of the "Best Of Volume 1" competition is presented with an autographed Peavey Wolfgang by Edward Van Halen. I'm hoping to have photographs from both presentations here on the Van Halen News Desk.

December 14, 1996 - The March 1997 edition of Metal Edge magazine features new interviews with Sammy Hagar and former Extreme guitarist, Nuno Bettencourt. Nuno is full of praise for his former bandmate, Gary Cherone. "(It's) the first stuff that sounds like real rock'n roll since Roth, like the old days."

On the other hand, a bitter Sammy Hagar isn't so optimistic, implying the next Van Halen studio release will suffer the same fate as the last Motley Crue album without Vince Neil. "The music could be really great and everything, but like Motley Crue, they made a great record but it wasn't what people were used to, what they wanted, what they expected. It could be good, I don't think Eddie and Al are capable of playing garbage, but I don't think it's gonna work."

More from Sammy and Nuno

December 15, 1996 - This week's winner of Van Halen Site Of The Week is Bill Broadway - webmaster of Big Bad Bill's Van Halen Page. Congratulations, Bill! For the third week in a row, the Van Halen Pleasure Dome finished in second place, this week just one vote behind the winner.

Bill's site is one of the most popular Van Halen related sites on the web (20,000+ visitors at the time of writing), and for good reason. It's easy on the eye, packed with good content, and even features Right Now as background music on the opening page.

There's also sections dedicated to Van Halen News, Guitar Tablature, and a graphical Discography. Check it out!

December 16, 1996 - This just in from Scotty Ross, Van Halen's Tour Manager:

With all the stuff going on, (his mom having surgery etc.) . Edward has postponed the surgery till after the new year. Don't panic it will not effect album release, hopefully or tour starting! I'll give you more news when I get hear whats going on!!

December 17, 1996 - A pre-recorded radio interview with Eddie Van Halen aired Monday on WRIF's Drew and Mike show in Detroit. The interview covered many topics, including the Internet and an Australian Van Halen tour for 1997 (at last). When asked about the possibility of adding older and more varied songs to the set list, Edward replied:

"He (Gary Cherone) will sing anything...he even said hey, if we are ever somewhere when Roth or Sammy are in town, hey lets get them up on stage. That is how, ya know, what a beautiful guy he is."

Here's another extract relating to Van Halen unreleased material...

WRIF: You know, you have had so much history with the two eras and now you are moving into an entirely new thing. Are there alot of archives for an anthology type of thing like the Beatles?

ED: Oh man. We have so much music it is ridiculous.

WRIF: Did you ever go through it like they did and dig up old versions of those gems, does that appeal to you?

ED: Uhhhh, I am gonna have to one of these days because....hold on one second {starts talking to Engineer Erwin Musper: "Do you know that tape library back there, how many hours of music do you think is there?" } Thousands of hours of music back there.

December 18, 1996 - For many years now, there has been talk of a demo tape supposedly featuring Van Halen with a guy named Greg Stafford on lead vocals. There have been doubts on the validity of this tape for a long time, but many fans who have heard the bootleg tape believe it is Edward Van Halen playing the guitar.

The INSIDE magazine has attempted to solve the mystery once and for all by asking Mike and Edward about the alleged pre-Dave demo tape. Click on the link below to find out their opinion on the demo. The Greg Stafford mystery looks to have been solved!

The INSIDE Update

December 22, 1996 - This week's winner of Van Halen Site Of The Week is Jon Dunphy - webmaster of The Van Halen Haven. Congratulations, Jon!

Once again, for the fourth week in a row, the Van Halen Pleasure Dome finished in second place. A very consistant performance, but unfortunately there is no silver medal.

Jon's site won easily this week with 20 votes, exactly one-third of the total, thanks largely to an exclusive transcript of the recent interview with Edward Van Halen from Detroit's WRIF. The hours of work in transcribing the interview paid off as the Haven's hit counter registered many extra visitors. A special mention must also be given to Melody who typed up the Edward Van Halen interview.

December 24, 1996 - As you read here a few days ago, the INSIDE recently spoke to the current members of Van Halen about the validity of an alleged Van Halen demo tape featuring a guy named Greg Stafford on lead vocals. Edward, Alex and Mike listened to the tracks and said it wasn't Van Halen.

Today I received more information on the matter.

According to my source, the guitarist featured on the demo is George Lynch from Dokken. The vocalist's name is Greg Sanford (not Stafford), and the drummer is Mick Brown - also from Dokken. This trio, along with a bass player (whose name we have yet to determine) formed a band called The Boyz in the mid to late 70's and played the same clubs as Van Halen before they were signed.

The demo tape, featuring the songs Sleepless Nights, All That I Need and Black Star, was recorded by The Boyz, not Van Halen.

December 25, 1996 - We've heard reports that Sammy Hagar may be making a surprise appearance at Ted Nugent's annual "Whiplash Bash" New Years Eve celebration at the Joe Loius Arena in Detroit next week. Alice Cooper is also scheduled to appear. Nugent is still hinting at a possible tour with Hagar next summer. Stay tuned!

December 26, 1996 - The Dec. 22, 1996 edition of the Maui News reported that Sammy Hagar will be playing in "the Don Ho Maui Celebrity Invitational Golf Tournament" at the Makena Golf Course on Dec. 27, 1996. Other participants include former NBA coach Don Nelson, singer Burton Cumming and film producer Shep Gordon. For more information, you can call Donna Jung at (808)874-5334.

December 28, 1996 - The Van Halen News Desk has received quite a few emails over the last 48 hours asking for confirmation of the rumour that Michael Anthony has left Van Halen.

This is purely a rumour - apparently started by an AOL user.

The rumour states that new lead singer, Gary Cherone, is unhappy with Mike's playing so Van Halen have recruited Billy Sheehan to do the bass work. It also says that Billy played on the last 2 Van Halen albums. This last statement is totally untrue, which makes me extremely skeptical about the whole thing. None of my reliable sources have heard anything about Mike leaving, so at this stage it looks like just another made-up story.