UPDATE: The press release shown below has been completely removed from the Warner/Chappell website.
Van Halen has extended their agreement with Warner/Chappell Music, which is an American music publishing company, and a division of the Warner Music Group. The press release is below. The most important part to Van Halen fans is the very last sentence of the release:
“The group is currently in the studio recording an album with Roth that is due for release in 2011.”
Where is this news coming from? This news is NOT coming from the band. It originated on the Warner/Chappell Music website yesterday.
Does this mean Van Halen will definitely release an album next year? Not necessarily.
On the positive side of things, a division of Warner Music Group is saying that Van Halen will have an album out next year, so that’s (yet another) great sign!
But on the negative side, Warner/Chappel got some basic facts about Van Halen wrong in their story, so one could question what they are basing their “new album” statement on. Are they basing it on the band’s actual plans, or did an intern simply google the latest news on the band and end up adding a mere rumor to their press release? Hopefully a new Van Halen album will come to fruition and it will turn out that they were right.
Van Halen remains silent. VHND emailed Janie Van Halen today asking for a statement, but they aren’t talking.
The press release:
Warner/Chappell Music has extended its administration agreements with two original members of the legendary rock band VAN HALEN, Eddie and Alex Van Halen. Under the agreement, Warner/Chappell will continue to administer their catalog of works.
The Grammy Award-winning VAN HALEN was formed in 1972 in Pasadena, California and released its first album in 1978, quickly becoming one of the most influential rock bands in history. In 2007, after more than three decades dazzling audiences with their energetic performances and establishing their catalog of songs as one of the most enduring in the history of popular music, VAN HALEN was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
With 11 studio albums, VAN HALEN is the 19th best-selling group of all time in the U.S., according to the RIAA, with more than 56 million albums sold in the U.S., 10 of them certified platinum or multi-platinum, six albums that reached No. 1 on The Billboard 200 and two of them, “Van Halen” and “1984?, achieving diamond certification. VAN HALEN has been nominated multiple times by the American Music Awards and, in 1992, won “Favorite Heavy Metal/Rock Album” for the album “For Unlawful Carnage Knowledge”.
“It’s fantastic to continue our relationship with VAN HALEN, which is one of the most enduring and successful partnerships within our roster of songwriters,” said Scott Francis, President, Warner/Chappell Music, and Chairman and CEO, Warner/Chappell Music U.S. “Since its inception, VAN HALEN has written driving melodic rock songs performed in groundbreaking style.”
During its more than three decades as a band, VAN HALEN has featured a number of different lineups and three different lead singers, and throughout has produced a string of multiplatinum albums that contained numerous No. 1 singles, including “Jump”, “(Oh) Pretty Woman”, “Why Can’t This Be Love?”, “Humans Being”, “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and “Me Wise Magic”.
Most recently, the band toured with founding brothers, Eddie and Alex Van Halen, its original lead singer, David Lee Roth, and Eddie’s son, Wolfgang, playing bass. The group is currently in the studio recording an album with Roth that is due for release in 2011.