Library Rock's Backpages

Van Halen

Van Halen

Photo courtsey Warner Bros. Records

54 articles

Free articles

Van Halen: Fair Warning

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 20 June 1981

The worst thing about labels is their sticky side. But the next worst thing about them is that they attract flies, and that can put ...

Audio interviews

David Lee Roth (1995)

Interview by Steven Daly, Rock's Backpages audio, December 1995

The erstwhile Van Halen frontman talks about his youth, and his memories of uncle Manny Roth, who started the Greenwich Village Café Wha?; on being first turned on to music; his love of boats; his current gig playing Las Vegas, and the uniform blandness of the modern world. He also revisits the end of Van Halen and their legacy, and the part cocaine played in their break-up.

File format: mp3; file size: 93.8mb, interview length: 1h 37' 44" sound quality: ***

List of articles in the library

By date | By writer | Most recently added

Van Halen: Whisky a Go Go, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 24 December 1976

Spreading Out From Punk-Rock ...

Van Halen: Whisky a Go Go, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 29 January 1977

Van Halen Keeps Asserting Itself ...

America's Local Talent 1977: The Sounds of Los Angeles

Overview by Kim Fowley, Phonograph Record, May 1977

ONE DOESN'T need to write any introduction on the general rock history and geographical relevance of Hollywood. Hollywood is Los Angeles, Los Angeles is California ...

Van Halen's Back Door Rock'n'Roll

Profile and Interview by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Waxpaper, 1978

THE CHURCH DON’T KNOW WHAT THE PARKING LOT UNDERSTANDS ...

Van Halen: Van Halen (Warner Brothers import) ****

Review by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 4 March 1978

Van Halen, brand new heavy metal heroes (Oh no. Here we go again — Ed) ...

Van Halen: Platform Boots Still Make It

Profile and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 13 May 1978

COLUMBUS, Ohio. Van Halen, just called back for an encore, are basking in the unexpected adulation. The support band takes a bow. "Thank you Cleveland", ...

Van Halen: Van Halen (Warner Bros.)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, June 1978

LET ME TELL you about dinosaurs. No, "dinosaurs" may be too harsh a term, even if Van Halen-style rockers do find their evolutionary fulfillment in ...

Van Halen: Vague

Interview by Rosalind Russell, Record Mirror, 21 October 1978

Ros Russell spends a night in Germany posing with David Lee Roth, Van Halen's front man ...

Van Halen: Van Halen II (Warner Brothers K 56616) ***

Review by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 17 March 1979

Van ordinaire (too much, too soon) ...

Van Halen

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 7 April 1979

Dateline Hollywood: SYLVIE SIMMONS demurely averts her gaze from the tight satin loonpants and sez: Gimme the track-by-track lowdown on the new album. At least, ...

Van Halen Makes Your Day Go Away

Report and Interview by David Hepworth, Sounds, 7 July 1979

DAVID HEPWORTH GOES TO HALEN BACK (NEWCASTLE, ACTUALLY) ...

Van Halen: Glory Or Rupture

Report and Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 7 July 1979

GIVE THE Yanks their due: when it comes down to being straight-ahead 'dunced out' almost beyond the realms of the hyper-crass, they take the old ...

Van Halen: Women And Children First (Warners) *****

Review by Pete Makowski, Sounds, 5 April 1980

VAM! BLAM! KAPOW! SPLAT! ...

Van Halen: New Boots and (Stretch) Panties

Report and Interview by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 28 June 1980

GEOFF BARTON encounters the metal might of VAN HALEN and becomes a victim of the furry ...

Van Halen: Remnants Of The Flesh Hangover

Profile and Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, July 1980

ONE THING that's always bothered me about myself: I enjoy offending people. I've done it for years and see no need to stop. I have ...

The Gospel of Rock According to Van Halen

Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 24 July 1980

"WE'VE ENLARGED the band since you last saw us," says Van Halen lead singer David Lee Roth, poised to cue me in on a hot ...

Van Halen: The Forum, Inglewood CA

Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 25 July 1981

Skintight savages ...

Van Halen Gets Even With Everyone!

Report and Interview by J. Kordosh, Creem, October 1981

DAVID LEE ROTH: It becomes more fun with each season. Each tour that we make, each record that we make — we know how to do ...

Van Halen: Fair Warning (Warner Brothers)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, October 1981

THE GENERALLY accepted notion of guitar heroics holds that heavy metal is a lead guitarist's forum. Practice and history, however, suggest another conclusion. Despite the preponderance of ...

Ted Templeman: Super Producer

Interview by David Gans, BAM, 1982

The super producer talks about Little Feat, Van Halen, the Doobies, and staying sane in a world of crazies. ...

Van Halen: Diver Down (Warner Bros. BSK 3677)

Review by Don Waller, Los Angeles Times, 2 May 1982

'DIVER DOWN' IS UP WITH THE BEST ...

Van Halen: Diver Down (WEA)

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 8 May 1982

HEAVY METAL has one of the longer and more honourable traditions as a "musical influence" in rock, yet its recent renaissance is by and large ...

Cheap Trick: One on One (Epic FE38021); Van Halen: Diver Down (Warner Bros. BSK3677)

Review by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, August 1982

Wherein two highly anticipated albums refuse to be what was expected of them, proving neither fans nor skeptics correct in their assumptions. ...

Van Halen: Diver Down (Warner Bros.)

Review by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, August 1982

NOT ONLY IS this album an insult to the average consumer who will have to pay upwards of ten dollars for it, it is an ...

Van Halen: The Philosophy Of Diving Down

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, September 1982

HANG 'EM HIGH HUMP 'EM LOW ...

Van Halen: From Tahiti to the 7-11

Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 5 September 1982

"SUMMERTIME BLUES HIT CONCERT BUSINESS." bemoaned the headline in a recent Billboard magazine survey of America's troubled pop-music promoters. ...

US Festival ’83: No More In ‘84

Report by John Mendelsohn, Record, Summer 1983

AFTER PUNK, audiences weren’t supposed to pay large amounts of money anymore for the privilege of watching superstars from the length of a football field ...

The Secret of Van Halen’s Excess

Interview by Mick Brown, The Sunday Times, 1984

IT IS another perfect day in paradise, and David Lee Roth has decided to go for a drive down Hollywood Boulevard. ...

Eddie Van Halen drops the bomb on Heavy Metal

Interview by Steven Rosen, Guitar World, January 1984

SIX ALBUMS AGO (including the one yet to be released). Van Halen issued its first record. It was dramatic, intense and bold. and contained within ...

Van Halen: 1984 (Warner Bros. 1-23985)

Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 15 January 1984

VAN HALEN'S 1984 CLEARS COBWEBS ...

Van Halen: Life With The Top Down

Interview by Don Waller, Los Angeles Times, 5 February 1984

"A LOTTA PEOPLE figure, 'Oh, Diamond Dave, he gets all the women he wants,'" says David Lee Roth with a cat-that-ate-the-canary gleam in his eye. ...

Van Halen: Forum, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 15 May 1984

VAN HALEN ACHIEVES INTIMACY ON HUGE SCALE ...

Van Halen, Mötley Crüe, Ozzy Osbourne et al: Monsters of Rock, Castle, Donington, Leicestershire

Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, Mat Snow, New Musical Express, 25 August 1984

I WAS A TEENAGE GRISTLEBURGER! Trampled underfoot: BARNEY HOSKYNS and MAT SNOW. ...

David Lee Roth: The Face Interview

Interview by Fiona Russell Powell, The Face, October 1984

Larger than life and twice as loud, David Lee Roth is the vocalist and ringmaster of the Van Halen hard rock circus. ...

Van Halen: Monsters of Rock, Castle Donington

Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, Summer 1984

I'D BEST COME clean, 'fess up that the Edward Van Halen Four were the sole reason I schlepped up to this denim'n'leather version of Dante's ...

What It Be, David Lee?

Interview by David Gans, Record, April 1985

WHEREIN MR. ROTH REVEALS A SERIOUS BONE ...

Give Us Van Halen!

Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, March 1986

"YOU DO IT one of two ways: either spectacle or personality. ...

Van Halen: 5150 (Warner Brothers W 5150) KKK

Review by Howard Johnson, Kerrang!, 17 April 1986

VAPID
 VAN 
HALEN ...

David Lee Roth: Foul-Mouthed Reagan Shocks The World

Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, June 1986

IT'S FITTING THAT here in this unjust world, where rock stars regularly slander one another openly, where newspapers often present one and only one side ...

Van Halen: 5150 (Warner Bros.)

Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, June 1986

POST-LOBOTOMY VAN HALEN GO ON WITH HALF A MIND ...

Van Halen: 5150 (Warner Bros.)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, August 1986

THERMOS HUNT CONTINUES! ...

David Lee Roth Takes Off His Warpaint

Interview by Mark Dery, Winner, November 1986

LOS ANGELES has a mess of atavistic attractions most tourists never get hip to: Chili Cheese Fritos, Dodger Dogs, Fatburger ("The Last Great Hamburger Stand"), ...

Van Halen: OU812

Comment by Deborah Frost, The Village Voice, 28 June 1988

VAN HALEN'S resident virtuoso launched a zillion whammy bars and charted heavy guitar's course for the '80s. The band's high-concept ex-vocalist sent a nation out ...

Van Halen: Tales From The Crypt

Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 1 July 1988

THE ITINERARY for Van Halen's Monsters of Rock Tour reads like a combined schedule for the Washington Redskins and University of Miami football teams. ...

Cod Piece In Our Time

Overview by Stuart Maconie, New Musical Express, 19 January 1991

Bring your good taste to be slaughtered! To mark Iron Maiden's ground-breaking success (any bleedin' excuse — Ed), STUART MACONIE investigates the subtle and many-faceted ...

Van Halen: For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge

Review by Paul Elliott, Vox, August 1991

IN DAVID LEE ROTH, Van Halen had — and lost — more than a singer. The all-Amerlcan rock hero and then some, Roth was the ...

Van Halen: Right Here, Right Now

Review by Max Bell, Vox, April 1993

THERE'S A CHINESE PROVERB which says that you cannot eat a steamed bun in one mouthful. In other words, don't bite off more than you ...

Eddie Van Halen

Interview by Steven Rosen, Total Guitar, August 1995

AT 38, EDWARD Van Halen is a changed man. He's cut his locks, cut out the sauce (and other less legal intoxicants) – and after ...

Steady Eddie Van Halen

Profile and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 7 May 1998

IT'S AFTER 2 A.M. on a Monday morning, Houston time, when Eddie Van Halen calls for a thrice-scheduled interview. But the guitar virtuoso of the ...

Albums from Van Halen, Superdrag and Garbage

Review by James Hunter, New York Observer, 18 May 1998

Is Rock Dead? No, It's Just Morphing ...

Van Halen

Retrospective by Deborah Frost, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 12 March 2007

THE NATIONAL Weather Service labels a blizzard as severe when winds reach 45 miles her hour, snowfall is dense, and the temperature drops to ten ...

Van Halen: Café Wha?

Live Review by Alan Light, MSN.com, January 2012

"WELCOME TO Occupy Van Halen!," said a grinning David Lee Roth, as the band took to the stage of New York's tiny basement club Café ...

see also David Lee Roth

RSS

back to LIBRARY

COPYRIGHT NOTICE