January 8, 1997 - Edward and Alex Van Halen have been nominated for a Grammy! Their instrumental piece, Respect The Wind from the Twister Soundtrack was one of five nominations for the Best Rock Instrumental Performance award. For more info, check out the Grammys Web Site.

January 10, 1997 - Get ready for a big world tour in 1997/98! Van Halen are planning to visit Europe, South America (for the first time since 1983), Australia/New Zealand (for the first time ever), Japan and then North America. I'll have all the tour dates as soon as they are available.

January 13, 1997 - Michael Anthony will be at the NAMM Convention on Saturday January 18 at 3:00PM. The NAMM (North American Music Merchants) Convention is held annually to showcase the latest products from the world's music merchants. Last years convention saw the launch of Edward Van Halen's Peavey Wolfgang guitar and Sammy Hagar's Washburn Red Rocker acoustic/electric. Mike was also in attendance.

Look for Mike this year at booth #6446, Hall A. For more information, check out the Official NAMM Web Site.

January 15, 1997 - Today the Van Halen News Desk passed the milestone of 300,000 visitors! Thanks to everybody who has contributed to the site and to you the viewers.

January 15, 1997 - I just received more Van Halen-related information about the NAMM '97 Exhibition in Anaheim which starts tomorrow. As I reported here recently, Michael Anthony will be at the St. Louis Music Inc. booth (#6446 - Hall A) on Saturday at 3:00PM.

I've also heard that Sammy Hagar will be at the Washburn booth (#5620) on Saturday between 1:00PM and 2:00PM signing autographs.

Please note: "NAMM Trade Shows are limited to retail music store buyers, manufacturers of music products, and manufacturers representatives of the music product industry." In other words, the average "Joe" won't get in.

January 22, 1997 - According to recent reports, Sammy Hagar still hasn't signed a record deal. The release date for his upcoming solo album, titled Marching To Mars, is rumoured to be mid-March, assuming he's signed a record contract by then. If all goes well, there will be a CD-Launch party at Cabo Wabo followed by a tour.

By Scott Way - scottway@earthlink.net

January 23, 1997 - "THESE ARE NOT YOUR DAD'S GUITARS!" This sign is the first thing I saw when I came upon the PEAVEY booth. This quote was displayed above the Wolfgang guitars (7 or 8) which were available for anyone to play. Each guitar was connected to a Tube Fex pre-amp with headphones.

Sammy showed up at 12:50pm to sign autographs. Sammy was Sammy. He autographed a picture I had of him and then we took a picture together. He saw my Cabo Wabo shirt and asked me when I was last down there? He also wondered to know if the place was crowded. When I walked away, he told me I'll see you in October (for his birthday bash).

My friend brought an 8x10 photo of Sammy to autograph. The funny thing was the photo had a 2 inch border of red, white and black stripes. (Ed's stripings). I though Sammy would be a little distraught, but he said with honesty, "Hey, this is really cool". Sammy took off at about 1:40pm.

Michael was also cool. I was the first in line at the Ampeg booth. Mike showed up at about 2:50pm. I asked how things were coming along. Mike said things are coming along great (pertaining to the upcoming album). I also asked how Ed was, and he said Ed is doing fine. I had Michael autograph a photo and then we took a picture together. I DID NOT see Michael or Sammy together. If they did talk, I would assume it was not in public. There were many musicians that were at NAMM97. However, Mike and Sammy attracted the most people.

January 28, 1997 - Today is the release date for the latest Pat Boone album, titled In A Metal Mood - No More Mr Nice Guy. "Who cares??" I hear you say. Well, believe it or not, the album contains a cover of the Van Halen classic Panama, which was given the big-band jazz feel by the milk-drinking crooner.

"It started out as a joke, but I've never done anything that's gotten this kind of advance anticipation," says Boone, who says he's "going from milk to metal."

Other songs covered by the 50's Christian Pop Idol include Led Zeppelin's Stairway To Heaven, Metallica's Enter Sandman, Guns N' Roses' Paradise City, Ozzy Osbourne's Crazy Train and the Deep Purple classic, >Smoke On The Water. Guest musicians include Slash and Richie Blackmore.

January 29, 1997 - Van Halen's 'Best Of Volume 1' will soon be re-released with the original version of Runnin' With The Devil.

You will recall that the version contained on the 1996 'Best Of' album was re-arranged slightly, with the 2nd and 3rd verse and chorus swapped around. We tried asking several of our Van Halen "insiders" at the time why it happened but no official reason was ever given.

ICE Magazine asked Bob Merlis from Warner Bros. Records how it happened. Bob explained that it was an honest mistake, not intentional, and that the band weren't even aware of it. Someone simply used the wrong tape when they mastered the album.

All future pressings of the album will contain the original version of the song. This won't necessarily make the remixed version a rarity though, as it has already sold in excess of 1 million copies.