|
|
  First stop Aotearoa... NEW ZEALAND (Part One) Van Halen World Tour 1998 Intro | From Afar | Richard's report
Introduction by Alison CummingsFrom Afar: The VH TV Experience by Alison Cummings
New Zealand (otherwise known as Aotearoa, and sometimes known as Kiwi Land), was the starting point for Gary’s first tour with VH. The band arrived in Wellington the week of the concert, to rehearse for a few days before touring. Touring fans also arrived that week, fired up for an experience never to be forgotten. One Network NewsOut of respect for the band, the core group chose not to turn up at Wellington airport for the arrival; Eddie and co would have been tired after a long flight, after all, and the last thing anyone wanted was to do the wrong thing. So it was a night in front of the TV for me at least, channel surfing the news shows in hope of seeing the arrival ‘From Afar’. And lo and behold, I caught a glimpse on One Network News: VH arrived to no fanfare, and I could see Gary walking quietly behind Alex. It was Eddie the cameras wanted to catch though, and they got him for a couple of minutes just before the band left the airport in a rental van: if Gary ever quits, he says, I’ll take up tuba lessons. I got a phone call from Chris during that week, who was blown away by the thought of VH hanging out in his hometown! He’d seen them around a lot - Gary walking down the street, Valerie in the museum, and woah! A greeting from Alex! I wish I’d been there, and especially for the presentation of the All Black rugby jerseys we’d all contributed to, but hey, it wasn’t in God’s plan for me. What was in the plan though, was a dream come true in Auckland. But more about that later. Holmes-less Holmes, the number one rating news show here, was due to interview VH that week, and journalist Jackie Marr needed an angle. Alison! cried the promoter, Give us an angle! So an angle I gave: travelling fans. Yes! Yes! Let’s talk to the fans, they said. Let’s get them on camera WITH THE BAND! It was all go, and so Chris and the other fans turned up to the band’s hotel... And waited. It turned out that Jackie Marrs Bar had postponed the interview and didn’t get in touch. Okay. The "fans meet band" angle never materialised, but still, what went to air was a very funny interview. It was made even more funny by the fact that Marr referred to Mike as the guitarist... During the story it was said that: Gary lives with Ed, but according to Mike, he’ll get a place of his own someday "when he grows up"; Gary likes it very much at the guest house; and Ed and Alex laughed about how much they "kinda miss" Dave. Replied Gary, "I guess I kinda too"... Wreaking Havoc Mikey Havoc, host of MTV’s Havoc, rocked up to the hotel and did an interview I suspect VH enjoyed very much. As NZers know, Mikey is a goldmine of laughs - like a Wellington faultline, he quakes the land (or at least the land’s funnybone) with a quip, face expression, or a full-force attack of outrageousness. How can I describe this man to you... let’s just call him a post-modern lunatic. This interview was no exception, and I wish VH could’ve met Newsboy - Mikey’s equally funny, quasi-newsreader sidekick. After Mikey referred to Gary joining the "Van Halen juggernaut", the interview took several funny turns, including Havoc’s impression of how Gary must’ve felt in the initial presence of VH: drop-jawed, stuttering, not knowing where to go or what to do with himself. Eddie liked it so much he made sure the cameraman got a shot of it! It tickled Gary’s humour too, laughing and joining in the impression. After the interview, Mikey went down the hallway going "doose doose doose" and telling people "I met Van Halen! I met Van Halen!". In Auckland, Scotty (the tour manager) mentioned the show to us, saying that Mikey was great. Mind you they probably liked the guy from Australia’s Hey Hey It’s Saturday more, he was a lot funnier. That’s all I know on the NZ TV side of things, but later I’ll talk about MTV Australia, my own experience, and more... Back to top From Not-So-Far: The Fan Experience They Came... They Rocked... My Ears Rang For A Week... But I Can Still Smile by Richard Breakfree Anderson I'd liked Extreme since the first time I heard ‘More Than Words. Not until hearing the III Sides To Every Story album did I realise just how talented this group of guys were - and you could see their influences in their music. And, oh, what influences? The same band that I'd been digging since birth. Queen. 1997 came around and I heard the news that Gary was now the man to lead Van Halen. My mind cast back to 92 ("this guy can sing Queen... he can sing anything"). There were wars of words between staunch David Lee Roth supporters and staunch Sammy Hagar fans... did these people not see? This is now a new band. It was time to move on. I carefully watched the progress and continuedrescheduling of III's release date. Somehow I knew this would be worth the wait... and indeed it was (and still more of those everlasting influences flow through). The tour dates were announced and I received an email...."they're coming to New Zealand !!!"... I figured that I'd better buy a copy of the new album and learn the songs. I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be cool to meet these guys?" I'd heard that Gary was a really nice guy - and I figured that if Eddie Van Halen was friends with Brian May (himself a lovely guy I hear) then surely he has to be a good guy too... right? The weeks and days started to fly by. I was using up a lot of ink putting crosses on my calendar counting down to "VH Day" (April 10th 1998). During this time I figured that it would be cool to compare notes with Gary in what Queen material we both liked (I was told he'd like to chat about that... and we all like to be approached with things we actually enjoy... heck this is my religion we're talking about). For a while I'd been working on a tribute song to Freddie Mercury called ‘Still’ and thought to myself that it would be nice to share my lyrics (and thus my feelings and thoughts) with Gary and maybe have some insight into what motivated him. On Monday April 6th I got a call from Chris O'Neill. He had been asked to get a group together to be interviewed for the Holmes show chatting about Van Halen - and they wanted to film us meeting the band. Disregarding my responsibilities like work, I told him "Sure, I'm there". It would be pretty cool, as a couple of friends from Australia were to be included in the group. Tuesday 12.30pm we're standing outside the Park Royal in Wellington. This lady we're meeting from the Holmes show is nowhere in sight. So we decided to wait inside the Park Royal. I’m told, "There's Gary". I had to think about that for a second: "Gary Who??" My flatmate's name is Gary, so I automatically think of him. Mr Cherone walked right past me. First impressions can be quite weird. I thought he looked a lot taller on TV (and Nuno must be a shorty then). I figured he must be a friendly guy - I fully expected bodyguards and all that jazz, but none in sight. Next thing we know Alex Van Halen and his girfriend Stine walked past us and then their tour manager Scotty Ross (he must have seen Stick's VHML shirt), and he said a cheerful "Hi guys" (it felt neat to be recognised). We were still waiting for this lady we were supposed to be meeting. I hate people to be unorganised, so as you can imagine this is torture for me (and by now I'm considering just leaving and going to get drunk). Chris rang home to find the woman hadn't called his place... finally he got in touch with her to find out that the interview was postponed until the next day. One good thing did happen (and I hope Eddie forgives me here...please): when I was a kid I had a crush on Valerie Bertinelli (who didn’t, right?). Wow, I got to see this gorgeous woman. Valerie was with her son Wolfgang (Wolfie), and Sue Anthony and her two children Elisha and Taylor, and they headed off downtown. I was amazed at how they could just gel into the atmosphere and enjoy themselves (I'm sure they probably don't get a lot of time to themselves in the US when on tour). Mikey Havoc (former lead singer with Push Push, who I liked a lot and still do) and his film crew filed past us. Dejected we decided to call it quits and to go have a look around the recently opened $300 million museum. On our way out from the museum I walked right past Valerie. Next I was to get that beer I'd been hanging out for. I figured it wasn't too bad a day. At least I saw some of the band. And I figured that Valerie was too good for me by now, so I could lay that crush to rest. Later that evening we decided to go and check out the venue for the first concert of the tour (Queen's Wharf Events Centre). By chance we got talking to the security guys there who were awaiting Van Halen to come and rehearse. We figured that it would be fine to listen outside.Five minutes later Scotty Ross came outside and started chatting with us. After recognising Chris' name, we all introduced ourselves - I figured he seemed like a pretty cool guy. Scotty then told us to "come on in" and watch the rehearsal. I think Sticks, Paul, Chris and myself all felt pretty darned lucky right then. Once inside we saw Alex. With a friendly smile he says "Hi guys". Scotty showed us to our seats and we watched as the band did their soundchecks - then we were lucky enough to feast our eyes upon "The Setlist" - a few nice surprises. I think we all wondered what Gary would sound like singing these older songs... that night we were to find out... and boy did we find out!! I was blown away by the sheer power of the man’s voice. I could see for myself that he had caught onto what Freddie had been about with performance all those years. One other thing that delighted me besides the skill factor was that they all enjoyed what they were doing (Eddie was pretty good with the jokes. Gary, Eddie and Wolfie have this cute li’l dance that they did). Scotty sat with us quite a bit that night and treated us like we mattered, even to the point where he was asking for our thoughts on their performance - I personally was totally into all the songs. "Same time tomorrow guys... seeya here". There was no way I was missing out on that. Wednesday rolled around and I had to check to see that the day before hadn’t been some cruel dream. Luckily it hadn't been. I had to work that day so I couldn't make the Holmes interview - I probably would’ve still been too miffed at being stood up the day before... the other blokes decided to cancel as well. 7.30pm came along and we were back at Queens Wharf Events Centre again. Scotty welcomed us in and we found our seats from the night before. Barely 15 minutes had gone by and Valerie came over to introduce herself and shook our hands. Then she sat with our group. I couldn't help but laugh when Valerie introduced us to Michael Anthony's beautiful daughter Elisha - and then told us "Keep your hands off guys". Once again we were blown away by the mixture of VH classics and new material (I was begging to really love ‘Year To The Day’ and ‘Josephina’ - and to hear ‘Human's Being’ live, it was as if Gary wrote it). A couple of our American friends (Rob and Chuck) had joined us this night and were staying at the Park Royal too. Valerie asked us if we were coming back again for Thursday. Positively overwhelmed, I thought for a second. "If you're telling us we can, we're here". She took that as a yes. We walked Rob (who that night not only got a hug from Valerie but also a set of Eddie's strings) and Chuck (a fantastic guy) back to the Park Royal. We all decided that we needed a beer (there was of course no need for me to be persuaded however). The next table over behind us, Gary, Mike and some of the crew had seated themselves down to have a couple of quiet ones. Our group were all buzzing within metres of these guys. I got to my second beer and thought I was seeing things when Eddie was crouched leaning on the arm of my chair and Chuck's one... Valerie had brought him over to meet us all. That smile of his was enough to say "Relax". I said to him , "So who are you again ??" I figured he seemed like an average guy and not some "overhyped rockstar"... and I wasn't wrong. Eddie took the time to sign my copy of Brian May and Cozy Powell's Ressurrection, on which he features on the song ‘Bluesbreaker’. He even relived the session with us. Unfortunately Cozy Powell had died in a car crash only three days beforehand, so it was with mixed feelings when Eddie said his name with a smile I felt my heart sink, "You don't know ?"... Eddie replied "Know what? Tell me man." I then told Eddie that Cozy had died, to which he was genuinely sad to hear. It was also during this meeting that Eddie had said to me that Brian May was "the sweetest guy he had ever had the pleasure to meet" (I'd heard this backed up from several sources before)... there was something special in hearing Eddie say it. We thanked Eddie for coming over to meet us and exchanged our opinions on the choice of Gary as their singer - by now even Chuck, who had been to 79 Van Halen concerts in his time, was full of support for this man. Thursday night came around. By now I'd been missing a few too many hours sleep, but didn't care too much about it. While at work I thought back to my lyrics and figured that maybe my idea to let Gary check them out would be somthing special. We'd pitched in as a group to purchase All Black rugby jerseys for the band. Valerie came to sit with us again - by now we'd begun to feel like we were part of the band or something. Once again a firey performance of the set for Friday night left us wondering what magic it was going to be to actually see these guys turn it on for a crowd. The rehearsal over, we were told we could present the All Black jerseys and meet the band - all sorts of thoughts ran through my mind at this point. I walked over to Valerie and mentioned how I had these lyrics with me and could she please do me a big favour and pass them on to Gary... she looked at me and smiled, then pointed out "He's over there, you can go give them to him yourself... I'm sure he'd be glad to chat with you... hurry up hurry up." Somehow I felt reassured.
The band had to go get back to the Park Royal, which is where we were walking Rob and Chuck to. For me it was beer time again, but the rest of the group decided on going somewhere to eat and then back to their motel. I finally had my hands on a beer and went to join Chuck and Rob, who had been joined by... what?? Eddie, Valerie, Michael, Sue, Scotty, Wolfie and all the crew. I asked if it was okay if took the spare seat (thinking I'll just sit out of the way). I found myself chatting with Sue and Michael Anthony firstly. They are both very lovely people and quite a normal family. Wolfie decided he wanted to tickle everyone... he chose Michael (he had called him "Aunty Mike" on the Tuesday night which in the way he said it was funny). Scotty and I were told to teach Wolfie a lesson - "Tickle him till he pees". I remembered back to sisters that used to gang up on me and do exactly that... there was no way I wanted to embarrass this kid that way. Besides, I wanted him to show me how to do his dance (I think I've got it nailed). Scotty could tell that I was overwhelmed sitting here with these really nice people, who just happened to be famous. He nodded (I think he knew I was thinking "how cool". Actually it was a mixed bag of feelings really, to think that I was nobody special but these people made me feel like I was). Gary recognised me from earlier that night. Myself, Gary and Rob then got into what was to end up being close to three hours of rock n roll. I liked the fact that Gary was never in "Rockstar Mode". When on stage you are getting the business - he is a master performer and gives you his all. Off stage, Gary is genuine and excitable about what he has done in the past with Extreme (he explained the delight the band felt when they all gathered to listen to their recording of 'Love Of My Life', which featured one of their idols, and now dear friend, Brian May - that guy again... he is the Guv'nor you know). Another thing I noticed was when a young woman who was obviously taken with Gary came and asked for his autograph, he was the perfect gentleman and didn't come on like some hotshot (no "I love me... who do you love?" here). Both Rob and I found our time chatting with Gary to be the most amazing conversation we'd ever had with anyone. We managed to fit in other things besides our Queen addictions (we discussed a support group for addicts of rock) - we saw Gary as more of a fan of others, than someone who liked to talk too much about himself. When we asked questions we were given honest answers. He seemed relaxed with us which was really nice. To have a few things in common (we both have similar tastes in women... for both their beauty and talent. I better not mention names as he is more likely to meet these women than me... Gary if you read this don't say I didn't give you a chance okay? Private joke there). By the time Gary went off to bed Scotty could see just how much of a great thing he'd done by letting us be a part of the build-up. I really liked the way that all the guys from Extreme are still friends (Gary says he hears from Pat weekly, and that the other guys are still his mates no matter what they're doing now). I found it particularly interesting to touch onto a few things that Gary would like to give a go... some ambitions he has were expressed like a starstruck young man, and the way he spoke had me wishing that they could happen for him too. There still lives inside this man, despite past success, a man who has things to reach for. By the time I got done drinking with the lads (the crew) it was nearly 5am when I walked out of the Park Royal (which, lucky for me, meant not long until the next train home). Friday night came around and it was nearly showtime. I got to sit in on opening act Destiny's soundcheck. I was impressed to see that all the guys from Van Halen actually took interest in these kids. By the time the public started filing through the doors our group had already secured the front row. I was front row centre right next to Eddie's amp. The last few days began to hit me... this had really been special. Needless to say, the show was terrific. Gary was in a particularly showman mood tonight and why wouldn't he be? He's a professional and talented guy. During 'Right Now' Gary noticed me in the front row and waved then stood up and pointed at me and stood still... he screamed "This One's For Freddie!!!!"... That left a lump in my throat. I was living both the Live Aid and Tribute concerts all over again in my mind... while this terrific guy had remembered our idol. By the time Saturday night came around it was a wonder I had any energy to stand at the second concert. It was also this night that I was lucky enough to meet two really sweet young women - Rise N Shine editor Alison Cummings and her friend Caroline. They were both grinning ear to ear as they'd got to meet Gary (believe me I know how they felt - he's a great guy). These girls had wanted to meet him for years and years so we compared opinions on what we'd thought of him as a guy. The fact that he was a celebrity had not kind of registered - it was more like meeting a friend we'd been writing to for 20 years. Once again we decided the front row was ours, this time to the side. We were ushered out the back to the meet and greet, just before the band were presented with their gold records for sales in excess of 200,000 in New Zealand. We were then told we'd be having our photos taken professionally with the band and that we could order them from the photographer. We were in. Gary saw me and ushered me over... "Hey, I checked out your lyrics and I really liked them." I was stunned - that's about all I can say - he liked something that I'd done and that made me feel pretty awesome. I was once again made to promise to send the recorded song his way. As we finished the photo opportunity (which was rushed) I thanked Gary for everything and said I'd be in touch somehow, and also expressed what the dedication to Freddie had meant. The smile said it all. Once out in the front row again, we were (for the fifth night in a row) given the show we wanted (and then some). With that, I wish Gary and the rest of the band my heartfelt thanks for sharing something special with not only me but our whole group. I wish you all the best and continued success. You have my utmost respect. Thanks also to Scotty Ross for making this all possible. You are a remarkable person, "the captain of the well-oiled machine that is the Van Halen III tour"... and I will never forget you... friends will be friends.
|
|
We all stood in a group, which had been joined by a
few other people. I found Gary Cherone walking towards me so I shook his hand, and the
first thing I said? "Hey Man, its great to meet someone who's as huge a Queen fan as
I am." He smiled and said to me "Yeah you look kinda familiar" (some have
said I resemble Freddie)... this did the trick and I wasn't nervous anymore. We got
chatting about Queen and how he had wanted Brian May to tour with Van Halen (he did
mention he wants Brian to join them on stage at Wembley. I cheekily said "Not without
me there you bloody don't", then we both spoke of how kickarse it would be to have
Brian and Eddie on the same stage playing live... you could get no better I tell you). The
look in Gary's eyes as we both talked about Freddie... this was a totally inspired guy. I
decided to share my thoughts with him and said that Freddie would be bloody proud of what
he had achieved. It meant something terrific I tell you - we had some pics taken and gave
the band their All Black jerseys (Eddie needs to work on his Haka a li’l before he
can compete with The Spice Girls' effort). I felt good being able to say something nice
I'd thought for ages and he could tell that I was indeed sincere. I then found the courage
to hand him the copy of the lyrics to ‘Still’ and explained that I’d
started work on this two years ago, but yet to find someone with the right voice before we
record it (cheekily I told him I had him in mind to sing it... I have an aim of a
Extreme-y feel for the song... he smiled approvingly). Then he threw me for a loop and
said "When can I hear your song? I want to hear your song" (he hadn’t even
read the lyrics, but the sentiment behind the song is what we both understood), so I
promised that when it is ready he'll get the first copy of it (he can quote me on that).