Alex Van Halen

Re: Alex Van Halen Reply:

midwestrecovering said:
I have always loved Alex's style and especially the huge customized Ludwig kits. Did you know that Alex actually started their career playing with a Tama Crystar "acrylic" drum outfit? Then eventually switched to Ludwig.
I saw Genesis (that's what Van Halen was called) summer of 1970, free concert in Hastings Ranch Park, and Alex was playing Ludwigs.
 
alex van halen as far as i'm concernd is one
of the top 5 all around drummers in the world.
this man is a true great. the differn't styles he
puts in his drumming and soloing you dont
here other drummers do PERIOD. hes a true
legend and yes hes much better than john bonham.
i have been playing for 35 years i know whats going on.
 
oooh welldone. two posts and you've revealed alot ...about yourself, not much about drumming tho.

Some of Al's early bands, all of which included Edward in the mix, were The Broken Combs (who performed lunchtime concerts at Hamilton Elementary School and featured Alex on saxophone), The Trojan Rubber Company, Genesis, and The Space Brothers. Among his influences are Buddy Rich, Keith Moon, John Bonham and Ginger Baker.

Alex would disagree with you.

j
 
Alex Van Halen, an all-around drummer? You mean all around the 80s rock music drummer?
 
Before David Lee Roth joined the brothers, he was in Red Ball Jet (horrible, just bloody horrible band) in 1970. When he joined Genesis (Van Halen), they had a different bass player (Mark Stone). The boys changed the name to Mammoth ('cause the English band Genesis was breaking). Then another name change to Space Brothers (and they briefly had a keyboard player). Name change back to Mammoth (Mark Stone left, Mike Anthony entered the picture). Name change to Van Halen around 1974. All thru those years they were a cover band. Did a few Budgie songs. Captain Beyond. Lots of Black Sabbath. I don't remember them ever doing any Leppelin covers, and I never thought Alex to have a Bonham influence. Heavily influenced by Ray Phillips and Pete Boot (both Budgie drummers). And Frank Beard.
 
harryconway said:
Before David Lee Roth joined the brothers, he was in Red Ball Jet (horrible, just bloody horrible band) in 1970. When he joined Genesis (Van Halen), they had a different bass player (Mark Stone). The boys changed the name to Mammoth ('cause the English band Genesis was breaking). Then another name change to Space Brothers (and they briefly had a keyboard player). Name change back to Mammoth (Mark Stone left, Mike Anthony entered the picture). Name change to Van Halen around 1974. All thru those years they were a cover band. Did a few Budgie songs. Captain Beyond. Lots of Black Sabbath. I don't remember them ever doing any Leppelin covers, and I never thought Alex to have a Bonham influence. Heavily influenced by Ray Phillips and Pete Boot (both Budgie drummers). And Frank Beard.
dude what are you talking about heres another fine exsample of someone opening there mouth and nothing coming out. alex van halen 3 main influances were keith moon, ginger baker and buddy ritch he was NOT a big fan of john bonham in almost 30 years i hered him mention bonham twice.
please you people need to check out other sites and see bonham is'nt much most drummers find him good a best and overrated. dont take my word for it look arround and see for you self.
 
firesticks said:
dude what are you talking about heres another fine exsample of someone opening there mouth and nothing coming out. alex van halen 3 main influances were keith moon, ginger baker and buddy ritch he was NOT a big fan of john bonham in almost 30 years i hered him mention bonham twice.
please you people need to check out other sites and see bonham is'nt much most drummers find him good a best and overrated. dont take my word for it look arround and see for you self.
My words exactly as you quoted them, "I don't remember them ever doing' any Zeppelin covers, and I never thought Alex to have a Bonham influence" So where do I say anything contrary. I can't say I quite know where you're coming from. I mention the 2 drummers from Budgie and Frank Beard as influences. Van Halen did ZZ Top covers and Budgie covers. Alex even set up his Ludwigs in similar fashion to Pete Boot, right after the "In for the Kill" album came out. Van Halen used to do a song called "Eyes In The Night" in which they pretty blatently copied the chorus from "Whiskey River" by Budgie. Later they stopped doing that song 'cause it was a little to close to plagerism.
 
You know, Ive been listening to VH for a while, and I never really played their stuff. It is really fun though. I know this might sound a little dumb, but playing along to Dance the Night Away is actually really fun. Same with Jamies Crying and some other stuff. Try it.
 
Well, I figured that most people would jam to Hot for Teacher and not Dance the Night Away.
 
Dance has the cool little cowbell riff at the beginning, and its got a good laid back groove. Even though Alex wasnt really influenced by Bonham their styles are quite similar in that alot of Alex's stuff is more based on feel than technique. I've heard alot of guys play VH songs note for note but it still didnt have that great feel that Alex has.
 
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franklinj said:
Well, I figured that most people would jam to Hot for Teacher and not Dance the Night Away.

There are good songs to play too on every album. The two songs you named I like to jam to the least. I like to play H.F.T. in clubs (never really at home) because it gets everyone going. And "Dance" gets played on radio so much I can do w/out it.
 
franklinj said:
Ybut playing along to Dance the Night Away is actually really fun. Same with Jamies Crying and some other stuff. Try it.


Or you can jam to Tone Loc "Funky Cold Medina" since that is a sample of Jamie's Cryin'.

Van Halen I, is one of the best albums in rock 'n roll history (top 10 in my book).
 
dude what are you talking about heres another fine exsample of someone opening there mouth and nothing coming out. alex van halen 3 main influances were keith moon, ginger baker and buddy ritch he was NOT a big fan of john bonham in almost 30 years i hered him mention bonham twice.
please you people need to check out other sites and see bonham is'nt much most drummers find him good a best and overrated. dont take my word for it look arround and see for you self.

you have a weird way of winning people's agreement. first of all, phrases like: ' fine exsample of someone opening there mouth and nothing coming out' show acomplete lack of respect for another member or the rules of the forum. second of all you need to humble yourself A LOT. there are plenty of instances and citations where alex has mentioned john as his hero or influence including interviews with him in modern drummer, drummerworld and a load of forums. i strongly suggest that members shouldn't take your word for it because a simple google search for the terms 'alex van halen bonham' will show how sorely mistaken you are. i have a giant collection of drumming magazines and bonham's name is in nearly every one. i suggest you check out other sites and see that bonham is 'much most drummers find him good a best'.

j

ps: i stand by my DW forum rule:
DONT BASH BONZO
 
firesticks said:
alex van halen as far as i'm concernd is one
of the top 5 all around drummers in the world.
this man is a true great. the differn't styles he
puts in his drumming and soloing you dont
here other drummers do PERIOD. hes a true
legend and yes hes much better than john bonham.
i have been playing for 35 years i know whats going on.
And 36 years ago I was watching Van Halen (Genesis) play live...
 
PearlDrummer014 said:
this guys reel good. i love his octobans on the dvd. really cool solo.


what dvd is that? ive seen live without net, and i dont hear him use them what so ever :(

i think they are more of a "show off" :)

cool snare he has.. great drumming
 
i think he's talking about the toronto gig they did during the " balance " tour......it was aired on much music, and rumour has it the band wanted to make it into a dvd.....i have a copy of that gig, it was stellar.............
 
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