For Van Halen fans, the waiting game continues. © Mario Anzuoni/Reuters/Corbis
Usually it's a band's performance that has everybody talking - for good or bad - but last night's no-show by Van Halen at the Grammy Awards nominations concert has people chattering for different reasons, as in, "What was that all about?"
A couple of weeks ago, the Recording Academy started fanning the flames. Promoting last night's televised show at Los Angeles' Nokia Theater, it promised "a special live announcement from a truly iconic group regarding their historic band reunion set to take place on the Grammy stage on February 12, 2012."
This was followed by a Tweet which read: "Who do u predict the reuniting band will be @#GRAMMYnoms...Does this hint make u wanna 'Jump' and 'Dance the Night Away?'"After this, there was little to no doubt as to who the "reuniting band" was.
Soon after, Van Halen, along with management and record company execs, posed for a picture (below) to announce the group's signing to Interscope Records, following their departure from Warner Bros. after 35 years.
Hitfix spoke to Recording Academy chairman Neil Portnow about Van Halen's no-show at the Grammy concert. "What happened was very simple," he said. "In the world of creativity, everything is fluid. In the process of discussions that we had been having with an expectation that perhaps we would be at a point tonight where the artist involved and we, moving forward, would be ready to announce [a reunion], they weren't quite at that point. So it's live television, we go on to the next act.
"It's rock and roll and so on. That being said, we were genuine about the intention and we are genuine about the discussion."
We're still quibbling a bit over everybody's use of the word "reunion" - Van Halen haven't really "reunited," as that would mean bassist Michael Anthony was back in the fold - but we're still curious to see when and how the band finally announces, for real, their new album.
In a recent photo, Van Halen pose with Jimmy Iovine, Interscope chairman; Irving Azoff, executive chairman of Live Nation Entertainment and chairman and CEO of the Front LineManagement Group; Steve Berman, Interscope, Geffen and A&M vice chairman; and Jim Urie, president and CEO, Universal Music Group Distribution.
