Van Halen A No-show At Grammy Nominations

The band had been "expected" to show up at the Grammy Nominations last night to make an announcement of some sort - presumably to do with their much rumoured new album and a possible tour.

However, they did not turn up and Classic Rock Magazine reports that Neil Portnow, chairman of The Recording Academy, who run the Grammys, gave this excuse:

"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."

It has to be said that the Grammys never actually said which band they were expecting to show up, but in the build up to the awards nominations they Tweeted that there would be "a special live announcement from a truly iconic group regarding their historic reunion set to take place on the Grammy stage on February 12 2012. Does this hint make u wanna 'Jump' and 'Dance the Night Away'?"

The band are now not expected to make any announcement until 2012.

Meanwhile a new memoir from US concert promoter Barry Fey explains the infamous Van Halen "brown M&Ms" incident.

The new book, Backstage Past, reveals that Van Halen included the now iconic "no brown M&Ms" clause into their tour riders to make sure that venues were reading them closely so that they did not miss the more important considerations regarding safety and treatment of the crew.

Fey recalls what happened one night in 1980 at the University of Southern Colorado when Van Halen found their instructions had not been followed to a T.

"In their Pueblo dressing room, the band found brown M&Ms and the boys, who had proven that they didn't need much of an excuse to damage hotel rooms and the like, tore up the college's dressing room," Fey writes. "Tore it up so badly that the University banned not only Van Halen, but all rock concerts at the school."

Years later, Fey had occasion to book the band at the US Festival, and because he's a "smart ass," in his own words, he gave the rockers their comeuppance.

"I bought a big, silver chalice, had it filled with ONLY brown M&Ms, walked into Van Halen's dressing room and put it down on the table," he write.s "The guys - Eddie and Alex Van Halen and David Lee Roth - laughed their asses off."

(Noisecreep)