New VH book from Michel Schinkel

As you may know former Dutch 5150 fanclub president Michel Schinkel will be releasing his book about Van Halen and his encounters with the individual members of the band and crew over the years. No official release date has been set yet but from what I’ve heard this book is definitely going to be a must have. This is the news I’ve received so far:

Here’s a little teaser for you. Today it’s 45 years ago that Van Halen played the Pinkpop Festival. It was the last concert in Holland in the classic line-up. This photo was taken by my dear friend Gerard Rappard and it’s one of the many never before published photos that will be included in my upcoming book, which has no title yet. Besides the Pinkpop Festival, Gerard also took great shots of Van Halen’s show in Amsterdam 1979.
I dropped the idea of a deadline although I hope it’s all finished near the end of this year. But for me quality goes before anything else.
In general I can say that my book will be totally different than anything about Van Halen that has been published before. It’s written from a very unique perspective.
As a reminder, this is what you can expect:
- A hardcover, around 400 pages (in English), including approximately 100 pages with often never before published photos;
- Very detailed reports of my many encounters with the band between 1992 and 2015;
- Reports of David Lee Roth’s European tours;
- My visit to “5150” in 1997 and the interview with Edward;
- No less than ten interviews I did with Mike Anthony through the years;
- Nine interviews I did with Erwin Musper, the sound engineer who worked at “5150” between 1994 and 1997. He always gave perfect views of the work in progress. In 2024 I interviewed him again, looking back on his time with the band;
- Never before published family history and some great stories coming directly from family members;
- Interview with Pierre Courbois, who played with Jan van Halen before the family moved to the USA;
- Much, much more
This is a private project since I don’t have a publisher. Except for the technical parts, I will do everything myself, including shipping from Holland. I’m still not taking orders yet but I will keep a list of potential customers and will notify people when the book is ready to go. Every support is much appreciated of course but people who already responded to my earlier posts, don’t need to do that again. I sure am curious if people are interested. Thank you!

I can’t upload the foto at moment and I haven’t seen or read any of the book at all but as Michel has connections with the Van Halen family in the Netherlands it will probably be the most exciting book release since Greg Renoff’s Rising (and yes, that does include Brothers which never lived up to my expectations).