Daniels - Dont stop believin: the untold story of Journey

For Emma Kilgannon

Copyright 2011 Omnibus Press
This edition 2012 Omnibus Press
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EISBN: 978-0-85712-821-8

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BY ANDREW McNIECE
of melodicrock.com

Theres quite a bit of musicianship and variety that makes up Journey.

Ross Valory

W hen you think Journey you think of the songs. They seem to have taken on a life of their own and for many the songs are all they know. There is no knowledge of the personalities behind them, nor the years of hard work, endless touring and paying dues that it took to make these songs classics.

Those that are better educated know that beneath the surface lies one of the most fascinating, complicated and dysfunctional histories of any rock band of the modern era.

A myriad of individuals have been part of the Journey machine over the years, from the various members of the band who have come and gone, to those that guided their way and the various crews that kept them on the road.

Journey have always engaged tough management. In the early days Herbie Herbert was a pioneer, a groundbreaking hands-on manager. No one ever said no to Herbie, and decisions he made then still influence the music world today. In more recent times the equally infamous Irving Azoff has guided the band and kept them going when many other bands would not have made it.

At the core of Journey is guitarist Neal Schon the founding member. And together with Herbie Herbert and later keyboardist Jonathan Cain and Azoff, he made a number of tough calls over the years. These key moments are numerous. The decision to hire a full-time lead vocalist in Steve Perry saw the band lose its early progressive fans for the new commercial direction. As Perry gained more control he brought in his own rhythm section for the Raised On Radio album and tour. Perry then departed and the band disappeared for ten years, only to reunite for Trial By Fire in 1996. Perry was unable to commit to touring due to the need for hip surgery, leaving the band with their toughest call of all. And this time they didnt hesitate they made the hardest call in their history and replaced Perry. These were all momentous decisions. Any one of them could have killed the band; but, in hindsight, each decision seems only to have added to the legacy of the group and allowed them to be where they are now still creating new music, still touring and still playing those beloved classics.

And that is what it is all about the songs. These are the songs that bring thousands out of their homes each summer as the band tours year in, year out. They are the songs that appear in countless movies and TV shows each year. They are the songs that inspire an unprecedented number of tribute bands, each adopting a song title as a moniker of their own. And Journey have written some brilliant songs that have stood the test of time. The fact that Dont Stop Believin is the most downloaded song of all time only proves that.

And one cannot forget this bands fans some of the most dedicated, passionate, loving (and at times crazy) people that anyone could wish to meet. The band are their adopted family and they will at times duel to the death to protect their favourite members. It is all part of the energy that envelops this band and everything they do.

Most of the bands most memorable and popular songs came from the Steve Perry years. The chemistry between vocalist Perry, guitarist Neal Schon and keyboardist Jonathan Cain was undeniable. Despite the dysfunctional nature of their personal relationships with each other, or perhaps because of that creative tension, the trio created a legacy that lives on today, more than thirty years since Dont Stop Believin was committed to vinyl. This book details some of the personalities behind the band and some of the countless stories that make up everything that is Journey.

Andrew J McNeice
October 2010
www.melodicrock.com

They [critics] were critical of Journey being corporate and the money orientation and so forth; shit, try that nowadays. Nowadays, if youre not making money youre just not hip.

Herbie Herbert

I n 2009, a quirky musical comedy set in a high school called Glee aired in the United States, and before long the shows critical and commercial success spread around the world. The format takes well-known popular songs often classic rock tracks and reworks them according to the premise of the show. Without question, Glees most popular and widely-travelled song is Dont Stop Believin, from Journeys classic mega-selling 1981 album Escape. The song both the Glee version and the original Journey cut became significant chart successes the world over and Journey, a band barely known among British teenagers, became popular all over again. The song took on a life of its own: not only was a version played on Glee, but also on the UK talent contest The X Factor, run by the music mogul Simon Cowell, and Channel Five in the UK even took the big step of naming a TV show after the song. Once rock dinosaurs, Journey quickly became anything but has-beens. Indeed, Journeys Greatest Hits surely one of the finest collections of rock tracks ever assembled on one disc re-entered the charts in both their native America and many foreign territories, including the UK where their career has often been haphazard.

The enormous success of Glee was perfect timing for the band. In late 2007, Journey hired a new singer from the Philippines named Arnel Pineda after guitarist and co-founder Neal Schon had seen him perform Journey tracks on YouTube. So impressed was Schon with Pinedas vocal abilities that he had the singer flown out to San Francisco to audition for the band. The band had experienced years of relative obscurity following the second and ultimately final departure of Steve Perry, Journeys most iconic singer. It had hired (and fired) two singers, Steve Augeri and Jeff Scott Soto, who, although popular with long-term Journey enthusiasts, brought the band no closer to the mainstream success which had eluded them for years.

In many ways the hiring of the diminutive Pineda would either make or break the band. Ticket and albums sales were down on their early Eighties heyday, a fact most put down to Steve Perrys absence. In the event, though, the hiring of a frontman from a foreign country turned out to be a masterstroke, since it gave them more publicity than they had had since Perry reunited with them for the