Journey

50th Anniversary Celebration magazine

Front Cover

A Fantastic magazine with lots of pictures and information! The magazine is about 1/8 inch think and takes you on a full tour of the band's history. This magazine takes you from the beginnings of the band in the early 1970's through their entire story and line-up changes. Everything you need to know about how we got to where we are! You might need to buy 2 of these so you can cut the pictures out of one of them.

Back Cover

The New WHEEL IN THE SKY YouTube Channel

 Wheel In The Sky YouTube Channel now Streaming

The new 'Wheel In The Sky" YouTube Channel has started. Since all my Journey Videos were stored on YouTube. I've posted the first introduction video here for convenience.

Come check out the channel! Everything I've posted here is in one place on YouTube, plus I'll be posting more videos as Time3 goes by. There will be a lot more different kinds of video's besides the ones I mention in the video.

The good news is, I'm Back!

Back for more

"WHEEL IN THE SKY"

Welcome to Wheel In The Sky

Journey's Concert Ticket Evolution Through Time part 4, The Big Escape

This is the big one. Journey's Escape Tour which started in July 1981 saw the biggest growth in audience of any Journey Tour when it ended in December. The audience kept getting bigger and bigger. There were sold out shows across the Country and Internationally as well. This was due to the heavy airplay radio was giving the new songs. The "Escape" album became the number one selling album in America the week of September 12-19, 1981.

Gregg Rolie left the band after the "Departure Tour" of 1980. His replacement was Jonathan Cain who comes from a band called "The Babys". Jonathan Cain's live shows with an audience were at the The Ventura County Fairgrounds and the shows at Calavaris County Fairgrounds in Angel Camp. This was the "Captured Tour" or "Pre-Escape Tour" one month before the album was released.

The face value of the concert tickets were anywhere from $10.50 to $17.50. Unless you camped out in front of the venue the prices you were paying more like $30.00 or more per ticket.

Not only did Jonathan Cain co-write very song on the "Escape" album, he also co-wrote the two songs used on the Disney movie "Tron" Soundtrack. "Only Solutions" is a great rare Journey pop song. "1990's Theme" is a keyboard instrumental. Jonathan Cain and Steve Perry together wrote some of Journey's most popular songs. When working with Neal Schon, the three were absolute magic.

Finally at the end of 1981, with the Tour behind them and their highest success beyond their wildest dreams were achieved so they decided to take a rest. Concert promoter Bill Graham personally asked the band if they would be interested in a big Stadium and Arena tour to even bigger audiences. The answer was no. 

June 9, 1981 - Seaside Park. Ventura County Fairgrounds. Ventura, CA - 415, Billy Squier

September 3, 1981 - Poplar Creek Music Theater, Hoffman Estates, IL.

September 25, 1981 - JFK Stadium. Philadelphia, PA – The Rolling Stones, George Thorogood

December 6, 1981 - Center Arena. Seattle, WA - Red Rider

Bill Graham didnt give up and to convince the band that everyone who paid for a ticket would have a great seat no matter where they sat, the video projection system was developed. From now on there would be giant video screens showing you close angles of the band, so anyone could now see their faces from their seats. Journey was the first band to use video projection during their shows. It was far out of sync, (their was a delay in the video so it didm't match the audio) and it was still great! This also made the shows slightly more intimate again, something the band really liked.

May 6, 1982 - Meadowlands Arena. East Rutherford, NJ - Greg Kihn Band

May 15, 1982 - Joe Louis Arena. Detroit, MI - Greg Kihn Band

May 24, 1982 - Rosemont Horizon. Chicago, IL - Greg Kihn Band

June 12, 1982 - Texas Jam. Cotton Bowl. Dallas, TX
Point Blank, Joan Jett, Sammy Hagar, Santana

June 26, 1982 - Oakland Coliseum Oakland, C
Day On The Green - Santana/Toto/Gamma/Tubes

July 2, 1982 - Rose Bowl. Pasadena, CA - Blue Oyster Cult, Triumph, Aldo Nova

Journey's Concert Ticket Evolution Through Time part 3, The Captured Departure

Journey's Departure Tour of 1980 was Journey's biggest tour to date. This year the band played to a much bigger audience than ever before. The band now would play bigger venues and the shows would become less intimate.

Journey had also become international stars, especially in Japan. While on tour in Japan, the "Dream, After Dream" soundtrack album was recorded for the Japanese movie of the same name, or "Yume, Yume No Ato" in Japanese.

This would be the last concert tour to feature those great Steve Perry / Gregg Rolie duets. Gregg Rolie's voice has been sorely missed since this era of the band. From now on Steve Perry would command the sole Lead Vocalist position until he himself leaves the band.

This is the tour that was recorded for the "Captured" album. Journey recorded about 4 dates on the Departure Tour to use for "Captured". We are very lucky that this tour was recorded for a live album because after the tour Gregg Rolie makes his departure from the band. This album becomes the "Greatest Hits" of the Gregg Rolie era of Journey.

Ticket prices were between $8.00 - $9.50 which is up only one dollar since the "Evolution" Tour of 1979. Day on The Green this year was $13.50. Because Ticket Agency's or "scalping agency's" were able to buy large amounts of tickets, they could resale them for enormous profit. Almost no-one paid the price printed on the ticket anymore. An $8.00 ticket went for more like $20.00 or more.

April 5, 1980 - Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Phoenix, AZ - The Babys

April 17, 1980 - Riverside Centroplex. Baton Rouge, LA – The Babys

April 20, 1980 - Birmingham Jefferson Civic Center. Birmingham, AL
The Babys

May 23, 1980 - Market Square Arena. Indianapolis, IN – The Babys

June 3, 1980 – Seattle Center Arena. Seattle, WA - The Babys

June 4, 1980 - Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Portland, OR - The Babys

July 27, 1980 - Oakland Stadium. Oakland, CA
Black Sabbath, Cheap Trick, Molly Hatchet

October 11, 1980 - Nakano Sun Plaza. Tokyo, Japan

Journey 1983 Frontiers Tour Book - Making and Breaking Records

The last three pages of the Frontiers Tour Book starts with a double page thanking the road crew on one side and Journey's biggest albums artwork on the other.

JOURNEY Making and Breaking Records;

The Frontiers Tour was a huge success. Until this point Journey had been working hard touring and making albums that they decided to take a break after the tour.

This is the first time that the band had ever stopped after a tour, they usually would go right back into Studio to record another album.

We take a moment to reflect on where we've been and where we came from. What started as a little jazz fusion band in 1973 had become the biggest Rock and Roll Band in America!


...and then there was the back cover;

Journey's Escape Tour 1981-1982 Tour Book Program part 11; The End

This week is the last pages and back cover of Journey's Escape Tour Program.

In 1982 this tour was the biggest tour Journey ever had. Neal Schon bought a new Ferrari.

Journey hit the mainstream. The awkwardness that always happens when Rock & Roll meets mainstream America. Journey was now on National TV talk shows, local entertainment shows, they were everywhere!

Once the tour was over, the presuure was on for another album. The pressure was intense I'm sure, how do you top "Escape"?  Rarely does a rock & roll band such as Journey reach number 1 on the mainstream album charts.

The tour book shows us all six platinum albums up to 1981!

We end with the back cover which uses artwork created in the late 1970's and was used primarily for the "In The Beginning" compilation.

Join us next week for a post on the Escape Tour Merchandise...

Journey's Escape Tour 1981-1982 Tour Book Program part 3

The History of Journey comes to a conclusion and we're now in 1981!

The Captured album was sort of a Greatest Hits from Infinity through Departure. It's really the 1980 Departure on 2 vinyl albums which went double platinum!

The Escape was about to begin. The album was released on July 31st 1981 and by November hit #1 in America. Escape was the  biggest selling Studio album Journey ever had. The album spawned 5 chart topping singles including one of the songs, "Don't Stop Believin'" which was rereleased in 2009 due to it's people;parity as the #1 downloaded song. This was one of those albums that you bought on vinyl and then you had to buy again on CD due to the timing of the release. The Audio Cassette was also still a big seller for your car, so you might have had 3 versions of this album at the time. The album and singles were in the charts through 1981 and 1982.

You also get a great picture of Neal Schon playing guitar!

E5C4P3...

Continued next week...

Journey Force Newsletter from January 1, 1985 part 2 of 3

To keep the excitement going, this weeks fan club newsletter starts off with picture from a "Night Ranger" party and Steve Smith's Vital Information. Gregg Rolie's next project is also talked about.

The Rockdogs softball team is mentioned in a great article about the winner of "Steve Smith's Vital Information Giveaway".

The usual merchandise pages follow. There is some very interesting items available that I wish I had gotten at the time, like the Satin Jacket. I do have the hat.

The "Questions Answered" section is where we leave off. Some good questions about the "Captured" album, Neal Schon and Steve Smith!

More next week...

Journey's Steve Perry 1980 Circus Magazine Photo

This photo of Steve Perry is page 25 of Circus Magazine dated July 22, 1980.

From the center of an article titled "The Journey Empire Strikes Back" by Carl Arrington.

Steve Perry 1980 - Journey's Lead Singer

Stay tuned for the complete article coming soon...

Journey Captured Logo Sticker from 1981

Here's a great Journey sticker from 1981.

This sticker is 5.75 inches in diameter and has a different take on the "Captured" design.

The sticker has never been used and is in excellent condition too...

Journey Captured and brought back Live!

This is a great magazine ad from 1981.

The album was released in February 1981. One of Journey's best albums.

I love this album! It's the greatest hits of the Gregg Rolie era of Journey...

Everything became different 6 months later when "Escape" hit the stores.

This is a record of what was before.

Journey Captured Backstage Pass

This is a Captured Tour Backstage Pass.

It seems weird to have a Captured Tour when that really would be the Departure Tour...

Journey played some dates with new keyboard player, Jonathan Cain between the release of "Captured" and "Escape"

Rare Captured Lithograph from 1981

Here's a video showing my "Captured" Lithograph. Only 500 of these were made and this one is #24...

Captured press release to record stores

An old press release given to record stores to advertise the album "Captured".