Journey Force Newsletter New Large Format from July 1985

Welcome to the first edition of the newsletter featuring the larger format!
The newsletter now is on giant newsprint paper. The color pictures are much better now!

The front cover of the newsletter in July 1985 shows the band with a Journey fan named Ami Valentine. Read all about Ami's struggle with blindness and how the band Journey was ready to help.

Also there are many pictures of members of the band with Journey Force Staff including Cynthia Poon. I met Cynthia at a Journey Concert in Oakland in 1982. I still have the jacket that she is wearing in the picture of her with Steve Smith.

The third page this week is the very popular Mailing With Department Codes page. The other half of the page is sale items from the Journey merchandise store.

Continued Next Week...

Journey's 1983 Frontiers Tour Book makes an Escape

The next pages in the 1983 Tour Program from Journey's Frontiers Tour is an ad for the Data Age Video Game "Journey Escape"

The ad is by Data Age, the makers of the Journey Escape Video Game released in 2 formats. The most popular was the Atari Video Game System, but this was also released for Sears' Tele-Games Video Arcade which I have never heard of.

This is one of the rare ads for this game. The game was released in 1982. It was based on Journey's Escape album. The idea of the game is that you try to help the band Escape.

I've also included a link to a play-through video of the game. This takes you quickly through all stages of the game.

ESCAPE VIDEO GAME

Click below for the original 1982 TV commercial for the Journey Escape Game;

ESCAPE GAME COMMERCIAL

Concluded next week...

Journey's 1983 Frontiers Tour Continues with Photos Of Steve Perry and Neal Schon

Journey's 1983 Frontiers Tour Continues with Photos Of Steve Perry and Neal Schon.

The next five pages show some great Close-Up photos of Steve and Neal starting with the shot of Steve on the bus. There's also a great shot of Neal singing and having a go with his Guitar. We end with two shots of Steve, the last being the famous camel toe shot where he's pointing to the sky.

Neal was of course a founding member of JOURNEY back in 1973. It was 1978 that Steve Perry stole Robert Flieshman's job as Lead Singer in the band. It was a great move as JOURNEY was on top of the World by this time in 1983!

Continued Next Week...

Journey 1983 Frontiers Tour Book continues on (part IV)

Part IV of the Journey 1983 Frontiers Tour Book continues this week with more pictures of the members of the band!

The Frontiers Tour is time that I had two tickets to all five nights at the Los Angeles Forum. Being able to take five different people each night to see my favorite band while I was 19 years old was incredible. 

I was able to tell Steve Perry that I saw him live at the Forum five nights in a row once and he went on to tell me that his mother was sick at the time, so that tour was kind of a blur to him.

The next five pages of the Tour Program shows excellent shots of Jonathan Cain and Ross Valory. There's also some nice shots Neal Schon, Ross Valory, Jonathan Cain, and Steve Smith...

Continued Next Week...

Happy 67th Birthday, STEVE PERRY of JOURNEY

Happy Birthday Steve Perry!

Journey's 1983 Frontier's Tour Book Part IV with Centerfold Poster

There are two posters from the 1983 Frontiers Tour Program featured this week. The Frontiers Tour was a grueling 8 months around the World and back again. When the Tour was over Steve Perry started working on his first solo album, "Street Talk" while Steve Smith went back to record with his other band "Vital Information". Neal always had side projects and he really expanded on them during this time. 

This is the first time "Journey" didn't work on new songs during their Tour, they concentrated on the solo projects which kept delaying any work on a new album for far too long.

The first poster is a great shot of the band on Tour. It doesn't even matter that Steve Smith is just an added shot in the corner. Way back in the dark, Ross Valory ended up having the least flattering shot of the group.

This next one is the Centerfold Poster. It's an excellent shot of the band playing. There are also insert shots of each member of the band. It would seem that Steve Perry and Jonathan Cain never change their shirts on Tour.

Continued next week...

Journey's 1983 Frontiers Tour Book Program part III

This week's edition of the 1983 Frontiers Tour Book is the next 5 pages of band pictures starting with full shot of Steve Perry, the remaining Steve we need back in the band!

The Frontiers album was released on February 22, 1983 and if it wasn't for Michael Jackson's Thriller being released on 2-26-1983, Journey would have had another #1 album in the USA! Instead, Journey had to settle for #2.

The album spawned 4 singles in 1983 and was certified 6 times Platinum by the year 1997. Also included are mini bios for Steve Smith and Neal Schon...

Journey's 1983 Frontiers Tour Book Program continues

Part II of the Frontiers Tour Book from 1983 contains 5 pictures. There is one each of all the band members. These have some sort or heat recognition posterization going on.

By now Journey is exhausted after the grueling 2 year Escape Tour and creating the "Frontiers" album. Somehow they were able to pull off an album that was an excellent follow up for "Escape".

By now, it was a machine, a hard working, well oiled machine.

Continued next week.

Journey and Steve Perry Christmas Card from 1984

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM WHEEL IN THE SKY

This is the Christmas Card that The Steve Perry Information Network sent out for Christmas 1984;

Apparently He's again in the Studio working on an album for a 2016 release.

What the World really wants for Christmas is a reunion with his old band, Journey.

The Journey Force Newsletter from May 1, 1985 concludes this week

The highlight this week is the pictures of Neal Schon jamming at 1985's BAMMIES. There are 4 great color pictures of Neal including one with the lead guitars from Huey Lewis & The News.

The first page this week lists more of the contest winners. The 2nd half of the page is dedicated to Answering Questions and explaining yet again what the volunteer task force is and how it works. (it never worked)

The next page, the "Mailing with Department Codes" page which was always a favorite once again explains how to send mail to The Journey Force in the most convoluted way possible.

Once again we have a third merchandise page for the Frontiers items they are trying to get rid of to make room for the new album merchandise.

Journey Frontiers 1983 Tour Program Book Cover

Journey's Frontiers Tour began on February 22, 1983 in Nagoya Japan. That same night the Frontiers Album was released in the U.S.A. The first U.S. Date was on March 28, 1983 in Seattle Washington. The tour continued until September 6, 1983 where the last date was played in Honolulu Hawaii at the Blaisdell Arena.

The Cover of the giant Tour Book is a solarized blue and red version of the Frontiers Album Cover depicting Elmo's Head.

The next two pages included this week are combined so that it can also be used as a poster. If possible I'll create a text file of what's printed on the left and post it next week.

For the next few weeks I will be posting the entire tour book, so stay tuned....

The Journey Force Newsletter from May 1, 1985 continues...

 

This week's edition includes pages 4-7 of the Newsletter from May 1985.

Page 4 begins with pictures of Ross Valory playing with the Journey Force Cat, "Little Herbie".

The next page lists all the contest winners in the "Easy as 1-2-3 Contest". There were 5 1st place winners and 100 second place winners.

The following two pages are the merchandise pages. The Frontiers Satin Jacket goes for a mere $35.00. If only I had gotten one.

Continued next week...

Steve Perry Interview with "Uncle" Joe Benson Sunday night 12-13-2015

December 13, 2015 on "Off The Record" with "Uncle" Joe Benson is an interview with Steve Perry.

Los Angeles Radio Station THE SOUND 100.3 FM will play the interview at 8:00PM pacific time.

More information can be found at either of these two sites;

Steve Perry confirms he is in the Studio working on a new album for 2016

Today, December 10, 2015, Steve Perry confirmed on the radio that he is indeed in the Studio working on a new album for a 2016 release.

It was on 100.3 The Sound in Los Angeles, where the Mark In The Morning show when Steve Perry called in to say happy birthday to radio DJ and personality, Uncle Joe Benson.

Steve mentioned that he used to be in a band and that he has been in the Studio for the past 6 months recording and trying different things. Sometime next year is when he said he would release the album.

I was unable to record it as I was driving at the time.

The Journey Force Newsletter from May 1985

The May 1, 1985 edition of the Journey Force Newsletter begins with the 8th Annual Bay Area Music Awards (BAMMIES) with Steve Perry winning 2 awards!

Pictures from the BAMMIES can be found on page 2 of the Newsletter.

The 3rd and last page this week gets down to business with more Steve Perry news and the "We Are The World" album in the "USA for Africa Project".

Steve Smith news is also included while his jazz group goes on hiatus while he works on the upcoming Journey album. There's also a small hint towards Steve perry, Neal Schon, and Jonathan Cain as the main members of the band. It will be very interesting to see how this all plays out over the next few months until the album really does arrive in 1986.

We conclude this week explaining special seating offered by the Force at Journey shows, followed by a full explanation of what it is and how it works. It really didn't work unless you were able to camp out in front of the venue and be close enough in line while Ticketron was also selling the same tickets all over town.

Continued next week...