Wheel In The Sky blog made it's ESCAPE,

THE ESCAPE WAS A GREAT SUCCESS!!

COMING SOON

THE ARRIVAL

Coming soon to a YouTube near you

 Journey Escape Home Video Game Interview 1983

The Journey Escape Video Game for home entertainment. Released in 1982, this is the Journey Escape Video Game! The TV Commercial and the Interview promo are included in this video all about the Journey Escape Video Game.

The interview is with Jonathan Cain and 

You're on the road with Journey, one of the world's hottest rock groups. A spectacular performance has just ended. Now it's up to you to guide each Journey Band Member past hordes of Love-Crazed Groupies, Sneaky Photographers, and Shifty-Eyed Promoters to the safety of the Journey Escape Vehicle in time to make the next concert. Your mighty manager and loyal roadies are there to help, but the escape is up to you!

PLAY VIDEO

The Escape Tour on Vinyl

Journey's Live In Houston 1981, Escape Tour is out on Vinyl. 

Released on June 10, 2022 and produced again by Steve Perry!!

The concert took place on November 6, 1981 and was first broadcast on MTV in 1982. This was the concert that took Journey to the Moon.  

The Concert was also simulcast in stereo on radio stations all across the Country. This was massive.

The album was first released on CD in 2005. It was produced by Steve Perry and John Kalodner. This vinyl version was produced by Steve Perry and John Jackson in 2021.

Journey Force Folding Sunglasses

 The Journey Folding Sunglasses

Journey started selling folding sunglasses in 1984. I got my pair in 1985 through the Journey Force which is the name of the old Journey fan club. I made a video to show off the sunglasses. I also talk about the current tour.

I talk about my tickets to Journey's Freedom tour. I also show off my past Ticket stubs from all the times I've seen Journey. At the end of the video, I show off the Journey Folding Sunglasses that were on sale at the Journey Fan Club between 1984-1995. May the Journey Force be with you.

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 Escape 35th Anniversary Japanese Special Edition CD

Happy Birthday "Escape"! 

Escape was released on July 31, 1981 and is 36 years old today!

In Japan a special edition CD/DVD super-package was released. The album cover and Booklets are all 7 inches, while the CD's are normal size. It's an incredible package including the entire "Escape" CD with different bonus tracks than the US release. Also included is the "The Escape Tour, Live in Houston 1981" CD and DVD!  There are 4 Booklets, including a reproduction of the 1981-82 Escape Tour Book and other Japanese posters and single covers.

The Escape Japanese Special Edition

Japanese Special Edition "Escape" Front Cover

Japanese Special Edition "Escape" Inside Fold Left

Japanese Special Edition "Escape" Inside Fold Middle

Japanese Special Edition "Escape" Inside Fold Right

Japanese Special Edition "Escape" Back Cover

Journey Escape 35th Anniversary Japanese Special Edition

Merry Christmas from Herbie Herbert and Journey 1982 Journey Force Christmas Card

Journey was everywhere by 1982! This was the first year since 1975 that Journey did not release an album. They couldn't, there wasn't any time.

The Escape album kept releasing singles into 1982. The Escape Tour was extended and by 1982, they were playing huge arenas and had video projection so anyone in the audience could see what was happening.

Again, It was a surprise and a delight to receive another Christmas Card from Journey! Although there is no picture of the band, there is a great representation ion what a show is like when way in the back. It sure looks like an exciting night!

Happy Holidays from WHEEL IN THE SKY

Merry Christmas from Herbie Herbert and Journey 1981 Journey Force Christmas Card

Back in 1981, The Journey Force sent out these Christmas Cards to all members of The Journey Force. This was the first time I had seen this picture of the band at this building in Japan. There weren't many ways to find pictures of the band back in 1981, so getting one of these in the mail was great! The top half is upside down so that it was correct when folded.

Happy Holidays from WHEEL IN THE SKY

Journey Escape Tour Poster for Labor Day, September 1981!

Journey played the Alpine Valley Amphitheater in East Troy, Wisconsin with Point Blank on September 5 and 6, 1981!

WLS Radio promoted Journey in East Troy, WI during The Escape Tour. This stop in East Troy was still very early in the Tour. Journey would go on to play until December 22 and then again the next year, 1982. The opening band was Point Blank.

East Troy, Wisconsin had a population of just under 2400 in 1981. The village has a total area of 4.51 square miles. It is a very small Historic Town that is easy to get to from any direction. People from all over were able to get to East Troy very easily.

Journey's "Escape" album 35th Anniversary, Don't Stop Believin'!

Journey ESCAPE album was released on July 31, 1981. It features 4 hit singles and went number one on the Billboard Music Chart. A truly amazing album from a rock and roll band...

Album Cover

Escape TV Commercial;

Escape Promotional Stand-up;

The album spawned an incredible four hit singles with 3 unreleased songs;

1- Who's Crying Now / Mother, Father

2- Don't Stop Believing' / Natural Thing (unreleased song)

3- Open Arms / Little Girl (unreleased song in the USA)

4- Still They Ride / La Raza Del Sol (unreleased song)

By September 1981the album was  so popular it hit Number 1 on the Billboard 200 Chart for the week of September 12-18, 1981.

This was also Journey's biggest Tour to date, The Escape Tour was so popular that it was released on DVD and  CD in 2005 and 2006;

   

By 1982, Journey's Escape was so popular they made a Video game out of it;

Journey's Escape Game TV Commercial;

Journey's Escape Game run through;

Don't Stop Believing';

Two Poster Ads for Journey's Escape Home Video Game

These are two ads for the Journey Escape Video Game by Data Age.
The game was released in 1982.

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 song "Kohoutek" got it's name from a Comet that NASA first sighted in 1973

Comet Kohoutek was first seen from Earth in 1973 and may return 75,000 years later.

This is a real photo of Comet "Kohoutek". This is not artwork from Journey, Stanley Mouse, or Anton Kelley;

Comet Kohoutek, was first sighted on March 7, 1973 by Czech astronomer Luboš Kohoutek.
It attained perihelion on December 28 that same year.

Here is the official NASA word on "Kohoutek";

Comet Kohoutek (1973 XII) was discovered by Lubos Kohoutek during a search for asteroid images on photographic plates taken in early March 1973 at the Hamburg Observatory, in the Federal Re-public of Germany. Calculations of its size and orbit showed it to be a large comet that would pass close to the Sun, reaching perihelion at the end of 1973.

This early discovery of a large comet in an orbit that would carry it close to the Sun prompted the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to initiate "Operation Kohoutek," a program to coordinate widespread observations of the comet from ground observatories, aircraft, balloons, rockets, unmanned satellites, and Skylab. This program was headed by Stephen P. Maran of the Goddard Space Flight Center. The third Skylab mission was rescheduled so as to make the best use of this opportunity-specifically to permit observations from Skylab during a period centered on perihelion. It is during this period that the most interesting and dramatic changes happen to comets, and it is also during this period that observations from the Earth's surface are hardest to make or even impossible because light from the nearby Sun is scattered by the Earth's atmosphere into instruments aimed at the comet.

Another factor making Comet Kohoutek an attractive subject for study was the fact that orbital calculations suggested it was a new comet-one that had never before passed close to the Sun and would therefore be expected to differ from comets that had periodically returned.

Here are a few examples of some Journey Artwork that resemble the photo of "Kohoutek";

From the back of the Escape Tour Book

From the inside gatefold of "In The Beginnings"

From the back of the "Escape" album 

Trivia about Comet Kohoutek;

Because Comet Kohoutek fell far short of expectations, its name became synonymous with spectacular duds. However, it was fairly bright as comets go and put on a respectable show in the evenings shortly after perihelion.

In 1973, David Berg, founder of the Children of God, predicted that Comet Kohoutek foretold a colossal doomsday event in the United States in January 1974.[4][5] Children of God members distributed Berg's message of doom across the country. The majority of U.S.-based members then fled in anticipation to existing communes, or formed new ones, around the world.

Before its close approach, Kohoutek was hyped by the media as the "comet of the century". However, Kohoutek's display was considered a let-down,[3] possibly due to partial disintegration when the comet closely approached the Sun prior to its Earth flyby.

In the comic strip Peanuts, Snoopy and Woodstock hide under a blanket from a "strange light" in the sky in a story arc spanning 29 December 1973 through 3 January 1974. Linus eventually identifies the light as Kohoutek.

The rock band Journey wrote and recorded the instrumental "Kohoutek", which appeared on their self-titled debut album Journey in 1975.

"In Celebration of the Comet - The Coming of Kahoutek" is the title of a popular and widely circulated bootleg album from the band Pink Floyd. Recorded on February 17, 1972, the concert featured a musical piece referred to by the band as "Eclipse Suite," (later re-dubbed "The Dark Side of the Moon" when the band eventually recorded it as an album in the studio later that year).

Burl Ives recorded a single called "The Tail of the Comet Kohoutek / A Very Fine Lady" (1974, 7 in., 45 rpm, MCA 40175).

An article written in 1994 by Dave Barry;

Remember Comet Kohoutek? It Was 1973 And The Astronomy Community Lost Face When It  Failed To Deliver The Light Show Of The Millennium?

Gather 'round, young people, because it's back-to-school time, and Uncle Dave wants to give you some important advice to help you excel in the classroom and have successful, rewarding careers, assuming that the Earth is not destroyed by giant comet chunks. 

This is definitely a possibility. Just recently, giant comet chunks whomped into Jupiter and caused destruction so massive that it would have wiped out all human life if there had been any, which there probably wasn't because the atmosphere on Jupiter has essentially the same chemical composition as Drano. 

Of course the astronomy community carried on as though the mass destruction on Jupiter was just about the coolest scientific thing to happen since the invention of the pocket protector. Every night you'd see astronomers on the TV news, holding up blurred photographs of what appeared to be a pizza, pointing to a roundish smudge that appeared to be a pepperoni, and announcing, in happy voices, that it was the equivalent of 19 hillion-jillion atomic bombs. 

They claim we don't have to worry. They claim that the mathematical odds of a large comet chunk hitting the Earth in our lifetimes are infinitesimal, even smaller - if such a thing is possible - than the odds of the Buffalo Bills winning a Super Bowl. But whenever we hear the astronomy community making claims, two words should spring into our minds: "Comet Kohoutek." 

Back in 1973, the astronomy community claimed that Comet Kohoutek was going to pass close to the Earth and produce this spectacular celestial phenomenon, so big and bright you'd be able to see it EVEN IN THE DAYTIME. People were afraid to go outside for fear they would suffer comet burns. 

And what happened? Nothing. All over the world, millions of people spent hours squinting at the sky, pointing excitedly at airplanes, moths, beer signs, smudges on their binocular lenses, etc. But ultimately they had to accept the ugly truth: There was no Comet Kohoutek. 

Oh, sure, the astronomy community, desperate to save face, produced some blurred photographs of a "comet," but it turned out, upon close inspection, to be a human sperm cell magnified 400,000 times. (We now believe it belonged to Carl Sagan.) 

My point is that if the astronomy community claims we're not going to get hit by giant comet chunks, then we probably are. The result would be mass destruction on the most horrendous scale ever seen in the history of this planet, causing famine, disease, death and - in the United States alone - literally millions of personal-injury lawsuits. 

Journey Through Time - 30th Anniversary Sticker and Tour

The Journey Through Time 30th Anniversary Tour A.K.A. The Generations Tour 2005.

Steve Augeri was the Lead singer at the time and they were no longer with Columbia Records when this album and Tour began in 2005. This also marked the beginning of the end for Steve Augeri as his voice was starting to give.

This Sticker commemorating the 30th Anniversary of Journey incorporates all of the Steve Perry Era album cover art including, Infinity, Evolution, Departure, Escape, Frontiers and Raised On Radio, into one great piece of art!

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 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 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...