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| Journey UK Tour  Journey, the legendary San Francisco rock band, has just announced 11 UK concerts, kicking off at the Sheffield City Hall on 1st March and ending at Newcastle City Hall on 15th March. With a career spanning over 30 years and album sales in excess of 75 million worldwide, Journey is the twenty-ninth best selling music group of all time! Journey is just finishing up a six month tour of North America with Def Leppard. The tour was hugely successful. The band is now poised to take the UK by storm. The 2007 tour sees founding members, Neal Schon (Guitar) and Ross Valory (Bass) performing with long time member Jonathan Cain (Keyboards), Deen Castronovo (Drums) and Jeff Scott Soto (lead vocals).The 2007 Tour will include the band's signature hits as well as tracks from Journey's latest studio release, Generations. The new album 'Generations' is available now on Frontiers Records. Founded in 1973 in San Francisco around former Santana members Neal Schon and Gregg Rolie, with the assistance of Ross Valory, George Tickner and Prairie Prince, Journey's legacy has spanned over 30 years with 18 U.S. releases and over 75, 000, 000 in album sales. Their music is artful, intense, melodic rock played with passion and superb musicianship. Journey's initial style was progressive jazz-rock, complete with extended and improvised solo spots, a style much in evidence on their first three albums for Columbia Records. In April 1975 Tickner bowed out of music to attend Stanford Medical School. He was eventually replaced by ex-Alien Project vocalist, Steve Perry (following a brief tenure by Robert Fleischman). The switch to their signature highly sophisticated rock occurred with the recording of their hugely successful album, Infinity. Journey's drummer, Aynsley Dunbar, was unhappy with this new style and left for Jefferson Starship, to be replaced by legendary drummer Steve Smith. The band's next release, Evolution followed and brought the band their first US Top 20 hit, "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin". Captured was a live double album that surprised many critics. The album featured cranked-up guitars and raucous hard rock, eventually peaking at #9 on the US album chart. Founding member Rolie departed after its release, to be replaced by Jonathan Cain, who had previously played with the Babys. Cain's arrival was an important landmark in Journey's career, as his songwriting input added a new dimension to the band's sound. The band's next release, Escape reached #1 and stayed in the charts for over a year. It also spawned three US Top 10 hit singles, "Who's Crying Now", "Don't Stop Believin'" and "Open Arms". The follow-up, Frontiers, was also massively successful, staying at #2 on the Billboard album chart for nine weeks. Valory and Smith departed the group prior to the release of 1986's Raised On Radio, which generated another US hit single, "Be Good To Yourself". The band was joined in the studio and subsequent live dates by bass players Randy Jackson and Bob Glaub; drummers, Mike Baird and Nashville veteran Larrie Londin. In 1996 Perry, Schon, Smith, Cain and Valory reunited to release Trial By Fire, which entered the US chart at number 3. The following year Deen Castronovo (ex-Bad English) replaced Smith and vocalist Steve Augeri (Tall Stories) replaced Perry after health problems sidelined the singer. Vocalist, Steve Augeri first recorded with Journey for the band's 1998 contribution to the Armageddon soundtrack – "Remember Me". The soundtrack, which hit #1 on the Billboard charts and was certified triple platinum. The band's 18th release, Arrival debuted in the spring of 2001 and the group launched their incredibly successful 56-city Arrival 2001 World Tour. An Essential Journey greatest hits collection arrived in 2001 from Columbia Records; an honor previously bestowed on legends such as Miles Davis, Billy Joel, Neil Diamond, and Barbra Streisand. Throughout the summer of 2002, Journey again brought its live show around the country during their "Under The Radar Tour". It also gave the band an opportunity to showcase music from their new EP, Red13, to their die-hard fans. A late 2002 release of the EP gave the rest of America the chance to embrace Journey's latest rock creation. Journey set out on a multi-city tour with top selling bands Styx and REO Speedwagon in 2003 dubbed "The Classic Rock Main Event Tour". Hailed as one of the top selling tours of 2003, The Main Event Tour attracted thousands. During 2004, Journey's "Detour" continued to sell out venues across the nation. January 21, 2005 will forever be known as "Journey Day, " as declared by Hollywood's Mayor Johnny Grant. That's the date JOURNEY—who has sold over 75 million albums worldwide making them the 29th best-selling music group of all time--were honored with the 2, 275th Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Not only was the entire current line-up in attendance (guitarist Neal Schon, bassist Ross Valory, keyboardist Jonathan Cain, singer Steve Augeri and drummer Deen Castronovo), but several band members from the past as well: drummers Steve Smith and Aynsley Dunbar, guitarist George Tickner and singer Robert Fleischman. Perhaps the greatest surprise of all—not only to the fans in attendance, but to the band most of all—was the unexpected appearance of the group's legendary former frontman Steve Perry, who had not been seen anywhere with the band since his departure in 1996 after Trial by Fire was released and earned the band's first Grammy Award nomination for "When You Love A Woman." The Egyptians regarded the divine scarab beetle as a symbol of self-creative power; rebirth, renewal, transformation and regeneration. The scarab, which has also become the long-time symbol for the legendary rock band Journey, has evolved into an exceptionally fitting symbol for a band that began in 1973 as an experimental rhythm section (formed around guitar prodigy Neal Schon) and eventually sold over 50 million records and became one of the biggest rock bands in the world. For Journey, transformation and renewal are an integral part of the creative force that has led the band on their remarkable "journey". write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Jazz News :: home page |