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Thanks again to all those that participated in the Journey Greatest Hits Vol. 2 giveaway on retroblog.

With all the embarrassing TMZ drama some members of Journey are having to deal with nowadays (i.e. Deen Castronovo, Neal Schon), it’s probably better for all of us fans to just focus on the past hits, you know what I mean?

I think Steve Perry did the right thing by bowing out gracefully back in 1996 and keeping his legacy intact. With all this “celeb sleaze” type attention Neal and Deen are getting, they are rapidly tarnishing the “brand” that the band worked so hard to build all these years. pretty sad I have to say.

Anyway, on to the winners! Congrats to : Mary R. (entry #153) and Lisa (entry #55)

You should be receiving an email from me. Be sure reply back with your full name and mailing address.

Thanks!

For those that didn’t win, don’t worry, you still have a chance at winning the new Queen Blu-ray/DVD (contest ends Feb 10th)

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After 23 years and over 25 million copies sold, Journey’s Greatest Hits finally gets a second volume. It’s pretty much a no-brainer to release a “sequel” to one of rock’s best selling compilations. I’m just surprised it took the record label this long to do it. Anyway, the new release is titled, what else, Journey – Greatest Hits Vol. 2.

I’m happy to report that the new release doesn’t appear to be some sort of haphazardly put-together “money-grab”. In fact, none other than the great Steve Perry was on-hand for the remastering of this release. It has been said that Perry still has approval rights for anything related to Journey’s back catalog. Even though he hasn’t been the frontman for the band since 1996, it’s the Perry fronted-era that matters most, at least in terms of sales. And so just like the first volume, volume 2 focuses on Perry related material. Nothing from 1996 onward.

Now, it’d be hard for any band to top those 16 tracks from the first compilation. There’s just no-denying the power of classics like “Don’t Stop Believin’”, “Who’s Crying Now”, “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” and “Open Arms”. So, Volume 2 is a bit of a step down in terms of actual bona-fide “hits”. But as a companion piece to the first Greatest Hits disc, it actually works. Songs like “Stone in Love”, “After the Fall”, “Escape” and “Suzanne” stand up pretty well with the previous volume. There are a couple of odd choices that I personally would have changed out though. I would have chosen “Message of Love” instead of “When I Think of You” from the album “Trial by Fire”. And maybe something like “Why Can’t This Night Go On Forever” in place of “Good Morning Girl”. But it’s nice that “Little Girl” was included since it’s on the often overlooked soundtrack album “Dream After Dream”.

As for the remastered sound – there’s noticeable EQ changes on some songs that help bring out some of the low end and soften some of the harshness of the high frequencies. For example “Suzanne” always sounded a bit “bright” on the original CD with not enough bottom so this remaster corrected this and now sounds more evened out. I wouldn’t say this is the “definitive” remaster in terms of perfect audio quality but sound engineer Robert Hadley along with Steve Perry succeeded in achieving a cohesive sound over all the various tracks on this compilation.

So, if you have GH Vol. 1 and want to go a bit deeper into Journey’s catalog, Greatest Hits Vol. 2 is a great buy. As for longtime Journey fans, you probably have all these tracks in your music library but you might still want to check it out for the updated remastered sound.

retroGrade: B

Journey – Greatest Hits Vol. 2
record label: Columbia/Legacy
released: November 2011
remastered by: Robert Hadley and Steve Perry at The Mastering Lab, Ojai, CA

TrackList
1 Stone in Love
2 After the Fall
3 Chain Reaction
4 The Party’s Over (Hopelessly in Love)
5 Escape
6 Still They Ride
7 Good Morning Girl
8 Stay Awhile
9 Suzanne
10 Feeling That Way
11 Anytime
12 Walks Like a Lady
13 Little Girl
14 Just the Same Way
15 Patiently
16 When I Think of You
17 Mother, Father (Live in Houston 1981)
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Journey will be back hitting the outdoor sheds across the U.S. this summer. Along for the ride this time around will be Night Ranger and Foreigner. Yeah, I know, the tour lineup is a bit stale especially Night Ranger since they toured with Journey the last go round in 2009. I was hoping for a more interesting “combo” of bands but I guess in terms of “classic rock bands” that are actively touring, there aren’t all that many to choose from that share a common fanbase with Journey.

I’m still debating whether to get tickets for this tour but I’m definitely getting the new album, Eclipse which will hit Walmart shelves May 24th.

Here’s the official press release for the upcoming tour:
JOURNEY is gearing up to unleash their latest album of brand new material, Eclipse. The album will be released in the U.S. and Canada on May 24 exclusively at Walmart and beginning June 3 in Europe on Frontiers Records.
To follow the release of Eclipse, Journey will launch the “Eclipse Tour” with Foreigner, and special guest Night Ranger in July. There’ll be new songs from Eclipse as well as classics such as Don’t Stop Believin’, Any Way You Want It, Faithfully, Lights, Separate Ways, Wheel In The Sky, and many more!
“I’m in love with this record, which I haven’t said about one of our albums for a long time,” says founding member and lead guitarist, Neal Schon. “It’s a rock record and it sounds amazing.” Commenting on the upcoming tour, Schon continued, “We’ve got a lot of hits to play and there’s plenty of time to do some new stuff too, so we’re gonna mix it up. We haven’t toured with Foreigner for over 10 years, so we’re really looking forward to this run.”
Tickets for “The Eclipse Tour” go on sale beginning Friday March 11, at all the usual online, phone and physical retail outlets, including select Walmart Ticketmaster locations across the country. Journey has once again teamed up with I Love All Access to offer their fans a variety of VIP ticket packages.
In an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, keyboardist Jonathan Cain recently described Eclipse as “a concept record with some spiritual themes to it…pretty tough, hard-hitting stuff.” Jonathan continued, “We just felt like it was time to send a message to the world about how we feel about life in general.”
Completing the Journey lineup is Schon (guitars, backing vocals), Cain (keyboards, backing vocals), Ross Valory (bass, backing vocals) and Deen Castronovo (drums, percussion, backing vocals) and Arnel Pineda (lead vocals).

For the latest on Journey, head over to the official band website.
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2011 UK dates have been announced for three classic rock acts: Journey, Styx and Foreigner. I personally think the lineup is a tad stale but I guess in this economy, the concert promoters have to play it “safe”. Hopefully promoters will come up with something different in terms of the lineup when Journey comes back to the states in 2011. I guess, haters can go for the obvious and call the UK tour lineup, “The Replacements” since none of the bands are fronted by their original singers but what are ya gonna do.

Here are the 2011 UK dates (Tickets go on sale this friday, November 12):
Saturday 06/04/2011 London, Wembley Arena
Sunday 06/05/2011 Birmingham, LG Arena
Tuesday 06/07/2011 Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle Metro Radio Arena
Wednesday 06/08/2011 Manchester, Manchester Evening News Arena
Thursday 06/09/2011 Glasgow, Glasgow SECC

here are some quotes from the official press release:

Neal Schon: “We’re so excited to be coming back to the UK to play arenas with our friends Foreigner and Styx. Be prepared to hear a lot of hit songs”

Mick Jones: “This will be one of the main events of the summer. Bands who represent the magic era in Classic Rock together for the first time in my home country. Get ready to rock!”

James “JY” Young: “Styx has always enjoyed sharing the stage with Journey, going back to the Santa Monica Civic Center in 1976. The tour we did with them in 2003 across the United States was an amazing success of sold out arenas. Journey, Foreigner & Styx seems like a can’t miss Guitars a-blazin’ Vocals a-mazing kind of a Classic Rock Evening!”

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Currently, Neal Schon is in the midst of working up songs with Jonathan Cain for an upcoming Journey album but for a couple weeks in March, Schon will be taking some time to do some gigs of his own.

here are the dates according to PollStar.com –
Wed 03/17/10 Denver, CO Bluebird Theater
Thu 03/18/10 Salt Lake City, UT The Depot
Fri 03/19/10 Henderson, NV Green Valley Ranch Resort & Spa
Sat 03/20/10 Modesto, CA The State Theatre Of Modesto
Mon 03/22/10 Chico, CA El Rey Theatre
Thu 03/25/10 San Juan Capistrano, CA The Coach House
Sat 03/27/10 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore
Tue 03/30/10 Solana Beach, CA Belly Up Tavern
Wed 03/31/10 West Hollywood, CA House Of Blues

the live band features:
Neal Schon, Miles Schon, Marco Mendoza, Prairie Prince and Keith St. John.

Apparently Schon is headed for the studio in April to begin work on the new Journey album so there won’t be any further live dates for Schon and his band until he’s through with the recording sessions. busy guy!

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To promote the release of a Journey Greatest Hits compilation in the U.K., Steve Perry gave a rare interview with Nicky Horne on Planet Rock radio this past wednesday. Perry confirmed that he has written some songs and recorded demos but apparently nothing close to a new album just yet. He also mentioned during the interview that he misses performing for fans but doesn’t miss the limelight. Another interesting tidbit from the radio segment is that Perry always wanted to be a radio DJ. Horne, the interviewer, was delighted to hear of this and even invited Perry to join the staff at Planet Rock. heh, heh.

anyway, a fellow fan MerryPeary posted the audio of the interview on youtube so be sure to check out the following links and listen for yourself:

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

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Check out this new interview with guitarist Neal Schon from the recent Winter NAMM show in Anaheim. Schon talked briefly about his vision of the upcoming Journey record. I’m pleasantly surprised to hear that he’s not going for radio-friendly hits this time around. Apparently he and Jonathan Cain will be working on a “conceptual record” that’ll be more musically adventurous than their previous albums. awesome! I’m looking forward to it. According to Schon, the new album is scheduled for a 2011 release.

In the meantime, Schon is keen on doing some solo shows with his own band which includes his son Miles Schon, Marco Mendoza and Prairie Prince. Hopefully he’ll be doing some gigs near me sometime soon. stay tuned…

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It’s time once again for Retroblog.net’s Friday Free for All. For today’s edition, I thought we should explore the vast underworld of bootlegs a bit. thanks to the almighty internets, the sharing of rare and interesting boots exploded these last few years. here’s just a random sampling of some that I have on hand at the moment.

Enjoy the tracks. and feel free to post a list of some of your favorite boots.

please note the sound quality will vary here due to these being “bootlegs” obviously.

GTR – Away (No One is to Blame) from the unreleased NeroTrend album (1987). This features Max Bacon on lead vocals and Steve Howe on guitar. Steve Hackett left the group at this point and Robert Berry was his replacement.

Paul McCartney and Elvis Costello – So Like Candy demo from the Flowers In the Dirt Sessions boot (1988). This is a great version that features both McCartney and Costello singing lead.

Todd Rundgren – Slut from the Vancouver August 25, 2006 boot. a great audience recording. It’s a rough and loose rendition with Tony Levin on bass and Jerry Marotta on drums.

Lindsey Buckingham – Go Insane from the Coach House December 10, 1992 boot. an awesome solo performance of his early eighties hit. definitely an improvement over the original recording which sounds a bit dated now due to the heavy use of the Fairlight sampler.

Susanna Hoffs – Darling One from her unreleased columbia album (1994). This is from the album that Columbia Records rejected. Hoffs ended up re-recording this song (along with some others) for her 1996 album “Susanna Hoffs”. This particular version is more upbeat than the officially released one.

Yes – Cinema/City of Love from the June 19, 1994 Canandaigua, NY boot. There are a ton of boots from this tour since the band did a simulcast of each show via “ConcertSonics”. Even though the “Talk” album isn’t one of my favorites, I thought some of the performances on this tour were pretty strong. I definitely miss Trevor Rabin, though. It’s definitely way overdue for Rabin to get back on stage!!

Journey – Send Her My Love from the Detroit Raised On Radio simulcast in 1986. It’s not the greatest sounding live recording but the “Raised on Radio” tour is fascinating to me for a multitude of reasons – one of which is the presence of Randy Jackson (of American Idol) on bass for this tour. listening to these old live recordings of Journey make me miss Steve “the voice” Perry even more!

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Happy Friday, everyone!

Thanks to an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Journey‘s newly released DVD, Live in Manila, went straight to #1 on Billboard’s Music DVD chart this week. Not only that but their 2008 album, Revelation, popped back in the Billboard Top 200 at #63.

I’m impressed that they were able to sell enough of those DVDs especially when I personally couldn’t find the title at my local Super Walmart last week. (most WalMarts SHOULD have them in-stock by now.)

Anyway, Congrats to Arnel Pineda and Journey. It’s too bad they just finished up their 2009 tour. I’m sure they would have seen a huge surge in ticket sales for their live shows due to the “Oprah Effect“.

One thing to look forward to is the upcoming documentary on Pineda by filmmaker Ramona S. Diaz titled Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey. I’m not sure exactly when the film will be released but check out the two-part sneak peek up on youtube:

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Now that the summer tour is over, Journey fans can re-live their concert experience with a brand new 2-DVD set titled Journey Live in Manila. It’s great to see an official live release featuring current frontman Arnel Pineda. It says to me that the band and their management are proud of the current lineup and aren’t planning on changing things anytime soon.

Check out the tracklist – they’ve included pretty much all the songs that they’ve been playing the last two years including some lesser performed numbers like “When You Love a Woman”, “Turn Down the World Tonight” and “Where Did I Lose Your Love”.

Another big plus about the DVD is the fact that Arnel sang the songs during the March 14th show in the original key. Like I mentioned in my concert review of the Greensboro show, hearing these classic songs tuned-down in pitch is a bit of a let-down in my book. So it’s nice to have a live document of the band playing these songs without any compromises.

You can purchase the new DVD set at your local WalMart beginning this friday, October 2nd. Journey will also be appearing on the Oprah Winfrey show on friday to promote the new release.
**UPDATE: 30Sep09** – Journey’s Oprah appearance has been pushed back to Monday, October 5th.

Here’s the tracklist:
Disc One
1. Never Walk Away
2. Only The Young
3. Ask The Lonely
4. Stone In Love
5. Keep On Running
6. After All These Years
7. Change For The Better
8. Wheel In The Sky
9. Lights/ Still They Ride
10. Open Arms
11. Mother Father
12. Wildest Dreams
13. When You Love A Woman
14. Separate Ways
15. What I Needed
Disc Two
16. Edge Of The Blade
17. Where Did I Lose Your Love
18. Escape
19. Faithfully
20. Don’t Stop Believin’
21. Anyway You Want It
22. Lovin’ Touchin’ Squeezin’
23. Turn Down The World Tonight
24. Be Good To Yourself
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