Journey with special guest Asia

Description

JOURNEY is one of the most popular American rock bands of all time, creating some of the best-known songs in modern music. They have continued to tour and record into the 21st century, firing on all cylinders and making sure their fans will never stop believin’. Since the group’s formation in 1973, the band has earned 19 Top 40 singles and 25 Gold and Platinum albums. The Greatest Hits album is certified 15 times-Platinum, bringing Journey into the elite club of Diamond-certified holders. Co-founder Neal Schon (lead guitarist) and original member Ross Valory (bass), and longtime members Jonathan Cain (keyboardist) and Arnel Pineda (lead singer) are welcoming virtuoso drummer Steve Smith back into JOURNEY for the “San Francisco Fest 2016” tour, marking the first time Smith will tour with the band since 1998. With JOURNEY, Smith toured around the world and recorded numerous successful albums including the immensely popular Escape and Frontiers, both of which garnered the band many Top 40 hits. In 1985 Smith left Journey to pursue his original passion, jazz, and to continue his developing career as a session player, and rejoined the band in 1996 to record the reunion album Trial By Fire. Schon exclaimed, “I'm so looking forward to the very exciting 2016 we have planned, including our major summer tour with The Doobie Brothers and Dave Mason!” Schon, Valory and Cain have always remained close friends with Smith, who has lent his incredible talent to several of Schon’s solo albums, including critically acclaimed The Calling, and this year’s Vortex, as well as Cain’s 1997 Body Language. They were thrilled when Smith accepted their invitation to rejoin JOURNEY. "Excited to be back playing with one of most truly gifted and versatile musicians in the world- Steve Smith. He has remained a friend and a brother through the years," said Jonathan Cain. "I am extremely happy to have Smitty back in the fold. We're coming around full circle and ready to ride the big wave together, once again," said Ross Valory. JOURNEY’s rock ‘n’ roll saga started more than 35 years ago in the San Francisco Bay Area. Neal Schon’s musical career began at the age of 15, when he debuted with Santana as a guitar prodigy on the No. 1 album, Santana III. Ross Valory has been a grounding force in JOURNEY since the band’s formation (other than a brief hiatus in the late 80’s and early 90’s) and Jonathan Cain was brought on board in 1980, rounding out the songwriting genius behind the defining album, Escape. Since Arnel Pineda joined JOURNEY as its new lead singer in 2007, the band has released two albums and embarked on seven major tours, performing on four continents for more than five million fans, which earned the group Billboard’s prestigious "Legend of Live Award." Schon’s musical career began at the age of 15, when he debuted with Santana as a guitar prodigy on the No. 1 album, Santana III. Valory has been a grounding force in JOURNEY since the band’s formation (other than a brief hiatus in the late 80’s and early 90’s) and Cain was brought on board in 1980, rounding out the songwriting genius behind the defining album, Escape. Since Arnel Pineda joined JOURNEY as its new lead singer in 2007, the band has released two albums and embarked on seven major tours, performing on four continents for more than five million fans, which earned the group Billboard’s prestigious "Legend of Live Award." Columbia Records signed the group in 1974 and each of the band's first three albums—Journey (1975), Look Into the Future (1976) and Next (1977)—charted higher than the previous release. The band embarked on a grueling touring schedule, staying on the road nine months per year performing music that Neal Schon has referred to as "a rock ‘n’ roll version of the Mahavishnu Orchestra." Infinity, the group’s fourth album, produced by Roy Thomas Baker (Rolling Stones, Queen, The Cars), immediately went Platinum after its April 1978 release and remained on the charts for more than two years. In 1978, Steve Smith was brought into the fold, adding his expert jazz-fusion chops to the band’s signature sound for 1979’s Evolution, their second platinum album. In October of that year, JOURNEY scored their first Top 30 single with "Lovin, Touchin', Squeezin'." Keeping up a prolific output in the studio and on the road, the band waited less than a year to release Departure, which reached #8 on the Billboard album chart and boasted the lead single “Any Way You Want It.” A subsequent live double album, Captured, became their fourth consecutive platinum disc. 1981’s Escape was the band’s first #1 album and spent more than a year in the Top 40, eventually becoming certified eight times Platinum. That album produced three Top 10 hits that have become amongst the best-known songs in Journey’s repertoire: "Don't Stop Believin',” "Who's Crying Now" and "Open Arms." In 1983, Frontiers reached #2 on the Billboard album chart, held back from the top spot only by Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Between 1983 and 1986 the band landed seven Top 20 hits, including "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)," "Girl Can't Help It" and “Only the Young,” their song for the film Vision Quest. During the 1980s, JOURNEY had become bonafide superstars, filling stadiums across North America, and, despite several lineup changes, continued to record and tour. In 2005, JOURNEY received a star on the world famous Hollywood Walk of Fame, bringing together members of the band, including former frontmen Steve Perry and Steve Augeri. That evening’s celebration concert at the House of Blues featured former vocalist Robert Fleishman, singing with Journey for the first time since 1977, as well as former drummers Aynsley Dunbar and Steve Smith. In 2007, Neal Schon discovered Arnel Pineda in a YouTube video of Pineda singing with Filipino cover band, The Zoo. Pineda’s tone, power and ability to sing a wide variety of material, including Journey classics, impressed Schon. After watching all the videos he could find with Pineda, Neal made an excited midnight phone call to share the news with bandmate Cain. Soon thereafter, Schon personally contacted Pineda, who initially thought it was a prank and didn’t believe that he was talking to a founding member of one of the biggest bands in rock history. Six weeks later, Pineda arrived in San Francisco to audition and, within a few songs, had secured the job. JOURNEY officially introduced Pineda to the world as their new singer with the release of their 14th studio album, Revelation, which marked the band’s biggest first-week sales in more than a decade, debuting at #5 on the Billboard 200 in June 2008, taking the top spot on the Independent Albums chart, and earned the band their 11th Platinum album. Journey toured the world for two years in support of Revelation, with more than a million fans attending the shows. In 2010, VH1 named the group one of the top 100 artists of all time. The group’s success with Pineda led to another album of brand new material, Eclipse. Produced by Kevin Shirley (Led Zeppelin, Rush) and co-produced by Schon and Cain, the album featured Pineda’s songwriting contribution for the first time, solidifying the strong chemistry amongst the band members. The 2011 “Eclipse World Tour” again was attended by a million fans and ranked in the Top 15 Tours of the year. JOURNEY was awarded the prestigious “Legend of Live Award” at the 2011 Billboard Touring Awards in honor of the band’s significant and lasting contributions to live music and the touring business, and in acknowledgement of their commitment to the fans and the art of performing live. 2011 also marked the 30th anniversary of Journey’s seminal anthem “Don’t Stop Believin’.” The song is the #1 digital catalog song in history, with sales of more than 5.4 million in the U.S. It was memorably used in the electrifying final scene of HBO’s The Sopranos series finale. The song reached another level of stratospheric success when it was covered by the cast of FOX's wildly successful series Glee and became the best-selling song from the show. Three decades after its original release, “Don’t Stop Believin’” has reached a new class of young fans to become a huge anthem for a whole new generation. The legendary band toured across North America in 2012 and then rounded off the year with three sold-out concerts at the Neal S. Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu, Hawaii. JOURNEY kicked off 2013 with a Super Bowl XLVII CMT CROSSROADS concert with country stars Rascal Flatts. The Crossroads concert marked the second Super Bowl appearance for Journey (they performed in 2009 at the NFL Tailgate Party before Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa, Florida) and the second collaboration for Journey and Rascal Flatts (in June 2012, Flatts and Journey closed the CMT Music Awards with a rousing performance of the megahit, Don’t Stop Believin’). Fan demand was so high following the CMT Crossroads concert broadcast that JOURNEY and Rascal Flatts performed two concerts together later that year. In February and March of 2013, Journey toured Australia for the first time in the group’s history, followed by a tour of Japan and a first-ever performance in Singapore, and then went to the UK in May for a critically acclaimed tour. JOURNEY toured North America in 2014 with the Steve Miller Band and special guest Tower of Power. The debut “San Francisco Fest” tour was ranked in the Top 20 of the year’s highest-grossing tours. 2015 was a year of firsts for JOURNEY - a three week, sold-out residency at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, followed by performing with a full orchestra for the grand opening of the 2015 Hollywood Bowl season, performing a sold-out show with famed drummer Omar Hakim in the band’s fold. The group then spent the summer touring all of Canada, performing in seventeen different markets, including many the band had never-before toured. JOURNEY launched its “San Francisco Fest 2016” tour in May with The Doobie Brothers, and special guest Dave Mason. The 2016 tour, which ended in September, once again brought together two of the iconic groups that helped define the "San Francisco Sound,” and is JOURNEY’s best-attended and highest grossing tour since Arnel Pineda joined the band. JOURNEY also joined up with SANTANA for several, special concerts, including two iconic arenas, Madison Square Garden in New York City, and the legendary Fabulous Forum in Inglewood, California. On Sunday, September 4, JOURNEY played their final show of the summer along with SANTANA, STEVE MILLER BAND, THE DOOBIE BROTHERS, and Tower of Power in a historic concert at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California. In a nod to the legendary “Day on the Green” festival-style concerts, this once-in-a-lifetime show sold out within minutes and received rave reviews by media and fans alike.