Steve Perry - Masters Of Metal, 1984

For a band who were once termed faceless (alongside REO Speedwagon, Foreigner, Rush and Styx) in a now notorious article in Rolling Stone, Journey can not only laugh all the way to the bank but also ripost with a roll call of musicians whose individual talents almost map the history of modern rock in America.
Their manager, a portly guy by the name of Walter 'Herbie' Herbert, is very much the sixth member of the group and explains their successful philosophy: "I didn't want to work with anybody who didn't have the common goal that we could all share, and our common denominator was this - we wanted to make a contribution to the state of the art on every level. We wanted to be the best songwriters, best players, best singers, best entertainers . . . We wanted to have the best personnel, best staging, we wanted to have the best sounding records and the best packaged records. We wanted to do everything right! And not to miss a trick. And that's what we applied ourselves to from the first day." A policy which has taken Journey from modest beginnings to the very top, as arch-heroes of the Stadium rock genre.

Back in 1973, Herbert envisioned an all-star San Francisco band, not unlike the acclaimed Muscle Shoals studio aces. He had managed a band called Frumious Bandersnatch in the 60s which included Ross Valory on bass and George Tickner on guitar. After the band's demise, Valory worked with Steve Miller and Herbert began an association with the Santana management. This is where he first came across teenage guitar genius Neal Schon and keyboards player and singer Gregg Rolie. When Santana went through one of its periodic reshuffles, it was Herbert who suggested that Schon and Rolie should join up with Valory and Tickner to form a new band. Prairie Prince, then with the Tubes, momentarily joined on drums but soon found himself unable to commit himself full-time to Journey.
After trying out over 30 unsuitable drummers, the band persuaded legendary British session man Aynsley Dunbar, then living on the US West Coast, to join them and they signed up with Columbia Records in November 1974. Their first album, Journey appeared in April 1975. Shortly after, George Tickner left the group, unable to cope with the touring. Two further albums, Look Into

The Future (January 1976) and Next (January 1977) followed and enjoyed mild chart success, the last one inching its way up to number 77 in the US album charts. The steady touring saw Journey gain many fans with their grandiose and loud art rock techno-flash, but something was still missing.
    It was producer Roy Thomas Baker, who had turned the band down several times, who convinced them to look for a first-class vocalist (Rolie had until then taken vocal duties from behind his keyboards). Robert Fleischman briefly assumed frontman role in 1977 but didn't last. Finally, Steve Perry from Hanford, California, previously with the Alien Project, moved in and Baker accepted handling Journey in the studio for what was to be their breakthrough album, Infinity.
    Released in February 1978, the album was an instant hit and reached number 21 in the charts. Despite this welcome success, Aynsley Dunbar became dissatisfied with the band's musical evolution and left, to be replaced by Steve Smith who had previously worked with Ronnie Montrose. The new line-up was to remain together for a further two years during which Journey attained platinum status with Evolution and Departure. They also enjoyed their first singles hits during this period: 'Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'' and 'Any Way You Want It'. All the hard work and planning by Herbert were at last bearing fruit.
    Following the consolidation of a compilation collection, In The Beginning and double live set Captured which reached the number nine spot (only one rung lower than the studio-bound Departure), Gregg Rolie departed, tired of the constant touring. He was replaced by Jonathan Cain, previously with the Babys. This was the final ingredient in Journey's unceasing voyage to the top and the first album recorded with this final line-up spawned the mega-platinum, chart-topping album Escape and single 'Who's Cryin' Now' (number four), itself soon

bettered by the number three position of 'Open Arms'.
    Jonathan Cain's pop sensibility, allied with the drive of Perry and Schon's quicksilver guitar runs made Journey the darlings of the American radio airwaves and their wide popularity was maximised through a highly professional policy of touring on a large scale. A 72-date tour in late 1981 and another in 1982 reach an estimated two and a half million people.
    This huge success continued unabated in 1983 with Frontiers, 'Separate Ways' and 'Faithfully' notching up top 20 status with ease. On a separate front, the clever merchandising of the band scored another innovative first with a video game based on the Escape album! But the scale of Journey's success, although unequalled by most other American hard rock bands, has not deflected its musicians from their quest for perfection and to avoid falling into a familiar, if commercial rut, many of the band's members have also been active with individual projects. Schon has made two jazz-oriented albums with keyboard virtuoso Jan Hammer, Steve Perry has done a solo album and Jonathan Cain has written most of the songs and produced an album for his wife, Tane Cain.
    The band has now been going for over ten years but the future holds no fear for Journey. Jonathan Cain says: "I'm really confident that we're going to come up with some extraordinary music. We're going to become innovators. I hope our music becomes cinematic, like a new soundtrack. We're more than a rock 'n' roll band."

Albums
Journey (1975) Look Into The Future (1976) Next (1977) Infinity (1978) Evolution (1979) Departure (1980) In The Beginning (1980)* Captured (1981) Escape (1981) Frontiers (1983)

* Compilation album