At The Summit

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PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED JOURNEY RADIO BROADCAST FROM 1980 Journey s story is one of massive success. This superb live broadcast , from Houston s The Summit during the Departure tour in 1980, catches the band amidst their most creative and successful period. Between 1978 and 1987 Journey had no less than seven consecutive multi-platinum albums. They have also had a staggering 18 Top 40 singles, six of which reached the Top 10. By the time of this concert, the band had already been through six different line-ups, although guitarist Neal Schon, keyboard player Gregg Rolie and bassist Ross Valory remained central to the group and had all been founder members. Journey had been formed in San Francisco seven years earlier, in 1973, by ex-members of Latin rock superstars Santana (Schon and Rolie) and cult West Coast psychedelic band Frumious Bandersnatch (Vallory and original rhythm guitarist George Tickner). In their first few years the band released three well-regarded, but not particularly successful albums, Journey (1975), Look Into The Future (1976) and Next (1977). But it wasn t until 1978 that the band really began to hit the big time, after the addition of vocalist Steve Perry, who introduced a much more Pop-oriented and commercial element to the band s previous Progressive Rock sound. Infinity (1978), the first album to feature Perry broke into the charts, it soon reached number 21 and eventually went platinum; the band also had hits with both singles Lights and Wheel in the Sky, featured here. Highly-regarded English producer Roy Thomas Baker, who had been responsible for overseeing Queen s majestic studio s, was in the chair for this album - and the result was quite clearly Journey s most commercially-appealing record thus far! The album is heavily featured in this concert : there are great versions too of Feeling That Way, Anytime, Winds Of March, Patiently and Opened the Door. By the time of the next album, Evolution , the following year, British drummer Aynsley Dunbar had been replaced by Steve Smith, who was previously with Ronnie Montrose s band. The album was another excellent Baker-produced platinum-seller and the single Lovin , Touchin , Squeezin went Top 20 - a fine live version is featured here, together with Just The Same Way, Lovin You Is Easy and Too Late. The same line-up held together for the next , the band s most successful album to date, Departure (1980) which also spawned the hit single Any Way You Want It. It is this line-up that is featured on this broadcast, playing superb versions of several cuts: Where Were You, People and Places, Walks like a Lady, Line of Fire and Precious Time. Unlike its predecessors, this album was largely recorded live-in-the-studio, which lent a great dynamic edge to the music. Whilst the set list here concentrates almost exclusively on Journey s three most successful alums to date, the band do delve back into the more distant past to spotlight a version of the instrumental Kohoutek from their eponymous debut album.