Regular readers will probably know that to say I’m a bit of Journey fan is akin to saying that the Pope is a bit of a catholic. Many years ago I wrote a list of ten bands I would like to see live and over the years I’ve ticked off eight of them. The remaining two? Night ranger and JOURNEY. So to say I was looking forward to this gig was a minor understatement I was like a kid on Christmas Eve! However I was a bit worried that at some point between getting the ticket and the gig the band would cancel or the gig would be crap, anticipation is a bitch! 

But come the appointed hour the house lights went down, the crowd went wild and, for the first time in 26 years Journey took to a UK stage. Opening  with 'Separate Ways'  quickly followed by 'Ask The Lonely' and 'Only The Young Can Say' was simply a dream come true for this reviewer. Indeed most of the set was pure classic Journey with only two tracks from the current Generations album making the set.

  

'Stoned In Love' featured the first of many appearances of Jon Cain on guitar , actually it was surprising how much time he spent playing guitar, perhaps down to the band playing  a rockier set the usual. Thus far Steve Augeri's vocals had been fine but by 'Wheel In The Sky' he was defiantly struggling and to overcome this the band played their trump card, Deen Castronovo’s. In fact when the sticksman started singing 'Where Were You'  I looked round the auditorium to see were Augeri was singing from, thinking he had gone into the crowd, and from that point on Castronovo helped Augeri out throughout the rest of the show, although if you weren't watching closely you would never had known. With Lights & 'Still They Ride' merging seamlessly together the big question was how the fuck do one person drum and sing like that the same time?

Of all the material aired only one song, 'Dead or Alive' didn't seem to work  sounding all muddled. Luckily 'Edge Of The Blade  more than made up for it, my highlight of the night and by 'Who’s Crying Now' the last of the sound gremlins disappeared and the bands power, through stunning version of 'Faithfully', 'Escape' and  'Don’t Stop Believing (although I'd just started believing that this was real) shone through. At this point I was right at the front of the stage and when Schon played the guitar intro to 'Don’t Stop Believing' I was even closer to him then I was at Firefest, something I thought would be impossible and the memory will stick in my mind for a long time. bringing the main set to a close with 'Be Good To Yourself' there was no way Journey were going to be allowed to escape without returning. for an encore and the two songs held back for this, 'keep On Running' and 'Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin' simply capped what was a magical evening. 

     

To round up, a great two hour set of classic Journey hits well played and well sung what more could you ask for? Well perhaps a bit more onstage banter with the crowd, more material from 'Raised On Radio' and some songs from 'Arrival' and 'Trial By Fire' would have been nice but that's nit picking and I was just happy to have finally had the opportunity to see Journey live after waiting 20 years to do so.  Just don’t leave it 26 years till the next time or I’ll getting my grand kids to take me!

Big thanks to Graeme at Regular Music for the photo pass and Sue Moffat for the info and the chat.

           

Dougie & Steve Cummings