NEPA Scene Staff

Legendary rock band Journey comes to Sands Bethlehem Event Center on Oct. 1

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From a press release:

One of the most popular American rock bands of all time, Journey, is coming to Bethlehem this fall, playing massive hits like “Don’t Stop Believin’” at the Sands Bethlehem Event Center on Tuesday, Oct. 1 at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets, which are $99, $129, and $159, plus fees, go on sale this Friday, May 10 at 10 a.m. and can be purchased at sandseventcenter.com, the Event Center box office (77 Sands Blvd., Bethlehem), ticketmaster.com, all Ticketmaster outlets, or by phone at 800-745-3000. VIP packages will be available at journeymusic.com.

American Express Card Members can purchase tickets before the general public beginning Tuesday, May 7 at 10 a.m. through Thursday, May 9 at 10 p.m. A pre-sale for members of the venue’s Music Insiders Club will take place on Thursday, May 9 from 10 a.m.-10 p.m.

Journey, which currently features Neal Schon (founding member and lead guitarist), Ross Valory (co-founding member and bassist), and longtime members Jonathan Cain (keyboardist), Steve Smith (drummer), and Arnel Pineda (lead singer), has created 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’. The band has earned 19 Top 40 singles and 25 gold and platinum albums. Their “Greatest Hits” album is certified 15-times platinum, bringing Journey into the elite club of diamond-certified holders.

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 1980s and early ’90s), 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 several major tours, performing on four continents for more than five million fans.

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 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 No. 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 No. 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 some of the best-known songs in Journey’s repertoire: “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Who’s Crying Now,” and “Open Arms.”

In 1983, Frontiers reached No. 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 ’80s, 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, 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, Schon 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 No. 5 on the Billboard 200 in June 2008, taking the top spot on the Independent Albums chart and earning 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 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 among the band members. The 2011 Eclipse World Tour was attended again 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 No. 1 digital catalog song in history, with sales of almost six million in the U.S alone. 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 “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 U.K. 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 17 different markets, including many the band had never-before toured.

Journey launched the San Francisco Fest 2016 Tour on May 12, 2016 at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre in Irvine, California. The tour again brought together two of the iconic groups that helped define the “San Francisco sound” and ran through the summer. Added to the Bay Area-laden lineup for the special finale show on Sept. 4 at San Francisco’s AT&T Park was the Steve Miller Band and Tower of Power. The concert was nicknamed “…On the Green,” a tribute to legendary promoter Bill Graham’s “Day on the Green” concerts, which Journey had performed on.

In 2017, touring didn’t slow down as Journey was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The band joined up with Santana for several special concerts – New York City at Madison Square Garden; Uncasville, Connecticut; Allentown, Pennsylvania; and Inglewood, California’s Fabulous Forum. Journey also toured Southeast Asia, including debut shows in Seoul, South Korea, Taipei, Taiwan, and Singapore. A short North American tour followed, with special guests Asia, and by overwhelming demand, a second three-week residency at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The tour culminated with two wildly successful stadium shows, “Classic West” and “Classic East,” alongside the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Steely Dan.

2018 sees Journey heading out on an eight-month, 60-date co-headlining tour with Def Leppard, starting on May 21 in Hartford, Connecticut and ending in Los Angeles on Oct. 6 at the “Fabulous” Forum.

In March 2019, Journey released a live DVD/CD set from their concert at the Budokan in Tokyo, featuring the first-ever performances of the band’s “Escape” and “Frontiers” albums in entirety. The band is also the subject of the award-winning 2013 documentary “Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey.”