Friday was our busy day. It
began rather hectic, but smoothed out quickly. Our first problem was that
Toni’s flight, originally due at 10:00 a.m. had been canceled, and she wouldn’t
be arriving until 2:00 p.m. Bummer! She was going to miss most of the
pre-concert events! Most of the rest of the group gathered in the lobby of the
Holiday Inn in preparation for our tour of the Plant Studios in Sausalito. This
is the recording studio Journey had used to record Raised on Radio in the mid-80s and returned
to late in 2000 to record the additional tracks for their new CD Arrival. We were all ready to go,
but Emerson and Val hadn’t arrived yet. They were driving up from San Jose, and
we didn’t know where they were. It was getting late, and we had made an
appointment to be at the studio by 9:30 so we loaded up the cars and headed out
and tried Emerson on his cell phone. Turns out, he had gotten lost driving to
the hotel! Terrific! So here I am driving a bunch of people to Sausalito in the
lead car, pointing out the Golden Gate Bridge, and trying to figure out where
Emerson is and how to get him to where we were! Thank goodness I’m a
professional multi-tasker!
We all arrived at The Plant
safe and sound, with Emerson only a few minutes behind us! (Wow! I guess I do
know how to get people around The City!) The Plant is located in a very weird
little spot—it’s not actually on the street that is indicated on their
address, but off in a little gully with no real streets. I was grateful we had
scoped out where it was in our planning or we would have never found the
place. We all went up to the entrance, and Darla rang for Barbara—the manager
who would be giving us the tour. It’s really hard to describe what the place
was like other than to say it was really cool. It’s fairly famous recording
studio where such huge albums like Rumours by Fleetwood Mac and Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder were recorded. More recently, it was used by
Carlos Santana for some of the Supernatural sessions and Metallica is a regular client.
Our first stop was Studio A,
which is the studio Metallica uses. It’s a huge room and the ceiling had
been raised specifically for Metallica so that they could get a more live
sound, particularly with the drums. The next stop was Studio B—the oldest room
in the studio. This is where the “old timers” go to record. Carlos Santana uses
that studio and there was a blanket with pictures of Bob Marley hanging in the
booth that he had given to the studio. This is where Journey recorded for Arrival.
The last studio was the
Garden Room, which is used mainly for mixing. It was a very interesting, very
modern looking room and quite different from the other two studios we had seen.
While giving the tour, Barbara told us various stories about the history of the
studio. Alas, I wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention to many of them as I
spent considerable time gawking at the various Gold and Platinum records that
were adorning the walls. We headed out into the garden (replete with requisite
hot tub) and buried poor Barbara in cameras for a group picture.
Back to the Holiday Inn for
lunch, games and surprises. As the master of ceremonies for the games (well, I
made ‘em, soooo) I set up Cheryl’s computer for the grand show. Alas, I do
think our attendees now think I’m cruel. The games weren’t that hard and
they had been told to listen to all of their Journey and Steve Perry
records before coming...
Fully brain fried and finally
fed, it was time for the surprise of the weekend. The committee (minus Mary Ann
who knew what was coming but hadn’t seen it) gathered our guests on to the two
beds in the room in front of the tv, then sat off to one side as we popped in a
video tape Emerson had made. Everyone watched in enjoyment as still photos from
various recent Journey concerts appeared on the screen and video clips from
past and present. Emerson did a terrific job, but the coup de grace
was yet to come, and the 4 committee members, plus Emerson, waited eagerly to
see the reaction.
With camera ready, I zoomed
in on our guests as the video cut to the guys in Journey hanging around a
non-descript room. It took folks a moment to realize that this was not
archival tape, but new, recent footage. There on tape were Ross Valory,
Jonathan Cain, Steve Augeri, Neal Schon, and Deen Castronovo. I think the
look on everyone’s faces when Ross said “Hi we understand you’re having a
convention for Journey Past and Present” is something I will remember for the
rest of my life. The tears and gasps from the attendees as each member got a
personal hello from one of the guys were unforgettable. When the tape was over,
we handed out the goodie bags, which included a copy of the tape for each
attendee.
By now, it was time to start
getting ready for the concert. Since I needed to pick up Stacy as well as the
pictures I had been waiting for, I took volunteers to leave early. Michelle A.,
Angie, and Leslie F. piled into my car and we headed south to Mountain View
for dinner and the concert. We arrived at Chevy’s on time, and were shortly
joined by Denise. The rest of the crew took a bit longer to arrive since they
left a bit later than planned and got stuck in some traffic.
Dinner for 25 people is
always tricky, especially when people get lost and stuck in traffic, so it was
a mad dash from the restaurant to my office where we were parking the cars
since it’s a fairly easy walk to Shoreline from there and helps avoid the
post-concert parking lot traffic. This later turned out to be less convenient than
normal. We lost Rose in the process of departing the restaurant, so I sent
everyone else off in the general direction of the amphitheater and waited with
Ana Marie and Toni for Rose to arrive. She made it at last, and we trekked over
to Shoreline, alas, not in time to see John Waite. Ana Marie and Toni went to
collect their fan club seats and Rose and I headed inside. I wanted to get to
my seat to make sure Denise and Stacy had gotten settled okay since I felt I
had rather abandoned them to their own devices while I was busy playing den
mother to the JPP attendees.
When I got to my 8th
row seat, Stacy was there, but Denise had run off to find a friend who was
sitting in another section. I started filling Stacy in on the various
adventures I’d been having and pointed out a woman a few rows in front of us
who was wearing a Journey Fan Club T-shirt. As I was pointing, I realized I knew
her! She was a fan from San Jose that I had met several years earlier in
Grand Rapids Michigan (of all places). I went over to say hello, and lo and
behold, there was Cat, taking a break from her Fan Club duties. She was
thrilled to see me—she told me she had given our proclamations and T-shirts to
the guys and that they loved them. She also told me to find everyone and make
sure they were in their seats for the opening video sequence because the guys
had “done something.” Off I raced to find as many folks as I could!
Naturally, as I’m racing up
the steps I hear someone call out my name. It’s Les, Neal’s step-dad. He’s
sitting on the aisle about 4 rows behind me! We chat briefly before I tell him
I need to dash and find my friends. I had no idea where most people were
sitting so was trying to figure out how to find 15 people in a crowd of 22,000.
Fortunately as I got to the top of the steps, there were Darla and Cheryl. I
raced to their seats and told them what Cat told me and told them if they saw
anyone else to spread the word! I knew some of the group had volunteered to
help with the BrightStar foundation booth, so I went looking for them that way.
As luck would have it, Mary Ann, Michelle A., and Leslie F. were working the
walkway for the backstage pass raffle. I grabbed them and told them what was
going on, and then got the second shock of the evening. Ana Marie had gotten
backstage passes with her fan club seat! Wow! How cool was that???
I dashed back inside, and
found Darla and Cheryl again and told them the happy news. They told me that
Dale was sitting on the opposite side from where they were, so I raced over
there and told Dale all the news. I couldn’t find anyone else, so I hoped the
word would spread. I was back in my seat in plenty of time to catch Peter
Frampton, and I told Stacy what was going on. I kept looking for Ana Marie to
arrive since her fan club seat had to be somewhere near my seat...I
didn’t see her until after Frampton’s set was over and she was off to the side
talking with Cat, Michelle A., and Angie. By this time the excitement was
really getting to me, and I was actually nauseous and shaking. Cat relieved
some of that tension by telling us that the guys were putting the proclamation
in the opening video! I gave Ana Marie a big hug and congratulated her on her
passes...Could this night get any better??
I went back to my seat since
my knees were getting wobbly and I needed to get a grip before the concert
started. When the opening video came up and went through the sequence that I
had seen several times before of the freeway signs for San Francisco/San
Jose/Santa Cruz and other local signs I grabbed my camera.. I wasn’t about to
miss this. Boom! Up comes “Proclamation” in big bold
letters...straight off the Proclamation we had given the guys. A quick scroll
down to the words “Journey Day in San Francisco” and the roar from the
crowd was unbelievable. I nearly burst into tears. We did that! Months of hard
work putting together this little fan-gathering and it had paid off in a huge
way!
The concert began and ended
all too soon, and the next thing I know the group is sitting outside Shoreline
waiting on Ana Marie and Toni to return from their after show meet and greet.
Being the hometown show, we figured the meet and greet would go even quicker
than usual. So we stood and waited...and waited...and waited...We saw people
coming out, but no Ana Marie or Toni....20 minutes...30 minutes...45
minutes...wow...now it’s nearing midnight, and people are getting cold and
tired. So Darla and I decide since the parking lot is empty to go get the cars
and pick people up rather than make them walk back to my office. Stacy and
Denise came with us so Denise could give Stacy a ride home (which was a huge
help to me!) About half way to the car, my cell phone rings...it’s Ana
Marie...she’s finally working her way out and is so excited that she can barely
speak. I get a quick run down of what happened which I relay to Darla. We learn
later that Ana Marie had been sent to the wrong place. Instead of the
normal fan meet and greet, she got sent to the friends and family area...no wonder
it took so long...she had to wait until the guys finished the meet and greet
before she even saw them!
to be continued...
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