August 8-18, 2001: Michelle's Adventures in Journeyland (part 6)

Up at 9:00 for breakfast and a quick shower and last minute packing. We were meeting Stacy at Mom and Dad’s house at noon for a ride to the airport, and amazingly enough, we were awake and alert and ready to go. The flight to Burbank was uneventful as was the trip to the hotel. Ana Marie reached her friend Sally who would be joining us for the show, and we quickly changed and freshened up before Sally arrived to drive us over to the show.

We got to the Greek Theater in no time at all, and went to meet up with all the So Cal folks—some we were meeting for the very first time. Besides seeing Cat again and Michael (oh webmaster of all that is good...) we met Miles, one of the Journey Forum moderators, and his son Mikey (absolutely adorable) and a good dozen of the Forum regulars. As it turned out, I would be spending considerable time with this group over the next few days, and I really should have learned actual names, but 20 people introducing themselves as “LA Woman” or “Nutz4Neal” makes it hard to get real names straight!

When you start going to many shows, you start running into people you’ve met before all the time, and this night was no different. Once inside, we ran into Mark and Jae—the couple sitting next to Cat, Mary Ann, and me in Sacramento. Hugs and hellos were exchanged and it was time for the show to begin.

Per usual, Ana Marie, Cat, Sally and I found seats together near the front for Waite and Frampton and boogied on until it was time for Journey to hit the stage and we all had to go to our real seats. When I got to my seat (alone, off to the side, sniffle) I started chatting briefly with two women sitting behind me. They asked the inevitable question so many have asked—“Is this new singer as good as Steve Perry?” I assured them that yes, Steve Augeri was terrific—I wouldn’t be at my 10^th show of the tour if he wasn’t! They were suitably impressed by my insanity, and then went off to places unknown. The show started and I adjusted to the fact that my seats weren’t as good as they had been for pretty much every other show on the tour. I wasn’t too bummed though—10 shows in and this was the worst it got? 13^th row of the 2^nd section, slightly off to the side...no big deal. Besides, I had a fan club seat for the next night’s show, and the fan club seats had been great thus far. Mid-way through the show, the two women behind me who had disappeared earlier returned. One of them tapped me on my shoulder and as I turned around, stuck something on my shoulder...it was an after show pass! The other woman gave her pass to the fellow sitting behind me, and during the break before the encore I tried my darnedest to talk him out of it so I could get it to Ana Marie. He wouldn’t bite, dang it all. Alas, after the show ended and my brain started functioning again, I realized it had a PF stamped on it...it was for Peter Frampton’s after show, not Journey’s...bummer! But an unforgettable gesture nonetheless.

After the show some of us trooped over to Mel’s Diner on Sunset for dinner (at 1:00 a.m...oh well...) First, for the record, the original Mel’s in San Francisco is much better. Second, Tuesday night, after midnight and the place was packed...ahhh Hollywierd...While we were waiting for a table (yes waiting at that hour!), Ana Marie checked her voice mail and found messages from Cheryl and Emerson—the Stevie Nicks concert she was to fly home for in the morning had been canceled!! She decided then and there she’d stick around for the Journey show the next night and find a ticket in the morning. By the time Cat arrived on the scene, it was close to a done deal, when she mentioned that she had an extra fan club seat that night. Woo hoo! It was settled.

Sally dropped Ana Marie and me off at the hotel close to 2:00, and we both felt badly for Sally—unlike us, she had to go to work in the morning. Once back in our room, Ana Marie got on the phone to make the necessary changes for her return home. Wednesday morning was a fairly quiet one, fortunately, which meant we could rest and recover a bit from the night before. Cheryl was flying down from Oakland, but wouldn’t be arriving until 3:30, so we had most of the day to kill. While Ana Marie was taking a shower, I hopped on my computer to check my email and post a review of the previous night’s show. That’s when I found that someone had done an interview with Journey’s former manager, Herbie Herbert. I lost track of the number of times I shouted to Ana Marie “Oh my god.. you have to come out here and read this!”...I was quite certain that a furore was on the horizon among the many rabid on-line Journey fans. Herbie was saying things that had been mostly rumor and speculation for years, and here it was in black and white. Oh the next few days were going to be interesting!

to be continued...

August 8-18, 2001: Michelle's Adventures in Journeyland (part 5)

I crawled out of bed around 9:00 Monday morning, fully rested and almost ready to go. Cheryl was due at noon for the drive up to Clear Lake and the show at Konocti Harbor Resort. That meant doing something about the results of Hurricane JPP that was left in my living room. I had just dumped everything in the middle of the floor and said “I’ll deal with it later.” This included 3 loads of laundry I had left on the couch unfolded.

I managed to get the place somewhat presentable (at least I wouldn’t be embarrassed to open the door) in fairly short order, and since I’d at least managed to pack for the rest of the week before I went to bed, I plopped myself down on the couch to wait for Cheryl. The phone rang shortly before noon—Cheryl was stuck on the approach to the San Mateo bridge! Drat! She finally arrived around 12:30 and we hit the road ever so slightly behind schedule. The drive up to Clear Lake is a long one, taking us through San Francisco, all of Marin and Sonoma Counties—it’s a looooong way. Not to worry, we had plenty of tunes and the conversation was fun. The last bit of the drive, however, took us along a very windy mountain road...I don’t think I ever went faster than 30 m.p.h. and I was in 2^nd gear half the time. Thank goodness I was driving or those curves would have made me very car sick!

We pulled into the parking lot shortly before 4:00—still 30 minutes behind schedule—but in plenty of time to meet folks for lunch. Peter Frampton was just finishing up his sound check when we pulled into the lot, so we got to hear a bit of it while we waited for the shuttle to take us over to the restaurant. When we arrived, we discovered that everyone was already there—Michelle A., Angie, Leslie F. and her kids, Ana Marie and her mom, and a couple of folks from the Journey Forum. Cheryl and I waved at everyone as we came in to sit down, me on one side of the table, Cheryl on the other. That’s when I did a double take—who was that sitting next to Ana Marie?? Oh my god—it’s Deen!! I try to catch Cheryl’s attention so she can see who’s joined us for lunch, but I guess I was too subtle because she didn’t see him until Ana Marie interrupted the conversation he was having to introduce us. I’m not entirely sure who it was that ran into him and convinced him to join us for dinner, but way to go! Ana Marie then asked Deen to tell Cheryl and I what he had told her earlier about his copy of the Journey Day Proclamation. He told us he had taken it and put it up on the wall by his bed in the bus, and that he told the driver to leave his bed alone because he didn’t want anyone to accidentally wreck his Proclamation. I don’t know about Cheryl, but I felt about 10 feet tall then—it was one thing to hear from Cat that the guys had loved the Proclamation, but to hear it straight from the mouth of one of them...well that was just very special.

Lunch proceeded as you would expect, with a zillion conversations going on at once. I don’t think Deen sat still for more than 30 seconds, but hey, he’s a drummer, what do you expect!  Heck I caught him drumming his fingers on the table more than once—the guy is just bursting with nervous energy. Towards the end of dinner, he was showing Leslie’s kids his hands—tons of blisters and callouses. There isn’t enough hand lotion in the world to improve that wreck! I wondered to myself why he didn’t wear gloves when he played, but figured it was probably a “feel” thing and left it at that.

Somehow or another, the conversation turned to Steve Augeri’s red leather pants. Earlier in the year, Ana Marie, Darla, Mary Ann, Cheryl and I met Neal, Ross, and Jon after they had appeared on “Rockline.” We made it a point to tell them (well, Ana Marie did actually) to lay off the red leather pants. We ladies liked them, so stop giving poor Steve such a hard time. Since Deen missed that day, we felt obligated to share the same information with him. He laughed and said “I realize you ladies like the red leather pants, but I can’t stand them. They’re distracting! All I see all night long is red butt, red butt, red butt. Red butt grabbing my cymbals, red butt running by, red butt spinning. Red butt, red butt, red butt.” Naturally, this had us all in hysterics, and I did a mental calculation—Steve had worn the white leather pants in Sacramento...that meant tonight was the red leather pants! Oh this was going to be amusing.

Everyone headed out to get ready for the show, and Cheryl and I waited for our bill, only to learn that the fellow from the Journey Forum (known only as msdrums*) had picked up the tab! Wow! Aren’t Journey fans the greatest?? Cheryl and I left as well and decided not to wait for the shuttle—there were too many people and standing in the 90 degree sun wasn’t something I looked forward too, I’d rather walk, and it wasn’t all that far, just seriously up hill. 

*I now know the "couple of  folks" from Back Talk were the wonderful CJ & Mark Shilts and Mark was the one who picked up the tab for lunch.  Lots of fun and fond memories up at Konocti with those two! 

We get to the amphitheater in plenty of time for the 5:00 start and reconnected with everyone from lunch. It’s hot as all get out and there is virtually no shade. I was in desperate need of a hat, which, of course, I had neglected to bring. Off to the merchandise booth, and plopped down $25 for a Journey 2001 baseball hat, as did Cheryl. Three more bucks for a bottle of water, and we tromped over to the front row to watch John Waite’s set. 5:00 came and went and no John Waite. Now this is odd, for every other show he’d started on time, if not a few minutes early. He only had about 30 minutes of stage time, I couldn’t imagine he’d be late...But late he was, and it was 5:30 before he hit the stage. We learned later that the curfew was 10:00, which explained the 5:00 stated time, but also allowed for the 30 minute delay.

With 6 of us sitting in the front row (not our actual seats, but no one was in them so...) we were bopping along quite nicely and since we were the only people in the front row, Waite played to us quite a bit. It was fun, and in such a small venue, it felt more like a club than an amphitheater. Early on in the set Neal Schon came out and was sitting on the side of the stage—plainly in our view. We all snapped pictures of Neal trying to be cool, but obviously amused by the cameras.

For Peter Frampton’s set, Cheryl, Ana Marie and I headed off to the side where the vendors were along with moderate shade, and stayed there for his entire set. Probably not the best plan since it meant standing for 75 minutes before Journey’s set, but oh well...it was shady, and that’s what mattered!

Once more Journey played and time flew by—though it was an odd set since it started while the sun was still up and didn’t have the usual staging. Of course, when Steve walked out in his red leather pants Cheryl and I started giggling—the same thoughts running through our head “red butt, red butt, red butt....” Of course, unlike Deen, we didn’t find that distracting in the least! (well, at least not in the same way!) About mid-way through the set (probably about the time red-butt was grabbing the cymbals) I noticed that Deen was wearing gloves! Well, dang, I must be psychic now too!

Now it was time for the 3+ hour drive home. Ouch. It’s a long dark drive from Clear Lake to San Mateo, and if it weren’t for the fact that Ana Marie and I had a 1:30 flight to catch to LA, we sure as heck wouldn’t have done it! We grabbed Ana Marie’s things from her mother’s car and loaded them into mine and hit the road for home. Cheryl napped in the back, while Ana Marie and I chattered most of the way home. Ana Marie dozed off about the time we hit the Golden Gate Bridge, but by then we were close enough to home that I wasn’t worried about getting lost or hitting some wild animal on the freeway. Alas, letting Ana Marie get a 20 minute cat-nap wasn’t the best of ideas either...

We finally arrived back at my apartment around 2:00, and Cheryl got in her car and headed for home. Meanwhile, Ana Marie had gotten her 2^nd wind, and decided that 2:00 in the morning was the perfect time to start assembling the “guest book” from JPP2001. We had taken Polaroids of everyone in attendance and given them a 5 x 7 card to write a message to the band. The plan being we’d assemble them all into a nice book and get it to the guys after the event. Now, I had thought that we were going to mail it to the guys after the tour was over along with a copy of the video taped reactions of our attendees watching the videotaped hello. Ana Marie thought it would be better to try to deliver it to the guys in person (if possible) or via Cat while we were all in So Cal. We also realized that we had promised to scan a copy of the Journey Day proclamation and send it off to Michael, the webmaster for Journey’s official website. So while Ana Marie assembled the guest book, I got on my computer and started goofing around with the scanner. Trying to get a 8.5 x 14 inch piece of paper reduced to a manageable sized file was just far beyond my abilities at that hour (and after that drive!) so I sent it off to Michael with a note “you’re the pro—you fix it!” We finally crashed around 4:00, with me wondering if I’d survive the rest of the week. 

to be continued...

August 8-18: Michelle's Adventures in Journeyland (part 4)

We were back to the hotel by 2:00 and in bed shortly thereafter. Our Saturday event was an early lunch at the Fog City Diner, site of a Journey photo shoot for the Raised on Radio album. (And, to our surprise, there was a picture of Neal hanging on the wall outside the ladies room!) Amazingly we ran on time for this day, and got to the diner for a group lunch. While we waited on our food, we held a personalized quiz for Cat, since she’d missed the entire event the day before with her Fan Club obligations. Then it was time for the raffle, and I think everyone went home happy with some autographed goodie.

Back to the hotel for a quick change of clothes and a video thank you from the committee to the band (next time, cue cards for me...) and off to the cars for the drive to Marysville for that night’s concert. Smokers in one car, nonsmokers in the other, and we were off. I led to the bridge and Darla (with Ana Marie as a navigator) let the rest of the way. We would have been perfectly on time too if we hadn’t missed the exit and gone about 3 miles out of our way. I still hate driving a mini van though...awful awful awful...and the fact we weren’t killed twice is simply amazing...I guess my skills are better than I thought!

Mary Ann had gotten Fan Club seats for the two of us, and Ana Marie had them again for she and Toni. Imagine our shock when Ana Marie got after show passes again! Wow. Mary Ann and I had 3^rd row seats for this show, and as luck would have it, Cat was sitting in the same row, two seats over! We talked to the couple sitting between us, Mark and Jae—also fan club members—and asked if they would mind moving down a seat so that the three of us could sit together. They were more than gracious and agreed, and so, when “Faithfully” was played, Cat, Mary Ann and I wound up on the giant video screen as we swayed back and forth in time to the song. Yet another claim to fame!

Once more the show came and went too quickly and it was time to go outside. Getting through the throngs of people with after show passes was a bit of a trick—apparently a couple of radio stations had given bunches away. We all waited outside again for Ana Marie who was able to bring her Aunt Sheryl to the after show this time. The wait wasn’t nearly as long this time…Ana Marie was out in about 20 minutes. We all piled back into the cars and headed back to The City, having said our farewells to Angie and Michelle A. who were staying in the area on their way to Konocti the next day.

After more adventures in driving through San Francisco in a mini van, we arrived back at the hotel around 2:00 and gathered the committee in my room. Mary Ann had a 6:00 flight, so her shuttle was picking her up at 4:15. We all stayed up with her to say good-bye, and then crawled into bed. The 8:30 wake up call was a cruel way to start Sunday morning, but we had arranged for an “informal” farewell brunch at 9:00. I had just crawled out of bed when there was a soft knock on my door...uncertain if we’d put out the do not disturb sign, I got up to answer it to make sure it wasn’t housekeeping. It wasn’t. It was Dale. I told her I’d just gotten up and I’d meet her in the lobby in a few minutes. I splashed some water on my face and pulled on some clothes and stumbled downstairs as the rest of my committee members slowly awoke and arose.

Brunch ended and it was time to say our good-byes. Everyone needed to check out of their hotels and get headed for home. It had been a fantastic weekend and the complete and utter exhaustion I was feeling was well worth it. I finally arrived home for some brief rest around 3 Sunday afternoon. I unpacked enough to do laundry, took a nap, ate a light dinner, and crawled into my very own bed for a good night’s sleep.

Journey Past and Present 2001 was over. The next week was mine...all mine...5 Journey shows in 7 days...

to be continued...

August 8-18: Michelle's Adventures in Journeyland (part 3)

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 8^th 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...