Neil Daniels - The Untold Story Of Journey
Don’t Stop Believin’, a song which was propelled into the spotlight following the version played out over and over again on the American TV show, Glee, is without a doubt an anthem of our time. What has always got me though is how genuinely good a rock song it really is, it’s got catchy hooks, a chorus which everyone can sing along to, guitars which will bring out the air guitarist in anyone, and a vocal line which is sure to have people reaching for that invisible orb in the sky and grabbing at it like a lunatic. What most people fail to realise though is that it’s just one of many tracks from Journey, a band which is all too often lost in the sands of musical history and only dug up when all of a sudden, we remember just how awesome that track was.
Author Neil Daniels has set out to change this outlook though with his book, Don’t Stop Believin’, The Untold Story Of Journey – a veritable tome of information which charts the bands successes over the many years of their birth, reign, fade and rebirth. Drawing on sources close to the band and other journalists from the world of music, this book provides the reader with an uncontested overview of everything you didn’t know about Journey, charting the bands successes but more over showing that even a rock band of their stature is made up of normal human beings – something which is all too often forgotten.
From the minute I started reading the book until the moment I finished it I was hooked, there’s simply so much history tied up within Journey that it’s impossible not to be enthralled by the stories which Daniels has penned. Through stories of their early gigs where they shared the stage with the likes of Bryan Adams and Sammy Hagar through to more recent moments with Def Leppard, there’s almost a sense of name dropping as you read the list of bands that Journey have worked with, and that’s just on the live scene. Also charting Jeff’s (Steve Augeri’s replacement) involvement with the soundtrack for Rock Star (an amazing movie if you’ve not seen it), I had no idea that he had been involved with the music for the film and taken on his share of the vocal parts.
What really stands out throughout the book is that Daniels isn’t afraid to discuss the downfall of Journey, looking at their (relative) demise (I say relative because realistically, did they go anywhere?) but balancing this out with equal investigation into their rise and success. This balanced and journalistic approach to the biography turns what could be a glory story of a band into a biography in the truest sense, one which isn’t afraid to deal with the nitty gritty behind the music.
Closing the book with an afterword from Jeff Scott Soto himself, there’s precious little which has been missed from this book, leaving you reaching for their back catalogue and once again looking to hammer out the likes of Escape, Trial By Fire and Revelation – just to remind yourself how good San Francisco Bay Area rock really is. Whether you’re a fan of Journey or not, the story which Daniels tells is compelling, interesting and intriguing throughout, never once allowing his writing to drift into disarray or lose the point of the story, making this biography a real stand out to get hold of.
To pick up a copy of the book for yourself, click HERE and to find out more about Neil Daniels, click HERE.
Author Neil Daniels has set out to change this outlook though with his book, Don’t Stop Believin’, The Untold Story Of Journey – a veritable tome of information which charts the bands successes over the many years of their birth, reign, fade and rebirth. Drawing on sources close to the band and other journalists from the world of music, this book provides the reader with an uncontested overview of everything you didn’t know about Journey, charting the bands successes but more over showing that even a rock band of their stature is made up of normal human beings – something which is all too often forgotten.
From the minute I started reading the book until the moment I finished it I was hooked, there’s simply so much history tied up within Journey that it’s impossible not to be enthralled by the stories which Daniels has penned. Through stories of their early gigs where they shared the stage with the likes of Bryan Adams and Sammy Hagar through to more recent moments with Def Leppard, there’s almost a sense of name dropping as you read the list of bands that Journey have worked with, and that’s just on the live scene. Also charting Jeff’s (Steve Augeri’s replacement) involvement with the soundtrack for Rock Star (an amazing movie if you’ve not seen it), I had no idea that he had been involved with the music for the film and taken on his share of the vocal parts.
What really stands out throughout the book is that Daniels isn’t afraid to discuss the downfall of Journey, looking at their (relative) demise (I say relative because realistically, did they go anywhere?) but balancing this out with equal investigation into their rise and success. This balanced and journalistic approach to the biography turns what could be a glory story of a band into a biography in the truest sense, one which isn’t afraid to deal with the nitty gritty behind the music.
Closing the book with an afterword from Jeff Scott Soto himself, there’s precious little which has been missed from this book, leaving you reaching for their back catalogue and once again looking to hammer out the likes of Escape, Trial By Fire and Revelation – just to remind yourself how good San Francisco Bay Area rock really is. Whether you’re a fan of Journey or not, the story which Daniels tells is compelling, interesting and intriguing throughout, never once allowing his writing to drift into disarray or lose the point of the story, making this biography a real stand out to get hold of.
To pick up a copy of the book for yourself, click HERE and to find out more about Neil Daniels, click HERE.