Journey @ Anchorage, AK 1987-01-23 (last Raised On Radio show)

 


LIMITED TIME / LAST TIME

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Journey
George M. Sullivan Arena
Anchorage, AK
January 23, 1987
(Renate Audience Master)

Recording: Unknown pocket size cassette recorder > Memorex HBII 90

Transfer: Cassette Master > Unknown Deck > .wav File > iZotope RX 10 / ozone 9 (mastered) > xACT 2.59 > FLAC

Steve Perry's last full-length concert as a member of Journey

01 Only The Young
02 Stone In Love
03 Anyway You Want It
04 The Girl Can't Help It
05 Send Her My Love
06 Open Arms
07 Intro > I'll Be Alright Without You
08 Strung Out
09 Suzanne
10 Neal Schon Guitar Solo > Wheel In The Sky
11 Be Good To Yourself 
12 Jonathon Cain Piano Solo
13 Who's Crying Now
14 Instrumental snippet
15 Oh Sherrie
16 Intro > Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin'
17 Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)
18 Don't Stop Believin'
19 Reach Out I'll Be There
20 Lights
21 Stand By Me
22 Steve Perry Intro
23 Faithfully

Known Faults:
-Missing: Suzanne Guitar/Keyboard Intro, Randy Jackson & Mike Baird duet before Cain Solo, Jailhouse Rock
-To conserve tape the taper paused the recording between some songs resulting in a number of songs missing the first or last notes as well as the more substantial cuts below
-Open Arms: beginning cut
-Suzanne: beginning cut
-Be Good To Yourself: splice
-Instrumental Snippet: only 28 seconds long
-Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin': end cut
-Faithfully: end cut

Steve Perry - vocals
Neal Schon - guitar
Jonathan Cain - keyboards
Randy Jackson - bass
Mike Baird - drums

This was the only Journey tour with Jackson and Baird as the rhythm section.

Recorded by: Renate
Tape acquired by: chaseharlann
Project facilitated and notes by: techtuts
Pitch adjusted by: Goody
Mastered by: mjk5510

HISTORICAL NOTES by dime member 'techtuts'

This is an audience recording from the final night of Journey's three-show stand at the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage (January 21, 22, and 23, 1987), the closing dates of the Raised on Radio tour. Perry would appear with Schon and Cain for a three-song acoustic set at the Bill Graham memorial concert in 1991 and return for the Trial by Fire album in 1996, but he never toured with the band again.

Perry's departure was already in motion before the tour finished. According to Neal Schon's later account, during the Hawaii run at the Neal Blaisdell Center immediately before Anchorage, Perry's attorney presented the band with an agreement minutes before showtime, and Perry would not go on stage until it was signed. The tour had been grueling for Perry, whose mother had died during the recording of Raised on Radio. He confirmed his exit to Cain and Schon at a meeting in San Rafael after the tour, and Journey went on a hiatus that lasted nearly a decade.

Lora Beard of the Journey Force fan club flew up from San Francisco for the final show and recalled a loose, nostalgic night: Perry ran off the stage into the crowd, the band pranked him during the Oh Sherrie intro by all wearing his trademark hat behind his back, and the entire road crew came on stage to sing the closing lines of Faithfully.

Perry later recalled the Anchorage run fondly: "We didn't use our own stage for those shows. We just flew our basic equipment in. We didn't bring lights or stage because that's the way they work it there. It was so much fun because the garage vibe kicked back in and it was so loose."

THE ANCHORAGE RUN

Journey was originally booked for one night, but demand forced a second and then a third. Renate, the taper of these recordings, experienced the demand firsthand: she queued overnight at the ticket venue for the first show (see included newspaper article), heard on the radio the next day that it had sold out and a second night was added, went back and queued overnight again, and then did the same for the third. More than 20,000 people attended across the three sold-out nights, close to a tenth of Anchorage's population. During the final show Perry was presented with a gold, engraved mining pan for breaking the arena's concert attendance record (photo included).

The band did not bring their full touring production to Alaska. The elaborate lighting rig and video screens used across the Lower 48 stayed behind. The PA and staging were locally sourced and simpler than the rest of the tour.

Both Anchorage papers reviewed opening night. Maggie Johnson (Anchorage Daily News) described Perry singing with power and refinement, his voice as strong at the end of the set as at the start. Steve Cole (Anchorage Times) reported a two-hour, 23-song set with the sold-out crowd of 8,500 standing, screaming, and singing along.

FULL SETLIST
01. Only the Young
02. Stone in Love
03. Any Way You Want It
04. Girl Can't Help It
05. Send Her My Love
06. Open Arms
07. I'll Be Alright Without You
08. Strung Out (Steve Perry solo)
09. Suzanne Guitar/Keyboard intro [cut on tape]
10. Suzanne
11. Neal Schon guitar solo
12. Wheel in the Sky
13. Be Good to Yourself
14. Randy Jackson & Mike Baird duet [cut on tape]
15. Jonathan Cain piano solo
16. Who's Crying Now
17. Oh Sherrie (Steve Perry solo)
18. Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'
19. Jailhouse Rock (Elvis Presley cover) [cut on tape]
20. Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)
21. Don't Stop Believin'

Encore:
22. Reach Out I'll Be There (Four Tops cover)
23. Lights
24. Stand By Me (Ben E. King cover)
25. Steve Perry monologue
26. Faithfully

Kansas City (Leiber/Stoller) was also performed as an extended jam, confirmed by multiple eyewitness accounts and the Journey Force fan club newsletter, but is not present on the tape and its position in the setlist is unknown, though likely in the encore.

This setlist is sourced from the tape itself and corrects the incomplete listing on setlist.fm. The show ran around two hours. The taper was working with a single 90-minute cassette, so she paused between songs and omitted some material, resulting in cuts at the beginnings and ends of some tracks. The setlist above represents the full show as performed; not all songs are present on the recording.

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A number of thank you's are in order bringing the historic performance to light almost 40 years later. 

First and foremost the biggest thank you to Renate who made a spur of the moment decision to record the Anchorage run of shows and keeping the tapes safely stored for the past 39 years.

Thanks to chaseharlann for doing the heavy lifting sourcing the masters and acquiring a copy directly from the master tape and to techtuts for overseeing the release of this show and for bringing me in to clean up and master the recording.

Thanks, as always, to Goody for working his magic ensuring the pitch on all our historical releases are dialed in.Thanks, as always, to Goody for working his magic ensuring the pitch is dialed in and mjk5510 for audio clean-up, mastering and final production.

Artwork and lots of extra articles, ads, photos are included.