donnaplease wrote:I think those people would not pay the money for a 'big name' concert ticket unless Journey was attached to someone such as Def Leppard, who still has the original singer in place. Otherwise, they'll just go to a local bar and listen to a cover band do the same songs just as well as the new guy, for a whole lot less moohla. Arnel will not get the same reaction that Jeff got, IMO. He doesn't have the stage presence to wow the crowd. He just doesn't. It's not about ethnicity, or language, or looks, or voice. It's about the total sum of those things, though, and unfortunately, Arnel is lacking. I just happen to believe he will not be accepted as a frontman for Journey. The WOW factor just insn't there for this gig. And I'm sorry to say that I believe when Friga & the Fro come to finally realize this, Arnel will be thrown away like a dirty diaper. JMO.
Donna, good post. I've been saying this for a while. No disrespect to JSS, but the DL/Jrny tour would have been a failure without DL. Both bands are on a hard decline....they needed the other. It's a common way for bands to maintain a level of venue these days. Latch onto another act and hope to God that they bring their fair share of fans...so you're not playing to empty halls.
There are people that maintain that the casual fan wont care at all who's on the mic...and that most of them wont even know or care whether it's Arnel, JSS, Steve A or Steve P singing. I heartily disagree. If Steve P were singing for this band, they would be playing venues twice-three times the size of anything jrny can draw on it's own. The fact of the matter is that this band is and has always been a vocally driven band. Schon's not the focal point...perry's voice is.
The casual fan does care...it's just not manifested in a way that can be attributed to specifics. Maybe there'll be a percentage decline in attendance. Maybe there'll be a percentage decline in album sales...whatever it is, it wont be a specific thing, unless Journey hires a statistician.
Another thing...Take whatever Arnel brings to the table (or doesn't bring)...and throw it out the window for a brief minute. I really think the fact that we're now looking at singer #4 (fleischman out of the equation for this)...a band simply cant recover from this. I don't know a single band that has been able to replace a *key* singer 3 times and recover from it. It's just not possible. Too many people are unsettled by these constant changes. It creates an aire of instability...and people want stability from their band. The product gets watered down...cheapened...etc...
Now, lets reinject Arnel back into this. All of the various issues regarding him devalue the product even more. The pronunciation, the lack of stage presence and the intangibles.
It will be another failed experiment...and Neal and Cain will do exactly what Donna alluded to. They will discard him like a used tampon....and come up with some other hair brain scheme to scrape the bottom of the barrel further.
The's only one solution for these jerkwads...and that solution is happily living a private life and wants nothing to do with them.