All the Journey Scarab Shirts

So, here are all the scarab shirts from the Escape tour. I love how they tweaked it and special things to it for the fans. Its above and beyond, really. As you can see, these generally have grey bodies with either black or maroon sleeves. Have seen a few versions with white bodies. And just saw one from the 1981 Philadelphia and Buffalo shows with gray body and green sleeves.

As you may or may know, they are all based on the Captured album cover. Also shown here are two shirts from the Departure tour that have the original album cover design - they are the pair in the third pic - the fourth pic is the back of the t-shirt. That jersey is very rare - only one i have seen and has a blank back. These shirts often fetch hot prices - they come up on occasion, but not regularly. As an added bonus, i have a printer test thing on a piece of felt that someone was selling a while back. Its pretty cool.

Escape Tour Japan - Shirt One

Holey mackerel, was what I exclaimed aloud to myself because no one else really cares when i saw this shirt. At the time it wasnt for sale - it was one that was available in the Herbie Herbert auction at backstageauctions.com. I missed the bidding so i gobbled up what i could from the post sale then asked the kindly folks there to send me images of the stuff that sold. I will post that stuff in a later posting as a post. This was one of them so i was freaking out wondering how i would get it. Pretty soon after one came up in a lot of old shirts featuring a billy joel, a todd rundgren, a 49ers shirt, one from a caribean island and a real beat up Journey roadie shirt. The whole thing cost about a $100, but i sold the other shirts back on ebay and got some of the scratch back.

Its just so rare and so great to have. Have only seen one other since 2002. The back of the shirt is blank. There is another Journey Escape shirt from Japan i will post later that is ridiculous.

Journey Digs the 49ers of the 80s

I'm not a 49ers fan and never will be, but this shirt has both arena rock fans and football fans in mind. I guess the members of Journey and the crew liked how good the team was back then enough to have these special shirts made. They are very rare, having only seen about three others since 2002. Love the creative use of the scarab logo yet again with the helmet replacing the earth.

Striped Sleeved Escape Shirt

Love the stripes on sleeves of this Spring 1982 t-shirt. Very 80s, and very manly. The glowing bug on the back is awesome, but this one has suffered many indignities in the washer and at beer ball parties. Nonetheless, i love it. Its a common shirt, but has yet another variation on the scarab design, as the wings are cut out without color filled in between the little pointies.

Roadie T-Shirt from the Pine Knob Show

This is one of several extremely rare shirts gotten from a former Journey roadie who was selling lots of his stuff off on ebay. His name is Terry Brennan, and not positive if he was selling for the roadie or if he is in fact the roadie. He is great because all the stuff had buy it nows on, so you didnt have to risk losing some once in a lifetime buys, stuff you didnt even know existed. I am still so bummed i missed out on the Escape Tour leather jacket with the parked beetle logo on the chest. I saw one other for sale once, but that was for charity. Got some other things from him though that are very cool.

I had seen this shirt before, but this one is possibly one of a kind because the back graphic is on the front, and the front is on the back. Its excellent to have this one. All the Pine Knob shirts i have seen have the scarab sort of die cut out with the white border around it.

Classic Escape Tour Jersey

This is the mass-produced, uncustomized 1981 Journey Escape tour concert jersey. These tend to have pretty good image fading (see the text on the bottom of the back of the shirt), but most often achieve that great weathered and often paper-thin look. People wore the shit out of these things, but they held up. This is a Knits shirt made with ribbed fabric, like on a wife beater. Its real form fitting. Again with the standard issue scarab logo.

The Escape Show Mommy Wouldnt Let Me Go To

I really wanted to see Journey play Blossom Music Center when they came back around after the Richfield Coliseum show, but my parents, who took me and J.T. Frasier to the first show woundn't let me. Lots a dopers, they thought.

Well, here is my redemption, my swan song, my little ditty. This vintage journey Escape tour shirt was nearly not mine. After a frantic bidding war i lost it and i was pissed. This shirt was the reason i really stretched my frugality to the limits and bid just about anything to get me some fabric. Anyway, they shirt was back on ebay within two weeks - the dude that won it wanted to have a vintage shirt to wear to the reformed Journey show, but this one was too big. He relisted it, i won it and here it is for you to admire over, or is it upon?

I see these here and there, so its not too rare. I think they played three shows, so a bunch of these were sold. Has the standard scarab front. The back image with the bug shooting a the city name etched in stone was done for a few shows, including most notably the Pine Knob show - of which i possess a very rare version of to be posted later. Its a neato one.

Escape Tour Heads to Hawaii

A great way to kick off the Escape shirts. This is one of my faves and is very rare - only seen one other on eBay since 2002. Instead of the globe with the infinity band of clouds around it inside the beetle - as in the standard versions coming up, this one has the Hawaiian Islands put in there. And I love the little infinity symbol in the boat on the back of the shirt. There was a lot of artfulness and creativity put into Escape shirts. Certainly some are more elaborate, but this one is just beautiful and classic.

Journey Frontiers Tour Shirts All Posted

So, 1983 is wrapped up. They are all below. Have a lookey. Frontiers was really the end of all that was good, and at the same time the beginning of the crap. Songwriting on this album is super, especially the title track - it never got enough credit. I actually got to see Steve Smith a few years later at a drum clinic and he played the drum line from Frontiers and i just remember myself and the rest of the auditorium moving to the edge of their seats to see him play it. At the end i got his autograph on an album and stole a pair of his drumsticks. I dont feel too bad about it. He also explained how "Perry" (he wouldnt call him Steve) recut the tracks with another drummer without telling him, so that's why he quit the band for ROR.

Onto the bad - the outfits they wore on that tour were absurd, even for casual observers of the day. They broke away from the beetle theme to address the rampant technological advances unfolding before our eyes. Then of course they broke up and Raised on Radio made me hang my head in shame - especially because of Johnathan Cain's freakin long neon splattered jacket and permed mullet and that lame portable keyboard thing. Artwork for that sucked then and it sucks now, as does the weak title track. My collection may not be as complete as others since I refuse to buy anything from that tour. I did get to see them third row center though - that was cool except when a colorfully huge Randy Jackson got too close. "Girl Cant Help It" is a pretty good song, I guess. I hate to be critical, but i wish they were still together and making great music as evidenced by the really good Trial By Fire. And still using Stanley Mouse for the artwork. Oh, welps.

Anyway, gonna start posting Escape stuff next, the meat of the collection. The Meat!
And if anyone wants to quit holding out and sell me the shirts that Neal and Steve S are wearing in the above picture, that would be great.

One Last Random Frontiers Sweatshirt

Got this dirt cheap on eBay, probably because its sorta ugly and very scratchy and uncomfortable. Very 80s style was given to staff working the JFK stadium shows seen on Frontiers and Beyond video. Its very rare, only seen this one time. Not an official band issued thing, but its still nice to have.

The Only Original from Youth Times

It has been through a lot since 1983, but I never stopped loving it. Its the only shirt I own from my original experience at a Journey show. Didnt buy a shirt at the Escape show the year before - opted for the giant poster for my bedroom. So this is all I got. It is very thin, with tears down the side from my burnout days. I was so excited to wear it to school the next day, and i remember the dudes saying stuff like "that's the one i'm gonna get tonight" and other such jealous lies.

This commonly appearing shirt doesnt get worn anymore, but it will stay with me forever as my sweet memories do - like making an "Edge of the Blade" album cover for art class by copying the front shirt image. And hating to have to leave the Richfield Coliseum early from the second night because my friend's dad wanted to beat the traffic. I dont really recall any other specific moments while wearing the shirt. Alas, oh well.

Journey Day on the Green Staff T-shirt

One of those shocking finds in a vintage clothing store on The Haight. Its in excellent condition and very rare. There was a football jersey version of this shirt being sold on Wolfgang's Vault for a while, but those have all sold. There are still some regular white t-shirt versions, both from 1980 and 1983. Have never seen the ringer version that is shown here.

This is from the Bill Graham shows at Oakland Coliseum. Huge sorts of stadium shows that Steve Perry grew to dislike - lack of intimacy with the fans or something along those lines. I used to love those kinds of shows, but now I too find them loathesome and brutish after being spoiled by seeing great bands in tiny venues in SF for years.

Frontiers Tour Hits Hawaii

Journey did two special Hawaii shirts, this one is from the Frontiers tour. (View the other one here.) It is the most elaborately designed of the special 1983 show shirts and is rare. I don't have any of the other special show ones - they end up selling for a lot in auctions, and since the focus of my collection is on the Escape tour, I don't really need to shell out the extra dough. These are the other special ones that I have seen:

• California and Florida shows have black sunglasses on the robot guy - they say something like "California Rocks" and "Florida Jam" on them - I hope to get one of these at some point
  
• A New Orleans show has a Bourbon St. streetlight on the back
• Texas show has stars dancing around the main front image
• Others are customized by adding the city name on the back, like my only personally purchased shirt that I still own - check it out here
  

Another Standard Frontiers Shirt

The blues in this shirt really blare out. The back is especially pretty with a frosty glow about it. Got this on eBay from some woman who claimed her brother sold shirts for the band when they came to town and he kept a few extras. This thing is perfect and unworn. Very nice to find these ones that were socked away and preserved.

Sorta Sleeveless Journey Shirt from 1983

Ok, real sleeveless, but whatever. This one reuses that parked beetle logo from the Escape tour during the Frontiers tour. I really really love that parked bug, and have considered it as a tattoo before, but I rarely consider tattoos. I think most people get them for the wrong reasons, and I just need a right one.

This is a standard issue concert shirt. I think the one flaw is that the bug on all the shirts I have seen dips in the middle. Its a design flaw or structural or something, but its one of the only shirts they sold with the parked bug on the front. Remember how they show that bug on the huge banner at the end of the show on the Houston DVD? I want that banner real bad.

It makes a great undershirt, but i would never be seen with it around town as is. I just won't.

First Journey Shirt Bought as a Collector

This is the first shirt I bought as a vintage Journey shirt collector, and the first of a handful purchased at a vintage clothing store filled with silly hipsters. It was a day on the Haight, it was there, I left without buying it and after a few weeks of obsessing about it, I went back and bought it for $35. I was pretty cheap back then so it was a tough call. Anyway, it got me hooked and I can't stop buying to this day.

Its a standard issue, mass produced and non-customized to a specific show or city jersey. I always wondered why Steve Perry is standing aside from the rest of the gang, then found out years later that he felt left out, unaccepted, and sorta sad. I hope they didn't pick on him. I have seen this one with black sleeves, but most common is the blue. In general, this one is available all the time. I read they sold over 2,000,000 shirts over the years so they should be around - but there seems to be less available on ebay every year.

That Other Japan 1983 Tour Sweatshirt

This is that other version of the Japan 1983 Frontiers sweatshirt I was talking about. Its a crewneck instead of the v-neck and has the tour dates on the back. Not sure if this is a roadie-only or what. Got it on eBay from a vintage clothing store operator. It's very cool, and very rare. Never seen any others out there.

Japan Tour Sweatshirt 1983

Here is one I got from the Herbie Herbert auction - a leftover being offered at the store well after i found out about the auction at all. I am lucky to have gobbled up some scraps from that. Got a couple other things from the auction that will be up at some point.

This one took a lot of stretching to get back into form. It still looks pretty 80s with that deep scoop v-neck.

Luckily, I found another version of this on ebay that is a crew neck sweatshirt with a different layout on it. The back image of this one is on the front of that one and on the back of that one is a list of cities they hit in Japan. I will post that one too.

This one is rare - only seen two others on eBay since 2002.