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Formed in early 2004 by four experienced ex-professional musicians / singers to fulfill a desire to play some classic favourite melodic rock tracks around the pub rock circuit, the band was originally called ’Renegade’ and played songs by Journey, Styx, Toto and Queen. They were immediately pleased with how the American songs were received by audiences, more specifically many of the post-show comments were regarding the Journey songs and the band were surprised at just how many members of the audiences were lovers of Journey music. After a handful of gigs and requests for particular songs the name was changed to ‘The Essential Journey ’ and the Journey content in the set list rapidly increased.
The Essential Journey are:
WARREN SHAW - Vocals & Drums
NEIL CRADDOCK - Vocals & Bass
PAUL TRAPPETT - Keyboards & Vocals
TIM ROWE - Guitar & Vocals
The band members share a common love of harmonies with Warren & Neil having been together professionally in the late seventies & eighties working around the British & European club scene in a band specialising in vocal harmony rock. The band ’Sight ’n’ Sound’, noted for its vocal ability enjoyed a brief ’15 minutes of fame’ in 1976 with the release of a single called; ’Dance With Me’, which was an American song written by John & Joanna Hall of Orleans fame. The record got a lot of radio airplay and the band went on to do more writing and recording but despite being a successful touring unit didn’t manage to break into the charts. In later years Neil joined keyboard player Paul Trappett in a band called; ’ Wishful Thinking’, playing a wide variety of vocal rock before spending a period as an ELO tribute. Tim Rowe, an accomplished guitarist had been a friend of Warren, Neil & Paul for some years and almost joined ’Sight ’n’ Sound’ in 1991. He later went on to form one of the leading Queen tribute bands; ’Killer Queen’.
Working in the previous bands the members had gained much vocal and playing experience and yet had always been somewhat restricted material-wise to having to perform what was required rather than what they wanted to play. Neil & Warren had always been fans of American rock, Journey & Styx in particular and in August 2004 they jumped at the chance to travel to the states to see Journey at the Valdosta gig in Georgia. They were certainly not disappointed and returned even bigger fans. This had an immediate effect on the material choice with more Journey songs being added to the set list.
After meeting members of the Journey fan club at a gig at JB’s in Dudley, W.Midlands in January, the band was asked to play at the 2005 Journey Fan Club’s UK Convention in June. At this time the bands’ set was still a mix of Journey, Styx & Toto etc. and the lads hadn’t seriously considered being an exclusive Journey tribute band. The band was however delighted that the Journey fans liked their portrayals of the songs and were honoured to be invited to play at the Convention. More Journey songs have been steadily added to the set which has been a complete labour of love, the only problem being which ones to leave out!
The Essential Journey are in essence a true ‘tribute’ band, as the posters state: “No wigs, no make-up, just pure harmony rock!!” They don’t have a Steve Perry or Steve Augeri ’look-alike’, Warren and Neil share the lead vocals throughout the set. They don‘t set out to emulate Steves' Perry or Augeri (who could?) but the aim is to sing the songs as ’faithfully’ as possible, including the vocal harmonies that are so often sadly missing in bands these days and using Tim‘s guitar abilities and Paul's keyboard skills to recreate those beautiful Neal Schon & Jonathan Caine musical signatures that adorn the Journey music.
Warren Shaw was
born in Cannock in 1953 and began playing drums in a local band when he was 13.
During the early seventies Warren played around local rock venues in the band
Flight before touring Germany with a female artist for several months.
After returning to England, Flight returned to the rock scene with Warren
becoming noted as a lead vocalist. One of Warrens' vocal hero’s during this
time was Free/Bad Company front man Paul Rogers. During the mid
seventies Warren took a job as manager of a local music shop before going
professional again in late 1977 when he was poached by Sight 'n' Sound
after Neil and the rest of the band witnessed Warrens' vocal ability at a
Flight gig. During the eighties Warren continued to establish himself as a
rock vocalist whilst developing a passion for vocal harmonies inspired by the
likes of The Eagles, Journey, Styx & Queen. Warren played on
professionally until the band finished prematurely in 1993. Changing direction
somewhat Warren began doing some studio work, notably involved in the
development of a stage musical with studio owner Chris Warsop (who was the bands
sound engineer until mid-2006, see below). During a social night out with Tim Rowe, Warren was encouraged
to get his drums out again after a ten year live playing retirement. This
coincided with Neil and Paul’s desire to 'ditch the computer' to do something
'real' again and Warren was once again behind the mic and the drums.
Neil Craddock was
born in Lichfield, Staffordshire in 1949 and began playing gigs when just 14
years old after spending some time singing in the church choir. Starting as a
lead guitarist, his early influences were The Beatles & The Beach Boys.
Moving onto the bass in late 1969 Neil began to listen to American music and
during the seventies was into the The Eagles, Steely Dan, Boston etc.
Turning professional in 1971 with a band called The Mail Neil soon joined
his favourite Midlands band The Montanas before being recruited into
Birmingham band Sight 'n' Sound in 1974. A band members' 1979 Christmas
present to Neil was the Styx album Cornerstone and since the first
listen Neil has been a fan, seeing them live in Stafford in 1981. Neil became
aware of Journey with the release of the Escape album in 1981 and
was immediately impressed with Steve Perry’s amazing voice and fell in
love particularly with the songs Open Arms & Stone in Love. These
songs were on Neil's list off wannado songs when the new band was formed. Neil
began working with Warren in 1977 and started a musical relationship that would
see them on the road together singing and playing professionally up until 1993.
After a three year musical semi-retirement Neil joined Paul Trappetts’ local
band Wishful Thinking to handle the lead vocals. In doing so he also
returned to playing the guitar rather than bass and worked on with Paul in the
band until it 2003. Neil & Paul + computer worked on together until the
formation of the new band.
Visit Neil's 'PA Hire, Sales and Installation' company 'Stagecraft Systems' website at: www.stagecraftsystems.com
Paul Trappett was born in Aston,
Birmingham in 1964 making him the youngest member of The Essential Journey.
Although his father was a gigging pianist he never actually began to learn to
play himself until he was 19 when his brother whimfully suggested they ‘start a
band’! Originally he intended to play the drums but soon developed a natural
flair for the keyboard and within 6 months was playing in a band (though with
little success). After a succession of other original rock bands (Mindz Eye,
Silent Witness, Jagged Edge, Tempting Fate) Paul applied another talent (a
keen computer programmer and sequencist) to music when asked to replace a
leaving drummer for Social Club band Jump The Gun. This proved very
successful and the band were noted for being among the pioneers of pc orientated
gigging winning several awards. Paul's influences are concentrated to just a
few acts such as Queen and esoteric artists such as Patrick Moraz, Yes
(pre-Wakeman) and Jan Hammer. But Jeff Lynne and the
Electric Light Orchestra are perhaps the major influence. Indeed Jump
the Gun eventually transformed into the ELO tribute band
Wishful Thinking, with Neil Craddock as their Jeff Lynne. With this
band ending in 2003 Paul and Neil then formed a stopgap duo to supplement income
but this too ended recently when attention was concentrated on developing the
Journey tribute The Essential Journey.
Tim Rowe was born of UK parents in Rinteln, Germany in
1957. Tim
began his musical adventures by singing in the school choir at age 9 and then after the obligatory learning to play the
recorder in music class he decided that he would like to learn to play a
‘proper’ musical instrument, so at age 14 he took up playing the trumpet.
Tim was quite happy listening to and emulating the likes of
Herp Albert and Louis Armstrong until at around 16 years old he
discovered, Rock Music!! Suddenly everything changed and all Tim wanted to do
was play the guitar! So after
begging an old acoustic with only 4 strings from a friend he set about teaching
himself to play. After his parents bought him the missing 2 strings and a copy
of Bert Weedon’s - ‘Play In A Day’ Tim was set on the road
to fame and fortune! His first electric guitar and amplifier was given as a
Christmas present at age 18 and by then his early influences had begun to take
effect; Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Tony Iommi all made an impression but
his hero in those early days was undoubtedly Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore.
When Queen burst onto the scene Tim immediately became hooked and
Brian May then became his hero and someone that Tim still admires greatly
today and Queen also inspired Tim’s love of vocal harmonies. Tim’s first ‘proper’ band was a local outfit called
Jury featuring singer/bass player Mervyn Spence who later went on to
feature with bands such as Trapeze and Wishbone Ash. In 1991
Tim almost joined Warren and Neil in Sight ’n' Sound but
instead joined a similar outfit called Tears where he experienced a 12
month stretch on the UK caberet circuit. Following that in 1993 Tim formed a
band with other local musicians called Kid Gluvz which later in 1995 went
on to become Killer Queen, a top UK Queen tribute band. The band
turned professional in 1997 and Tim stayed with them until 2000. Tim has always
admired and appreciated the likes of Journey, Styx and Toto and so
when Warren told him of the project that he, Niel and Paul had in mind he jumped
at the chance of being involved. Now, if only they could get him to burn that copy
of Bert Weedon’s ‘Play In A Day’ .........!!
CHRIS WARSOP
As mentioned in Warren's biog above, Chris was the band's sound engineer from the outset until around mid-2006. Chris has been a good friend of the band for a number of years now and he runs his own recording studio in Cannock, RED WINE RECORDING STUDIO. To find out more information about the studio, and to read all about the stage musical that Chris has written and developed with Warren's help, click here! Chris is now heavily involved with the excellent Meatloaf tribute band 'Maetloaf', not just as sound engineer but also playing a major role in negotiating bookings for the band. See their website at www.maetloaf.co.uk.
DARREN AUSTIN
Darren has recently been helping out with the sound engineering position vacated by Chris and is doing a great job. Daz has a great pedigree, better known to all as drummer and vocalist with the likes of Roadhouse and Killer Queen, he recently followed in Warrens footsteps by taking a premature retirement from playing drums live to concentrate on sound engineering, something that is close to his heart. Maybe when Warren suffers another of his on-stage nose-bleeds Daz just might have to abandon the desk and come the rescue......
