Valvulado: Sears, Schon, Errico (Journey) at Diamond Head Festival

Diamond Head Crater is a place of exceptional beauty located on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. It is also the name of a festival, type Woodstock, which was celebrated from 1969 to 1977 and through which people like Santana, Journey, America, Frampton, etc. passed. In these same pages we already talk about the performance of the COSMIC TRAVELERS in the edition of 72. Today we will remember a mythical concert of 73.

In 1973 Neal Schon had already participated in two Santana albums, "Santana III" and "Caravanserai". and with three more friends he decides to participate in the Diamond Head Crater Festival. Later he would form with Gregg Rolie (keyboards), Ross Valory (bass), George Tickner (guitar) and Prairie Prince (drums), Golden Gate Rhythm Section the embryo of what would later be Journey with which he would record more than a dozen albums .

The recording shows us the concert of an ephemeral band where the main protagonist was Neal Schon. The performance was held on December 1, 1973 at the Diamond Head Crater Festival. The setlist consists of six totally instrumental themes where a young Schon, 18 years old, overwhelms us with his guitar expertise. Compositions loaded with virtuosity and good rocker. Themes like "Tonight" and "Storm" leave us knocked out musically. We can also listen to two notable versions of "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" and "Black Magic Woman". The rest of the band is composed by Gregg Rolie (Santana, Journey) on keyboards, Pete Sears (Rod Stewart, Jefferson Starship, Hot Tuna, etc.) on bass and Greg Errico (David Bowie, Santana, Grateful Dead, Sly and the Family Stone) Good sound.

"1972–73. N.Y.E. We played our set on December 1st, 1973. This is from a YouTube recording of a band I formed with Neil Schon (Santana), Greg Errico (Sly & the Family Stone). It was called “Sears, Schon, Errico” as written on the posters for the few shows we played together (Journey was formed later). We had no singer and were basically a power rock trio…it was a fun band and went down well. The New Years Eve recording is from the “Diamond Head Crater Festival” in Hawaii, Greg Rolie sat in on B3 for a couple of songs including “Black Magic Woman”. I later introduced Aynsley Dunbar to Neil at a session I was producing in Los Angeles. I had left Sears, Schon, Errico to co-produce and arrange the music for an album Kathy McDonald was recording in San Francisco. I then went back to England to record “Smiler” for Rod Stewart…the last British made album Rod would make. I joined Jefferson Starship right after that. I had met Grace and Paul through David Freiberg and had written and recorded “Better Lying Down” with Grace Slick for her album “Manhole recorded at Wally Heiders." (Pete Sears - https://petesears.com/1972-73-diamond-head-festival-sears-schon-errico-live/)

Sears, Schon, Errico - 1973-Diamond Head Festival