HARDLINE
Danger Zone

Hardline was formed when brothers Johnny (vocals) and Joey (guitar) Gioeli, originally from the band Brunette, teamed up with Journey/Bad English guitarist Neal Schon. The original plan was for Neal to produce Hardline, but as he was having so much fun that he decided to join the band as soon as he left Bad English.

They immediately added established musicians Todd Jensen (David Lee Roth, Alice Cooper) on bass and Deen Castronovo (also coming from Bad English) on drums to the mix and the result was magnificent. They went on to record their debut album “Double Eclipse” for MCA in 1992 and then went on the tour circuit with such heavy hitters as Van Halen and Mr. Big.

The first single from “Double Eclipse” was the song "Hot Cherie". While never popular in the mainstream, various radio stations worldwide started to play it and Hardline's fanbase started to grow. They released a video to MTV, but did not get much airplay. By that time grunge and alternative had already taken over and Melodic Rock was being pushed aside. Tension among band members, the record company and perhaps certain egos, got in the way of an immediate follow-up album, despite the band having written more than enough material.

While Neal re-started his adventure with Journey in 1995 (again together with Deen Castronovo), Johnny stepped out of the music business eventually to return as Axel Rudi Pell’s singer in 1998 on the album “Oceans Of Time”. But years later Johnny and his brother Joey were ready to give it another go with Hardline after the call of Frontiers Records, and with an all new line-up they produced the awesome return album “II” in 2002 with Josh Ramos (of The Storm and Two Fires fame) taking Neal Schon’s place on lead guitar.

Hailed by critics and fans alike as a top return, the band returned on stage headlining the GODS Festival in Bradford in June 2002, before Johnny and Josh started to work on new songs which eventually saw the light of day on the “Leaving the End Open” album released on Frontiers in may 2009. While it became apparent after the release of the third album that the band would risk again to go into hibernation, it was thanks to the persistence of the band’s #1 fan, Frontiers Records President Serafino Perugino that Gioeli decided to give Hardline another go. That happened when he heard the songs that the Italian songwriter and producer Alessandro Del Vecchio (Edge of Forever) started to write for him. Surprised and excited with the quality of the music, Hardline has now turned to a different beast and with a European based line-up featuring Francesco Iovino (UDO), Thorsten Kohene (Code Of Perfection, Eden's Curse) and Anna Portalupi (Mitch Malloy), Hardline are now back with its strongest release since the debut album !

HARDLINE
Johnny Gioeli – vocals
Alessandro Del Vecchio - keyboards and backing vocals
Thorsten Koehne - guitars
Anna Portalupi - bass
Francesco Jovino - drums