Las Vegas-based band FORGOTTEN Door Joined Host Holly Madison (Center) at the Forever Home Family Picnic & 4K 9 Run on Nov. 3, 2013 in Las Vegas. Credit: Allen Ruff

Contact: Steve Levesque, Chrissy Sutphin
LUCK Media & Marketing, Inc.
(818) 232-4175, info@luckmedia.com,

‘NEW CLASSIC’ POP/ROCKERS FORGOTTEN DOOR JOINED HOST
HOLLY MADISON AT THE FOREVER HOME FAMILY PICNIC &
4K 9 RUN IN LAS VEGAS

 Las Vegas-based rockers Forgotten Door (www.officialforgottendoor.com) joined animal-loving host Holly Madison at the Forever Home Family Picnic & 4K 9 Run in Las Vegas on Nov. 3.

The band performed for a cause near to their hearts at the Forever Home Family Picnic & 4K 9 Run at Sunset Park, in support of The Animal Foundation, Nevada’s largest open admission animal shelter (Lied Animal Shelter) and pet adoption center and the Outside Las Vegas Foundation.

Founded in 1978 as a small, low-cost spay and neuter clinic, the Animal Foundation—a non-profit, 501(c) organization—quickly picked up speed and, soon after opening its doors, began offering adoption services.

Expanding its scope over the past 35 years, The Animal Foundation currently operates and manages an 8-acre Las Vegas campus that houses a multitude of services and provides a refuge for more than 45,000 lost, unwanted, neglected and abandoned animals every year. To eliminate the tragedy of pet overpopulation, The Animal Foundation believes community is essential, education is empowerment and action is everything. Its mission is to inspire, educate and empower people to join the fight against pet overpopulation. For more information, please visit www.animalfoundation.com.

Fresh off their successful 14-week residency at the Wolf Theater inside the Clarion Hotel and Casino, the popular indie “New Classic Rock” band is also celebrating their first ever Hollywood Music in Media Award (HMMA) nomination for “Best Song” in the Adult Contemporary/AAA category for “Masquerade,” the infectious lead track from their critically-acclaimed debut album Unlocked.

The HMMAs honor music from visual mediums, individuals who create and produce it, and both mainstream and independent musicians from around the globe. The award show is set for Thursday, November 21, 2013 at The Fonda Theater in Hollywood at 7 p.m.

For music and the latest news and performances, visit www.officialforgottendoor.com.

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‘NEW CLASSIC ROCKERS’ FORGOTTEN DOOR RECEIVES THEIR
FIRST HOLLYWOOD MUSIC IN MEDIA AWARDS (HMMA) NOMINATION
FOR ‘MASQUERADE’—THE OPENING TRACK FROM THEIR ACCLAIMED
DEBUT ALBUM ‘UNLOCKED’— IN THE ADULT CONTEMPORARY/AAA
CATEGORY

The Popular Las Vegas Based Band Is Set To Perform At The 2013 Forever
Home Family Picnic & 4K 9 Run, In Support of The Animal Foundation,
Nevada’s Largest Open Admission Animal Shelter and Pet Adoption
Center, November 3 at 1 P.M. at Sunset Park

LAS VEGAS – Fresh off their successful 14-week residency at the Wolf
Theater inside the Clarion Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas-based
rockers Forgotten Door (www.officialforgottendoor.com) are celebrating their first
ever Hollywood Music in Media Award (HMMA) nomination.

The popular indie “New Classic Rock” band is up for “Best Song” in the Adult
Contemporary/AAA category for “Masquerade,” the infectious lead track from their
critically-acclaimed debut album Unlocked.

The HMMAs honor music from visual mediums, individuals who create and produce it, and both mainstream and independent musicians from around the globe. The award show is set for Thursday, November 21, 2013 at The Fonda Theater in Hollywood at 7 p.m.

On November 3, Forgotten Door is performing for a cause near to their hearts at the Forever Home Family Picnic & 4K 9 Run at Sunset Park, in support of The Animal Foundation, Nevada’s largest open admission animal shelter (Lied Animal Shelter) and pet adoption center and the Outside Las Vegas Foundation. Their 45-minute set begins at 1 p.m.

Billed as Las Vegas’ one of a kind dog friendly event and 4k run, the event begins with the 4K-9 run at 9 a.m. Participants can walk, run, stroll or meander the 4k (2.5mile) course with their canine running partners while enjoying Sunset Park’s newly trail system. Registrants receive a commemorative T-shirt and finisher medal, K-9 bandana and finisher dog tag (for one four-legged companion) chip timing, race bib, picnic admission and more with their $44 entry fee. Runners can register an additional four-legged running pal for just $5. Interested runners can register in advance at http://www.animalfoundation.com/event/race/ or in person at 8 a.m. the morning of the event,

This is followed by a family picnic, which runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. This part of the event includes fun activities for “dogs and their humans,” a one mile dog- friendly walk (beginning at 11 a.m.), contests for canines judged by Holly Madison,live entertainment and raffle prizes, food trucks and a pet-friendly vendor fair. Entry to the picnic is $10 per person included with Run registration.

Founded in 1978 as a small, low-cost spay and neuter clinic, the Animal Foundation—a non-profit, 501(c) organization—quickly picked up speed and, soon after opening its doors, began offering adoption services.

Expanding its scope over the past 35 years, The Animal Foundation currently operates and manages an 8-acre Las Vegas campus that houses a multitude of services and provides a refuge for more than 45,000 lost, unwanted, neglected and abandoned animals every year. To eliminate the tragedy of pet overpopulation, The Animal Foundation believes community is essential, education is empowerment and action is everything. Our mission is to inspire, educate and empower people to join the fight against pet overpopulation. For more information, please visit www.animalfoundation.com.

“Forgotten Door’s” contribution to this amazing event, is perhaps summed up in the words of one of the bands co-founders and leaders, Johndale Stanley. He comments, “We as a band are all caring and protective pet owners, and we are very aware that animals are profoundly loving and faithful. We have talked as a band about how there is such a lesson in observing their actions toward us, that we humans need to emulate, like what we say and how it is conveyed to others. We find it interesting that animals seem to be a gift for humans to enjoy. So it’s our job to protect and take care of them. We are proud of the Animal Foundation’s efforts to be the voice of these helpless animals and to help them live better lives.”

Stanley, co-founder, keyboardist and one of the lead vocalists of the six- piece Forgotten Door, explains the origins of their unique name: “We want to communicate that there is still good music out there that has heart and soul like the great pop/rock we grew up with. The meaning of our name, “Forgotten Door,” is that our band is a passage back, or a doorway back, so to speak, to the things people loved about music, and got excited about. Our fans tell us they love songs like ‘Hotel California,’ ‘Long Train Runnin’ and ‘Rhiannon,’ but they’ve heard them a million times. They want new music created in that vein, but sonically different enough that they can feel a renewed sense of excitement, and passion about. They’re emotionally thirsty to hear something fresh.”

Unlike most groups that long to tour the U.S. and world, Forgotten Door is excited about staying in town, performing for residents, tourists, conventioneers, etc. Celebrating the upcoming release of their highly-anticipated, appropriately titled debut album Unlocked, the eclectic band’s lineup includes co-founder, vocalist and guitarist Lonnie Danley, lead vocalist Melody Ritz, lead and slide guitarist, and vocalist Michael Seal, bassist Karl Gottmann and drummer Kevin Brennan.

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MISSING THE MAGIC OF THE CLASSIC POP/ROCK VIBE YOU GREW UP WITH?
LAS VEGAS EXTENDS A STANDING INVITATION TO OPEN
THE FORGOTTEN DOOR 

Filling a Long Vacant Niche in Pop Music, Performing
Songs with Stories, Substance and Multi-Layer Harmonies,
The Popular Six-Piece Band Launches ‘Unlocked,’ Its Upcoming Debut
Album of ‘New Classic Rock’

This fall, hundreds of thousands of music fanatics will flock again to Las Vegas to see legends and those impersonating legends satisfy their thirst for the way pop music used to be. From “Jersey Boys” and “Rock of Ages” to Elton John, Rod Stewart, even Donny and Marie, everyone wants to experience what we’ve all been missing on pop radio for far too long: songs with stories, lyrics of substance, strong lead vocals and soul-stirring, multi-layer harmonies.

But why settle for nostalgia when a Vegas-based band that’s in love with the classic pop/rock of the ‘70s and ‘80s is right up the road, performing songs so fresh and new yet so familiar in style that a whole new phrase (“New Classic Rock”) had to be coined to capture the way they work their magic on the fans?

Johndale Stanley, co-founder, keyboardist and one of the lead vocalists of the six-piece Forgotten Door (www.officialforgottendoor.com), explains the origins of their unique name: “We want to communicate that there is still good music out there that has heart and soul like the great pop/rock we grew up with. The meaning of our name, “Forgotten Door,” is that our band is a passage back, or a doorway back, so to speak, to the things people loved about music, and got excited about. Our fans tell us they love songs like ‘Hotel California,’ ‘Long Train Runnin’ and ‘Rhiannon,’ but they’ve heard them a million times. They want new music created in that vein, but sonically different enough that they can feel a renewed sense of excitement, and passion about. They’re emotionally thirsty to hear something fresh.”

Unlike most groups that long to tour the U.S. and world, Forgotten Door is excited about staying in town, performing for residents, tourists, conventioneers, etc. Celebrating the upcoming release of their highly-anticipated, appropriately titled debut album Unlocked, the eclectic band’s lineup includes co-founder, vocalist and guitarist Lonnie Danley, lead vocalist Melody Ritz, lead and slide guitarist, and vocalist Michael Seal, bassist Karl Gottmann and drummer Kevin Brennan.

In effort to gear up for performances in support of Unlocked, as well as other events to come this fall, the band just finished a successful 12-week residency at Wolf Theater inside the Clarion Hotel and Casino, which gave them the opportunity to “cut our teeth in a real world environment,” as Stanley puts it.

During their stint at the Wolf Theater, the band was honored with an Official Proclamation for “Forgotten Door Day” from Mayor Goodman’s office on Friday, August 16, 2013.

“We needed to work with elements that make a concert successful,” continues Stanley. “The 12 weeks really allowed us to work out ideas with an audience, which we had only envisioned, but never really tried. Our goal was to create textures visually that match our musical style, so the audience would really get the feel of what this band is about. So the short stay was very helpful in our quest to bring something unique to the concert experience. The feedback and energy from the audience was remarkable. The reactive element was there and we had people coming back time after time, bringing in visiting friends and family. Other fans told us that they ended up there based on someone that just saw the show a couple of nights prior. So with all of that, and an acknowledgment from the mayor of a special day officially proclaimed in our honor, we are ready to move on.”

Forgotten Door, whose members are all veteran musicians and entertainers, have created a powerful audio-visual experience complete with dramatic lighting, and background video, designed to bring out the textures and nuance of each song. Many fans and critics have compared the male-female and creative dynamics of the band to that of what Fleetwood Mac became after Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined in the mid-‘70s. The nine songs on Unlocked showcase the group’s depth, anchored by the versatile songwriting and production skills of Stanley and Danley, the band’s creative core. Michael is also a contributing songwriter and Melody is a lead vocalist on several tracks, including the first single to be released, the mid-tempo pop rocker “Masquerade.” When Johndale is singing lead, Lonnie, Melody and Michael do harmony vocals. When Melody is out front, Johndale, Lonnie and Michael take the harmonies.

Stanley sees his overriding task as “taking all the songs the members bring to the table and forging them into a collective Forgotten Door sound. In essence, what we are doing is drawing from our great array of classic influences and creating music that has our own unique signature on it. We’re working hard on bringing something genuine and that moves people to the contemporary musical landscape.”

Earlier versions of songs on Unlocked have already made a happy commotion on Vradio.com, a popular internet radio station with some four million listeners, owned and operated by Big Poppa G. “Masquerade” spent 27 weeks on his chart and “Puerto Penasco” went 24, hitting #1—meaning that it snagged 40,000 requests by internet and phone. In all, four Forgotten Door songs charted on the station as part of a test marketing effort—an achievement all the more remarkable since the website’s main consumers are R&B and rap fans.

Considering how their last names rhyme, perhaps it was musical destiny when a bride and groom called Stanley and Danley, respectively, to sing for a wedding back in 1994. Their perfect blend of lead and vocal harmonies led to a long lasting musical partnership, which skyrocketed when melody Ritz joined the group. The three enjoyed performing as a popular local cover band for a handful of years, but in time they decided the only way to move forward was to write and perform original material.

“When Lonnie first told me he wanted to write originals, I was skeptical, but then I heard his song ‘Far Far Away’ and I realized this was no joke, that we could actually do this,” says Stanley. “We started retooling in 2007-8 and within a year of that song being written, I had also penned my first tune, a personal and emotional song called ‘Gypsy Woman.’ As our vibe developed and people started responding to it, we realized people really wanted to hear something fresh, that sounds familiar even when they’re hearing it for the first time. That’s what the Forgotten Door aesthetic is all about.”

Over the years, when they were a cover band, they performed gigs and corporate events at numerous venues in Las Vegas, including the Hard Rock, Stratosphere, Las Vegas Hilton, Club Madrid (at Sunset Station) to name a few. A few years ago, classic rock station 96.3 KKLZ held a battle of the bands at South Point hotel as part of the annual Junefest. Forgotten Door won the showroom event, which gave them the opportunity to open for Terri Nunn and Berlin, Steppenwolf and Sly and the Family Stone. Justin Chase from the radio station later hooked them up to perform in the Neon Garage at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the NASCAR Truck Series event in 2010.

Like every great emerging band, Forgotten Door has a colorful back story that involves haggles with outside producers and what Stanley calls “raging storms during the making of this album.” The band has endured many trying times that have solidified their creative and personal relationship and given rise to a fierce member to member loyalty and a rich authenticity that translates to a powerhouse recording debut and a dynamic stage show.

“We’re most looking forward to showing the world that there’s a band out there that’s filling the gap and playing new music in that classic vein,” Stanley adds. “I’ve heard it said that music is emotion hung on a note, and our goal is always to move people in such a way that they are motivated to buy our album as a souvenir of our live musical experience, which has also given them joyful memories they can take with them.”

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Contact: Steve Levesque, Chrissy Sutphin
LUCK Media & Marketing, Inc. (818) 232-4175
info@luckmedia.com, www.luckmedia.com

VEGAS-BASED ROCKERS ‘FORGOTTEN DOOR’ BRING THEIR SIGNATURE ‘NEW CLASSIC ROCK’ SOUND TO THE WOLF THEATER LOCATED INSIDE THE CLARION HOTEL & CASINO

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Preview Shows for the Band’s New Weekend Residency Begin this Friday

WHO:

Known for their signature ‘New Classic Rock’ sound is the talented Las Vegas-based rock band, FORGOTTEN DOOR (www.officialforgottendoor.com), whose lineup includes co-founder, keyboardist and one of the lead vocalists Johndale Stanley; co-founder, vocalist and guitarist Lonnie Danley; lead vocalist Melody Ritz; lead and slide guitarist, and vocalist Michael Seal; bassist Karl Gottmann; and drummer Kevin Brennan.

 WHAT:  

Celebrating the upcoming release of Unlocked, the eclectic band is starting an unprecedented six-month weekend residency in Las Vegas, delivering songs with stories, lyrics of substance, strong lead vocals and soul-stirring, multi-layer harmonies.

WHEN:

Open-to-the-public previews: July 26-28, August 2-4, and August 9-11; Official opening night is on Friday, August 16.

 WHERE:

The Wolf Theater inside The Clarion Hotel & Casino (305 Convention Circle Drive, Las Vegas 89109)

DETAILS:

Doors open at 6:45 p.m. for the 7 p.m. shows on Fridays and Saturdays; on Sundays, the show begins at 9 p.m. Tickets are $47.97 General Admission, $57.97 VIP, and booths for four are available for $195. For tickets, click here or visit www.wolftheaterlasvegas.com, or call (702) 990-1524.

 **ATTN MEDIA** For press passes, please contact Steve Levesque or Chrissy Sutphin at info@luckmedia.com or call (818) 232-4175. Please include name, outlet information and show date requested.

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