On April 2, 1982, Foreigner made a stop at Portland's Cumberland County Civic Center with Bryan Adams, a new Canadian rocker, as the opening act. It was the first time ever in Maine for that young performer and it was the third time the British supergroup had come to that same venue.

Flash forward to July 15, 2008, and history repeats itself as those two musical giants share the stage once more as Adams kicks off the latest leg of his world tour with co-headliner, Foreigner.

The new lineup for the quintet (now based in the United States) finds founder-chief songwriter-lead guitarist-producer Mick Jones joined by drummer Jason Bonham (son of the late Led Zep's John Bonham), bassist/vocalist Jeff Pilson, rhythm guitarist/vocalist Tom Gimbel and lead vocalist Kelly Hansen, who called recently from his home in California to chat about the upcoming return to Maine.

The band headlined in Rangeley last summer and that gig is one the Foreigner frontman remembers well. "That was awesome," Hansen said, "was that the best week of the year or what?"

He is also enthusiasic about the upcoming show in Augusta. "I was listening to Mick (Jones) when he was on the phone to Bryan and they were reminiscing about the times they had played together -- we're all very excited and happy about the fact that we're going to be doing it again." Not only is July 15 the tour's beginning, it is also the date that his band will be releasing a new double CD.

"It's called 'No End In Sight.' It's a complete retrospective of the band all the way from the beginning to now -- it has (material) from pretty much every album on there. We've got some live stuff and some unplugged stuff, and we have a new single on there, as well, which is called 'Too Late' (and) you can download it on iTunes right now."

As he's the new lead singer of the band that had been fronted by Lou Gramm for so many years, one just had to inquire about filling those "high profile" shoes.

"Oh, no," Hansen groaned and then laughed, "here comes that 'shoe' thing again. I always say when this comes up, I bring my own shoes ... I do what I think is the justice that the songs deserve and work really hard to represent those songs faithfully and keep true to the spirit of the songs that Mick wrote. They are great songs -- and as a band, we work very hard and are very proud to be playing them."

The band will not be touring with Adams for long, Hansen added. "Bryan only works around 10 days a month so we're going do one leg of nine or 10 shows and then we're doing shows on both sides of those dates -- we're staying in the U.S. this year," he said, "we're not going anywhere else."

"But I'm thrilled that we're coming back to that part of the country 'cause it's so beautiful up there," Hansen offered, "and I'm looking forward to seeing everybody at the show. It was great to talk about the new album and the new single, but I live to play live -- that's what I'm looking forward to, so I hope to see everybody there."

Lucky Clark is from Sweden, Maine.