Asia (Official Thread)

LG

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Re: Asia

The new line-up of Asia is close to the original band, Geoffrey Downs, Steve Howe, John Wetton and Carl Palmer.

I have now collected 6 Asia CD's, including Omega.
 

Vintage

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Re: Asia

The new line-up of Asia is close to the original band, Geoffrey Downs, Steve Howe, John Wetton and Carl Palmer.

Downes, Howe, Wetton and Palmer were, are and have always been the original band members.
 

LG

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Re: Asia

Shows you how long ago since the debut was released and I stopped following them after the second album came out. I do know that there have been numerous line-up changes, but all in all I am glad to see the original members altogether again.
 

Flower

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Re: Asia

From Wikipedia ~

Personnel

Through the years, Geoff Downes and John Payne were the two most consistent members of the band, which experienced a revolving roster of noted musicians, particularly in the 1990s. The lineup has been as follows:

Current members of Asia are the following founding members:

Geoff Downes - keyboards and backing vocals. (former member of Yes and The Buggles).
John Wetton - lead vocals, bassist, and guitarist. (former member of King Crimson, UK, Uriah Heep , Roxy Music and Family).
Steve Howe - guitar, mandolin, backing vocals (also a member of Yes and formerly a member of GTR).
Carl Palmer - drummer and percussionist (also a member of Emerson, Lake & Palmer).

Current members of "Asia Featuring John Payne" are:

John Payne - lead vocals, bass, guitar (also in GPS)
Mitch Perry - guitar
Jay Schellen - drums and percussion (also in GPS)
Erik Norlander - keyboards



Non-active band members of Asia are:

Vinny Burns - guitar, backing vocals
Ian Crichton - guitar (member of Saga)
Alan Darby - guitar
Guthrie Govan - guitar , backing vocals (now in GPS and formerly of "Asia Featuring John Payne")
Holger Larish - guitar
Aziz Ibrahim - guitar, backing vocals
Greg Lake - lead vocals, bass (former member of King Crimson and Emerson, Lake & Palmer). Heard on Asia in Asia and "Heat of the Moment" (live) is on Lake's From the Underground... the Official Bootleg album (1998).
Mandy Meyer - guitar, backing vocals
Keith More - guitar, backing vocals (former member of Arena)
Zoe Nicholas - backing vocals
John Payne - lead vocals, bass, guitar (now in GPS and "Asia Featuring John Payne")
Al Pitrelli - guitar (former member of Danger Danger, Hotshot, Savatage and Megadeth and current member of Trans-Siberian Orchestra)
Elliott Randall - guitar
Bob Richards - drums (more recently member of Man (band) )
Jay Schellen - drums, percussion (former member of Hurricane, World Trade and Conspiracy, now in GPS and "Asia Featuring John Payne")
Chris Slade - drums, percussion (former member of AC/DC, Uriah Heep, and The Firm)
Mike Sturgis - drums, percussion (former member of 21 Guns, later a member of Wishbone Ash, The Untouchables and Psycho Motel)
Pat Thrall - guitar, backing vocals
Trevor Thornton - drums
Susie Webb - backing vocals
John Young - keyboards, backing vocals

Certain musicians have joined and left after a short time without recording any studio material with the group. The most notable collaboration of this kind was the participation of Greg Lake in the "Asia in Asia" concert on bass guitar and lead vocals. Yet more musicians have played as session musicians or have guested with the band without formally joining. Some of these artists include: Robert Fleischman, Vinnie Colaiuta, Francis Dunnery, Ant Glynne, Scott Gorham, Tomoyasu Hotei, Luis Jardim, Ron Komie, Tony Levin, Steve Lukather, Kim Nielsen-Parsons, Simon Phillips, and Alex Thomas
 

That 70s Guy

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Re: Asia

Asia is one of those bands I didn't get when I was young...about a year ago I started listening.

Now I have most of their discography. :bow:
 

Vintage

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Re: Asia

As a progressive rock fan, I felt obligated to like Asia when they first burst onto the scene in 1981. I saw them on their first tour at the Santa Monica Civic and got all their autographs on my copy of their debut album during an in-store appearance at Licorice Pizza. Even though the music was more streamlined and commercial than Yes, ELP or King Crimson, I played that first record to death.

I also caught the band again at Long Beach Arena on their second tour. I wasn't too crazy about Alpha, their sophomore effort, as it was even more commercial-sounding than the self-titled debut. Apparently, Steve Howe wasn't too crazy about it either because he left the band after its release.

In more recent times, I've seen the reunited original lineup a couple of times. John Wetton is still a great singer, but overall the band's music sounds dated. Their latest studio effort, Omega, has a bit more of an edge, yet the execution is half-hearted. The best thing these guys could do is to go total prog and forget about the short, radio-friendly songs. It's not like they're getting a lot of airplay anyway.
 

LG

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Re: Asia

With the talent in the current line-up I have to agree, they were built to be a full blown prog band, and who really listens to radio much now anyway?
 

Aktivator

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Re: Asia

as surprising as this must sound I've never gotten into Asia. I like the parts but it never came together for me. Maybe I should give them another chance.
 

Stout

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Re: Asia

I was just a kid when the band appeared with their debut album in early`82. Obviously, I knew nothing about progressive rock, but I do remember my brother recounting the bands these guys used to play for before forming this band. To my ears back then, the debut was good, solid pop/rock and superior to much what was on the radio at the time. It still works. Some people state the tunes are 'dated'. Isn't that what many people say about a lot of old music?
To me, it was good, solid songwriting and the band hit upon a winning formula instantaneously. Although the track I do tend to like the most happens to be 'Cutting it Fine', the one track that has a more progressive feel to it than all the others. But there was not a bad song on the whole album.
Progressive rock at that time was pretty much a dead issue back in the early`80`s and most people didn't want to know about 20 minute opuses. The sales justified the direction in music and possibly even exceeded the band`s and David Geffen`s expectations 'in their wildest dreams.'
Their second album, 'Alpha', had some quality tunes, but there were some unexceptional ones, not bad, but just filler. The best tracks for me were 'Open Your Eyes' and 'Midnight Sun.' By this time, Steve Howe was marginalized out of the songwriting process and there wasn't much of his guitar on this album, which gave many of the songs on the first album that defining element.
The third album,'Astra', saw Howe out of the picture and the songs were fair at best. One egregious song was ' Countdown to Zero', complete with a spoken intonation by John Wetton. Spoken intonations hardly ever work in songs, and this bordered on hilarity.
After that, Asia broke up, reformed minus Howe, than Geoff Downes cheapened the name of the band, recruiting a whole bunch of other musicians when he should have called it the ' Geoff Downes' band.
The original lineup reunited just in time to ride the current `80`s nostalgia wave.
 

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