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The original members: John Wetton, formerly the vocalist/bassist of King Crimson, Family, Roxy Music; Steve Howe, formerly the guitarist of Yes; Geoff Downes, formerly keyboardist of Yes and The Buggles; and Carl Palmer formerly drummer of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, all had significant experience before being brought together. In 1980 Wetton and Howe were put together by music scout John Kalodner at Geffen Records and the two then started writing material for a new album. The year after Palmer joined along with Howe’s fellow Yes cohort Geoff Downes.
The band’s first musical releases were seen as disappointing by critics and progressive-rock fans, classed as easily accessible radio-friendly rock, although they found new interest from fans of popular classic rock acts Journey, Boston and Styx.
Asia’s debut self-titled album released March 1982 represented a huge commercial success for the band. The album spent nine weeks at No. 1 in the U.S. album chart, selling over 10 million copies worldwide and has never been out of print. Singles “Only Time Will Tell and “Heat of the Moment” contributed to this success becoming popular Top 40 hits, the latter of which, arguably Asia’s most recognised song, climbed to No. 4 on the Hot 100. After the release the band set out on a tour of various U.S. theatres however had to expand to massive arenas due to their popularity and high ticket demand, and went on to win a Grammy for Best New Artist in 1982.
Despite maintaining a devoted following and receiving considerable television and radio attention, none of Asia’s subsequent albums ever achieved the commercial success of the first. Their follow-up “Alpha” released July 1983, produced the singles “Eye to Eye”, “My Own Time” and “The Smile Has Left Your Eyes” which became huge fan favourites. Based on the ‘disappointing’ success of “Alpha”, Wetton was booted from the group in 1983 and replaced by former bandmate of King Crismon and ELP frontman Greg Lake only for Wetton to return in 1984 to start work on the new album.
Asia’s third album titled “Arcadia” before a change to “Astra” was released in November 1985 which performed worse than “Alpha” and “Asia” and resulted in the label cancelling the subsequent tour. The band went through a period of being more off than on, with line-up changes occurring frequently.
In 1990 Asia released “Then & Now”, a best-of album with four new tracks which received substantial airplay and led to two sold-out nights in the Soviet Union in front of 20,000 fans. The band toured here and there for albums “Aqua” in 1992, “Aria” in 1994, “Arena” in 1996, “Aura” in 2001 and “Silent Nation” in 2004.
2012 saw the return of the original Asia line-up and with it the album “XXX” which featured the popular ingle “Face on the Bridge”. Shortly after Howe announced his departure from the group to pursue other things, and the band introduced guitarist Sam Coulson who contributed to the 2014 album “Gravitas”.
Although Asia is considered a supergroup consisting of various members from well respected progressive rock bands, they have consolidated their sound into something unique and of their own.
The band’s members have performed in some of the highest caliber progressive rock bands out there. John Wetton played bass for King Crimson, Steve Howe played guitar for Yes, Geoff Downes played keyboards for Yes, and Carl Palmer played drums for Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. Each member brings their unique style to Asia, but as a collective they are able to create their own sound. Although Asia has some highly technical progressive rock elements to their music, they are able to play straight forward rock songs that will immediately grasp your attention such as “Heat of the Moment”.
Asia is absolutely fantastic live. Carl Palmer rocks away on his huge drum kit consisting of double bass drums and two gongs positioned behind him. Geoff Downes is surrounded by a tower of synthesizers, which allows him to create ethereal, ambient sounds on and produces incredibly catchy leads. John Wetton keeps the rhythm pulsing with his intricate bass playing and he manages to sing every note in the perfect timbre, reaching incredible vocal ranges. Steve Howe often plays simple, but catchy chord progressions that have a strong force. He often shreds a few solos on his guitar, but never manages to draw it out into irritable lengths like some progressive rock bands have been known to do.
Asia has been consistently releasing albums and touring since their formation. On their most recent tour you can expect them to play through their classic songs like “Only Time Will Tell” and “Sole Survivor”, as well as play through some of their newest tracks from their 2014 release, Gravitas.
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