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General => General Music Discussion => Topic started by: The Letter M on March 23, 2015, 02:04:24 PM
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Didn't see a thread for this band, nor could I find one in the search or the A-Z Bands index, so I decided to make one up since I've been on a Asia/Wetton kick lately. I'm not sure quite what spurred it on, but it might have spawned from listening to middle-era Kansas, then moving on to early/middle Journey, then wanting some rock with a little more punch and prog, so I put on Asia, and have been listening to various Asia albums on repeat over the last week and a half.
Anyways, one question I wanted to ask - what is/are the definitive Asia live album(s)? I realized I only own their studio works, but only one live album and I haven't spun it yet (but bought it because it was super cheap - Spirit Of The Night - The Phoenix Tour Live In Cambridge 2009). I've heard Fantasia was good, but I wanted to see why other Asia fans on here thought.
-Marc.
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Fantasia: Live In Tokyo is the only worthwhile live of the original members though Asia In Asia is good. That was the first show they did with Greg Lake of ELP that took over for John Wetton in 1983.
I was lucky enought to see the Asia Alpha tour in 1983 before Wetton left.
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Fantasia is fantastic, if only to hear and see (if you buy the DVD) John Wetton sing Roundabout while playing that bass line and then singing the first verse of Video Killed The Radio Star through a megaphone :D All the classic Asia songs and a bunch of stuff from the bands they played with before. Pretty much essential Asia.
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I was lucky enought to see the Asia Alpha tour in 1983 before Wetton left.
Same here. We may have seen the same show:
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/asia/1983/the-centrum-worcester-ma-bd0cdde.html
I was lucky enough to have seats in the first row in front of Howe!
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double post oops
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I was lucky enought to see the Asia Alpha tour in 1983 before Wetton left.
Same here. We may have seen the same show:
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/asia/1983/the-centrum-worcester-ma-bd0cdde.html
I was lucky enough to have seats in the first row in front of Howe!
Yes! So I can say out loud you saw Cheis DeBurgh as well. :lol At least it was before Lady In Red.
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One of those rare older bands that still puts out really decent albums.
Though it's a little confusing. They put out Gravitas last year, and then around the same time, John Payne (the other singer) put out a covers album called Recollections, under the band name "Asia featuring John Payne". Now, if it was just the guys from Asia minus Wetton, that'd be cool, but it's Payne and three guys I've never heard of. Soooooo... pick a different name? Maybe it should have been released just under Payne's name alone, but "Asia" is on there in big letters, even if the logo's different, and it just irks me a little.
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I was lucky enought to see the Asia Alpha tour in 1983 before Wetton left.
Same here. We may have seen the same show:
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/asia/1983/the-centrum-worcester-ma-bd0cdde.html
I was lucky enough to have seats in the first row in front of Howe!
Yes! So I can say out loud you saw Cheis DeBurgh as well. :lol At least it was before Lady In Red.
Yes, I forgot about the opening act, which I recall being fairly good. You've got a much better memory than me. BTW, did you intend to mispell his name because I'm splitting a gut over here: Cheese DeBurgh(er) :rollin
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One of those rare older bands that still puts out really decent albums.
Though it's a little confusing. They put out Gravitas last year, and then around the same time, John Payne (the other singer) put out a covers album called Recollections, under the band name "Asia featuring John Payne". Now, if it was just the guys from Asia minus Wetton, that'd be cool, but it's Payne and three guys I've never heard of. Soooooo... pick a different name? Maybe it should have been released just under Payne's name alone, but "Asia" is on there in big letters, even if the logo's different, and it just irks me a little.
I mean, John Payne was given the rights to use "Asia" on a prior agreement awhile ago, so it's not as sticky of a situation as what happened with Tate and Queensryche.
I don't mind it because Payne was the voice of Asia for over a decade of the band's history, even if some only choose to acknowledge the first three albums and the last four as the "real Asia". Honestly, Payne should have just made another GPS album because the first one was really good, especially with Govan on guitar. I mean, Payne's current Asia line-up features Jay Schellen on drums and Ryo Okumoto on keyboards, so all they'd really need is Govan back on guitars and it'd be GPS again, although he's pretty busy with The Aristocrats and Steven Wilson duties, so I don't see it happening anytime soon.
-Marc.
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I guess I was just a bit weirded out when I bought the album. I bought it with Gravitas. Using the word "featuring" implies that it's Asia... with John Payne on board, as in the other band mates would be there. I knew they reached a deal, but I never heard what the whole deal was and just always assumed it meant they could keep doing albums without Wetton whenever they wanted. I actually quite like the Asia albums Payne is on.
I just find the band name a tad misleading I guess. Recollections itself isn't a bad covers album, but nothing on it comes close to the originals.
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I guess I was just a bit weirded out when I bought the album. I bought it with Gravitas. Using the word "featuring" implies that it's Asia... with John Payne on board, as in the other band mates would be there. I knew they reached a deal, but I never heard what the whole deal was and just always assumed it meant they could keep doing albums without Wetton whenever they wanted. I actually quite like the Asia albums Payne is on.
I just find the band name a tad misleading I guess. Recollections itself isn't a bad covers album, but nothing on it comes close to the originals.
Not to insult Payne or anything, but I think it was kept that way as a way for him to reach out to Asia fans and keep the "big name" on with his. It's not too dissimilar to other vocalists who play former band's music, like Ray Wilson playing Genesis stuff (although thank goodness Ray Wilson never released anything under "Genesis feat. Ray Wilson" as the artist...).
I don't mind it, but I haven't heard Recollections yet, nor any of the other material released under the "AFJP" banner. As I said, he'd be better off bringing back Govan and reuniting GPS.
-Marc.
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I was lucky enought to see the Asia Alpha tour in 1983 before Wetton left.
Same here. We may have seen the same show:
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/asia/1983/the-centrum-worcester-ma-bd0cdde.html
I was lucky enough to have seats in the first row in front of Howe!
Yes! So I can say out loud you saw Cheis DeBurgh as well. :lol At least it was before Lady In Red.
Yes, I forgot about the opening act, which I recall being fairly good. You've got a much better memory than me. BTW, did you intend to mispell his name because I'm splitting a gut over here: Cheese DeBurgh(er) :rollin
No, you'll find out that I'm the King" of mis-spellers. :lol
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It's hard to beat the first album - that is chock full of great pop rock tunes - but they have had some other good ones over the years.
I was a big fan of Voice of America from the Then and Now CD in the early 90s.
Holy War is a newer one that I remember standing out as really good.
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It's hard to beat the first album - that is chock full of great pop rock tunes - but they have had some other good ones over the years.
I was a big fan of Voice of America from the Then and Now CD in the early 90s.
Holy War is a newer one that I remember standing out as really good.
Voice of America is track 2 on Astra, another fantastic album.
But back to the question. I guess the definitive Asia live albums for me are Asia In Asia (with Greg Lake in 1983), Live In Moscow (1990) and Asia Fantasia Live In Tokyo (2007). Spirit Of The Night ( Phoenix Tour) and Resonance (Omega Tour) are really good too but the energy level isn't quite as good as those others, but they do feature some post reunion material and that's why I enjoy them. Live In Nottingham (1990) is good too, but not quite as good a performance as Live In Moscow.
i think there are a more few recent live albums but I don't have those yet. I just recently found an official bootleg from a recent tour in the used bin, but a friend borrowed it so I've only listened to it once. It's good too, but until I get it back I can't determine just how good.
I also have Quadra which is a gray market release (four discs, three shows, one from 82, 83, and 1990) Sounds like crap for a quasi-official release, but the passion and energy are there in spades.
Some of you may have been to the Centrum Worcester show in the summer of 1983 which takes up two of those discs.
As for the John Payne era? There are plenty of live albums from that period, but I have no interest in any of that so I can't say how those are. I just have Aura from that period and that's only because I like the guests that played on it.
I also have Icon Live (Wetton and Downes before reuniting) performing a mostly original Asia set with John Mitchell playing guitar and Steve Christey on drums. I think this one is really good too.
Oh.....and don't pay the ferryman
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Hmmm, I never knew that. I always thought Side 2 of Then and Now were all new songs.
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I never knew there was a bot of the show I was at in 83!! Cool!
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Hmmm, I never knew that. I always thought Side 2 of Then and Now were all new songs.
Couldn't figure that one out either. I never bought Then and Now (Although those songs are also on the Anthologia release that I bought later.) because I REALLY disliked the two "Now" songs that got radio play at the time. I was crushed when I heard that stuff in 1990. Brutal. Didn't resemble the Asia I knew and loved at all. Turns out they had other musicians playing on some of those previously unreleased tracks (like Steve Lukather and Michael Sturgis for starters) that I didn't know about at the time.
Fortunately, by the time the tour happened in 1990 they seemed to stabilize the lineup and using Pat Thrall on guitar which helped a lot. So 1990 was the last year I cared until the original reformation.
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Calling all ASIA experts!
I'm trying to compile all the pre-Payne era non-album tracks and I wanted to make sure I didn't miss any. What I've got so far:
-The 3 B-sides from their Aurora EP, later as bonus tracks on their first two albums
-"Gypsy Soul" from the OST for Over The Top, credited as an Asia song although only Wetton is on it
-The four "Now" tracks for the compilation album Then & Now
-The studio track "Kari-Anne", released with their Russian live show set
That's 9 non-album tracks, but I just wanna make sure I didn't miss any from this era.
-Marc.
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Calling all ASIA experts!
I'm trying to compile all the pre-Payne era non-album tracks and I wanted to make sure I didn't miss any. What I've got so far:
-The 3 B-sides from their Aurora EP, later as bonus tracks on their first two albums
-"Gypsy Soul" from the OST for Over The Top, credited as an Asia song although only Wetton is on it
-The four "Now" tracks for the compilation album Then & Now
-The studio track "Kari-Anne", released with their Russian live show set
That's 9 non-album tracks, but I just wanna make sure I didn't miss any from this era.
-Marc.
Don't have the Aurora EP or the Over The Top Soundtrack
But I have Ride Easy, Daylight Again, Lyin' To Yourself, Am I In Love, Summer (Can't Last Too Long), Prayin' 4 a Miracle and Days Like These from the Anthology compilation and "Kari-Anne" from Live In Moscow.
Not sure if I want to hear Gypsy Soul if it's anything like the "Now" tracks. Only reason I have those is that they are on the Anthology.