Asia (band) - History - Payne Era

Payne Era

After Wetton's 1991 departure, vocalist/bassist John Payne joined the band and, together with Downes, enlisted new musicians and led Asia through to 2006. The first album with this line-up was Aqua, released in June 1992. In addition to Downes and Payne, the album featured Howe, Palmer, and guitarist Al Pitrelli (of Danger Danger, Megadeth and Alice Cooper). Howe returned during the sessions having just left Yes again, but Palmer would leave soon, committing to an ELP reunion, and was able to play on just three songs. Session men then completed the drumming. Downes' environmentalist single "Who Will Stop the Rain?" (originally written for Max Bacon and the aborted Rain project, later appearing on Bacon's album From the Banks of the River Irwell) attracted some radio attention. The Aqua club tour featured Howe (whose presence was heavily promoted), who took the stage after the fifth song. The tour was successful enough to warrant the band's continuation. The 1992-93 tour featured Downes, Howe, Payne, guitarist Vinny Burns and drummer Trevor Thornton. Before a European festival tour in late 1993, Howe and Burns left and were replaced by guitarist Keith More. Payne acquitted himself on the tour, but many fans refused to support an Asia lineup without Wetton.

The group released Aria in May 1994, which featured lead guitarist Al Pitrelli once again, who would leave Asia during the short Aria tour. This illustrates how the keyboard-driven band often faced trouble keeping a regular guitarist. Aria did not fare well commercially and the ensuing tour was limited to four concerts. Ex-Simply Red guitarist Aziz Ibrahim took over during the tour. Aria also introduced new drummer Michael Sturgis, who had been involved during the band's aborted 1987 reunion and had appeared on some of the sessions for Aqua. Aria was not released in the United States until 1995.

Over New Year's Eve 1996, a broken pipe inundated the control room in Downes' and Payne's recording studio, Electric Palace, in London. Amid the lost equipment, a vault containing unreleased material was found intact. The band decided to release the double-disc Archiva, a collection of unreleased tracks recorded during the first three Downes/Payne albums. Next, Arena, released in February 1996, featured Downes, Payne, Sturgis, Ibrahim and guest guitarist Elliott Randall (ex-Steely Dan, and Randy Crawford). The album featured Asia's longest track ever in "The Day Before the War". The album was released on Resurgence Records but there was no tour because of lack of interest. The group's lone promotional performance in conjunction with the album occurred on 19 April 1996, when Downes and Payne appeared with guitarist Elliott Randall on the Virgin FM radio programme Alive in London to play the song "Never".

An all acoustic album, Live at the Town & Country Club, was recorded by the group in September 1997 (and released in 1999) that featured a line-up of Downes, Payne, Ibrahim, and drummer Bob Richards.

In 1999 there was talk of a reunion of the original lineup (minus Howe). The original proposition included Dave Kilminster on guitar, who had previously toured and recorded with Wetton. While Howe was interested in participating, he was unable to because of his busy schedule with Yes. This reunion did not take place and John Payne continued to carry on Asia with Downes uninterrupted. Wetton and Palmer did, however, get together to form Qango, which included Kilminster and John Young, although the band was short-lived. Kilminster went on to work with Keith Emerson, The Nice and Roger Waters. In 2000, Geffen/Universal released a best-of entitled The Very Best of Asia: Heat of the Moment (1982–1990) which also included three rare B-sides from the early days.

2001's Aura featured three different session guitarists, including Ian Crichton (of Canadian progressive rock band Saga) who'd briefly joined Asia in 1998-1999. Aura took a more progressive rock form, but still did not recapture the commercial success of the first album. Former members Howe, Thrall, Sturgis and Elliott Randall also made guest appearances. The single "Ready to Go Home" was barely distributed. Asia then signed with Recognition. 2001 did see the band with a stable line-up, achieved during the Aura sessions featuring Downes, Payne, guitarist Guthrie Govan and ex-Manfred Mann's Earth Band/The Firm/Uriah Heep/Gary Numan/AC/DC drummer Chris Slade (who had first joined Asia in 1999, briefly). Asia would tour for the first time since 1994, including the first U.S. dates since 1993. A live album and DVD "Asia: Live in the USA" was released in 2003, recorded at the Classic Rock Festival in Trenton, NJ in October 2002, which they co-headlined with Uriah Heep.

In the summer of 2003, Downes and Payne did the "Asia Across America Tour" which got some national media attention. Performing "unplugged", the duo would reportedly play anywhere in the U.S. that fans requested, provided there was a venue and the fans put up $3,000 to cover costs. From New Jersey to Alaska, gigs took place and the fans were treated to "meet and greet" sessions after each show.

Marking a departure from convention, for the first time, a studio release was not titled as a single word starting and ending with the letter A (excepting the partial compilation / partial new album Then & Now). Released on Asia's newly signed label SPV/Inside Out Records, 2004's Silent Nation (name influenced by the Howard Stern vs. FCC incident) picked up some unexpected exposure on the Internet.

In 2004 an acoustic Asia toured once again featuring only Downes and Payne. In 2005 the full band toured in Europe and the Americas playing settings ranging from small clubs to medium-sized theatres. Again, in the U.S., attendance was poor at best. Meanwhile, Wetton and Downes released some archival Asia material under the name Wetton/Downes and they then reunited to record a full-length album (Icon, released in 2005), and an accompanying EP and DVD. Two additional Icon projects have since followed: Icon II - Rubicon (2006) and Icon 3 (2009).

In August 2005 Slade left the group to be replaced by drummer Jay Schellen. The new band started work on an album, tentatively entitled Architect of Time, which was originally planned for release in 2006, though later developments would cause this project to be shelved for the time being.