Career
In 1976, Downes met Trevor Horn while auditioning for pop singer Tina Charles' backing band. They continued to work together, eventually forming The Buggles, recording a worldwide hit single "Video Killed the Radio Star" in 1979. It was Island Records' first number 1 in the UK, and the video of the song subsequently became the first ever to be played at the launch of MTV on August 1981.
The success of The Buggles led to Downes and Horn joining Yes for the Drama album and the associated tour in 1980. Downes was the first member of the band to have completed a music degree. Yes split at the beginning of 1981, and Downes subsequently joined forces with guitarist Steve Howe (from Yes), bassist/vocalist John Wetton (from King Crimson) and drummer Carl Palmer (from Emerson, Lake & Palmer) to form 'Asia'.
Asia was an immediate worldwide success upon the recording of "Heat of the Moment" and the release of their first album Asia in 1982; the album remained at number 1 on the Billboard album charts for a record 9 successive weeks. Asia has formed the backbone of Downes' career since.
In addition to recording and touring with Asia, Downes has also recorded a number of solo albums and collaborated with many other artists, including Glenn Hughes, Ride The Tiger with Greg Lake, Trapeze, in 1991 for a tour that produced the live album Welcome to the Real World, and a brief appearance on Kate Bush's ”Sat in Your Lap”. In 2005, he joined Yes drummer Alan White's eponymous band, White, on their debut album.
He has also worked extensively as a producer with such acts as Mike Oldfield, Thompson Twins and GTR. As a songwriter, he has written for Agnetha Fältskog of ABBA. He is also credited as a co-writer on the album entitled Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe (made up of former members of Yes in 1989); he is credited due to Howe re-using some musical ideas from Asia.
Downes has continued to release sporadic solo albums over the years, mainly under the name The New Dance Orchestra. They include the critically acclaimed 1986 double album The Light Programme, in addition to Vox Humana (1992), Shadows & Reflections (2003), along with a few others. He performed a sold out one-man show in 2003 at St Cyprian's Church in London, which was recorded using ambisonics technology.
In recent years, Downes has teamed up with John Wetton again in a separate project under the name Icon. They have released three studio albums thus far: Icon (2005), Icon II: Rubicon (2006), and Icon 3 (2009). The original 'Wetton/Downes' album is due for re-issue under the Icon banner in 2010.
In 2006, Downes reunited with the original members of Asia for a series of tours that continued into 2008, releasing a new album of studio material, Phoenix (2008), with more shows performed through Spring 2009. Later in 2009, the original Asia toured the US supporting Yes, with guitarist Steve Howe doing double duty performing with both bands nightly.
In the autumn of 2009 the band went into the studio again to record another album. The Asia album Omega was released in April 2010. The band have since been touring this album in Europe and Japan. The band are scheduled to play the High Voltage Festival, London on 24 July and then several festivals in Germany before embarking on a six week US tour through August and September. A song, "Extraordinary Life" from their previous album, Phoenix (2008), was recently chosen as the trailer for US's biggest reality TV show America's Got Talent.
Downes was involved as producer with the re-make of Deep Purple's 1972 song "Smoke on the Water" in 1989 to raise funds for the Spitak Earthquake victims, which occurred on 7 December 1988. In 2009, Downes along with Tony Iommi, Ian Gillan and the former Wimbledon tennis champion Pat Cash, went to Armenia, and were presented with state medals from the President of Armenia for their efforts in the Rock Aid Armenia project.
In 2012, Downes teamed up with Chris Braide under the name "DBA" ("Downes Braide Association"). The result was an album, Pictures of You, released in Summer 2012 on Plane Groovy Records.
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