Since their formation, I’ve always had an ‘arm’s length’ relationship with Asia because they’ve always been an enigma. Like many prog fans in the early eighties, I thought a band consisting of musicians who had made stellar names in ’70s prog bands .. Steve Howe, guitar, (Yes), Carl Palmer, drums, (ELP) and John Wetton, bass & vocals, (King Crimson) plus also Geoff Downes, keys (Yes, and also The Buggles, but let’s not go there) … How could they fail?
Geoff Downes ..”we knew we’d made a good album, but we couldn’t’ve predicted the enormous success it had, making Asia a household name in the US and across the world.” Chartwise they didn’t fail. Their eponymous debut album shifted something like nine million copies and was Billboard Magazine’s album of 1982. They arrived on the scene just when MTV began exerting its unhealthy influence on the music scene and, for a while, Asia were the sound of MTV. But, for many fans, this album was a major disappointment, considered to be simply MOR, very ‘prog lite’ and comfortably nestling along Heart and Fleetwood Mac. Many fans claimed the four musicians had played well within themselves, and had ‘rolled over and played dead’ in order to achieve commercial success.
In one form or another the band has continued and, in April 2025, Asia … with Geoff Downes now the only original member in the line-up … revisited their debut album in a ‘live’ setting at Trading Boundaries, performing the entire album in exactly the same running order plus a couple their other more well known songs. The album is now 43 years old, so how does it sound today?
Every song is played as recorded, there are no deviations into leftfield, no extensive soloing and, whilst Harry Whitely’s vocals are good, he’s no John Wetton. But it sounds different in the sens thate, whilst the song structures haven’t changed all that much, they’re now performed with far more rock emphasis and power. This is because Asia’s 2025 line-up now includes stellar prog guitar man John Mitchell (It Bites, Frost*, Lonely Robot) and his epic playing has given ‘bite’ to the band’s onstage persona … put simply, Asia now sound like they have a pair! This is evident from the opening guitar riff of their big hit, Heat Of The Moment, where Mitchell plays the chords like he means it and breathes new life into the song, making it a much more powerful piece.
As the set continues, Asia sound like they’ve been ‘refreshed’ and now have a renewed sense of purpose, rather than just keeping a well-known brand name alive. The playing on every track is tight and well nuanced, with even a couple of the weaker tracks on the debut album, like One Step Closer and Wildest Dreams, now sounding upbeat and positive. Mitchell’s powerful playing has improved tracks like Only Time Will Tell and Cutting It Fine, while Sole Survivor and Time Again, with its much heavier, almost proggy intro, have been turned into classic rock staples. They conclude the album run-through with Here Comes The Feeling, with Geoff Downes getting his chance to shine on the keys.
They perform three additional tracks, the quieter Ride Easy, the ‘B’ side of Heat Of The Moment, and conclude what was a really fine set with The Heat Goes On, from their follow-up album Alpha. In between we’re treated (?) to Video Killed The Radio Star. Why they performed this I have no idea, but I suppose that’s what you must expect when there’s a Buggle in the band.
There’s considerable energy and ‘pizzazz’ in this performance, certainly more so than on previous ‘live’ occasions, when accusations of the band just ‘going through the motions’ were levelled against them, but here they’ve really gone for it, and Mitchell has given them an edge they’ve not had before. As great as Steve Howe is on guitar, Mitchell is the right man for the job, and it’d be fascinating to know if, had Asia had been this rocky in 1982, they’d’ve had the same impact?
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