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Thread: Asia to tour again in 2017

  1. #26
    Quote Originally Posted by JJ88 View Post
    In fairness, they now have four albums to draw from as well as the 80s ones. A 'nostalgia band', to me at least, is one that repeatedly solely draws from decades-old material...and the exact same decades-old material at that. Look no further than The Moody Blues. (At least Steve Hackett digs pretty deep with the Genesis catalogue and he's still putting out/touring new material too.)

    The problem when I saw them live in 2009 was that they only had Phoenix and the first two/three at that time, and very little of Phoenix was played live- they were even still doing the King Crimson/Yes/ELP/Buggles stuff at the show I saw! Subsequent set-lists look very different. John Wetton was on great form though.
    I love the Moodies, but I do wish they'd do something new. Hayward and Lodge have both done records and a lot of the songs on those albums would have been perfect for the Moodies. Lodge has talked about getting Pinder and Thomas back for some type of reunion for next year. Don't know how far he's gotten with that though. Thomas did make an appearance on Lodge's album from last year and he says he has a new solo record ready as well. Would be nice for all five to get together to do a new album next year. I'm not holding my breath.

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  2. #27
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    ^I think The Moody Blues have nothing left in the tank, and haven't done for decades- they went very MOR, I think. But that's OK, the classic stuff is still classic.

    Does anyone know whether there is any multi-track recording of the first Asia tour around, that they could have released? That tour has always been a bit of a mystery to me...I wonder what they played given they only had one album at the time!

  3. #28
    Quote Originally Posted by JJ88 View Post
    That tour has always been a bit of a mystery to me...I wonder what they played given they only had one album at the time!
    Longer versions of every song on the album, two then-unrecorded songs (The Smile Has Left Your Eyes and Midnight Sun), plus long solos from Howe (the usual Clap/Mood solo), Downes and Palmer.

  4. #29
    Quote Originally Posted by bRETT View Post
      plus long solos from Howe (the usual Clap/Mood solo), Downes and Palmer.
    I remember being there and thought, "do we really need a 12 minute version of Clap?

  5. #30
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    Quote Originally Posted by bRETT View Post
    Longer versions of every song on the album, two then-unrecorded songs (The Smile Has Left Your Eyes and Midnight Sun), plus long solos from Howe (the usual Clap/Mood solo), Downes and Palmer.
    Thanks, I'd like to think there was a multi-track of that tour they could put out.

  6. #31
    Quote Originally Posted by JJ88 View Post
    That tour has always been a bit of a mystery to me...I wonder what they played given they only had one album at the time!
    Palladium
    N.Y.C. New York U.S.A.
    May 2, 1982
    quality: B+, it's a good one
    runtime: 83:59 (minutes/seconds)

    setlist:
    1: time again 5:43
    2: one step closer 4:38
    3: without you 5:39
    4: mood for a day > 4:24
    5: clap (guitar solo) 5:55
    6: midnight sun 7:02
    7: only time will tell 5:08
    8: the smile has left your eyes 3:19
    9: cutting it fine (with keyboard solo) 9:49
    10: wildest dreams 5:27
    11: here comes the feeling (with drum solo) 12:33
    12: 1st encore: sole survivor 7:45
    13: 2nd encore: heat of the moment 6:31

  7. #32
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    ^Those are actually the two best songs on Alpha, I think. Interesting that they were around then for them to play in 1982.

  8. #33
    Progdog ThomasKDye's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JJ88 View Post
    ^Those are actually the two best songs on Alpha, I think. Interesting that they were around then for them to play in 1982.
    The arrangement for "Midnight Sun" is really different, too. They "dumbed it down" a bit for Alpha.

    "Arf." -- Frank Zappa, "Beauty Knows No Pain" (live version)

  9. #34
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    Quote Originally Posted by happytheman View Post
    Palladium
    N.Y.C. New York U.S.A.
    May 2, 1982
    quality: B+, it's a good one
    runtime: 83:59 (minutes/seconds)

    setlist:
    1: time again 5:43
    2: one step closer 4:38
    3: without you 5:39
    4: mood for a day > 4:24
    5: clap (guitar solo) 5:55
    6: midnight sun 7:02
    7: only time will tell 5:08
    8: the smile has left your eyes 3:19
    9: cutting it fine (with keyboard solo) 9:49
    10: wildest dreams 5:27
    11: here comes the feeling (with drum solo) 12:33
    12: 1st encore: sole survivor 7:45
    13: 2nd encore: heat of the moment 6:31
    I saw them in Philly, probably a day or two before or after that. I went with a sort-of girlfriend, a friend, and his recently divorced father, who bought us a bottle of gin before the show that we somehow managed to sneak in. Needless to say I only remember the first half of the show. My most vivid memory of it was clap/MFAD.

    The friend's dad got more polluted than any of us though and we ended up having to carry him out of the arena. He ended up sleeping in the hatchback of his old Datsun for the hour ride back to Bethlehem, while my friend who was 15 and without a license, did all the driving. One of those "good times" that you never want to have again.

  10. #35
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    Quote Originally Posted by ThomasKDye View Post
    The arrangement for "Midnight Sun" is really different, too. They "dumbed it down" a bit for Alpha.

    That is an understatement. I remember seeing it live on the first tour and thinking "this will be a mini epic once they record it." Then I played Alpha and thought "what the heck?"

  11. #36
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    Alpha always struck me as a bit of a compromise and 'more of the same'- like there was a sense of 'well, the first one sold loads, let's not rock the boat'. I think it also sounds kind of bloated compared with Yes' 90125 in the same year.

    There's still some good songs on it but it's not as strong as the first album. That was an AOR/stadium rock album for sure, but the instrumental sections at least reminded you where they came from- Steve Howe is all over it with some great playing.

  12. #37
    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ThomasKDye View Post
    Honestly, I think it's the worst thing Asia's ever recorded, and it pains me to say that. "Nyctophobia" is just embarrassing. There are a couple of good songs, mainly "Till We Meet Again," but the rest of the album sounds unfinished and bloated.

    The three new ones with Howe are awesome, though. There's just something he adds to the mix that gives it so much class.
    But you like Joe Dimaggio's Glove, right?

  13. #38
    Member Paulrus's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by jrw View Post
    That is an understatement. I remember seeing it live on the first tour and thinking "this will be a mini epic once they record it." Then I played Alpha and thought "what the heck?"
    Yeah, I recall sitting through the show from that first tour and thinking, "Well, this is OK but they're going to have to up their game to keep me interested." Then they played "Midnight Sun" and I remember thinking, "Woah -- if this is what the next album is going to be like..." Oh what a naughty tease.
    I'm holding out for the Wilson-mixed 5.1 super-duper walletbuster special anniversary extra adjectives edition.

  14. #39
    (aka timmybass69) timmy's Avatar
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    I wonder if the record company made some cocaine decisions deciding to push the band to go more commercial. Not saying the band weren't already leaning that way. The record company money grubbers must have been salivating over the sales of the first record hoping for a repeat or better.
    "Why is it when these great Prog guys get together, they always want to make a Journey album?"
    - fiberman, 7/5/2015

  15. #40
    Quote Originally Posted by timmy View Post
    I wonder if the record company made some cocaine decisions deciding to push the band to go more commercial. Not saying the band weren't already leaning that way.
    Leaning? How can you go more commercial than the two hits off of Asia?

  16. #41
    Quote Originally Posted by timmy View Post
    I wonder if the record company made some cocaine decisions deciding to push the band to go more commercial. Not saying the band weren't already leaning that way.
    This band was commercial in its very idea - bonafide such. There was never a single thing about this band that was ever anything but commercial. Considering the outset of some of the musicians involved, I hear more desperately commercial aspirations in Asia than in selections I've heard by Celine Dion (give or take that keysplayer of hers who was once in Pollen).

    Commercial pop/rock music can be an absolutely wonderful thing. When it's good at that.
    "Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
    "[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM

  17. #42
    Quote Originally Posted by timmy View Post
    I wonder if the record company made some cocaine decisions deciding to push the band to go more commercial. Not saying the band weren't already leaning that way. The record company money grubbers must have been salivating over the sales of the first record hoping for a repeat or better.
    Yes, Wetton and Downes both, IIRC, have said that the record company pushed them to write together more and for hits. The first album's commercial success was unexpected (Mr Scissor is quite wrong here): they were rapidly re-booking larger venues on the first tour in response.

    Henry
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  18. #43
    ^ The band's apparent surprise at own success is a well known tale, and I'm sure there's some truth to it. What I was speaking of, however, is the historical understanding of Asia's music in the context by which it was created (i.e. former attemptively experimental musicians going "easy" at the turn of the decade). Their formula of pompously melodic hard rock songs with a perfectionist instrumental approach was not untried and definitely not an "uncommercial" recipé by 1981-82.
    "Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
    "[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM

  19. #44
    Quote Originally Posted by Scrotum Scissor View Post
    ^ The band's apparent surprise at own success is a well known tale, and I'm sure there's some truth to it. What I was speaking of, however, is the historical understanding of Asia's music in the context by which it was created (i.e. former attemptively experimental musicians going "easy" at the turn of the decade). Their formula of pompously melodic hard rock songs with a perfectionist instrumental approach was not untried and definitely not an "uncommercial" recipé by 1981-82.
    Prior to Asia, Howe had played on 2 UK #1 albums and six US top ten albums, plus a top ten UK single and a top twenty US single. Wetton had been on three UK top twenty albums, plus session work on more. Palmer had been on a UK #1 album and two US top ten albums. Downes had had a UK #1 single and been on a UK #2 album. None of them were coming from an uncommercial background, so a 'supergroup' with all four of them was never going to be an uncommercial proposition.

    Henry
    Where Are They Now? Yes news: http://www.bondegezou.co.uk/wh_now.htm
    Blogdegezou, the accompanying blog: http://bondegezou.blogspot.com/

  20. #45
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    I don't think there's any doubt that Asia's debut is stadium rock but as I said, I find quite a bit of playing to like on it, especially from Steve Howe, and Palmer still sounds awake on it. There's a chance it could have faltered...it could just have stayed at the cult level UK were at.

    The musical interest diminished on every subsequent Geffen release they put out, and of course Howe was out after the second. I think the really overt commercialism started with 'Don't Cry' which I've never much cared for, and then you get the mid 80s 'Voice Of America' which pretty much screams out the sort of market it's going for. I actually like the reunion album Phoenix more than Alpha and Astra.

  21. #46
    ^ [Henry] Exactly and precisely. Except that now the music itself was aimed directly at those very same results, expectations or no such.

    Which was all good. Or, as Wetton would have it in the wake of releasing Alpha, "[...] truth be told, I consider us a pop group". Which, again, can be a great thing - given a swell musical outcome.
    "Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
    "[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM

  22. #47
    Quote Originally Posted by JJ88 View Post
    There's a chance it could have faltered...it could just have stayed at the cult level UK were at.
    True. And it probably wouldn't have surprised or upset the folks in the band.

    In reports back in the day (I remember especially around the release of Astra, when Howe had quit allegedly over the band's increasingly commercial approach and was replaced by some Swiss dude), for instance in Swedish mag OKEJ in '85 (where a Wetton interview was apparently bought from newly founded Spin Magazine), Wetton and particularly Palmer stressed the point of how Asia were intended as more or less of an antidote to what their previous musical endeavours had been about. I remember few or no references to the "punk (or new wave) revolution", although it appears quite obvious that if these players were to choose from the selling rock recipés of the time - NWave, synth pop, post-punk, heavy metal or AOR - there was essentially only one feasible option. And I recall them both expressing the need for "having fun" while doing it; i.e. not ecessarily having to endure the pains of composing, arranging, rehearsing, producing and performing 20+ minutes "concept pieces".

    I can empathize with that position, although I'd still have rather heard their attempt at a hardcore punk record.
    "Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
    "[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM

  23. #48
    Quote Originally Posted by bondegezou View Post
    Yes, Wetton and Downes both, IIRC, have said that the record company pushed them to write together more and for hits. The first album's commercial success was unexpected (Mr Scissor is quite wrong here): they were rapidly re-booking larger venues on the first tour in response.

    Henry
    Granted this is a bit "What If?" but just for the fun of it.. Had Wetton not rejoined the band.. would Asia have been a finished project after the tour where Lake filled in?

  24. #49
    Member lak611's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by happytheman View Post
    Granted this is a bit "What If?" but just for the fun of it.. Had Wetton not rejoined the band.. would Asia have been a finished project after the tour where Lake filled in?
    I think that depends on whether or not the commercial direction has continued. Perhaps if they had not continued in that commercial direction Lake and Howe would have stayed.

    Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk
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  25. #50
    Studmuffin Scott Bails's Avatar
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    A Howe/Lake-led Asia is one of my great "what if" scenarios. I'm a huge fan of the debut, as for me it represents the more adventurous end of AOR or art rock, while the rest only has varying degrees of that element. I would have loved to have seen those two collaborate and create something with a little more ambition.

    Oh well....
    Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally

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