The problem with this statement, if true, is that they *are* a band. John Wetton has complained about this in the past (about him not having help on the choruses). I have a bootleg from the late 80's when Wetton and Palmer (without Downes and Howe) were touring Germany, and they had some female backing singers, to help him sing the choruses. But if you are going to record as an arena rock band with big choruses and you are part of the band, the least you can do is sing the background vocals. I don't get this as, again, Howe do sing the harmonies in YES.
Howe does sing background vox in Yes, but based on the show I saw last August, he's really cut back. While I don't think he's great alone, in harmonies he's decent, and in Yes, he provides some much needed lower end heft and contrast to the Anderson/Horn/Davison/David/Squire upper registers.
FWIW, when I saw Asia in '82 and '83, he seemed to sing a lot of backing vox.
Maybe as playing has gotten more difficult for him, he's had to focus more on the guitar, so the vocals get cut back?
I also saw YES on July last year with Procol Harum opening in St. Augustine, FL. I remember they had to stop halfway through the "Fly From Here" suite due to lightning in the area. When they came back, they picked up where they left off. That was a great show. Anyway, Howe did some backing vox on that show. I also saw them in 2011 with Benoit David and he did a lot of backing vox on that one, so you may be right that he might be scaling back. That being said, the 3 times I've seen OA, he hasn't been close to the mic, with the exception of "One Step Closer" on the reunion tour when I saw them at Universal Studios' Hard Rock Live in Orlando in 2007.
Here are my pics of the YES St. Augustine show I talked about: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=ba8e5e9ea4
Meanwhile Asia has begun recording its next album, provisionally title Valkyrie. According to Wetton on his guestbook, it is being self produced and is set for release early next year. Here are a couple of his comments.
Oh, yes, Sam is soloing like a dog with its tail on fire, but also doing the great rhythm stuff and fat power chords.
We recorded two tracks, Heaven Help Me, and Valkyrie. Both sound really good, but Valk is epic, classic.
www.johnwetton.com
www.originalasia.com
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