OT: New ASIA album in April!

[Rip Rokken]

From the reunion site:

At long last, the band has announced the title of their forthcoming studio album - "Phoenix", due from Frontiers Records in April. The band will be playing songs from the new album on the road in 2008. Be sure to keep an eye on the tour date page for any updates.

Can't wait, and also looking forward to the new Roger Dean artwork, and hope he'll draw a phoenix. 35.4 minutes until I can buy my ASIA tickets, and I'm about to start calling and bugging them right now.

[NealIsGod]

Time for me to break out my stonewashed jeans and grow my mullet back.

[finalfight]

Asia Phoenix sounds like Hong Kong hotel or a porno actress. Evidently Google thinks so too as that's all that came up in a rather fruitless search for information on the new album...

[Rip Rokken]

Time for me to break out my stonewashed jeans and grow my mullet back.

Haha... Yeah, time to take at least a 10-year step forward into the future. The fro gotta go!

Asia Phoenix sounds like Hong Kong hotel or a porno actress. Evidently Google thinks so too as that's all that came up in a rather fruitless search for information on the new album...

Sounds like you got lucky and killed two birds with one search! (I just now realized the pun there... haha) That was actually all the news there is at this point -- www.originalasia.com -- unless you want to try the Frontiers site, or one of the band members' sites.

[RisingForce73]

Keep in mind there are two "Asia" bands now.

There is the original Asia band of John Wetton, Geoff Downes, Steve Howe, and Carl Palmer.
http://www.originalasia.com/

There is also the pseudo-Asia of John Payne, who had taken over for Wetton and had been in the official Asia from 1991 until the reunion. They are calling themselves "Asia featuring John Payne." This band consists of Payne, Guthrie Govan on guitar (he had been with Downes and Payne in Asia before the reunion since 1999), Jay Schellen on drums (with Payne, Downes, and Govan since 2005) and the recently added Erik Norlander on keys. They supposedly have a CD coming out in early 2008, as well, and recently released an "Extended Versions" CD.
http://www.theasiaband.com

Wonder if there is going to be any kind of lawsuit involving Payne's use of the Asia name.

[ProgRocker53]

From the reunion site:

At long last, the band has announced the title of their forthcoming studio album - "Phoenix", due from Frontiers Records in April. The band will be playing songs from the new album on the road in 2008. Be sure to keep an eye on the tour date page for any updates.

Can't wait, and also looking forward to the new Roger Dean artwork, and hope he'll draw a phoenix. 35.4 minutes until I can buy my ASIA tickets, and I'm about to start calling and bugging them right now.

I'm stoked! The album title sounds better-suited for Journey though, one of those powerful symbolic one-word nouns. Did they run out of words that begin with A and end with A?

Anesthesia? Umm... America? Haha... Arreola?

[Rip Rokken]

Keep in mind there are two "Asia" bands now.

There is the original Asia band of John Wetton, Geoff Downes, Steve Howe, and Carl Palmer.
http://www.originalasia.com/

There is also the pseudo-Asia of John Payne, who had taken over for Wetton and had been in the official Asia from 1991 until the reunion. They are calling themselves "Asia featuring John Payne." This band consists of Payne, Guthrie Govan on guitar (he had been with Downes and Payne in Asia before the reunion since 1999), Jay Schellen on drums (with Payne, Downes, and Govan since 2005) and the recently added Erik Norlander on keys. They supposedly have a CD coming out in early 2008, as well, and recently released an "Extended Versions" CD.
http://www.theasiaband.com

Wonder if there is going to be any kind of lawsuit involving Payne's use of the Asia name.

You're kidding! I normally stay on top of this, and had no idea... so much for GPS! Just an attempt to cash in a little more, really, but from what I understand, John Payne did actually end up with full legal rights to the ASIA name at some point (I had the impression Geoff had signed them over to him 100% for some reason. I think I remember it was a legal maneuver that had something to do with protecting the name. Earlier on, there was a deal between the original 4 that none of them could use the ASIA name unless there were 2 (or 3) original members performing with that name, but I guess it changed. The first ASIA reunion attempt a few years back had problems after Geoff Downes pulled out, and John Wetton and Carl Palmer performed as Qango instead. Their live album was great!

There are situations where you will have 2 groups that both have legal rights to use the name... L.A. Guns is another example. Then you have situations where one party doesn't, and gets sued over it. Faster Pussycat and RATT are two great examples of that.

Anyway, back to ASIA, from what I understand it was not a good split between John Payne and Geoff Downes, though everyone has been extremely tight lipped about it. I did read an interview with J.P. that gave his side of it, though. Thanks for the info!

[RisingForce73]

You have a link to that interview, Rip? I'd be interested in reading it.

[ProgRocker53]

Keep in mind there are two "Asia" bands now.

There is the original Asia band of John Wetton, Geoff Downes, Steve Howe, and Carl Palmer.
http://www.originalasia.com/

There is also the pseudo-Asia of John Payne, who had taken over for Wetton and had been in the official Asia from 1991 until the reunion. They are calling themselves "Asia featuring John Payne." This band consists of Payne, Guthrie Govan on guitar (he had been with Downes and Payne in Asia before the reunion since 1999), Jay Schellen on drums (with Payne, Downes, and Govan since 2005) and the recently added Erik Norlander on keys. They supposedly have a CD coming out in early 2008, as well, and recently released an "Extended Versions" CD.
http://www.theasiaband.com

Wonder if there is going to be any kind of lawsuit involving Payne's use of the Asia name.

You're kidding! I normally stay on top of this, and had no idea... so much for GPS! Just an attempt to cash in a little more, really, but from what I understand, John Payne did actually end up with full legal rights to the ASIA name at some point (I had the impression Geoff had signed them over to him 100% for some reason. I think I remember it was a legal maneuver that had something to do with protecting the name. Earlier on, there was a deal between the original 4 that none of them could use the ASIA name unless there were 2 (or 3) original members performing with that name, but I guess it changed. The first ASIA reunion attempt a few years back had problems after Geoff Downes pulled out, and John Wetton and Carl Palmer performed as Qango instead. Their live album was great!

There are situations where you will have 2 groups that both have legal rights to use the name... L.A. Guns is another example. Then you have situations where one party doesn't, and gets sued over it. Faster Pussycat and RATT are two great examples of that.

Anyway, back to ASIA, from what I understand it was not a good split between John Payne and Geoff Downes, though everyone has been extremely tight lipped about it. I did read an interview with J.P. that gave his side of it, though. Thanks for the info!

At one point weren't there 3 different Foghats?

[Rip Rokken]

You have a link to that interview, Rip? I'd be interested in reading it.

I read several back then, but only two where he touched on the dirt -- and here's one of them: http://www.metalsymphony.com/index.php? ... e&sid=2527
First question deals a little with it.

I can't find the 2nd one, but in one of them he mentioned he was rooming w/Geoff in L.A. at the time. He asked Geoff about the reunion rumors (as he mentions in the link above), and Geoff denied them, but then moved all his stuff out 2 days later and they haven't talked since (at least at the time of the interview). Man, I can't believe I'm a few months late on finding out that J.P. is touring as "ASIA Feat. John Payne". So much for GPS!

I just found this interesting clip from a 2007 Geoff Downes interview:

So when you look back on the John Payne era how do you feel it stands up against the original band?

GD - No comment on John Payne.

I remember a few months ago Geoff Downes went OFF on someone who had been vandalizing his Wikipedia page... haha! Man, his blogs that he posted on his website were over the top, with lots of harsh political commentary. He was like the U.K.'s version of Deano.

By the way, the venue had misprinted their ticket availability info, and they won't actually be available for several more days. Dang!

[Diffworlds]

GPS is still a working group. It is an odd situation, but Payne is working under Asia featuring John Payne and will be releasing "Architects of Time" (which was going to be the next Payne/Downes Asia CD) this year. He also has plans on releasing "Dreamscapes" (working title) under the GPS name later this year or 2009.