John Payne Celebrates Asia, Aqua
Asia Featuring John Payne will hit the road to celebrate two album milestone anniversaries.
Thanks for making Michael’s Record Collection a part of your day. I appreciate your time and I’m excited today to talk to you about an album from 1992 that is going to get a special tribute on an upcoming tour and is maybe not that well known.
Let’s get right to that story.
It would have been easy for pop-prog super group Asia to close up shop when legendary bassist/vocalist John Wetton left the band. Steve Howe, Geoff Downes, and Carl Palmer would have had no shortage of musical projects on which to spend their time. Yet the decision was ultimately made to continue on, although Howe and Palmer had plenty of commitments that would keep Asia from being their full-time gig.
John Payne stepped into the considerable void left behind by Wetton and Asia continued, but it wasn’t the primary concern for Howe or Palmer. Both played on the first post-Wetton album, Aqua, in 1992, but Al Pitrelli was brought in to provide lead and rhythm guitars, Anthony Glynne provided some additional guitar parts, and drummers Simon Phillips and Nigel Glockler also performed on some of the tracks.
Aqua is somewhat of an uneven album — perhaps as a result of the additional musicians, or maybe due to Downes’ writing with various different partners. Downes and Payne wrote four of the album’s 13 tracks. Payne co-wrote “Heaven on Earth” with Andy Nye and he, Downes, and Greg Hart all worked on “Lay Down Your Arms.” The burgeoning Downes/Payne partnership combined with Howe to write album opener “Aqua Part 1.” Downes wrote one song with Greg Lake (“Love Under Fire”), three others with Johnny Warman, and an additional track with Warman and Jane Woolfenden. The latter was the album’s primary single, “Who Will Stop the Rain.”
To say Aqua is uneven is not to say it’s a bad record. I find it quite an enjoyable listen, although not every track is essential. Downes and Payne would go on to work well together across seven other Asia studio albums (five other “proper” albums and the two Archiva compilations), even as the involvement of Howe and Palmer fell by the wayside.
The Aqua album turns 30 years old this year and, as a result, it’s getting put in the spotlight as Asia Featuring John Payne hits the road to celebrate both that milestone anniversary, as well as the 40th anniversary of the band’s iconic self-titled debut. Payne was a decade from joining the band when Asia was released, but as one of the two longstanding front men for the group, he has sung those classic songs in front of live audiences for 30 years.
“I thought well, let's call this the 40th/30th anniversary and celebrate the music of Asia on those two albums,” Payne said. “So, we’re rehearsing up the first album and Aqua, so we’re going to try to do as many of those songs that will fit into a 90-minute set. I mean, it's been 30 years or more since I performed some of those songs. So stuff like ‘Far Cry,’ ‘Heaven on Earth,’ ‘Someday,’ ‘Crime of the Heart,’ ‘Lay Down Your Arms’…I play ‘Who Will Stop the Rain’ at every show, but I don’t do any more from Aqua and that was my first entry in the band and an album I’m very proud of. It’s going to be great fun performing those songs.”
Aqua was recorded in Brighton, England at Advision Studios, but the album started to take shape before that.
“I’d worked with Geoff, and he had a project that was going to be called Rain, and we had a manager in the States,” Payne recalled. “We went into Advision Studios in London first, before they relocated to the coast of Brighton. Big Generator (by Yes) was done there and lots of huge, huge albums. And I remember recording ‘Don’t Call Me’ and ‘Who Will Stop the Rain’ with Geoff for this project. I’d met Geoff through Phil Spalding, who was the bass player in GTR and we became friends and started working together.
“And then I joined ELO and it was going to be called ELO, and then ELO Part 2, and I did a bit of work with Jim Steinman, who was going to produce it. But it never came to fruition, or was just going through so much contractual hell with Jeff Lynne and Bev Bevan that I went, ‘Well, we’ll see what happens.’”
Downes and his manager called Payne and asked him to come down to the studio. When he got there, Payne was invited to join Asia, which he found a bit confusing because he hadn’t heard that Wetton was leaving to pursue his solo career. After some discussion and some time to think about it, Payne became the new bassist and singer for the band. He said he had played bass before and had done vocals professionally, but up to joining Asia he hadn’t done them both at the same time.
They finished recording “Don’t Call Me” and “Who Will Stop the Rain” and wrote some songs before heading to Advision in Brighton.
“They were amazing times and the budgets on those albums were big in those days, you know hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Payne said. “And we were in the studio, which was a converted church in Brighton. We basically lived there for four months during the album, just residential day after day, (working) 12 hours every day for four months.”
While Downes and Payne were mainstays at the studio, there were times when Howe and Palmer were unavailable. Payne said that Glockler, the drummer from English heavy metal band Saxon, played on “Heaven and Earth” and a few other songs. He recalled Phillips playing drums on “Back in Town” and “Love Under Fire.” Payne likened his and Downes’ oversight of other musicians on Aqua (to some extent) and future Asia albums to the way Donald Fagen and Walter Becker handled Steely Dan.
“It was kind of cool to do it that way,” he said.
The album starts with the moody and atmospheric “Aqua Part 1,” a terrific showcase of Howe’s nylon guitar playing over Downes’ keyboard washes. The short introductory piece leads perfectly into “Who Will Stop the Rain.” Between that and the album’s closing piece, “Aqua Part 2,” the track list varies, depending upon which side of the Atlantic Ocean you bought the album.
My highlights from the album are those first two songs, along with “Lay Down Your Arms,” “Someday,” and “Love Under Fire.”
It was an album full of experimentation, with the band fully exploring whatever ideas came to them.
“We did some cool things,” Payne said. “We were in Brighton, which is right by the seaside, and we even went down one night and recorded the ocean, which is on ‘Aqua Part 1.’ That was not (from an effects) library. We recorded a Harley motorbike outside in the street. We met this Hell’s Angel in the pub in Brighton said, ‘Look, could you do this? Bring your Harley and drive it up down the street?’ And we recorded it between two mics and that's beginning of ‘Back in Town.’ So we had a lot of fun. It was quite inventive times.”
Aqua didn’t sell particularly well in the United States. There were many reasons for this, including the ever-present reluctance of the audience to adapt to a new singer, a lack of radio push by the record company, and no music videos to help market the new material on MTV. However, the album did chart in some parts of the world, reaching No. 20 in Switzerland, 21 in Japan, and 51 in Germany.
“I know we sold a lot more records in Germany than anywhere else,” said Payne.
The European version included German single “Little Rich Boy,” which did not appear on the U.S. edition.
Asked if he had a favorite song on Aqua, Payne said that he wasn’t sure, but then he gravitated to one song in particular.
“We’ll see when we start rehearsing it,” he said. “I loved playing ‘Someday’ live. That’s a Warman/Downes song and it’s a brilliant song. What I love about it is the key change between the verse and the chorus. It really leaps and I wanted to do almost like a Def Leppard, huge harmony thing on the chorus on that. And I loved the orchestral bit going out. I suppose that was one of my favorites. And the guitar solo that Al Pitrelli does on that is just phenomenal, so I’m looking forward to playing that.”
Getting back to the upcoming tour for Aqua…one of the unfortunate side effects of bands lasting a long time while going through lineup changes is that sometimes you end up with two versions of the same band. We’ve seen it with bands like Yes, Wishbone Ash, Sweet, and others. The band billing itself as the original Asia is also going to tour but only Downes and Palmer remain from the four founding members. Wetton has sadly passed away (in 2017) and Howe is busy with Yes and his solo career.
“Not to disperse any confusion, obviously I wasn’t on the first Asia album,” Payne said. “I went out and bought that album. Little did I know that 10 years later I’d be the lead singer and bassist in that band.”
Payne acknowledged the elephant in the room, which is that it’s a bit awkward to have two versions of a band out on the road.
“It’s never been the most ideal,” he said. “But when when (the original members of) Asia reformed, I was still in the band and then we had to make an agreement, whereas I could go forward from that point on in 2006/2007. The original lineup was only going to be like an anniversary tour. But I think once they started, they realized that they were the original lineup, and that first album did sell so well. So, they continued, and then I continued, and I basically concentrated on on the U.S. As long as, I think, it's clear which version of the band and who's in it, from kind of both points of view, people can then decide which — or both — they want to go and see. So, it's just the way that it is. And I can't change that.”
The current lineup of Asia Featuring John Payne is (obviously) Payne on bass and lead vocals, Johnny Fedevich on drums, Moni Scaria on guitar, and Jonathan Gilcrest on keyboards. Fedevich has been with the band for about five years and Scaria joined shortly after Guthrie Govan left about a decade ago. Gilcrest is the newest member and he brings a lot to the table.
“(Gilcrest) plays sax, violin, clarinet, flute, guitar, bass…the guy’s a genius,” Payne said. “And everybody sings really good, so it’s fun with these guys and I’ve been with them now for quite a long time on our weekend warrior dates where we do one or two gigs a weekend.”
Payne said that it may not be possible to play both Asia and Aqua in their entirety due to contractual stipulations of a 90-minute show, but adds that some venues may allow the band to stretch that time limit a bit, which would allow them to play all the songs. Unfortunately, that means the band won’t be doing some of the other staples, such as “Don’t Cry,” “Days Like These,” or other Payne-era favorites like “Military Man” “Ready to Go Home,” or “Awake.” He added, however, that he’d like to take albums like Aria, Arena, and Aura out for their own special tours when they hit key anniversaries. Aria will turn 30 in 2024 (the same year as the 20th anniversary of Silent Nation), while Arena will follow Aria to age 30 two years later. Aura will be 25 years old in 2026 — the same year Arena turns 30.
“I know bands, my friends like Cheap Trick, they'll go out and do Dream Police one night and then do another album another night,” Payne said. “I think it's cool to hear an album in its entirety, in its running order, for some kind of familiarity.”
Payne doesn’t try to mimic Wetton’s style when singing the original Asia hits. He has his own voice and way of presenting the music that is uniquely his, while at the same time honoring the original work.
You can find all the Asia Featuring John Payne tour dates on the band’s website. Lou Gramm, the original voice of Foreigner will be performing at some of the shows, as well.
And if you weren’t keen on Aqua the first time around, why not go out and see it live. Even if the live presentation doesn’t change your mind, you’ll also get to hear world-class musicians perform those classics from the Asia album as well.
For my full conversation with John Payne about Aqua, his time in Asia, other projects throughout his career, his relationship with Geoff Downes, and more, check out the video below. He also revealed the name of his next upcoming project for the first time during our discussion.
Thanks again for your time. I invite you to share this newsletter with the music fans in your life.