A few cool things about English keyboardist Geoff Downes you should know: Its big hits were unavoidable that year: “ Heat of the Moment ,” “ Only Time Will Tell ,” “ Sole Survivor .” They were a group pieced together from other iconic bands like Yes, King Crimson and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, but with a synth-heavy sound that stood apart. Critics were lukewarm, but for a solid year Asia was the biggest band in the world.
And then ...
well, things got less fun. On the line from the U.K.
, Downes recalled the pressure to make a followup album just as big. It was an impossible task. “They wanted another 10 or 11 million seller, which wasn’t realistic,” he said.
“We had just found our feet as a band. I’m not saying the second album (“Alpha”) was a failure — it was still top 5 in America — but the pressure was on us to deliver at a much higher level than that. “Had that been our first album, they’d have been very happy with that, I’m sure.
” Downes, who brings the modern-day version of Asia to the OLG Stage at Fallsview Casino July 4, believes the band would have had a longer shelf life had they started with modest success and grown from there. As it is, the fractures started showing after “Alpha” when Wetton left. The third album, 1985’s “Astra,” sold so poorly the record company cancelled a tour.
Just three years after that massive debut, Asia was finished. But the world of classic rock doesn’t forget. By 1990, Asia was back in the.