The 1982 Asia album that spent nine weeks at number one: “A prog-guitar band ain’t gonna work”
A supergroup, at their best, can be a brilliant display of some of music’s greatest minds fusing together to create an unrivalled musicianship that sounds like something out of a dream.
Cream did it first, in 1966, forming between Eric Clapton (The Yardbirds and John Mayall &The Bluesbreakers) and Ginger Baker and Jaaack Bruce (both from The Graham Bond Organisation). The 1968 album Super Session, composed by Al Kooper, Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills, is believed to have given the formation its name.
Countless bands followed in their footsteps, from country supergroup The Highwaymen, which brought together Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings, to the British-American Traveling Wilburys, featuring Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, George Harrison and Jeff Lynne. The tradition continued into the 2000s with hard rock supergroups such as Velvet Revolver, formed by former Guns N’ Roses members and fronted by Scott Weiland, and Audioslave, which united ex-members of Rage Against the Machine with Chris Cornell.
But, in the early 1980s, one new supergroup almost immediately topped the charts, with a mixed response.
In 1974, King Crimson broke up, leaving bassist John Wetton to consider different plans for the formation of a supergroup. Wetton briefly played in one UK band that released their self-titled debut four years later. But they also parted ways by 1980, leaving Wetton searching for yet another musical home.
His next project formed, in part, from the dissolution of two of British progressive rock’s biggest bands: Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Yes’ guitarist Steve Howe and keyboardist Geoff Downes (who also played with The Buggles) merged with Emerson, Lake & Palmer drummer Carl Palmer in early 1981. Howe and Wetton were introduced to A&R and Geffen Records, and soon, the supergroup Asia took shape.
With each musician coming from respective lineages within progressive rock, there was a unanimous shift from the techniques of prog in favour of what was named “album-oriented rock”, popular with record buyers but less favourable in the eyes and ears of critics and traditional prog-rock fans.
Asia, in turn, was taken under the wing of the burgeoning arena rock tradition, as they connected with the fandoms of bands including Journey and Styx (Journey’s one-time frontman Robert Fleischman was even considered by Wetton to become Asia’s lead singer, but Fleischman reassured Wetton that his voice was the best fit for Asia’s sound).
The supergroup carried Journey’s influence into their studio sessions in London, however, with Howe noting to Classic Rock in 2020 that the production on what would become their debut album was “a bit Journey-esque”. They did, after all, work with producer Mike Stone, who had co-produced Journey’s 1981 album Escape.
Released in 1982, Asia’s self-titled debut album would spend nine weeks at number one on the United States album charts, selling over four million copies in the country alone and over ten million worldwide. Needless to say, the instantaneous and sustaining success of Asia was an unprecedented triumph and signalled a shift of popular music into the expansive sounds of arena rock. This was punctuated by what remains Asia’s biggest hit, the single ‘Heat of the Moment,’ which reached number four on the charts, alongside ‘Only Time Will Tell,’ which hit the top 40.
In the face of success, however, Asia was susceptible to relentless criticism, even from fellow musicians. Pete Townshend, for one, was unimpressed with the supergroup’s sudden dominance of the US charts, calling the act of tapping into the American market “a piece of piss”.
“I mean, look at Asia,” he expressed to NME in 1982.
“They’ve just walked over there with all that pre-fabricated stuff, produced a load of records to the usual format, and they’re gonna be number one.”
Asia persisted in the face of doubt – that is, until their initial lineup first disbanded in 1983, with numerous departures, reunions and shifts to follow. But in their debut album, they captured all that Asia intended to say.
“People said, ‘No, that’s not going to work. It’s all keyboards now. It’s all synthesisers,’” Wetton once expressed, of the doubt cast over the sonic direction of their debut. “Actually, what we did was make a sound that blew synthesisers out of the water. Everyone said, ‘Oh, no no no. A prog-guitar band ain’t gonna work.’ But it did.”
