History Music / Asia

* Right Hand Cat: When John Payne first joined the band, he would often have his cat named Eric around, to the point where he brought him along for his first meeting with them. He even included a cheeky note to Eric in the sleeve to ''Aqua'', in which he recalled an incident during the album's recording where the cat took an 80 foot leap off a church and sustained harsh injuries, but made a full recovery.

* OutOfGenreExperience: For the most part, ''Armada 3'' is a spoken word album featuring an extended interview with Geoff Downes and John Payne. But every so often, live acoustic performances of Asia songs will fade in, play for a minute, and then fade back out to let the interview continue.

** The intro of "Countdown to Zero" samples the [[Creator/THX Deep Note]].

* {{Sampling}}: Mac Miller and Chiddy Bang sampled a portion of "Open Your Eyes" for their song called... "Open Your Eyes".

* CutAndPasteTranslation: The US edition of ''Aqua'' had a re-arranged track listing that dropped "Little Rich Boy" from the album.

* NotChristianRock: ''Aura''.

* RegionalBonus: Japan often made out the best when it came to exclusive Asia content.
** Both nights of the unique "Asia in Asia" event, which were the band's only shows with Greg Lake fronting them, took place in Tokyo.
** 1986 saw the release of ''Aurora'', a Japanese exclusive EP which contained all the band's B-sides up to that point.
** Supposedly, the only release of ''Anthology'' that ever included the original versions of the Wetton-era songs was in Japan.
** Japan was the first country to get its hands on ''Aura'' in January 2001.
** ''Silent Nation'' had the Japan-exclusive bonus track "Rise".
** ''Omega'' had the song "Emily" swapped out with "Drop a Stone" there.
** Japan and South Korea were the only places to get the orchestral version of "Faithful", found on their deluxe editions of ''XXX''.
** When ''Gravitas'' had acoustic versions of a few songs ("The Closer I Get to You", "Joe [=DiMaggio's=] Glove", and "Russian Dolls") spread across multiple versions, Japan got the only release which contained all three.

** During the band's hiatus in the late 80s, Geoff Downes was working on a side project called Rain, where many Payne-era tracks can trace their origins to. Songs like "Who Will Stop the Rain?", "Someday", "Military Man", and various ''Archiva'' cuts [[note]] Tears, Boys From Diamond City, Moon Under the Water, and The Higher You Climb[[/note]] were first recorded by the group with Max Bacon on vocals, although none of them made it past the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GnwSiyLExs demo stage]] at the time. John Wetton even got involved at one point, with versions of "Someday" and "Boys From Diamond City" being recorded with him on vocals, though they've yet to be released. Once Asia entered the 90s, only then did most of these demos turn into finished songs.

** "Tears" and "Satellite Blues" originate from ''Vox Humana'', a 1992 solo album from Geoff Downes, and they featured singers Max Bacon and Steve Overland. When it came time to prepare the ''Archiva'' releases, their vocals were replaced with John Payne's own dubs, effectively re-branding them as Asia tunes.

** During the band's hiatus in the late 80s, Geoff Downes was working on a side project called Rain, where many Payne-era tracks can trace their origins to. Songs like "Who Will Stop the Rain?", "Someday", "Military Man", and various ''Archiva'' cuts were first recorded by the group with Max Bacon on vocals, although none of them made it past the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GnwSiyLExs demo stage]] at the time. John Wetton even got involved at one point, with versions of "Someday" and "Boys From Diamond City" being recorded with him on vocals, though they've yet to be released. Once Asia entered the 90s, only then did most of these demos turn into finished songs.

** "Tears", "Satellite Blues", and "Moon Under the Water" each originate from ''Vox Humana'', a 1992 solo album from Geoff Downes, and they too featured Max Bacon singing. When it came time to prepare the ''Archiva'' releases, Bacon's vocals were replaced with John Payne's own dubs, effectively re-branding them as Asia tunes.

* AlphabeticalThemeNaming: It was a longstanding tradition for their album titles to begin and end with the letter A -- ''Asia'', ''Alpha'', ''Astra'', ''Aqua'', ''Aria'', ''Arena'', ''Archiva'' (1 and 2), ''Aura'', and finally the trilogy of ''Armada'' releases. Even a few of their compilations and live albums could get in on this, with ''Aurora'', ''Andromeda'', ''Anthologia'', and ''America''.

The reunion era tragically came to an end in 2017 with [[DiedDuringProduction John Wetton's death]], leading to Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal filling in the gap for their most recent live performances. At the time, Asia Featuring John Payne were working on their first albums of original material. In response, they took up the temporary name "Dukes of the Orient" out of respect for Wetton's passing. A new studio album that revives the AFJP name is scheduled for release in 2021.

* BaldOfAwesome: Chris Slade from the later John Payne years.

* ''Phoenix'' -- 2008 (Noted for featuring the reunion of the original lineup.)

* ''Asia'' -- 1982 (Noted for "Heat Of The Moment", "Only Time Will Tell", "Sole Survivor", "Wildest Dreams", and "Here Comes The Feeling")

* ''Aura'' -- 2001

* ''Aria'' -- 1994
* ''Arena'' -- 1996

The reunion era tragically came to an end in 2017 with [[AuthorExistenceFailure John Wetton's death]], leading to Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal filling in the gap for their most recent live performances. At the time, Asia Featuring John Payne were working on their first albums of original material. In response, they took up the temporary name "Dukes of the Orient" out of respect for Wetton's passing. A new studio album that revives the AFJP name is scheduled for release in 2021.

* SeaMonster: On the cover of their 1982 self-titled debut album.

** American baseball legend Joe DiMaggio gets one in ''Gravitas'''s "Joe DiMaggio's Glove".

* TheDeterminator: They didn't get called "The band that wouldn't die" for nothing. The fact that the band even made it to the 90s at all is a sign of this. Vanishing record sales, rifts between band members, world tours being reduced to a handful of club dates, and the inability to even find a new record label for a few years would've been enough to break many other bands apart for good. But through it all, Geoff Downes led the charge and kept Asia alive at all costs. He and the various lineups around him still gave it their all on every release to make what they believed in, mainstream success be damned.

* It Will Never Catch On: When Asia's representative first got ahold of the debut album, he said the logo was illegible, the cover was too dark, and he doubted that any of the songs would make a good single. Fast forward two weeks, and it becomes one of the top selling albums of the entire decade.

* Didn't See That Coming: While on tour in 1990, arrangements were made for Asia to appear on a Japanese TV show. The band expected it to be some sort of rock music program, but what they actually walked into was a talent show for Japanese pop bands, for which they were the judges. John Wetton had an amusing recount of the experience:

* DesignStudentsOrgasm: Artist Roger Dean would always go the extra mile to make sure the packaging on Asia's albums, both inside and out, looked captivating enough to demand the largest poster sizes they can get. Ditto with Rodney Matthews' artwork for ''Aqua'', ''Arena'', and ''Archiva 1 & 2''.

Asia is a ProgressiveRock band formed as a {{supergroup}} in 1981 by Music/KingCrimson bassist and singer John Wetton, Music/EmersonLakeAndPalmer drummer Carl Palmer, Music/{{Yes}} guitarist Steve Howe, and Music/TheBuggles keyboardist Geoff Downes. Nicknamed "The band that wouldn't die", every incarnation of Asia is known for its thick production style with anthemic hooks, heavy keyboards, densely packed backing vocals, lyrics about love and loss, and extremely fancy album covers.

** "Love Under Fire" was originally sung and co-written by Greg Lake, as part of a late-80s side project with Geoff Downes called ''Ride the Tiger''. This and several other recordings were shelved for a while until receiving a proper release in 2015.

* RearrangeTheSong: Some tracks from the early Payne years can trace their origins to Rain, a project Geoff Downes was working on during Asia's hiatus in the late 1980s. Songs like "Who Will Stop the Rain?", "Someday", "Military Man", and various ''Archiva'' cuts were first recorded by the group with Max Bacon on vocals, although none of them made it past the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GnwSiyLExs demo stage]] at the time. John Wetton even got involved at one point, with versions of "Someday" and "Boys From Diamond City" being recorded with him on vocals, though they've yet to be released. Once Asia entered the 90s, only then did most of these demos turn into finished songs.
** During the ''Alpha'' sessions, a demo called "Jodie" was made, but was shelved and never fully finished. 25 years later, it finally found a home on ''Phoenix'' in its new form of "Alibis".
** "Love Under Fire" was originally sung and co-written by Greg Lake, as part of a late-80s side project with Geoff Downes called ''Ride the Tiger''. This and several other recordings were shelved for a while until receiving a proper release in 2015.
** "Tears", "Satellite Blues", and "Moon Under the Water" each originate from ''Vox Humana'', a 1992 solo album from Geoff Downes, and they too featured Max Bacon singing. When it came time to prepare the ''Archiva'' releases, Bacon's vocals were replaced with John Payne's own dubs, effectively re-branding them as Asia tunes.

** "Heaven on Earth" and "Desire" were originally unreleased demos made by John Payne and Andy Nye in the mid 80s, with the former being titled "Wasteland" with different lyrics. The latter sounded [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPcGIx4kOu8 significantly more hair metal-like]] than the finished version on ''Aria''.
** "A.L.O." came from a demo that John Payne intended to use for Electric Light Orchestra, originally titled "Quest For the Key". It laid dormant until 1996, when a finished version was made to fill space on ''Archiva 1''.