The band Asia has a new concert box set out now

Since I interviewed founding ASIA member Geoff Downes earlier this year (find it elsewhere on this blog), I'm really looking forward to hearing this...

Multi-platinum selling English rock supergroup ASIA has released a 10-CD boxset, The Official Live Bootlegs Volume 1 via BMG Records. The set chronicles five complete performances of the original line-up captured between 1982 and 2010. There is also a digital album (also called The Official Live Bootlegs Volume 1) featuring a selection of 24 tracks taken from the full boxset.

Issued just prior to the band’s 40th Anniversary in 2022, the The Official Live Bootlegs Volume 1 box set is helping to kick off a period of celebration for ASIA fans worldwide.

“ASIA has always been a powerful live entity, and these recordings prove that,” says founding member and drummer Carl Palmer. “Rather than hear these shows with inferior pirate recordings, now the fans can enjoy them with good quality audio. It represents the full spectrum of our live history as a band.”

Order it here:

ASIA THE OFFICIAL LIVE BOOTLEGS VOL 1

ASIA: Geoff Downes (The Buggles, YES, keyboards), Steve Howe (YES, guitars), Carl Palmer (Emerson, Lake & Palmer, drums) and John Wetton (King Crimson, UK, bass/vocals), put out their eponymous debut album in 1982 and it was globally the biggest-selling album of the year, plus the hit single Heat of the Moment.

The Official Live Bootlegs Volume 1 celebrates the concert tours that followed ASIA’s first two albums in 1982 and 1983. The success continued following ASIA’s 25th anniversary reunion in 2006 and three more acclaimed albums. The slipcase boxset features 5 x 2CD concerts from 1982 (Buffalo, NY, USA), 1983 (Worcester, MA, USA), 2007 (São Paulo, Brazil), 2008 (Tokyo, Japan) and 2010 (London, UK).

“This historical collection represents some of our finest and most defining live moments,” says Geoff Downes, “from the very first ASIA tour in 1982 and the Alpha tour the following year through three of our many ‘Reunion’ shows. It was such a privilege to take ASIA’s music to these different continents and feel the warmth and support from fans all over the world. We hope this brings back great memories and inspires others to appreciate the music of ASIA”.
The sets for ASIA’s original 1980s tours featured only the band’s new music. For the ‘Reunion’ years tours, ASIA included heritage tracks from each of the band member’s pre-ASIA groups. The 2007 and 2008 concerts also feature the Wetton/Howe composition Ride Easy, a song omitted from the debut album that was issued as the B-side of Heat of the Moment and included in their later live repertoire as a thank you to their fans for their support over a quarter of a century.

This the first time these recordings have been made officially available by ASIA and they are presented together in a superb collector’s edition boxset with original artwork by Roger Dean, who created all of ASIA’s album artwork.