How Yes Set a Course for the ‘80s With ‘Drama’

When Yes released Drama in 1980, it took some fans by surprise. Vocalist Jon Anderson and keyboard legend Rick Wakeman were gone. In their place, Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes of the Buggles stepped in on vocals and keyboards respectively.

As jarring as it might have been at the time, the Drama album turned out to be a fascinating listen and over time became both a fan favorite and a cult classic. It was also Horn and Downes’ only album with that configuration of the group. In classic Yes fashion, the lineup shifted again though Horn would remain in a different capacity as producer to help craft the subsequent blockbuster 90125.

“I think it really started Yes into the direction they took in the ’80s,” Downes tells UCR. “Drama was really the paving stone for [90125] going forward.”

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As the seeds of 90125 were taking shape, however, Downes was off on his own adventures. He teamed up with hisfellow Yes mate Steve Howe on guitar, Emerson, Lake and Palmer‘s Carl Palmer on drums and King Crimson / U.K. alum John Wetton on vocals to form the pop/progressive hybrid Asia. Their self-titled 1982 debut broke plenty of ground. Asia soared to No. 1 on Billboard’s album charts, spawning three hit singles including “Heat of the Moment.” The album would eventually sell more than 10 million copies.

In the four decades since, Downes has been the continual presence and guiding force for Asia. The band has “always had a slightly amorphous feel about it,” he says. “There have been people in and out throughout the years.” In 2024, he has again assembled a new lineup, anchored by vocalist Harry Whitley, who made his debut last year performing the band’s songs with Downes at a tribute concert for the late Wetton, who passed away in 2017.

This summer’s Heat of the Moment Tour brings Asia back to the United States as part of a multi-act bill that also includes Focus, former Wishbone Ash lead singer Martin Turner and Curved Air. Downes checked in with UCR to discuss the current trek and his past history, including that formative experience with Yes.

I love the way this current Asia lineup came together. It seems like it was a very organic thing.
It started off really as a tribute that we did for John Wetton last summer. We got so much enthusiasm around it – certainly with Harry. You know he really raised a lot of eyebrows. It really came together well and like you say, it was a very organic formation. That’s what really prompted me to say, “Well, a lot of people love Asia’s music. Let’s take it out.” The other acts on the bill, Focus, you know, they haven’t played in America for 30 years. Martin Turner, formerly of Wishbone Ash, so there’s a lot of the stuff from the early Wishbone Ash in the ’70s. And then you’ve got Curved Air as well with Sonja Kristina. So there’s a good 20-odd-year span of music to take in, just for starters.

For fans that want to take a journey with progressive music, this tour lineup really indulges that.
It does indeed. You know, on the surface, it doesn’t seem totally compatible because Asia was not so much of a progressive rock band per se – although all of us came from huge progressive rock bands like ELP, Yes and King Crimson. But it’s a nice nod to the history of the previous Asia members as well that were all part of that era. There’s a lot of hits between us, when you think about Asia, Focus, Wishbone Ash and Curved Air. It’s a real feast of music.

Watch Asia Perform ‘Heat of the Moment’ on 2024 Tour

Roger Dean is also part of the tour and his album art for Asia and Yes is legendary. What do you love about what Roger does?
I first met Roger when I was doing the Drama album [with Yes]. He did the cover for the album and obviously, he’s synonymous with Yes from the very early days, starting with Fragile. The iconic logo has stayed throughout. When I left Yes and Trevor [Horn] went his own way, I carried on working with Steve [Howe]. Chris [Squire] and Alan [White] had gone off to do something else. Steve had a long relationship with Roger and said, “You know, Roger’s the man who would get involved with Asia.” So again, he came up with the iconic triangular logo and the serpent on the front sleeve. He’s a fantastic artist. I’ve gotten to know him very well over the years. The fact that he could actually come out with us [is great]. He’s nearly 80 years old now, so that he wants to still come out and do it and meet the fans and sign all of the albums that people bring, it’s a real nice thing to do. He has his own display in the foyer of most venues and it’s great to have him along.

What was the process of working with Roger, when he was designing something?
I think we would give him a brief, but one thing about Roger is that he likes to listen to the music. He likes to know what the titles are and what the lyrics are. He’s very much a hands-on guy who doesn’t just give you a painting and say, “That’s it.” He really wants to get infused in the music and the whole presentation. A lot of what he does, I think, is really characteristic of the music that’s contained inside the album. He’s very, very good at grasping certain things. John Wetton was really good at giving him tips, as the main lyricist. So he’d give him ideas and Roger would come back with an idea. Often with Roger, his artwork was very central. There’s always a central figure like the serpent on the first album, the eagle on Alpha, the robot girl on Astra. He’s very, very good at doing that. One of the features of his artwork is that it’s very striking, the images that he manages to get across. He’s still very relevant today, you know, for him to have been doing what he does and still be around, being creative and breaking new barriers, it’s great.

Take me back to the moment when you got this current Asia lineup into a room for rehearsals.
I’d sort of reached out to all of them individually prior, so they had some idea of what we’re going to be dealing with. The amazing thing was, when everyone started playing, it just sounded so alive. Harry is a dead ringer for John in many ways in terms of his vocal delivery and his general presentation. He was a real find. To me, he’s a very, very talented guy, there’s no question about that. … It seemed like a very, very nice way of paying tribute to John as much as anything else. You know, the idea that we could put together this team of musicians that would really do justice to Asia’s music. John’s always in my mind. Obviously, I had a fantastic friendship and writing relationship with John. We broke down some walls with our writing. It was always a very inspirational day spent writing with John. I cherish those memories.

Watch Asia Perform ‘Only Time Will Tell’ on 2024 Tour

With all of the different evolution that Asia went through, it’s a special thing that eventually you and John, Carl and Steve were able to reunite.
The reunion period was very rewarding for us. Prior to that, I don’t think we felt that we’d ever get back together again with the original lineup. It lasted a good seven or eight years and we did three or four albums in the interim. It was really rewarding because I think all of us felt that we never really gave it a long enough shot. The original lineup only lasted a few years at the beginning. It was nice to go back to that and revisit it. No one had any qualms. There were no gremlins; there was no backbiting. Everyone just said, “This would be a great idea. Let’s give it a shot.” Those were very happy times, to come together like that in 2006. We did some extensive touring and recording. I’ll always have fond memories of that period too.

It feels like it put a better end on that particular period of Asia, compared to how it wrapped up originally.
I think it started another chapter in the book. We felt the book was too thin, so we added some more chapters. It was a great thing. Once Steve left in 2013, we’d covered a lot of ground. He was getting too busy with Yes at the time or didn’t feel that he could [focus] his attention to two completely different projects. But you know, we carried on. We did another album, Gravitas, which was good and did a tour. The thing is, with Asia, it’s always had a slightly amorphous feel about it. There have been people in and out throughout the years. But obviously, the original lineup is something that I hold very dear. At the same time, it’s obviously not going to be the same, because we don’t have John anymore. We can’t really do anything about that but I think he would have wanted me to carry on and go out and promote the songs and play to the fans. You know, Asia was very important for a lot of people at the time. It was the biggest selling album of 1982. We had an enormous following at that time. A lot of the college students were really into Asia. Obviously, everyone is grown up now. There’s a whole new generation of [fans, as well]. But certainly from my standpoint, I think it’s important that there’s some great music there. It should be performed.

You’ve talked about how the bulk of the Asia members had spent a lot of time working on progressive music and you came from more of the pop side. But you’d done Drama with Yes. How did that expand you creatively as a musician?
Trevor and I were both big Yes fans, as well as Genesis. Even though our direction had taken us to the pop area, we were still big into Pink Floyd, Yes and Genesis, King Crimson and all of those bands. We’d grown up on that stuff. Sometimes, we had to make a living and a lot of the living that we did was through session work, backing bands and all of that sort of thing. It was only really when we decided to go ahead with the Buggles [that things changed], but we still had some progressive elements in the Buggles. Even though it’s pop, it’s quirky pop. It’s not your regular straight song-orientated stuff. We experimented with technology a lot. I think that’s one of the things that when we got involved with the same management as Yes, I think Chris, Steve and Alan were not doing a lot at the time – or they were just rehearsing as a three-piece. Of course, Trevor being a singer and me being a keyboard player, there was a space there. They asked us one day, “Do you want to write a song for us?” We got into a rehearsal room with them and started working on a few bits and pieces. I think “Machine Messiah” was the grounding thing we started.

We also had a song called “I Am a Camera,” which was a Buggles song. They redeveloped that and it turned into “Into the Lens.” So we kind of morphed into Yes. I think they really appreciated having a couple of technological guys in there because, you know, they’ve done all of the big stuff. They’d done the 20-minute “Close to the Edge” [type of songs]. They’d done Tale From Topographic Oceans and all of these great, fantastic big songs, but they were looking for something a bit more up to date, I think. So, it was a big turning point for Yes at that time, going from the ’70s into the ’80s. The Drama album is really the pinnacle of that for them. We helped to inject some modernism. Certainly, a lot of the lyrical stuff of Yes, it’s fabulous but it was a lot of pastoral lyrics and stuff like that – whereas when we came in, there were crunchy sounds and I think it really started Yes into the direction they took in the ’80s, certainly when Trevor Rabin came in and Trevor Horn produced 90125. I think Drama was really the paving stone for that going forward.

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