Where are they now? - Geoff Downes
This page last updated: 21 Feb 2012
On this page: Solo - iCon - Other projects
On other pages: Yes - Asia - With Trevor Horn - On John Wetton's solo album
Geoff Downes' official sites: Official site; Official online store; MySpace page; Twitter; Official Facebook
Downes
is in Yes, having replaced Oliver Wakeman. He was the main
keyboardist on Fly from Here and is
touring with the band—see main page.
Asia
The Four Original
Members of Asia
The original Asia line-up—namely Downes (keys), Steve Howe
(guitar), John Wetton
(ex-King
Crimson, UK; bass) and Carl Palmer (ex-Emerson, Lake & Palmer; drums)—are
touring and recording. They celebrate the band's 30th anniversary
this year. Details are
on the Asia page. Downes also joins Wetton in guesting
on Excalibur III: Origins
from Alan Simon, now out in France. And
he guested on Wetton's 2011 solo album, Raised in Captivity: see
here.
Solo
Downes' latest New Dance Orchestra
album, Electronica, is available online.
In an interview in the Feb 2011 Classic
Rock Presents... Prog, Downes said, "At the moment, I am
navigating myself into a fully fledged record deal for the album;
I'm looking at a pop label to put it out". Tracks: "Shine On",
"Forgiven", "Movin' On", "Rainbow's End", "Breaking the Spell",
"Love is Not Enough", "Jinx", "Hanging by a Thread", "Remember the
Day", "Dance to the Music of Time", "Walking Through the Fire",
"Golden Days". All instruments were programmed and performed by
Downes, but the album also features lead vocals throughout from
Anne-Marie Helder (Mostly Autumn, Panic Room,
ex-Karnataka, worked with iCon) and backing vocals from
former Buggles singers Linda Allan (ex-Chromium, worked
with Hans Zimmer) and Debi Doss (worked
with Mike Oldfield, The Kinks, Dave Gilmour, Steve Hackett,
Michael Jackson, Cilla Black). Downes also produced the
album. Samples are also available of all tracks online. Details
in the Yescography. The album was co-written with
Downes' long-time collaborator and lyricist Ben Woolfenden
(worked on Asia's Aqua,
Archiva 2 and Aura). Although
there are no plans at present, in the Prog interview, Downes floated live shows with
Helder as a possibility.
|
iCon The 2 CD live
release, due 27 Feb, is called Heat of the Rising Sun
(The Store for Music, SFMTFCD018) and was recorded in
Japan in 2009. The live band included of Dave Kilminster
(guitar) and Pete Riley (drums). Tracks: disc
1—"Countdown to Zero", "Let Me Go", "Elstree", "The Die is Cast", "Book of Saturday", "Tempus Fugit", "Rendezvous", "Angel", "The Night Watch", "In the Dead of Night", "Heat of the Moment", "Video Killed the Radio
Star"; disc 2—"I've Come to Take You
Home", "Twice the Man I was", "The Voice of America", "Battle Lines", "Rubicon", "Don't Go Out Tonight", "My Own Time", "Days Like
These", "Rock and Roll Dreams", "Meet Me at Midnight",
"True Colours", "Starless". The Buggles news is under Horn, including the possibility of more activity in 2012. Downes has been working with Horn further; as the Prog interview says, "[he] will be collaborating further with Horn, focusing more on songwriting and playing on Horn's production work than in a band situation." He was working in Horn's band, Producers, live and on a forthcoming album, but is not in the band for touring in Mar 2012. See under Horn for more details. |
Buy from Amazon (UK): |
Buy as import from Amazon
(US): |
[In Feb 2007] We [Downes, Holmes & Aubrey] were working on a few tracks that they have been putting together at their respective studios. At the moment it's what you might call a 'virtual' project, with people sending in their stuff/parts from all over the World. [...] It's a fairly interesting but low-key kind of project, and the material - quite different and unusual, but at the moment is still very much a kind of 'work-in-progress' type of thing. Any of you prog-heads out there will probably love it all and lap it upIn 2009, Aubrey described Pulse as being close to completion. In Jun 2011, one track, "Immortalized", was previewed on a radio show (available on podcast, see show 7B, around the 33 minute mark). Interviewed on the show, Holmes described how Aubrey put the album together and also on working on one Pulse track that is over 7 minutes long. It appears completion of the project is not expected until 2012. D'Virgilio said in a Nov 2011 website message that: