Asia to release Live In Tokyo triple vinyl set

Multi-platinum selling prog supergroup Asia will release a triple vinyl set of the band's 2007 live album Fantasia: Live in Tokyo 2007 through BMG Records on February 24. it's the first time the set, which was originally released through Eagle Records in June 2007, has been made available on vinyl.

Fantasia: Live in Tokyo 2007 was recorded on the band's original line-up reunion tour to celebrate Asia's 25th anniversary. The original line-up of Geoff Downes, Steve Howe, Carl Palmer and John Wetton reunited in 2006, after Downes severed ties with John Payne, which whom he'd been running Asia with since 1992's Aqua.

The original line-up announced their reunion and headed out on tour in America in late 2006, reaching Japan in 2007, where they recorded their show at Tokyo's Kōsei Nenkin Kaikan venue on March 8.

The setlist focuses on their globally successful 1982 debut album Asia and second LP Alpha, and includes one song each of the members’ previous bands - Buggles' Video Killed The Radio Star, Yes's Roundabout, ELP's Fanfare For The Common Man and King Crimson's The Court Of The Crimson King.

The reformed line-up went on to record three studio albums together, Phoenix (2008), Omega (2010) and XXX (2012) before Howe quit once more. He was replaced by young UK guitarist Sam Coulson on 2014's Gravitas.

Wetton sadly succumbed to cancer in 2017. The band toured in 2018 with Yes bassist Billy Sherwood in the Wetton role and Sons Of Apollo's Ron 'Bumbelfoot' Thal on guitar. He has since been replaced by former Keith Emerson guitarist Marc Bonilla.

Pre-order Fantasia: Live in Tokyo 2007.

Artists

Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.