Live review: Asia/Barclay James Harvest

There are so many 70s bands on the road with just one or two original members nowadays that the dividing line between an original band and a tribute act is getting just a little blurred. To take a random example, is a Thin Lizzy fronted by Jon Sykes really worthy of the name?

Both Barclay James Harvest and Asia are down to just one original member, bassist and vocalist Les Holroyd in the case of BJH, and ex-Buggles keyboardist Geoff Downes in the case of Asia. (To confuse things further, there are now two competing BJHs on the gig circuit!) Are they really 'genuine' bands? And how much does it really matter anyway? Manchester Academy 2 on Friday night was the place to find out.

Dare were the first of the three bands on the bill, playing a brief 30 minute set to warm up the audience for the double headliners. The set started with an awful muddy sound mix, although thankfully it got better after the first couple of numbers. To be honest, Dare never really rose about the level of a pub-rock band, which probably explains why they've never had much success even though they've been around for years. Nothing spectacularly bad about them; the playing was competent, but with one or two exceptions, most of the AOR-ish songs were rather ordinary.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from BJH. I'm only familiar with one of their albums, the live one recorded in Berlin twenty years ago. Sadly they played all of one song from it. The numbers they did play, which I gather was a mix of some songs from their 70s heyday and some much never material was more guitar-driven than I expected. In an interview Les Holroyd had stated that the setlist concentrates on songs he had written, which confirmed the impression I was getting; this was not so much Barclay James Harvest, as Les Holroyd plus a bunch of anonymous session musos. They were musically competent, I have to say, especially the guitarist. They just didn't seem that tight as a band, and too much of the material sounded the same, and came over flat and uninspired. The biggest single flaw was Les' vocals, desperately weak in places.

Disaster struck towards the second half of the set. Just as the show began to show a few signs of life, the power went out on stage; no amps, no mikes, no keyboards, nothing. After a few embarrassed minutes, they got the sound back, only for the power to fail a second time after about a minute of song intro. A much longer pause followed before the problems were finally fixed, and BJH were finally able to complete a now somewhat truncated set. But by now it was too late; they'd completely lost momentum, and any atmosphere had fizzled out. They're going to have nightmares about this show for months.

And so to the headliners. Asia have a strange history; a supergroup accused by some of having been put together by the record company, who nevertheless produced one classic album. Then the original supergroup dissipated following a disappointing second album. In most cases, that would simply have been the end of the story. In Asia's case, the least well-known band member recruited a bunch of relative unknowns, and carried on.

Asia's current lineup is Geoff Downes on keys (Formerly of The Buggles, and then Yes), John Payne on bass and vocals, Chris Slade (who's played with Tom Jones, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Uriah Heep and AC/DC) on drums, and Guthrie Govan on guitar.

Asia opened with barnstorming versions of "Wildest Dreams" and "Here Comes the Feeling" from that classic 23 year old debut. Asia had the tightness and unity of purpose that BJH had lacked; this was clearly a band, not a bunch of random musos on stage. But all four of them nevertheless have amazing chops. Frontman John Payne is very much the visual focus now, and someone not knowing their history would assume that he, not Geoff Downes, was the founder member of the band. His voice is a little more gravelly than that of John Wetton, but he's nevertheless made the older songs his own. Guthrie Govan cuts a frail-looking figure on stage, but there's nothing frail about his guitar playing, some of which is just amazing. And Chris Slade drumming is just monstrous.

The set naturally drew heavily from that first album, with I think six of the eight on it songs being played. Quite a bit came from their most recent effort, "Silent Nation", which I have yet to hear. John said that they've given up on album titles beginning and ending with the letter 'A' (Asia, Alpha, Astra, Aqua etc.) because they've run out of usable words; "Angina" or "Asthma" would not have worked! In the middle of the show they played an acoustic set, with some incredible duelling flamenco licks from John and Guthrie. And Chris Slade even managed to play a drum solo which wasn't boring! The only weak spot was the semi-instrumental version of The Buggles' big hit, "Video Killed the Radio Star" in Geoff's keyboard solo. That didn't really work; if they are to include it in the set at all, perhaps they should rework it as a rock number and get John Payne to sing it.

The finished as they began, with "Only Time Will Tell", and the encore "Heat of the Moment".

Overall, Asia put on a great show, clearly well-rehearsed and professional, although still very much enjoying themselves. The fact that they only have one original member left is only an incidental detail; the current lineup has very much gelled as a band, and were firing on all cylinders. But when it comes to Barclay James Harvest, I'm afraid I can't really say the same thing. To describe them as one has-been backed by anonymous sidesmen sounds cruel, but it's pretty close to the truth. A genuine tribute band would probably have put on a better show.

Official Asia web site www.asiaworld.org