Geoff Downes
Geoffrey Downes (* 25. August 1952 in Stockport , Cheshire ) is an English rock - keyboardist .
Life
youth
Downes grew up in a musical family. His father was a church organist and his mother a pianist. Downes began to study keyboards and played in several local bands before he began studying at the Leeds College of Music in 1972 . He studied classical music and jazz there and was very interested in the jazz rock keyboardist Herbie Hancock . At that time he also played in the band She's French .
In 1975, after graduating, Downes moved to London , where he worked as a session keyboarder and composed commercials. at the same time he played in several bands, including the Roy Carter Band.
Camera Club, 1976-1979
While auditioning for the band of pop singer Tina Charles in 1976 he met Trevor Horn . Shortly afterwards, Downes and Horn founded the band Camera Club together with Bruce Woolley , Thomas Dolby and Hans Zimmer . However, this combo did not have a long life.
The Buggles, 1979-1981
After the end of Camera Club, Downes, Horn and Woolley formed the pop band The Buggles , which soon after the founding shrank to a duo consisting of Downes and Horn. With this line-up, the Buggles released their debut single Video Killed The Radio Star in 1979 , which was a huge international success. The video was the first ever shown video clip of the music channel MTV . In 1980 the debut album The Age Of Plastic was released, followed by Adventures in Modern Recording in 1981 .
Yes, 1980
The Buggles were under contract with Brian Lane, the same manager as the progressive rock band Yes, and happened to work in the same studio as the early 1980s Yes members Steve Howe , Chris Squire and Alan White . As big Yes fans, Downes and Horn watched the three musicians working on new songs. Her questions about singer Jon Anderson and keyboardist Rick Wakeman , who had recently left the band, were initially answered evasively. Horn then tried to sell Yes a song called We can fly from here . Squire was interested, and as Steve Howe and Alan White were not available at short notice, a session with Squire, Horn, Downes, and drummer quickly became Bill Bruford organized, during which you We can fly from here rehearsed.
It was only after some time that it was revealed to Downes and Horn that Anderson and Wakeman would no longer join Yes. Presumably they wanted to keep the possibility of reconciliation open as long as possible. It was only when the time was running out for a tour that had already been booked, towards the end of the sessions, that Downes and Horn were asked if they wanted to become Yes members. Both agreed and the album Drama was completed in record time by combining the Yes material with some of the Buggles' songs. Yes then went on a tour with this line-up, during which We can fly from here was also played, but which did not find its way onto the album.
Trevor Horn's vocal problems, especially with the old Yes titles, and an argument with White put a strain on him and the atmosphere in the band. At the end of the tour in the USA and England, which was quite short by Yes standards, it was clear that Yes was about to end for the time being.
Asia, 1981-1986
Yes guitarist Steve Howe then teamed up with bassist and singer John Wetton at the suggestion of Brian Lane . They rehearsed together for a while and worked out early versions of the later Asian songs Cutting it fine , Without you and Here comes the Feeling , all of which were based on Wetton's ideas. John Kalodner , then at Atlantic Records, brought together a team led by Wetton and Howe, consisting of Lane, David Geffen (who later co-founded the Dreamworks film studios), who had just founded his own record label, Geffen Records , and Queen producer Mike Stone duration. Next they turned to drummer Carl Palmer , previously with Emerson, Lake & Palmer . He agreed, but suggested adding a keyboard player to the band, as he saw keyboard-oriented rock music coming in the 1980s. Howe then suggested Geoff Downes - the supergroup Asia was complete.
Downes worked at this time to a small extent on the second and last Buggles album Adventures in Modern Recording , but his main use was Asia. With this band Downes initially recorded 3 albums ( Asia , Alpha and Astra ) before the band broke up for the first time in 1985.
Solo, 1986 to 1989
After the band broke up, Geoffrey Downes produced the first album by Steve Howe's new band GTR in early 1986 . He had already left Asia a year earlier. In 1987 Downes also produced the second GTR album, which has remained unreleased to this day. At the same time, Wetton and Downes continued to write songs together, albeit without specifically considering a new project.
In 1986 Downes' first solo album The Light Program was released , which contained five multi-part suites, all of which were instrumental keyboard pieces. Downes produced the album himself and played all the instruments.
After a failed reunification attempt under the name Asia, with Wetton, Downes, drummer Michael Sturgis and guitarist Scott Gorham (ex- Thin Lizzy ), Downes, Sturgis and Gorham teamed up with Phil Spalding , the former bassist, and Max Bacon , the former GTR singers got together to write songs for a project called Rain , which never came to fruition. Also involved was the songwriter Johnny Warman and from the beginning of 1988 the singer and bassist John Payne , whom Downes had met through Spalding. During these sessions, numerous songs were created, which were sung by both Bacon and, later, Payne and some were only released years later on albums by Asia, Bacon and Downes. Moon under Water and Satellite Blues appeared on Downes' solo album Vox Humana (1993).
Around the same time, Downes turned to the idea of turning the theme of his Buggles hit Video killed the Radio Star into a musical, but despite the collaboration with Andrew Lloyd Webber writer Don Black , nothing came of it. However, there are demos that were sung in part by GTR singer Robert Berry in the winter of 1986/1987 .
Downes now turned to a new supergroup project that brought him together with former King Crimson drummer Michael Giles and former Asia and ELP singer Greg Lake . This had separated from Keith Emerson, who in turn worked with Carl Palmer and Robert Berry, who had meanwhile left GTR, under the name Three on a new album. The year-long collaboration between Downes ', Lakes and Giles' under the project name Ride the Tiger resulted in eight new songs, some of which have remained unreleased to this day. The song Street Wars later appeared on the Emerson, -Lake - & - Palmer album In the hot Seat , Love under fire can be found on the Asia album Aqua . Two other tracks were on Lakes From The Beginning. The Greg Lake Retrospective released.
Back at Asia, 1989 until today
In late 1989, Downes was brought back to Asia by Wetton and Palmer. As a permanent guitarist, the three brought Pat Thrall into the band, who had previously played with Meat Loaf and Pat Travers . With this line-up the band went on tour. A new album ( Then And Now , 1990) only reached number 117 in the USA and the single Days Like these also flopped. After the release of the live album Asia live in MOCKBA (late 1990), the band, it seemed, fell apart for good .
However, Downes brought Asia back to life in 1991 with John Payne and a few other new musicians and is still active with Asia today. He played a key role in the songwriting and had a lasting impact on the music of Asia with his keyboard contributions. For many years he was the only founding member remaining in the band until the middle of 2006 when the original Asian line-up was reformed.
Further solo albums, 1991 until today
In 1991 ex- Deep Purple singers Glenn Hughes and Geoffrey Downes worked together on demos for a solo album by Hughes. The recordings represent the new style that Hughes wanted to embark on at the time and are reminiscent of Michael Bolton , with a certain soul influence . It stayed with the demos, the recordings were only released in 1998 under the title The Work Tapes .
In addition to his work for Asia, Downes continued to release solo albums: first Vox Humana (1992, on Jimco Records), which, as the successor to the instrumental The light program, also contained sung pieces, including some cover versions, e.g. B. Video Killed the Radio Star and Plastic Age from the Buggles, Ave Maria (Bach / Gounod), and White Car (Yes). The songs were sung by Max Bacon (GTR), Emma Stace and John Payne (Asia), among others . Many of the pieces were created in 1988/1989 at Advision Studios, where Downes had worked as a producer. Some of them, including Tears from February 1988, had been earmarked for the Rain Project. For the European release, Downes replaced the instrumental version of Video Killed the Radio Star with one sung by Glenn Hughes.
Evolution (1993) contained instrumental versions of songs that had shaped Downes' career (including Totos Africa , Bon Jovis Livin 'On a Prayer , The Moody Blues ' Nights in White Satin , Foreigners I Want to Know What Love Is , Procol Harums A. Whiter Shade of Pale , Led Zeppelins Stairway to Heaven and Kansas ' Dust in the Wind ).
The World Service was released in 1999, followed by Shadows And Reflections (2003) four years later , which contains two almost half-hour ambient compositions.
Icon (Wetton / Downes), 2005 to date
Since 2005, John Wetton and Geoff Downes have been releasing studio and live albums under the name Icon on a regular basis. A total of five Icon publications have appeared to date. Wetton and Downes see this band project as musically completely independent of Asia; in future both formations should continue to exist in parallel.
Again at Yes, 2010 until today
At the end of 2010 , Trevor Horn, the producer of the Yes album Fly from Here , which was in the works at the time , suggested that Downes record some passages of the new material, since Yes with We Can Fly from Here , We Can Fly from Here Part 2 (later Sad Night at the Airfield ) and Life on a Film Set recorded some previously unreleased Buggles songs. Soon after, the then Yes keyboardist Oliver Wakeman was completely replaced by Downes: The reason was that Downes' much better known name would ensure better sales. In addition, both Icon, Asia and Yes were under contract with the record company Frontiers Records. Wakeman did not leave the band willingly.
Downes subsequently replaced Wakeman's keyboard parts with the exception of a few remnants and since then, in addition to his commitment to Asia and Icon, has been an official member of Yes again. In 2011 he went on tour with the band.
Discography
With The Buggles
With yes
With Asia |
solo
With Glenn Hughes
With John WettonAs John Wetton & Geoffrey Downes or Wetton / Downes
As an icon
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Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Downes, Geoff |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Downes, Geoffrey (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British rock keyboardist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 25, 1952 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Stockport , Cheshire |