LIVE AT THE TOWN & COUNTRY CLUB

This live album was recorded on the tour in support of my favourite Asia studio album of all time, 1992's Aqua. Aqua was the first album to feature John Payne on vocals and Payne and Downes formed a stable musical partnership that remained the core of the band for many years to come. Payne is a very good vocalist with his own voice and he sings both the new and the older songs well. The sound is not perfect, but it is better than many other Asia live albums (and there are incredibly many of them on the market - too many, I would say!). The present album is certainly among the better Asia live albums, and it might be the only one that does not feature the tedious Heat Of The Moment!

Four numbers from Aqua are performed here. There is a guest appearance by Steve Howe performing the superb and captivating instrumental Aqua pt. 1 (that opened the Aqua album). Geoff Downes performs a keyboard solo including an instrumental version of his old hit with The Buggles, Video Killed The Radio Star. I much prefer this instrumental version. The rest of the set consists of a few tunes from the pre-Payne era including two numbers from Astra in Go and Rock 'N' Roll Dream, both great and the latter is rarely performed. Only Wildest Dreams goes back to the (over played) debut.

I like this live album. One of its values lies in that the set list is not as predictable as many other of the band's live albums and includes some rarely played numbers.