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Asia biography

The group released Aria in May 1994, which featured lead guitarist Al Pitrelli once again, who would leave Asia during the short Aria tour. This illustrates how the keyboard-driven band often faced trouble keeping a regular guitarist. Aria did not fare well commercially and the ensuing tour was limited to four concerts. Ex-Simply Red guitarist Aziz Ibrahim took over during the tour. Aria also introduced new drummer Michael Sturgis, who had been involved during the band's aborted 1987 reunion and had appeared on some of the sessions for Aqua.

Over New Year's Eve 1996, a broken pipe inundated the control room in Downes and Payne's recording studio, Electric Palace, in London. Amid the lost equipment, a vault containing unreleased material was found intact. The band decided to release the double-disc Archiva, a collection of unreleased tracks recorded during the first three Downes/Payne albums. Next, Arena, released in February 1996, featured Downes, Payne, Sturgis, Ibrahim and guest guitarist Elliott Randall (ex-Steely Dan, Randy Crawford). The album featured Asia's longest track ever in "The Day Before The War". The album was released on Resurgence Records but there was no tour because of lack of interest. The group's lone promotional performance in conjunction with the album occurred on April 19th, 1996 when Downes and Payne appeared with guitarist Elliott Randall on the Virgin FM radio program Alive in London to play the song "Never".

An all acoustic album, Live at the Town & Country Club, was recorded by the group in September 1997 (and released in 1999) that featured a lineup of Downes, Payne, Ibrahim and Bob Richards on drums.

In 1999, there was talk of a reunion of the original lineup (minus Howe). The original proposition included Dave Kilminster on guitar, who had previously toured and recorded with John Wetton. While Howe was interested in participating, he was unable because of his busy schedule with Yes. This reunion did not take place and John Payne continued to carry on Asia with Downes uninterrupted. Wetton and Palmer did, however, get together to form Qango, which included Dave Kilminster and John Young, although the band was short-lived. Dave Kilminster went on to work with Keith Emerson and Roger Waters. In 2000, Geffen/Universal released a best-of entitled The Very Best of Asia: Heat of the Moment (1982-1990) which also included three rare B-sides from the early days.

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