ACCESS ALL AREAS

I ordered this fairly cheap item of the Edsel Records' series Access All Areas CD+DVD without knowing the actual content in advance. Sometimes in the nineties, when Asia didn't much matter to me anymore (their 1982 debut had been among my earliest vinyl infatuations at the tender age of 12 or 13 when I started listening to the vinyls of my big brother and big sister), I temporarily had the CD of the live in Moscow '90, with which I thought this one to be rather similar. So, I knew not to expect very much in the sonic sense (largely because of the absence of Steve Howe on guitars), but I was slightly hoping the track list in the similar manner to contain some non-Asia songs such as King Crimson's 'Starless' or 'Book of Saturday', in vain.

This is the very same live set as the cd titled Now: Live in Nottingham (released in 1997), recorded in Central Television's Nottingham studios in June 1990. Guillermo writes in his two-star album review that "[Pat] Thrall is a good guitarist in his own style, which is predominantly a Heavy Metal style, and almost all the time he is playing a distorted guitar, and also playing the songs without adding some parts that Howe played in the albums. Howe used more varied sounds for his guitars in Asia, but Thrall was playing with the same sound most of the time." Exactly. Once you get over that, to the whatever-possible degree anyway, you can enjoy the fairly nice if also pretty predictable set of 13 songs in roughly 62 minutes. From the debut it contains 'Wildest Dreams', 'Sole Survivor', 'Time Again', Only Time Will Tell' and the obvious hit 'Heat of the Moment'.

'Don't Cry', 'The Smile Has Left Your Eyes', 'The Heat Goes On' and the gig-ending 'Open Your Eyes' originate from the second album Alpha (1983). 'Voice of America' and 'Go' are from Astra (1985) in which Mandy Meier replaced Howe on guitar. Two songs in this set were at the time new ones appearing on the compilation Then & Now (1990): 'Prayin' 4 A Miracle' and 'Days Like These'. I had no recollection of hearing them before, though it's possible that I've sometimes listened through the compilation, and unsurprisingly I wasn't much impressed by them.

As said, sonically the performances are inferior to what the original line-up would make them. Thrall is definitely not Howe, despite looking a bit like a blonde, more handsome and younger version of that old geezer. He smiles most of the quartet and therefor seems actually rather sympathetic on stage. He and Geoff Downes wear black leather clothes almost like something from the original Dune movie. Sadly it must be said that the band doesn't seem to have much of a contact to the audience, despite the small-looking standing venue. They just concentrate playing the songs faithfully to the studio versions. And there really isn't much to say about the visual side of the show. Spotlight rows with some variation in colours. Multi-angle camera work is OK, offering close-ups of each member.

This is worth the money if you don't expect too much of it. Liner notes also give a good picture of the band's early history. For a newcomer or a casual listener this set might easily replace a Greatest Hits sort of compilation, but for more advanced listeners it's notably less recommendable as a live DVD (or CD) than especially Fantasia - Live in Tokyo (2007) featuring the reunited original line-up of Wetton, Downes, Howe and Palmer.