GPS - 26/09/06

You've got to feel sorry for John Payne (Bass, Vocals), getting kicked out of a band who he had saved from going under 14 years ago. (that would be Asia by the way!) Anyway whilst Geoffrey Downes has got the original Asia line-up back together, along with John Wetton, Steve Howe and Carl Palmer. Guthrie Govan (Guitar) Jay Schellen (Drums) also found themselves out of a job, so together they formed GPS (Govan/Payne/Schellen, geddit!)

GPS released their first album "Window To The Soul" on the 28th August, here is a picture of the CD cover, it's very good indeed:


GPS appeared on stage at the very early time of half-seven, in fact they were already on when we got to Bradford Rios. As they were supporting Y&T they only got 40 minutes. They reproduced the sound of the album very well and were on fine form, but we only heard them do five songs... how many had we missed...

Here, as ever are some pix of GPS in action:




In-between the GPS set and Y&T, it seemed like a good idea to venture to the bar and get a pint for myself and Dave. Whilst i was at the bar, I bumped into Guthrie Govan who was also buying pints. We had a chat about how good the GPS album was, and how they weren't mean't to talk about the whole "Asia thing".

It was at this point I asked him "how many songs did you play?" To which the answer was "only six, as we only got a 40 minute support slot!" I was pleased we had only missed one song. It was at this point I got his "mate" to take the following photo of us:


Anyway his "mate" was actually Jay Schellen (the drummer - pay attention!), and got the following picture with him too:


They were both very cool and not your typical "rock star" types. They even laughed when i said "I hope you don't mind me telling you this, but I've got tickets to one of original Asia shows" to which Guthrie said "well at least you get two good bands now!"

So we shall see how Geoff Downes and the "original" Asia compare, come the 28th November at the Liverpool Academy.. That's all for now.