Reunion news from Wetton:

Date: Sun, 18 Jun 1995 20:32:52 -0400
From: dave@clo.com (David Gallant)

        [from Asia newsletter #3]

John Wetton confirmed that he will be recording a new UK album with
Eddie Jobson this summer in N.Y. ! Also, Bill Bruford & Alan
Holdsworth will complete the line-up. However, John said that only he
and Eddie are "full time" in the project. Bill and Alan will
participate as their schedules allow.


Date: Wed, 28 Jun 1995 00:56:52 -0400
From: dave@clo.com (Dave Gallant)
Subject: Wetton Int.

John Wetton Interview
June 15,1995

Dave: So, to begin with, tell me - what are you up to?

J.W. : At the moment, I am in California to meet the people that will
be putting out the two albums. That would be Mesa (Chasing the
Dragon) and tomorrow I meet with the people at Avalanche (Battle
Lines). So, that's what I'm doing here right now. In about three
weeks I'll be going to New York to start the UK album. Eddie Jobson
and myself are planning to do another UK album. We've signed a
contract and it's about to start happening. We've been writing
separately - I've been writing in England and Eddie's been writing
in NY, and we just had this agreement that we wouldn't finish
anything until we met. We've left things open-ended. I have some
ideas for songs and lyrics, and we'll convene in three weeks time
and start working on the real thing. So that's the next thing in my
timeline so to speak. I can only look to the next project, it's very
difficult for me to think of what I'll be doing this time next year. I
know roughly what I'll be doing up until Christmas, but that's about it.

Dave: Do you have anyone else lined up to work on the UK project?

J.W. : Oh yeah, it'll be the same people as the first album.

Dave: So, Bill Bruford and Alan Holdsworth will be there full time?

J.W. : No I don't think so, it will just be Eddie and myself, and then
Bill will come in and do his contributions, and then Alan will come
in for his contributions. I don't see it as sort of an equal members
thing because Bill is a fully paid-up member of King Crimson,  and
he'll be there because he wants to be there but he's requested
"Special Guest" status.

Dave: And I guess Alan has his own solo-thing going as well...

J.W. : Yeah, that's right.


From: "brule" 
Subject: UK news
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 95 22:23:45 -0500

Wetton flew to NYC on July 17th and began work on the album at Eddie's
studio in NYC where the album will be recorded. John and Eddie are
producing the album themselves - evidently Eddie has installed quite a
bit of new technology for use during the sessions. The album is being
backed by Mitsubitshi of Japan and is to be finished by December 1 of
this year. During my 3-hour discussion with John on July 18, (only one
day into the project), they were discussing how to bring UK into the
90's. John stressed to me that the intention is to PROGRESS - not
REGRESS into the 70's. He definately does NOT want to rehash the past.
Nonetheless, if the group does not resemble that of earlier days, then
it doesn't make sense to call the group UK. So - it is this balance
that they were trying to work out during the early days of work on the
album. The plan was for John to go back to England with rough demos
from the sessions on July 25 and then return a month or so later with
more evolved versions of the demos.  According to John, Bill Bruford
and/or Allan Holdsworth could very well play on the album, but nothing
is confirmed at this point. He seemed to feel that UK will most
definately be touring - however, don't get your hopes up too much, (we
know how this stuff tends to work out). I will forward any new
information I get directly to Ron.

Scott Killian


*************  John Wetton Tapes Part II - July 24,  1995  *************


Dave: How's goes it in New York?

JW: We're over here really discussing concepts, for the UK thing. My 
purpose for being here is to do a bit of promotion on the two albums 
that I have coming out, the studio album "Battle Lines" and the live 
album "Chasing the Dragon". And, also to shake hands with a previous 
friend of mine who I haven't spoken to in 15 years. To see if we can
work together.

Dave: How is the UK project looking at this stage?

JW: OK! You know, music is really a confusing animal. Just during the
recording of one song, it goes from catastrophic to estatic. And it
goes backwards and forwards like a table tennis match until the final
mix is done. Then I'm really not sure until the next day when I listen
to it again and go "alright, that's good". Eddie's studio is still not
quite complete, but we've made three albums before, we can make
another one. What we want to do is to make a really good one. One that
leaps into the ninties.

Dave: Why do you find find yourself drifting back towards Eddie Jobson
and UK?

JW: We met again, it must have been about 18 months ago. And,
literally for the first time in 15 years. I was living in California
finishing off my album. Eddie had done this track with Roxy Music many
years ago where he multi-tracks his own violin and ends up sounding
like an orchestra. There was a song that I was recording that I
thought "if this song has an orchestra, it'll kill it", sort of like
Barry Manilow. What we need to do is sort of orchestra, but cool. I
immediately thought that this was the sort of thing that Eddie used to
do really well. I wonder if he still does it. I got his number, called
him up, and found out that he was about three blocks away from me at
that time! He lives in New York, but was in California for the
weekend. And we met up for lunch. For whatever reason, the song didn't
happen, but we talked about the possibility of working together again
and it literally went from that to becoming a reality when a Japanese
record company decided to become involved. That was completely
independent of us deciding to work together. The question came up as
to whether or not we'd be willing to do another album. Eddie's lawyer
called them up and said that we'd already been thinking about it.

Dave: Made it easier to have the built-in interest.

JW: Yeah, but that's certainly not the reason that we're doing it. I
felt that I needed to do something a little more challenging. I know
that Eddie's been doing commercials for 15 years, and I know that
there's a musician in him that is bored stiff. When we went our
separate ways in '79, we had points to prove. Maybe it's time that we
came back in and gave it another shot. It feels like a good time to do
it. I get the feeling listening to radio that music doesn't really
know where it's going. There's certainly a lot of interest in genuine
prog-rock as opposed to recycled prog-rock. We were doing something
today that I can't even begin to describe, it's so off-the-wall, but
really very good, very cool. Not what you'd expect at all...

Dave: You're teasing me. But, we've been waiting 16 years since 'Night
After Night', so I think we can wait a little longer.

JW: For me it all happened in a flurry. I suppose ASIA was considered
progressive in a way, but it wasn't truly in the spirit of the
seventies. I get the impression that we can have a lot of fun with
this record, we could do a lot of stuff that you're really not allowed
to do if you're tied to one of the big corporations. They want their
pound of flesh, the music they see.  We have the pleasure of being
with a flexible Japanese company that just want a great UK record.

Dave: How about a release date and the prospect of touring to support
the album?

JW: We have to hand it in by December 15 otherwise we're in a lot of
trouble {laughs}. I would say a release date sometime in March/April.
Touring...I think will be specific dates in specific places, not
everywhere in every club. Yes we'll probably be touring and we'll
probably have all the people who were on the first record.

Dave: They'll be on the album as well?

JW: Yeah. Basically the album will be myself and Eddie. But, with Bill 
Bruford & Alan Holdsworth as special guests.

Dave: They'll let you do the hard work first!

JW: That's right - then they'll come in and place the cherry on top of
the cake.

Dave: Are you and Eddie producing?

JW: It looks like it. I can't see anyone else coming in and possibly
understanding what we're doing. Eddie sees it as he's the producer and
I'm the artist. I always thought it was more 50-50 than that. Because
he hasn't been an artists for 15 years, he sees that {producing} more
as his role.

Dave: You'll have to help him come out of his shell.

JW: Yes. For someone like him, it's a very brave, dangerous thing to do. 

Dave: I recently heard of a new project of yours with Carl Palmer
called K2. Apparently there's another guitarist involved?

JW: Misha Calvin. It was a phone call I got from Carl a couple of months 
ago, I had already committed to the UK project. Carl called and said that 
he had a guy calling him about a guitar player that's supposed to be really 
hot, and are you interested in doing something? I had a lot going on with 
the two albums, UK, possible touring, but my curiosity got the better of 
me. 

[discussion of K2 and Mesa deleted]


JW: ...When I look back on some of the lyrics I wrote
for Crimson, and into the late 70's, they were often bitter and quite
damning. The eighties changed me to such an extent, that I discovered
that the artists that I really liked were the ones that really spoke
to me. It had been staring me in the face all the time. In fact, I
went to a Pink Floyd concert and got nothing out of it at all. All it
was for me was a carnival. A big light show, and lots of impressive
sounds. I then went to see James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, and Don
Henly. Each one of them in every song that they do is actually
speaking to you. They're reaching out and twanging your heart
strings. And I sit there in the audience and say "Yes! I understand
exactly what you're saying because I feel that way too!" I sort of
made a conscious effort on Battle Lines to go that way too. In 1990,
when ASIA played in Japan, my manager was at the show. He said that
the songs that really come across are the ones!  where you just pick
up an acoustic guitar and speak to the audience. He said THAT is your
strength! The guy I wrote most of the album with was Bob Marlette. And
we just made a conscious effort to keep the album along that vein. I
think it worked well, and we succeeded in many areas. I think in ten
years time we'll look back on it and say it really was a good
album. The move to speaking in the first person is quite a big step,
especially for someone like me - I have trouble telling a joke to a
room of three people. Painfully shy...

Dave: How will you take this new writing style into the UK project?

JW: This is one of the things that we've been talking about. Because
of the transition I feel I've made in the last twenty years in terms
of my writing, for me to go back to writing abstract art-rock - I
would see that as a huge step backwards. Maybe it will be an
amalgamation of the two.

[rest deleted]

[Reposted with permission from:]


ASIASIASIASIASIASIASIASIASIASIASIASIASIASIASIASIA

          The ASIAN ARMADA NEWSLETTER
                 dave@clo.com

       http://www.clo.com/~dave/dave.html

                 Dave Gallant

ASIASIASIASIASIASIASIASIASIASIASIASIASIASIASIASIA



Date: Mon, 9 Oct 1995 12:37:31 -0400
From: RICHARD.W.RAPP@adn.sprint.com
Subject: John Wetton - UK Project

Last night, in a interview on Ed Schakie's Classic Cafe show, (93.3 WMMR,
Phila), John Wetton confirmed a "reunion" of UK and an upcoming album
release.

He said Carl Palmer and Eddie Jobson have agreed to be in the project, and
that he was confirming the guitar player today. (He wouldn't say the name
prematurely).


Date: Tue, 13 Feb 1996 16:08:36 -0500
From: Dave Gallant 
Subject: UK

Ron:

I spoke with Wetton's wife last evening in NY, and she told me that he
was "in the studio, recording late into the night". I hope to speak
with him in the next few days. I'll let you know if I do.

Dave