Where are they now? - Geoff
Downes
This page last updated: 8 Jul 2025
On this page: Solo - DBA - Zorbonauts - Other projects
On other pages: Yes - Asia - With Trevor Horn
Geoff
Downes' official sites: Official
site; Official
online store; MySpace page;
Twitter; Official
Facebook; Official
Fan Page on Facebook
Asia
& Yes
Downes remains busy in Yes (see
main page for their activity). He continues to lead Asia,
touring the US in summer 2024 (details are on the
Asia page). In a Jun
2023 interview, Downes said, "I still keep in close touch
with Trevor Horn, with Carl Palmer, with YES and with Steve
[Howe]. Those three bands [The Buggles, Asia and Yes] have really
never got away far from my career. I'm still able to go out and
still involved with those three bands." In a Mar 2021
podcast, asked what was next for him, Downes talked about The
Quest (then unnamed) and finishing off the last Asia tracks
written with John Wetton, before saying, "I've still got my solo
career that I, er, fish out from time to time". In a May
2021 interview (conducted Apr), he talked about currently
working on The Quest, but also how, "I have been quite
occupied, doing other smaller projects here and there." As for the
future, he talked about the 2021 Yes tour, then added, "And if
there are any opportunities for the DBA, ASIA, or even The
Buggles, I would be up for it."
Downes appeared at the Aug 2023 memorial concert for John Wetton:
see main page
for details.
Downes Braide Association
The Downes Braide Association (DBA; Facebook,
Twitter)
is Downes and Chris
Braide (ex-Producers,
This Oceanic
Feeling, written for Trevor Horn, Sia, Paloma Faith, Lana Del Rey, David Guetta, Cheryl Tweedy, Clay
Aiken, Will Young, Kylie Minogue, S Club 7). In early May
2024, Doug Curran reported
that they have been recording their sixth studio album. In mid-Dec
2024, he described
a 15-minute long piece and said, "As of now the album has 11
tracks". He continued, "Hopefully out next summer, but it will
depend on when the new Yes album drops next year [2025]." In late
Dec 2024, guitarist Dave Bainbridge (Iona)
said he had "finished most of the guitar parts" for the album. In
an Aug 2023 YMP interview, Downes also said, "We've already
started looking at the 6th album", while in a Sep 2023
interview, Braide said, "DBA 6 is actually written". Braide
described the album, "there's definitely more progressive". He
talked about one song, "Naked Memories", saying, "that's really a
big, long, like a "Skyscraper Souls" type [...] whole side [...]
So far, but who knows? It could change." In a Mar
2025 interview, published in Japanese, Downes said Braide
lives in Los Angeles and they are exchanging ideas remotely and
that it would be a while before the album is finished. (Recent
reporting had had Braide as having moved back to the UK. Has he
moved back to the US?)
Their fifth studio album, Celestial Songs was released 8
Sep 2023 on Cherry Red, with art by Roger Dean.
The title continues the band's love of alliteration. On 6 Apr
2023, the band's Facebook account shared a short
clip. Formats include a limited
edition box set with CD, vinyl and exclusive signed art
print (DBABOX06); a gatefold Digipak
CD (DBACD06); a gatefold
2LP (DBALP06); and digital. Downes is credited with piano,
keys and programming, while Braide is credited with vocals, piano,
keys and programming. The album was produced by Braide and Downes,
and mixed by Braide. It was mastered by Jason Mitchell. The album
is dedicated to Alan White and David Longdon. Tracks (67:40 total
duration), all tracks by Braide/Downes except where indicated
otherwise (spoken word segments by Ashton-Bullock):
The album made #7 in the UK rock & metal albums chart, #10 in the indie breakers album chart (albums by artists who have not yet made the top 40), #27 in the indie album chart, #63 in the album sales chart, and #60 in the physical albums chart.
The band on the album are Downes, Braide, Ash Soan (ex-Trevor
Horn Band/Producers, Rick Wakeman,
worked with Dua Lipa, Adele, Will Young, Seal; drums on
all tracks with drums, except 1), Andy Hodge (worked
with Gary Husband; fretted and fretless bass) and Dave
Bainbridge (electric & acoustic guitars, madonlin, bouzouki).
Tim Weller also plays drums on "Look What You Do" and additional
drums on "Goodbye to You" and "On the Run". Marc Almond (Soft Cell, worked with Chris Braide, Trevor Horn)
guests singing on "Darker Side of Fame"; he appeared on the band's
previous studio album, Halcyon Hymns. Also returning is
Barney Ashton-Bullock (worked with Andy Bell,
Giorgio Moroder, Dusty Springfield). Francis Dunnery (It Bites, ex-The Syn, worked with ABWH)
guests with additional vocals and guitar on "Keep on Moving",
which also features a keyboard solo from Bainbridge. In an
interview with Prog magazine, Braide explained that
Dunnery had come in to work on another project of Braide's, but
his guitar contributions didn't fit. However, Braide said, "I
thought they were great. So Geoff and I wrote the song around that
lick, and it really makes the song." There are also songwriting
credits for Andy Partridge (ex-XTC), who
guested with DBA previously. Partridge helped finish the lyrics
for "Goodbye to You (Sister Shame)". In an Aug
2023 interview with Yes Music Podcast, Downes said Celestial
Songs is not a concept album, but that there is "a
continuity" to the lyrics. Downes described "Darker Side of Fame":
"It tells a story, a theme that a lot of people, and a lot of
musicians, can relate to – certainly musicians that have had any
kind of success. The lyric is very poignant, whilst you have all
the glory, the accolades and the adulation, it can go away and
you're left with nothing. It reflects life in general, I think, as
people go through all kinds of ups and downs throughout their
careers and throughout their lives." About the album generally, he
said, "There's a lot of variety on the album [...] We were aiming
to get quite a bit more dynamics into this album because there
were some very quiet pastoral moments." Braide described the
album: "As we were writing the songs for the album, they started
to become thematic in emotion and feeling[.] More classic rock
than the predecessor Halcyon Hymns. The songs were about
life and death, time, love, nostalgia, spirituality." He said
about "Beyond the Stars" that it "was a tune that began in 2015
and really shaped the way the artwork was to develop. Something
bigger than us, something astral and heavenly, it grew from a
3-minute ditty to an 11-minute epic." He also said they came up
with the album title in 2020.
On Facebook,
Braide said he had the verse melody for "Clear Light" and nearly
all of the lyric in 2015, but no chorus. Downes then came up with
a chord progression in a "weird" time signature. The lyric is
about "ego and how it can blind you to the beauty of things".
"Beyond the Stars" is another song begun in 2015. In a later Facebook
post, Braide talked about "Will to Power", saying the verses
and more were written during the writing of Skyscraper Souls,
but they felt the song didn't fit on Skyscraper Souls or Halcyon
Hymns. He also said the middle section of "Heart Shaped
Hole" was by Downes, while the rest of the song, he said in another
interview, he wrote some years ago. "Dear Petra" is based on
a piano melody from Downes; Braide's lyrics were originally about
child abuse, but were then re-written to be about the war in
Ukraine.
The band finished making the album in Apr 2022. The band's
Twitter account said 31 Mar 2022, "We have just had the mix and
master back from our engineer." Reports
had had the album possibly coming out in Mar 2023, but it was
delayed. In Jan 2023, the band shared pictures of test pressings
of the vinyl album. On
22 Feb 2023, they announced:
Thank you all for being so patient for updates on the next DBA album.
We have moved the release date towards the end of the year [2023], but pre-orders will be available in a few months time.
We will also be releasing some extra special products for you all.
Downes said in a May
2022 interview with Yes Music Podcast that the release would
be around Sep/Oct 2022. He also said there would be less spoken
word than on Halcyon Hymns. In a late
Jun 2022 tweet, he said they were looking at Oct 2022 for a
release, with no live dates yet planned. Bainbridge said in a 2022
new year's update that he is "continuing to record guitar parts on
a whole host of great new tracks with Chris Braide and Geoff
Downes, which will become the fifth Downes Braide Association
studio album." He said to Doug Curran in Jul 2022 that the release
would be Oct/Nov and that 2 music videos are planned. He explained
vinyl manufacturing backlogs were causing a delay. Curran later
reported that the release has been delayed to Mar 2023, because of
vinyl manufacturing delays.
The band's Twitter account wrote on 31 Jan 2022 that, "Chris and
Geoff are back in the studio adding the finishing touches to some
amazing DBA tracks. Roger Dean is being kept busy too." Hodge said
on Facebook on 12 Apr 2022:
The latest DBA album is nearly ready! The title and release dates will be announced soon so please watch this space.
I’m overjoyed to be playing bass on yet another fabulous collection of songs [...] this time deploying even more basses including: Fender Precision, Warwick Thumb V, Musicman Stingray 4-string fretted and 5-string fretless, and Squier Jazz fretless all make appearances; Rotosound strings, EBS MicroBass 3, various Boss pedals, and a smattering of Avid plug-ins all engineered by my good self in the comfort of my home studio.
Dean did live sessions painting the cover on
Facebook, from 1 Feb 2022; he finished the cover on 15 Mar
2022. His design is on his 2023 calendar.
Asked in an Aug 2023 band interview about touring, Braide said, "The live thing is always [...] the elephant in the room" for the band with both himself and Downes busy with other projects. He continued: "We just wait for our time in the [...] limelight [...] it will happen, y'know. It's just a case of when and how we do it." The Prog interview has that Downes "promises to fit in some new gigs around his commitments to Yes." It then quotes Downes: "Until now we haven't really had the opportunity, but next year [2024] we hope to travel around the country [presumably the UK] and take our music out there". In a Sep 2023 interview, Braide says touring "depends on schedules" and that Yes "comes first" in terms of live work, but that they would "love to do it". He continued, "I only want to do it if we can do it properly". He also said that he and Marc Almond will perform "Darker Side of Fame" at a joint live show in Nov 2023, and possibly further material from the album. In another Sep 2023 interview, he said they would also do "Warm Summer Sun".
On their fourth studio album, Halcyon Hymns
(Cherry Red), they were joined by Bainbridge (guitar, mandolin),
Hodge (bass) and Ash Soan (drums), with Ashton-Bullock providing 4
spoken word segments. Braide played some acoustic guitar and a bit
of electric guitar, while Bainbridge played all the guitar solos
and more. The musicians recorded their parts seperately during the
pandemic. Backing vocals were by Joe Catcheside and Braide's
children, Elijah and Sascha, while guesting were Almond and the
late David Longdon (Big Big Train)
on 1 track each. Roger Dean
live-streamed his painting of the cover artwork. The songs are
intended to reflect a bucolic, halcyon summer. Braide was the main
lyricist. The album is organised around its 4 LP sides; tracks:
With
Trevor Horn
The Buggles news is under Horn.
Some years back, the pair were working together on new material,
and there was talk of a possible tour and musical. Horn toured as
The Buggles without Downes in 2023, as support on a tour by Seal.
Some material, also with
Horn, is included on The Definitive Anthology 1977-1981
from Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club: see under Horn
for details.
Other news
In a Sep
2021 interview with Prog Radar, when asked about the
possibility of a new solo album, Downes replied, "I have been
thinking about doing something, although quite what that will be
is very open. I think I'd like to do something in a similar vein
to 'The Light Program' from 1987, a sort of 'stream of
consciousness' album of its time". Asked in the Oct 2020
interview about the possibility of doing another New Dance
Orchestra album, Downes replied, "I'm always open to doing another
one".
In a May
2022 interview, Downes said, "during lockdown John [Lodge (ex-The Moody Blues)] and I wrote a couple of
songs together; remotely of course (laughter). After that, John
sent me a song a couple of months ago and I was going to put some
keyboards on it, so I did that, and John really liked what I did
on it." The latter song appears to be "Whispering Angels",
included on the 5-song EP Love will Conquer All, out Feb
2025, and also with input from Jon Davison, Lodge's son-in-law. See more under
Davison.
Former Asia
guitarist, Sam Coulson,
released an 11-track solo album, Gold
Watch Blues, on 6 Sep 2024. The album was written and
produced by Coulson, and mixed and mastered by Russel Broom.
Coulson performs on guitars and vocals, Chris Byrne is on bass and
Chad Melchert on drums. Guest include Downes on organ on the
tracks "Blizzard" and "Rolling", Paul Gilbert on guitar on 1
tracks, Fred Mandel on organ on 2 tracks, and Morgan McKee on
organ and piano on 3 tracks.
Downes played on the Producers' 2012 album Made in Basing
Street with Trevor Horn. The album received a 5CD box set
re-release in Jul 2024, although I don't think any of the
previously unreleased material features Downes: see under
Horn for details.
Downes produced The Cold Light of Day
(Cherry Red Records) from rock band The
Cold Blooded Hearts, featuring Gareth Ainsworth,
released 21 Jul 2023 digitally, on CD
(CDBRED885SGND) and vinyl
(BRED885SGND). Details
in Yescography. Ainsworth is currently
the head coach of the football club Queens Park Rangers; he
played with various clubs, including Wimbledon and Queens
Park Rangers, before focusing on management. He has also
sung since childhood and been in various bands. He sings
lead vocals in The Cold Blooded Hearts (YouTube),
with Lee-Van Sargeant (guitar, vocals) and Luke "Chalky"
Sargeant (drums). Ainsworth and L-V Sargeant have worked
together for 20 years. They formed Dog Chewed the Handle in
2004, the band subsequently changing its name to The Cold
Blooded Hearts. Tracks:
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