John Wetton
King Crimson bassist who became the frontman of Asia
JOHN WETTON, the singer, songwriter and bass guitarist, who has died aged 67, began his rock career as part of King Crimson’s re-formed line-up in the early 1970s, but enjoyed his greatest success as frontman of the 1980s “supergroup” Asia.
Formed in 1982 with Steve Howe and Geoff Downes, of Yes, and Carl Palmer, of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Asia enjoyed brief but stellar success with their listener-friendly “wall of rock” sound, but its members were sometimes accused of trading their progressive credentials for commercialised pap — “inflating conventional pop songs with pseudosymphonic grandeur”, as one grumbler put it. Wetton (once described in the Derby Evening Telegraph as “Derbyshire’s biggest rock export”) tended to ignore the brickbats.
He could afford to. Signed to the Geffen label, Asia’s eponymous debut album was the biggest-seller in the world on its release in 1982.
It spawned several Top 10 singles in Britain and the US, including Heat Of The Moment, Only Time Will Tell and Sole Survivor — all co-written by Wetton.
The 1983 follow-up album, Alpha, with top 10 singles Don’t Cry and The Smile Has Left Your Eyes, also became a bestseller. Afterwards, for various reasons, the four musicians went separate ways.
John Kenneth Wetton was born in Willington, Derbyshire, on June 12, 1949 and grew up in Bournemouth. He became interested in music after watching his older brother play the organ in church.
Piano was his first instrument, but despairing of ever being as good a classical musician as his brother, he turned to rock.
He played bass guitar in local bands as a teenager and after leaving school, moved to London, where he played in the groups Mogul Thrash and Family before joining King Crimson in 1972.
The band had originally formed in 1968 and had enjoyed huge success with its 1969 debut album In the Court of the Crimson King, before disbanding. In late 1972 the band’s frontman Robert Fripp re-formed King Crimson with Wetton, violinist David Cross, percussionist Jamie Muir, and drummer Bill Bruford.
The group’s initial release, Larks Tongues in Aspic (1973), combined wildly dynamic and experimental works in odd time signatures, and was followed by the equally experimental Starless and Bible Black (1974) and Red (1974).
Wetton felt that the reformed group might have gone on to become one of the biggest on the planet. But out of the blue in 1975 Fripp told him that he had decided to call it a day.
“I was devastated, no question about it, everything seemed to have been leading up to us entering the Pink Floyd league and then it was suddenly taken away,” Wetton recalled. “I didn’t understand Robert’s reasons then, and I still don’t.”
After brief stints with Uriah Heep, Wishbone Ash, Roxy Music (“before they reached the stage of having knickers thrown at them”) and an abortive attempt at founding the post prog-rock supergroup UK, Wetton fell on his feet with Asia.
Though Asia enjoyed commercial success, by the mid 1980s clashing egos and slower sales began to pull the band apart. Wetton left in the mid-80s, rejoining briefly at the turn of the decade only to leave once again.
During the 1980s and 1990s he pursued a solo career, releasing several albums and also working with artists such as Steve Hackett, Phil Manzanera and Geoff Downes.
In early 2006 the original Asia band members reunited and went on to release several more albums.
But Wetton endured a long struggle with alcoholism and heart problems which necessitated a triple bypass. Latterly he had been suffering from colon cancer. John Wetton, who died on January 31, married Lisa Nojain in December. She survives him with a son from an earlier relationship.