On March 22, the band played the prestigious National Palace of Culture, in the center of beautiful, historic Sofia.  It was the band's first visit to Bulgaria and the 3750 capacity concert hall was packed, with many standing in the aisles. An enthusiastic audience sang along, not only to the standards, but also to the new songs from "Phoenix." The crew's tour bus then left for the drive through Serbia, onwards towards Italy. The band then flies to Milan, ready for the next show on Tuesday.

We are also pleased to share these photos from the March 19th Russian show.

We have a few more 2009 European shows to announce. Go here for a complete list of announced 2009 tour dates.

March 24 Milano, Italy - Rolling Stone
March 25 Zurich, Switzerland - Volkshaus
April 4      Warsaw, Poland - Stodola Club
April 5      Zlin, Czech Republic - Masters of Rock Cafe

"Phoenix" was included in Lucas Aykroyd's end of year top 10:

Asia Phoenix
With all due respect to Steve Carell, you needn't be a 40-year-old virgin to hail this pomp-rock reunion. Backed by the original 1982 lineup of guitarist Steve Howe, keyboardist Geoff Downes, and drummer Carl Palmer, singer John Wetton impressively voices his post-heart-surgery love of life on reflective, super-orchestrated anthems like "Never Again".

The complete list can be found on Georgia Straight's web site.

The band is pleased to announce a new set of tour dates. First up are the German dates (see below), with more dates to follow.

March 26 - Roth, Germany Kulturfabrik (Box Office: 0049-(0)1805-447-0111)
March 27 - Stuttgart, Germany Filharmonie Filderstadt (Box Office: 0049-(0)711-22 11 05)
March 29 - Köln, Germany E-Werk (Box Office: 0049-(0)1805-570070)
March 30 - Augsburg, Germany Spectrum (Box Office: 0049-(0)1805-570070)
March 31 - München, Germany Tonhalle (Box Office: 0049-(0)1805-570070)

April 2 - Bremen, Germany Pier 2 (Box Office: 0049-(0)1805-570070)

Plenty of exciting news to pass along. Several audio concerts from the recent PHOENIX tour have been approved for release through iTunes and on CD. To date, shows from Milwaukee, Barcelona and the ground-breaking San Francisco show (in which the debut album was played in its entirety - in order) have been made available for download on iTunes. The San Francisco concert is now out as a 2-CD package in the UK, with a US release scheduled for later this month. More shows are to come.

Please check out the press releases for shows from Barcelona, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Tokyo and Milwaukee. (NOTE: The release dates shown in the press releases are UK dates.)

Attention fans considering merchandise as a holiday gift (either for yourself or that special someone) - in order to ensure that your orders arrive on time, we encourage you to place your orders through our gift shop as soon as possible, with the following deadlines:
 
International Orders - December 12th
Domestic (US) Orders - December 15th

Please keep in mind - the earlier you place the order, the better!