CCCP (Norway)

Rather than coming from Russia CCCP came from a number of different corners of the world including Sweden, Britain and America. The original band was to have included the late Gary Holton who unfortunately died before the project could be finalised. Enter John Payne who was at the time
in the eighties beginning to build a reputation as a vocalist on the London recording scene.

John would go on to work briefly with ELO II and also record backing vocals on Roger Daltrey’s albums Under A Raging Moon and Can’t Wait To See The Movie. He is perhaps more famous for replacing John Wetton as the vocalist and bassist in Asia for fifteen years between 1991 and 2006 recording more than ten albums with the band and touring the world a number of times. Since John left Asia he has appeared as the Parson Nathaniel in Jeff Wayne’s musical version of The War Of The Worlds and also formed a new band with Jay Schellan and Guthrie Govan entitled GPS.

CCCP was put together by a producer and conceived as a studio project in 1986 which featured a number off different vocalists including John Payne and Carlene Carter. The album includes a number of cover versions including a cover of the Eagles song One Of These Nights which is sung by John Payne.

This release is the first time that the album has received a general worldwide release and as such will appeal to long time fans of John’s work both as a solo artist and his work with Asia.