John Payne has more than paid his dues in the rock business over the last twenty five years having worked with a number of high profile artists such as Roger Daltrey singing backing vocals on Roger's album Under A raging Moon. He was also briefly the vocalist with ELO II. However for fifteen years John Payne was perhaps best known as the vocalist and bassist with British Rock Band Asia. In that time John wrote and produced seven studio albums that found success across the world including the albums Aqua, Aria, Arena, Aura and Silent Nation. He also played countless concerts with the band in Europe America, South America and Asia.

Asia featuring John Payne released their new Military Man EP in July. The five track EP features re recordings of the tracks Military Man, Long Way From Home, Neurosaur and  Radio edits of Military Man and Long Way From Home. The band which features John Payne alongside Guthrie Govan, Jay Schellen and keyboardist Erik Norlander are also playing selected American dates throughout the summer of 2009. The Military Man EP is the first studio recordings from the band and released to coincide with the American tour dates.