Geoff Downes

Geoff Downes is one of those musicians who keeps showing up at the center of history, and I mean that in the best possible way. He co-wrote and performed "Video Killed the Radio Star" with the Buggles — the very first video ever played on MTV — which alone would be enough to cement his legacy. But then he went and joined Yes at their commercial peak, played on Drama, and somehow topped that by co-founding Asia, whose self-titled 1982 debut spent nine weeks at number one and produced "Heat of the Moment," one of the defining anthems of the decade. Decades later he's still the keyboardist holding Asia together, touring and recording well into the 2010s and beyond. The man has an uncanny nose for the right band at the right moment, and his synth work is unmistakably lush and melodic — pure early-'80s grandeur that never gets old.

Name (English)

Geoff Downes

Name (Japanese)

ジェフ・ダウンズ

Reading

じぇふ・だうんず

Born

August 25, 1952 (age 73)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Virgo / Dragon

Origin

Stockport, United Kingdom

Occupation

record producer / keyboardist / songwriter / musician / rock musician

Awards & achievements

• Order of the Badge of Honour

Motto

Private

• Official sitehttps://geoffdownes.com/
• Xhttps://x.com/asiageoff
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B8%E3%82%A7%E3%83%95%E3%83%BB%E3%83%80%E3%82%A6%E3%83%B3%E3%82%BA

Tags

• record producer
• keyboardist
• songwriter

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.