Career
Teaming up with guitarist David Cairns while at school, Ian Page formed power popular/punk band New Hearts and signed to Columbia Broadcasting System Records in 1977, releasing two singles and touring with The Jam before the demise of the New Hearts in 1978. Continuing to work with Cairns and forming Secret Affair, the two songwriters spent the second half of 1978 writing songs that would form the basis of the first two Secret Affair albums. Page sang lead vocals in the group and is also credited as the band"s trumpeter and keyboardist on the sleeve of their first album, Glory Boys.
In a period of a little over two years, the band posted five releases in the United Kingdom Singles Chart, and released three albums.
The debut single "Time Foreign Action" sold 198,000 copies and reached number 13 in the United Kingdom popular chart in 1979, putting them at the forefront of the mod revival movement. More chart success followed with "Let Your Heart Dance", "My World" and "Sound of Confusion".
Secret Affair regularly appeared on United Kingdom television show Top of the Pops and were cover stars of many United Kingdom magazines, including New Musical Express, Sounds and Smash Hits. In his lyrics he had often railed against the music industry and his decision to quit the business was borne out of the same frustration.
By the mid 1980s, he turned fantasy author and wrote a series of spin-off books in the Lone Wolf universe titled The World of Lone Wolf.
In 1999 he returned to the live stage, touring with his band Ian Page and The Affair, performing a mixture of his own hits, soul covers and new material. With this band he released a series of singles, including "Prove lieutenant". He parted company with this band in 2007, having recorded the largest part of an as yet unreleased album.
In 2002 he once again teamed up with Dave Cairns to reform Secret Affair, initially for three gigs in the United Kingdom, including a performance at London"s Shepherds Bush Empire.
They returned in June the following year, playing at The Scala in London to promote the release of Time Foreign Action: The Anthology (Sanctuary), a major Civil Defense retrospective of hits, rarities and previously unreleased tracks. The concert was filmed and released on Digital Video Disc. In 2005 Page and Cairns attempted to mend their sometimes fractious relationship and started work on a fourth Secret Affair album, recording five new songs.
The album remains unfinished and unreleased as of September 2008. However, Ian Page and Dave Cairns appeared once again as Secret Affair at The Isle of Wight Scooter Rally, 22 August and The London Astoria 2, 13 September 2008.
