Martin Page

Martin George Page (born 23 September 1959) is an English singer-songwriter and bass player.^[1]

Early life

Page was born in Southampton, Hampshire, England, to Alan Richard Page (an aviation engineer) and Ruth Pamela Page. During a good portion of his childhood, Martin moved with his family from military base to military base as a result of his father's career. During those times, he stated that he spent a lot of time listening to early Genesis, the Beatles, and Motown musicians.

Page was an apprentice at Southampton FC, a professional association football team.^[2] While he enjoyed playing within the Saints' apprentice program, Page spent a great deal of his time listening to live music and learning how to play his chief instrument, the bass guitar, and that ultimately began to affect his abilities as an association football player. After a good deal of thought and consideration, Page's love of music propelled him to leave his association football and become a professional bass player.

Solo Career

During 1994, Page issued his debut solo album In the House of Stone and Light. The title track, which he wrote after spending some time in reflection on a visit to the Grand Canyon, was issued in the same year. As a single In the House of Stone and Light got to No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100.^[3][4][1]

Soon afterwards Page went about some reflection as both of his parents and some dear friends passed away. He returned to the studio in 2008 to his second album, In the Temple of the Muse, on IroningBoard Records. IroningBoard Records was an independent label started by both Page and Poncher.^[5] Among the songs on In the Temple of the Muse are Page's own recording of "Mi Morena" and "Blessed," which is a song that Page has described as a "commitment song." He has also stated that "Blessed" is not about any person specifically,^[6] although he has stated that when his mother was still alive and around his studio when he was writing the song, she would plead with him not to play it because it would make her cry.

Page's third album, A Temper of Peace, was released in July 2012 with his fourth LP Hotel of the Two Worlds, being released in June 2015. As well during January 2017 he issued his fifth LP entitled The Slender Sadness (The Love Songs).^[3][4][1]

Q Feel and other artistes

At first Page toured as a session musician with several British bands. He went on to form the pop group Q-Feel with his friend Brian Fairweather. Q-Feel's experienced success with their hit single "Dancing in Heaven (Orbital Be-Bop)". Soon after such Page and Fairweather moved to Los Angeles, where they met music executive Diane Poncher. At the time Poncher was working for Bob Cavallo of Cavallo, Ruffalo and Fargnoli Management. She saw great potential in Page and Fairweather and eventually left the agency to became their manager.^[3][4]

With Poncher and Fairweather in tow, Page collaborated with some of his musical heroes such as Earth, Wind, and Fire, Kim Carnes and Barbara Streisand. He eventually went on to work with Elton John's frequent co-composer Bernie Taupin. Page and Taupin both wrote Starship's 1985 hit single "We Built This City" and Heart's 1986 hit song "These Dreams".^[3][4][1]

Page also played the keyboards for Ray Parker, Jr., on the Ghostbusters theme song. He again collaborated with Taupin on his 1987 album Tribe and later composed Go West's hit singles "King of Wishful Thinking" and "Faithful". As well Page has worked with artistes such as Robbie Williams,The Commodores, Robbie Robertson, Tom Jones and Josh Groban.^[3][4][1]

Personal life

Page lives in Southern California. He has never married, and he shares his home with his three cats.

Charts

Albums

Singles

References

External links

• Martin Page's Official Website
• The Martin Page Page (fansite) at the Wayback Machine (archived 26 October 2009)