Since the Yutaka Kimura Speaks series ended back in the summer, I have occasionally used the space and time for the fifth article of Urban Contemporary Fridays on KKP for a band from the States or Europe that has exemplified an AOR sound from the 1970s and 1980s. So I've featured Young Gun Silver Fox and Ole Børud.
Well, another one that I'm bringing over to "Kayo Kyoku Plus" is Page 99, started up in the early 2020s and spearheaded by John Nixon and surrounded by a number of other artists who love their AOR. Of course, as with many other people seeing this name for the first time, I wanted to know how Nixon came up with "Page 99". According to their website, it was a combination of the band Pages and the song "99" by Toto which I have yet to cover as a ROY article but you can take a look at my ROY for their "Toto IV".
Anyways, in 2022, Page 99 came out with their second album "For Imagination's Sake" and the title track is another groovalicious tune with AOR veteran Bill Champlin helping out on vocals. There's some fine work by Nixon on the keyboards and you gotta have the sweet sounds of a saxophone. Nice vocal arrangements, too. Coincidentally enough, "For Imagination's Sake" popped up at me on the YouTube AOR channel West Coast 99.
I have heard the name Bill Champlin before, but I do not believe I ever listened to his music, before. I would say that he seem to have some soul in almost a American country music/jazz kind of way.
ReplyDeleteChamplin's got that twang in there which could make me think that he could have done some country music during his career. Usually though, I place him in AOR so it's possible that not a lot of people have heard him.
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