Voyager were an English pop-

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band, made up of Paul French, Paul Hirsh, Chris Hook, and John "Martyr" Marter. Dominic Telfer later replaced Hook.

Formation and main history

They formed initially in Newbury, Berkshire as The Paul French Connection with Paul French (vocals, keyboards), Paul Hirsh (keyboards, guitar), Chris Hook (bass guitar), and former member of Mr Big, John "Martyr" Marter (drums). Although they initially saw themselves as a

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. In ...

group, they had to tailor their style to a more commercial mood, as evidenced by their debut single, "Halfway Hotel". It was their only hit single, reaching No. 33 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, No. 15 in the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart in 1979 and duly becoming the title track of their first album. A second album ''Act of Love'' (1980) yielded a turntable hit (heavily played on music radio without ever entering the

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tab ...

), "Sing Out (Love Is Easy)". Part of the instrumental section of the single was used for some time thereafter as

background music Background music (British English: piped music) is a mode of musical performance in which the music is not intended to be a primary focus of potential listeners, but its content, character, and volume level are deliberately chosen to affect behav ...

for the chart run down on

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

each week. A third album ''Voyager'', followed in 1981 and featured Dominic Telfer on bass guitar, replacing Chris Hook. A single from this album, "Rosie", achieved some radio play but no chart success. In 1981, they undertook two key tours, promoting the third album. The first tour was in support of the Greg Lake Band (ex

Emerson, Lake & Palmer Emerson, Lake & Palmer (informally known as ELP) were an English progressive rock supergroup formed in London in 1970. The band consisted of Keith Emerson (keyboards), Greg Lake (vocals, bass, guitar, producer) and Carl Palmer (drums, percus ...

). During December 1981 the band supported the Electric Light Orchestra on the UK leg of their world "Time" tour. They played the Royal Highland Exhibition Centre at Ingliston near Edinburgh, Wembley Arena and Birmingham NEC.

Breakup

In the absence of further chart success, they subsequently disbanded. A

compilation Compilation may refer to: *In computer programming, the translation of source code into object code by a compiler **Compilation error **Compilation unit *Product bundling, a marketing strategy used to sell multiple products *Compilation thesis M ...

, ''Travels in Time - The Best of the Early Years'', was issued on CD in 2004, containing digitally remastered versions of thirteen songs from the first two albums, plus a previously unreleased track, "Time On Our Side". All three of the first albums, mastered from the vinyls, have now been released on CD by the Japanese record label, Air Mail Recordings. Marter later joined Marillion, then Alaska, and since 1994 has played with the SAS Band, a loose conglomeration of musicians and singers led by

Spike Edney Philip "Spike" Edney (born 11 December 1951) is an English musician who, since the 1960s, has performed with a number of bands, most notably with Queen in their live concerts, where his participation started in 1984 during Queen's The Works t ...

, former keyboard player on stage with

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. He and Hook have also worked with The Purple Project, a Deep Purple tribute band as well as the Yes tribute act, Fragile, while Hook also plays with Bluefish and with Ultimate Elton and the Rocket Band, a UK Elton John tribute group. Hirsh temporarily joined Status Quo for live performances in 2000, whilst their regular keyboard player and guitarist Andy Bown took a break for personal reasons. French went on to compose classical pieces premiered at the

Wigmore Hall Wigmore Hall is a concert hall located at 36 Wigmore Street, London. Originally called Bechstein Hall, it specialises in performances of chamber music, early music, vocal music and song recitals. It is widely regarded as one of the world's leadi ...

by the ensemble Endymion, and composed production music in various styles for Chappell Music Library.

Reform

In 2006, Voyager reunited to record another album, ''Eyecontact''. However, their lack of further chart success leave them labeled as

one-hit wonders A one-hit wonder or viral hit is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music p ...

Formation and main history

Breakup

Reform

Discography

Studio albums

Compilation albums

Singles

See also

References