Secret Affair

The Beginning

Secret Affair formed in 1978 from their previous incarnation as the CBS Records "power pop" band New Hearts with founder members and song writing partners Ian Page and Dave Cairns.

In a period of a little over two years, they posted five releases in the UK Singles Chart, and released three albums. The debut single "Time For Action" penned by Dave Cairns sold over 250,000 copies and reached number 13 in the UK chart, 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"

They also created their own take on a smart-dressing youth movement - the Glory Boys - based around the idea of 1960s gangster chic, inspired by the movie, Performance. In 1979 Page and Cairns enlisted the services of bassist Dennis Smith, drummer Seb Shelton and saxophone player Dave Winthrop. From their very first gig, opening for The Jam at Reading University in February 1979, the band were adopted by a group of East End mods, who readily embraced Page's Glory Boy concept. This group of fans began referring to themselves as Glory Boys. Secret Affair had become so closely linked to the emerging mod revival that in March 1979 Cairns wrote what would become the youth movement's main anthem, "Time For Action".

Secret Affair were soon signed to Arista Records & formed their own label, I-Spy Records, regularly appeared on the BBC Television show Top Of The Pops, and become cover stars of many UK music magazines, including New Musical Express, Sounds and Smash Hits.

Their first album, 'Glory Boys' (December 1979) sold over 60,000 copies and achieved silver status with an appearance on the BBC TV album show, 'The Old Grey Whistle Test' and their second album, 'Behind Closed Doors' (September 1980), with its more complex orchestrated arrangements, proved equally successful and was followed by third album, 'Business As Usual'.

Reformed

The band reformed in 2002 for 3 shows with the 1982 line up and Ian Page and Dave Cairns decided to continue performing with regular annual tours. September 2012 marked the release of the band's fourth studio album 'Soho Dreams" on their iconic and original label I-SPY RECORDS which received 5-star reviews. In 2016, the band released their version of the Northern Soul classic, 'Do I Love You' by Frank Wilson as a 7- inch vinyl single.

Latest News

Secret Affair celebrated 45 years since the launch of their second album appropriately named Behind Closed Doors with a re-release of the album in purple vinyl and more recently new collections such as Live at The Scala and the So Cool collection curated by Eddie Piller was released by Sony.

In September 2025 Ian Page left the band and a new age of Secret Affair was born to huge acclaim and a new single and tour to be announced in 2026

Line up 2026:

The current Secret Affair band have been touring with Dave Cairns for over 15 years:

Founder Member Dave Cairns, Guitars & vocals with Steve Rinaldi on vocals and trombone, Russ Baxter on Drums, Ed Pearson on bass, Garry Walsh on Hammond, John O'Neill on sax, and Tim Pannell on trumpet and guitar, and special guests join for certain shows.