Saga

Throughout five decades of activity, Saga emerged as one of Canada's foremost progressive rock ensembles while cultivating a devoted worldwide listenership for their intricate compositions. The outfit surfaced late in the 1970s and attained major success in 1981 upon issuing its fourth studio album, World's Apart, which contained the hit singles "On the Loose" and "Wind Him Up." Although the group experienced repeated personnel shifts across the ensuing years, Saga sustained a substantial European audience, above all in Germany, and ultimately produced more than twenty albums whose combined sales surpassed eight million units before halting operations in 2018.

Bassist and keyboardist Jim Crichton together with vocalist, singer, and multi-instrumentalist Michael Sadler founded Saga in Oakville, Ontario; having previously belonged to Toronto rockers Fludd, Crichton connected with Sadler and the pair began composing material. Crichton enlisted former Fludd members Steve Negus on drums and Peter Rochon on keyboards along with his brother Ian Crichton on lead guitar, thereby completing the original lineup that performed its debut concert in June 1977. From the beginning the band insisted on presenting its own songs in its distinctive manner, and with nearly thirty numbers already prepared Saga entered the studio six months after that first performance. The independently financed recording was acquired by Polygram Records' Canadian division, leading to the June 1978 release of the self-titled debut album, which included two selections that inaugurated the non-sequential song cycle known as "The Chapters," a futuristic narrative continued across later releases. Strong Canadian sales were matched by unexpected import success in Germany, prompting Polygram to extend an international contract. Greg Chadd took Rochon's place for the second album, 1979's Images at Twilight, which yielded the minor Canadian hit "It's Time," while Chadd departed before 1980's Silent Knight, on which Jim Gilmour assumed keyboard duties. Silent Knight performed well domestically, yet 1981's World's Apart, produced by Rupert Hine, delivered the group's international breakthrough with the major single "On the Loose" (and "Wind Him Up" reaching the Top 40), earning platinum certifications in both Canada and the United States; the ensuing tour yielded the 1982 live album In Transit. The 1983 release Heads or Tales achieved solid though lesser sales and featured the successful single "The Flyer," while 1985's Behaviour contained the hit "What Do I Know." Behaviour proved to be the final Saga album produced by Hine; on 1987's Wildest Dreams, Gilmour was absent and session drummer Curt Cress replaced Negus. Gilmour and Negus subsequently formed the Gilmour-Negus Project, after which Saga entered hiatus following the commercially disappointing 1989 album The Beginner's Guide to Throwing Shapes. The classic lineup of Sadler, the Crichton brothers, Gilmour, and Negus reconvened in 1993 for The Security of Illusion, which restored the purely progressive approach of the band's early recordings. Although the album failed to register on Canadian or American charts, it sold strongly in Germany, Sweden, and Scandinavia, territories where Saga had already built an ardent following, prompting the group thereafter to concentrate touring and promotional activity on those markets along with Canada. In 1994 Saga composed and recorded the score for the short-lived American series Cobra, material later repurposed for the 1994 album Steel Umbrellas. The 1995 release Generation 13 constituted a concept album, and the band's twentieth-anniversary year of 1997 brought both the studio album Pleasure and the Pain and the archival collection Phase 1, which assembled demo versions of tracks from Images at Twilight. An acoustic-flavored song titled "Money Talks" from 2001's House of Cards unexpectedly became a Canadian hit single. Negus exited in 2003, whereupon Christian Simpson joined as drummer and debuted on the 2004 album Network. Simpson remained only two years, after which Brian Doerner, formerly of Helix, took the drum chair in 2005. Greater surprise attended Michael Sadler's announcement that he would depart at the close of 2007, citing touring pressures and a wish to devote more time to family. Ex-Final Frontier vocalist Rob Moratti replaced him and appeared on 2009's The Human Condition. Sadler's return to the lineup was announced in 2011, followed by extensive European and Scandinavian tours. A 2013 live album captured a Munich performance, and the studio album Sagacity appeared in 2014. Sadler revealed in 2017 that the ensemble would conclude its career with the Final Chapter farewell tour; the concert album and film So Good So Far — Live at Rock of Ages were issued in September 2018, after which final shows took place in Montreal and Quebec City that December.