The Passage were a post-punk band from Manchester, UK who appeared on several record labels including Cherry Red Records and their own label Night & Day.

There is also second artist using this name in Hungary. http://www.passage-hu.eu/

The band was formed as a quartet by songwriter and former Hallé Orchestra percussionist Dick Witts in 1978, but later became a trio. Witts produced the band's recordings and sung on many of their releases.

Although they never truly broke into the mainstream, their most successful song was 'XOYO' which came 41st in John Peel's Festive Fifty for 1982, which was the top 50 songs of the year as voted by the listeners. The song was an experiment to see whether John Cage's method of aleatoric composition could be successfully applied to popular music composition.


Dick Witts (1978-1983)
Tony Friel (bass) (1978-1980)
Lorraine Hilton (keyboards) (1978-1980)
Martine Hilton (bass) (1978-1980)
Joe Mckechnie (drums) (1980-1981, 1983)
Lizzy Johnson (vocals) (1980-1981)
Andy Wilson (guitar) (1980-1983)
Paul Mahoney (drums) (1982)

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