It would have been Eddy's wish for us to carry on and still feel the force.. THE Real Thing star Eddy Amoo has died aged 74. The single flopped, and Pye were still in search of that elusive hit. The disco explosion was upon us, but the rising interest in black music was further fed by radio; radio crossed over soul ballads and funk, bump & boogie into the mainstream. Why Pet Shop Boys are the cleverest men in pop, their tour dates stretch across the year ahead. The Real Things Children Of The Ghetto has been covered by musicians like Mary J Blige and Courtney Pine (Credit: Alamy). You didnt feel safe when you saw a police car appear.. 1970s-present. Eddy Amoo describes conflicts with their record company in 1978 when the Real Thing were persuaded to sing and then release a lightweight song called Lets Go Disco that had been written for the soundtrack to the Joan Collins / Oliver Tobias film The Stud. Success brought unwanted attention. . View our online Press Pack. If we stepped into the city centre, we werent necessarily welcomed, especially if we were with our friends. But I think it was possibly the wrong time for audiences to accept it, and radio stations werent interested in playing anything that wasnt commercially viable. 66 on Billboard's "Hot 100". He and his wife Julie entered their dog into Crufts and won the 1987 Best in Show title. You cant just jump from songs like Cant Get By Without You those type of songs to songs like Children of the Ghetto. They have been overwhelmed by the love and support of fans, colleagues, and the people of Liverpool. We were duped about Sun City being separate, in that it was run by black people, he sighs. And if you liked this story,sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called The Essential List. In Groups: The Real Thing. If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to ourFacebookpage or message us onTwitter. Black British bands are probably the least well documented part of 70s music and the Real Thing seem to have dropped off Liverpools music map. Inspired by his elder sibling, Chris formed his own vocal group, extravagantly-called The Sophisticated Soul Brothers. The Real Thing have earned their plaque, but deserve more. They had five top 10 hits, broke into the US charts, and were the most successful black rock and soul act in the UK for the whole of the 1970s. 33. Eddie Amoo (born Edward Robert Amoo, 5 May 1944, Liverpool; Ray Lake (born Raymond Lake, 11 February 1946, Liverpool; died 2000), This page was last edited on 7 January 2023, at 18:22. Ray's daughter, Alexandra Romano, got her start in Hollywood alongside her dad. Although Eddie Amoo sadly passed away before the documentary was completed, his interviews and his extensive personal archive of photographs are at the heart of Everything. When I catch them playing at Londons Jazz Caf on a rainy midweek night, the force is thrillingly present in Amoo and Smiths charismatic, fiery vocals and rich catalogue, and the multi-generational crowd is clearly rapt. [17][18] The single, released by AATW in 2005, peaked at No. Dave Smith is still in the Real Thing, as is Chris Amoo, although Chris has also carved out a parallel career as an award-winning dog breeder. Download this stock image: Ray Lake of The Real Thing, London 1977 - 2E3RPDD from Alamy's library of millions of high resolution stock photos, illustrations and vectors. 71, remaining for only two weeks. Songs like Children of the Ghetto proved too much of a stretch for the fans and so the band reverted to plan A: the Star-Wars-inspired, loved-up Can You Feel the Force? The song "No Choir of Angels" was backed with "Love Talk". Artistically, The Real Thing were a quadruple threat: a smart, strong, eloquent and ruggedly handsome quartet. By the mid-70s, The Real Thing had earned a record deal, made their debut on BBCs Top Of The Pops, and honed their trademark harmonies with lush instrumentation; they worked regularly with British pop rocker David Essex, supporting him on a US tour and also finding themselves playing alongside Miles Daviss musicians at hip Greenwich Village venue The Bottom Line. By 1975 the Real Thing had been signed to Pye records and had also gained a somewhat unlikely supporter; the heart-throb pop star David Essex who had been introduced to the band by Jeff Wayne. S imon Sheridan's solid, efficient documentary pays tribute to the Liverpudlian pop-soul beat combo the Real Thing, who had a No 1 in the UK with the smooth-grooving ballad You to Me Are . The Sun website is regulated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes. A new film aims to end that, writes Arwa Haider. Amoo was born on 14 October 1952 in Liverpool, England. After a reasonable showing for song Rainin Through My Sunshine (off the Step Into Our World LP), the Real Thing hit gold again just as the 1970s drew to a close, with their 1979 hit Can You Feel the Force? (from the same LP, which was hastily repackaged as Can You Feel the Force?). And we were wrong!, The Chants signed to Pye, and released four singles on the label, starting with I Dont Care in 1963. Amoo's late bandmate Ray Lake is a haunting presence throughout . Watch a recent Real Thing performance below: "We have got a huge library of material but it is not that simple. "Can You Feel the Force" ('86 Remix) climbed to No. We do them everywhere else in the country. That, for me, is typical of Liverpool. What must it be like for them if its like that for us? Stanley House [a once-thriving youth community centre], where wed started making music, was gone, and the police were very heavy-handed. Their creative range inevitably made them harder to categorise for pop markets; after their floor-filling romantic tunes, their brilliantly gritty 1977 album 4 From 8 was initially regarded as a misfire. ), This page was last edited on 1 January 2023, at 11:40. But it also sparked at least one of his kid's careers. Our pleasure lasted all of three weeks, until mediocrity got its revenge and the Real Thing were toppled from the number one spot by Demis Roussos. [5] The song was certified silver for 250,000 in sales. We didnt venture beyond it; we had our own clubs and restaurants, and a fantastic community. For one thing, it's still earning the seasoned actor quite a large chunk of change. As kids, Amoo, his siblings and friends would develop a love for funky, politically sharp trailblazers, such as Curtis Mayfield (in particular, his 1967 black pride anthem Were A Winner), Marvin Gaye, The Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron. He was the original voice of #ChildrenOfTheGhetto. They take the band where they can afford that budget, but otherwise they do a playback show, live vocals to a playback track; Its that playback show thats kept us going actually, Eddy admits. [citation needed], In 2015, he was a judge at the Irish Wolfhound, Levriero irlandese 25th French Breed Show event. Past members. I went down and I was totally ignored by the Liverpool media; the only people they were interested in were Atomic Kitten and Paul McCartneys brother!. They did appear on New Faces (the TV talent show). Eddy's brother and bandmates paid tribute to their inspiration in a touching post online. Thats another thing I think that led directly to the riots., Theres something poignant about having a career including singalong singles that filled dancefloors like You to Me Are Everything, irresistible feel good tunes like Can You Feel the Force, and classic ghetto medleys all that idealism but still being painfully aware of a harsher, depressing reality. Begun in 1970 by Chris Amoo, Dave Smith, Kenny Davis and Ray Lake, The Real Thing's live, progressive soul-influenced covers of American hits attracted enough attention for them to secure a recording deal with EMI. Eddie had co-founded a 1960s vocal band called The Chants, who wowed The Beatles with an audition at the legendary Cavern Club. For me as a white, pre-teen, West Midlands nobody, the song meant something else too. But what does Alexandra, who is now 30, do these days? Why were Justin Haywards vocals rather than Amoos used on the hit album? [5] The singles they released through EMI in 1972 and 1973 such as "Vicious Circle" were, despite their high quality, not successful sellers (and have not so far been included on any of the band's compilation albums). It was alsoNicki Swift that pointed out that per Alexandra's LinkedIn page, she was a marketing and communications manager at Shondaland in Hollywood, at least as of mid-2020. 20 the previous week. [4][5], As a member of The Real Thing, he had great success with "You to Me Are Everything", "Can't Get By Without You", and "Can You Feel the Force?". Christopher Charles Amoo (born 14 October 1952) is a British singer-songwriter and the lead singer of English soul group, The Real Thing. Today, Cokes rights department would shut that rebrand down before you could say Id like to teach the world to sing. Were talking about the police, the Council, shops. ray lake the real thing daughter . The most successful Liverpool-based band of the 1970s, meanwhile, were probably the Real Thing. Bay City Rollers? THE Real Thing star Eddy Amoo has died aged 74. [16] Also in 2016, he was a judge at E.I.W.C 2016.[17]. The Americans deserved the real thing. dominica prime minister who married his daughter; angus rowing boat sliding seat; discontinued blue diamond almond flavors; love beauty and planet discontinued. Ballads and love songs dominated, but dancefloors were seeing more action than at any time since the mod explosion in 1964. The four promising black soul singers he was managing would have to change their name. 679215 Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. Hes led a charmed life in comparison to other children of the ghetto. The landscape extends into a contemporary reality; in the film, Eddie Amoo also relates a recent incident of being stopped and searched, as a 70-something black man, driving the smart car that he owned. There was the Northern Soul scene (We couldnt relate to that, says Eddy), but the Real Thing found themselves stuck on the chicken-in-a-basket cabaret circuit, performing a frustratingly narrow range of songs (Drifters medleys, old Motown classics). Chris Amoo reckoned the worst racism he experienced was from police, who were forever pulling him over because of the racist equation: black Scouser plus new Ford Capri equals something wrong. These bleak retro images feel disturbingly resonant in the present day. You didnt hear The Beatles in our part of Liverpool, says Amoo. It summed up the whole area for me., Communities are sensitive about how they are portrayed and putting all this down on disc inevitably changed the way the Real Thing were viewed locally, although they had mainly positive reactions from the people Eddy grew up with; I think they were made up. \"Can You Feel the Force?\" climbed to #5 in 1979, the same year that \"Boogie Down (Get Funky Now)\" hit #33. It was a naive album., At the time a track like Children of the Ghetto seemed to be too ambitious for a pop group from Liverpool; We did it in the wrong point in time in our career. Though she's not listed on those businesses' team lists,Alexandra does have photos of herself working the counter at one of the pasta places. 14th October 1952, Liverpool, England, U.K.) Edward Robert Amoo (b. Shot entirely on location in Liverpool, London, Bristol and Brighton, the movie features interviews with all the band members - Eddy Amoo, Chris Amoo and Dave Smith . Ironically, in retrospect, Eddy feels that as sole songwriters and producers, the band were given too much control over the record; The record company should have made us use a producer. The statement continued: Chris and Dave are devastated by the loss of their brother and friend Eddy. [8] [2] His elder brother Eddie Amoo was also a member of The Real Thing; he died 23 February 2018. Eddy recalls Liverpool 8 in the early 1970s as a very tight-knit community; It was from the early 70s onwards that people started to realise that if they stuck together politically they could achieve a lot more than they had in the past. The turn-around for their career began with their collaboration with David Essex and Pye Records. On 28 January 2022, the duo released their first album in over 40 years. The Real Thing tour the UK throughout 2020. The first four members of the Real Thing Chris Amoo, Ray Lake, Kenny Davis and Dave Smith all grew up together in Liverpool 8, hung out in some of the street gangs of the time, but bit by bit became more interested in singing than fighting. If youre black in Liverpool its well nigh impossible to make any headway in any business; youve really got to fight and fight hard., The 1970s saw the biggest rise in overt racial conflict since the 1930s, with the National Front gaining electoral credibility in some pockets of the country and pressure building through the decade on the streets of Liverpool 8. *Real Thing CDs currently available include a budget Very Best of (all the hits and more) and a good value and virtually definitive thirty six track anthology Children of the Ghetto released in 1999 by Sequel Records, complete with sleeve notes. Everything The Real Thing Story is in UK cinemas now. It makes sense, though, given her entire family's zest for experiencing and making jokes about everything in life. Despite the forceful things he has to say about racial issues in Liverpool, he seems a very centred, sweet-natured guy. The Real Thing are pleased to announce that for the past few months they have been busy filming a new feature-length documentary about their long and eventful career in music. 64 on the . I think were hearing the legacy of that breakthrough in many acts today., They were the first all-black British band to have a UK number one single, You To Me Are Everything (Credit: Alamy), The Real Thing stood out because they were this amazing R&B band that made pioneering music that was the equal of, if not better then, their American contemporaries, agrees writer/DJ Bill Brewster, co-author of Last Night A DJ Saved My Life. Clubs had closed and the Real Thing struggled to find decent gigs. And, thirty years since their first release, they are still playing and recording; when I interviewed Eddy Amoo in July 2002, the band were just about to head off to a gig in Amsterdam. Born:11th February 1946, in Liverpool, Lancashire, England. Is it definitely our Children of the Ghetto? The opening notes of these tracks are unmistakeably spirit-soaring, but The Real Thing documentary begins with a much harsher tone: an unsettling 70s archive montage including a street march by the racist National Front; eerie anti-immigration campaigners; a bigot on an estate, ranting poisonously as his black female neighbours are forced to walk around him. A few days before I met up with Eddy in Liverpool I heard that the queen of nu-soul herself, Mary J Blige, was performing Children of the Ghetto on her world tour. Eddy was still in the Chants, but gave Chris every . (People like Rod Stewart were in the audience, recalls Amoo. To my mind, that says it all., Eddy has had to answer the phone a number of times, and hes given me an hour of us his time, despite being a busy man, and he draws the interview to a close by offering me a lift to the station. 1980's "She's a Groovy Freak" capped a successful run, at No. The Real Thing: soundtrack to the Toxteth riots, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. I saved myself from Royal life, Harry says & insists 'sharing's an act of service', Love Island's Olivia Hawkins breaks silence as she returns to the UK, Sinister rise of pink cocaine sweeping UK clubs as cartels battle for control, Loose Women star lined up to be Strictly's first contestant in wheelchair, News Group Newspapers Limited in England No. The Real Thing's last chart appearance was featuring on the dance track 'So Much Love To Give' by the Freeloaders in 2005, which sampled 'Love's Such a Wonderful Thing' and reached number 9. Eddy leaves behind a large and loving family, a community he adored in Toxteth, Liverpool and his beloved music and band, The Real Thing. They moved to EMI and Plastic Man got the band their first Top of the Pops appearance (it was a song Eddy Amoo had originally written for the Chants). Real Name: Ray Lake. RM 2JFBN91 - Guitarist with The Real Thing band performing at the Soultasia music festival in Promenade Park, Maldon, Essex, UK RF 2K2J1D2 - Explaining his ideas. One of Britains most successful black groups has been overlooked for decades. So while technically she can be called an actor, the one child that Ray calls the "good one" of his four, isn't in the industry much anymore. Their follow-up, "Can't Get By Without You", did not chart in the US but was still a success in the United Kingdom, where it reached number 2. Be serious. But in 1976 the conditions were right for more British soul music to make an impact; in June 1976 it was the turn of the Real Thing to get to hit the top of the charts. 1 on the UK Singles Chart. Eddy will long be remembered as a tour de force in British music and he will be sorely missed.. Worse yet was Ray Lakes decline into heroin addiction and, eventually, suicide. Eddy was a showman, a songwriter, and a legend in British music with Liverpudlian band The Real Thing. Download this stock image: Ray Lake of The Real Thing, London 1977 - 2E3RP97 from Alamy's library of millions of high resolution stock photos, illustrations and vectors. Impressed with their sound, Essex asked the band to work with him as his backing band but also one of the support acts at his shows. vice grip garage jessica bieri. In 1976, he sang on early versions of "Forever Autumn" and "Thunder Child" during Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds project. Kenny Davis. The Top of the Pops viewers in our household cheered wildly when the Real Thing knocked the Wurzels off the top of the charts; at last something with a bit of class, something half decent to dance to at the youth club disco. Movies. ms monarch; in . Enterprise. One day in 1972, a pop picker called Tony Hall was driving through Piccadilly Circus when he noticed a Coca-Cola billboard. But in Children of the Ghetto the Real Thing were bringing the concept much closer to home; In a way the word ghetto had become really hip to people on the streets because of Donny Hathaway and people like that and I thought it suited Liverpool 8, says Eddy, A lot of people were a little bit upset about it but thats what Liverpool 8 was and is; its a ghetto., Historically the word ghetto can carry negative connotations, but in the 70s the word, and the concept, could be used in a positive sense, even in a celebratory way, like Wars song The World is a Ghetto. 10pm - 1am, Human Nature Im not the kind of person to turn away, but Id also think of my mother and father; if it was heavy when we were growing up, they had no chance of saying anything.. But Eddy remembers how American soul music was still inspiring him and his brother; Musically weve always hung around the clubs where they played soul and r&b and stuff so in those days it was like the Temptations, and then Sly & the Family Stone, and then along came bands like Earth, Wind & Fire., Liverpool in the early 1970s was suffering tough times and the grim economics of the decade created poverty and conflict. The legendary soul singer, who played in the Liverpool band alongside his brother Chris and pals Dave Smith and Ray Lake, passed away suddenly in Australia today. She may not be on the same path toward multi-millionaire status like her comedian dad (not that she needs to, because, inheritance, right? He is also a dog breeder, and a judge at dog shows including Crufts, where he has had great success with his Afghan Hound . And credit is definitely due. It was the moment that got us into the business; wed never thought about it seriously until then., Beatlemania was just taking off. And by all appearances, her family is just fine with how she's spending her time, too. No longer would they be called Vocal Perfection a gift to hostile critics. The heatwave only ended when Downing Street ordered sports minister Denis Howell to bust a rain dance in Birmingham. Eddy says he feels for the guys from the Chants; I look back on it as my apprenticeship but for the guys in the Chants they came out with nothing and now its like we never existed., Hes aware that growing up in Liverpool 8 could have cut down his chances in life, but hes made it. By 1973 and 1974 American soul records were again featuring high in the British pop charts; some were by old favourites like Stevie Wonder, but there was also a new generation like the OJays, and Barry White and his Love Unlimited Orchestra. We were caught in a bit of a vacuum., Most of The Real Things repertoire has impressively stood the test of time but one band decision immediately seemed ill-judged. Formed in 1970 by Chris Amoo, Dave Smith, Kenny Davis and Ray Lake, they were later joined by Chris's brother Eddy. 6th July 1952) and Amoos late bandmate Ray Lake is a haunting presence throughout Everything; we learn of his troubled (and, it is implied, abusive) upbringing in childrens care, and we hear his prodigious music talent (he earned the studio nickname One Take Lake). [7] They continued recording prolifically, releasing a steady stream of subsequent albums: 1977's Four from Eight (originally to have been called Liverpool 8 in honour of the racially mixed, economically depressed neighbourhood in which they grew up, before Pye rejected the title), 1978's Step into Our World, (reissued in 1979 as Can You Feel the Force) and 1982's compilation 100 Minutes. Learn how and when to remove this template message, The Real Thing bring their 40th anniversary tour to Edmonton Mattie Lacey-Davidson, "Eddy Amoo: The Real Thing singer dies at 73", Page 75 Billboard Hits Of The World, Britain, Record Details, Chris Amoo, Catalogue: PAR 118, Record Details, Chris Amoo And Debby Bishop, Catalogue: EMI 5455, Marti Caine, BBC Two England, 10 April 1984, Contributors, TV: Compiled by DAVID BELCHER, BBC2, 9.0 Marti Caine, The battle to be top dog is on as Birmingham prepares for Crufts, Irish Wolfhound- Levriero irlandese 25th French Breed Show Nationale DElevage RALIE, CAC Show For all Sighthound and Mediterranean Breeds, Crufts 88, BBC Two England, 7 February 1988, Motown on the Mersey, BBC Radio 2, 6 March 2007, "Everything: The Real Thing Story review the searing saga of Britain's soul pioneers", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chris_Amoo&oldid=1130872808, Short description with empty Wikidata description, Wikipedia articles with style issues from March 2017, Pages using infobox musical artist with associated acts, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Singer, songwriter, dog competition judge, dog breeder, Credited to Sunzet featuring Chris Amoo of the Real Thing, Brian Whitehouse (Dir.