T'Pau burst onto the music scene in 1987, yes 1987, with the hit 'Heart & Soul' reaching No. 4 in both the UK & US charts. Taken from the debut album 'Bridge Of Spies',' its innovative use of a rap verse by a white female vocalist introduced the world to the distinctive lead vocals of Carol Decker & the song writing talents of Carol & Ronnie Rogers.
'Heart & Soul' led to a meteoric rise in T'Pau's fortunes both at home in the UK & in the USA. After a UK arena tour supporting Bryan Adams, the band immediately toured as headliners to tie in with the next single, Iconic song 'China In Your Hand', which stayed at No. 1 for 5 weeks. Simultaneously 'Bridge Of Spies' occupied the Number 1 album slot for 2 weeks.
To date, 'China In Your Hand' has appeared on more than 150 compilations, and has become one of the most played songs of the 1980's. After further hits such as 'Valentine,' 'I Will Be With You,' and 'Sex Talk,' the 'Bridge Of Spies' album was certified quadruple platinum in the UK, selling 1.2 million copies. 'Rage' the 2nd album also went platinum. The original line up of T'Pau split in 1991 after the final hit 'Whenever You Need Me' (No. 16). 'The Promise' followed in 1991: it peaked at No. 10 in the UK, earning a silver disc. It included one Top 20 hit, 'Whenever You Need Me', but the band's commercial peak had now passed and they split up following its release. The final album, 'Heart & Soul: The Very Best Of T'Pau,' was released in 1993. Ron Rogers returned to production and studio work, whilst Carol embarked upon a co-writing career, occasionally performing solo and on other projects.
By 1997, Carol had taken the decision to build a new T'Pau around her, and get back on the road after assembling a massive amount of new material. A 25-date UK tour in the summer of '97, including some festivals, preceded the release of a brand new version of 'Heart & Soul' on Carol's own Gnatfish label. Encouraged by the response, Carol embarked upon recording 'Red' the first new T'Pau album for 6 years, After 6 months in the studio, T'Pau performed an orchestrated version of 'China' with the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Princess Diana Tribute Concert at Althorp in June 1998. It was broadcast live around the world, and later in a BBC primetime show. All this no mean feat as Carol had been pregnant throughout the recording of the album and gave birth to her first child, Scarlett Olivia, just 3 weeks before the Diana concert!
In 2013 Carol completed a 28 date T'Pau tour, celebrating 25 years in the business, culminating in a packed out Big Top tent at IOW Festival. In February 2015, T'Pau released their fifth studio album, 'Pleasure & Pain', and embarked on a tour. The final eight shows on the Pleasure & Pain Tour had to be cancelled in early March after Decker suffered damage to her voice while suffering from bronchitis.
With another tour booked, with 80's legends 'Go West' and 'Nik Kershaw' running through November and December with 30 dates, then another T'Pau tour booked for 2016 with 22 dates throughout the UK, Carol Decker is a busy women, and 'Bridge of Spies' remastered is due out shortly!
Tonight's show at The Robin 2 was one of the cancelled shows from earlier this year. Support for the show tonight was John Adams, unbeknownst to me he's an ex-xfactor contestant from 2012, BUT that's besides the point anyways, he provided us with the most exceptional 30 minute set I've seen and heard in a long time apart from 'Emily King' and 'Mumford and Sons' (before anyone knew who they were!). He's got the voice of an angel, I could've listened to him all night, a 30 minute set was way too short. The only downside was I didn't get an album, but I'm sure there'll be a next time.
The venue tonight was actually rammed, all the die hard fans up the front. The band came on at 9.45 which seemed a tad late, thought I was gonna turn in to a pumpkin! Not good when you've gotta go to Wales the next day at the crack of dawn. Carol Decker was clad in leather, knee high black boots, leather trousers and a leather top, all in black, she was accompanied by all the usual suspects, including the lovely Ron Rogers.
The party kicked off with 'Thank You For Goodbye', 'Secret Garden' and 'Island'. It's hard to shoot and review when all you wanna do is sing to the top of your voice and relive your early twenties. My brother would be astounded if he knew I was seeing T'Pau tonight, we went everywhere to see the band back in the day, even to see them play a Radio One Roadshow at Tatton Park (Only Carol and Dean Howard), those were the days eh.
Anyways, tonight was a thrilling step back into the late 8o's and early 90's, my wife can't understand what the attraction was, and is now, she's not a big fan, but in essence 'China In Your Hand' was the first single she ever bought, so she has to stand in silence (lol). There were only a handful of songs from the 'Pleasure and Pain' album including 'Nowhere', 'Read My Mind' and 'Misbelieving', and 'Say You Will' from the 'Red' album. All the other songs from the set were classic T'Pau, 'Bridge of Spies' and 'Rage' mainly, shame there weren't any later tracks from the third album 'The Promise', but beggars can't be choosers, I was grateful for the step back in time.
Carol was on form saying she had been out to lunch with Noddy Holder just recently so she could understand the audience (Black Country). Classic stonker 'Monkey House' ramped the set up, followed up with one of Carol's favourites 'I Will be With You', Classics 'Valentine' and 'Running Away', song of the night for me was 'Sex Talk', it was epic, it's still got the vibe and passion of back in the day. Show closers were 'Heart and Soul' and 'Bridge of Spies', obviously the encore was 'China In Your Hand', Happy days.
The gig went swimmingly only one mishap with the running order, the audience loved it, I never tire of listening to T'Pau, live or recorded, am I being bias, probably! But who doesn't like singing and bopping away to 80's tracks? Carol is still a show stopper and a crowd pleaser, with James Ashby and Ron Roger's in tow it made for an amazing night.
I look forward to 2016 with great intrepidation, maybe more new material and more new live shows.
FUTURE GIGS
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