The Real Thing visit Gateshead

MULTI-million selling soul band The Real Thing are back on the road this year – taking in Gateshead in March – and featuring the group’s three original vocalists Eddie Amoo, Chris Amoo and Dave Smith along with their five-piece band.

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of their debut hit single You to Me Are Everything, the Liverpool based trio boast three million selling hit singles including, Can’t Get by Without You (the latter two tracks being in the BBC millennium Top 100), Whenever You Want My Love and Can You Feel the Force, making them the UK’s best-selling black group of the late 1970s. They were also one of the top ten best-selling bands of 1986.

Formed by lead singer Chris Amoo and David Smith in 1972, they added Ray Lake (who has since died), Kenny Davis and Eddie Ankrah with Kenny and Eddie leaving two years later. Continuing as a trio, in 1975 they added Eddy Amoo, brother of Chris, who had been helping in the band’s development. A singer-songwriter with The Chants, this band had origins in the Mersey Beat boom of the 1960s and were discovered and launched by The Beatles.

Commenting on The Real Thing’s success, singer Chris Amoo says: "There’s always going to be a sense of nostalgia about our music. It’s the sound track to so many people’s lives and that will never die."

* Sunday, March 12: Gateshead SAGE 2. Box Office: 0191-4434661

Viv Hardwick