The Real Thing

Formed in 1970, these guys enjoyed a string of both British and international successes, claiming a massive UK No.1 with ‘You To Me Are Everything’…

Quoted by the Guinness Book Of Records as this country’s best selling black group of the that decade, only fellow Liverpool acts, The Beatles & Frankie Goes To Hollywood have had more singles in the all time top 100.

The initial releases from the original line-up of Chris Amoo, Dave Smith, Kenny Davis and the late Ray Lake, gained modest success. After an appearance on TV talent show Opportunity Knocks, the turn-around for their career began with a collaboration with David Essex and sigining to Pye Records.

They toured internationally with Essex, recording a number of songs with him, though none were big hits. When Kenny left and Chris’ brother Eddy joined the band, The Real Thing finally found chart success with the pop soul single ‘You To Me Are Everything’ reaching No.1 in the UK singles chart and featuring in both the US Billboard R&B singles and Hot 100 charts. Their follow-up ‘Can’t Get By Without You’ reached No.2 in the UK.

In 1976, they released their first album ‘Real Thing’ which included both hit singles as well as a third UK hit, ‘You’ll Never Know What You’re Missing’. A number of albums and top 40 singles followed and in 1979 they released the epic ‘Can You Feel The Force‘ which was a top 5 UK hit.

The guys continued to work hard over the years recording, songwriting and touring and despite the sad loss of Eddy Amoo in the early part of 2018, original members Chris Amoo and Dave Smith are now celebrating over 45 incredible years in the music industry and are still going strong, playing hundreds of gigs across the globe.

We count ourselves fortunate to have had The Real Thing play for us with their band at Summer Soulstice, and they showed us all just how good they still are rolling back the years and sharing their unforgettable music with us.