Eighties pop giants return for run of intimate shows

Nation.Cymru staff

One of the all-conquering groups of the 1980s with a string of number one hits are on tour and coming to Wales.

In their first full UK tour in a decade Eighties’ stars Carol Decker & T’Pau will be playing all their hits, fan favourites and songs from their forthcoming album Be Wonderful.

The dates include a show at the Gwyn Hall in Neath this weekend with only a handful of tickets left.

T’Pau burst onto the music scene in 1987 with the massive hit single Heart & Soul and the follow up, China In Your Hand, stayed at No1 for five weeks – the longest serving number one of the year which became one of the most iconic singles of the 1980s. Simultaneously, their debut album Bridge of Spies occupied the number one album slot for two weeks and went on to become a certified quadruple platinum in the UK – selling 1.2 million copies.

Their own arena concerts followed, and the subsequent 1988 record Rage also went platinum. T’Pau enjoy the exclusive title of holding three simultaneous No.1 slots; China No.1 in the singles charts, Bridge of Spies No.1 in the album charts and the China Remix at No.1 in the dance charts. T’Pau were nominated for 5 Brit Awards, an Ivor Novello Award , and won an ASCAP Award from the USA for Heart & Soul.

The band formed in 1986, taking their name from a Vulcan elder of the same name in the sci-fi series Star Trek. Prior to deciding on this name, they were called Talking America on early demos sent to record and publishing companies.

Their first hit was the 1987 release Heart and Soul. Initially a flop in the UK, it first became a hit in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, reaching No. 4 after being featured on a Pepe Jeans advertisement; it repeated the feat in the UK Singles Chart some months later.

Their third single, China in Your Hand, was their biggest UK hit; it became the 600th single to reach number 1 in the UK and spent five weeks at the top spot. It also reached the number 1 in several other European countries but made little impact in the United States. Their debut album, Bridge of Spies (simply called T’Pau in the US), also reached number 1 and went quadruple platinum in the UK. The album produced a total of five hit singles including Valentine, Sex Talk (a live recording of an early flop single, Intimate Strangers), and I Will Be with You.

In 1988 they released their second album Rage, which peaked at No. 4 in the UK and reached platinum status there, but failed to come close to the level of success of the band’s debut album the year before. It produced the UK Top 20 single “Secret Garden”, though chart returns were diminishing by this point, and two following singles earned very modest success.

The third album 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 after its release. A compilation album, Heart and Soul – The Very Best of T’Pau, was released in 1993 and reached the UK Top 40.

Another greatest hits release appeared in 1997, and Decker reformed the band with a new line-up in 1998, for the release of a new studio album, Red. The record was not a commercial success, but T’Pau have continued to perform live on a semi-regular basis.

Decker still made guest appearances on TV shows throughout the 2000s, including Hit Me, Baby, One More Time, Just the Two of Us and The Weakest Link. In 2007, marking the 20th anniversary of T’Pau’s first success, Ron Rogers and Carol Decker released a new single, Just Dream, exclusively as an Internet download. In 2008, T’Pau were part of the Here and Now 1980s nostalgia tour.

To mark the 25th anniversary of the formation of the band, Decker and Rogers embarked on a 28-date UK tour during the spring of 2013 without the original band members.

In February 2015, T’Pau released their fifth studio album, Pleasure & Pain, and embarked on a tour.

Now the band are back heading out on tour and have recently released their sixth studio album, Be Wonderful.

T’pau play The Gwyn Hall, Neath on Friday, May 22. Tickets HERE