T'Pau at The Butter Market, Shrewsbury - '30 Years At Number 1'

T’pau – 30 Years at Number One.

November 2017 marks the 30th anniversary of the classic “China In Your Hand” reaching Number One in the UK music charts. To mark the occasion, Carol Decker and the band have announced a special set of live shows.

T'pau burst onto the music scene in 1987 with the hit "Heart & Soul" reaching No. 4 in both the UK & US charts. Taken from the debut album "Bridge Of Spies", it’s 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 USA, where the track stayed on the US billboard chart for 6 months. After a UK arena tour supporting Bryan Adams, the band immediately toured UK City Halls as headliners to tie in with the next single, the classic ballad "China In Your Hand." Nobody could have predicted the enormous impact of "China" which stayed at No. 1 for 5 weeks - the longest serving No. 1 of the year! Simultaneously, “Bridge Of Spies”occupied the number 1 album slot for 2 weeks. The Arena concerts followed..

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 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. Carol also addressed The Oxford Union in a Q& A about her career & take on the music business, plus an acoustic performance.

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 followed in the summer of '97, including some festivals. 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! Business as usual as T’pau quickly joined Status Quo on a European Tour.

In 2004, Carol appeared in the West End cast Of ‘Mum’s the Word’ at The Albery Theatre with Patsy Palmer, Imogen Stubbs & Jennie Éclair. Other acting opportunities offered were ’Doctors’ for BBC One and ’Star’ with Nicolas Hoult for Children’s BBC. Also, UK films, ’Nine Dead Gay Guys‘ with Steven Berkoff, Fish & Michael Praed and ’Running Time’, the first UK Interactive Film

Carol also addressed The Oxford Union in 1995 , speaking on Women In The Music Business.

TV appearances, to name a few, include Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Trigger Happy TV, Hit Me Baby One More Time, Just The Two of Us, The Mathew Wright Show, Loose Women, Lorraine, Celeb Mastermind, as well as being the winner of All Star Mr and Mrs and Pointless!!

Carol has always been a regular & popular guest on radio, including Ken Bruce, Steve Wright & Terry Wogan for Radio 2 and Mark Goodier & Paul Coia at Smooth Radio. Carol has presented shows for Absolute 80’s, Magic , LBC & BBC Radio Berks. She continues to perform live in concert regularly in the UK & abroad. After embarking on the hugely successful T’pau 25live anniversary tour in 2013, Carol and Ronnie went back into the studio and wrote and recorded “Pleasure And Pain”, released in 2015 to 5 star reviews, followed by a sell-out Songs And Stories acoustic tour, promoting her autobiography Heart and Soul

The 30th Anniversary Virgin Anthology Boxset is out now

www.tpau.co.uk

Twitter: @caroldecker

FB: T’pau/CarolDecker