10 Questions for Chris Amoo
It’s 40 years since The Real Thing’s number one hit You To Me Are Everything, yet it is still played almost every day on UK radio. Lead singer Chris Amoo is also a dog breeder and has won best in show at Crufts. The Real Thing’s 40th anniversary tour starts at Inverness Ironworks on March 10, then visits Montrose Town Hall the following night.
WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE A NO 1 HIT OR WIN CRUFTS?
Difficult, but I’d rather have the chart-topper. Winning Crufts was amazing, a proud moment, but how many musicians get to have a No 1 record?
WHAT STRESSES YOU IN LIFE?
That one day I won’t be able to sing. Also, I get annoyed by bad singing and by people who make bad records.
BEST AND WORST POP SONGS EVER WRITTEN?
The best has to be Lovely Day by Bill Withers. A really great song. The worst is Mamma Mia by Abba.
MUSIC OR MONEY: WHICH IS MORE
IMPORTANT?
Music. We’re all comfortably off but music has been my life since before I left school. I write songs every day. I cannot imagine a life, ever, where I’m not involved with music.
YOU TO ME OR CAN’T GET BY WITHOUT YOU?
Oh no! Ok, I’ll go for the second one. I know the first was a No 1 and kicked everything off but I prefer Can’t Get By Without You. It ticks more of my boxes.
BEST FEELING ABOUT HEARING YOUR OWN SONGS?
When others sing them. Phillip Bailey and Phil Collins covered our song Children Of The Ghetto. Mary J. Blige did it too, and Courtney Pine. I regret that Luther Vandross didn’t though. If he had I’d have died a happy man.
WHAT’S THE ONE THING PEOPLE GET WRONG
ABOUT YOU?
They think we’re American. We’re lads from a Liverpool ghetto who’ve had a 40-year adventure that still surprises us. Like we’ve just finished our first tour of Australia.
DID THE ’70S MUSIC BUSINESS EAT YOU UP?
No. We were lucky. We had days when we knew we had to be public property, do interviews, photoshoots, etc, so we just treated those as work days. We never lost control. We were young but we had a great manager.
WHAT MADE HIM SO GOOD?
He had faith in us. Tony Hall was the first to tell me I could sing and he forced us to write our own songs. The only mistake we made was leaving our producer
Ken Gold. Ken brought out the best in us.
YOU HAVE 24 HOURS LEFT TO LIVE. HOW DO
YOU SPEND IT?
Content that the history books of pop music have been written and we’re in them. A bit like when I look at the Crufts trophy and see all those names from the past. We’ll still be there in 100 years.