And now here they are, Nick and Sue on Chatterbox. When the stars talk, they talk to Nick and Sue. Welcome back to the Chatterbox Redux Podcast with Nick and Sue and today we are joined by Chris Amu of The Real Thing This is Nick and Sue We're Chatterbox giving you all you need to know about musical entertainment. Chatterbox, the best interviews with Nick and Sue. Chatterbox, the best news and reviews for you on Chatterbox.
And now on Chatterbox UK, we're just lucky enough to welcome back Chris removes the real thing. Chris, welcome. How are you, sir? Hello, Chris. Well, I've been better. I've been better. I've been in sunnier weather. But apart from that, I'm absolutely fine. Thank you. You're looking happy, and you're looking well. That's the main thing. When you, as I say, welcome back, because you were here. about a year ago, just after we
started Charterport Trump. And you very kindly told us the entire setup of your life story and how the real thing came about. And that wonderfully exciting news about working on that album which you had been doing, sorry, that one song you had been working on during lockdown. And it's now completed. Tell us about that, Chris. What's
it called and how do people get on with it? It's amazing that because last time I spoke to it was very much in its embryo form And if I remember rightly I was just starting to get really excited about it because a lot of the songs had started to like really come together then you know, yeah, yeah, well, I'm glad to say it's It's completed and it's called Going through loads of titles.
What are we gonna call this album? I was thinking so anyway, it's called a brand new day and I got the actual title from one of the tracks on the album, which is called A Brand New Day, and I wrote that song during lockdown. And it was actually meant to be a song that we were gonna hopefully try and get released during lockdown. But you know, by the time I'd sort of finished with it, and I had all these ideas going round in my head, I thought, no, hold on, hold it back.
and hold it for the album, you know. And that's why, as I say, it didn't come out during lockdown, but it's called A Brand New Day. It's all new tracks, apart from Children of the Ghetto, which I told you about. And the reason why we put Children of the Ghetto on the album was because over the years, it's become a kind of cult hit for the
real thing. in that it's been recorded by so many people, people like who we aspire to, like Mary J. Blythe, Philip Bailey from Earth, Wind and Fire, I mean how good does it get, you know, Courtney Pine, a jazz saxophonist from Paul Hardcastle, there's been so many people who've done it and one thing that always used to get to me and Eddie was we were really disappointed because the record company would never allow us the real thing to release it as a single and we always thought
that they were missing the boat somewhere because i know it's not similar to you to me and can't get by but people aren't fools sometimes you do want to listen to something that's slightly different it doesn't all have to be you to me for can't get by doesn't all have to be like that there's room to give people a little bit of respect, to know that they can listen to a nice ballad that means something and appreciate it. They might not want to go out and buy it.
That's fair enough. Have a listen to it. Appreciate it. Job done. You know, so that's why we decided to put Children of the Ghetto on the album. And we decided to do a live version because I don't think I could deliver the song as well by just sitting here. at home or going into a studio and trying to get the emotion of that type of song to try to get you to feel what I'm feeling
when I sing the song. So we thought we'll do it and try and do a really good live version and I know that the night that I did that I was really feeling it and I think it comes out. on when you listen to it and that's what I wanted. Yeah well I'm just listening to it then with Sue and it's sort of, I can imagine an audience out there because it was taking me so well done and so it takes you away and I can imagine people actually there in the venue hearing that live.
it takes you it really is it's an incredible song and it does honestly if it's a great one to me it just takes you away from it and it's the most amazing ballad one of the best ballads i've ever heard in 30 odd years i'm assuming it's amazing and it does take you away i think you were feeling much the same incredible chris what a great choice you've made to to put that on um like i say nick it doesn't really matter if it sells 10 000 or 10 The thing is, when people
like yourself play it, a lot of people are at least gonna hear it by the real thing, by the real thing. And if they hear it once, they hear it once. If they hear it many times, if they buy it, they'll hear it as many times as they want, but at least they hear it. And for the last 40 years, over 40 years, they haven't heard it unless they bought a Four From Eight album. show. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then they'd had the fantastic version that Ray, who's singing lead,
how he does it, you know. But we just felt it was time. And we're now in control. People say to me, you know, why haven't you done something for so long, 40 years? What's taking you so long? Well, 40 years is incredible, but you know, the thing is, is that like, you know, There comes a time with all successful artists where commercially your star starts to fade a bit, right? And this happens to everybody, no matter who you are. Now, depending on the type of person you are,
you can either say, OK, I'm finished now. We've had our thing and finished. Or you can ask yourself,
well, why is our star starting to fade? and you can try and do something about it and you know then you rely on your creativity to try and keep coming up with good songs right but unfortunately what happens is the record companies once you start your commercial start starts to fade you don't listen to your stuff anymore so you're writing what you consider really nice material which you know the people if they got the chance to listen to would like they're only listening
to it with half an ear the record companies so basically you're not getting the chance to even get it to the people who might like it but what's happened over the years is technology and technology has put everything back in the artist's hands And we've now got platforms that can, you can now get the end result onto a platform that at least the people can hear what you've done and judge what you've done. And the record companies have got nothing to do with it. Sure. Absolutely.
Absolutely. Yeah. No listening children of the ghetto. You would not have heard that. if we'd have been with a record company, the only thing you would have heard is what they consider should be a single. And if they didn't consider anything on it a single, you wouldn't even hear the album because there wouldn't be one. But now you're hearing an album, you can judge for yourself. And it's amazing. It really is. And the other side of hang on, never let go. That's another
really incredible song. I love, I absolutely love it. I love singing it. You can feel the emotion in it, sorry. Yes, yes, go on, sing, go on. You can feel your emotion and how you feel when you're singing a song in that song. Yes, and that's why I don't know if you've noticed there's a lot of ballads on there. That's because I think that the real thing are not only known for you to me, but it's the feeling that things like you to me generate it. It's a sound that
is also important. And I'll tell you why I say this. You to me was covered by a lot of famous people like Frankie Valli and that. It meant nothing. Yeah, I agree with that. But when the real thing do it, it means something. And that's because the sound suits the song. That's my song for you, isn't it, Dolly? It is, actually. Believe it or not. A real thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It really is. This is Nick and Sue with Cheddar Box, giving you all you need to know about musical
entertainment. Cheddar Box. Cheddar Box. Cheddar Box. We feel that we can best bring our sound across with ballads, which isn't to say, don't get me wrong, I don't like a nice dance track that you put on. I like to do a ballad. When I'm listening to my favorite artist, which used to be Luther Vandross. Now Luther used to do a lot of up tempo songs, but let's be honest, what were the big songs on his albums? It was the ballads, wasn't it? House is Not a Home,
the things like that. They were the big ones, you know. I just think that the real thing at this point in time can best sell our vocal sound with ballads. And I also think that it can give people a nice, romantic, feel -good feeling listening to the ballads when all this crap is going on around us. You know, you put something like, hang on, never let go on. You don't have to sit there and think, oh, what does that mean? What does it mean? You just sit back and you just
appreciate it for what it is. You either like it or you don't like it, but you just, it doesn't offend you in any way. It's just a nice, romantic ballad. And that was the whole idea behind us putting a lot of ballads. And I make no excuses for it. We like ballads. And we think a lot of the people who enjoy real thing, as well as having a nice dance on the dance floor, they also like ballads as well. Absolutely. Now, when I was... Now, you can hear everything and the 70s stuff.
It's great, but it's also really good that we're here. We're not talking about Chris Amu and the real thing that had this hit and this hit in the 70s. We're actually here and it's so good. We're actually talking about a whole new album. We don't need to do the old stuff. It's true. It's so wonderful. It's the first time I've felt like this and Dave. It's the first time we've felt like this in 40 years. That's brilliant.
We've had records. We've had records out. We've had record companies who would put records out like Crime of Love and, you know, We Got Love and things like that. But they'd never sort of say, right, let's do an album. Never. They'd never say let's do an album. And this time we've actually done it ourselves. And you're playing it. and other people will be playing it. And that's the first time in 40 years that we've
been able to sort of do that. And we think there are people out there who want to hear stuff from Real Thing. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. your musical duo. And then of course Sue and I do live shows elsewhere and I do a brilliant chill out zone to die for. That's going on, I can assure you. I want to speak to you first but you know. So yeah, that is a real... Chill Out Zone thing, which is enjoyed by people all over the world. So, yeah. And just so brilliant and congratulations.
It's amazing. I never had any doubt that you weren't going to put it off. I'm not knocking the past because what you've done in the past, that's probably what grabs people initially. Oh, they get some to listen to that. Chris, back to you, mate. Yeah. So digitally, This album's already available. Yes, available from two days ago. Beautiful. And we've got a date now for a CD. Yes, the CD will be available within the next two to three weeks on Amazon. Beautiful,
beautiful. And is this just a single we're talking about? Hang on, Never Let Go, Children of the Ghetto, or is it the album as well? Is that already out on digital as well? Yes, the album's out as well. You can buy just the singles if you want or you can buy the album and we hope you're going to buy the album. Of course. I haven't got any questions. Put your hand up. If you want the lutes that way. The thing I was going to say about the real thing is when you listen to
their music it's unique. How do I explain it? We need your help here. When you're playing your songs you know it's you, it's no one else. Does
that make sense? Yes it does make sense. it does make sense and that's one of the reasons why we decided Dave and I that we weren't going to bring a third member into the group because when Eddie died the easiest thing for us to have done would have been to okay let's bring somebody else in so that we still got three and you know a lot of people would have been think wouldn't have even known they would have been thinking oh it's free that's the real thing We thought,
number one, Eddie couldn't be replaced. He couldn't be replaced. And number two, we thought, if we bring somebody else in, it's no longer going to be real thing. No matter which way you want to look at it, it's not going to be real thing anymore. And people will start thinking, ooh, is it the real, real thing? I don't remember him, you know? And not only that, the texture of the sound. would change. So it's like Sue just said, when you hear the real thing, you
know it's them. You bring somebody else in and I don't care what anyone says, it changes the texture. Whereas what me and Dave do at the moment is I can sing all Eddie's parts onto the album. And because I sung 99 % of the leads on the song, we've still got the real thing lead vocal sound. But we've also maintained the harmony sound because with Eddie, myself and Dave singing together for so long, the timbre of the voices become one. So even though I've put Eddie's voice onto
the album, it still sounds like Eddie. Yeah, yeah, okay, that's brilliant. And so therefore the actual sound of the real thing hasn't changed. on this album. You can listen to this now and it'll be the same vocal sound as it was you listen to any past real thing album. Yeah I agree with that totally. Well there's no fans or music lovers out there from the earlier stuff. No one's going to be left disappointed with this, not at all
Eddie. It's just amazing and you've done yourself proud, done Eddie proud as well, you really have, it's amazing. Thank you. I appreciate that. Let's hope all our fans think that as well. I've got a very, very important question. Are you planning on going on tour? Yes, we're starting off next week in Horn Church at the Queen's Theatre. on the 5th and then we're doing the Jazz Cafe on
the 12th of February. So you know in the next couple of weeks we're coming to Horn Church, we're coming to London and then the tour starts to really kick off as well. Let's hope you're near us as well. Just having a look through because I know you've been to, we're in Hastings as I think you know, just thinking if you're coming anywhere near. I know you've been to the White Rock a few times because you mentioned it. You know something weird keeps happening with the
White Rock. something always happens and they seem to get cancelled yeah it's a lot of stuff but last time it was covid the time before that there was something that happened i know something happened uh where we couldn't do i think it might have been the party when we were off when eddie died oh but i know it just twice it's happened down there um because we've got we've got family in hastings alone yeah my cousin's family live in hastings as well. So I know we were looking
forward to doing it. But hopefully we'll be coming there. Hopefully. It's a medium -sized venue. Well, it's quite easy to remember its capacity. You'll remember this for the rest of your life now. Here's the Battle of Hastings 1066. The theatre actually has 1066 seats. That's how you know what your capacity is when you sell out. I didn't know that. I didn't know that either, I've lived all my life in pasties. It really is, it really is. Yeah, it's a nice one to remember,
isn't it? Chris, if you can get to the Right Rock Theatre, I will come and see you. Absolutely. Well, I hope you do and I hope you come in. Well, you know my email and everything now, just email me and let me know if we're there and I'll arrange for you to come in. No, just get, you know Barry, don't you? I know Barry well, yeah, yeah. When we're there, Tell Bally that you come in and we'll do an interview from there. Oh, that'd
be amazing. That would be amazing. We'll do a nice interview from there, you know, and yeah, that would be great. So do that. That's great. Thank you, Chris. Thank you for your time. Now, let's have a look at some social media stuff. Chris, if you could just say you've got about eight minutes, you're given eight minutes. This is a hard one. You've got a radio station or
show. saying right you've got eight minutes to pick your two favorite tracks of the new album which ones would they be or your two best ones as opposed to favorite perhaps i was i like them all so i'll say favorites as opposed to best ones children of the ghetto yeah you see i like i love but i love hang on but you know the ghetto quadrilogy that's on there there's a song called daddy deer okay which I want you and Sue to listen to and let me know what you think. I'm serious.
No, we'll do that. Listen to The Ghetto quadrilogy when you've got a few minutes. Yeah. Because I would say that that's what we're most proud of, that particular section. But if you ask me what I actually really like, like Children of The Ghetto, I'm like, hang on, never let go. Now, social media time somewhere here. brilliant websites yes so anybody wishes take a further look at the real thing www .therealthingofficial .com yes once again www .therealthingofficial
.com now in addition to that you've got a youtube channel i believe yes we have and you can get us on facebook of course of course yeah um We'd like the thing about Facebook the thing about the real thing Facebook is You will get things if you follow us that you won't get if you don't for instance I do a lot of question and answers on video when people have got questions Once we get enough people enough questions coming on like about once every couple of months I'll
come on or Dave will come on and we'll answer your questions on video And for instance, if you've got particular favorites, tracks on the album, or you want to talk about tracks on the album, send your things onto our Facebook page. And once we've got enough, I'll promise you, I will come on and personally answer your questions for you. That's brilliant. That's very nice. You've always been generous with your time, Chris, but that's amazing. So have you got any more
questions for Chris at all? No, I just want to go and buy the album. I actually like the cover of the album because looking at the picture it actually says a lot it could say a very lot because the way you're what's the word there's a word I'm looking the way you're walking and the body language says a lot in the album picture of the album yeah that's fantastic I'll tell Graham because my our sound tech Graham We worked on that together and we're both very proud of the
cover. Once again, we're about to do it all ourselves. There's no professional photographers and things like that coming. It's something that we've done ourselves, which once again, we're very proud of. So thanks for picking that up. The new album for The Real Thing, A Brand New Day, is already available for download. And yes, by the time this goes out actually, be available on CD as well from next week, because we've got weeks to go. And yeah, the double A -sided single as
well. Hang on, Never Let Go with the Children of the Ghetto live version of that amazing version. Chris, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much. We're looking forward to the next time already. It's been an absolute pleasure. No problem at all. Likewise. Just keep us updated when you release new stuff, please. Very sensitive. We will. You take care now, Chris. Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. Take care. Bye -bye.
Bye -bye. to the Chatterbox Redux podcast with Nick and Sue and today we were joined by Chris Amoo of The Real Thing. The email address is nickelbum at myyahoo .com. Alternatively, you can write to us at P .O. Box 26, The Old Observer Building, Telford Road, St. Leonard's -on -Sea, East Sussex, England, TN38, 9LZ. We thank you very much for your company and look forward to welcoming you again next time when our special guest will be Susie Quattro. Catch you then.
Bye bye. This is Nick and Sue with Chatterbox giving you all you need to know about musical entertainment. Oh, yeah! Chatterbox!