Carol Decker opens up the early days of T'Pau and recent return to writing music
It's been 11 years since T'Pau's last album
It's been 11 long years since T'Pau last released new music, so following the release of their new album 'Be Wonderful', lead singer Carol Decker joined Ken Bruce for Golden Years on Greatest Hits Radio.
The singer, opened up about the band's new music, their tour and what it was like returning to writing after all these years. Carol chose 1983 as her Golden Year, a year she said she would have been "slaving away trying to get a record deal."
T'Pau's early days
T'Pau are known for their late 80s hits, 'Heart and Soul', 'China in Your Hand' and 'Valentine', but in the early 80s, they were trying to get their break into music. As Carol explained: "I was living in Shrewsbury, I grew up in Shropshire, although I am a Scouser and I'd met Ronnie (Rogers) by then, and we were personally involved at the time. We were living together and we were writing music, sending our tapes away, cassettes in those days, and dodgy photographs.
"Again, that sounds really bad! We had a friend take pictures of us for promo, but they were probably terrible pictures, and sending our buyers away. But it took us a long time. It took us nearly five years to get any attention from London management and London labels. So I was slogging away."
Carol continued: "As the years trickled by, I did get a bit demoralised at one point, especially when I was 26, and my dad said, you know, he was always very supportive financially and emotionally, and so was my mother. And he said: 'Have you thought of maybe just singing on the cruises or something? At least you'll be singing.'
"That's no disrespect, to those fantastic performers, but I wanted to do my own music. I had my own stuff to say. So I was starting to get a little worried by the time I was in my late 20s. And then it was pointed out to me that I was absolutely geriatric! I should give up! You know as a woman in music."
Despite that, the band persisted and T'Pau went onto have a Number 4 hit in the UK with their debut song 'Heart and Soul', and their song 'China in Your Hand' went to Number 1.
T'Pau's return to writing music and 'Be Wonderful' album
Before releasing 'Be Wonderful' earlier this year, T'Pau's last album was 'Pleasure & Pain' in 2015, and Carol explained why it's been so long between releases.
"So first album in 11 years, been a bit of a slacker, sorry folks!" she admitted, continuing: "Ronnie Rogers has always been my partner in T’Pau who I write with. We just decided to sit down, we had some ideas, finally had something to say after a long hiatus.
"And I've been kept super, super busy with this renaissance of the 80s, the live works off the scale, we've just been talking about doing cruises... I do orchestral tours, Rewind, Let's Rock, you name it.
"Raised a couple of kids, you know, walked a dog, that kind of thing. Didn't really have the mindset for writing and then all of a sudden we just did! And we had some ideas that have been on the back burner for a few years that we revisited and brought them back to life.
"And then we wrote four or five brand new songs, and put ourselves under pressure by booking the tour and say, 'Well, we have to have it finished'. So it's all in-house, we're controlling everything, we're a little cottage industry, so go to Tpau.co.uk!"
Listen to the full interview below
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