Even better than the Real Thing? The overlooked Black music scene of 1970s Liverpool — SkimNews
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- The Real Thing became the first Black British band to top the UK charts in 1976 with "You to Me Are Everything"; lead singer Chris Amoo first tested the unreleased track at Liverpool's Timepiece nightclub, where DJ Les Spaine played it to an empty dancefloor that "just filled up" before anyone had heard it.
- Distinction became the first Black British female group signed to a major label (EMI) after forming in Liverpool in 1976, but EMI sat on them without releasing music; they eventually put out "That's the Way I Like It" via Germany's Hansa label in 1982 before their career fizzled.
- Les Spaine ran the Timepiece nightclub in Liverpool as a refuge from the colour bans enforced at other city venues, projecting 16mm films of Michael Jackson, Rufus and Chaka Khan and enforcing a "soul boy" dress code of mohair suits and Ben Sherman shirts; people of all races traveled nationwide for the all-nighters.
- Black US soldiers stationed at the Burtonwood airbase near Liverpool brought the latest American records, baseball boots and dance moves into Toxteth on weekends, seeding the city's Black music scene in the 1960s and 70s.
- Chris and Eddie Amoo wrote the Real Thing's 1977 track "Children of the Ghetto," which has since been covered by Earth, Wind & Fire's Philip Bailey and Mary J Blige — "Americans pay it more credit than the UK lot do," Spaine says.
- Barbara Phillips of Distinction is the daughter of Lord Woodbine, the calypso musician who mentored the Beatles; she later founded a talent development agency after her singing career stalled.
Why it matters: The piece repositions Liverpool's musical legacy beyond the Beatles, spotlighting Black British pioneers who broke racial barriers — including the first Black British No. 1 and the first Black British female group on a major label — yet remain "airbrushed out" by a London-centric UK industry that Phillips says preferred "blue-eyed soul" white singers covering Black music over investing in Black British artists. The 50th-anniversary tour and 2019 documentary "Everything" signal belated recognition.
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