Despite the city\u2019s backdrop of deprivation and racism, vibrant nightclubs and daring artists thrived \u2013 but after No 1 success for the Real Thing, why was the scene ignored?<\/p>\n
Months before the Real Thing\u2019s You to Me Are Everything became a UK No 1 hit in 1976, lead singer Chris Amoo took the unreleased song to the Timepiece, a nightclub devoted to Black music tucked in between bars on Liverpool\u2019s Fleet Street. His DJ friend Les Spaine stuck it on, and the empty dancefloor \u201cjust filled up, and nobody, not one person in that place, had heard the song before\u201d, Amoo says with pride on a call from his home on the outskirts of Liverpool. \u201cThat\u2019s when me and Les looked at each other and thought: you\u2019ve got something there, brother.\u201d<\/p>\n
The track\u2019s symphonic majesty and romantic vocals captured the hearts of millions, and it peaked in the charts during 1976\u2019s summer heatwave. Fifty years later, Amoo is on tour with his fellow bandmate Dave Smith in celebration of its anniversary. But the Real Thing were just the most high-profile group from an underground funk and R&B scene which emerged in 1970s Liverpool, upheld by a generation, predominately from the Toxteth area south of the city centre, that embraced Black American culture.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/f8917233d4835c5c4e3ff32f289476f25bb4a016\/1258_0_5625_4500\/master\/5625.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=9f285db588a18409a8b2f0645a7c8170\" "\\"Even")
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