Kissing The Pink – In Concert – Paris Theatre – July 23, 1983 – BBC Radio 1 In Concert Series –
Kissing The Pink in concert tonight – recorded at The Paris Theatre in London by BBC Radio 1 for their In Concert series on July 23, 1983.
Members included Nick Whitecross, Jon Hall, George Stewart, Josephine Wells, Anne Stokes, Peter Barnett, Sylvia Griffin, Steve Cusack and Simon Aldridge. Their first single was “Don’t Hide in the Shadows”, made with Martin Hannett, but it was not until they dropped their first manager (celebrated in their song “Michael”), and signed with Magnet Records that they began to get any airplay. They recorded their first album in AIR Studios with producer Colin Thurston.
Kissing the Pink had wanted Brian Eno to produce the album but Magnet thought Thurston would make a more commercial impact. As well as investing in a renowned producer, Magnet paid for promotional videos to be made for the singles Mr Blunt (shot at the Long Man of Wilmington) and Watching Their Eyes. After these of near-misses, their single “The Last Film” reached the Top 20 of the UK Singles Chart.[2] Their album, Naked, reached No. 54 in the UK Albums Chart.
Their first Billboard Hot 100 entry was “Maybe This Day”, which hit No. 87 in 1983. In 1985, following the departure by some of the members, they shortened their name to KTP and began having hits on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. The most successful was “Certain Things Are Likely”, which spent three weeks at No. 1 in 1987. That song also became their second Hot 100 entry when it peaked at No. 97 later that year. From the same album, “One Step” was the biggest selling single in Italy that year.
Kissing the Pink’s last album, Sugarland, was a blend of psychedelia and dance-pop. Since then, the band have made an album with Ecologist called Hot Filth which took the mixing of psychedelia with jazz and other musical forms further still.
Whitecross, Hall and Stewart collaborated on many dance records in the early 1990s, and made it to the top of the dance charts in 1994 with the artist Mike (“Twangling (Three Fingers in a Box)” on Pukka Records). They made an album in 2003 with jazz saxophonist Candy Dulfer called Right In My Soul. They also worked with Gareth Gates on his Pictures of the Other Side album. Whitecross has written a considerable amount of material for pop artists such as Shea Seger. The band wrote and feature on four tracks on the X-Press 2 album Makeshift Feelgood, alongside Tim DeLaughter, Kurt Wagner and Rob Harvey from The Music.
To get an idea why they were sounding like in 1983, the peak of Synth-pop (according to many), have a listen to this concert from The Paris Theatre, recorded on July 23, 1983 by In Concert at The BBC.
