Latest News

‘EVERYTHING – THE REAL THING STORY’ COMES TO BBC TV IN AUGUST!

by | Jul 24, 2020

After a successful run in UK cinemas earlier this year, we are really excited to announce that our movie ‘Everything – The Real Thing Story’ will be getting its worldwide TV premiere on BBC Four at 9pm on Friday 7th August 2020. We have had such a wonderful response to the film so far, and the critics have loved it. If you missed it at the cinema, we can’t wait for you to see it for the first time on TV. Make sure you tune in!

“An enlightening film portrait of a pioneering British soul band. Simon Sheridan’s pitch-perfect documentary reveals a lot of blood, sweat and tears” (4 stars out of 4) MOJO

You can read more about the special BBC screening here.

 

On Tour With Our New Movie!

by | Jan 23, 2020

We’ve been very busy travelling all over the UK, promoting our new movie Everything – The Real Thing Story, alongside our talented director/producer Simon Sheridan. In each cinema, we’ve had such a great positive reaction from the audience. In Liverpool, our fans were on their feet cheering! We are so incredibly proud of the movie and the response we’ve received and want to thank everybody who has come along so far. The Q&As after each screening have been illuminating too, and the questions are always interesting: “Who inspired you musically when you were growing up?” “Did you meet Sid Vicious on Top of the Pops?” “Will there be a TV drama about your life story?”

 
Everything - The Real Thing Story - Movie by Award Winning Filmmaker Simon Sheridan

The reviews from the press have been lovely too. Read here some of these wonderful comments:

“Director Simon Sheridan celebrates Liverpool’s oft-neglected The Real Thing in a rich, enveloping docu-study with a keen socio-historical eye. Both a ‘story of the song’ and much more, Everything digs deep. Made with passion and insight” (4 stars out of 5) TOTAL FILM

“The story of the chart-topping 70s’ Merseyside band delivers a charmingly recounted piece of pop history. Simon Sheridan’s solid, efficient documentary pays tribute to the Liverpudlian pop-soul beat combo the Real Thing. As a package, it cross-references social history with musicology, making a tidy and touching tribute. An absorbing, considered feature-length documentary” THE GUARDIAN

“A powerful new documentary” NORTHERN ECHO

“Simon Sheridan does a diligent job of surveying of surveying what’s under the surface, and gives the problems of race and integration their due” SIGHT & SOUND

“Everything – The Real Thing Story provides welcome recognition that Liverpool has more musical landmarks than Penny Lane” METRO

Look out for the movie coming to a cinema near you. A full list of upcoming screenings can be found on our Movie page.

After 44 Years ‘You To Me Are Everything’ Finally Gets a Promo Video!

by | Jan 23, 2020

Our biggest ever hit ‘You To Me Are Everything’ topped the UK charts during the long hot summer of 1976. Back then very few British pop acts made promotional videos, the only real exception was Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. Certainly, we never had the luxury of making a video all those years ago, but to promote our new album ‘Best of the Real Thing’ our incredible designer Christopher Stratton has made a brand new lyric video using archive footage and photos. We really hope you enjoy it!

 

Coming to a Big Screen Near You… The Real Thing Movie!

Coming to a Big Screen Near You… The Real Thing Movie!

by | Dec 10, 2019

Distributed by Screenbound International Pictures, ‘Everything – The Real Thing Story’ is coming to UK cinemas in January 2020! Directed, written and produced by award-winning filmmaker Simon Sheridan, the feature-length documentary charts the rise of Britain’s longest-established soul and funk band, and features interviews with members Eddy and Chris Amoo, Dave Smith and Gail Lake, the widow of Ray Lake. It is the incredible story of “the other four lads from Liverpool, who changed the face of British music”.
The movie opens at London’s beautiful Brixton Ritzy cinema on 15 January and moves to Liverpool, Halifax, Darlington, Glasgow, Nottingham, Hackney, Crouch End, Isle of Man, Leiston (Suffolk) and then returns to London in February. Tickets can be obtained on our Movie page.
Here it comes… The Best of The Real Thing on CD!

Here it comes… The Best of The Real Thing on CD!

by | Dec 6, 2019

At last – after so many requests over the years – The Real Thing finally release their new compilation album ‘The Best of The Real Thing’ via BMG Records on 10 January 2020! What makes this 31-song collection so unique is the inclusion of previously unreleased track ‘Someone Oughta Write A Song (About You Baby)’ written by Ken Gold and Mick Denne. Plus there are six other tracks which have never been released on digital format before, including the extended disco mix of 1979’s ‘Can You Feel The Force’. Other songs include the perennial favourites ‘You To Me Are Everything’, ‘Can’t Get By Without You’ and ‘Children of the Ghetto’. The double-album is available for pre-order from Amazon and all other good retailers.

 

Stream the new track, or pre-order the new album here: The Real Thing

The Real Thing’s Stunning New Animated Video!

by | Dec 5, 2019

The Real Thing are incredibly proud to unveil their beautiful new animated video for ‘Someone Oughta Write a Song (About You Baby)’. Because the song was originally recorded way back in the summer of 1976, and never released, the band never performed it on television, or made a promo video. So 43 years later BMG Records asked talented visual designer Christopher Stratton to create this superb new animated video, with the assistance of illustrator Lee Baston. It really captures the essence of The Real Thing. Hope you enjoy it!

 

Watch the animated music video on YouTube

Missing for 43 years, The Real Thing release a ‘new’ single from 1976!

by | Dec 3, 2019

1976 was hugely significant for The Real Thing; the year when the Liverpool quartet finally made an indelible mark on the British singles chart and thrilled millions of music fans across Europe. The record-breaking sweltering summer set pulses racing, and discotheques bopping with two timeless soul classics – ‘You To Me Are Everything’ and ‘Can’t Get By Without You’, which reached #1 and #2 respectively, with combined sales of over one million.

 

Both tracks were recorded at Roundhouse Studios in London, composed by legendary hit-makers Ken Gold and Mick Denne. What few Real Thing fans actually realise is that a third Gold/Denne single was also recorded that summer – a deliciously up-tempo dance track entitled ‘Someone Oughta Write a Song (About You Baby)’. Anticipated as the band’s third big hit of 1976 – and a potential number one smash – it sadly never saw the light of day. Instead, The Real Thing plumped for their own composition – ‘You’ll Never Know What You’re Missing’ – which hit the top 20 later that autumn.

 

For nearly five decades ‘Someone Oughta Write a Song (About You Baby)’ has sat on a shelf – unheard and forgotten. That is, until now.

 

During research for his new documentary movie ‘Everything – The Real Thing Story’, director Simon Sheridan discovered that producer Ken Gold still had the original master-tapes of the song in his archive in America. Simon asked Ken if he could listen to the track, and was immediately blown away by how infectious the song was. Back in London, he played it to executives at BMG Records, who immediately agreed to include it as the lead track on The Real Thing’s upcoming double-disc ‘Best Of’ collection, out in January.

 

So on 3 December 2019 – after 43 long years – The Real Thing finally release their ‘lost’ big hit of 1976. The re-emergence of ‘Someone Oughta Write a Song (About You Baby)’ finally completes the trio of classic Real Thing songs from that unforgettable summer of love. Welcome back 1976. We’ve missed you.

 

Stream the new track, or pre-order the new album here: The Real Thing
Get Ready for Everything!

Get Ready for Everything!

by | Sep 17, 2019

The Real Thing are extremely proud to announce a very special screening of their long-awaited biographical movie Everything – The Real Thing Story, directed by Simon Sheridan.

The ‘other four lads from Liverpool’ tell their story from the tough streets of Toxteth to the bright lights of New York and international stardom as Britain’s first million-selling soul and funk band. Against a backdrop of racism and social and political turmoil, The Real Thing were the first all-black British band to hit #1 in the pop charts – with the perennial ‘You To Me Are Everything’ – and as a result became the original black pin-ups for teenage fans. Other hits like ‘Can’t Get By Without You’, ‘You’ll Never Know What You’re Missing’ and ‘Can You Feel the Force’ set dancefloors alight, but their proudest moment was composing their anthemic ‘Children of the Ghetto’ – the first ever song to address the plight of black people in the UK.

The band’s success has also been tempered with personal tragedy, but for the very first time Eddy, Chris and Dave tell their incredible story of a 45-year-long career. After five decades, they remain the pioneers of British soul.

Narrated by Game of Thrones actor Jacob Anderson, Everything – The Real Thing Story also stars Billy Ocean, David Essex OBE, Trevor Nelson MBE, Kim Wilde, Paul Barber, Denise Pearson and Louis Emerick, and opens at the Regent Street Cinema, in London’s West End, on 24 October 2019.

Tickets can be booked at:

https://www.regentstreetcinema.com/programme/everything-the-real-thing-story/

The Real Thing Documentary

The Real Thing Documentary

by | Jun 1, 2019

The Real Thing are pleased to announce that for the past few months they have been busy filming a new feature-length documentary about their long and eventful career in music. Shot entirely on location in Liverpool, London, Bristol and Brighton, the movie features interviews with all the band members – Eddy Amoo, Chris Amoo and Dave Smith – as well as Ray Lake’s widow Gail – and includes illuminating contributions from many of the band’s famous friends, fans and fellow musicians.

The documentary tells the inspirational story of four working class boys born to immigrant parents in one of Liverpool’s toughest neighbourhoods. The streetwise quartet from Toxteth wrote and performed their own songs, and became Britain’s most enduring black soul and funk act ever. With a string of hits, they dominated the international charts throughout the 1970s and 1980s, with iconic songs like ‘You to Me Are Everything’ and ‘Can You Feel the Force’. But the group’s meteoric success was also tempered with racial prejudice and personal tragedy.

The band members have always been proud of their Liverpudlian roots, and their self-composed 1977 album ‘4 from 8’ celebrated their humble beginnings in the L8 postcode. The collection’s best-known track ‘Children of the Ghetto’ chronicled the group’s humble origins and has gone on to become an anthem of the civil rights movement, covered by the likes of Philip Bailey and Mary J Blige. The new documentary features never-before-seen material from the group’s archives, and amazing footage of them performing live on stage.

‘Everything – The Real Thing Story’ charts the rise of Liverpool’s musical pioneers, who fought discrimination to become the biggest-selling black group in UK pop history. This is a tale stranger than any fiction – an untold story of home-grown pop, painted against a backdrop of politics, funk and race, where four proud black boys took on the world, and changed British music forever.

‘Everything’ will be released in 2019. More info to come!