On Friday evening BBC4 broadcast a documentary on The Real Thing, the black Liverpool soul and funk band who enjoyed chart success in the 1970s.
But Eddie Amoo, whose younger brother was the band's leader, was around in the Merseybeat years - his first band, The Chants, was briefly managed by Brian Epstein.
Amoo wrote the remarkable A Man Without a Face, which was a protest song about racism and released as a single in 1968.
He once told Alwyn Turner:
Man Without a Face ... was a good record for its time. And very heavy, as well. That was one of my songs, and it was the forerunner to a lot of the stuff that I started to write with the Real Thing – sort of a message thing. But it was written in, what, 1964-65? So it was way, way ahead of its time. When I think back, I’m amazed we got it released. That was probably the Chants’ best single.
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There is a 1968 photograph of the redoubtable Bessie Braddock, who championed the group, at https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/labour-politician-bessie-braddock-the-mp-for-liverpool-news-photo/931282950.
I seem to recall that they briefly troubled the hit parade with their version of a Rodgers and Hart song, "I could write a book".
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