You don't get a more credible start to your career than Eddie Amoo; his band, The Chants, made their debut appearance at The Cavern in Liverpool, playing three songs in the middle of a Beatles gig. That was 1962.
Like everyone else in Liverpool, The Chants got a record deal during the Merseybeat explosion of 1963/64, in their case with Pye,By the early 70s The Chants were wedded firmly to the cabaret circuit, and Eddie was looking outside the group to satisfy his creativity. He began writing songs with his younger brother, Chris Amoo, and these songs became the basis of the material performed by Chris' group The Real Thing.
The Real Thing appeared on Opportunity Knocks and Top of the Pops, managed by showbiz legend Tony Hall, were favourites on both sides of the Atlantic - even so they went through a succession of record companies and flop singles before they finally made it. When they did, it was because of a variety of factors. Firstly, David Essex used them as backing vocalists on his 1975 album All The Fun of the Fair, and on his subsequent tour, for which they were also the support act in their own right. Then the rise of disco made the idea of black British bands more acceptable,finally they were given a perfect pop song by writer Ken Gold: 'You To Me Are Everything'.
1976 and Eddie Amoo - who had finally wound up The Chants joined his brother's band at the end of the previous year . The fact that 'You To Me' and some of the subsequent releases were more pop than soul may have typecast the group somewhat unfairly, but there were some heavier records as well; Eddie would particularly like to draw your attention to Four From Eight, their 1977 album that comes close to the socio-soul of their hero Curtis Mayfield. (The 'Eight' in the title refers to Liverpool Eight, the district where the band lived.) It also contains their greatest recorded moment, 'Children of the Ghetto'.