Singer, song-writer, musician

Born May 4 1944

Died February 23 2018

By rights, Eddie Amoo, who has died aged 73, should have had as high a profile as a socially aware singer song-writer as his heroes Curtis Mayfield, Isaac Hayes and Marvin Gaye.

If Amoo had come from frontline Harlem or Watts, crucibles of the 1960s civil rights movement, it might have happened. Coming from the streets of Liverpool 8, or Toxteth as the city’s multi-racial inner-city neighbourhood became better known following the summer riots of 1981, things worked out differently.

This was despite Amoo and The Real Thing, the band formed by Amoo’s younger brother Chris, writing Children of the Ghetto, the centre-piece of the 12-minute Liverpool 8 Medley. This three-part suite formed the climax of the band’s 1977 album, 4 from 8, and attempted to give voice to some of the tensions on the Amoo brothers’ doorstep.

As punk shook up the city’s musical youth elsewhere, Children of the Ghetto was a deceptively sweet-sounding anthem that spoke of the local community’s pride in the face of the sort of adversity that would explode onto the streets four years later.

Up until that point, the Real Thing had been best known for their 1976 dance-floor friendly number one smash hit, You to Me Are Everything, and its follow-up, Can’t Get By Without You. Their authentic fusions of Philly soul and disco went on to become wedding party favourites. Given such user-friendly confections, no-one saw what followed coming.

Children of the Ghetto would go on to be covered by Courtney Pine, Philip Bailey of Earth Wind and Fire and Mary J Blige. But at the time of its release, 4 from 8, packaged in a 3D gatefold sleeve featuring images of desolate Liverpool streets almost killed the band’s career.

Eddie Amoo was born in Liverpool to Moya and her husband Robert, a seaman from Ghana. His early influences came from a trip to Liverpool Empire to see Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. After a narrow escape from borstal following some childish tomfoolery with a knife, with Joey Ankrah, he formed doo wop and RnB influenced group, The Chants.

At local dance hall the Rialto, later destroyed during the riots, Amoo and Ankrah saw the Beatles, and were later invited to play with them at the Cavern club. Brian Epstein took a brief interest in Amoo and Ankrah’s band before being distracted by his mop-topped charges. While the Beatles and Merseybeat conquered the world, the Chants signed to Pye Records, but crossover success eluded them. After 13 years and several releases, the band split up.

Amoo joined his younger brother’s band the Real Thing during what turned out to be the band’s most commercially successful era. A further hit came with the Star Wars inspired Can You Feel the Force? Amoo and the Real Thing caused controversy in the 1980s, when, with Essex, they played in South Africa, breaching the cultural boycott in protest at apartheid. In an interview, Amoo described the trip as “the ugliest two weeks of my life.”

Amoo, ,married his childhood sweetheart Sylvia and they lived close to where he was brought up. Amoo invested in property, but music remained his passion. Amoo looks set for belated recognition as a key influence on black British music of the last 50 years.He is survived by his wife Sylvia and his daughters Dionne, Sara, Michaela and Marlene.

Neil Cooper