Chart entered : 27 July 1991
Chart peak : 62
T' Pau of course scored big with their second hit "China In Your Hand" in 1987, one of those number ones that has you scratching your head as to how it became so popular. The follow up "Valentine" got to number 9 but they never returned to the Top 10 after that and interest in the band ebbed away quite quickly. Lead guitarist Taj Wyzgowski left after the first album and was replaced by Dean Howard from hard rock outfit Airrace .
"Walk On Air" was the second single from their third album "The Promise" which was fast slipping out of the charts after entering at number 10 a month earlier. "Walk On Air " indicates that the band were still chasing the US dollar , despite the fact that "Heart And Soul" remained their only US hit, with a keyboard heavy AOR sound similar to Heart although Carol Decker is no match for Ann Wilson in the vocal department. It's actually one of their better efforts with lyrics that make a reasonable stab at expressing the pain of desertion and less caterwauling than some of their other hits. It does sound somewhat similar to Martika's Toy Soldiers though and maybe it's just the echoes of that that I'm liking.
The third single from the album , "Soul Destruction" uses a synthesiser pulse to try for some dancefloor action but it's a tuneless bag of hot air that never gets off the ground. It brought their run of hits to an end. There was a fourth single in the US and Japan, "Only A Heartbeat ", a would-be anthem celebrating the demise of the Berlin Wall which sounds much like John Farnham's You're The Voice with its bombast and military tattoo drumming.
The band decided to call it a day later in the year. In 1993, a compilation LP, "Heart and Soul - The Very Best of T'Pau" was released which made number 35. The re-released "Valentine" was a minor hit, reaching number 53.
Carol was quiet for a number of years although she released a solo single "One Heart" to commemorate the Halifax Rugby League Centenary World Cup in 1995 which isn't a bad slice of Rainbow-ish pop metal. She got to perform it at Wembley Stadium but it didn't chart.
Carol decided to resurrect T'Pau in 1997 with herself as the only original member, her relationship with mullet-haired guitarist and co-writer Ronnie Rogers having bitten the dust. A re-recording of "Heart and Soul" made no impression but Carol persevered and worked on a new album "Red" despite being pregnant with her new partner's child. Ronnie's present on four tracks as a writer and credited as an additional producer on two but doesn't play on the album. "Red" is actually a pleasant surprise, a listenable mainstream guitar rock album although it only has one knockout track "Let It All Fall". Released on her own label, Carol had to tour hard, after the birth of her child Scarlett, to sell any copies including a European tour supporting Status Quo. Chronically missing her daughter , Carol dissolved the band once the tour finished.
The following year she began a brief acting career with an appearance in Doctors. Two years later she was in the controversial comedy 9 Dead Gay Guys. In 2005, she came runner-up to Shakin' Stevens in the TV series Hit Me Baby One More Time .
Carol married her long-time partner Richard Coates in 2006 and they opened a restaurant near Henley which lasted for six years.
At the beginning of 2007 Carol took part in the second series of Just the Two of Us but was the first to be eliminated. Later in the year she released a new single "Just Dream", a rather bland pop effort co-written with Ronnie. The following year they put a new T'Pau line up together to do a Here and Now tour and Carol released an instantly forgettable dance version of "Don't Stop Believin".
In 2013 Carol and Ronnie put together a new version of T'Pau and went on a 28 date tour to mark the 25th anniversary of the band. They followed it up with an album "Pleasure and Pain" in 2015. Apart from "Sammy and Dave" which borrows heavily from World Party's Is It Like Today , it's very bland and colourless. Carol's still in good voice but the songs aren't memorable enough.
Carol admitted in 2013 that she didn't know the whereabouts of the rest of the original band and information is pretty scarce. Bassist Paul Jackson is a pick-up musician based in Telford and was last seen working with soul singer Lisa Carter. Keyboard player Michael Chetwood was last spotted on a Deborah Bonham LP in 2004. Taj, now known as Mike, came up with some music for a Japanese anime TV series Bleach in 1995 and drummer Tim Burgess seems to have left the music business altogether.
Only Dean is still an active recording musician. In 2004 he put out an obscure solo album "Number One" out online. Ian Gillan was among the guest vocalists and Dean toured with him in the US in 2006. Five years later he was part of an Airrace reunion with the album "Back To The Start " which is as good a re-creation of late seventies AOR ( Foreigner, REO Speedwagon etc ) as you''re ever likely to find. In 2015 he joined the band Cats in Space who've put out two albums of tuneful AOR , "Too Many Gods " ( 2015 ) and "Scarecrow " ( 2017 ) and played a number of prestigious support and festival slots.
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