Catch 𝗧’𝗣𝗔𝗨, 𝗞𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗮 and 𝗛𝘂𝗲 and 𝗖𝗿𝘆, Fri 7th Feb Mandela Hall Belfast for the biggest 80’s night
Fri 7th Feb 2025
Mandela Hall 77 University Rd
Belfast BT7 1NF
Tickets from £33.50+bf
7pm Doors
7.40pm Hue & Cry
8.30pm Katrina
9.30pm T’PAU
Carol Decker
T’Pau burst onto the music scene in 1987 with the hit Heart & Soul reaching No. 4 in both the UK & US charts. Taken from the debut album Bridge of Spies. It’s innovative use of a rap verse by a white female vocalist introduced the world to the distinctive lead vocals of Carol Decker, and the song writing talents of Carol & Ronnie Rogers.
Heart & Soul led to a meteoric rise in T’Pau’s fortunes at home and in the USA, where the track stayed on the US Billboard Chart for 6 months.
After a European Arena Tour supporting Bryan Adams, the band toured UK City Halls and Theatres as headliners to tie in with the next single, the classic ballad China In Your Hand. Nobody could have predicted the impact of ‘China’ which stayed at No. 1 for 5 weeks – the longest serving No. 1 of the year. Simultaneously Bridge of Spies occupied the number 1 album slot for 2 weeks. Their own arena concerts followed.
To date, China In Your Hand has appeared on more than 200 compilations, and has become part of the fabric of the 80’s. After further hits Valentine, I Will Be With You, and Sex Talk, the Bridge of Spies album was certified quadruple platinum in the UK, selling 1.2 million copies. 1988’s Rage also went platinum.
In 1987 T’Pau were officially BIGGER than The Beatles, keeping George Harrison and Paul McCartney at No.2 in the UK singles and album charts respectively..
T’Pau hold the exclusive title of holding three simultaneous No.1 slots. ‘China’ No.1 in the singles charts, Bridge of Spies No.1 in the album charts and the ‘China Remix’ at No.1 in the dance charts!
T’Pau were nominated for 5 Brit Awards, an Ivor Novello Award for ‘China In Your Hand’, and won an ASCAP Award from the USA for ‘Heart & Soul’.
The original line up of T’Pau split in 1991 after a final Top 20 hit ‘Whenever You Need Me’. Greatest hits album ‘Heart & Soul: The Very Best Of T’Pau’ was released in 1993.
Carol and Ronnie separated professionally and personally, and spent the next few years working on various individual projects.
In 1997, Carol built a new T’Pau, embarking on a 25-date UK tour plus festivals, recording several shows which would later be released as ‘T’Pau Greatest Hits: Live!’ in 2003.
In 1998 Carol recorded ‘Red’ the first new T’Pau studio album for 7 years. The album would include the singles “Giving Up the Ghost” and “With A Little Luck”.
Carol performed an orchestrated version of “China” with the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Princess Diana Tribute Concert at Althorp in June 1998, which was broadcast live around the world. T’Pau then joined Status Quo’s 1998 European Tour, performing in front of packed audiences.
Easing up on the touring to have two children, Carol hit the West End Stage in the hit comedy ‘Mum’s the Word’ at The Albery Theatre with Patsy Palmer, Imogen Stubbs Jennie Éclair and Cathy Tyson. Further acting roles for Carol would include the TV dramas ‘Doctors’; ‘Star’ with Nicolas Hoult; UK film ‘Nine Dead Gay Guys’ with Steven Berkoff and Michael Praed; and ‘Running Time’, the first UK Interactive BAFTA nominated Film.
Carol has always been a popular guest on Radio and TV: Ken Bruce, Steve Wright, Terry Wogan, Sara Cox, Jools Holland, Jonathan Ross, Chris Evans, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Trigger Happy TV, The Mathew Wright Show, Loose Women, Lorraine, Celeb Mastermind, Celebrity MasterChef 2018, All Star Mr. and Mrs., and Pointless! Carol has presented radio shows for Absolute 80’s, Magic, and LBC.
Ron Rogers returned to T’Pau and they embarked on the hugely successful #Tpau25live anniversary tour in 2013.
Carol and Ronnie went back into the studio to write and record ‘Pleasure And Pain’, released in 2015 to 5-star reviews. Followed by a sell out ‘Songs And Stories’ acoustic tour in 2016. In 2017, T’Pau proudly promoted The 30th Anniversary Virgin Anthology Boxset.
New music is always being worked on, and the legacy of T’Pau is still being written.
KATRINA
Katrina was born in Topeka, Kansas and came from a big air force family, moving every couple of years; arriving in England in 1976 where Katrina formed the band Mama’s Cookin’.
In 1983 Katrina joined The Waves and the band became Katrina and The Waves gigging around England and the London pub and club circuit at venues like Dingwalls, the Hope and Anchor and the Marquee.
Katrina and The Waves had their first big break in 1984 when The Bangles covered their song Going Down to Liverpool and they were subsequently signed by Capitol Records.
The first Capitol album, Katrina & The Waves released in 1985, was a substantial critical and commercial success and ‘Walking on Sunshine was a worldwide hit earning top ten spots around the globe. (No. 8 UK, No.9 US, No.3 Canada, No.4 Australia).
The single Walking on Sunshine gave Katrina and The Waves a worldwide hit in 1985 and a Grammy nomination. Walking on Sunshine has been streamed over 750,000,000 times on Spotify alone (with 0ver 6 million monthly listeners) – making it one of the most popular songs of the 80s decade.
In 1997 Katrina and the Waves’ Love Shine a Light won the Eurovision Song Contest with the largest ever margin. This was followed by an unprecedented four consecutive appearances on Top of The Pops and a No. 3 in the UK Charts.
The following year, Katrina and the Waves split up and Katrina pursued an alternative career on radio and TV. She was a TV presenter on Watchdog on BBC1 and was then offered her own show on BBC Radio 2 – where she presented a three-hour show, five days a week for the next year and a half. This was followed by a stint in musical theatre, where Katrina played the lead role (songwriter Ellie Greenwich) in Leader of the Pack, singing some of the songs that had influenced her as a young singer.
In 2001, Katrina began a solo career, performing live in the UK and in Europe and resumed writing and recording. Her first solo album, ‘Katrina Leskanich’ was released in 2005. Katrina wrote and produced many of the songs on the album, which includes collaborations with Phil Thornalley, (‘Torn’) and an acoustic cover of Kirsty MacColl’s ‘They Don’t Know’.
In 2006, Katrina put together a new band, performing their first gig at The Borderline in London. In 2007 Katrina covered ‘Hitsville UK’ on The Sandinista! Project – a new compilation and tribute to The Clash Sandinista! Album. She toured Australia on the Countdown Spectacular tour and Norway with Gylne Tider. Katrina’s single ‘They Don’t Know’ was included on the Gylne Tider 2 album which went platinum. The following year, Katrina had a UK club hit in 2008 with a dance version of ‘They Don’t Know’.
Katrina celebrated 25th Anniversary of ‘Walking on Sunshine’ with Katrina and The Waves in 2010, with the release of a new CD, The Live Album. And the Glee Cast had a UK Top 10 hit with a mash up of Beyonce’s ‘Halo’ and Katrina & The Waves ‘Walking on Sunshine’. The EP Spiritualize was released in May 2011.
Katrina published her first book – Peggy Lee Loves London: My London Guide (Metropoodle Press 2013) where Katrina explores London in a new city tour guide series which is also available on Amazon Kindle. In 2014 Katrina performed on the Retro Futura Tour of North America with other 80s artists including Thompson Twin Tom Bailey, Howard Jones and Midge Ure. Katrina also released her first studio album for 10 years – Blisland. In 2015 Katrina toured South Africa and again in North America.
In 2016, Katrina took part in the BBC’s ‘Eurovision: You Decide’ and toured Australia on the ‘Totally 80s’ Tour and Sweden during the summer.
Katrina toured the USA with the Retro Futura Tour 2017 with 80s artists including Howard Jones, Paul Young and The English Beat, and released a compilation album, The Very Best of Katrina. In 2018 Katrina released her Christmas single, ‘I Can’t Give You Anything but Love’.
2024 Katrina released ‘I Couldn’t Live Without Your Love’ a cover of Petula Clark’s hit which was Number One on the Heritage Chart for two weeks.
2025 is the 40th Anniversary of ‘Walking on Sunshine’ and will be celebrated with some new songs, a new album and the long awaited publication of ‘Peggy Lee Loves Cornwall: My Cornwall Guide’.
HUE AND CRY
Brothers Patrick and Gregory Kane formed Hue and Cry in 1984 and the duo made a huge impact with the release of their debut album ‘Seduced and Abandoned’ (1987) which featured their first top ten single ‘Labour of Love’. The follow up album ‘Remote’ continued the trend and produced the huge hits ‘Looking for Linda’ & ‘Violently’. Albums like ‘Stars Crash Down’, ‘Showtime’ and ‘Jazz Not Jazz’ ensured Hue and Cry’s continued successful run through the 90’s, whilst their 2005 appearances as finalists on ITV’s primetime show ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’, featuring their version of Beyonce’s ‘Crazy In Love’, thrust the band firmly back into the mainstream limelight.
A number of successful album releases and accompanying live appearances followed which included ‘Open Soul’ (2008), ‘Xmasday’ (2009), ‘Bitter Suite Again’ (2010), ‘Hot Wire’ (2012), ‘Remote: Major to Minor’ (2014), ‘September Songs’ (2015), ‘Pocketful of Stones’ (2017). To date Hue and Cry have sold more than two million records worldwide.
In 2019, Hue and Cry sold out their ‘Summer Nights at the Bandstand’ show at Glasgow’s Kelvingrove park within hours and finished the year by playing live all over the UK. With the global pandemic bringing live touring to a halt during 2020/21, Hue and Cry introduced their pioneering ‘Live from Lockdown’ streaming shows which were broadcast live from the band’s Glasgow based studio and viewed online by thousands of fans around the world. A collection of their favourite tracks from these shows was released as a ‘Best of Lockdown’ album (2022).
Hue and Cry have sold tens of thousands of concert tickets worldwide. As well as performing alongside some of the greatest artists in music history – appearing with U2, James Brown, Madonna, Al Green and Van Morrison to name but a few, the band have undertaken a multitude of their own headline tours and made numerous festival appearances. The band were recognised by their peers when they were presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Scottish Music Awards.
Having made a welcome return to performing in front of audiences in both their ‘stripped’ duo and ‘full band’ set-ups, Hue and Cry have announced their 40th Anniversary Tour in October / November 2024 – a year when they will continually release a carefully curated selection of rare material from their personal archive along with accompanying memorabilia and commentary.
