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Kissing the Pink | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | KTP |
| Origin | London, England |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1980–present |
| Labels | |
| Members |
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| Past members |
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| Website | jeffgrote |
Kissing the Pink are an Englishnew wave andsynth-pop band that formed inLondon in 1980.[1] The current members are lead singer and guitarist Nick Whitecross, keyboardist Jon Kingsley Hall, violinist Peter Barnett, and guitarist Simon Aldridge. Former members include saxophonist Josephine Wells, second keyboardist George Stewart, drummer Stevie Cusack, and vocalist Sylvia Griffin.
The band formed in 1980[2] at theRoyal College of Music, located inSouth Kensington, London. Their debut single was "Don't Hide in the Shadows", recorded with producerMartin Hannett atStrawberry Studios inStockport. Hannett had previously worked withJoy Division,the Durutti Column, andJohn Cooper Clarke, but it was not until they dropped their first manager (celebrated in their song "Michael"), and signed arecording contract withMagnet Records that they began to get anyairplay. They recorded their debutstudio album,Naked, atAIR Studios withColin Thurston as the main producer. The group had wantedBrian Eno to produce the album but Magnet thought Thurston would make a more commercial impact. As well as investing in a producer, Magnet paid for promotional videos to be made for the singles "Mr. Blunt" (shot at theLong Man of Wilmington) and "Watching Their Eyes". After these near-misses, their single "The Last Film" reached the top 20 of theUK Singles Chart, their only hit in the UK.[3] Their album,Naked, reached No. 54 on theUK Albums Chart.[3]
Their firstBillboard Hot 100 entry was "Maybe This Day", which reached No. 87 in the chart in 1983. In 1984, they released their second albumWhat Noise. This album did not attract as much attention and distribution was not as widespread as their other albums. It never received a worldwide release.[4]
Also, although not recognizable from any official charts, the Club Mix 12 inch version of "The Big Man Restless" became a huge underground dance hit in Europe and even the US throughout the 80s.
In 1985, following the departure of some of the members, the band shortened their name toKTP and released several singles that placed on theHot Dance Music/Club Play chart. The most successful was "Certain Things Are Likely", which spent three weeks atNo. 1 in 1987.[1] That song also became their second Hot 100 entry when it peaked at No. 97 on the chart later that year. From the same album, "One Step" was the biggest selling single inItaly that year.
In 1988, the band released the standalone single, "Stand Up (Get Down)",[5] on a new labelWEA; It would prove to be their only release on that label after it failed to chart, and they wouldn't release any more new material for five years.
Kissing the Pink's last physically-released album,Sugarland,[1] which was their first in seven years, was a blend ofpsychedelic music anddance-pop. Since then, the band have made an album with Ecologist calledHot Filth which took the mixing of psychedelic music withjazz and other musical forms further still.
In 2015, Kissing The Pink released two albums digitally onBandcamp:Digital People,[6] andFatHome.[7]
On 7 November 2025, Kissing the Pink released their seventh albumEverything's For Sale through Cherry Red Records.
Whitecross, Hall and Stewart collaborated on many dance records in the early 1990s,[1] and made it to the top of the dance charts[clarification needed] in 1994 with the artist Mike ("Twangling (Three Fingers in a Box)" on Pukka Records). They recorded an album in 2003 withjazzsaxophonistCandy Dulfer calledRight in My Soul. They also worked withGareth Gates on hisPictures of the Other Side album. Whitecross has written a considerable amount of material for pop artists such asKim Wilde (including her Top 40 hit "Heart over Mind"),Jem,Jaci Velasquez,Jonna Lee,Glen Scott,Leslie Clio, andShea Seger. The band wrote and feature on four tracks on theX-Press 2 albumMakeshift Feelgood, alongsideTim DeLaughter,Kurt Wagner and Rob Harvey fromthe Music.
In 1989, former KTP saxophonist Jo Wells, who had gone on to tour withTears for Fears andthe Communards, was aboard a pleasure boat in theMarchioness disaster, which resulted in the deaths of 51 people including a cousin.[8] Afterward Wells suffered a nervous breakdown and turned to alcohol.[9] She became unable to work, has sold two of her saxophones, and was living onIncome Support in 2012.[10]
| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK [11] | AUS [12] | ||
| Naked | 54 | — | |
| What Noise |
| — | — |
| Certain Things Are Likely(as KTP) | — | 93 | |
| Sugarland |
| — | — |
| Digital People |
| — | — |
| FatHome |
| — | — |
| Everything's For Sale |
| ||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. | |||
| Title | Album details |
|---|---|
| Kissing the Pink |
|
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [11] | AUS [12] | BE (FL) [13] | IT | NL [15] | US [16] | US Dance [16] | NZ [17] | SWE [18] | |||
| "Don't Hide in the Shadows" | 1981 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album single |
| "Mr Blunt" | 1982 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Naked |
| "Watching Their Eyes" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "The Last Film" | 1983 | 19 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| "Love Lasts Forever" | 85 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Maybe This Day" | 83 | — | — | — | — | 87 | — | — | — | ||
| "Big Man Restless"(not released in the UK) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Radio On" | 1984 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | What Noise |
| "The Other Side of Heaven" | 1985 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| "One Step"(as KTP) | 1986 | 79 | — | 23 | 3 | 25 | — | 5 | — | — | Certain Things Are Likely |
| "Never Too Late to Love You"(as KTP) | 87 | 86 | — | — | — | — | 32 | — | — | ||
| "Certain Things Are Likely"(as KTP) | 1987 | — | — | — | — | — | 97 | 1 | — | — | |
| "Stand Up" | 1988 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album singles |
| "Big Man Restless Remixes"(Germany-only release) | 1993 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| "Dalai Lama Loves You All"(as KTP) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Sugarland | |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. | |||||||||||
| International | |
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| National | |
| Artists | |