Red is the fourth studio album by British pop/rock group T'Pau. It was released in 1998, and was the first T'Pau album since The Promise in 1991. Red would be singer Carol Decker's last album/single release until the 2007 solo single "Just Dream".
Background
After the original split of T'Pau in 1992, Decker attempted a solo career. In 1993, she contributed a track to the soundtrack of the film Dirty Weekend, and performed a small number of live shows in the following year. In 1995, she released the single "One Heart" as the official anthem for the Halifax World Cup Rugby League Centenary '95. It peaked at #130 in the UK. By 1997, Decker made the decision to form a new line-up of T'Pau and begin touring again. A new version of the band's original hit "Heart and Soul" was released as "Heart and Soul '97", but it was not a commercial success. After a period of touring, Decker recorded Red between December 1997 to July 1998 at Roundhouse Studios in London. The album, which was released in September 1998, was supported by a thirty-six date tour named "The Red Tour". To promote the new album, a radio promo single, "With a Little Luck", was released. Further promotional activities included a live session for Virgin Radio and an appearance on VH1, which Decker also filmed material for in New York. Later in November and December 1998, T'Pau supported Status Quo on the German and UK leg of their Tour "It's Good to Tour". Despite the touring, Red was not a commercial success, nor was a re-recorded version of "Giving Up the Ghost", released in 1999. In a 2011 interview with Old School - Back to the 80s, Decker spoke of the album: "I decided in 1998, after meeting a new manager, to start work again after years of no confidence. I would've loved to have gotten the same level of success again but it didn't happen although I did sell a lot of albums on the road." Speaking to Paul Sinclair of Super Deluxe Edition in 2013, Decker said: "I recorded Red when I was pregnant with my daughter. I toured it up and down the UK, and then I went across Europe with Status Quo and I left her behind when she was six months old. I sulked my way across Germany – it was just awful. I hadn't been a mum before. I left her safe and sound and well sorted, but I didn't take into consideration being a new mother, separated from her daughter after six months, with hormones raging... I was in bits."
Release
Red was initially released in mid-September 1998 in the UK on CD, via Decker's own Gnatfish label. In the United States it would be released as a two-disc set on November 9, 1999, via Renaissance Records. The second disc included three tracks; the re-recorded "Heart and Soul '97", a live, unplugged version of the band's 1987 UK number one hit "China in Your Hand", and the demo version of the Red album track "Do the Right Dance". On 16 September 2007 the album was officially made available as a MP3 download from Amazon, including the UK and US. It was also made available on iTunes.
Reception
In January 1999, Dave Ling of Classic Rock wrote: "Eight years on, T'Pau has very much become a vehicle for flame-haired siren Carol Decker. Sonically, T'Pau still favour smooth, occasionally faceless walls of melody best exemplified on "Now That You're Gone" and "Make Love to Me". Could have lived without the Big Country flavoured "Do the Right Dance"; and surely Paul McCartney will be suing Decker for re-writing Wings' "With a Little Luck" and re-titling it "Wing and a Prayer"? Nevertheless, this is a solid enough comeback album." Heather Phares of AllMusic stated: "T'Pau returns with Red, its first album since 1991. The group's smooth pop sounds remain intact on songs like "With a Little Luck," "Now That You're Gone," "Giving Up the Ghost," and "Let It All Fall."
