Midlands Heroes: T'Pau's Carol Decker - from a Shrewsbury flat to Number One
She’s the frontwoman of Shropshire’s biggest ever band, and for a time had far more than China in her hand.
The band is T'Pau – named after a character in an episode of Star Trek. And the song which became almost their theme tune had been written in a loft flat at Pengwern Boat Club in Shrewsbury.
They are fronted by Liverpool-born Carol Decker, whose family moved to Hordley Road in Wellington when she was seven, and who attended Wellington Girls' High School.
Although her parents later moved away to Nuneaton, Carol returned to Shropshire and after a while joined a local band called The Lazers.
Carol teamed up personally and musically with Ronnie Rogers, a BT engineer from Shrewsbury, and together in that flat in Shropshire’s county town they wrote more than 35 songs, including the one which was to have such an impact on their lives.
It was November 1987, and China In Your Hand seemed to be at Number One forever.
It spent an amazing five weeks in the top spot in the days in which being at Number One still really meant something.
In her autobiography, Heart And Soul, Carol described the genesis of the monster hit, while T’Pau were recording their debut album, Bridge of Spies, in America.
They were a song short, and she had a cassette in her bag of a piano vocal idea that they had started before leaving the UK.
"It was a very simple vocal, no harmonies, and Ronnie had roughed out the chords on the piano. It was China In Your Hand.
"Roy [the producer] instantly thought it was a fantastic song. I had most of the lyrics for it, it just needed a little tidying up."
From then on, it grew and grew by the day, with the addition of things like pizzicato strings, layers of guitar harmonies, and a fashionable saxophone break.
