Kissing the Pink are an English new wave and synth-pop band that formed in London in 1980.[1] The current members are lead singer and guitarist Nick Whitecross, keyboardist Jon Kingsley Hall, second keyboardist George Stewart, and guitarist Simon Aldridge. Former members include saxophonist Josephine Wells, violinist Peter Barnett, drummer Stevie Cusack, and vocalist Sylvia Griffin.
Their first Billboard Hot 100 entry was "Maybe This Day", which reached No. 87 in the chart in 1983. In 1984, they released their second album What 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 to KTP and released several singles that placed on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. The most successful was "Certain Things Are Likely", which spent three weeks at No. 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 in Italy that year.
In 1988, the band released the standalone single, "Stand Up (Get Down)",[5] on a new label WEA; 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 of psychedelic music and dance-pop. Since then, the band have made an album with Ecologist called Hot Filth which took the mixing of psychedelic music with jazz and other musical forms further still.
In 2015, KTP released two albums digitally on Bandcamp: Digital People,[6] and FatHome.[7]
In 1989, former KTP saxophonist Jo Wells, who had gone on to tour with Tears for Fears and the Communards, was aboard a pleasure boat in the Marchioness 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 lost the control of her lip that is essential to players of woodwind instruments. She became unable to work, has sold two of her saxophones, and was living on Income Support in 2012.[10]
