Kissing The Pink

The suggestive undertones embedded in the name Kissing the Pink prompted the ensemble to adopt the toned-down abbreviation KTP. British critics frequently took the group to task throughout the 1980s, yet the music itself avoided the risqué implications of the original title. Blending soul, electronic experimentation, and synth-pop at a moment when that combination dominated the airwaves, the band came close to mainstream success in the United Kingdom while remaining largely invisible in the United States beyond dedicated new-wave listeners. The project originated in 1980 at London’s Royal College of Music, where all the participants shared a single house in North London. The initial lineup—Nick Whitecross on vocals and guitars, Jon Kingsley Hall on keyboards and vocals, Peter Barnett handling bass, violin, and vocals, Simon Aldridge on guitars and vocals, Stephen Cusack on drums and vocals, George Stewart on keyboards and vocals, and Josephine Wells on saxophone and vocals—issued the debut album Naked in 1983. By 1986 the group had trimmed its name to KTP and delivered its most commercially oriented record, Certain Things Are Likely, a conscious effort to satisfy the hit-making expectations of its label, Magnet. Although broader chart dominance proved elusive, the title track topped Billboard’s dance chart and the single “One Step” reached number one in Italy. In 1988 the act restored its original name and later released Sugarland in 1993. Afterward the roster shrank to Whitecross, Hall, and Stewart, who concentrated primarily on production duties for other artists. Hall issued the trance album Moving Into One in 1999 as a project dedicated to his wife, while the same year the band worked with Steve Balsamo on several tracks that Sony ultimately rejected and left unreleased.