This page compiles many little things about KTP I've found over the internet. Mostly they can't fit anywhere else, but at the same
time they add even more mystique into the band. Gets new entries pretty much every site update. Entries are sorted
chronologically.
In-site links are in this color and out-of-site links (the majority) are in this color. Out-of-site links automatically open in new tabs.
Kissing the Pink has always had trouble crediting specific vocalists per songs. Given that every other band member sings, they often told the press that everyone sang. This is not true. Simon never sang any lead vocals (as far as I am aware) only backing, and Stevie never sang any vocals. Although Stevie did voice the horse race announcer on an unreleased version of Underage.
Each Kissing the Pink album up to Sugarland came out physically, with lyrics printed in their jackets. Sometimes these prints would miss out on certain lyrics. Here are the ones I have noticed.
These are bits of audio within a song that are not necessarily musical.
The title is a hyperbole obviously because misandry isn't real, how woke of me to say. But it is funny that three separate songs mention "men" in a negative light. These are:
Typos are a facet of life. Kissing the Pink, in several contexts, has made many, many typos. I have decided that listing every single one would just be mean, because everybody spells things wrong all the time. However, spelling names of people is a very special kind of typo that should be documented. The following list will not include George being referred to as "Peter Stewart" or Jon being spelled as "John".
In April 2018, an IP address (anonymous) user on Wikipedia edited
list of members to include a 9th one,
named Anne Stokes. Anne was never mentioned in the body text. Her name was scraped by
a few
covering KTP, but she was removed
in October of 2019 by a different IP user. I was willing to believe Anne Stokes never existed. Especially since the user who
initially added it had warnings about
adding unconstructive information to other articles (but not KTP's) [also the user who removed her has no other edit
history].
I asked Kim Howard about it, after wracking his head a bit, he remembered that Anne was indeed a real person. A
fellow student at the Royal College of Music who was friends with George and Jon when Ubu Roi formed. Mystery solved! But that begs
the question how she even ended up on the article in the first place, as nowhere else online is she mentioned (apart from articles
that scraped from
Wikipedia). The IP address itself is from the University of Cambridge, but IPs are not always accurate of course- it could just
be from anywhere in that area. It could be from Anne Stokes herself! Unlikely, but still strange.
Liner notes for Naked call the song "The Big Man Restless" while the liner notes for Sugarland call the song "Big Man Restless". The song has used both titles in several official places. Though generally, with the advent of streaming, the song is referred to without its definite article more often. The lyrics consistently refer to the character as "the big man restless" except for the second line in the song which calls him "a big man restless".
We Are Your Family is a Naked-era song that was released as the B-side of the 12" Maybe This Day single and on the US self titled EP as the final track. On certain sites and compilations, this song is labeled as "extended" or "club mix" as it is six minutes long, but the audio file itself remains the same, all sharing the same length. It's currently unknown if any other versions were planned or produced. When the EP became available on streaming, it was merely titled as "We Are Your Family", no other mix.
Through certain illegal means, wink wink, there exists a version of Desert Song subtitled as "white label". A white label, in music, is a test pressing of a vinyl record. The song itself is mostly the same as the final except it includes some extra drum parts and male vocals, which were all removed from the final version. Unsure if this version is a white label from a test pressing of Naked or if Desert Song was to be a single.
Sylvia is incorrectly credited a vocalist on a German printing of the 1982 Watching Their Eyes single. There are earlier unreleased versions of the song with her as a vocalist. This likely means that the song was rerecorded very close to the single's printing, to the point where the sleeve's credits were unchanged. (Or, in a less fun interpretation, the German's got something wrong.) George is also credited as a vocalist, although he exclusively sings backing vocals. Sylvia does sing backing in the B-side to this single, In Awe Of Industry, which is a slightly different version to the final (although she is also on the final).
Judging by various newspaper dates of reviews of the single, Watching Their Eyes came out in mid-late October of 1982. On the
back cover of the single's sleeve, text reads "Taken from the forthcoming Kissing the Pink album KTPL 1001 released November
12th". KTPL 1001 is Naked's internal record label code, but it released on 21 March 1983, with The Last Film releasing two weeks
earlier. It seems that Watching Their Eyes was intended to be the true leadoff single, but something happened that caused the album to
be delayed a few
months which resulted in The Last Film taking that place. Perhaps the thing that caused the delay was Sylvia leaving the band, to
connect the above entry.
Maybe This Day was released in Peru with its title and B-side (Love Lasts Forever) translated into Spanish. This makes it the only Kissing the Pink single to be released with its song titles translated.
On the 1999 unofficial CD issue of What Noise?, Sylvia's name is credited in the sleeve instead of Simon's. Funnily enough, the page that her name is on is underneath a photo of the whole band, including Simon. Sylvia, of course, was gone partway through Naked and had no influence on What Noise at all.
The lyrics to One Day in the album's insert booklet mistakenly use "whose" instead of "who's" for the line "Whose that
talking to me in the dark". I Won't Wait similarly uses the wrong form of "your/you're" in the line "Your gonna look at me
say you've had enough of men".
Additionally, despite several songs having questions in their lyrics, only No One's On The Same Side gets question marks.
Certain Things Are Likely, the album, released in Japan under the title 碧い瞳 (aoi hitomi) "Blue Pupils", and is the only KTP album
thus far that has been retitled in another region. It's standard for songs to be retitled in other languages, but usually the albums
just release in English if they're not that popular, guess KTP crossed that horizon! A few songs were retitled too.
Never Too Late To Love You became... I can't read the first word on any of the photos I have, the second one is "of two people".
(???の二人, ??? no futari).
Certain Things Are Likely, the song, was changed to "Mind Game (マインド ゲーム maindo geemu)" perhaps for ease of pronunciation (against
that though, No One's On The Same Side was unchanged despite being very irregular for Japanese phonology)
Identity Card boringly got retitled to "ID Card (I.D.カード, ID kaado)".
One Day got both its title transliterated (ワン デイ wan dei) and literally translated (いつの日か, itsu no hika).
Additionally, the album
seems to have unique Japanese liner notes. Though the photo is a little too low quality to make anything. I've tried looking
up tracklists to see what Never To Late To Love You is called but I can basically only find the Japanese album on resale sites and
people just use the English names for songs, if even that.
A small batch of
American 12" singles of Certain Things Are Likely has the band on the spine credited as Level 42 instead of Kissing the Pink or KTP.
It's possible it simply got mixed up with a Level 42 single, although the misprint only exists on the spine, not on the vinyl's
sticker label or the front cover. Not every American 12" print has this issue.
This is an aside, as it's not CTAL related, but I found this Norwegian Level 42 fansite thing claiming that Mike Lindup had a
crush on Jo while they both attended Chetham's together. It is true that they attended Chetham's at the same
time but this site doesn't cite its sources and I have no idea how I'd find a source on this claim.
Sugarland never released on vinyl, but it seemingly was planned to. The back of the original CD lists its production code alongside a production code for an LP version.
Several newspapers throughout 1992 describe a band called "Sugarland" playing gigs throughout Northern England.
For some of these gigs, the band also produced t-shirts. Thanks to Kim Howard for finding these and sharing them with me. They were originally owned by George Stewart.
On the Kissing the Pink Wordpress, seemingly
written entirely by Nick (as he used to have a typing quirk where he wouldn't write spaces after
punctuation), there's a post from 2010 with a list of six song titles for the upcoming album that became Digital People. One of these
song titles is "Now I'm Someone Else".
Also on the Wordpress there's a post from 2009 mentioning a song Nick is working on called "Sarah Terry" but this one is described as a "pub
sing-a-long" which means it probably morphed into Sanity Vanity. In that same post, George has a sketch of a song called "Writing on
the Wall" which is described as "shiny pop", so, using the list of six song names on the later post, the song could've been morphed
into Birds Are Talking, Pop Up or Digital People. Or maybe Writing On The Wall and Now I'm Someone Else are the same song... or
they're both scrapped!
In 2010, Kissing the Pink were managed by Underdogs Publishing. In January of 2010, they released a four-song EP for Kissing the Pink on
Bandcamp (purchase is not available). It uses the artwork to Mr. Blunt for some reason.
The four songs are: Happy Ever
After, Pop Up, There Goes Sanity and Waterfall.
I asked George Stewart about these songs, but he had nothing to say about them.
Many posts from their various accounts describe big things that never happened! I think this is all of them, but there might be one or two on Facebook that I can't access.
In my questions to George Stewart he said that each of the members of the band felt "disenchanted" with the idea of success as they were finishing Digital People, which is probably why these things got cancelled.
There are at least three instances of this.
I made contact with a user that goes by bigmanrestless on other platforms, but he said that the tumblr user wasn't him.
But luckily, these didn't get lost!
So KTP did one of those "get us to x number of followers" things and they promised to release an unreleased demo track if they hit the number. They did not, at least not within the timeframe, so whatever this song is, if it was a new song or an old one, is unknown.
On Bandcamp, the song Madman has two quirks in how it has been displayed.
For whatever reason, instead of adding the credits in the album's description, as is normal for Bandcamp, they decided to retitle
one of the songs to a credit. In this case, the song is called "Artwork by Kim Howard - Madman". On mobile, this actually renders as
"Artwork by Kim Howard" being the song's artist instead of Kissing The Pink. The song's url and downloads confirm that the song is
indeed just called "Madman" and not "Artwork by Kim Howard - Madman"
I would forgive them if they simply didn't know of this feature, but Madman is in fact the only Kissing the Pink song on Bandcamp
to have a description! It says "Based
on apoem(sic) by Nigel the First and his friend" I have no idea who Nigel the First is.
The Anthology was originally subtitled "1983-2023". When it got delayed, it was retitled to "1982-2024". The latter's starting date is more accurate as Mr. Blunt, Water In My Eye and Watching Their Eyes all released in 1982.
FatHome's artwork was drawn by Kim Howard. An earlier version of it was reused for 2024's Anthology compilation. The differences are: the sky showing light on the pond in FatHome, the pyramid being wavier and not fading away in the Anthology, the clouds being redrawn, and the "KTP" dial in the upper right corner. However, the use of FatHome's art at all is a little strange. The Anthology contains mostly songs from the 80s, but it does contain a few newer songs on the physical version. None of these newer songs are from FatHome.
In the original version of Satelite from Digital People, one of the stanzas at the start of a verse is:
"The satellite is leaving now
It's blinked away from here somehow"
Satelite was one of two Digital People songs remade for 2024's Anthology, in that remake, this lyric is changed to:
"The satellite is leaving now
It moves away from here somehow"
In the W-Fest, Nick and Peter are harmonizing. Nick sings the above lyrics, while Peter sings:
"The satellite is leaving now
It leads away from me somehow"
On all versions of the Anthology, there is a song called Spying On Me which is subtitled as (new master). On physical versions of the album, remakes of Satelite and Imagine Everyone are given the subtitles of (new track). Given that the "new tracks" had released prior but were remade, and the "new master" is an entirely new song, it seems that the subtitles were accidentally swapped during the album's compiling.
Several parts of songs on Everything's For Sale recycle parts from previous songs, both released and unreleased. In order of tracklist:
Kissing the pink have had three (2010) YouTube (2021) channels (2025). Each of which has only one video
posted on them. This is not really precedent among normal bands and is wholly unique to KTP.
The first one was created for the band's tumblr to post the KTP Palin interview (presumably to share it on Facebook, as the other two tumblr videos weren't uploaded to the
channel). The 2021 one has its profile picture be the back of the sleeve of The Last Film, its sole upload is the W-fest performance. And the third was created to upload
Techno Feudalism's strangely titled video. (At one point, the latter had an AI generated profile picture and banner, but that was
changed to just be some regular pink text by 28 September.)
I'm aware that these images aren't level just pretend they are ok.
Probably on the same day as the release of Techno Feudalism's video (13/09/2025) the Kissing the Pink Spotify bio got updated.
Here is what it was before 2021 (and is still it on streaming services that aren't Spotify)
If Kissing the Pink's name sounds like sexual innuendo, it's because it is. The band eventually changed their appellation to the modest KTP.
Often chastised by the U.K. press in the '80s, Kissing the Pink's music is not as suggestive as their name. The group's hybrid of soul,
electronic experimentation, and synth-pop should've landed them hits when that sound was in flavor, but the band merely flirted with the Top
40 in England and was virtually unknown in America except for new wave diehards. Kissing the Pink was formed in 1980 at the Royal College of
Music in London, England. All of the members lived together in the same house in North London. Comprised of Nick Whitecross (vocals,
guitars), Jon Kingsley Hall (keyboards, vocals), Peter Barnett (bass, violin, vocals), Simon Aldridge (guitars, vocals), Stephen Cusack
(drums, vocals), George Stewart (keyboards, vocals), and Josephine Wells (saxophone, vocals), Kissing the Pink released their first album,
Naked, in 1983. By 1986, Kissing the Pink had shortened their name to KTP and recorded their most successful LP, Certain Things Are Likely.
More commercial than any of their previous efforts, Certain Things Are Likely was Kissing the Pink's concession to their label Magnet's
demand for a chart smash. The hits never really came, except that the title track reached number one on the Billboard dance charts;
moreover, the single "One Step" went to number one in Italy. In 1988, KTP became Kissing the Pink once again. The group released Sugarland
in 1993. After that, the band cut their roster to Whitecross, Hall, and Stewart, doing mainly production work for other artists. In 1999,
Hall recorded Moving Into One, a trance CD, for his wife. Kissing the Pink collaborated with Steve Balsamo that year on a number of songs,
but they were rejected by Sony and shelved. ~ Michael Sutton
Kissing the Pink formed in Glasgow in 1978 where Peter Barnett, Jon Kingsley Hall and George Stewart were studying at the Royal Scottish Conservatoire.
Moving to London in 1980 we were joined by Nick Whitecross, Stevie Cusack, Jo Wells and Sylvia Griffin. Initially crammed into a piano practice
room beneath a Royal College of Music hall of residence, early songs sounded like the unlikely union of Johny Guitar Watson, Supertramp and
Tarkovsky. The name….the name….it came from the commentator of ‘Pot Black’ on uk tv saying “the white ball is kissing the pink”
2023 is the 40th Anniversary of “NAKED”!
For this there are new songs to hear, remixed & reimagined originals, special limited edition vinyl releases and live shows to look forward
to! (2021’s appearance at W-Fest in Belgium was our first gig for over 20 years & it was a triumph).
The current line-up of Jon, Nick, Pete & Simon are all working towards our constant willingness to experiment and be different, dance but
avoid the obvious, make comfortingly rhythmically crafted anthems for the lost, for the deep thinkers, for the outsiders, for the
questioning, and for the lovers.
We were always a band that missed the mark in terms of belonging to a genre. I think we tried sometimes or did I imagine that? Post-Punk,
no, New Romantic, no, and later categorisations were things glimpsed in the distance, islands on screens, but never truly visited. A bubble
world maybe, convinced of its own validity? There were moments of grandiosity.The Other Side of Heaven, pure eccentricity; Love Lasts
Forever or early electro; Frightened in France. On Certain Things are Likely we momentarily connected with the zeitgeist and made No 1 in
the US dance charts when Prince was number 2. ‘One Step’ was big in Italy, but even that managed to include some faux Clint Eastward
semi-biblical ramblings. And now? Nothing’s changed. Maybe in the culture of immediacy genres don’t matter, and if they do, another is only
a thumb swipe away. Fleeting engagement. Houston via the view from a stage in Verona, or Martin Hannett emerging from beneath a a venerable
24 track Helios console, to suggest recording the snare drum in the lift, while Ken Thomas marvels at the delay offered by Neve AMS X16.
Kissing the Pink are a disparate group of people who get together to make music. I hope we bring a little light into the world.
Kissing the Pink was an English synth-pop band formed in London in 1980, known for their early use of classical training and modern synths
to create a distinctive sound. Their 1983 debut album Naked featured their biggest hit, "The Last Film," a Top 20 UK single. The band
evolved into KTP, achieving a No. 1 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart with "Certain Things Are Likely" in 1987.
Formation and Style
The band formed in London in 1980, with many members having classical training from the Royal College of Music.
Their music blended new wave and synth-pop, drawing inspiration from sources like Kraftwerk and classical music.
The band members initially lived together, fostering a close-knit environment for creating music
The music video for Techno Feudalism was uploaded in little sliced teasers on the band's facebook page. In the first teaser, there's a scene of Nick singing into a microphone, which is not present in the final video. This could either be a scene in a future video (ew!) or they had a few other clips that got cut for the Techno Feudalism video.
If you download each of the albums legally, and view their metadata, you can see that they all have the
"songwriter" field filled out. But for the majority of songs, it just says "Kissing the Pink"
However, each song on Everything's For Sale has specific songwriters credited. Albeit, Jon is credited as "Jon Robert Hall" instead
of "Jon Hall" or "Jon Kingsley Hall" (Robert is not a middle name of his and rather an error in crediting that exists in non-KTP songs
he's written) and George is credited as Peter Stewart.
Each song is only written by Jon and Nick, except for:
Naked: Big Man Restless old lyrics "The relentless humor are so relentless" / Broken Body's own flubbed lyric / Hall Kingsley as a
name. / Richard Skinner calling the band "A five piece group"
What Noise: Everything weird about The Other Side Of Heaven, that one social media post where they use lyrics to Greenham with a CTAL
background
Digital People: various tweets from Nick Whitecross, and his other blogs / Buddha's Words first appearing in 1998