7" single, 'I Could Write a Book' by The Chants

“We wore pretty sharp mohair suits. Our trademark was a thin tie with a tiny knot and big collar.” Joe Ankrah, speaking in 2007. Liverpool Voices Archive, Museum of Liverpool. The Chants were a vocal harmony group from Liverpool 8. The band, which got together in the early 1960s, consisted of brothers Joe and Eddie Ankrah, Nat Smeda, Alan Harding and Eddie Amoo. Their best-known records include, ‘I Could Write a Book’, Sweet was the Wine’, ‘She’s Mine’ and ‘Come Go with Me’. Growing up, Joe was influenced by his father, the organist and choir master at the African Churches Mission, by the diverse music heard on the street corners of their neighbourhood and by records he acquired from American GI’s at Burtonwood Airbase near Warrington. “We rehearsed and rehearsed in our cellar on Parliament Street and we did that for about a year and when my mum got fed up with the noise she used to throw us out and we used to try and go to Stanley House and rehearse there”. Joe Ankrah, speaking in 2007. The band played many venues here and abroad including the Cavern Club with The Beatles. The group split in the 1970s. Eddie Amoo went on to form The Real Thing with his brother Chris.