The Fabulous Wealthy Tarts

Paul Young's backing vocalists in The Royal Family.

Maz Roberts and Kim Lesley had been working together as session singers for several years before lending their innovative vocal talents to tracks on Paul Young’s debut album. Their partnership had been named when they worked on the album Jools Holland and His Millionaires in 1981. Holland said in his 2008 memoir, “With the benefit of hindsight, it may have been a mistake to call them ‘The Wealthy Tarts’. (The ‘fabulous’ was added in 1983, when they started to work with Young’s backing band The Royal Family.) We thought it went well with ‘The Millionaires’, and it was supposed to imply their wealth of talent. But times were politically correct even then and, when we played our first gig with them at the Albany Empire in Deptford, the name made people uneasy.” Accordingly they were variously credited on the recordings they contributed to. On their first single with Young, for example, the sleeve credit was for ‘The WTs – Kim and Maz’.

1983 was a busy year for them. They turned up on records like Tracey Ullman’s debut album for Stiff in 1983, as well as continuing their close association with Paul Young and The Royal Family, most memorably on the singles Love Of The Common People and their finest moment, Come Back And Stay, a single that quite simply wouldn’t have worked without them. Meanwhile, they arranged the release of a single of their own, The Last Time. Unfortunately it wasn’t a hit, and although they appeared on I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down, the lead single for Young’s second album, their role on the rest of The Secret Of Association was greatly reduced.