The Toy Dolls
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THE TOY DOLLS were formed in October 1979 and comprised of Pete Zulu (Peter Robson) - lead vocal, Olga (Michael Algar) - guitar, Flip (Philip Dugdale) - bass guitar, Mr Scott (Colin Scott) - drummer.
THE TOY DOLLS first ever gig was at Millview Social Club, Sunderland,
Tyne and Wear, 20 October 1979.
After a handful of local (empty) gigs Pete Zulu left to form his own
band (Zulu & The Heartaches). So the lads quickly recruited Hud, a local Billy Idol look-alike, who
had never sang before! Hud left after just one single show!
Rather then cancel a forthcoming show at Sunderland's Wine Loft, the
lads decided to chance it as a three-piece with Olga bravely taking on
the role as lead singer and guitar player. THE TOY DOLLS as a trio was
born!
After a few rave gig reviews by the 'Sunderland Echo' the lads found
themselves playing hundreds of shows locally around North East of
England.
Fortunately, a local businessman financed the first TOY DOLLS single
which was 'Tommy Kowey's Car' with 'She Goes To Finos' on the flip side.
'Tommy Kowey's Car' sold out its initial 500 pressing but the band never
found the dosh to press any more.
After a few months of either breaking even or losing money at gigs, Mr
Scott's girlfriend Val demanded that her boyfriend was paid a tenner a
gig. This, of course, was totally impossible. Val threatened Flip and
Olga that Mr Scott would leave if his tenner did not materialise.
Mr Scott played his last gig not long after!
No time was wasted and drummer #2 was drafted in from local punk band
The Cult. In came Dean James (real name Dean Robson).
Dean, who always desired to be a guitarist, left THE TOY DOLLS to learn
to master the fret board after just four months.
A friend of a friend told the band about a great drummer who was
knocking about. Trevor Brewis, though a few years older than Flip and
Olga, still seemed to have the same level of enthusiasm as the other two
members (both 19 years old incidentally). Fortunately, Trevor was
bandless at the time, so the lads quickly christened him with a Toy Doll
name (Trevor the Frog) and he was in!
Trevor's Toy Doll time was short lived (just over a month), his reason
for leaving: "I resent being called a frog". He went on to form local
band 'Danceclass'.
With no shortage of skin batterers in the North East, Flip and Olga met up with Teddy (real name Graham Edmundson). He was one of the best drummers the Dolls ever had, unfortunately he was only prepared to stand in for a while as he wanted to persue his own business as a cherished registration plate dealer. He lasted nearly four months but did appear on some recordings: 'She's a worky ticket' (from NEI compilation album) 'Deirdre's a slag' and 'She goes to Finos' (From 'Strength Thru Oi!' compilation album).
By this time THE TOY DOLLS had built up a strong local following, and
the national music press were being favourable with reviews of the gigs
and records.
Garry Bushell in particular, who wrote for 'Sounds', gave some
outstanding features/reviews.
There was also a lot of backing from the local media.
But, alas, the lads were caught in that trap of just doing the rounds of
being stuck in the North East with no recording deal, so something had
to be done or a final split would have to come.
The next step, of course, was to find another bloody drummer!
So, the lads auditioned a handful of beaters before deciding on Bob, a
former member of Olga's previous band 'Showbiz Kids' - full name Robert
Kent and TOY DOLLS name Happy Bob.
A tall good looking bastard and competent drummer, Happy Bob was around
for some time.
This was probably the most important time of THE TOY DOLLS career with the release of the collectable, self financed TOY DOLLS EP. The regrettable signing to EMI Records and the single release of 'Everybody Jitterbug'. The signing to Volume Records and the release of 'Nellie The Elephant' (1982 version) and the release of the 'Dig That Groove Baby' album.
The first chance to do a national tour was thanks to The Angelic
Upstarts. This support slot enabled THE TOY DOLLS to do a further
national gigs and tours in their own right.
Anyway, the workload was intense and with a second national forthcoming
tour supporting the Upstarts arranged, Happy Bob and Flip had just about
enough.
With the prospect of another month on the road, sleeping in the van with
no money at all, they pulled out only two days before the start.
What could Olga do? The chances of playing to ready made audiences in
town and cities where THE TOY DOLLS were unheard of was too much to turn
down.
Fortunately, the local rehearsal rooms, run by Peter Practice (Peter
Dodds) had lots of bands practising that evening, so Olga managed to
entice two young and eager musicians to practice for two day solid and
embark on the aforementioned tour.
And so, The Angelic Upstarts tour plus one or two extra shows was
completed by drummer Nick Buck (real name Nick Buck!) and bass player
Freddie Hotrock (real name Frederick Roberts)
AUDITIONS YET AGAIN!
Next in line for recruitment were bass player Bonny Baz (Barry Warne)
and drummer Dicka (Alan Dixon).
With this line-up THE TOY DOLLS released a single for Volume Records
'Cheerio & Toodlepip' and also performed a number of gigs nation-wide.
Dicka left shortly afterwards.
THE DOLLS GO MARCHING ON!
Olga and Bonny Baz then teamed up with drummer Dicky (Malcolm Dick), a
local musician who had never really settled down to playing with on
particular band for any length of time, he had played in many combos
including Prefab Sprout.
During Dicky's reign the band embarked on quite a few tours, including
international visits to Holland, Germany and North America.
The workaholics also released two more singles for Volume: 'Alfie From
The Bronx' and 'We're Mad'.
At this point, Dicky and Baz both left to do their own thing.
The lads re-recorded and released a new version of 'Nellie The
Elephant'. This single sold a staggering 535,000 copies in the UK and
took the band to no.4 in the charts.
Ex-member Pete Zulu came in at desperate measures to play bass and local
session player Little Paul (Paul Smith) joined the scene on drums.
After numerous TV appearances Pete and the lads decided that Pete
himself was just not good enough as a bass player (an understatement!)
but rather than sack him, they put him on rhythm guitar (he could play
E, G and Am) and employed bass player Ernie (Ernest Algar - Olga's older
brother).
So off the lads went as a four-piece! A European and UK tour took place,
a single 'She Goes To Finos' and an album 'A Far Out Disc' were released
during this period.
The four piece only lasted three months, Little Paul got offered loads
of session and TV work and left.
After a break of a few months, Olga decided to get back on the road
again, took a deep breath and started another string of auditions.
No one was suitable! So Olga approached two former members, who he
thought were the easiest to get on with, drummer Teddy Toy Doll and Dean
James who now played bass.
Throughout this time the band released a singles album, two singles
'James Bond Lives Down Our Street', 'Geordie's Gone To Jail' and an
album 'Idle Gossip'.
And even more gigs, gigs, gigs.
Canny Kev (Kevin Scott) was around to stand in for Teddy at two Austrian
shows at this time too.
AAGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! ANOTHER DRUMMER TO FIND ...
No time was wasted and in steps drummer extraordinaire Marty (Martin
Yule).
During the time Marty, Dean and Olga performed together, only one album
was released 'Barefaced Cheek' on NIT Records.
Yes, THE TOY DOLLS finally parted company with the five year recording
company Volume due to various disagreements, for a fresh start with NIT.
After a number of tours Dean departed, a best of album 'Ten Years Of
Toys' was released by NIT, the band split from NIT and went searching
for a new deal.
In September 1989 the band signed to Receiver Records, drafted in Bass
Player K'Cee (John Casey) and released an album 'Wakey Wakey'.
Another tour begins! and another and yet another...
(Just for the record, bass player Dickie Hammond stood in for a
Scandinavian tout whilst K'Cee took a sabbatical).
A single 'Turtle Crazy' and a string of albums: '20 Tunes Live From
Tokyo', 'Fat Bob's Feet', 'Absurd Ditties' and Orcastrated were all released
by Receiver.
After a number of successful tours (particularly the 'Absurd Ditties'
jaunt of 1993) K'Cee became disillusioned with the band and left. He
moved to Japan where he got married.
Gary Fun (ex Martin Stephenson and the Daintees) joined the band just in
time for the recording of 'One More Megabyte' in 1997. Olga, Marty and
Gary hit the road once more to promote the new release.
During a break from the relentless recording/touring schedule Olga found
time to produce Japanese all girl punks Lolita #18. 'Toy Doll' was the
fruit of their labours which features the girls' rendition of 'Dig That
Groove Baby'. Olga would go on to produce another album for them called
'Angel Of The North'.
The new millenium saw the much awaited release of their 11th studio
album, 'Anniversary Anthems' which celebrated the lads twenty first year
in the business.
After a less than successful string of live dates (on a personal level),
Olga decided that the current line up was not up to scratch and fealt
that the fans were being cheated with poor live performances. A decision
was made to take a well earned break. This didn't last too long!
After meeting up with them a year earlier in Japan, Olga joined forces
with The Dickies as their stand-in bass player at the end of 2001. In
the nine months he spent touring with the band they played in Europe,
Japan, the US and the UK. Incidently, the UK dates were the first time
Olga had been seen on a UK stage since 1993!
After The Dickies shows, and with THE TOY DOLLS still on hiatus, Olga
took up the bass duties and toured with The Adicts in 2003 on the first
half of their 'Like Clockwork' tour. His stint with the band culminated
with a performance at the 'Holidays In The Sun' festival in the UK.
Fired up by his recent live outings Olga set about re-grouping THE TOY
DOLLS during the latter half of 2003. Marty was unable to commit to
recording and touring this time round as he wanted to spend more time
with his family so Dave The Nut was bought in to sit at the drum stool.
Bass player extraordinaire Reb completed the line up.
After only a handful of rehearsals it started to become apparent that it
wasn't going to be financially viable to continue with a line up whose
members lived so far apart. With Reb in Germany and Olga and Dave in the
UK, it was becoming increasingly difficult for the band to rehearse
regularly, therefore a decision was made to split with Reb.
Olga and Dave had to find yet another bass player, luckily Tom Goober
was available and only too pleased to step up to the plate.
2004 saw the release of the much anticipated 'Our Last Album?' and the fans weren't disappointed at all. A classic TOY DOLLS album in every aspect. Following the albums release the band took to the road for the first time in five years, lasting 12 months they took in much of Europe to welcoming, enthousiastic crowds each and every night. 'Our Last DVD?' was also filmed during the tour - a lasting testement to the band's mastery of the live stage.
The question marks tagged to the latest album/DVD/tour put a lot of
doubt into peoples minds as to whether this would be the last time they
got to see or hear THE TOY DOLLS. And after the tour finished, it did
indeed look like the band was finally going to hang up it's blue suede
shoes...
However, following a handful of live dates in Brazil as special guest of
The Lambrusco Kids, an envigorated Olga decided to keep THE TOY DOLLS
train-a-chuggin' and enlisted the services of drummer Duncan (from Snuff
/ Billy No Mates) to take up the drum stool. Things are looking good
again!
So, that brings us right up to date. There's a new 'best of' album (with
a difference) on the horizon, Olga's beginning to work on the next TOY
DOLLS album (something, he says, that will only see the light of day
once he's completely happy), and Our Last Tour? will continue in 2006,
look out for them in a town near you soon.
The story continues... will it ever end?
The Toy Dolls