Sweaty
ThE OtHeR rAmOnE
The Toy Dolls Official Website
Toy Dolls are an English punk rock band formed in 1979. Departing from the angry lyrics and music often associated with punk rock, Toy Dolls worked within the aesthetics of punk to express a sense of fun, with songs such as "Yul Brynner Was A Skinhead", "My Girlfriend's Dad's A Vicar" and "James Bond Lives Down Our Street." There is often alliteration in their song titles (e.g. "Peter Practice's Practice Place", "Fisticuffs in Frederick Street", "Neville is a Nerd").
Studio Albums
1983 Dig That Groove Baby
1985 A Far Out Disc
1986 Idle Gossip
1987 Bare Faced Cheek
1989 Ten Years Of Toys
1989 Wakey Wakey
1990 22 Tunes Live From Tokyo
1991 Fat Bob's Feet
1993 Absurd-Ditties
1995 Orcastrated
1997 One More Megabyte
1999 On Stage in Stuttgart
2000 Anniversary Anthems
2004 Our Last Album?
2006 Treasured Toy Dolls Tracks Live
2012 The Album After The Last One
Their albums usually include a cover version of a well-known hit song, usually sped up to the usual punk rock tempo. Covers have include: "Toccata in Dm", "Sabre Dance", "Livin' La Vida Loca", "Lazy Sunday Afternoon", "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) and "The Final Countdown." They have also recorded parodies of popular songs, such as "The Kids in Tyne and Wear (Kids in America)" and "The Devil Went Down to S****horpe (The Devil Went Down to Georgia)". Their albums often start with a short intro with a catchy guitar riff, and end with an outro, which is usually a slightly longer variation of the intro riff.
Most of the band members have nicknames, and are rarely seen without their cartoonish rectangular sunglasses (although they appeared bare-eyed on the One More Megabyte album cover).
Toy Dolls formed as a quartet featuring vocalist Pete "can't take a picture" Robson, guitarist Michael "Olga" Algar, drummer Colin "Mr. Scott" Scott and bassist Phillip "Flip" Dugdale. After a couple of concerts, "can't take a picture" left to form his own band and was replaced by Paul "Hud" Hudson on vocals for one concert. After Hud's departure, the Toy Dolls became a trio, with guitarist Olga assuming permanent vocal duties.
Scott left the band in 1980 and was replaced by Dean James for four months over the summer of 1980. James later returned to the band from 1985 to 1988 as a bassist. Flip left in 1983, marking the beginning of a revolving door of drummers and bassists that would characterise the Toy Dolls line-up over the years (with Olga as the mainstay and only original member). In 1984, Zulu returned to the line-up as a bassist/vocalist, but departed again less than a year later.
They were initially grouped with the Oi! scene, but they can also be classified as pop punk or punk pathetique. One reason they are associated with Oi! is that they were championed by Garry Bushell, who was very involved with Oi! bands such as Angelic Upstarts (whom Toy Dolls later supported on their first national tour). In 1980, Sunderland car salesman and businessman Tom Cowie financed the Toy Dolls' debut single, "Tommy Kowey's Car" with "She Goes To Finos" on the B-side. The single quickly sold out its initial pressing of 500 copies, but the band could not afford to press any more, making the single a collectors' item. When the band signed to Volume, they moved to Newton Hall, north of Durham which led to their song "Livin' on Newton Hall".
For Christmas 1982, they released their punk rendition of "Nellie the Elephant", a classic children's song, which hit #1 in the UK Indie Singles Chart. In 1983, they released their debut album Dig That Groove Baby. In 1984, their re-issue of "Nellie the Elephant" reached #4 in the UK Singles Chart and stayed in the Top 100 for 14 weeks. Their follow-up single "She Goes to Fino's" reached #93 during April 1985.
As of 2007, the band has had 14 different drummers and 12 different bassists. Olga is the only remaining original member of the band. After Olga, drummer Martin Yule had the longest tenure in the band (1987-1999). Yule currently owns a shop in Sunderland called "Hotrats." Former drummer Dave "the Nut" Nuttall owns Jalapeño Drums (a custom drum company based in Lancaster, Lancashire).Steven "Rubi" Mallinson went on to be a pulp writer of Skinhead books and youth culture, before vanishing in the 90s. The current lead singer/guitarist with The Stranglers Baz Warne also had a stint with the band. Olga has played bass on some tours with the U.S. punk band The Dickies. Gary Dunn former bassist of the Toy Dolls (1997-1999) now teaches music at City of Sunderland College.
Give this one a chance
...this would be a great party song, and the band as well, nice to see some musicians with a good sense of humor, but they never let you forget they can Play as well.
One more that always makes me laugh:
Great fun in the local pub in the eighties, shouting along, with the gang, to 'Nellie'. WHOOOOOOOOooooooooooh .......... 
