(3 / 5)
Following on from the success of the Captain Oi label’s previous Toy Dolls box set: “The Albums 1983-’87”, they now deliver a further five CDs for the second volume.
“The Albums 1989-’93”, features four studio albums and one live set, totalling 83 tracks on the five discs.
Disc One is “Ten Years Of Toys”, a re-recorded “Best Of” the band’s first decade, featuring “classics” like “Deidre’s A Slag”, “Tommy Kowey’s Car” and “My Girlfriend’s Dad’s A Vicar”.
Disc two is the 1989 studio album “Wakey Wakey With The Toy Dolls”, which features “Cloughy Is A Bootboy” and “Lester Fiddled The Tax Man”.
Disc Three is the band’s first ever live LP, “Twenty Tunes Live From Tokyo”, recorded on their 1989 world tour, and featuring the UK # three hit “Nellie The Elephant”. This latest set comes with two bonus tracks from that Japanese show.
Disc four is the “Fat Bob’s Feet” album from 1991, which is now joined by the “Turtle Crazy” single as a bonus.
The fifth disc is “Absurd-Ditties”, an album rated by fans and critics alike, as the best Toy Dolls album of them all.
“Ernie Had A Hernia”, “My Wife’s A Psychopath”, “Dez The Demon Decorator”, all on the final disc of this set. The booklet contains detailed notes, plus pictures from all the related LP sleeves.
Toy Dolls formed in 1979 in Sunderland, England. They mixed humorous lyrics/song titles with the power and energy of punk. Their albums usually included a cover version of a hit song, sped up. The kazoo is often prominent in many of their songs!
Band members are rarely seen without their cartoonish rectangular sunglasses. They are still gigging, with “Olga” aka Michael Algar, the sole original member, joined by Duncan Redmonds and Tom Blyth.
By Sally Fox
(1 / 5) ‘Dull Zone’
(2 / 5) ‘OK Zone’ (3 / 5) ‘Decent Zone’
(4 / 5) ‘Super Zone’
(5 / 5) ‘Awesome Zone’
