I came across the above post while scrolling down the home page on Facebook, which was pure luck as I don’t go too far down if I haven’t been on Facebook for a while, (let’s face it, we spend about five minutes if that on Facebook these days) and I hadn’t been tagged in. What I like most about it is that they referred to it as honest, because that’s how I always write.
The paper only wanted 250 words, but I wrote some more and had to chop it to bits before sending it in:
Thanks to Garry Bushell’s early patronage, The Toy Dolls found themselves pigeonholed in the post-punk ‘Oi!’ movement, but the fancy dress shop wigs and bright sunglasses worn by a section of the crowd displayed the band’s true place; right on top of the light entertainment end of the punk spectrum. Former Adverts front man TV Smith had done a fine job of warming up an already packed Basement bar with a solo acoustic set of well known standards.
Arriving on stage to a classical overture, it was straight down to business with an appropriate start to a Nottingham gig; ‘Cloughy Is A Boot Boy’ had everyone in the air and singing along like the most polite football crowd you can imagine. Unlike a great deal of punk bands, this was a tightly run ship containing skilled musicianship, choreographed movement, and confetti bombs. The dancing in time during instrumental breaks might have drifted rather dangerously close to Status Quo territory at times, but it was all part of the fun. It was a bit surprising to find the 1984 chart entry ‘Nellie the Elephant’ appearing so early in the set (about the ninth song if I was paying attention), but with every track known word-for-word by the crowd, it had to go somewhere.
Everyone was in the mood to enjoy themselves, although I did have to wimp out of the mosh pit when ‘Fisticuffs In Frederick Street’ began, as the dance floor began to resemble the notorious Fosters club. An all ages crowd hung on Olga and company’s every word, which made me wonder why they were appearing in the small room. In fact, TV Smith could have sold the place out several times over. Returning for two encores, they were joined by TV Smith for a rousing version of ‘Gary Gilmore’s Eyes’ and ended on ‘She Goes To Finos’. Commercial success might have eluded them since Nellie packed her trunk, but they don’t seem too worried, and with gigs like this, why should they?
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