T’was in the dim and distant mid nineties that a local gaggle of youngsters decided against all sensible advice, to form a band totally at odds with prevailing local movements.

Of course back in those days there was no channel five and people had to make do with the basic Sky package if they could afford it. We also only had three Star Wars movies to choose from and the queen used to throw cheap cuts of meat to the poor on Wednesday mornings. Against this background Toyskin appeared, channelling the sounds of C86, Depeche mode and early R.E.M., also influenced by krautrock, new wave and cheese-weasel pop.

Toyskin slowly developed.

Cutting an uneasy figure on the outskirts of the Hastings alt rock landscape they played many a gig making it as far as the big smoke for a few, but largely ploughing their furrow in Hastings, Tunbridge Wells and Brighton. After striking it lucky with a single picked up and played by John Peel and Radio 1s Jo Wiley (and making £2.80 from the PRS in the process), Toyskin retreated underground to make increasingly darker and stranger electronic records more reminiscent of Hood than the B52s. Unfortunately this period, where the band became totally disenchanted with playing to an increasingly ‘Limp Bizkit’ audience, and at venues where soundmen failed to understand, saw the band produce some of its finest output.

These records largely went unnoticed, in fact, lets be honest, completely unnoticed and all members split to the corners of the country to record in other projects occasionally together and sometimes with others, to moderate success. JD 2008