Toy Dolls For Christmas? 🎁
How time just runs away! It only felt like five minutes ago I was writing up something to post on this site for the oncoming Christmas/Festive Period. Things like putting up the Christmas decorations and prepping up for the whole seasonal gig only seem like a very short time ago, it is amazing how quickly a year goes by! You can catch last years festive offering at the link The Season's Upon Us 🎄.
Seriously though, I am not quite sure where 2024 disappeared to? Time has flitted by so quickly for me this year. I didn't really have that much of a long break over the summer period so have been using up most of my leave just before and during Christmas, to be honest it is good to take a break, I am feeling tired and lightly jaded so it is a good time to recoup, renew and enjoy some 'hygge' time.
We're Going Down The Pub
I guess for this post as opposed to previous years I thought I would delve back into more teenage memories and the joy of Christmas, which I guess as you kind of got older lost some of the sparkle and magic that it gave as a kid, but on a positive note opened up many doors of silliness and teenage friendships and of course the demon of pubs and alcohol. I remember our local pub used to have one of the 'old school' juke boxes with, shock, horror! real vinyl 45's! Maybe the source of the music here is dredged up from those memories idk?
Either way as a teen with a bunch of mates to hang out with and a local pub much fun was had! Christmas Eve was a little special in that the pub would be even busier than usual, everyone seemed to come out of the woodwork to be down there. You kind of had to get in there early otherwise things started to get too manic (I pity the poor bar staff and guvnor of the pub in retrospect they certainly earned their money!). Anyway the juke box used to be in full throttle or if we were really spoiled they would hire out a DJ.
Dig That Groove Baby
Certain songs played around the festive time of year got everyone singing, dancing or jumping around and I guess that is what I remember about the song for this post. I didn't catch it when it was first released, but luckily it got re-released and I seem to remember just about anyone and his dog joining in....
I guess the difference in the clip was that the person at the lead was the 'elephant' and linked up hands between legs to the person behind and so on in a whole chain of chaos which weaved it's way through a busy pub out to the street and so on and so forth, usually the chain collapsing part way through (possibly due to the whole alcohol consumption thing). And on to the source of this mischief and mayhem...
The band were The Toy Dolls and their track which I refer to made #1 on the UK Indie Charts at Christmas in 1984 and was called 'Nellie The Elephant', It almost got to #1 in the UK Mainstream Charts but was beaten back by the famous 'Band Aid' Single (if you remember that event!😉) Nellie The Elephant by The Toy Dolls was originally released in 1982, but didn't get much airplay so, they decided to re-release, just as well they did! The original had the the B Side of 'Dig That Groove Baby' whilst the '84 version had the B Side of 'Fisticuffs In Fredrick Street', which you can catch at the link performed live on Channel 4's The Tube from back in 1984.
The Label
They started out on a small independent label called G.B.H. which was financed by a local businessman called George Bernard Haswall. For the track Nellie The Elephant they had moved to the independent 'Volume Records' label based in the North East which also ran a small bunch of independent record shops as well.
The Band
The Toy Dolls formed in 1979 and started out as a four piece, originally the lineup was:
- Michael "Olga" Algar - Guitar
- Pete "Zulu" Robson - Vocals
- Colin "Mr. Scott" Scott - Drums
- Phillip "Flip" Dugdale - Bass
Pete Robson was to leave after just a few gigs to start up his own band and Michael Algar took up vocals and guitar duties and the band became a trio.
If you fancy a little something more classical with some brilliant guitar work by them catch the link to 'Toccata in D Minor' by their 'mate' Johann Sebastian Bach and if you are just feeling a little bit mad this Christmas catch the almost glam rock 1970's 'We're Mad' at the links.
Nellie The Original
The song was covered from the original which was recorded on the Parlophone Records label all the way back in 1956 with vocals by Mandy Miller an English child actress and the musical score by Phil Cardew, it was originally written by Ralph Butler and Peter Hart and surprisingly by none other than George Martin, he of the 'Fab 4' fame!
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And for my parting shot re-arrange the words into a festive greeting...
🎄 Achy Shrimp Taps! 🎄
Enjoy your break whatever you get up to!
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Photo by Dare Artworks on Unsplash