GIG REVIEW: The Toy Dolls + Crashed Out, Hedworth Hall,
South Shields, Wednesday 14 September 2022
For a punk rock band who play all over the world, The Toy Dolls don’t do many gigs in their native North East.
This was their first in nine years – the previous one being at North Shore in Sunderland back in November 2013.
Their last appearance in South Shields – frontman Olga’s home town – was in 1980, so no wonder there was huge anticipation for this gig, part of their covid-delayed 40th anniversary tour.
Tickets could have sold two or three times over, such was the demand, and the trio could have sang the phone book and the crowd would have left happy.
Brandishing his trademark yellow Fender Telecaster, lead guitarist and songer Olga (Michael Algar) looked in good shape and was in fine voice.
All the elements that make a Toy Dolls show such enormous fun were present and correct; matching outfits, synchronized stage moves, jumps, and spinning guitars.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking they’re a musical comedy act though; Olga, bassist Tommy Goober and drummer Mr Duncan are a tight outfit, honed by a summer on the road around Europe.
They start in style with old favourite Fiery Jack (“Believe me, it does knack”), and followed with another, Cloughy Is A Bootboy.
For the next hour they slalom back and forth between their excellent debut album Dig That Groove Baby and their most recent offering, 2019’s Episode XIII (reviewed here), pausing at most bases in between.
Hence we get an hour-long set packed with catchy singalong three-minute ditties about unlucky characters (Barry the roofer with vertigo and Dougy Giro) and TV stars of yore (Alec’s Gone and Harry Cross).
My personal highlight is the mid-set one-two-three of She’s A Worky Ticket, Nellie The Elephant and She Goes To Fino’s, but in truth there’s not a bad song here.
Olga shows his prowess as arguably punk rock’s finest guitarist with the remarkable Toccata in Dm, and reaches new heights of showmanship by playing a three-necked guitar and playing ‘blind’ wearing a hood.
He also hands out trademark Toy Dolls sunglasses to a lucky few punters from an usherette tray and showers the crowd with shiny golden tickertape from a bottle-shaped confetti cannon.
The finale sees Lee Wright from support act Crashed Out (and Olga’s bandmate in new venture Monkey Mind) join The Toy Dolls onstage for the final encore of Idle Gossip, and it’s time to say goodnight.
Fans attending The Toy Dolls shows in Edinburgh tonight, Manchester tomorrow and London on Saturday really are in for a treat, and I hope they don’t leave their UK return so long the next time.
Talking of Crashed Out, the four-piece street-punk ‘n’ roll band from nearby Jarrow deserve a big shout-out for getting everyone in the mood for the main event.
Their 45-minute set combines old favourites like One Of The Boys, The Jarrow Song and Cushie Butterfield with newer cuts like Hypocrisy and Urban Zoo from their latest album, Against All Odds (reviewed here).
They also wheel out a great cover of I’m An Upstart by local heroes the Angelic Upstarts, despite the fact that, quoting singer Chris Wright, “there’s more Jarra here than Sandies”.
Some 27 years into their career (which makes them bairns compared to The Toy Dolls), Crashed Out really are firing on all cylinders at the moment, sounding better than ever. If you get the chance to see them, don’t miss it.
Well done to JS Promotions and the Hedworth Hall for persevering with this long-overdue show when it would have been all too easy to cancel.
