My mind wanders!!! My mind wanders!!! My mind wanders!!! My mind wanders!!!
It can be one of the best songs ever written on a lot of days! So insanely catchy, so very British, so very much the perfect example of what I like to call UK DIY. The lyrics to the chorus with the line “and I wonder my darling, how much truth do you want?” might be the best damn lyrics ever written together with the second verse in Another girl another planet. At least they really speak to me and the situation I’m in right now.
All in all this debut from the Toys is a really beautiful EP and even if the other tracks don’t live up to the high standard of My mind wanders I still really like them as they’re all really good songs. I’d do anything for you is pretty much a perfect love song with simple yet effective lyrics and a great melody. The other two tracks are longer, but still really good, even if they might fall out of the power pop category and into straight pop as they’re not too power filled.
The band did a second EP in 1980 that has another superduper hit in Blanket to blanket, and I know Peter have another opinion, but I think the other three tracks on that EP are almost equally good as the obvious hit song. And I have to say that the singer, Gez, is really talanted! Again, he’s really talanted! Emotional, driving and a nice sense for melodies. And he hits all the notes without breaking a sweat. And the lyrics are in general really well-written to top it off. Steve LDK just told me that he later on worked as some sort of speach writer for Tony Blair so there you go.
Country:Â UK
Year:Â 1979
Label:Â Provisional EMI Recording Company
Format: 7″
Songs:
My mind wanders.mp3
The girl on my wall.mp3
Toytime.mp3
I’d do anything for you.mp3
Back in the late ’80s some Mancunian chancer told me the following tall tale . . . “Brian Chevette has just moved into our street and he gave me this white label demo of songs they recorded in the final days of Eater. The record company asked them to write some more commercial songs but it ended up not being released, but I’d swap it for a hardcore punk single if you have any going spare?” Well, I didn’t really believe it but I had a bunch of Tension’s ‘Pericolo Di Morte’ E.P.s that weren’t really selling and so I did the deal. This white label ‘demo’ had ‘Still Dancing’ stamped on the label. Years later I found out it was The Toys’ second E.P. ‘Still Dancing’ and I ended up flogging it on E-bay to some dude in Japan for 50 quid, even without the sleeve. I bet that Manc chancer feels rather silly right now!!!
Yeah, if he still got the Tension 7″ I bet he feels rather silly by now…
It’s nice to be reminded of this slab of perfect pop. Gez Sagar was in the class above my brother in St. Albans School and was considered uber cool. Wonder what happened to him?
Well Gez was something of a campain wizard for Labour, but is now working for this company I think; http://www.campaignit.com/ (just scroll down a bit and you’ll find him).