Toys Went Berserk
| Toys Went Berserk | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Sydney, Australia |
| Genres | Gothic Rock, Indie Rock, Post-Punk |
| Years active | 1985-1991, 1998, 2005, 2016 |
| Labels | Abberant, Memorandem |
| Website | www |
Toys Went Berserk was a Sydney-based, post-punk outfit that formed in late 1985. It consisted of members who had previously been in various indie bands such as Box of Fish (Bill Quarry, bass), Lavender Disaster (Coo Bennett, vocals), Happy Hate Me Nots (Mark Nicholson, drums) and Dusk Furrow (Andy Jarvis, guitar). Toys Went Berserk was noted for their energetic live performances and their music (comparable to bands such as Skeletal Family, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Xmal Deutschland), which was quite distinctive in the Sydney scene of the time.
They released numerous records, including six singles and three albums (two on vinyl and one CD), and toured in the US and Australia. Their goth-influenced version of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" was also featured on Andrew Denton's ABC-TV program The Money or the Gun, and was later released on the compilation album of the same name. The band recorded their last album, Sensory, at Fort Apache studios in the United States, with the Pixies' producer Gary Smith at the helm, and returned to the U.S. the following year to tour. Toys Went Berserk supported international acts The Cramps, The Sugarcubes, The Fall, Dinosaur Jr. and The Selector during their 6 year lifetime. They split in early 1992.
Following the break-up, singer Coo Bennett and guitarist Andy Jarvis moved to England and started a new band called Feast (1993–1998) and Houdini (1998–2001). In late 2003, they returned to Perth, Western Australia, starting their own label, Trickster Music. Toys Went Berserk have regrouped three times for reunion shows; firstly in 1998, then in 2005, to promote the release of a new "best of" double album. Entitled The Bitter & the Sweet: Best and Rarest, it includes most of their studio releases, plus selected demos and live recordings. Most recently the band performed a joint 30th anniversary show in Sydney with Ratcat in 2016. Bennett and Jarvis continue to perform regularly in various Perth-based outfits, including Rocket to Memphis and Catzilla. RTM have released four CDs of swamp/rockabilly/garage rock n roll: Swampwater Shuffle (2007), Hip-Shakin' Voodoo (2009), "Jungle Juice" (2011) and "Do The Crawl" (2013) and two vinyl singles "I'm Bad" (2011) and "Go Go" (2013), whilst also touring in Japan and the UK. Catzilla (garage rock n roll, featuring Bennett on vocals & keys and Jarvis on guitar) released a vinyl EP Going Wild (2016), a self-titled album in 2017 and have also toured in Japan.
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