TYLER VILE GOES CHATS WITH
THE CUDDLY
TOYS AND RAPED
Punk
Globe: How did Raped come to be and who are/were the members
Cuddly Toys
(Paddy):
I don't know
who they are!!..Oh! That's right I remember now! it was Sean
Purcell singing, Fabhean Kwest thrashing his guitar, Tony
Baggett trashing his bass and pretty me Paddy Phield on drums'
Cuddly Toys:
(Faebhean)
'I put an
advert in Melody Maker for a glamous
interesting
punk group, as I was living near the Kings Road
and hanging
round the burgeoning punk scene. I was in one of the very
first punk
groups, called Swank, the remnants of the Swankers - who were
the forerunners of the Sex Pistols'.
Cuddly Toys:
(Tony)
'I saw the
Sex Pistols play at one of their first gigs at The 100 Club in
London. I'd gone to see some friends of mine play there called
The Stray who were supporting them. I thought the Pistols were
fucking awful and said I could never play in a band like that! A
few months later I was buying all their records and playing in
Raped..hehehe!! I teamed up with Faebhean after seeing an ad in
a music paper for mucicians to form a New York Dolls type band.
Sean joined after me as the drummer, he had a drum kit but had
never played drums before, so was relegated to singer and then
Paddy was recruited. Paddy thought he was joining a Queen type
band and I still don't think to this day, he ever realised that
he was in a punk band'.
Punk
Globe: I've heard Faebhean once auditioned to play guitar for
the
world famous Sex Pistols, can you tell us a bit about that?
Cuddly Toys
(Paddy):
'That was
before my time, so I don't really know'
Cuddly Toys:
(Tony)
'No! It's all
bollox!'
Cuddly Toys:
(Faebhean)
'Sod off you
bastard!! The truth is! I was asked to audition by McLaren,
along with Steve New (later of the Rich Kids with Glen Matlock),
we both walked out!'
Punk Globe: Why did you
initially choose the name Raped?
Cuddly Toys:
(Faebhean)
'Me and Sean
were going to call the band the Solicitors or the Rentboys, but
decided to call ourselves the most annoying name we could
think of. It was actually the late Radio One John Peel who
suggested the name change to Cuddly Toys.!'
Punk Globe:
Who are your biggest influences?
Cuddly Toys
(Paddy):
'Me and myself'
Cuddly Toys:
(Faebhean)
'Mine were at
the time, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, New
York Dolls,
Johnny Winter, Early Jimi Hendrix and Richard Wagner'
Cuddly Toys:
(Tony)
'Early Who,
Small Faces, Kinks, Jeff Beck, Led Zepplin and I guess The Sex
Pistols.'
Punk
Globe: Coming up in the now legendary U.K. '77 scene, were you
friends
with some of the other bands/figures?
Cuddly Toys
(Paddy):
'Yeah! Some
still alive and some half dead!'
Cuddly Toys:
(Faebhean)
'I knew most of
the original bands and introduced the rest of the group to them,
from X-Ray Spex to Generation X. We knew and either met or hung
round most of the influential and well known punk groups at that
time'.
Cuddly Toys:
(Tony)
'OK! Some name
dropping then!
When Madman was
released we played at The Music Machine in London and David Bowie,
Iggy Pop and Paul McCartney turned up to watch us play, they
didn't ask for the guest list though. I remember Glen Matlock
inviting Sean and myself to a recording studio in Wales when he
was recording with Iggy Pop. There was so much drink available, we
both got rat arsed drunk, ruined the session and Iggy got the
hump! Hehehe!!
Sid Vicious was
a fan and used to come and see us play a lot. He would always
cause trouble in the crowd though. I remember one night seeing him
and Faebhean sitting outside the Vortex club crying his heart out
to Faebhean. Sid could be a softy sometimes! Adam Ant was also a
good friend as well, he didn't try to shoot anybody in those
days'.
Punk
Globe: What prompted the switch from the snotty punk sound of
Raped to
the more Ziggy Stardust era David Bowie sounding Cuddly Toys?
Cuddly Toys
(Paddy):
'Better ask
Sean'
Cuddly Toys:
(Faebhean):
'We always had
ideas above our station, and wanted to be a bit more interesting
than the rest of the punk groups who only wanted to sing about
being poor and ugly, even though we were poor and ugly'.
Cuddly Toys:
(Tony)
'I guess our
music changed rapidly. It wasn't deliberate it just happened.
Instead of writing songs as a band me and Sean started to write
together as we were living together at the time. Or I should say
Sean asked if he could crash at my place one night and left a year
later. I guess Raped didn't fit with the sound anymore. Sean said
he had a couple of names Glass Vikings and Cuddly Toys. I said
Cuddly Toys was great! Well fuck! Can you imagine being called the
Glass Vikings'
Punk
Globe: How many releases are there under either name?
Cuddly Toys
(Paddy):
'milllllllllions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
or billlllllllionzzzzzz.............'
Cuddly Toys:
(Faebhean)
'Can't
remember! but there are still songs that were
never release'.
Cuddly Toys:
(Tony)
'Officially as
Raped there was only the infamous E.P. and a single 'Cheap Night
Out' both on Parole Records, although Cherry Red Records have
recently released a Raped Collection album on CD and Jungle
Records have licensed and repackaged tracks all over the place.
The original Cuddly Toys, with the later member Billy Surgeoner on
keyboards, only made one album 'Guillotine Theatre' on Fresh
Records; which had some different tracks on the Japanese version
on Teichiku records. Only two singles were released 'Madman'
(written by David Bowie and Marc Bolan) and'Astral Joe'. After the
split, Sean and myself recorded a mini album 'Someones Crying' and
released a single with the same title under the name of Cuddly
Toys. Then Sean went off on his own and recorded an album 'Trials
and Crosses' under the Cuddly's name but there were no original
members on it. Sean also released a single under his own name Sean
Purcell titled 'The Goat'. Again Jungle our present label have
repackaged tracks on many compilation albums and have recently
released a 'Best Of The Cuddly Toys' album on CD and a new version
of 'Guillotine Theatre' on CD. I know that they also have plans
for another Cuddly Toys compilation featuring tracks from 'Trials
and Crosses' and 'Someones Crying''
Cuddly Toys
(Paddy):
'Shit! That
sounded like an after dinner speech!!'
Punk
Globe: Who was the primary songwriter for the band?
Cuddly Toys
(Paddy):
'A cat next
door'
Cuddly Toys:
(Faebhean):
'Mainly Sean
and Tony, although I of course write exceedingly
capable
material when necessary'.
Cuddly Toys:
(Tony)
'Yeah! I guess
It was me and Sean who were responsible for our downfall'
Cuddly Toys:
(Faebhean):
'To bloody
right I should have left earlier'
Punk
Globe: You recently reformed under the name Steve and the Strayz
right? are you planning to release anything or tour soon?
Cuddly Toys
(Paddy):
'Steve & The
Strayz are no more. I'm so fucked off I could slash my drumskins'
Cuddly Toys:
(Faebhean)
'A moot point,
as we have had to once again change our singer (the others left!
no staying power nowadays!!)
Cuddly Toys:
(Tony)
'No idea what
we what to do now! We will carry on together I guess, maybe
release something!who knows, we're just lazy bastards really'
Punk
Globe: Where is your favorite venue to play?
Cuddly Toys
(Paddy):
'Ugh!! What's a
Venue'
Cuddly Toys:
(Faebhean)
' It's a club
Paddy.' 'My personal favourite from the past - a toss-up between
either the Music Machine in Camden or Global Village (now called
Heaven) - both London Venues'.
Cuddly Toys:
(Tony)
'The Roxy..I
could have moved in there! might have got Raped though..hehehe'
Punk
Globe: All of the incarnations of the band are great thanks for
doing
this interview, any closing statements
Cuddly Toys
(Paddy):
'A-RI-GA-TO-U!!!
C U SOMETIMES'
Cuddly Toys:
(Faebhean)
'Buy our
4-track cartridge today! Ha!'
Cuddly Toys:
(Tony)
'Luv and
Peace..the next incarnation will be a hippy band!!'
