In 1980 it seemed like the stars were aligning for Coventry Art-Rock (or ‘Arty-Natty’ as they termed it) band Gods Toys. Everything was going their way. They blew Siouxsie and The Banshees away on TV, they were an unforgettable and unique live act, they had a couple of singles out, including the prophetic ‘All The Born Losers’, they had recorded a Radio 1 session, and they were support act on the Adam and the Ants ‘Kings of the Wild Frontier’ tour whilst Adam was sitting at number one in the charts. It all seemed to be going so well, and then suddenly it all went wrong and they split up. A lot of bands, I think, have that experience and we can all name bands who we feel should have been really big, but then something happened to prevent them breaking through. This is the story of one such band, as recalled by singer Dill (Stephen Davies).
OUTSIDELEFT: What went wrong
for Gods Toys back then, and how do you feel about it all now, looking back?
Perhaps you could talk us through the rise of God's Toys, and then what
happened to make it all fall apart?
Dill: We
formed in about '78 I think. John Hobley, the drummer, was the last person to
join. We did some gigs in Coventry, Rugby and Birmingham and got an agent
called John Mostin, who was doing The Beat and groups like that. He started to
put us on around the country, so we were playing Liverpool and Cornwall and
everywhere and we were driving down in the van with the roadie and all
our gear. Things were going very well. Adam Ant saw us at one of our gigs at
The Camden Music Machine I think it was called and he wanted us to support
them. We had Steve Gilmore as our London manager, and we had people in Coventry
like John Rivers who ran Horizon Studios, who wanted to take on the band. They wanted to put us into the studio that
Paul Sampson (Pink Umbrellas/Reluctant Stereotypes) ran. What was that called? 
OL: Cabin Studios.
Dill: We were going to use the studio time that no one had booked, but Steve Gilmore, our London manager, said that the deal wasn't good enough. That was a pity because I read later that 10 CC did that, and they were able to go and record and really get used to recording and do whatever they wanted. We didn't have that and as a result I don't think our singles ever really captured God's toys. I do think we should have put 'God's Toys' out as the first single. I think that was like our anthem, and it would have created more of a stir. Instead, we put out ‘All The Born Losers’, which got us Radio One Peter Powell sessions and stuff like that, but it never really took off. I think the highest we got to was number 114 in the charts. That was during the Ants tour for the second single, which was 'Everybody's Got A Mother', with 'Package Tours To Heaven' on the flip side.
OL: I always thought 'Package
Tours To Heaven' should have been the A side of that, as it was a stronger
song.
Dill: Funnily enough, the TV show, 'Something Else' that we did that track on was shown on the last night of the Adam and the Ants tour, and so the whole thing just sort of came to a climax. We played Manchester Apollo that night, and we were on the telly! We watched the show before we went on stage, and I did the best gig I'd ever done in my life! I think they were recording Adam and the Ants at that one. The video cameras were there, but I don't think they recorded us. I would love to have seen that video, because I really did feel we were getting somewhere then and that things were going really well.
OL: Actually, that's a good
point because, because there's very little video of God's Toys available. The only one really is that 'Something Else'
performance where you totally blew away the Banshees who were on the same show. I think the TV company that made
that programme did a great job of it, because they staged it really
nicely for you. You had dry ice, all the camera angles work really
well, the sound is good, and it's a great performance. I am sure that without
that, probably a lot less people would remember God's Toys now, because that
video is mentioned over and over again. Martin Bowes, who was on the show
talking about his Coventry fanzine Alternative Sounds, got you that slot.
Dill: We
wouldn’t have got on TV without him doing that. We certainly wouldn't have got
on Top of the Pops with a 114 placing. So, you know, it was just really good. I
did some work for Martin for Alternative Sounds back when we were young punks,
so it was kind of like a payback. I think he really did like the band, and the
band was good, especially live. There was Larry with his hunchback and Nick,
this weird, amazing, yellow man. I did my best, dancing around a lot.
OL: Touring wiyh Adam and the Ants must have been an experience. Did you get paid by them to do that, or did you have to pay them to be on it?
Dill: We got
paid a little. Some of us could have signed on, but we were all over the
country, so I was late signing on and we were living on two pounds each a day,
and that was including fags and everything. Towards the
end of the tour we were sleeping in the van every night. I think we only stayed
in a Bed and Breakfast twice in a 32 day tour. Literally the whole band were sleeping
together in the van. We were
going to motorway service stations at four in the morning and buying chips and
stuff like that, whereas Adam and the Ants had a full buffet before they went on stage, but they didn't even eat it! They came
from the hotel, straight through onto the stage, played, came back off stage and
straight back to the hotel. There was all this food there laid out for them. We
nicked a little bit of it and we had a couple of sandwiches and a beer
when we got to each venue included on the Rider, but Nick was really vitriolic about it.
He was really pissed off about it, because he felt that we were being misused,
and that and nothing we could say or do was going to change that. Adam Ant was
at number one in the charts at the time, and he was flying down to do Top of
the Pops in a helicopter.
There were screaming girls, it was like Beatlemania, it really was. When
we started the tour in Liverpool the audience was more punky type people, which
were the original Adam and the Ants audience, but by the time we got to
Edinburgh, there were thousands of screaming girls up against the barriers,
being suffocated. It was really quite
amazing to watch. We were just the support band, but it was like being in the
middle of a hurricane.
OL: Did that feel that was
the wrong sort of audience for you? All the screaming girls, they really just
wanted to see and lust after Adam, so you didn't get a fair hearing, whereas
maybe at the start of the tour, it was more like the people that would have
bought God's Toys records.
OL: That is hardly surprising
really. If you're surviving on service station chips and leftover sandwiches,
you're not having a great diet!
Dill: Of
course, it was a long time ago, but two pounds is not a lot, is it? We were
paid two pounds each a day for our food and fags, so we were all a bit
demoralised. Then, of course, we had the
TV appearance, which was great. We had our records out. We were playing every
day. It was a totally an adventure, and the band was getting really tight from
playing every night. The die hard Adam
and the Ants fans used to come to every gig. They just followed the tour around.
They were punks and all had similar names. Towards the end of the tour Nick
started to travel with them to the gigs. He wouldn't travel with us. So, we're
all thinking, is he going to turn up? What if they break down? You know, we've
got to do a gig. Anyway, he did turn up, and didn't miss a gig, but I don't
think he was very happy. I think, you know, it upset him about Adam and the
Ants, their success, and the way that perhaps we could have been treated better
by them. At least we didn't have to buy ourselves on to the tour, which was
normal at the time, but we were on a small record label that wasn't really
plugging us, as far as I know, and didn't have professional pluggers or
anything. We got a few things going, but it just never took off. I was never
happy with the songs that we recorded. I think Johnny Rivers second recording
session was okay, but I wanted Trevor Horn! I was thinking of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, that was the sound
I wanted and I was always disappointed with what we had; disappointed with my singing, and
disappointed with our records. Really, we were just shouting at each other on
the first single. I went outside to the van and put 'Echoes' on by Pink Floyd.
I Just didn't want to be there. I just wanted to chill out. It just wasn't
happening. I don't think I put in a great vocal performance either. I was very
nervous. We finished the Ants tour and
we didn't really meet up for about two or three weeks after that. Larry and
Chris Dickie were living in Jerry Dammer's house at Albany Road. You know, the 2
Tone house. They were living downstairs, and Jerry was upstairs. Larry had a
mattress on the floor, and rats had got in and chewed all the bloody mattress
up! All he wanted to do then was go home to his mummy. It was really cold too, as we
had finished the tour in November. Anyway, we arranged to do a gig at the
General Wolfe in Coventry on Christmas Eve.
OL: I was there!
Dill: We were
going to start rehearsing for the gig, but Nick didn't want to have anything to
do with it. We were supposed to pick him up for rehearsals. He was in bed and
didn't want to come out and didn't want to do anything. He'd just had enough.
We got him up anyway and to the rehearsal. Nick was the main song writer, but
he wasn't writing anything at this point, he had a mental block or something.
We started rehearsing a song that I'd done called 'Colossus'. John was doing like
an Adam and the Ants type tom tom rhythm. We played it, and then - I don't know
how it happened - Nick said something and we just broke up! Literally, he just said, "right, well,
I'm going". We hadn't charted with
the record and we were demoralised, I suppose. Apparently, we'd also come to the end
of our two single record deal with Badge. However, when I formed 'I' and EMI
wanted to sign us, they said that there's a third single we were contracted to
do. Badge had never contacted us to say, 'when are you going to record the third
single?', but apparently there was a third single that we were compelled to, do
and Badge wanted, I think, £16,000 for me to come out of the deal and sign with
EMI. So, I couldn't sign the EMI deal and that kind of fucked up the next
band as well. That sort of thing happened a lot. I heard a lot of people
saying, "oh yeah, our record company stiffed us " and that it's a regular thing in
the music business. It's pretty cut throat business. So we (God's Toys) just
ended there. We did that last gig. We did do a reunion gig about four or five
years later, and, you know, it was good fun. We rehearsed for a week and did it
but that was the end of God's Toys. It sort of fell off the edge, you know.
It's really disappointing. There were things that were going on that I had
nothing to do with. Some people have said I didn't want to do it because I felt
I was a big rock star, but it wasn't the case at all. I wanted God's Toys to
continue. I liked the music. I loved Nick's lyrics. I liked what we were doing.
It was Nick, really, that didn't want to do it anymore. He'd had enough, you
know. He was taking quite a few drugs. I don't think he was taking heroin or
anything, but we all smoked cannabis. Perhaps it was to do with that, I don't
know, but it literally went over the edge of the cliff, you know. The last gig
was that one at the General Wolfe on Christmas Eve. Then the first 'I' gig was
April the first '82 - April Fool's Day!
So, I was up and running again by April after God's Toys ended, but I'd
always say that God's Toys were the best live band and had the best characters
and music.
OL: There wasn't really anything quite like
God's Toys around at that time. There was only one God's Toys really. I don’t
think you were copying other people in the way that you were doing that. So, it
is a bit of a shame, but it sounds to me as if a lot of things conspired
against you. You know, you had bad treatment on the Ants tour and were playing
to the wrong audience at the end of that, because it was all teeny boppers. You
really needed to be on a bigger label, and you were recording in Woodbine
Studios, which had a very toppy, trebly, kind of sound, which suited Ska, but
what you needed was a big London studio with a bigger producer, to get that
bigger sound
Dill: The guy
that Badge sent to produce us was a guy called Wally Brill. He bought a guy
called Julian along with him, who was a session keyboard player, but I don't
think Nick wanted anybody else do his keyboards. This was standard stuff in the music
business. They bring session musicians in to help make the record better. We
had two days to do it, and John Hobley said Wally was a bit of a wally and not
very 'brill'! It sounded okay, but it wasn't a hit, and it wasn't Frankie Goes
to Hollywood. That's what I wanted. I wanted a Sex Pistols record, you know,
and didn't really get it. So, I was a bit disillusioned with the recording side
of things, and it would have been better for us to get somebody who could give
us a bigger sound. But, you know, he did use a harmonizer on the snare, which
was quite nice, fattened the snare up a lot, but it just didn't happen.
OL: I wanted
to ask you about the impact the break up had on your mental health. Nick's also
had some problems in that area too I heard.
Dill: That
contributed, I think. I've been schizophrenic since I was 17. I've heard voices and
stuff since I had too much cannabis one day and flipped. I don't smoke cannabis
anymore, and that was a contributing factor. I tried to hide my symptoms
because I was breaking the law, you know. it's difficult for me to say whether
that contributed to God's Toys demise, but then I did my best. And, you know,
we all did really. It was just sad that it never happened. I'd love to have
gone around the world doing the music, but I believe in guardian angels and
things. I'm a Christian, so I think it'll all turn out okay at the end. It is sad that John is schizophrenic as well,
and Nick is bipolar. Chris is as well. He did quite well. He became an engineer
and worked with the Rolling Stones and all sorts of things. He taught music in
Australia and now he's finished and retired, and Larry is sort of down on his
houseboat by the Thames. I went to see him. We are all still in touch. It was a
great band, and I was glad that was part of it.
OL: I wanted to ask you about
the 'Sent from Coventry' compilation album of local bands that came out on
Cherry Red at the time, which your old friend Martin Bowes was involved in
putting together. That's seen now as quite a summary of the local scene at the
time, but people have always said that there was a big omission, which
is that it didn't have God's Toys on it. Was that to do with the record label? Or was that a decision that you made as a band?
Dill: I'd love
to have been on it, you know. It was a
pity. I bet Martin was quite hurt, really. I think it was Nick that said no, as
far as I know. He felt he was 100% a genius, and he let everybody know. He was
a bit of a narcissist. He was really
very, very talented. I just think it went to his head a bit. That's
probably the reason for the breakup, you know. it was very much Nick, who was
the one that wrote the music and the lyrics, who didn't want to do it
anymore, perhaps because of the Ants tour. He didn't want anything to do with
music anymore. He stopped making music after that.
OL: Nick has got a YouTube
channel now, hasn't he? He has put out lot of the old God's Toys demos on there
since, and on your own Bandcamp channel you've also put together a collection, an
album I suppose, of what might have been. But these are just demos. I don't know
how you feel about making these things available now and the substandard
nature of them. You did touch earlier on the fact that they weren't recorded as
well as you would have liked. Would it would have been better just to leave the
past behind and only have the better recorded songs remaining?
Dill: Nick had
already put them out on YouTube. He and Steve Gilmore, our old manager, had got
together and tried to do something with them, but the actual result wasn't very
good. I tried to remaster them, but the tape hiss and everything, you know, it
was not good. Because people still wanted to get hold of God's Toys songs, I
just remastered it all and put them on my Bandcamp site. So, if anybody wants
ever to have them, they can just download them for free. I must admit, I still love the songs, and I
wish that we'd recorded them properly and got a result with it, but it just
didn't happen. I don't want to keep
looking back. I am looking forward. I'm really enjoying recording. I love doing
my music, because it's just me. There is no 'us' or 'we', it's 'I'. So, yeah,
I'm very happy. I just want this to be a success. I've left all my money to
charity and I love living in Blackpool. It's brilliant being by the sea. I'm quite happy I never married. I haven't had a relationship for 40 years, so
I'm sort of on my own. I'm a loner. I would do a God's Toys album, if somebody
asked me, but it just didn't happen for
us. We made the wrong decisions and it wasn't to be.
OL: Just to end with, use
your imagination. Imagine that God's Toys had have got that big contract, and
you were on your second or third album. Where do you think it would have gone?
What do you think God's Toys would have been like by album number three or four?
Dill: I don't
know. I just don't think it was meant to be, Alan. I don't think that situation
could ever have existed. Nick is actually writing again, and if he wants me to,
I'll put singing on it. He is recording,
or starting to at least, and I said just send me them if you want. I've said to
Larry too, send me stuff and I'll do this, that, and the other. I've just
bought a tablet to write lyrics again, because I'm going to sit on the beach
and tap, tap away, and write some lyrics.
I'm using other people's backing tracks, which is great, and I'm just
really enjoying recording each Friday, and doing that right through the year,
you know. I just love doing it. I do
have to be careful with paying for everything, because, it's £100 a shot, but I
do 10 songs in four hours.
OL: I know you have released over 200 albums now,
and written more songs than anyone else in the world, including lightweights
like Paul McCartney, so when you get close to releasing album 250 we will come
back to you and talk about that. Thanks
for being so open about the demise of Gods Toys. It’s a story I'm sure a lot of people will
identify with.
Essential Information: Download an album worth of Gods Toys for whatever you want to pay here
Check out Dill's 200+ albums created as 'DaffoDill' here
