Titus writes:
Sorry there was no blog last week folks, but Anne
& I were on holiday in Orkney, and if you’ve never been, it’s
wonderful, as were the places we visited in mainland Scotland on the
outward and return journey. Needless to say, we tuned into ‘WTF is
This?’ from our apartment in Orkney!
Anyhow,
back to the world of blogging, and this week I want to tell you about
particular favourites of mine, the trio 60 Ft Dolls. They, together
with such fellow Welsh bands Gorky’s Zygotic Mynki, Melys, Pooh Sticks,
Super Furry Animals, Anhrefn were all part of the era known as ‘Cool
Cymru’. The Dolls were formed in Newport, Gwent in 1992 and comprised
Richard J. Parfitt, Michael Cole and Carl Bevan. They were influenced
by bands who played at the absolutely legendary TJ’s at Newport, and
played a kind of noisy rock which the NME referred to, descriptively as
“grunge mod...proto-pub metal blues of the first order”. Just for
those of you that like my “Not a lot of people have heard of that”
ditties, Cole was dating Donna Matthews of Elastica, who introduced him
to her colleague Parfitt at a Pizza restaurant they were both working
at.
You’ve
probably heard of the British convenience store firm ‘Happy Shopper’,
and in 1993, Pooh Sticks’ Huw Williams released the single ‘Happy
Shopper’ for the Dolls, after he was appointed as their manager. The
band enjoyed supporting Oasis, Elastica and J Maskis’s Dinosaur Junior,
and then released a couple of singles “White Knuckle Ride” on Rough
Trade Records plus “Pig Valentine” on the Indolent label. For a
change, I’m not at this stage going to mention Peely (although the band
did record 2 sessions for his show in 1996 & 1998).....instead I’m
saying that the 2 singles were championed by Steve Lamacq, on his
Radio One programme. Another DJ, Los Angeles’ Rodney Bingenheimer of
KROQ FM, also liked the band and this resulted in the Dolls signing up
with U.S. label Geffen Records. The band even made the UK Top 40 with
their fourth single “Talk to me”, which for those eagle-eyed amongst
you, featured the Newport Transporter Bridge.
The
60 Ft Dolls first LP was called ‘The Big 3’, to which the NME again
chimed in with “As close to soar-away rock perfection as it’s possible
to imagine”.....praise indeed! Another periodical called Mojo, in 2003,
referred to the album in their ‘Top 12 Britpop Albums of the 90’s’ as
“A devilishly evocative document of the period”. The group made
Glastonbury in 1997 and opened for the Sex Pistols at their famous
reunion gig at Finsbury Park in 1996. They toured many towns and
cities in the UK, Europe & Japan, but alas they were blighted by
alcohol problems, following three tours of America. They never toured
again after 1997, but released a studio recorded second LP in 1998
called ‘Joya Magica’.
Yet
more interesting facts have come to light for this blogger. First, the
60 Ft Dolls were included with Catatonia and a few others, in a House
of Commons Early Day Motion, called by Labour MP Paul Flynn,
championing the virtues of Newport’s rock and roll credentials. Second,
Carl Bevan’s father, Pastor Ray Bevan once sang on the 60 Ft. Dolls’
‘Let the spirit move you’ – a white label release. The final
interesting fact is that Welsh singer Duffy (remember her?) thanks
Richard J. Parfitt for “changing her life” and kick starting her career
to fame.
So, that’s the 60 Ft. Dolls, and the track I have asked lex to play is ‘Talk to Me', which can be found here.
