Radio Interviews and Music Shows
Misfit Toys understood from the beginning that
people will not beat a path to your door to listen to your original music. Most
bands original songs either sound like a copy of someone else's hit played poorly
or it is a bizarre pairing of awkward verses and chorus so that ultimately a
guitar solo can be over played. Clubs are well aware of this and are right fully
leery of hiring an unknown local band to lure a sizable crowd to their club.
Bands spend years trying to prove themselves worthy of being listened to either
live or on record. From the very beginning at our first gig we played original
and cover material. People do not generally go and see a band they have never
heard of so bands must find a way to get their name and their original music
in front of their intended public.
The 80's were a great time for bands with a small following to
be signed by record labels. Many fantastic albums were released and followed
up by another one or two before disappearing into oblivion. There were many
excellent albums coming out almost every week so that it was difficult to keep
up with the new bands and albums unless you hung out at a record store where
the news was always on top of things and by the late 80's you could buy concert
tickets there.In the Washington DC area it seemed like everyone
was into music and the numerous clubs were always full. I know that is simply
an incorrect memory but it seemed that way. There were hundreds of bands all
vying for a chance to open for a national touring band and Misfit Toys were
no different. The local idea was the 9:30 Club and The
Bayou Night Club. The two main radio stations were WHFS
for a progressive or alternative variety of music or WWDC (DC 101)
for mainstream rock. Both stations developed a spot to promote local bands and
each week they would select one or more to play on air and possibly interview.
Misfit Toys did a lot of radio interviews both at home and on the road. As my
personal habit was of collecting live recordings and interviews of bands I liked
I carried it over to Misfit Toys and recorded all of our concerts
and radio interviews. Some are quite lengthy and others are short and performed
by collage radio station volunteers who had no idea about how to interview a
band.
I am going to upload several here to the band's official website for
our enjoyment. Some of these recordings made their way into circulation after
the band stopped touring and I have come across people in other countries who
had been listening to copies of the interview music for years until our recent
release of "Closure". In some cases the music played
by the radio station was a special mix of newly recorded songs that had not
been released yet.
Here is a short version of the "Local Licks" radio
show from DC 101 in 1986. The other bands have been edited out because
this is all about Misfit Toys. I am presenting it as a .wav
file for fidelity reasons and so if you choose to download the songs they will
be high quality. Again, these are not the same mix as songs on the band's initial
cassette tape or the "Too Short" CD. Feel free to
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There will be more recordings to follow.
DC 101 Local Licks Spring 1987 DC 101 Local Licks Summer 1987
A live recording of the Original Misfit Toys from September 19. 1985
This is an excellent, sort of stereo recording from the soundboard recorded at Occoquan Virginia's "Club Inn Side
On
August 16, 1985 The Misfit Toys had their stage debute in Georgetown, Washington
DC at a small club/Pizza Joint named 'the Grog And Tankard". Despite many
unfavorable wise cracks about the owner, an Egyptian man who was usually referred
to as "Abdul" or 'One Eye' when he wasn't around - this was the p[lace
where many bands got their first break.
He gave us an audition gig as an unpaid opening act and we so impressed
him and the audience that he gave us two double date weekend gigs.
With the momentum of that success we played an opener at the 'Club Inn
Side ' in Occoquan Virginia and they too awarded us a residency gig, playing
tow-nighters each weekend that were comprised of three roughly 45 minute sets.
Sometimes with an opening act. It is no exaggeration to say the audiences loved
us and every song we played they went nuts. Every weekend we played the house
would be packed to the legal limit and they cheered along with clapping. Our
mostly cover songs were recent 'New Wave" or alternative radio hits. Dennis
was incredible at reproducing the guitarwork of seasoned professionals and he
had just turned 16. We had a 19 year old female keyboard player named Teri Melton
and out drummer was Paul Swaggert, who played a beautiful 12 piece set. Of course
he felt the need to hit every drum in every song repeatedly and never shied
away from sneaking in a drum solo.
This is the third set from the night. Usually our first set began at
three times the normal speed and later I discovered our drummer was indulging
in a substance before going on stage that was behind the high speed beginning.
We loved playing there and the crowds arrived early to make sure they
were close to the band where they could get close and personal to Elizabeth.
We brought our excellent Klipsch PA system and a rail of lights I made myself.
I also made a foot switch so i could turn lights off or on and dim them with
my toe. This tap dance sometimes caused me to play wrong notes on my bass so
please over look them. We had no crew and did the loading and set ups our selves.
Sometimes Mike Adams, our future drummer came along and would engineer
the mixing console for us. This resulted in some really good live mixes and
many great sound board recordings I still have.
Sadly
one night the club owner came to speak with me. He began by saying how much
he and everyone in their town loved our band. he went on to say that when we
began our sets the entire club stops what they are doing to watch and listen.
The kitchen crew came to the doorway, the waitresses and bartenders all stopped
to watch and listen. There was a ship's bell in the room and at the end of some
songs they fought to ring the bell on top of applauding wildly. he said there
is no doubt Misfit Toys were the best band to ever play there.
Then he put on his 'but face'. The problem was that when we played everything
came to a standstill. Importantly for him no one drank while watching us. He
didn't want to impose a cover charge but he was loosing money because people
were in awe of us and being entertained and at night he made his money from
selling drinks.
He went on to say he could hire a 4th rate garage band who only play three
cord oldies and the place would be packed with bikers doing shots all night
and that is where the money lay. So with no alternative our residency the ended.
So below be you will find the MP3 files for the
last set that night. You are welcome to listen to them or download and keep
on your phone next top your bed. Just for the fun of listening I left in the
chatter with the audience.
I have many other shows and if our current public is interested I will
post recordings of those later along with live videos of concerts.
I hope you enjoy
listening to these as much as I do and the people there in 1985 did.
1. 11:59 - Blondie rocker we often used as our opening song.
2. Is that Love? A song by Squeeze
3. You Don't Come Close - Yes, a Ramones Song.
4. Promise Me - The first song Elizabeth and I wrote together, so also the band's first original song
5. Heart of Sand - Another song I wrote with Elizabeth but a rocker. It later became our opening song.
6. Starry Eyes - A song by The Records with a very difficult guitar reiff that Dennis mastered very fast
7. Tainted Love - Yes, the Soft Cell Clasic only with a very bluesy ending.
8. In the Sun - Another Blonide club favorite. Elizabeth stole Debbie Harry's bit inm the opening by calling out "anybody want to hang ten"
9. Encore: Birds Fly ( A whisper to a Scream) This was unplanned. The audience kept afyer us to not pack up before doing another song
For an idea what we looked like while performimg, here is a publicity shot taken in late 1985 and a live shot from our first paying gig in Auguat 1985