The Beginning  

I was still at school in the 5th form of Bede Comprehensive, Sunderland.  Andy and Mike were in the same year and Phil was a year older.  We were mates and music had always been a big part of our lives.  We were very influenced by 'The Smiths'.  Phil and I had been in a band together when we were 12 years old, called 'The Neutrons'.

One day I was walking home from school with Phil and Andy when they told me they wanted to form a band.  Phil had thought of the name and had already got some song ideas.  The plan had always been to record stupid songs.  Indeed, I was the only band member who could really play a musical instrument, so the material could not avoid being different.

The line up originally was;

Andrew Stephenson - Bass, guitars, vocals
Philip Rodgers - Drums, percussion, vocals
Stephen Cousins - Guitars, vocals

Early Years

We spent a romantic summer in my tiny bedroom in Mount Road, with the four track recorder....the trusty Cutec...........recording the first side of our debut album, 'For Fruitbats Pleasures Only'.

Our line-up altered somewhat halfway through recording as two new arrivals.........arrived.  Michael Haggerton was to add a stunning guitar edge to the band and 'Captain America' was to add a not so stunning percussion edge.  He soon departed and the historically remembered line up was;

Andrew Stephenson - Bass, guitars, vocals
Philip Rodgers - Drums, percussion, vocals
Stephen Cousins - Guitars, vocals
Michael Haggerton - Guitar, vocals

Live in London

Having recorded our first album, we decided it would be a good idea to play live somewhere.  The MAYC London Weekend was only a matter of three months away and we put in a cassette to the selection committee, hoping to be chosen as an act for one of the shows.  MAYC stands for Methodist Association of Youth Clubs and every year they hold a big get together in the capital.  About 12 000 people from youth clubs all over the UK attend various shows, seminars, workshops, concerts, etc,etc in May each year.

We were selected to perform at 'Impact' in Westminster Central Hall.  There was a big rehearsal day in Coventry, by which time we knew that Phil would not be able to play at the main gig due to family commitments.  We went ahead anyway and the gig went down a storm. One of the songs we performed on that day, and the one which got the best reception, was 'John Kettley Is A Weatherman'. 

John Kettley

This chapter in the Toff history is ventured into in much greater depth on a dedicated John Kettley page.  We decided to send that song and some others to Andy Crane at Children's BBC, just to see what they made of Toff music.

Sometime in June 1988, I got a phone call from Paul Smith, a producer at CBBC who had heard the track, loved it and wanted us to come down to London to record it and make a video....it was the stuff young boys dreams are made of.  We did all that stuff, and it was dead exciting, and we were on the tele in August 88.

But that was kind of it until I went to a record company in Wallsend, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, with the song and video.  It was Neat Records owned by Dave Wood and dealing primarily in heavy metal music!  Still what did I know, I was only 18.

The single itself was released on December 7th 1988 and was the highest climber on the Christmas chart of that year compiled by Gallup.  We reached number 21 in that chart and number 14 in the Network chart used by Capital Radio and the other independent stations.

We were on 'Wogan', 'Daytime Live', numerous Children's BBC appearances and various satellite tv shows, which is amazing to me coz satellite must only have been in it's very early development stages at that time.  We were also A-listed on the Radio One playlist.  You can check our listing in the 'Guinness Book of Hit Singles' if you like.

I can't tell you how exciting it all was.  The highlight of the whole debacle was the Wogan appearance.  It was live and we were shit scared and we met Terry and it was fantastic.  I have been on countless TV shows since then and only The National Lottery comes close in the excitement stakes, but Wogan takes the prize as it was our first major TV appearance and we were so young.

We dropped from number 21 to 26 the first week of January 1989, which is a shame because we had heard that if we had gone up or stayed put, we would have been on Top Of The Pops...........ah well.

The End

The thing is, we recorded loads of other songs and had

planned to release an album and everything, but Dave Wood had obviously not liked any enough to release.  He was probably right, but my point was that we could have released almost anything and it would have been even only a minor hit simply on the back of the first record.

As it was we did nothing again for over a year, and it was March 1990 before the follow up single came out.  By this time Micheal had left the band anyway.  I had been trying to avoid writing a 'same as the last one' record.  But I felt I had no choice, so I wrote 'Terry Wogan's On TV (Again)'. Dave loved it and said it would go to Number 2.  More like Number 202.  We got played twice on Radio One by Mike Read who was standing in for Simon Bates on the mid morning show.  But we only got to around 135 in the charts and only did a Look North TV slot. 

We all went our separate ways in the end.  There were no hard feelings or anything, that's just the way it was.  For a while I tried to get a band together that would go on tour and do the old Toffs songs.  But there really wasn't any point.  We'd had a really good time as the Toffs and made a few people laugh, including ourselves.   I don't see any of the guys anymore.  I saw Andy a few years ago, when he came to see a RUTH gig.  But I haven't been in touch since.  He lives in Hull with his wife Lesley, who he married in 1991.  I have no idea where the others are living or what they're doing.  Maybe some day we'll all meet up and release 'Saddam Hussain Is A Total Nutter’.