Toy – in session – Lauren Laverne – BBC 6 Music – April 10, 2012 – BBC Radio 6 Music –
When I first ran a Toy session on Past Daily in 2012, the band was new, surrounded by buzz and loudly proclaimed by NME to be “the” band to watch for 2012. Ten years on, I would be loathe to pronounce postmortems, and according to their Wiki page, they are still together and did issue an album in 2019. But all the hype and promise, sadly did not materialize, at least not at this moment.
Which is a shame and I hope I am wrong and just haven’t been paying attention. Because, like NME, I was very high on the band and had predictions they would have no problem becoming a household name in the U.S. as well as the UK as of 2012.
But that was ten years ago and fortunes change, as does direction and as do personnel. I read somewhere that their keyboard player Alexandra Diaz left the band in 2015 and things got quiet after that. And in 2018 were dropped by their second label, Heavenly Records. A single attributed to Tough Love Records came out in 2019, so that may be a sign things are not as dire as first expected. Or Tough Love is another name for self-released singles and albums.
But I am not sure where the band are at the moment or even if they are. All I can say is, if they did break up, call it a day, go on extended hiatus, that would be shame as so much momentum was being put on the band (maybe pressure is a better word for it) to succeed that it seemed like a sure bet headlining tours were in the very near future. Of course, you can’t underestimate the magnitude this pandemic has had on fledgling bands and their potential as mass audience appeal.
But no – maybe just not in the cards, I suppose.
If you missed them the first time around, here’s a chance to re-acquaint yourself with a very talented and capable band which you really hope are still together and just lying low until the time is right for a momentous return.
Hope so.
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