Cuddly Toys

**Faebhean Kwest – Guitar, Sean Purcell – Vocals, Paddy – Drums, Tony Baggett – Bass & Billy Surgeoner – Keyboards**

Cuddly Toys were the next incarnation of the band Raped who had courted controversy, got the publicity but found themselves blocked from gigs and progressing. Apparently, John Peel suggested a name change to the silliest name possible and Sean Purcell came up with Cuddly Toys.

Tony Baggett I guess Raped didn’t fit with the sound anymore. Sean said he had a couple of names Glass Vikings and Cuddly Toys. I said Cuddly Toys was great! Well fuck! Can you imagine being called the Glass Vikings’

To be fair Raped had already morphed image wise and their music was rapidly changing but as Cuddly Toys it was more dramatic. The songs were driven by Sean and Tony and allowed Sean full reign to indulge his Bowie fixation with an added dollop of Gary Numan.

As a hangover from their being named Raped days and the resultant bad media vibe, the band was unable to get a record contract so courtesy of Paddy (he was Japanese) they got a strange deal with Teichiku Records who were the equivalent of Decca in the UK and recorded a single and album in 1979. The Cuddly Toys image helped as well.

Faebhean Kwest The main reason why we got a Japanese following/record deal was due to the strong ‘glamorous’ image. We really were a glam-punk group such as Adam and the Ants and the very early New Romantics. Punk77 Interview

…we were part of the glam punk thing… the more flashier and more flamboyant side of punk. After 1979 punk got really dull. All the band’s looked the same, blue jeans, leather jacket; “I’m on the dole, I’m on the dole”, that was alright in 1976/77 when it was unusual and new, but things have moved on, the nihilistic approach was all well and good, but after a time, no-one wanted to hear that. Which is what a lot of the bands did do. KYPP

The first fruit was a single guaranteed to get some publicity column inches but for the right reasons.

I used to live with Roz Davies and Colm of the T.Rex Fan Club hence, us getting to know Marc B. When we said that we would like to do a ‘3-chord wonder’ as a song and that all the good songs seemed to have been done(!!) Marc gave me a tape of him, David Bowie and Gloria Jones ‘fucking about’ in a hotel room singing ideas and bouncing song bits at each other.

It was truly dreadful, but me and Sean took a few of the numbers, polished them and so the single Madman. Marc Bolan was brilliant; he was going to manage us as he absolutely loved us -along with managing (or so he said) Generation X, and The Damned. Marc was the one who coined the phrase that we were Peacock Punks or glam-punks!

Some promo films were filmed including the one below filmed at the Music Machine Camden London and shown in Japan.

Faebhean Kwest Incidentally, if you watch the opening sequence of the film ‘Breaking Glass’ with Hazel O’Connor you’ll see us all (C.Toys) in the party scene – we were asked to be in the film and if the film company hadn’t gone bust, we were going to do even more stuff with them. Punk77 Interview

**Opening scene from Breaking Glass with Cuddly Toys – Film produced by Dodi Fayed – yep – Princess Diana’s lover killed in the infamous car crash**

That said the transition wasn’t easy at first as the difference between Raped and Cuddly Toys was massive. The fanzine In The City did a three page spread (click on images below) on the band and reported back on their first gig as Cuddly Toys at the Marquee supporting similar glam punks Neon Hearts.

…some real punks in the audience started bawling abuse at the band, they had convinced their tiny minds that Cuddly Toys were taking the piss, insulting their limited intelligence. Their spit covered stage, the mindless morons in the front wouldn’t even give the band a chance…Cuddly Toys caried on despite the barrage of insults, plastic glasses and endless spit from people who knew no better. Francis Drake, In The City #9, February 1979