FREE DOWNLOADS: THE TOFU LOVE FROGS

In 1989, long before the invention of the clippers and the hair brush, a group of squatters from Hackney started a folk club. This soon morphed into a band. Hours before their first performance, still with no name and no percussionist, they met Chris, who said he would play the percussion only if they performed under the name the “Tofu Love Frogs”, and so the band was born. Chris “I will only play in a band if it’s called the Tofu Love Frogs”

Their first gigs, playing their unique mixture of folk, punk and booze; with songs about politics and crime delighted the Hackney underclass. They played mostly in squat parties and a few venues around London. Over the next year Paddy and Chris both bought old buses and the show went on the road. Of course at this time England was full of young people taking to the road and no free festival was complete without the Tofus.

Paddy: “my 21st birthday was at Castle Morton Festival. We played on our own stage and on the Wango Reilly stage. I was tripping so much my feet could hardly stay on the floor”

Over the next few years the line ups changed as did the instruments. The mushy haze that is the past does not allow for a full description of who played what when, but here are some of the main players

At first:

Paddy - fiddle and vocals

Chris - bongos then later impresario

Ebe - bass

Mark - Guitar

Nuala - fiddle

Richard - guitar & harmonica

Alan - Mandolin

Mark then left and Glyn played guitar. Then Glyn left and Mark joined again and stayed with the Tofus until they split in 1998 – (apart from one tour when Mark damaged his hand and Kel played the guitar). Then the Tofus had a few kit drummers. They came and went and the order is a bit hazy. It went something like Andy, then Duggie, Jim then Andy again, then George and finally Goff. The band also had Alicia singing and playing the tambourine, Barry playing Bodhran and Kate playing the whistle. By about 1996 the Tofus were usually a four piece, guitar (mark), bass (Ade), Fiddle (Paddy) and drums (Goff), but often included guests at gigs.

The Tofus recorded two cassette only releases; "In a little Trouble" and "Toytown"; and two CD albums; "Rentamob" and "Vegetable Attack".

After nine years of playing in squats, festivals and protest sites across Europe the Tofus did their final gig, in a squatted pub for the wake of our roady Guy.

Ten years after the split up the Tofus reformed and played at stokefest in Stoke Newington. In 1998 Paddy built a funny canal boat to live on. In 2005, the morning after his birthday he moved the boat into a lock at the beginning of what was to be his worst morning after. Kel’s boat got trapped against Paddy’s in the lock and it looked as if both could capsize. Paddy quickly opened the top paddles to put some water in the lock to stabilize the boats. The emergency should have ended there but some how when shutting the lock Paddy felt like he had stubbed his finger. Looking down he realised that the end of the finger, just below the nail had been cut off. He ran off with splintered bone poking out the end of his severed and crushed finger. Ali picked him up and took him to hospital. Whilst he was gone Dawn, Cai, Kitty, Simon, Rachel and Malcolm found his finger end in the lock gate. It was quickly put in a bag with frozen hash browns supplied by the local café and rushed to the hospital where it was sown back on. This would be a nasty accident for most people but for a fiddle player it was devastating.

Paddy “I thought I would never play fiddle again. For some reason this made me want to write some new songs. I had no idea what they were for or when I might sing them, or indeed if I could really hack it as a singer without a violin to hide behind” In time Paddy learnt to play with his mashed finger.

2007, Goff’s 40th birthday found ¾ of the final Tofu line up (Paddy, Goff and Ade) drinking and indulging. By four in the morning a sensible thought out plan was born to revive the long dead Tofus.

They contacted Mark but he wasn’t interested so they asked Kell, their mate who covered for Mark on a tour when he’d done his hand in, who conveniently was on hand at the party. Kel’s response was “no fucking way”. A few lines later he was in and the plan was sealed.

The first new tracks to be released for over a decade are over at Last FM for you to have a listen - the Champagne Anarchist EP will have 4 tracks which you’ll recognise if you’ve been coming to the gigs - Champagne Anarchist, The Blim Song, Uraniums and Roxburgh Reel.

Discography

"Toytown" Vinyl/Tape - Self Release - 1993

"Get Off My Land" Vinyl/Tape - Delerius Records - 1994

"Rentamob" CD.- 2piR Records 1996

"Vegetable Attack"CD - Prox Records - 1997

DOWNLOAD: (links updated January 17,2015)

The three albums from Soundcloud ("ToyTown" 192 kbps, "Rentamob" 160 kbps, "Vegetable Attack" 160 kbps)

"Rentamob" from LastFM 128 kbps (10 out of 11 tracks)

"Vegetable Attack" from LastFM 128 kbps (full album)