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Bio:
Bright synth pop formed circa 1981 by bassist/keyboards player and main songwriter Ed Darragh
(ex Boy Scoutz, Modernaines)
with singer Flo McSweeney and drummer Brian Despard (ex Jimi Slevin Band),
Toy With Rhythm
were winners of the Maxell Star Award in
1983 which resulted in the debut single issued the same year and the mantle of Next Big Thing.
When this didn't bring the expected success, the impetus disappeared.
Flo McSweeney began to moonlight with Les Enfants and left
in December 1983. She subsequently replaceed Christy Moore in Moving Hearts
before following a solo career. Further lineup changes ensued, leaving only Darragh and Despard
as original members in 1984, but which time the band was an eight piece.
Flo McSweeney's
replacement was Suzie Jukes, who'd worked with Stano,
the Rhythm Kings and the Modern Heirs.
She appears on the second single "Cartoon Hero" released in June 1984.
Subsequent singers included Jenny Newman (later in The Great Divide) and
Suzanne Rhatigan (ex Fifth Avenue) who later followed Flo McSweeney's
footsteps by joining Les Enfants.
Ed Darragh later fronted R&B outfit Geoffrey's First Affair, formed in 1986.
Her performing career was cut short in 1987 by the kidnap of a family member and it's
aftermath, involving the need for police protection. Geoffrey's First Affair released
one single. She later worked in TV production.
Sometime bassist Jim Tate now works in the National Concert Hall.
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