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Real Groovy are ecstatic to announce, that this year, on (International) Record Store Day they will be the first New Zealand record store to release a vinyl album especially for the occasion.
Strictly limited to 400 copies in two colours - 200 of each, on black and pink vinyl – Real Groovy will release a double album capturing the legendary Toy Love performing one of their last live shows – nearly 32 years ago on Friday 12th September 1980 at The Gluepot in Ponsonby, Auckland. Transferred and prepared for vinyl mastering by Steve McGough at Stebbings from a desk tape recorded by Toy Love’s front of house soundman Doug Hood, the record has been pressed in Nashville at United Record Pressing.
PLEASE NOTE: Limited to one per customer from Real Groovy, 438 Queen Street on 21 April 2012. IF there are any remaining copies, they can be ordered online from 9am, Sunday 22 April (NZ time). Again, limited to one per customer on a first come, first served basis.
Toy Love are: Chris Knox, Jane Walker, Paul Kean, Mike Dooley and Alec Bathgate.
Terence Hogan summed the Toy Love experience up with his excellent notes for the CUTS collection -
Toy Love’s music always seemed to be in a constant state of being formed and reformed, songs would warp and twist with every playing. So, for all its undeniable power it could seem unstable, almost fragile, threatening to burst out of its own skin, shards and globs all over the place – every gig was like another attempt to make this strange creature hold together and live. At times it would only take off at a few unpredictable points, at others it would lift off immediately and roar through the air – an astonishingly compelling, unlikely flying thing full of dark folds and flashes of light. The best stuff was transcendent, and the near failures were so often funny or had the buzzy pathos of a crash site, you couldn’t look away.
Those early performances at Auckland venues like Zwines, XS and especially the Windsor Castle, sealed Toy Love’s reputation and set a benchmark that would challenge the band throughout its brief lifetime. They were still new, like a baby, but raw as a wound, bursting with invention and exuding a singularity that stood them apart from even the best bands around them. I don’t remember ever wondering what they might be doing in five years time… where do they go from here? Anything beyond what they were, and which might also be good, would be a surprising bonus. In retrospect those instincts were right.
Toy Love became (sort of) more consistent over time, without ever becoming set as if in a mould – they were too restless and honest for that – and they played terrific gigs right to the end. But I recall most fondly when they were that flawed and beautiful thing of those first few months. In amongst the smashed watermelon and broken glass, drenched in sweat and flecked with blood, the laughs, confusion, exhilaration… there was a complexity in the experience that’s all about the priceless, messy human-ness that drives great rock’n’roll.
There was a long moment when to see Toy Love in full flight was to get one of the best bands in the world, right at their peak… right where I lived.
Now in its 31st year , Real Groovy remains independent and true to its word at 438 Queen Street in Auckland central. Record Store Day 2012 will be a festive event with the release of the Toy Love Live At The Gluepot LP, local bands performing live (playing a Toy Love song or two) and prizes galore. Real Groovy, not only the first New Zealand store to offer a release especially for Record Store Day but probably one of the first stores to open in the world on Record Store Day 2012. This is the first boutique release, but probably not the last, on vinyl by the store. | 
Double LP
