What Garf the Drummer is up to
Toronto
Yes, I appreciate this was over twenty years ago but I still have fond memories of being in this band.
I started playing with Dave Gould (Street Talk) when we started a band called Juggernaut in around 1983 or 1984 with Garry on bass and String on vocals. Further to various line-up changes and changes of direction, the band evolved into Toronto, basically, me, Dave and Dan Daley (Hot Candy) on bass. Yes, Dan's father (can't remember his name - Bill, I think) was a car dealer and Dan himself also sells cars now. We did a few gigs around Plymouth and even wrote some of our own songs.
My songs
These are songs I wrote. I wrote the words and had an idea of the tune. Dave translated my untuned grunts into real notes.
This is a song I wrote called 'Go For The Heart' inspired by a friend of mine, Dave Behennah, who wanted me to deliver a message to a girl he liked but my advice was that he should do it himself and go for it - hence go for the heart.
This is 'Mist in the Valley'. Once, me and Dave (Gould) were driving towards my mum's house and going into the valley at the bottom of Whitleigh, there was this eerie mist, almost a solid wall of it, in the valley. I said "there's a mist in the valley tonight" and the rest, with thoughts of flying saucers just wrote itself.
'Night After Night' was also the name of Dave Behennah's band for whom I used to roadie occasionally. I never really knew at the time what this song was about. It all just came to me and I had to write it. That was in around 1984. Now I know that it is a love song for my wife Siân. Strangely, written more than 10 years before I met her - or was it? Spooky, huh!
Finally - 'The Protector'. Again, a spooky event. I used to spend a lot of time on the road, late at night, after discos or gigs, whatever. I always used to have the feeling that there was someone sat next to me. Of course there was not. I now know who this was and I always felt that they were there to protect me and keep me safe on the road.
Of course, these versions were all done by Toronto, me, Dan and Dave, although one features Steve (the plumber) on vocals. I hope that The Crocs will attempt versions and if we do, clips will be posted on The Crocs page.
