Cuddly Toys

Originally performing as bratty punkers called the Raped, the musicians opted for a new identity after issuing the Pretty Paedophiles EP and its subsequent single, simultaneously recasting their look in the style of a cross-dressing glam band and undertaking a thorough overhaul of their sound. Securing live dates proved difficult under the earlier name, prompting the switch to the more agreeable Cuddly Toys. The group is chiefly remembered for its single of “Madman,” the song David Bowie and Marc Bolan wrote only days before Bolan’s death. Two albums appeared before the band dissolved. Fresh released Someone’s Crying in 1981, an effort roundly dismissed as a clumsy attempt to recycle the band’s 1970s influences. Trial and Crosses followed in 1982 after synths had been added and the music steered into new wave territory, yet it fared no better with listeners. Three months after that album’s release, the sole remaining original member, Sean Purcell, stepped down as frontman to join Goat. The others carried on briefly, though nothing further of consequence emerged.