Toy With Rhythm

• Flo McSweeney - vocals
• Ed Darragh AKA Adrienne Darragh - keyboards & vocals
• Niall MacSweeney AKA Niall O'Sullivan - guitar?
• Jim Tate - bass
• Brian Despard - drums
• a.o.
  
  
  Toy With Rhythm, l-to-r: Ed Darragh, Jim Tate, Niall O'Sullivan (?), Brian Despard (?), Flo McSweeney

• Suzie Jukes AKA Suzanne Rhatigan - vocals
• Paul ? - guitar
• Ed Darragh AKA Adrienne Darragh - synths
• John McCrea - kayboards
• Willie Demange - bass
• Brian Despard - drums
• Helen Walshe - percussion

Bio:

Bright synth pop outfit formed circa 1981 by bassist/keyboards player and main songwriter Ed Darragh (ex Boy Scoutz, Modernaines) with singer Flo McSweeney, guitarist Niall MacSweeney (no relation and also AKA Niall O'Sullivan to avoid confusion) (or is that incorrect?) and drummer Brian Despard. Despard had played with Aura (1971), Medium Wave Band (1974), Dave Prim Band (ca 1974-76), Jimi Slevin Band (ca 1977-78) and The Cheaters (1979).

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 replaced 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 AKA Suzanne Rhatigan (ex Fifth Avenue), who'd worked with Stano, the Rhythm Kings and the Modern Heirs. Willie Demange (ex The Visitors) became the bass player and wrote the A-side of the band's second single "Cartoon Hero" released in June 1984. Suzanne Rhatigan was replaced by Jenny Newman (later in The Great Divide). Rhatigan followed in Flo McSweeney's footsteps again by joining Les Enfants. Toy With Rhythm split in 1985

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. Willie Demange joined The Fountainhead. Sometime bassist Jim Tate now works in the National Concert Hall.

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