<— la — is it Ella, or is it Memorex? — Hold Music (Denise’s Ear) — this fig — festival — not constance — soft rock / strange trouble — Toody — i catch a rare vole — dedications — front matter — Partly Stressed — She Had Work To Do — Guilding / The Pith — Ruins, Spats — by recognising it, again — When One Says To Another

Toody video, SD, 11:59 (2020)
(for ‘You There, Are You There?’ programmed by Rosie Roberts for MAP magazine at GFF)

— In 1985 Toody Cole (of The Rats and Dead Moon) wrote and released 'Rather Be Your Lover'. In 1994 another 'Rather Be Your Lover' crops up on Madonna's (you know the one) Bedtime Stories album. Both singers sing some variation on the same words, I wonder if they ever met? But then, in 1979 Prince's 'Wanna Be Your Lover' blasted the airwaves, and surely became general knowledge, at least by the time Toody came round. It wasn't my idea to cover 'Rather Be Your Lover' but it was a sweet desire, so I started there. Toody is a cover song, a variation, a bottomless interpretation of the near misses and intimate collisions as we slip through the orange glow of the evening into a mythical garden or a forgotten Oasis. The film features Vital Idles on Toody; Moema Meade fka Madonna Kebab; Joan Sweeney on violin; Elizabeth Murphy, Adrien Hester & Rosie the dog; Benjamin Kritikos on vocals; and a painting by Isobel Neviazsky.