Levi Toi was formed in 1990 by bass player Gerry Dineen with the help of friend and fellow musician Graham Thompson.The band, originally called This Heat, was the working name given to the project which was used as the vehicle to allow them to write material in their own recording studio (Tower Studios)Around 1991 the guys auditioned for a signer to front the band, they set up auditions in Pet Sounds studios, owned at the time by Wet Wet Wet, and after one or two disappointments one guy turned up with an old 6 string Eko guitar and luckily for both parties he who could chant, that guy was vocalist Pat McInally. Pat was spending his time doing the Glasgow circuit with a covers band and, when asked by Dineen to front This Heat after his initial audition, McInally immediately agreed to join them.The majority of the early material was written using a drum machine so it was evident that the quest to find a drummer was now on the cards, several weeks later Gerry Dineen had a chance meeting with DP Johnson who was the drummer from one of his former bands, the guys had a chat listened to some of the material and DP was on board.Shortly after that DP was playing some of the demos at a well known Glasgow rehearsal and recording studio, The Practice Pad, where again by chance, local guitarist Anuj Ghai was hanging around and on hearing the demo, asked if they required a guitarist, so another audition was set up at their recording studio where Anuj’s task was to lay down the rhythm and lead guitar lines for their latest song ‘Life in the City’Needless to say that audition went well and both the rhythm and lead guitar parts remained in the final mix and Anuj was on board.Shortly after that the guys were busy rehearsing to hone their live sound at the Practice Pad when Thompson had to leave the band due to other commitments, that left the guys without a keyboard player for the interim period, it was at that time they decided to change the band name, McInally came up with the name Levi Toi and, when put to the vote won hands down.From that point onwards things started to go more smoothly for the band and the guys were soon playing several nights a week around Glasgow and the West of Scotland thanks mainly to hooking up with local promotion company BeatBox Promotions run by John McGlaughlin.The bands first gig was played at Bar Belgo in Glasgow, the line up included a stand in keyboard player from Livingston with his girlfriend on backing vocals.The support act on the first gig was in the form of signer/songwriter Drew McCormack who played an acoustic set, (Drew himself now runs a promotions outfit called the Bungalow Bar Revival at the Crow Bar in Paisley. Check out some of his gigs)It wasn’t long before the final ingredients of the band came on board in the form of keyboard player Marco Bernardi with backing vocals provided by Sue.The band went on to perform for a couple of years gigging round the Glasgow circuit and West of Scotland where all the money made from their gigs went to producing the bands demo tapes the first of which was recorded at the Practice Pad in Glasgow where they laid down three tracks called ‘Promised Land’, ‘This Heat’ and ‘So Far Away’ A second demo followed shortly afterwards, again recorded at the Pad, this time two songs were laid down, ‘Leave Me and the track called ‘Ecstacy’More gigs followed and a record deal with Island Records was hanging in the balance but fell just short at the final hurdle as Island Records wanted to put their material on hold in order to wait for a change in the market, it was at that point when guitarist Anuj Ghai decided to call it a day and head for the bright lights of London to pursue his career and the rest of the band decided to call it a day.In 2001 Dineen hooked up with McInally again for one last time to write the track ‘Everything’ which featured McInally on Acoustic Guitar and Vocals, Dineen on Bass and Guitar and also featured Thompson back on the keyboards. The track was recorded, produced and arranged by Dineen and Thompson at their studio.Shortly afterwards in late 2002 McInally got itchy feet and decided to go walkabout around Oz, he took a year or so out to travel round the world and spent some quality time in Australia. Dineen decided it was time to take a break from working in the studio and put the old Warwick Thumb into hibernation for a while.Now in 2008 and after a break of several years, Dineen has bounced back with a new drive and enthusiasm and set up another inspirational unit called ‘New Audio Monkees’.Once again Graham Thompson is back in the production seat with Dineen on Bass, the guys have just started work in the studio laying down some ideas and will shortly be loading some demos onto their MySpace, so check them out at WWW.MySpace.com/NewAudioMonkees.Hope you enjoy some of the old tunes, Regards Levi Toi.
made with the Cosmoedit Myspace Editor
