About Me
This UK indie act have never quite made the transition to commercial success despite an armoury of impressive songs. Their most prominent feature is the distinctive and opinionated voice of Toni Halliday, one of three children born to a liberal Roman Catholic mother and single parent. Her major collaborator and songwriting partner is Dean Garcia (guitar). The original precocious child, Halliday secured her first recording contract at the age of 14, moving to London where she floundered with pop duo the Uncles. She later met David A. Stewart in Sunderland and they remained friends; at this stage, Halliday met another member of Stewart's inner sanctum, Garcia, who had played on the Eurythmics albums Touch and Be Yourself Tonight. They joined forces in the equally pallid State Of Play, who were signed to Virgin Records and released two singles and an album, Balancing The Scales. After their acrimonious split, Halliday turned to session work (appearing on Robert Plant's Now And Zen) and released a ghastly solo album, 1989's Hearts And Handshakes, before reuniting with Garcia to sign to the Eurythmics' AnXious label as Curve. Halliday had taken a tape of the song "Ten Little Girls" to Stewart, who was immediately impressed. The results were three EPs, Blindfold, Frozen and Cherry (collected on Pubic Fruit), which were well received by the UK indie rock press, and purchased in hefty quantities despite cynics citing Halliday as a stubborn careerist. The groundwork laid for a potentially rich recording career continued with the creation of their own studio and an expanded line-up including Alex Mitchell and Debbie Smith (guitars) and Steve Monti (drums). However, although the critics remained somewhat in awe of the band's distant resonance, two albums and a series of singles (later efforts such as "Blackerthreetracker' merged the Curve sound with industrial and techno elements) failed to build on the press profile. The band eventually sundered, amicably, in 1994. Halliday collaborated with cult dance music outfit Leftfield for 1995"s "Original" and worked with Curve producer/guitarist Andrew Moulder as Scylla, while Debbie Smith went on to join Echobelly. Garcia and Halliday regrouped in November 1997 with new members Rob Holliday (guitar) and Stephen Spring (drums) for live gigs and Come Clean. The album featured the excellent single "Chinese Burn" (also used on a Sony Discman commercial), but showed little sign of any musical progress. Garcia later recorded as Headcase before reuniting with Halliday for Gift in 2001.
