I’ll make this short and sweet: Twa Toots may have been the best twee band ever. That’s a pretty subjective opinion, I’m sure, but few have escaped a spin of their LP titled Don’t Send Me Flowers and walked away thinking otherwise.
Not much is known about the band, but here’s a rundown on some things I can verify about them.
- Twa Toots was reportedly based out of Kent in the U.K.. They formed in the very early eighties.
- They were one of John Peel’s favorite bands. Twa Toots recorded a Peel Session and then seemingly disappeared into thin air for awhile.
- Sporadically they’d put out an odd single here, a tape there, break up and then repeat the process. But pretty much nobody can confirm what was on these releases… or that they really existed in the first place.
- There was one full length release by Twa Toots. Don’t Send Me Flowers was released on 1997 on Accident Records. It’s long out of print and no one can even seem to agree about what formats it might have been released on.
- Twa Toots was mostly Philippa Richmond, Sara Brown, Will Cassell and Frank Brown. Sara Brown did one EP with another twee band in the nineties under the moniker Sundress. The three songs I’ve tracked down of theirs are pretty amazing.
- They were fucking amazing.
So yes, this is what I can tell you about them, but why take my word for it? Check out a few of their songs, and get ready to freak out just like I did when I first heard ‘em! Oh, and if any members of Twa Toots happen upon this page, please contact us. We’d really like to interview you.
Twa Toots - Don’t Send Me Flowers.mp3
Twa Toots - Please Don’t Play ‘A Rainy Night In Georgia’.mp3
Anonymous | 05-Nov-07 at 1:40 am | Permalink
i seem to have 15 of their songs
Marc | 05-Nov-07 at 2:01 am | Permalink
Yessir, I believe that is the amount of tracks on “Don’t Send Me Flowers”… although I recently saw another early handmade EP of theirs on eBay witha few tracks that I hadn’t heard before. Now that Accident Records is back in business - and apparently planning a reissue of the Twa Toots material - maybe those will see the light of day again? One can only hope…
Andy | 30-Nov-07 at 5:55 pm | Permalink
Twa Toots were indeed out of Sheerness in Kent. There was a very good Peel Sessions EP of theirs available on Strange Fruit. Probably be able to find a copy on eBay. Another spin-off of Twa Toots was Sarah Brown’s band “Sarah Goes Shopping” - as far as I know, their stuff was only ever available on mail order direct from Sarah. I have one of the singles kicking about somewhere. Frank was Sarah’s dad, I believe.
Marc | 01-Dec-07 at 4:14 am | Permalink
To say I’d do nearly anything for a copy of the Sarah Goes Shopping stuff is a massive understatement. Holy crap, Andy… hook us up!
Jeff | 09-Mar-08 at 8:11 am | Permalink
I was co-owner of Woolly Records in Sheerness, where Sarah & co did a lot of their recording in the early 80s, and engineered several sessions for them. Frank was indeed Sarah’s dad, as Andy says, and played trumpet on some of their tracks. I haven’t been in contact with Sarah since we closed the studio in 1987/8, but I’ve still got some studio logbooks and old vinyl, so give me a bit of time and I’ll look them out. And I can’t better the ’sounds like…’ description on their Myspace page!
Von Pip | 09-Apr-08 at 2:33 pm | Permalink
Where can I get some more tunes , they were great
AVP
Marc | 09-Apr-08 at 8:11 pm | Permalink
Accident Records has been promising a reissue for the last year. Until that happens… eBay is your best bet.
Von Pip | 10-Apr-08 at 2:42 pm | Permalink
Nowt I can find on ebay. I suppose Accident records are te best bet
Marc | 10-Apr-08 at 11:51 pm | Permalink
I’d suggest tracking them down on MySpace and asking them directly if they have any copies lying around. Accident has seemed like a label that’s pretty proud of it’s history as of late.
tali | 09-Sep-08 at 1:41 am | Permalink
how can i contact these guys? they are mysterious. NEED COPIES OF STUFF.
The Zanzibar Lounge » Blog Archive » Twa Toots on MySpace | 03-Mar-09 at 6:08 pm | Permalink
[...] Nicole write for web zine - RetroLowFi - they do a column there called Criminally Overlooked, and Twa Toots got a feature. The post doesn’t have much info, but it helps to fill in the story a bit. Check it [...]