TOKOLOSH

TOKOLOSH are a Manchester based group made up of various musicians including members of The Whip and The Earlies. The line up is:

Liam Frost - Lead vocals and guitar
Christian Madden - Keyboards
Nicky Madden - Keyboard and saxophone
Nathan Sudders - Bass
Richard Young  - Drums

TOKOLOSH was founded after the various members were taking part in one of 6 Music DJ Marc Riley’s live Christmas Shows which were broadcasted from the Oxford Road studios in Manchester. During the evening they discussed forming a band together and the seeds of TOKOLOSH were sown. Frost had already worked with several of his new band members during his solo work and Christian Madden later spoke of his desire to work with Frost in an interview with The Manchester Evening News.

The band formed officially in 2011 as a side project for all the musicians involved and took its name from an African mythical beast albeit spelling it slightly differently and using capital letters. The name was suggested by Christian Madden and many of the songs composed by the band had working titles which incorporated the word TOK. Some of these songs underwent title changes by the time they were released whilst others retained their working titles.

TOKOLOSH completed two sessions for BBC Radio 6 Music in 2012 and released their first single ‘The Hollow’ on Static Caravan that year, following it by three more singles in 2013 (Shapeshifter, The Root and Unknown Animal) and a final single in 2014 (A Great Wave). The band’s debut album ‘Stay Strong’ was released in August 2014 on the Jack To Phono label.

The group have never toured but have played sporadic gigs in diverse locations including the John Rylands Library Reading Room in Manchester, an outdoor gig for the Dig The City festival at St Anne’s Square (again in Manchester) and Festival No 6’s woodland stage in Portmeirion. Some of the gigs have seen slight line up changes when members of the group have had commitments with their other bands. Sudders bass duties have been covered by guitarist Tom Lloyd Goodwin whilst drummer Bo Walsh has stepped in when Richard Young has been unavailable.

Whilst the musicians in TOKOLOSH have created a strong sound which is very different from their other work, they have shunned traditional publicity, maintaining a reasonably low profile, conducting few interviews and even holding their album launch event three months after the record was released.