Rusty Egan and Richard Burgess propel you onto the dancefloor with this electro disco re-working of the Glitter Band hit. The Shock girls provide backing vocals and the track hits you between the thighs with its sequencers and drum machines on red alert.

The B side - 'R.E.R.B' is an instrumental version of the same track.
The 12" is a killer!

 

The second Shock single and released after Robert Pereno and L.A.Richards had left the band. Co-written by Richard Burgess and Tik. A song for a flamenco and robot influenced machine age. The B side 'Dream Games' written by Richard Burgess, Tik and Barbie Wilde is a slinky funked up ode to TV sex and Reality TV as it should have been back in the '80s. Again the 12" (especially the B side) will stretch your limbs and your libido.

ENTER TIK AND TOK

After Tik & Tok were freed from their RCA Shock contract in early 1982, they signed to Indie label Survival Records and released this as their first single. Utilising the production skills of Peter Godwin and the multi-talented RRussell Bell from Gary Numan's backing band on virtually every instrument known to man, they crafted a dance floor friendly 45. The B side ' Crisis', written and produced by Tik and Tok in the spaced comfort of their homes, was the very first flowering of their musical aspirations. It also features a cameo appearance by loveable intergalactic rogues Ronnie and Reggie Dome.

Originally this second single on Survival Records was the instrumental backing music to Tik & Tok's Robotic segment of their live show in 1983. Given a swift makeover after floating through Notting Hill Gate's red light and Rasta district, lyrics were grafted onto the backing track and lo and behold A Top 70 single as a result! Massively plugged when T&T supported Gary Numan on his "Warriors" come back tour in the autumn of '83. The B side -'Vile Bodies', written by Marek Rymaszewski (oh, where art thou?) is the most poignant song ever and to this day remains the most popular Tik & Tok track recorded. Again, all credit is due to RRussell Bell for providing the most exquisite backing possible at that time. Survival wanted a more 'Dancey' version as the A side and T&T wanted a more 'Pop' version as the single. So they put them both on the same disc! The 12" also contains 'Soulless Synthetic Heartsteps Of Unconcerned Androids' which was the headline of aT&T newspaper review, so they pinched it! It was used as the backtrack for the Gas mask routine on the 'Warriors' tour in Autumn '83.


This was originally done for Shock version 2 by Tik and Richard Burgess. It's quite a pervy little song about a person spending time falling in lust with images on their VCR.The 4 piece Shock performed it on the TV prog 'The Oxford Roadshow' in '81 with the girls dressed as Hookers and T&T as refugees from a Bondage club! Tik & Tok re-recorded it as their 3rd single and it features Joe Hubbard from Gary Numan's 'Warriors' touring band playing some fine slap bass. A 12" was recorded too and the song was the highlight of their stage act in '83 and '84.Vinyl macs and Biker Boy hats! Girl teasingTarts rampant! Sometimes the boys would be joined on stage by The Trans Sisters - 2 babes in black leather and fishnets. Mmm! The B side ' Dangerous and Unafraid' was previously an instrumental and was used in early '83 (pre'Warriors' tour) for the Gas Mask routine. It then changed into a song for the single. The 'Screen Me' 12" features a Dubby version of 'Dangerous' and an instrumental named 'The Garden'. A little piece of junior Vangelis, recorded on 4 Track in Tikky's bedroom!

T&T single No.4. Features the extraordinary vocal talents of Tessa Niles. Arranged by Joe Kavanagh. It's a love song (of sorts) about a disturbed young girl with strange things in her hair.Ask Tikky! Note the ironic cover signifying the death of The Robots. The B side is 'Cracking Up', written as a DIRECT result of Magic Mushroom Madness on the 'Warriors' tour. That was the night T&T 'allegedly' blew up the toilet in their hotel room according to Mr Numan. We're not telling! The 12" B side also has 'Theme From The Dome Brothers' used on stage in '84 for Ron and Reg to do their legendary act. Another 4 Track recording direct from the bedroom!


It's Album time!

"INTOLERANCE" RELEASED AUGUST 1984





Given a modest (very) budget and 2 weeks recording time T&T worked all night, every night in Guerilla Studios in West London. T&T had to use some tracks recorded earlier because of the time scale.It kicks off with the single version of 'Screen Me'. Then comes 'A Date With The Palm Sisters'. Heavily featuring Joe Hubbard on bass. He heard the backtrack once and then played the whole thing live! One take! There are cut ups from Porno movies in the mix but they should have been louder! Also featuring Barbie Wilde (ex Shock) on Orgasmo Backing Vocals. 'Show Me Something Real' features Gary Numan on synths. He came to the studio, set up 2 analogue keyboards and played like a demon! He also found time to do backing vocals too.This was a great number for T&T to end their stage show with in '84. The lyrics were written in a hotel on the last leg of 'Warriors'.It's followed by 'I Know That You Know', a kind of 'Duran' sound and written when EMI were sniffing around. Very poppy! Side one ends with the 12" of 'Everything Will Change' and features more Tessa Niles (especially at the end). Side two starts with 'Intolerance 1'. This the track where T&T said to their horrified engineer that they wanted bits of it to sound like Koto music coming from a cracked transistor radio buried in the sand after the bomb on Hiroshima! "Er, yes boys. Which pre-set is that one?" This segues into the single mix of 'Vile Bodies' with a bit of wind synth added. Next is 'Intolerance 3 & 4'. This was entirely made up on the spot in the studio with T&T playing every synth that was to hand. It's pretty scary stuff! Now here is a very generous man - Gary Numan gave T&T the backing track to 'A Child With The Ghost'! Yep, hard to imagine anyone doing that these days. Exsquisitely beautiful song and tear - inducing BVs from Tessa Niles.'Holding On' is what Tikky calls:'Cynical Accapella' and has 24 vocal tracks in different octaves and with harmonies all bounced together. Joe Cavanagh excelled himself throughout side 2 of this album as arranger. Last track is Stevie Wonder's 'Higher Ground' and features Mr Hubbard again AND Tessa Niles. It ends 'Intolerance' on a positive, uplifting note after the darkness of side 2.

T&T were and still are proud of this work.
In 2000 Tim Dry had the album Digitally Re-mastered and released it from his own website on CD. Containing 18 tracks now it was well recieved.



The last T&T single. Punchy and optimistic. It makes its point and doesn't stick around. The B side'Down From The Sky' was done at Guerilla in one day as T&T's Manager had blagged some extra recording time. It's a sort of tribute to 'Ziggy' era Bowie. It's a jolly little ditty about Alien Intervention. We're still waiting! The 12" mix of 'Higher' is beserk and gives an idea of T&Ts legendary sense of humour. A new engineer was used for this and he had all these little bits of quarter inch tape chopped out and stuck on the desk for edits, but in a moment of 'Outness' he dropped them all! He was told:"That's great! Just put them together first come first served!" 'Psych-Out At The Dunheadin Masqued Ball' is Tik & Tok having the best fun it's possible to have in a small recording studio. Apart from the drum track the whole piece is a random pushing up of faders on the desk, not knowing what was on any of them.

A fitting last recording and one that is quite possibly the closest to the real sound of Tik and Tok back then.

But things change and so do people, and after a 20 year plus lunch break, the boys decided that Higher Ground wouldn't be the last single ever, this after The Replex Label had also decided the same and released a vinyl only 12inch single of B-Sides in June 2004 which also contained a very short section of Robot Music and the 12inch version of Cool Running.

RELEASED JANUARY 2005


20 minutes of Euro Electronica released on the duo's own label A lot of pressure on the boys prior to this release, will the fans thinking be in the same vain as Tik and Tok's creativeness....Well I have had no one speak bad as yet, one year on from it's release, so I think that speaks for itself.



DECEMBER 2006 TIK AND TOK RELEASE COMPLETE BACK CATALOGUE

A
mongst the material, some of their previously unheard 4 track demos from 1982

And Intolerance Xtras, is made up of the rest of the tracks recorded around the same time as Intolerance including the 12 inch versions of Screen Me I'm Your, Higher Ground and Date with The Palm Sisters" plus bonus of last track ever recorded, "If you really want me"

Also re-issued by request the Be@st Of Tik and Tok 1982 - 1984
INTOLERANCE

ONCE AGAIN IT'S ALBUM TIME!

"DREAM ORPHANS" APRIL 1st 2007. A Dome Brothers release.

TIK & TOK say: Musically our influences would be: Kraftwerk, Yello, Georgio Moroder, '70s Bowie, Vangelis, Dub,Gary Numan, Eno etc, etc. Plus Southern Comfort and Herbie Spliffington in a foreign hotel room, the smell of white pancake make up, neon city streets at night as seen from the back of a long black car, girls with full red lips, Electric City in Tokyo, Sci Fi, static, a Chinook passing overhead and aliens with a sense of humour. Sounds like: Deep Space.Two androids in an out of control spaceship about to crash land on a planet populated only by sex-starved female aliens! Latex throbbing on skin under disco lights and the promise of a long, strange night to come.Europe.Inner Space. The album is a journey.

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