THE DINKY TOYS

Commercially very successful pop group of the early 1990's. Made "good-time" music with influences from ska, hip-hop, flamenco and about every other musical genre.

This is one of the first Belgian groups who didn't care at all about "street credibility" (a eery feature ever so important in the small musical world that is the Belgian Rock scene) but went all out and honestly for a place in the hitparade.

Part of the commercial appeal of the group was due to the creations of Walter Van Beirendonck, who slipped the group in colorful outfits. W@LT would later do this for other groups : in fact the Dinky Toys were 10 years earlier with it than U2 !

The band developed a distinct sound from the beginning : a fresh and commercial sound that was a hit with the Belgian audiences right from the start : thus "My day will come", de debuut-single in the summer of 1991, crept up the charts in this country with remarkeable ease, and became the first of a whole string of hits. The biggest successes as far as chart positions go later became "Test of Time" (1992), "Can't Keep My Hands Off You" (1992) and "Out in the Streets" (1993).

In 1994 singer Coco Jr. also took up the position of producer (for some remixes) and the result "Declaracion de Amor" (with co-vocals by Bea Luna) became another highlight in the colourful discography of The Dinky Toys, and became the song that has survived the Dinky Toys probably best. Coco - president of the "European Reggae Society" also tried of pushing his love for Jamaican music with a cover of Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds".

The group didn't outlive the first hick-up in the flow of hits, and after a live-album "Keep Hope Alive", the band was disbanded. Earlier, at two times the series of hits had been collected on a CD : "The Colour of Sex" in 1992 and "Colour Blind" in 1993.

Nowadays singer Kid Coco (who is also better known as the companion of Geena Lisa, and as one of the two bald-heads in "Nonkel Pop", the equivalent of the British "Never Mind The Buzzcocks" on Flemish Television) and has a reggae solo career (under the name Coco Jr.), as which he recorded an album in Jamaica with the legendary Sly & Robbie.

GroepsLeden :
- Kid Coco (original name is Marc Dierickx, later Coco Jr): vocals
- Joris Angenon (voorheen lid van The Machines) : guitar
- Ruud van Damme : bass
- Martijn Bal : drums
- Vincent - Vinzy - Goeminne : vocals / guitar (later Plane Vanilla)

Buy CD's of this band at

Albums :
- The colour of Sex (EMI/Creastars, 1992)
- Colour blind (BMG Ariola/Creastars, 1993).
- Keep Hope Alive (Creastars, 1994)
- The Best of The Dinky Toys (1999)

Websites :
- Coco Jr. has a well-developed site of his own.
- An overview of the career of The Dinky Toys at the site of Top Studio

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