New Wave for the New Week #131

London's The Doll were another of those blink-and-you-missed-them bands that seemed to crop up like weeds in the immediate aftermath of the first wave of Punk Rock.  Sounding a bit like The Rezillos on overdrive, The Doll first came to public awareness with their appearance on the Beggar's Banquet Records 1977 compilation Streets.  Their contribution, "Trash," stood out among those of other soon-to-be-bigger name bands like Slaughter & The Dogs, The Members and The Lurkers.

Liking what they heard, Beggar's Banquet soon issued The Doll's first single, "Don't Tango On My Heart," with "Trash" on the flipside. It was a scorching piece of vinyl, but the band was more heavily focused on live performance, and it would be a year until The Doll would be on record shelves again.

Their return to the record racks also saw them reach the height of their fame. "Desire Me," released in 1979, made the UK Top 30 and landed The Doll an appearance on Top Of The Pops.  This in turn spurred a brief media infatuation with frontwoman Marion Valentine.  The attention being focused solely on her ticked off the rest of the band, who decided to abandon her.  It would be another year before she would be back in the recording studio with a new set of band members to record the first full-length Doll LP, Listen To The Silence, and the lead single "Cinderella With A Husky Voice."  Unfortunately, both quickly sank without a trace, as did two follow-up singles.  By the end of 1980, The Doll was done, and would probably have been relegated to status as a footnote to Punk Rock history had Cherry Red Records not reissued Listen To The Silence earlier this year as a two-disc set including the early singles and assorted unreleased material.  It's well worth picking up.

For this week's NW4NW entry, here are audio clips of both sides of The Doll's incredible debut single, "Trash" and "Don't Tango On My Heart."  Enjoy!