After seeing the Sex Pistols in Quaintways in Chester in September 1976 it was a life changing experience for Mike Peters who put together The Toilets in 1977 as his first band.
The band line up was:
Richard “O’Malley” Jones (aka Bo Larks/Jerry Attrik) – Vocals
Mike Peters (aka WC Smith/Eddie Bop) – Guitar
Glyn Crossley (aka Steve Shock) – Bass
Nigel Buckle (Des Troy) – Drums
The original singer Gaz Hughes didn’t show up for rehearsals
The idea for the band came about as part of the feel of the time with the grayness of the time, lots of unemployment and music, particularly Punk gave people a way out to express themselves – Mike Peters, Big Night In 3rd July 2021
The Toilets played their 1st gig at the Palace Hotel in Rhyl opening with Nothing To Do which was the first song Mike wrote, coming back one night from the Bistro, the idea for the song came into his head as he walked across the harbour bridge
I remember the night before the first Toilet gigs in Rhyl North Wales at The Palace Hotel, we’d just met Dave Sharp, he’d just come home from the navy from a trip and well he’d been at sea, he had not heard about the Sex Pistols or The Clash or The Damned or any of that as he’d been in some Southern American port with the merchant navy. He turned up at our little rehearsal studio in Rhyl and it was there he came in to see this new band he’d heard about from his friend Nigel, called The Toilets. Nigel was playing with them even though he was a hippy at the time and he brought him along to the rehearsal room where he saw us in all our glory. Dave saw what we were up to and he went straight back out of the door and went to the Army & Navy shop in Rhyl and he kitted himself out in all this finest combat fatigues he could find, went to the haberdashery place and got loads of safety pins and stick them all over the place and he came back as a Punk rocker. Five minutes it took and he actually started his own band not long after he saw the Toilets called Chuck Burial and The Embalmed. But his claim to fame, he actually helped me get the very first Toilets gig ever, he went out on the Friday night to The Palace for a few beers and coerced the manager into letting this new Punk rock band play on the Saturday night downstairs and I remember lying in my little bedroom in Kimnel Bay at the time where I lived. I remember hearing in the night these stones hitting the window pane, which is one of the lines in the song, I remember stones on the windowpane. What was that, I looked down into the garden and I could see this little red light in the garden. I looked out through the window and I could see it was actually Dave Sharp dragging on his fag. “Mike, I got you a gig in The Palace tomorrow night, see you there”. He went off into the night and I didn’t believe him at first, when we got down the next morning we literally did have a gig in The Palace and we just hired this PA from a company in Rhyl and they said to us before the gig, they said we got these smoke bombs and pyrotechnics, that sounds great, so on the first number we let off all these smoke bombs and just blew up like an explosion and filled the whole club with smoke and half the punters choking to death. But it was brilliant, it wall all flashing white lights and it was a 100 mile an hour and this is the first song we played – This is called Nothing To Do – Mike Peters – Alarmstock, NEWI Theatre Stage, Wrexham, Wales 29/08/2004
The Toilets built up large support in North Wales and supported The Slits, The Clash and Buzzcocks with songs such as Alarm Alarm, James Bond, Nothing To Do, Office Jobs, Lies Lies Lies and Social Security
Taken from Bombsite Fanzine Issue 5 1977 – Website
Few bands left a more distinct mark on the Welsh rock experience than Mike Peters band The Alarm, but few will remember Mike’s punk band The Toilets. Prompted to form a band after watching the Sex Pistols play at Quantways in Chester during October 1976. The band formed in Rhyl during 1977 with Mike Peters, Glyn Crossley, O’Malley and Nigel Twist
Some of the group members worked as bank clerks in Chester. Even here Mike Peters was a nice bloke, and would always greet people with optimism’s and a smile. But the group members all embraced the revolutionary, equal-opportunity and controversial punk image at the weekend. Mike’s determination and vision was passionate, as he would discuss the day when his band would be recognized as a Welsh rock band. Interestingly, they were followed around from gig to gig by the most loyal, hardest punks in the area, “The Buckley Contingent”. Merchant seamen, dockers and miners. These guys were not to be messed with
We first met Mike Peters in late Spring 1977. Mark, Smasher Dean, my girlfriend and myself were in a bar on the promenade in Rhyl. Mike Peters sitting at the bar talking with some locals. Soon after arriving the whole place exploded in an old western style bar fight after someone mouthed off. The owner tried to break it up and tried to lock the door. We pushed our way out and legged it. On the way back I asked Alg “what did the guy say”, he said “I don’t know I saw his lips move so I whaled on him”. About a week later, we met Mike at Eric’s, unaware that it was him in the bar. He explained that the group of guys we had worked over, continually cause trouble with the local punks. And the word around town was they had now got what they had asked for. No known recordings of the Toilets exist today, although Mike Peters did have a 1977 recording from the Buzzcock’s Eric’s gig. Regrettably, the recording was stolen from his car in 1980
Singer, lyricist and guitarist Mike Peters, is now a globally recognised figure of tremendous musical influence, with different variations of the Alarm. But his original band The Toilets were a short lived punk marvel, featuring energetic Clash inspired punk anthems. As Eric’s regulars the band performed support for the Clash on October 22nd 1977 and The Buzzcocks and The Fall on November 18th 1977. Sex Pistols, Paul Cook and Steve Jones were present for the November 18th gig. Our band “Why Control ” supported “The Toilets” for a few different gigs. For one gig they let us use their equipment. This was unheard of with bands back then, since everyone was getting robbed. Mike’s talent, honesty and passion resonates with me today
The Toilets disbanded after playing their last gig at the 1520 Club in Rhyl on Friday January 27th 1978
Known Gig list
3rd September 1977 – Kings Discotheque, Palace Hotel, Rhyl, Wales
15th September 1977 – The Stables Bar, Talardy Hotel, St Asaph, Wales
Supporting The Slits
23rd September 1977 – Kings Discotheque, Palace Hotel, Rhyl, Wales
30th September 1977 – The Palace Hotel, Rhyl, Wales
22nd October 1977 – Eric’s, Liverpool. England – Lunchtime show
Supporting Shattered Dolls
Set list : Nothing to Do, Social Security, Hear Me Out, Alarm Alarm, James Bond
22nd October 1977 – Eric’s, Liverpool. England – Evening show
Supporting The Clash on the Out of Control Tour
Also on the bill were Richard Hell & The Void-oids, The Lous and Penetration
November 1977 – The Tivoli. Buckley, Wales Supporting Suburban Studs
18th November 1977 – Eric’s, Liverpool, England
Supporting The Buzzcocks on the Coming Your Way tour, The Fall also supported
31st December 1977 – Chester Labour Club, Chester, England
26th January 1978 – 1520 Club, Wets End Rhyl, Wales
The Toilets split up in 1978 playing their last show at the 1520 Club in Rhyl on 27th January 1978
27th January 1978 – 1520 Club, Wets End Rhyl, Wales
The set-list for that show was as follows
Ice Cream And Roc
Breakdown (Buzzcocks cover)
Lies Lies Lies
Alarm Alarm
Sweets
Social Security
James Bond
News At 10
You
No Truth
Anarchy In The UK (Sex Pistols cover)
Big In Japan (Big In Japan cover)
Nothing To Do
Media Girl
Hear Me Out My Generation (Who cover)
The Alarm in 1981 would later take their name from The Toilets song Alarm Alarm
The Toilets were re-created in 1992 by Mike Peters for a one-off performance at the first MPO Gathering weekend with Dave Watkins-Clarke playing drums and Patrick Smith on guitar
The following set was played at The Swan in Rhyl on 12th December 1992
Nothing To Do
Hear Me Out
Ice Cream And Rock
Breakdown
Sheena Is a Punk Rocker
Anarchy In The UK
Bound For Glory
Mind Games
Rockin’ In The Free World
Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
Click on the above image to view a video of part of the rehearsal, Sheena Is A Punk Rock and Anarchy In The UK, videos footage was original recorded by Jules Jones-Peters at the “The Toilets set The Swan, Rhyl, Wales and appears on one of the early videozine releases
Click on the above image for a”dropbox” link to an audience recording of the The Toilets set at The Swan, Rhyl, Wales 12th December 1992
Some of the Toilets songs were re-recorded for the sound track for the movie “Vinyl” in 2011 and appear on the Vinyl Soundtrack
Mike Peters has occasionally performed some of The Toilets songs as part of his acoustic performances. At a gig at The Red, Dyserth, Wales on 20th April 2024 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of Sixty Eight Guns, an acoustic set was performed which included the following The Toilets songs: Nothing To Do, Lies Lies Lies, 28 Seconds, James Bond
(Page updated 16/09/2025)