Toy Matinee

Toy Matinee was a short-lived American rock band, and also the title of their only album. Their sound was an array of mixed influences, including progressive rock, AOR and pop reminiscent of both the Beatles and the Beach Boys.

Toy Matinee
Studio album by Toy Matinee
Released	28 June 1990
Genre	Progressive rock
Length	45:44
Label	Reprise
Producer	Bill Bottrell

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

Through the end of 1988 and beginning of 1989 Patrick Leonard approached bassist Guy Pratt about forming a band and helping him audition and recruit members, as the two had become friends through working on Madonna's True Blue album, and other material previously. Pratt agreed and they chose singer/lyricist/multi-instrumentalist Kevin Gilbert, drummer Brian MacLeod, guitarist Tim Pierce to complete the ensemble. Pratt recalls that for various legal reasons he never signed up as a full member of the band despite being in at the start of the project and co-writing half of the songs on the band's eponymous and only album, which featured guest appearances from several other musicians including Julian Lennon, and which was released on Reprise Records in 1990.

The album was engineered and produced by Bill Bottrell. Thematically, it covered a rather broad ground. The lead single and album opener "Last Plane Out" came from a long standing fascination Pratt had about the idea of the last flight out of a war zone. Two tracks, Turn It On Salvador and Remember My Name, were dedicated to Czech poet and political figure Václav Havel and painter Salvador Dalí, while "Queen of Misery" is about Madonna.[2] Leonard was the singer's longtime songwriting and producing partner, and in addition to him most members of Toy Matinee worked on Madonna's I'm Breathless album— Pratt on bass, Gilbert as an engineer, Bottrell as producer and engineer and Pierce on guitar.[3]

After the album was released Pratt had to go and tour with Pink Floyd, which was a commitment he had made prior to the project beginning, (and being engaged at the time to Gala Wright, daughter of Richard Wright, Pink Floyd's keyboard player was one he loathe to break) promoting the Division Bell album. MacLeod and Pierce moved on to other session work, and Leonard wasn't interested in a tour that involved replacing all of them.[4] Gilbert took on that role himself instead, assembling a promotional band for the album which featured Gilbert's then girlfriend, Sheryl Crow, on keyboards, Marc Bonilla on guitar, Spencer Campbell on bass and Toss Panos on drums. There were a number of short tours.

A 1991 live recording of Gilbert and this touring band performing songs from the album was released in 2010 as Kevin Gilbert Performs Toy Matinee Live at the Roxy[5] The group engaged in heavy radio promotion wherever possible, most notably frequent appearances on the Mark & Brian show on Los Angeles-area station KLOS. Some of those sessions were released on Mark & Brian's KLOS compilation recordings,[6] such as a stripped down version of "The Ballad Of Jenny Ledge" on their You Had to Be There collection.[7]

Two of the songs on Toy Matinee -- "The Ballad of Jenny Ledge" and "Last Plane Out"—received wide play on AOR stations partly due to Gilbert's promotional work, both of them peaking at No. 23 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.[8] Despite the chart success of the singles, the album's highest U.S. chart position was No. 129, and sales were below expectations enough that many unsold copies of the CD were widely available as cut-outs in the early '90s.

Gilbert went on to do additional work with Bottrell including Sheryl Crow's debut album and solo projects. In 1994, Leonard and former Mr. Mister frontman Richard Page released the album Meanwhile as Third Matinee. Gilbert's untimely death in 1996 ended any possibility of a second Toy Matinee album.