Dead Moon and Pierced Arrows alumnus and DIY garage rock icon, Toody Cole, has returned  to the stage after a six-year break ,and is sweeping through Australia this month.

Toody Cole and Her Band is an underground showcase, playing songs from Dead Moon and Pierced Arrows, both of which Toody played in with her late husband of 50 years, Fred Cole. Her band features Christpoher March (Jenny Don’t and the Spurs) and former Pierced Arrows bandmate, Kelly Halliburton. 

No-one embodied the DIY/Independent spirit more then Fred and Toody. There are many bands that have achieved cult status, but not many get their own city paying tribute to them, with Portland declaring October 5 “Dead Moon Night”.

Toody spoke to Matt Munster from her Portland house, just after here return to Portland from gigs in Spain.

_{Toody flanked by husband Fred (left) and drummer Andrew Loomis in Dead Moon.}

I-94 Bar: Toody Cole and Her Band: please tell us how that how came about.

Toody: Mississippi Records, who do all the Dead Moon reissues, was having a 20^th anniversary show. Eric Isaacson (lable founder) asked me if I could get a band together and play a special show. I decided to do that, and to do a retrospective that goes right back to the beginning. Fred songs from “You must be a Witch” (from Fred Coles ‘60s band The Lollipop Shoppe), and the Rats. And all the bands he was in. So it blossomed from there.

Then I had a few requests. I just play sporadically; these Australian shows ,and the Spanish gigs, are the first overseas shows I’ve done. Jenny Don’t and the Spurs are the backing band, and the chance of those two being free at the same time, is very rare, so ait’s n easy way to work back into things.

I-94 Bar: Did you intend for this to be a one off, but you thought ‘Why not, let’s keep going’?

Toody: Yes, and people have seen it and love it, and I’m thrilled to be back on stage. It’, so cool.

I-94 Bar: You said it’s a retrospective of Fred’s work, not just Dead Moon, but Rats songs too. So I take it we’ll get songs we haven’t heard live for ages?

Toody: Yes, and a lot of them are the classic Dead Moon songs. I can do the songs justice but it’s hard to follow in Fred’s footsteps with the vocals (laughs). But so far so good

I-94 Bar: Wow does it feel playing these classic songs with new talent, some of whom may not have been born when Fred started?

Toody: Great. We’ve been playing off and on for 2-3 years. So it feels like a band, and we’re comfortable on stage together. And it’s fun for them. Chris is having a good time playing some harder rock. He plays everything from jazz to country but he’s having fun.

I-94 Bar: Did you and Fred write songs at home, or did you do that in a rehearsal room with Andrew (Dead Moon drummer) and Kelly (Pierced Arrows Drummer)?

Toody: Most of it, Fred wrote at home, especially during Pierced Arrows. I would be there when he was writing, especially to help write lyrics that came in his head, and to give comments. He’d ask my opinion on wording. And there were times when I wrote one verse of lyrics. But the whole process was Fred. He would hear something, and he would take it from there, usually a riff is where it would start. He clams there was a few songs he wrote after he dreamt them (laughs). I never remember my dreams that well. we collaborated a little bit, but the songwriting was all Fred mostly.

I-94 Bar: Will you be writing any new material with this band?

Toody: No. I wish I had that particular talent. It’s not there, I think it’s something you can do naturally or maybe you can teach yourself to do it. At this point I don’t have much time left (laughs) so I’m going to go with what’s already written.

I-94 Bar: I spoke with Jason Summers awhile back who made the two Dead Moon documentaries (with Kate Fix), and I asked what made Fred and Toody such special people. And he said, ‘They would take you under their wing and welcome you in there home as long as you had your shit together. In fact they would even if they didn’t have their shit together.’

Toody: (laughs) Yes, he’s been here many times, and we’ve stayed at his farm many times. He’s a close personal friend, him and Kate.

I-94 Bar: what was it like during the filming of those docos? I know they were made by friends but to have a camera at very personal, intermate moments must have been unusual?

Toody: With Jason and Kate, they came to Europe and followed us around. At some point, and we are such good friends to begin with, you forgot they were here, and that’s why things come out so spontaneous. That’s just the way we were. We had such fun on that tour and was great to see it documented, like your own personal home movie. They did a screening here in Portland before it went to Australia and was awesome to see, especially as was shot with the bands point of view, and to see it from the audience it really put you back in the moment so that was cool.

I-94 Bar: When did Dead Moon first tour Australia?

Toody: 1994.

I-94 Bar: that must have been odd, coming over the first time, in a whole new world when I take it you had correspondence and heard stories, but coming over in a pre-Internet era when anything could have happened?

Toody: Totally. It was insane, we flew into LA. And we had these heavy coats, and we couldn’t believe that the weather would be completely different. But the bright side was, Australian summer is our winter, and during our winter to travel you got to go through the Rocky Mountains, so most bands don’t tour in the winter, it’s just too complicated. So, all the festivals going on in Australia, there’s another whole world over there, so it was always amazing. That 13 hours flight was hellacious but great when you get there.

I-94 Bar: And that must have been a good feeling, going back time and time again to see the rooms bigger and gain more fans each time.

Toody: Pretty much. But we loved going to the small towns. I loved playing in small clubs. It’s got that intimacy, the bigger the room, it’s cool you adapt to but, there’s something about clubs that are 250-300, even smaller than that, you feel closer to the audience and a whole new experience. And going back to the Tote, which was home base in Australia.

I-94 Bar: I saw the other day they have a picture of Fred over the bar, and the poster of the tour with the Powder Moneys proudly displayed at the Tote.

Toody: That was a great tour.

I-94 Bar: I guess the story/legend of Dead Moon was how you guys pushed on and did everything yourselves DIY, and you and Fred are featured in Eric Davidson’s book “We Never Learn”. That book pretty much covers all my favourite bands. And a lot of the bands broke up as playing indie/underground bands, touring non-stop across the states, just provided little money and a lot of bands ended up calling it quits after a few years. So, what kept you guys going?

Toody: the drive was there. there’s something about being on the road with other bands, getting to know them, the comradery, backstage was always one of my favourite parts of touring. It’s great going to other countries ands not feel like a tourist. To be accepted in that worldwide community. That’s a big part of it as well. being able to see the world and not be a stupid tourist. And there’s a lot of those out there (laughs).

I-94 Bar: With the reissues is there any bonus content or is it just keeping the LPs in print?

Toody: Pretty much all the LPs in the Dead Moon era, plus also the Range Rats, which have never been on record, a few years ago. And to me it’s been amazing to have that stuff still available to buy at a reasonable price. Don’t get me wrong, record collectors are cool, but most people can’t afford the pricing. Vinyl, period is expensive. So, it’s cool to have the whole catalogue available from that far back. I think almost everybody is starting to do repressing’s. You can still get early Nivana LPs which is great but in the past, you had to be a record collector and pay top dollar.

I-94 Bar: How big an honour was it to have Dead Moon Night declared in Portland?

Toody: it was totally amazing for that to happen. That happened literally within a month of Fred passing away so that was great he got to be there. and this is my hometown so when that happened it hits you where you live. Everybody still gets together. We celebrated the eighth Dead Moon Night on the 5^th. Everyone gets together and does something special every year. So that’s incredible the feeling you get what kind of support you get from the town you grew up in and the people you grew up with, and there’s young kids that discover our music that where too young. So, its amazing it has that repour, and that people can relate to the songs and lyrics, that’s ana amazing thing

I-94 Bar: Was that true Lemmy was a fan of your playing?

Toody: From what I heard through the grapevine. Never met him, would loved to have met him as I was a big fan of his. That would have been so cool. That’s incredible, at some point there was an article, and I was included in the top 20 bass players from a European magazine, is incredible to be in that company.

I-94 Bar:  Are you self-taught when it came to bass?

Toody: Fred taught me. He started as a bass player early in the Lords, when he was a kid, 16-17. He taught me to play bass when he was trying to start new band, he didn’t play guitar until he started the Rats,  he was just lead singing. He did all the bass parts of Dead Moon. More of a technician than a musician musician. He could hear all the parts in his head, so it worked out well.

I-94 Bar: As someone who has done everything on a shoestring budget, minus the shoestring, I consider Dead Moon a true DIY success story, do you see it that way?

Toody: it’s weird this legend status its humbling, it’s an incredible thing, amazed it’s still going on. that part of it, the fact we did everything hands on keep everything full control, I’m glad we did it the way we did it.  Just made everything work.

TOODY COLE AND HER BAND
AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2025
NOV
21 - The Tote w/ Fancy Weapon & Lewis Hodgson
22- Theatre Royal, Castlemaine w/ The Gnomes
23 - Social Club, Balnarring w/ The Miffs
Tickets