Tony Koklin

Bio:

Tony Koklin (Tony Coughlan) debuted with a fine new wave pop single backed by Casanova OK who consisted of Brendan Bonass (guitar), Paul Ashford (bass) and Robbie Brennan (drums). This lineup goes a long way to explaining why it's his best single. It was produced by Pete Cummins (ex Grannys Intentions) who also acted as manager. Koklin signed to Chiswick Records in 1979 who chose not to release the Mulligan single in the UK, though it did gain a release in Holland, licensed by Chiswick to Ariola.

Casanova OK advert 1979

Koklin began rehearsing with a new band for his debut album. This band included John Ryan (keyboards) and Phillip Cullen (bass/vocals). An excellent single "Claude Monet" released in January 1981 bode well for the album, but a late change in drummer before recording began was an unwelcome setback, and the resultant album "Time Chaser" wasn't all it could have been, with some of the blame falling on producer Roger Bechirian. "Time Chaser" certainly doesn't deliver on the promise of the singles. It contains several good songs and is worth hearing but is a little too derivative of of Elvis Costello at times. It received a bad review (followed by a hostile interview) in Hot Press. His career never really seemed to recover from these setbacks.

The LP failed to sell and a followup single "On Pop" / "Talking To Myself" was cancelled by Chiswick. Though the LP has become somewhat difficult to track down, it is not particularly collectable and is findable cheap. Check it out.

Tony Koklin & Wall To Wall circa April 1981. left-to-right:
Tim McStay, Earl Gill, Tony Koklin, Paul O'Reilly, Philip Cullen

"Tony Koklin is a Dublin born songwriter who has been writing songs as long as he can remember. He cites Lou Reed, John Cale and Elvis Costello as his principal influences. Tony first came to prominence when Freddie White sang his songs and the Freddie White Band recorded two of his songs, "Down On Main" and "Death in the Subway". Tony Koklin has just released a first album of songs on the Chiswick label, entitled Time Chaser. For his debut at [the] Lisdoonvarna Festival, Tony will be joined by his band Wall To Wall with Philip Cullen (bass), Paul One (guitar), Earl Gill (drums) and keyboard player Kelso"--bio taken from the 4th Lisdoonvarna Festival Official Programme 1981

side one
Movie Faces
Slow Dancing
Claude Monet (Reincarnation of an Artist)
Lucky Man
Death in the Subway (with Steve Naive on keyboards)
So Strange

side two
Museums
On Pop
Easy Street
Struttin'
You Waste My Time
Time Chaser

tracks: Watching For My Blue Eyes

We need your help to correct and/or complete this entry. If you can provide more information about this band, have scans, photos or any other memorabilia we can use, or spare copies of any releases, then please get in touch.