The Woodentops began 1983 with Rolo McGinty, Simon Mawby, Alice Thompson, Paul Hookham. Known to busk and perform at South London art house warehouse type venues/parties . Rehearsing at Panni Bahrti's (then Charrington) warehouse Clapham junction, where the band worked until 1988. This was a hotbed of experimental film and graphic design, Panni desgining the bands Vinyl/cd artwork / film and stage show.

The band progressed to conventional venues. At this time the bands electronic influences such as Kraftwerk, Can and Suicide became blurred by the band acheiving its own sound, a hybrid of hi speed hypnotic acoustic rock.
Early reviews saw them as a type of Violent Femmes/ Feelies group but increasingly Rolo, the main writer, would write new kinds of song in a desire to not repeat themselves.

This never changed with record companies and reviewers finding them harder to pidgeonhole.
the Woodentops recorded the first single Plenty for Food records in 1984, followed by support tours for artists such as Julian Cope and Everything but the girl.
John Peel picked the group for several BBC sessions on his show and championed the group untill his death. Frank de Freitas and Benny Staples became the definative rythmn section.

Rough Trade records signed the group, leading to a canonade of highly respected singles "Move me" "Well Well Well" and "Good thing" . the album "Giant" saw them reaching top 30 in the conventional charts, whereas all singles and albums maintained no1 spots, in the case of live lp "Hypnobeat live" in the independant charts for several months.

This Live lp spawned "why why why" one of the first big hits of the late 80s club scene coming from Ibiza. "Woodenfoot cops on the Highway" the 2nd studio album followed in 1987 and worldwide sustained touring. 2 singles from the album released and a final single "Tainted world", power played on the NYC garage staton by Tony Humphries. The group took a 15 year break, returning to perform again in 2006.
The group has collaborated with musicians Tackhead, Gary Lucas Gods and Monsters, Lee Scratch Perry, Arthur Russell, Adrian Sherwood, Andy Partridge, John Leckie, Bob Sargeant, Arthur Baker, Bang the party. Also being the recipients of the 1st Paul Oakenfold remix and an appearance in the first film by French film director Olivier d'Assayas, Desodre.

Woodentops is an old nick name for an acoustic guitar,the name of a UK puppet tv series from the early 60's, a nick name for the police force or, an idiot.