Way back in 1985 Olga took part in a charity record which aimed to raise money for the starving millions in Ethiopia, whose plight had been bought to light by the Band Aid single of 1984, and the subsequent 'Global Jukebox', Live Aid concert of 1985. Here's some press which was around at the time: The Band Aid and Live Aid movement which has raised millions of pounds for famine-stricken Ethiopia has shown what can happen when show business reveals that it has a conscience. Now the North-East is joining in with its own contribution in the form of Geordie Aid. The idea for Geordie Aid came from Lindisfarne drummer Ray Laidlaw after watching the Live Aid concert on television, he felt that he must do something more to help and also thought there must be other North East musicians feeling the same way. So straight away phone calls were made and the word spread. After only one week 35 of the North East’s best rock musicians were gathered at Impulse recording studios and they quickly set to work. The song to be recorded Try Giving Everything was written by Mike Waller. The lead vocals were provided by Lindisfarne’s John Miles, Brian Johnson from ACDC, Irene Hune from Prelude and Olga, lead singer with THE TOY DOLLS. Actor Tim Healy (Auf Wiedersehen Pet) also took part.
The atmosphere both at recording and the promotional video filming was quite something says Nike Waller, apologizing for sounding a bit romantic, "It’s just that there was an eagerness about the whole thing and no ego-tripping". When they asked Olga if he would like to help out on the record he said yes without hesitation not even thinking about any other commitments he may have had. This of course was the attitude of all the others who took part. Try Giving Everything brought them all together for a common purpose. Olga had never met some of the other musicians before but thinks that even over the short period in the recording studio that they all learned a lot from each other and that there was a lot of mutual respect around. Perhaps the Geordie Aid project might give an identity to a Tyneside rock scene that has always been vibrant and productive but has never quite managed to get the public recognition that Merseyside has. That though will be an incidental by-product. The aim of the whole thing is to make as much money as possible for Live Aid. Around £1 from each record sale will go into a special Geordie Aid bank account. The other 45p will offset the minimal overheads in pressing copies of the record. No fund raising target has been set but if every family in the north east bought a copy there would be a heck of a lot of money raised. As far as Ray Laidlaw is concerned Geordie Aid is more than money, “The best thing about these projects is that we are going to embarrass governments into realizing that things can be done if people want them to, it is not difficult for us to do something like this so it shows other people that its not hard for them to do something as well".
Olga, Brian Johnson, Tim Healy, John Miles and ??? ???
Now you've read all that, you can download the track itself and have a listen! 10 points go to the first person who spots Olga's line in the song!!! Try Giving Everything (3.78MB)