DOLBY COVERS UP TO ASSURE A NICHE ON THE CLUB CIRCUIT

Sorting out the various aliases Thomas Dolby has assumed over the years--and the events surrounding those name changes--is like hearing an extended version of the “Who’s on First” routine.

The Englishman, best known for his 1983 Top 5 single “She Blinded Me With Science,” was born Thomas Robertson. For nearly a decade, he has worked professionally as Thomas Dolby. He just formed a new band called the Lost Toy People (which performs tonight and Saturday at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano). And at the band’s debut show, he appeared in drag as Erica Brady.

Erica Brady?

Actually, that portion of Dolby’s moniker-madness was born of last-minute desperation, when radio station KROQ-FM blew his cover by announcing that Lost Toy People was, in fact, Dolby just one day before the group’s debut two weeks ago at Club Lingerie in Hollywood.

“I decided to (perform) in disguise. Disguise, in this case, meaning a persona I invented by the name of Erica Brady--a tall, luscious blonde with full make-up, tight leather skirt, stockings and black pumps,” Dolby recounted, quickly explaining that he borrowed the get-up from his actress-girlfriend.

This is all part of Dolby’s offbeat master plan, in which he strives for anonymity and the attendant downward mobility. It’s not uncommon for successful rock artists to seek the excitement and intimacy of playing clubs, in a sort of brief return to their roots. But it is rare to devise a strategy, including a name change, that assures remaining at the club level.

“What I didn’t want to do was say, ‘OK, I’m playing at the Roxy, this is my new band, this is what the material’s going to be like on the next album,’ and have people scrutinize it that way,” Dolby said.

“Because to put the band together under that kind of pressure would have been detrimental. It would have meant I couldn’t take any risks. I’d just have to get a tight, professional show together.”

His penchant for name changes began when the keyboardist-singer was an adolescent. School chums dubbed him Dolby, after the Dolby noise-reduction system, to reflect his fascination with music and sound equipment.

“Dolby’s been a nickname that I’ve had since I was 15 because at school I was always messing around with tapes and electronics,” the 28-year-old musician said this week, sitting in his Hollywood home.

When he launched his professional career at 19, he adopted that nickname--partly to avoid confusion with then-popular British rocker Tom Robinson. He almost lost the pseudonym last year in legal wrangling with Dolby Laboratories, who filed a trademark-infringement suit against him, claiming unauthorized use of its name. But the two sides reached a settlement recently, allowing him to continue using the surname, provided it is always in conjunction with his first name.

You would think that was a crucial victory, considering that as Thomas Dolby he had created acclaimed videos and albums and worked with an impressive array of musicians (from Foreigner to David Bowie) and film makers (from George Lucas to Ken Russell).

But when it came time to christen the new band he had assembled after a period of producing and sound-track work, he avoided “Dolby” altogether--opting for the Lost Toy People. A rather unorthodox career move, but then that’s increasingly characteristic of Dolby, who hardly came up with the name through conventional means.

“I was driving one day, when I saw what I thought was a (flyer) for ‘Lost Toy People,’ and I thought that would be a great name for a band,” he recalled. “The next day, I drove past again, got a better look, and it actually said ‘Lost Toy Poodle .’ ”

But he kept the name and recruited the members of the Lost Toy People through a similarly off-beat manner: by advertising in the Recycler. He said he received nearly 600 replies, ranging from established studio musicians to “kids from Sherman Oaks who’d send me a photograph of themselves in a Union Jack T-shirt and tight satin pants, with a tape of some sort of regurgitated Jimmy Page licks. That didn’t appeal to me very much.”

What did appeal to him were players who, regardless of their professional experience, were “musically amazing and very unconventional”--his description of the five musicians he ultimately hired.

As a bonus, Dolby said the People people have a definite visual flair, noting that guitarist Larry Treadwell often “wears a flying helmet, shorts and skateboard kneepads,” while keyboardist Mike Kapitan “looks kind of like a deranged Muppet.”

This cut-up crew is now playing loose, low-profile club shows--a far cry from the lavish, high-tech production mounted three years ago at such large venues as the Greek Theatre. Exactly the point, Dolby maintained, explaining that his last tour, which included synchronized videos, required highly accomplished musicians to play the same, rigidly structured show every night.

Not surprisingly, the musicians and Dolby himself found this format confining and unfulfilling. “The stuff we’d play at sound checks was sometimes more exciting than what we were doing at the gigs,” he said.

Similarly, after the concerts, Dolby and the band would often visit small clubs and commandeer the stage for some relaxed, impromptu sets. “I actually had more fun doing that than I did at our own shows. So that was something I wanted to get back to.”

So how was that first night back in the clubs, even if it was as Erica Brady?

“(The crowd’s reaction) during the first half of the gig was kind of quiet. I thought maybe they didn’t like us. But then I started to look at people’s faces and their jaws were just hanging open--they were quite confused. They weren’t quite sure whether this was a man or a woman; and indeed, if it was a man, whether it was me.”

Mission accomplished.

LIVE ACTION: Tickets go on sale Monday for the Frank Sinatra-Sammy Davis Jr. concert Aug. 19 at the Pacific Amphitheatre. The Spyro Gyra-Lee Ritenour show at the Pacific has been moved to Aug. 18. . . . Tickets will be available Sunday for Echo & the Bunnymen’s Sept. 12 show at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. REO Speedwagon’s July 3 performance at Irvine Meadows has been rescheduled for Sept. 11. Tickets purchased for the original date will be honored on Sept. 11 or may be refunded at point of purchase. . . . The Crazy Horse Steak House in Santa Ana has added a second Eddie Rabbitt date for June 28. Tickets are currently on sale. . . .