Claim Toto wrote Africa in UK burger bar 'comical'

Was a quadruple platinum track by US rock band Toto written in a Preston burger restaurant?

If you read the restaurant's unverified blue plaque, you would think the band's 1982 hit Africa was written on the premises - leading to a row between the establishment's owner and the city's historical society.

The publicity stunt by the restaurant - called All Hopes No Promises - has led to Toto songwriter David Paich and manager Steven Karas calling the plaque "completely erroneous" and "comical".

Preston Historical Society (PHS), which officially endorses blue plaques in the city, tried to remove the sign, but restaurant owner Michael Evans said the "banter" was "never meant to upset" them.

Evans said he wanted the false plaque as a light-hearted attempt at promoting the restaurant, which has served burgers for six years in Preston.

He admitted the stunt had worked - with near 500,000 views on a social media post when the plaque was installed last week.

"It's one of those love or hate songs.

"Many years ago, I set it as my daughter's alarm ringtone but she couldn't work out how to change it, so for five years, she woke up to it.

"As a business, we like to have a bit of banter [so] I just Googled 'Preston plaque' and edited it.

"We get a lot of people walk past our restaurant and we wanted to put a smile on people's faces," he admitted.

Soon after, the PHS got wind of the plaque - and were concerned the restaurant had used their name and logo on it.

Chair of the PHS, Patricia Harrison, said: "Foolishly, one of our members took a screwdriver and tried to remove it."

The attempt was stopped by the restaurant's manager, who said they were trespassing on private property.

Harrison said her team could "do without this" taking up the time of what is a volunteer-led historical society, before admitting she had "no idea" of potential legal routes to take as a result.

Evans, however, sees the funny side of the playful plaque-spat.

"We had lots of people ringing up, asking whether this was true", something the "older generations" had been arguing with each other about, he said.

"We didn't think it would go like this, it's just gone boom," he added.

Evans now plans, in agreement with the PHS, to remove the original plaque with a tongue-in-cheek replacement, endorsed by the "All Hopes No Promises Historical Society".

Released in 1982, Africa by Toto went on to become the Los Angeles band's biggest hit.

Its popularity has lived on to the present day, with its YouTube music video hitting more than 1.2bn views.

Africa was ranked in the Rolling Stone list of 500 best songs in 2022.

The song had a resurgence online and into meme culture after charting in 2013 following a series of covers and parodies on Youtube.

It has appeared in everything from a sex scene in Stranger Things to a parody on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

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