UK Burger Bar’s Fake Toto Plaque Angers Local Historical Society

Toto members David Paich and Jeff Porcaro wrote "Africa," the band's immortal 1982 chart-topper, because Paich had just seen a late-night TV documentary about poverty in Africa and because he was excited to try out the horn sounds that he could make on a new polyphonic keyboard that he'd just bought. Paich and Porcaro had never been to Africa when the wrote the song. Also, when the two of them wrote the song, they were not sitting in a UK burger bar that didn't open this decade. That burger bar does have a plaque saying otherwise, but it's supposed to be a joke.

The burger bar in question is All Hopes No Promises in Preston. The outside wall of the restaurant has a large blue plaque, a fake version of those administered by the city's Preston Historical Society, which claims, "David Paich and Jeff Porcaro of Toto wrote the song Africa in this building in 1982." (The italicized song title should be a dead giveaway. Nobody serious does that.)

As the BBC reports, All Hopes No Promises owner Michael Evans admits that the plaque is fake. He says that they'll remove the plaque "at some point" and that there's a replacement plaque ready to go. From what Evans says, it looks like he just did it for the memes: "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."

David Paich and Toto manager Steve Karas tell the BBC that the All Hopes No Promises plaque is "completely erroneous" and "comical." They don't seem too upset about it. But the actual Preston Historical Society does have beef. PHS chair Patricia Harrison tells the BBC that the whole Society is mad about the plaque and that "foolishly, one of our members took a screwdriver and tried to remove it." (A restaurant manager stopped the removal, telling the Historical Society member to stop trespassing on private property.)

In any case, the publicity-stunt angle seems like it's been successful, since you are now reading this blog post.

In the UK, there's a long history of people using "Africa" for meme value. (The US is no different, as you can see in the whole saga of the Weezer cover in 2018.) In 2018, a Bristol DJ raised money for charity by playing "Africa" on repeat for five hours. In 2022, a Cornish man danced to "Africa" for 24 hours straight, also for charity, and then he repeated it for the next two years. Last year, the BBC Concert Orchestra played "Africa" with Chesney Hawkes in the Radio 2 Piano Room. I don't know if that was a for-the-memes situation, though. It could just be a song that Hawkes wanted to sing.

I can't bless the memes made from "Africa," but they're going to keep happening whether I bless them or not.