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ABSOLUTE 80s WITH CHRIS MARTIN 22.6.2023

CHRIS MARTIN: You're joining us again for “My Absolute 80s”. I'm stoked beyond belief to say that Toyah is my guest this week. Toyah, welcome TOYAH: Thank you so much. It's really good to be here CHRIS: Is this a kimono you're wearing? It’s beautiful! TOYAH: It is really beautiful. I bought it about four years ago. I used to live in Menton on the border of France and Italy. It was on a street stall and it was so out of place four years ago and now it's totally in fashion. I'm really glad I have it CHRIS: Lovely silky green floral thing. You look absolutely fantastic. This show in front of us ... If you're joining us for the first time on "Absolute 80s" every song you hear - Toyah picked them. Every single one for the next hour     This is the joy of the show for me, getting a glimpse inside our favourite artist's musical tastes and also to talk about their lives in the 80s. Toyah, shall we begin with song number one? I'm going go for the rather chipper Depeche Mode. “Just Can't Get Enough”. It is a party starter, isn't it? TOYAH: It is a party starter but the thing about Depeche Mode is they always have quite a serious angle within their songs and within their videos. They're so amazing live. I've only ever watched DVDs of them live. I've never managed to get to see them actually live   I have so much respect for everything they've done, especially in the 80s. They were one of the first bands to hire their own stadiums and play in America. They didn't think anyone would come and the whole of America came. That really was the beginning of their megastardom. So I adore everything about Depeche Mode DEPECHE MODE Just Can't Get Enough   CHRIS: That was back in 1981. What's going on in your head? Where does that take you back to? TOYAH: Well, I ruled the world in 1981. The most successful female singer of the year and in 1982, because of that, I won Best Female Singer at what was the Brit Awards back then. It was an incredible year for me. All my dreams came true. I had my first Top Of The Pops     I was touring pretty much non-stop. I can remember doing a performance on Top Of The Pops, which always went out live, and having a little prop plane waiting at a private airport. Flying over to Belgium and doing a TV the next day and flying back   It was a remarkable time and it was a very different time. Culturally and technically. We didn't have mobile stones. We relied on everything working on dates being set in the calendar and just turning up. There was no way of taking a plane over to Munich to do a show that we could check in on the way. We just arrived there. We did these enormous festivals and came back. It was very exciting. Very, very young. We were full of energy. We ruled the world 

CHRIS: I love the stories of Live Aid where they had the countdown clocks - obviously there was so many acts to get through quickly. Everyone had to be regimented. “Don't start “Bat Out Of Hell” with three minutes to go whatever you do”

TOYAH: I beg for those countdown clocks because even on festivals today, they say "you've only got 45 minutes, you've got to be off". And if they haven't put a countdown clock on the stage you can't look at your watch while singing to 30 000 people. It's rude (Martin laughs). We rely so much on basic things CHRIS: I wonder if you could just go on the mic and say "anyone got the time? I have no idea where we are right now" TOYAH: Oh, I've done that! (Martin laughs) I often work with backing bands I've never worked with before. You run onstage. Everyone has learned your arrangements. You go, this is a “Echo Beach!” and they start playing “It’s A Mystery” and you think oh, my God! What setlist are they using?! I had that three weeks ago. I had to turn to the bass player and say "could you tell me what song you're doing next?" It does happen! CHRIS: Oh, my goodness me! OK, song number two. Let's stay in the early part of the decade. I'm enjoying this a lot already. Duran Duran, "The Reflex" TOYAH: Whooo (excited) DURAN DURAN The Reflex   CHRIS: Duran Duran. Were they one of those bands that you looked at their style and went "it doesn't matter what you release. You just look amazing. You're going to be successful"? TOYAH: We're all Birmingham people. I had a show called “Look! Here!” at Pebble Mill and gave Duran Duran their first TV appearance. I was a presenter on this show and became a very famous singer while I still had this series. So I gave Duran Duran their first TV appearance with “Planet Earth”. They were bloody beautiful back then! They were just so stunningly beautiful   But what none of us realised was they would take the leap from, what was the normal number one circuit in rock, your Hammersmith Apollo's, all of those big theatres - they would take the leap into stadiums. They did it and they just have never looked back and they deserve every moment of success. They're great songwriters, they are a really good team. That team has stayed together. And they're lovely people CHRIS: Next song we are up to Liverpool, Echo and The Bunnymen. Have you got particularly fond memories of the band or of Liverpool itself? TOYAH: I don't know the band. I've never met the band or worked or been on the bill with the band. But “The Killing Moon” is an absolute cultural classic. Again, I have so much respect for the longevity of this band. Their audience is totally dedicated and they're winning new audience all the time   Some of my most exciting experiences as a live performer have been at Liverpool. I remember once turning up to do an interview for Radio City and we couldn't get to the station because there were crowds everywhere. I actually wound down my window in the car and I said “we're trying to get to such and such street”, but we can't. What's going on?" and the whole crowd turned around and said “we're waiting for you!” (Chris laughs)     They closed the streets, there was thousands of them. I had to be led by firemen through this crowd into a building, up onto the balcony and I had to go out on the balcony and wave to everyone so that the streets might clear and the traffic could continue to move around Liverpool

ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN The Killing Moon   CHRIS: Toyah was just regaling us with stories of being mobbed in Liverpool. Echo and The Bunnymen. That song - it's an exercise in space, isn't it? TOYAH: People often talk about the simplicity of the right ingredients. The Rolling Stones has it. Every song that they've ever released is on the surface simplistic but actually it's brilliant. You've only got the necessary ingredients to make a Michelin star meal and “The Killing Moon” is one of those songs   It has everything that is needed and nothing more. But also what is very classic about it is the video. The video is something that helps you remember the song. It's about space and surrealism and it's absolutely perfect CHRIS: Speaking of space surrealism and a fantastic video - should we go to David Bowie's “Ashes to Ashes” next? TOYAH: When I first heard this, the sound design of the song is so amazing. And then Bowie was very clever on the video to use the biggest cult people in London at the time, which was Steve Strange and all of the new romantics that were important. Everyone on that video was an absolute trend leader in London at the time   It’s a beautiful video and this is what Bowie was very clever at. The song itself refers back to “Major Tom”, which was his first major hit. (The lyrics) “Ground Control to Major Tom”, (in) “Space Oddity” (1969) It was such a clever link. Clever song. I've been in love with it ever since. It's a song that takes me right back to the 80s more than any other song DAVID BOWIE Ashes To Ashes   CHRIS: There’s a sort of thread to the songs you’ve chosen. Pop but there's a darkness to them. Tthat is a real sweet spot for me in music where the darkness lies in pop. The minor chords, the threat   There is a brightness too though, to some of your choices. I think this next one is a bit of marketing genius from Prince. It was released about a week and a half before Valentine's Day. Did you know that? TOYAH: No, I had no idea at all! CHRIS: “Kiss”. Clever swine! TOYAH: I believe that he didn't like this song. I believe that he felt it was too obvious. But my theory is that sometimes the most obvious is the cleverest. And as you say this was released just before Valentine's Day The glorious thing about this song is everyone wants to dance to it. Whether you're a heavy metaller, or you're a new romantic - everyone wants to dance to this song. Prince may have believed it wasn't the best song he ever wrote but it's one of the most memorable he ever wrote   It's just so simple. “All I want is your kiss”. It’s one word, and it even has only one syllable. I'm a lyricist. How do you make a word like kiss work? It's on the downbeat, it's just kiss. It's simple. It's a brilliant piece of songwriting PRINCE Kiss     CHRIS: We’ve talked about what it’s like to be Toyah in respects of presenting and songwriting and the many facets to your life. I have to say your voice has been echoing through my house more than I expected this year. My little boy, who's four, has found “Brum”! (below) (Toyah laughs) I sat down with him thinking I’ve not watched this in years. Wait a minute! They know that voice!  

TOYAH: (puts on the narrative voice of “Brum”) “It’s a big day in the city! Brum brum brum!” (Chris laughs) I loved doing that series! It was created by Anne Wood and she went on to create “Teletubbies”. I was the narrator at the top of “Teletubbies” as well. I love doing voiceovers. I enjoy it so much! CHRIS: I enjoy it. I've never had any designs on being an actor in my life. But if someone says "be this type of person, be this character" - you can just have fun in 30 second bursts. Just pretending and playing. It is pure joy, isn't it? It's escapism TOYAH: I absolutely adore acting. It's something I could never ever walk away from. I love working with camera and the whole family of a crew. It's very rewarding and very intense, but you lose yourself in it     It's exactly the same experience for me in front of the microphone on stage. It's the only moment where no one can send me an email. No one can phone me. No one can ask me a favour. It's my time and I really love it CHRIS: As somebody, who was quite young in the 80s, I would love to hear your perspective on George Michael and him going solo after Wham! Obviously artists do this all the time. Did you look at him and think yeah, he's got every ounce of star quality. He cannot be anything other than an enormous success ... or was there any doubt? TOYAH: It's a very good question because  Wham! was a very beautiful boy band with Michael and Andrew. They were fantastic at what they did. I slightly regret that I never appreciated Wham! because I was a punk rocker - but I do now. We were encouraged to take the mickey out of each other. I reviewed Wham! on one of their last gigs for Radio One at Hammersmith Odeon. I was a great show. It was really a beautiful show     Halfway through it the curtains closed and George came out through the curtains and sang “Careless Whisper”. It blew me away. Because at that point you knew he was going to be a world superstar. That was my review. I said “Careless Whisper” is the song that's going to make him a solo artist. As time went on, as the 80s moved into the 90s he started to do the most extraordinary work. But he also started to become very uncomfortable with his fame     I was one of these people that wish that he could have appreciated how unique and how brilliant his songwriting and his voice was. I remember Frank Sinatra doing an open letter to him saying “George, take yourself seriously. You are utterly unique”. And now we don't have him anymore. I'm actually heartbroken because he was just so special     GEORGE MICHAEL Faith     CHRIS: He’s having a great pop career and then just to rock it with an acoustic ... That's just perfect. And looking like that when he did it as well!       TOYAH: He’s the most perfect man!     CHRIS: He is. To another front man. I know more than a couple of people who absolutely swoon over Michael Hutchence, INXS TOYAH: They were kind of the love child of Prince meets Keith Moon (Chris laughs) Everything was based on beat and rhythmic syllables around that beat and the extraordinary beauty of Michael Hutchence. I feel really protective towards his legacy because he is no longer here to talk for himself. But the songs and the band were utterly amazing. And by all accounts he was a beautiful human being. A wonderful human being that came under attack in public life for his extraordinary beauty   There’s a story that Helena Christiansen (his girlfriend at the time) tells about a taxi driver getting out of the taxi and punching his lights out for no reason at all. Now, what you have to remember with really famous beautiful men, they're a threat to every other man on the planet who wants to spread their seed     Michael Hutchence had to stick up for himself the whole time. He did it like a poet. He did it like (John) Keats, he did it with words. I think he's a remarkable human being from history that we must never forget INXS Need You Tonight

CHRIS: If you've just tuned in and you've thought this music tonight has been absolutely incredible ... well ... you can thank Toyah for every single song choice. Toyah has joined me for "My Absolute 80s" but also taken on  - there's some bravery in this, Toyah - taking on Grace Jones', “Slave To The Rhythm” (above) and executing it brilliantly, I must say TOYAH: Thank you. There is a history to this. My long-term writing partner wrote the original version of  “Slave To The Rhythm”. It was then picked up by Trevor Horn and his writing team. Trevor then recorded it with Grace Jones. In between all of that happening, I was the demo singer on the demo that went to Holly Johnson for Frankie Goes To Hollywood to do the song and Holly turned it down   So 40 odd years on Simon Darlow and I were in the studio. We've had massive success with the last album “Posh Pop” and we said let's do “Slave To The Rhythm”. We do realise that we're covering a song that is an absolute classic by Grace Jones and Trevor Horn. We’re fully aware of that, and full of respect for it     Our version is myself, Simon Darlow and the legendary guitarist Robert Fripp, who I'm married to. Robert Fripp has come on board and we've completely reinvented the album “In The Court Of The Crimson Queen”

TOYAH Slave To The Rhythm   CHRIS: Toyah, you've been watching my smile while we've been talking. It has been utter joy doing this with you. Thank you so much. We are finishing up with one final song. A little word on R.E.M’s “The One I Love” to wrap up TOYAH: I'm very lucky to call R.E.M friends. The drummer Bill Rieflin was a long-time friend of myself and Robert. I've made three albums with him. We used to follow him and R.E.M on the road. They’re great friends, Peter Buck and Michael Stipe. Absolutely gorgeous man. These are people in my heart R.E.M The One I Love   LISTEN to the interview HERE

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TOYAH AND ROBERT ON BBC RADIO MANCHESTER WITH MIKE SWEENEY 31.5.2023

MIKE: Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp, one show business' most recognisable couples. They've had some massive hit records. Toyah on her own and Robert Fripp as a member of King Crimson. During lockdown their brilliant "Sunday Lunch" YouTube videos were incredible   They got such a reaction to those videos that they're coming to The Lowry (in Salford, 9.10.2023) to celebrate both of their careers. To find out more, I sat down with Toyah and Robert earlier this week TOYAH: Well, when the dreaded lockdown started we just didn't know what was going on - like everyone else. We're live musicians and performing is our oxygen. Our audience is quite simply our family. We put this jive video out on a sunday lunch (time), about the 9th of April and we got 100,000 replies within five minutes from around the world. New Zealand, Bali, Manila, Hong Kong. It was all from people who were alone We decided that we would just continue posting these "Sunday Lunch" videos, which was very absurd. We don't take ourselves seriously. It grew and grew and grew. We had 111 million visitors to Toyah YouTube channel. And we now feel we want to take this out into a live environment, touring. Myself and Robert Fripp and we just want to share the love now MIKE: Robert, I think we're a similar age. I started in bands in the 60s and you've come through that with King Crimson and then onwards through these decades. We're here now, it's 2023. When you look at your start in rock and roll and where you are now - it just fascinates me what a journey that's been. How do you view it? ROBERT: Well, I view myself strapping on and rocking these rock classics with my wonderful little wife. Very much like the last time I strapped on and rocked out with the League Of Gentlemen in 1965. In between I seem to have been sidetracked into writing music and playing with good musicians this strange material, which has been accepted by some but rejected by most people in the mainstream     So I might as well go back to what I began doing, which is playing great rock songs with my chums. In this case, my bestest is chum in the world, little Willcox TOYAH: I'd like to abbreviate that answer, if I may (Robert and Mike snigger) My husband has ended up working with David Bowie. One of the main guitarists on “Scary Monsters”, on “Heroes”. He's worked with Blondie. He's actually worked with them all and they're all legendary musicians ROBERT: Yeah, but none of them played “Enter Sandman” or “Paranoid” (Toyah laughs) Or “I Want To Be Free”. I mean c’mon!      

MIKE: You will have different musical directions. How do you decide - so it’s a proper team effort - what the actual songs are going to be?

TOYAH: They have to suit who we are. Without a shadow of a doubt we've got to do these versions absolutely brilliantly. We are doing “Enter Sandman” and we are doing “Paranoid” and they have to be Toyah and Robert doing them. So we sit down and I usually start off with a list of songs that I love. I love classic rock. Then Robert listens to it. He says “I  really love that!” And we both develop a passion for the same song and then we work out how we're going to do it. So the tour that we're doing, the Toyah and Robert "Rock Party/Sunday Lunch" tour is a celebration of how incredible heritage rock is and it is breathtaking. We're going to be covering people from David Bowie, because of Robert’s history with David Bowie ...      We're doing my hits as well. But we're also dipping our toes in with Marc Almond “Tainted Love”, Blondie. Many, many other artists that were playing the songs of ROBERT: Metallica's “Enter Sandman” is not one that I would normally expect me to play but this popped up on the "Sunday Lunch", which is actually our highest ever viewing figures. The riffs in the in Metallica are phenomenal so rock out with that MIKE: How are you preparing for that transition from being on YouTube as a couple to being on stage as a couple? TOYAH: Well, we've done five secret gigs already and three of them had to call in extra security. It turned into an absolute riot. The audience got very, very excited. It is a transition. So we're very much going out there with a large band. It's a show band. It's got eight musicians - ROBERT: Yeah, we have two keyboard players, who sing and a wonderful electronic drummer. Two guitarists - TOYAH: Three guitarists - ROBERT: Well, that's when you add me. And if everyone sings and it's been suggested by me that I don't join in the backing vocals on this one - there can be seven people singing and me cheering them on TOYAH: So what we've developed is a very big rock show, which honours - totally by accident - 50% of the songwriters are American, 50% of English. So it's a complete celebration of this kind of heritage rock and we're calling it a "Rock Party". It is absolutely inevitable that Robert's and my humour is going to come on to that stage, but the humour isn't the carrying force. The carrying force is the shared love of music So when we're on the road in October, we're going to use the imagery of "Sunday Lunch" as part of the projection screen production so that the posters are going to keep flashing up. What we've learned is that the posters are what people identify with     Now, if anyone's listening ,who's never seen what we do on social media - there's always a very big colourful poster in the background saying something like "Fripp's Ma Bitch" or "Bollocks". These posters are going to be up on the big screen as we're performing so we're bringing in the visuals of "Sunday Lunch" via media while doing an incredibly live rock show ROBERT: So the question is how to honour the spirit of "Sunday Lunch"? Well, the quick answer is we're going to have fun and we're going to rock out with nothing solemn here whatsoever. We are aiming to give people a good time    

MIKE: Final question to the two of you. I get where you're at, Robert. My wife's my best mate, I adore the woman but she's not in the music business. I often wonder how we’d get on if she was a really successful broadcaster, which is what I do now         You two - you've got to have egos to get to where you are. You really care for one another. That always came over, funnily enough, in the kitchen videos - your affection for one another. But how do you balance that? Robert wants this or Toyah wants this TOYAH: (they both laugh) We typically fight! ROBERT: That's an easy one, Mike. You learn to say “yes, dear” MIKE: Well, there we are. Can I just say it's wonderful talking to the two of you. I remember getting an Island (record company) sampler. I think it might’ve been “You Can All Join In”   - ROBERT: (It was) “Nice Enough To Eat” MIKE: It had “Court Of The Crimson King” on - ROBERT: No, it has “Schizoid Man ” - MIKE: It did! (Toyah cackles) That's when I first discovered you. And then Toyah I've met because of radio various times since the middle of the 80s. It's brilliant talking to the two of you. A great rock and roll city, when you come to Manchester. I hope you realise that TOYAH: We do. Respect   MIKE: You take care, both of you. Robert, thanks for being with us. Toyah, thanks for being with us TOYAH: Pleasure. Thank you, Mike ROBERT: Bless you, Mike Listen to the interview HERE

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MY 80s PLAYLIST, VIRGIN RADIO WITH STEVE DENYER 5.5.2023

STEVE: We're going to start off with your first track. Bowie, “Ashes To Ashes”. Is this your favourite Bowie song? Why have you picked it? TOYAH: It's a very powerful Bowie song for me. Bowie always punctuated the points in my life where I felt the carpet had been pulled from under my feet. The first time I heard “Life On Mars”, for instance, I was doing an audition with Phil Daniels for a play on BBC2. I sang “Life On Mars” at my first audition and got the part   With “Ashes To Ashes“ - I was already becoming a very cult, famous figure within the punk movement in 1980. I remember going away to write songs with my writing partner at that time, Joel Bogen (the guitarist of the Toyah band). We were just a bit lost. We'd been signed to a record label but we hadn't quite got the full band together   “Ashes To Ashes” came on the radio when we were in a cottage somewhere in Dorset, writing, and my whole life changed in that moment. Bowie did that for me whenever I felt lost or broken. Bowie put me back together and “Ashes To Ashes” is one of those songs STEVE: I've always wanted to ask you about Derek Jarman. I heard that he kind of spotted you. As far as the movie “Jubilee” goes, which I've seen - it blew my teenage mind. But he said to you “I want you in this movie. I don't care who you play. I want you in here" Tell me how you met him? How it started out? TOYAH: The actor Ian Charleson, (who was in “Chariots Of Fire”), we were both working at the National Theatre. Ian said to me "you've got to come and meet this director called Derek Jarman. He's making a movie about the punk movement and the royal family". I think the original name of the movie was going to be “Down With The Queen” and it became “Jubilee”   Derek and I and Ian and had tea at his apartment. Derek's way of casting a movie was just extraordinary. He said, “look at the script. Pick your role. But you can't play "Amyl Nitrate" because that's Jordan”. Jordan, the iconic punk queen (below on the right) I picked “Mad”. I literally flipped through the script and went for the part with the most lines   But then a few weeks later Derek had to say to me that his budget had been cut, and he had to cut down the whole film to four characters. He instinctively realised that I was heartbroken that “Mad” was going to be cut from the script. Then a week later Derek phoned and said “I've given up my fee so that you can be in the film" and he put “Mad” back in That is exactly who and what Derek was. Derek put people in a room and said “do whatever you want”. So if you can imagine, literally, where this building is that you and I talking in now, was one of the sets ... It was an old warehouse. John Mabry doing the sets. Kenny the drummer from Siouxsie and the Banshees was painting the walls   You had Adam Ant and myself, Little Nell, Jenny Runacre. We were all together just making this film happen in this kind of family atmosphere, with Derek Jarman giving us sandwiches to sustain us. And it worked. I actually believe that that film was 40 years too soon   Now, in today's climate, and with today's revolution of language, of history, of addressing the equality of everyone, and the equality of choice within everyone - Derek was there 42 years ago. Behaving like that, living like that and fighting for those rights. This film, as mad as it is, I think belongs today

STEVE: Yeah, amazing. Also these movies have gone down in cult status now. Blew my teenage mind watching that. I wasn't sure what I was watching, but I loved it and I'd never seen anything like it before

TOYAH: (There was) nothing like it. Very collage and very free thinking. As performers we're all bouncing off the walls with our energy. What I love today is so many young kids, and I'm talking about 16 - 17 year olds, are coming up to me saying “we're studying Derek Jarman. We want to make movies like that” STEVE: Brilliant. What shall we pick next? What would you like? TOYAH: I think Kate Bush because Kate, quite rightly, her catalogue from 1985, which is “Hounds Of Love” is just … It's announced today that she's getting a song writing nomination as a contemporary artist for the Ivor Novello Award. It was absolutely amazing when the “Hounds Of Love” came out. It was groundbreaking. It lifted Kate from the artist that everyone felt they knew with “Babooshka” and “Wuthering Heights”   It lifted her into the stratosphere of A-list writers, even in 1985. To have it come back the way it has, and she's being discovered now by a completely new audience, I think is the most perfect trajectory for a career anyone could have STEVE: What do you think about the whole situation with a movie or a TV show picking up on a song from years ago, using it and suddenly ... (makes an explosion sound) TOYAH: I personally would say the record industry as it is today, where we are reliant on download sales ... that doesn't necessarily pay our way. We're all completely reliant on what's called sinks and that is your back catalogue being discovered or even your present catalogue being placed in a movie, an advert or a TV series. We’re totally reliant on it   But I feel really, really optimistic that it opens up the world of music. Every genre, every timeframe. 80s, 70s, 60s, 90s, 2000. I mean, it's all possible now and it's all happening STEVE: Did you know Kate? Do you know her? Have your paths crossed? Can you tell me something about her? TOYAH: When Kate had Bertie and the world didn't know about her son, Kate would come to our house. I live on the River Avon and my father would take them out on his boat. They had privacy and could play. So we know the private Kate STEVE: What is she like? Is she otherworldly? TOYAH: She's incredibly bright and intelligent. Otherworldly, possibly, yes. But just a really beautiful human being. Kind. She loves other people. She loves interesting people. She's always interested in what you're doing and what you're up to   Always wants a lovely conversation. Kate never sits down and talks about Kate. Kate sits down and talks about you. Very like Derek Jarman. Just a really lovely soul who just wants to be plugged into creativity STEVE: Amazing. How do you think she feels now after the year that she's had? TOYAH: She thrilled STEVE: You know? You’ve spoken to her? TOYAH: Well, we got an email at Christmas and she said "my goodness, you wouldn't believe what's going on!" Kate's very private, and she loves the silence of her home life. She makes jam. She makes cakes. She loves being involved with Bertie’s social circle. I think it amazes her as someone, who tries to stay out of the limelight, that she's increasingly been thrown back into it   The most amazing conversation I had with her was backstage at “Before The Dawn” (Kate's concert residency at Hammersmith Apollo) in 2013. She'd just been invited to take the show to Broadway and she said "I just look forward to going home.” I  love that! STEVE: You’ve probably answered my next question. Would she go out on tour again off the back of this success? TOYAH: I'm not answering that for her. That's her right STEVE: Do you think she might do a couple of shows? TOYAH: (shakes her head) That's for her to talk about. But what I will say is the most talented people in the world and I've worked with a lot of them - they're not actually terribly ambitious. My husband's Robert Fripp (below with Toyah in 1986). He's the most private, home based person I know. And Kate is very similar. Her values are with love and family, as well as creativity

STEVE: “Hounds Of Love” - what does it mean to you?

TOYAH: When I first heard "Hounds Of Love" I was on a plane going to meet my husband. He was about to propose to me and I was very vulnerable. I was in tears. I was leaving my old life to go to America. So “Hounds Of Love” to me is about the life I was about to enter into. Very broken time for me. I was leaving an old life to start a new life

STEVE: What's the next one we're going to go for?

TOYAH: Well, it's very linked to Kate Bush in many ways - it's Peter Gabriel. I'm going for “Sledgehammer”. His management called me in to listen to his album. I was blown away. I'm very flattered that they wanted my opinion on it. They played me “Sledgehammer” and I thought "this is fantastic!". I have loved Peter Gabriel ever since he went solo  

And of course my husband produced him as a solo artist and played on “Here Comes The Flood” (1977,) I believe. So the links are all there. My husband was in the studio hen Peter and Kate did “Don't Give Up”. Peter did about 73 takes, I've been led to believe, and Kate got it right on the first take. My husband was in the studio and he was sitting there thinking “she's got it right. Just stop doing takes. She's got it right on the first take!”

STEVE: The pressure!

TOYAH: So I want to play Peter Gabriel because he inspires me. If ever I need to just open my mind up and feel really creative ... it's “Sledgehammer”. It’s “Us”, the album. Everything he does informs me of what I would like to do

STEVE: Can you remember hearing this track for the very first time because obviously now it's gone down in legendary status. How did it make you feel?

TOYAH: The first time I heard it I felt complete envy. Because this is such a complete song. The production, the vocal. The arrangement is so wonderful. I envy anyone who has that time and that focus to do it. Peter can scrap whole albums and start again but when he gets it right, my goodness, it's there for eternity

 I then went to Switzerland to film a TV programme and I was in the Alps, in the snow, sitting on a balcony just looking out over the mountains. "Sledgehammer" was on a loop on my Walkman. I came away from that experience, just an hour listening to “Sledgehammer” and wrote an album called “Ophelia’s Shadow”, which was critically acclaimed in America  

It's nothing to do with “Sledgehammer”, but the whole experience of Peter’s voice, his choices of how he sings words, like Bowie, how he'll deliver a line, his timing ... just unlocked me creatively. I just sat there, writing non-stop  

My husband watches me do this when we watch TV. When I see Claes Bang, the actor, in a film or a drama ... they unlock me. I keep a pen and a pad next to me. My hand is just writing, writing, writing, writing. My husband says “how are you doing that? You're not even looking at the paper.” I just think certain people open a creative pathway. I never let those moments go and I can come away with 10 pages of ideas

STEVE: Of course we do need to quickly chat about the video to this track because it really is, even now, something special!

TOYAH: Groundbreaking

STEVE: He apparently sat under a sheet of glass for 16 hours in the knowledge that nobody would do that and never come close to doing it

TOYAH: This was at the time when stop frame technology was the only way to do it. There was no CGI at this time. There was no other way of doing it than animation and this is live animation. I just think he knew he was onto a good thing. He trusted the filmmakers  

This is what's so beautiful about Peter’s career is that he will go off on really strange tangents that bring something back into the Zeitgeist and he creates Zeitgeist. And that's why he is who he is

STEVE: Brilliant. Which one are we going to go for next?

TOYAH: I would love to go for Marc Almond and “Tainted Love" 

STEVE: I love it! Tell me about this TOYAH: I'm touring all of this year with my husband, Robert Fripp. We’ve got Isle Of Wight, Cropedy Festival (above, Toyah at Cropedy in August 2022) and many many other festivals. And then we're touring in October, in homage to our social media hit “Sunday Lunch” STEVE: What happened there? Tell me about that because that's exploded - TOYAH: What we're doing for the tour is we'll have a big screen and the show will have an image and narration of looking back at the “Sunday Lunches”. But basically Robert and I are just doing an absolutely rocking tour. We're going out and doing rock music. It's a live music show STEVE: Have you toured with him before? TOYAH: Yes, with a band called Sunday All Over The World in 1988. But not since then. But we love working together. So people will come up, they will have a fantastic show. The show is 50% British writers, 50% English writers   11 of my songs are in the show but then we pepper the show with great rock. So we have Guns N' Roses, we have Marc Almond - which is why I want to play “Tainted Love”, because that's in our show. I cannot believe this came out as early as 1981 - STEVE: That's amazing TOYAH: Isn't it incredible? STEVE: 43 years ago TOYAH: When that intro begins you just need that first da da and the audience just go crazy! I've seen this. I work with Marc Almond all the time at the “Rewind” and “Let’s Rock” festivals and you just get that first da da and the whole audience is just dancing. Elated! I think that's the power of this production for Marc Almond   The video is sensational because it's the first time people wore this kind of lighting technology. So you have two dancers come in through a window and they've got a light suit on. Then they're dancing while there's the model lying in bed and Marc is projected - STEVE: He’s a very attractive young man, if I may say so TOYAH: Oh, he’s gorgeous! The video is just perfection and I think this song is what the 80s is about STEVE: The album version is mixed into “Where Did Our Love Go” TOYAH: Oh, is it? I probably have heard it STEVE: It’s so good. And obviously this is a cover of a song by Gloria Jones. But everybody remembers this version TOYAH: This is the definitive and artists have done it very brilliantly ever since. But Marc - his delivery is vocal. He is a torch singer. You can feel his pain in everything he does. He delivers a very beautiful pain   I think it's quite important within popular music that we recognise broken hearts. We recognise relationships that didn't last and all of that. He does it with a such a joyful song STEVE: Which one should we go for next on your list? We could do all of these. Did it take you a long time to put this list together? TOYAH: No, it didn't take a long time to put the list together because I think the 80s has so much to offer. I just don't think it's going to go away. These are storytelling songs. I’ve chosen INXS next, “Need You Tonight”, just because INXS by 1987 were able to strip the production back   It was about rhythm. It was about hitting the beat. And you had this gorgeous beautiful adonis on lead vocals, Michael Hutchence. There's such an innocence about what they do and yet he cannot help exude extreme sexuality STEVE: What was it about him?      

TOYAH: Perfect body. Perfect voice. He was flirtatious with the microphone and the camera. And of course the very famous story about Paula Yates at that time. It was the love story that everyone was intrigued by. Was it at that time or had they not met? STEVE: The love thing with her started on “The Big Breakfast” in the 90s. So "Need You Tonight” … 10 years later they were dating and he passed away in 97' before she did TOYAH: I interviewed her just before she passed away and she was actually in a very good place. Utterly beautiful. Just legendary beauty. Articulate. But she was in a good place She arrived with her friend Belinda, who protected her like a dragon, quite rightly   Paula was able to talk about everything. I was super impressed and fell in love with her like everyone did, who met her. But I think something was going on with Michael long before it was public, which is why I've picked up on it STEVE: They were very very flirty on "The Big Breakfast". It was in bed, wasn’t it? TOYAH: I think Michael couldn't believe how forward she was. But they were made for each other. You could see it. I think he's a beautiful man and (it's) a fantastic band.  I've always felt protective of him ever since (he was) at the BRITS. He was presented with a prize and the person who presented it said "you're a has-been"     Fom that moment on I would fight a battle for Michael. I would fight to protect him because it was disgraceful that anyone, yet alone another artist, should abuse someone in front of such a big world audience like that.  So I've always just felt really protective towards him STEVE: What a loss. What a shame TOYAH: A big loss! STEVE: How sad. I watched the Paula Yates documentary recently TOYAH: She was breathtaking STEVE: But it's great to hear what you said because everybody said the same thing that she was in a really great place and that death, if you want to call it accidental or whatever - it wasn't meant to happen TOYAH: Of course it wasn't meant to happen. Looking back at Peaches (Paula’s daughter with Bob Geldof) ... (her death) wasn't meant to happen. The DNA in this family is absolutely brilliant. What would Paula be doing now? She'd just be doing magnificent things. And she was in a great place at that time STEVE: We've done the five songs but let's pick another one because I’m having a great time TOYAH: I would love to pick Alice Cooper STEVE: What I really want to ask you, Toyah ... you were there. It's amazing to talk to somebody who was there at the punk scene. You remember it first time round. Do you think there's a chance that we could revisit anything like that? Do you think the punk scene might come back again? Or is it done and dusted? TOYAH: Oh no, it's not done and dusted. I do the Rebellion Festival (below, 2017), which is a punk festival and that audience is all ages. So obviously we original punks, because I'm about to turn 65 - we're of a certain age. But that audience is all age groups. I think what's beautiful about the punk philosophy is it policed itself. In the beginning it needed to be policed. There was a sidetracking into kind of the wrong image      

STEVE: Was it really genuinely anarchic? TOYAH: Yes, absolutely! I was at the National Theatre when I was 18. I think I punked the National Theatre! I was the first punk there and it did shock people even in an establishment like the National, which is a groundbreaking theatre. But what it did for me - I'm not a conventional physical type for a woman in music. I'm very, very small. I don't have beautiful long legs. I'm just powerful. I have a lot of energy and bravado   Punk allowed me into the music industry. People really resisted it. People resisted signing me. I probably was one of the last acts signed. I got signed to an independent label called Safari about 1978 and that was quite late to get signed. My sheer will and bravado pushed me into the front runners, as it were. And only last December (the album) “Anthem” (1981) was re-released and it charted again, went straight in at number 22   So I think because I haven't had physicality in my favour … Firstly I was gender neutral at the beginning of my career. I dressed gender neutral. I thought there was absolutely no point trying to win people over by being feminine. It just wasn't going to work

STEVE: Does that mean that you were non-binary? You didn't identify as being a she? TOYAH: I didn’t want to be identified as a gender. It was nothing to do with he or she. I just felt that people were judging me when they were writing about me as not attractive as a woman. No one that they wanted to sleep with as a woman. I found that really insulting that I was being judged purely on being attractive and not really as an up-and-coming artist. So I just started to not go that way STEVE: Did anyone ask any questions because it would seem that people were quite accepting of “you do you”? TOYAH: People were genuinely fascinated that I had the guts to not play the game of being that cute little woman. I was very aggressive in how I moved through my career. Not violent, but strident. People were genuinely fascinated   My clothes designer was a woman called Melissa Caplan, who designed for Bananarama, Adam Ant, Steve Strange, and possibly Marc Almond at that time. Her remit was I want to be gender neutral. I am a human being not an agenda STEVE: Tell me about Alice Cooper, and why you want this song? TOYAH: “School's Out”. I love this song. And funnily enough, my husband loves this song. We covered it in our “Sunday Lunch” social media. Oh no, it's “Poison”! STEVE: Just explain what “Sunday Lunch” is just in case people haven't seen it or don't know what it is TOYAH: It’s on the Toyah You Tube channel and every Sunday at 12 noon we post 90 seconds of performance from Toyah and Robert. In the lockdown years this was huge around the world. It's still huge now! STEVE: Is that when it started? During the pandemic? TOYAH: Yes. We did it because we posted one film of us dancing, April the 19th 2020 and we instantly got replies from around the world. From New Zealand, from Bali, from Hong Kong. So we continued to do it every Sunday. We've had 111 million visits STEVE: Wow, that's impressive TOYAH: We're now having a documentary made about us, which is filming for the next 12 months, following us on on our tours STEVE: You do this track? You do “Poison”? TOYAH: On the tour we're going to do “School’s Out”. We did this track on "Sunday Lunch" and Alice Cooper was sent it. He was played it live on his broadcast. His band said “you need to see this.” We were made to watch him watching it live   He was like, “Oh, what is this?” I sent a message to him ... “I'm really sorry about this, Alice, but you do not know what you mean to me. As a teenager in the early 70s and today. You've proven to me that you can just go through life being strong, doing what you believe in STEVE: What did he say back? TOYAH: He was so gracious STEVE: Is he lovely? TOYAH: He laughed his head off at the “Sunday Lunch” because I was dressed as a nurse and I think he was really embarrassed by it. But he was really lovely STEVE: An absolute pleasure. Toyah Willcox. Lots of love TOYAH: Thank you. Lots of love and see you on the road STEVE: See you there. Maybe at Glastonbury, maybe not. We don't know. It could happen … I'm getting a look (they both burst out laughing) Watch the interview HERE      

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BBC RADIO SCOTLAND THE AFTERNOON SHOW 7.9.2022

NICOLA: First up this afternoon I am delighted to be joined by a musician and actor who has been shaking up counterculture and the pop charts for over 40 years. Toyah Willcox made waves in films like “Quadrophenia” and Derek Jarman's “Jubilee”.  

She blazed the trail on Top Of The Pops with hits like “It’s A Mystery”. And that's not to mention her TV stints in “Casualty”, “Kavanagh QC” and “Teletubbies” and that is not the half of it What I'm saying is Toyah was already amazing. But then in lockdown - did you see her? She and her husband, who is the King Crimson genius and collaborator Robert Fripp, made our Sundays. They did these YouTube renditions of classics from Radiohead, AC/DC Metallica - the list goes on And she and Robert Fripp also performed Grace Jones’, “Slave To The Rhythm”, which Toyah is now releasing as a single. She has got quite a history with the song and she's here to tell us all about it. Welcome back to the afternoon show, Toyah! TOYAH: Thank you so much. It's so wonderful to join you on this rather remarkable day, where so much is going on in the world!

NICOLA: There is a lot going on indeed. Toyah, you're having a new single out. What a song it is. And what fascinates me about “Slave To The Rhythm”, Toyah, is the life of this song and your involvement with it. Take us back to before the time it came to Grace Jones?

TOYAH: Well, there was a quite a history with it before Grace Jones. It was written by my long term writing partner, Simon Darlow (above (left) with Robert Fripp and Toyah) and I was the demo singer when this song was presented to Frankie Goes To Hollywood and they decided it wasn't for them But (the producer) Trevor Horn then picked the song up, he rearranged it, got more writers in alongside Simon and then produced it for Grace Jones and we all know the classic, brilliant version that Grace Jones did So about two months ago, Simon Darlow said to me "don't you  think it's about time you release your own version?" I was very nervous about it, because you cannot mend what isn't broken. Grace Jones’ version is absolutely perfect. And my husband Robert Fripp plays on it. It's myself, Simon Darlow - that's the three of us on it We have one of the original writers on it, Bruce Woolley, playing theremin and it's just a beautiful version. Our version is slightly reflective and gentle. That's all I can say about it in comparison to Grace Jones’ version, but it's very beautiful and the audience dance like crazy to it NICOLA: Oh, I'm not surprised. We are going to play it shortly. I'm fascinated by the fact that you inhabited this song for the first time decades ago. What are your memories of your connection to it at that point? It's got haunting quality that song as well, I think

TOYAH: I know and I actually can not remember singing that demo because 35 years ago I was writing constantly and making demos constantly. That was the nature of the business. We always had to submit new songs to the record labels   And I have very little memory other than when I first heard Grace Jones’ version I thought it was one of the most magnificent things I'd ever heard, as with every single she ever released. So when Simon Darlow mentioned to me “you do know you were the original singer on this track?” My reaction was “oh, was I?!” (Nicola laughs)   But you know, we do a lot as artists. The audience gets to see the cherry on top of the cake. That's when we walk on stage, we're all dolled up and we share our music with these wonderful people. But to get to that point, so much more goes on. And to be honest, I have virtually no memory of doing that demo (Nicola laughs) NICOLA: But you've brought it back to life and we are delighted about that. Simon Darlow, who co-wrote the original and is involved in this version of it also produced your most recent album, which was last year's “Posh Pop”. And that featured, Toyah, another long time collaborator under a pseudonym. Tell us about Bobby Willcox?

TOYAH: OK, I'm married to Robert Fripp (above with Toyah) of King Crimson and he's a very reluctant superstar. Everyone I know who has superstar credentials really want to be invisible and anonymous. And believe me I know a lot and my husband is one of them And when he played on this album, he didn't want to be known as Robert Fripp on “Posh Pop”. He wanted to be known as Bobby Willcox, which is his alias when he books into hotels around the world. So everyone now knows his name at every hotel he books into. He's he's changed his mind in recent months because next year, we're touring Sunday Lunch - NICOLA: Oh wow! TOYAH: And we're going out as Toyah and Robert. So he's very, very happy now to be known as Robert Fripp because he's entering the world of classic rock, whereas he's probably better known for prog rock and working with Bowie. So he's changed his mind and on “Posh Pop 2”, which we start recording in a couple of months, he will be known as Robert Fripp NICOLA: Ah, he’s stepping into the limelight under his own name. I think we last spoke around about the 2019 reworking of your album “In The Court Of The Crimson Queen”, which echoed the similar King Crimson title. Were you and Robert Fripp creative sparring partners from the off? Was there always a spark there?

TOYAH: It's very good question, Nicola. I'd say it's always been a point of creative friction because my husband works historically in a world where timing is absolute. And what I mean by that is if you're in a band and you're playing a time signature where there's 18 beats to a bar, you cannot have fluidity in that timing   I come from punk where everything is about fluidity and tightening. And if I want to shift a vocal across a bar, I will. So we've only really met creatively as successfully as we have in recent times with Sunday Lunch.   The lockdown allowed us to kind of grow together creatively. And thus, we are now probably huge influences in YouTube. We have over 111 million visits to our site. This could only have happened if we were locked in a house together and we were for two and a half years NICOLA: A lot of us were locked in a house together but none of us had the costumery, the musical ingenuity, the playlist. How did you decide on the songs that you wanted to cover? It was a great surprise every single week

TOYAH: I know. In the beginning it was just me choosing the material. I must say now Robert is so excited every week he comes to me with ideas. And initially I posted a 28 second clip of me teaching Robert to dance and it went viral within five minutes.   And that was April of the first lockdown. And what we learned very, very quickly from that was the responses we were getting were from people who were alone, who had no one, access to no one in this terrifying time And we decided that we would keep posting every Sunday lunch. And eventually we evolved into classic rock and this is because we learned something out about the world and the history of classic rock is that it's timeless. Classic rock is a universal language. It crosses every generation   Old people and you know - what is old? It's just a number but people in their 80s, 70s, 60s right down to those who are in their early teens love classic rock and we found a way of communicating with a broader span of generations through the use of classic rock songs NICOLA: I love the fact that you're both embrace classic rock. Your most recent album was called “Posh Pop” and there's another on the way - TOYAH: Yes  

NICOLA: In saying that do you think that at the heart of all this punk as an ethos, as a rebellion, with its lack of boundaries still drives your art in some way? TOYAH: Well, yeah, absolutely. I think rebellion is in my DNA. I was brought up that way. There's nothing I can do about it. I see the world through different glasses to everyone else. It's extraordinary. However when I tried to just fit in with everyone else I managed to just hit some kind of note that is rebellious. And believe me, I'm not trying! It’s me (Nicola laughs). So I've learned to accept it NICOLA: Oh, wow. You're gonna record “Posh Pop Two”  - I hope you're going to come to Scotland soon with your Sunday Lunches - TOYAH: I am! I'm coming on the Billy Idol tour. We play  the Glasgow Hydro on the 21st of October NICOLA: Oh, fantastic! Well, listen, (I’ll be) down the front for that. It's really, really lovely to speak to you. Thank you so much for coming on Toyah, and thank you for making those Sundays, for what felt like an eternal time, so much brighter. It was so important to people as well. And by the way - the costumes as well - that's a whole other conversation (they both laugh) For now though, absolute pleasure. Let us go back to this new single. Imagine Toyah recording the demo of this! And here she is, released this week, “Slave To The Rhythm”

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BBC RADIO 2 BREAKFAST SHOW WITH GARY DAVIES 16.8.2022

GARY: What can I say that my guest this morning? She’s released more than 20 albums, she's written books, appeared in more than 40 stage productions Over 10 movies, presented and starred in so many TV shows it's impossible to name them all. Toured the world and best of all she's an 80s icon and she's with me right now on Zoom from home - Toyah Willcox. Good morning! TOYAH: Gary. It's so lovely to see you. My goodness, you are a silver fox! GARY: (laughs) And you're still a blonde bombshell I'm pleased to see. How are you doing? TOYAH: I'm really really good. It's been a fantastic year - being able to play live. See my fans again, release new music. It's been very special GARY: So you come from Small Heath in Birmingham (NB It’s King’s Heath). How proud were you when the Commonwealth Games came to Brum?

TOYAH: I am super proud of Birmingham. The Commonwealth Games was effortlessly perfect. Everyone just did so well. Birmingham as a city did brilliantly and I find Birmingham very exciting in this millennium  I was making a movie in Birmingham on a little back street about 2007 called “Battleship Earth” (she means “Invasion Planet Earth”) and we were suddenly approached by Steven Spielberg, who was shooting a test sequence for one of his movies on this street And I found out that even Spielberg loves Birmingham, and the thought that the Eurovision Song Contest could come from Birmingham next year! We've got to  champion this! GARY: I think that would be an amazing idea. And listen, you're an outrageous and an adventurous person. What if you represented us in the Eurovision Song Contest? TOYAH: Oh, that's just too scary - GARY: C’mon! TOYAH: You know, Sam, this year, I mean, my goodness! What a superstar!

GARY: And like you’re not? You’re not exactly shy and retiring are you, Toyah?     TOYAH: I'm not shy and retiring and I certainly could give a good match to Norway's usual entries, especially when it comes to costumes, etc etc. I would do it if I was asked. I think this is a competition for young, new, undiscovered brilliant talent. But I would do it GARY: There's no rules. I think we should put you in the fray. Talk to me about your crazy lunch sessions on YouTube - TOYAH: Sunday Lunch GARY: It’s good to see you're not calming down TOYAH: It's good to see me dressed as well this morning (they both laugh) It started with a 28 second clip I posted in the first three weeks of lockdown two years ago of me teaching my husband Robert Fripp to dance   

He can't tell his left foot from his right foot and we got 100,000 responses within five minutes of me posting this on YouTube from people, who were alone in lockdown and saying that we had given them something to smile about and how much they love that clip   And for the last two and a half years we've continued to do it. We now have 110 million hits worldwide. We've even been approached about a movie being made about it     -  GARY: Seriously?!   TOYAH: Yeah, and we're taking it on the road in October 2023. It's actually become absolutely epic in our life GARY: It’s brilliant! I mean your husband, Robert Fripp, his facial expressions - they are mind blowing, just the way he looks. And you. I mean, you should be ashamed of yourself at that age! (jokingly, laughs) TOYAH: I'm 64 and proud of it GARY: You look fantastic!

TOYAH: Well, thank you. And as you know, Gary, we remain rockers. Age is just a number. And I love the fact that my husband, who is 76, behaves just as badly as me. He is an absolute rock god, he should be an actor            He's so brilliant and this is why he's on my single “Slave To The Rhythm” because he's a great guitarist. The world knows this. He's played with Bowie, Talking Heads, Blondie. He's even played with The Damned And of course he has his band King Crimson, but we now have our band, The Posh Pop Three and our first album in August went to number one in about 36 charts. In the main charts, it went to 22. And this has really launched us and it led to me playing the Isle of Wight for the first time ever in my career in June GARY: I want to talk about that. But I also want to play your new single. It's a cover of Grace Jones’ “Slave To The Rhythm”. I'll play it now and we'll chat about it afterwards, OK? TOYAH: Thank you! GARY: Can I introduce it in the style of Grace Jones? TOYAH: I'd like to hear that

GARY: (does the voice over like in the beginning of the Grace Jones version) Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Toyah Willcox (Plays “Slave To The Rhythm”) GARY: Toyah together with Robert Fripp, “Slave To The Rhythm”. That is Toyah’s brand new single and she's with us live on the show this morning. That is so good TOYAH: Thank you. We wanted something different to the iconic version that Grace Jones did. And we have had Trevor Horn’s blessing. Trevor Horn produced it and my long term writing partner Simon Darlow, who produced this new single … he was kind of the original writer on “Slave To The Rhythm” and I was the demo singer. So this song has one hell of a history and a story not only in my life, but in Grace Jones' life as well GARY: Are you a big fan of Grace Jones? Have you met her? TOYAH: Oh, gosh. Talk about about originality! GARY: Did she inspire you? 

TOYAH: Well, actually my career started almost 10 years before Grace’s career (they both laugh) But what I will say is everything she's done is absolute perfection. Perfection in artistic terms and originality and my goodness, she's amazing on stage GARY: She is, isn't she? So tell me about the new album. When's it coming out? 

TOYAH: Well, we have done a reimagining of “In The Court Of The Crimson Queen” (above) with Robert Fripp on it, and this single will be on it. Pre-orders (are open) now, (it will be released) 10th of February, but I've got a lot going on before then - I'm touring with Billy Idol and so much more - GARY: I know! You're so busy! So you've got a tour with Billy Idol in October, which is gonna be brilliant. And then you're off on your Anthem 40 + 1 Tour TOYAH: Yes, that was supposed to be obviously last year and “Anthem” is my big multi-gold album from 1981 which I'm touring right through September, October into November. And luckily Billy Idol’s arena tour fits perfectly with the “Anthem” tour. So I'm touring two shows at once GARY: You’re a workaholic, aren’t you? TOYAH: Well, I'm very, very grateful to see that audience again (laughs) GARY: Tell me about the Isle Of Wight  Festival? So you played it for the first time this year. How was it? TOYAH: It was absolutely extraordinary because I played the big tent and as I stood in the wings waiting I thought a few thousand people will come in, but the crowds just came and came and they were just ramming that tent     

And I think we had about 12,000 people crammed into that tent and people who couldn't get in. And I have a 45 year career with 28 albums to fit into a set. That's a lot to do - and 15 hit singles. So I cherry-picked right from the punk moments through to the present day. We even did “Slave To The Rhythm” and it was magnificent GARY: I've got a few messages coming in here. Trish says good morning, Toyah. I've been a huge fan all my years. I still love your “Anthem” album. Loved you at The Rebellion - TOYAH: Rebellion was amazing! On the promenade at Blackpool GARY: Richard in Tamworth says please tell Toyah my 13 year old son Fraser saw her on Saturday night and she now has a new fan. He loved her and said her ending was awesome TOYAH: Well, I would like to send my love to that brilliant audience. They were out there in 37 degree heat. 10,000 people absolutely loving the music. Thank you Tamworth GARY: Amazing. I've got to ask you about the movie “Give Them Wings”, which is coming out. And it's based on an incredible true story, isn't it? 

TOYAH: This is the story of Paul Hodgson, who when he was very young, he contracted meningitis and became paraplegic. His mother was called Alice and she looked after him til she had a stroke. Then Paul looked after her and he was lost in the system. He didn't get any help. So this is a true story It's released now, we finished it just a month before lockdown. I've been nominated by the best critics award for the Richard Harris Festival as the surprise actress of the season for my role as “Alice” (Toyah with the director Sean Cronin (on the right) and Bill Fellows who plays Norman Hodgson, below) It’s a phenomenal story

GARY: You a play his mother? TOYAH: Yes, I play his mother and believe it or not as sad and as crazy as this story is - because he is a Darlington football fan and he used to go to the football in his wheelchair and he would chant obscenities at the opposition     He even used to get beaten up and he'd still be shouting obscenities at the opposition. Paul Hodgson is still with us. He's a brilliant, brilliant script writer. And he's just the most amazing man and he will sit in his wheelchair and tell you like it is GARY: Still shouting obscenities! Love it! TOYAH: He tells people the truth! GARY: Trevor  in Eastborne says I was lucky to see Toyah at the Isle of Wight. She was amazing! Gave a great performance. James in Northern Ireland: Toyah played at the Let's Rock Festival here and her and her band were fantastic, Toyah rocked and she jumped about just like she's a teenager … I’ve just had a text saying - is it true? You're on The Archers this week?! TOYAH: Yes! (they both laugh)

GARY: How was that?! TOYAH: It was fabulous! We recorded it at The Archers studio in Birmingham. I was on with the icon called Pat. I was there with all the characters, loving every moment of it and I can't tell you the storyline but it's  so funny GARY: Listen, I can't tell you what a pleasure it has been to have you on the show this morning. I love the fact that you grow old disgracefully. Long may it continue. Her new single “Slave To The Rhythm” is out now and you can get tickets for Anthem 40 +1 Tour and you can catch her on The Archers! Thank you, Toyah! TOYAH: Thank you, Gary! Thank you, everybody!

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[toyahinterviews]

TOYAH ON BBC RADIO SCOTLAND WITH BILLY SLOAN 30.10.2021

BILLY: Toyah Willcox has made her career as a successful singer and actress, and one of her first big breaks on the big screen was when she appeared alongside Phil Daniels and Sting in the film “Quadrophenia”. So was she a fan of the 1973 album first, before being cast as “Monkey” and the movie version of Pete Townshend’s mod rock opera? TOYAH: I was a fan of The Who. I've always been a fan of The Who. I didn't know “Quadrophenia” until I received the script from the production team. And then of course this opened up The Who for me even more, and the extraordinary writing abilities and talents of Pete Townshend. So I've always been attracted to Roger Daltrey’s voice, to the power, to the mod movement and the sheer the finesse of what The Who created has always been very attractive to me.   Unfortunately, my career started at a time in punk where punk was opposed to what The Who created, but the energy of “My Generation”  and all those songs was pure punk. And suddenly I found myself in “Quadrophenia” as an actress, and I was having to hide the fact that I was a punk rocker. But I always respected and love The Who because they were the original punks. BILLY: How did you actually get the part?

TOYAH: Franc Roddam, the director, asked me to get John Lydon – Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols through a screen test for the part of “Jimmy”. So I went along to John Lydon’s flat and ran through the scenes and he was absolutely astonishing. Firstly, he was a gentleman, he was an absolute treat to be with. There was none of that kind of persona of Johnny Rotten. He worked incredibly hard. He knew his lines. Then he and I went to Shepperton Studios where we shot our screen tests. I was playing “Steph”, he was playing “Jimmy”.   Then I didn't hear another thing and I was making a movie with Katharine Hepburn at Lee Electrics in Wembley and the production office and “Quadrophenia” was next door. So I walked around the outside of the building and saw Franc Roddam in his office and I banged on the window, and I said “Frank, give me a part because I did this favour for you. Give me a part”. John Lydon by the way didn't get the role of “Jimmy” because no one would insure the film if he was in it because of his reputation in the Sex Pistols.   But I knew that Franc Roddam hadn't cast the role of “Monkey” and he called me in and Phil Daniels was in the office at the time with him and Franc said if I could perform the party scene with Phil Daniels, he'd consider me for “Monkey”. We did the scene there and then and I got the job. BILLY: What kind of person was "Monkey"?

TOYAH: “Monkey” for me was the girl with the golden heart that didn't make good. “Monkey” was a drug dealer because she worked in a chemist and she was just slowly taking all the pills and selling them to her friends. And she wanted to be loved and she wanted to be the number one girl but of course she wasn't, “Steph” was the number one fantasy girl for every male in the film. And we all know who this character “Monkey” is. She's the one that is that girl in the gang, but it's the one with the golden heart. BILLY: And there's a real ensemble cast because Leslie Ash (as "Steph"), as you mentioned earlier, there's also Sting as the “Ace Face.” The cast also included people like a very young Ray Winston, Michael Elphick, who was "Jimmy's" father, Kate Williams, who was "Jimmy's" mother, Timothy Spall. And of course, Phil Daniels. And it's not hard to almost imagine anybody else playing “Jimmy Cooper” other than Phil, isn't it? TOYAH: Oh, Phil Daniels was absolutely perfect for the role. It's the most ultimate character I think he's ever created. He was so astonishing and breathtaking. And even today, as acting has evolved into a more naturalistic form, Phil Daniels was ahead of game. Its perfection and that's why the film is still as powerful as it is today.  

And looking back with hindsight now, I think Phil deserved more accolades. He deserved more nominations. But the film wasn't critically well received at the time of its release. And then the audience took it in their hearts and the audience, a generation after generation, the audience has returned to “Quadrophenia”, making it an absolute classic of its time. BILLY: The story of “Quadrophenia” is set in London and Brighton in 1964. And you had to be so accurate, recreating that time period in terms of the clothes and the haircuts and the locations and the scooters. How was that done? 

TOYAH: Franc Roddam was a documentary maker before making “Quadrophenia”, an award winning documentary maker and he wanted “Quadrophenia” to feel like a documentary. So he encouraged us to go out and socialise with people who had lived through the mod movement and still had the lifestyle within their lives. So we were going out at weekends and partying with people who've been mods, with people who have been rockers, and they did not hold back on the culture. They really immersed us in it.   Also, we were in dance studios in Covent Garden for three hours a day learning the dance movements, which we enjoyed so much, because as I’ve discovered with all great musicians around the world, Sting - great musician, great songwriter - can not tell his left foot from his right foot. Boy, did we have so much fun with that! This beautiful "Adonis" who we spent so much time with couldn’t dance, and we were just drawing focus to it all the time. Wonderful, wonderful man.     Other things that we did, we had to learn to ride scooters, we had to learn how to repair scooters, how it is to fall off a scooter. We needed to know all of this. We needed to know the dangers that surrounded us as well as the joys that surrounded us. And we immersed ourselves in this for about three months before principal shooting started.  

The incredible thing about the principal first stage shoot - we were shooting the riot scenes first and talk about a baptism of fire. We were in Brighton with 5000 extras shooting riot scenes (below) for 20 hour days. And that really bonded us as actors, because we had to protect each other, look out for each other, find food, find water, find toilets. I mean it was extraordinary. And then we made the rest of the movie, by which time we were a family. And we've remained family. We are one of the closest knit teams I have ever known in the whole of my career. And we remain that way. 

BILLY: One of the other real pivotal scenes in the movie is the dancehall scene where Jimmy is trying to impress “Steph” and he jumps up onto the balcony and then leaps off into the crowd. That must have been an incredible scene to be involved in. Was it? TOYAH: Yeah, I think we shot those in Southall, North London somewhere. It was really wonderful to do and Phil Daniels was completely committed to doing that jump. I mean it must have hurt like hell. I think the first jump he did was into boxes. I don't think there was a stunt person involved. I'm absolutely sure Phil Daniels did the jump in the dance hall sequence himself. It was incredibly good fun because we got to show off our dance prowess.   I was dancing mainly with the actor Phil Davies, who I just absolutely adore. It was lovely because within that sequence, all the characters were able to develop and signal to the audience who and what we were by the style of their dancing, which you don't normally get the chance to do in films and the mod dances were just gloriously precise. So all of us got a chance to shine in that sequence. BILLY: During the production of the movie there was some sad news when we learned that Keith Moon had passed away. What impact did that have on both the actors and the film production?

TOYAH: All of the actors were looking forward to meeting Keith Moon. All of us we just couldn't wait. This man was a legend. He was a bad boy, a great drummer. He had attitude. He was everything all of us wanted to be. But the week before we started principal photography, he died.   So when I first met The Who and I was in a room with The Who, with the producers, with the rest of the cast for the first time - it was literally the day after Keith Moon died. And the decision was made that the film was going to continue. They did think about discontinuing the film. And thank goodness it was kind of made in his honour and in his memory. But we were all brokenhearted that we were never going to get to meet this legend. And I think he would have been on site every day enjoying all of us and we'd have been enjoying him. And it was a huge loss. That potential was a massive, massive loss.

BILLY: You spoke earlier about the lasting affection for “Quadrophenia”. 42 years on - what do you think the legacy is of both the movie and the album? TOYAH: I think the movie is an astonishing film and an astonishing achievement made with no compromise, with great heart. And I think young people who feel diswoned by society will always find themselves and  their story in that movie. And that's incredibly important, especially at a time like this where young people have lost a year of their lives. I think the legacy of the music is great music never goes away.   Heritage music and music that was there first, that broke the mould first, that inspired many generations of musicians to come, is the music that will remain constant and “Quadrophenia” will remain constant. It's one of those albums along with my husband's album “In The Court Of The Crimson King”, with Sting’s and The Police albums - they're constant so “Quadrophenia” is up there with the greats. BILLY: We're asking everybody who takes part in the programme to choose their favourite Who track and naturally you have gone for a song from “Quadrophenia”. Which one is it and why?

TOYAH: My favourite Who song is “Rain On Me” because of the actual passion. It's about a young soul facing the future, just wanting their own place in the world. There's anger in it. There's hope, there's determination and it's an absolutely beautiful composition musically. And that is the song that I would choose.

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BBC RADIO 2 WITH JASON MOHAMMAD 30.6.2019

JASON MOHAMMAD:  Good Morning! TOYAH: Hello! JASON: Fantastic to see you! It's going so well, you were in my home city of Cardiff, at the Acapela TOYAH: It was crammed to the rafters. It was 40 degrees in the venue. It was like performing in a sauna. It was fabulous (laughs) JASON: Did the Welsh crowd treat you well? TOYAH: Oh, they went absolutely bonkers! We're getting so many standing ovations. It was really gorgeous. At point, when it's so hot, I'm so thankful for them being there, for being awake! (laughs) JASON: Thank you so much for coming in to see us. You're going to play some live music with your band ... By the way, who have we got here this morning? TOYAH: We've got John Humphrey on percussions, Chris Wong on guitar and Andy Doble on keyboards JASON: Nice too see you. What's it like being back on the road and you've got a record out as well, Toyah? TOYAH: I've been on the road for 42 years (Jason laughs) But I suppose the present phenomena with me started in 2002. I was performing in a theatre in the West End and I got a fax saying “do you want to play Wembley Arena?” I thought it was a joke. It was one of these big 80s line-ups and I've never looked back Then slowly the dedicated Toyah following has been building up over the last ten years. My latest album “In The Court Of The Crimson Queen” went straight into the Top 10 two months ago. The first track we're going to play for you today is my next single off it. It's coming out on July the 17th. It has just been an absolutely stunning year - JASON: The single is “Dance In The Hurricane” - TOYAH: The year has gone crazy! It's just been fantastic JASON: You're on social media as well. There's dangers in it but people engage with you, Toyah -    

TOYAH: I am blind to negativity. I just don't bother with it. Life is so precious, time is so precious. Music is multi-generational and this is what I do. Accept it. We need to learn acceptance in a lot of how we go about our daily lives. So yes – I do do social media but the delete button is very active.   I just don't pick up negativity and we can talk about this in a minute. My mother was particularly negative and I've learned to survive and it's as simple as that. We are all gloriously miraculous just being here, floating on a rock in a very immense universe. No one's going to tell me I'm not good JASON: I heard someone say “don't be negative. Give yourself shot at the title”. I'm so going to use that every day - TOYAH: We're here for a purpose. No matter what you do - we're a part of a greater picture. I think negativity can just stop you. It stops you moving forward and believe me - I have my own battles with myself. It's very evident in my music. The best things come in life when you're positive and you see that the glass is half full rather than half empty It may sound glib and easy to say because we all have to fight our dark clouds but  I think that life is so precious. Especially when you get to my age. You just don't want to waste it!   JASON: Very true. You must get that positive energy from your crowds as well? TOYAH: For me the most rewarding part of my life is on stage where there is no mobile phones, there's no e-mail, there's no distraction. It's a very extraordinary experience which I'm grateful for You do feel moments where everyone in the room is one and it's like a phenomenal meditation. You can just feel their energy tuning in and I am so grateful for that! It's very powerful

JASON: What about this latest record then that you're going to play for us. Is it about something specific?  

TOYAH: “Dance In The Hurricane”, to be brutally honest, is about overcoming the grief of losing your parents. I lost my parents ten years ago and my life has never been the same. I'm still really only finding my feet but I believe grief makes us strong and “Dance In The Hurricane” is a song of victory over grief

JASON: OK, we'd love to hear it

(They play “Dance In The Hurricane”)

JASON: Toyah, that was absolutely magnificent! As a parent you've kind of touched me here. I was very emotional listening to that, especially the words “be loud, be heard, be proud”. Such a powerful message in that record -

TOYAH: We've got to tell our children that they inherit the world -

JASON: Absolutely! That's exactly it. The challenging world, go out there and be loud, be heard and be proud.

Are you going to do another record for us in a moment?

TOYAH: Definitely       

JASON: I just want to ask you about Glastonbury. Have you done it? TOYAH: We were guests with PRS (Stage). We played there about three years ago. It was magnificent. You arrive in this massive kind of city of people and you can feel it! It's very wonderful! And so upbeat! That might sound strange ... I'm scared of big crowds but everyone was so happy! JASON: It is that sort of vibe. Can I just ask you about about music as we get older ... I often have a conversations with my kids - “can we put something else on?” Am I getting old or is that something that happens when it comes to music? TOYAH: It's your experience talking. We've all got this mammoth library of experience in us and we've grown up with absolutely brilliant songwriters. The Beatles, The Stones, Led Zeppelin … I mean they're all utterly brilliant and these young people are going to discover that eventually. When I look out over the crowds that we play to at festivals the majority of the age is under 25  and they've just discovered us. They will discover the music you love     Personally I don't think there's such a thing as bad music. I think generations just need their voice and you can't take that voice away from them. That's the divide between you and your children JASON: Yeah. I took them to see Elton last week - TOYAH: Oh, I'm so jealous! I saw “Rocketman” last week, the music is so profound! JASON: They loved it and they got into “Rocketman”. There was a lad, about ten years old on his dad's shoulders. Elton is banging out “Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting” and this kid is singing the words back to Elton. That is just so powerful, isn't it, Toyah? TOYAH: That's storytelling writing, isn't it? The 80s was very similar that we told stories about the listener to draw the listener in. Elton's “Yellow Brick Road” about going back to the farm, going back to your roots … I found that so powerful because I only got a change to hear the lyrics sitting in a cinema watching the film. I was like oh, my goodness! Because we do in a sense return to our roots so many times JASON: And what about those musicians who criticise younger singer songwriters - no names being mentioned. Is that fair? Are some of them accurate? TOYAH: Well, the one musician you're mentioning is actually an incredible songwriter. I think if you are the best songwriter in the world you have the right to criticise. I'm still learning. I learn every day -  as a songwriter, as a human being I'm still learning and checking myself all the time. I've been writing music for 42 years and it's a journey without an end. I would not judge someone else's writing because it's the process of being creative that's important We have to remain a creative society. If we're too busy losing ourselves in our phones we're going to lose a cultural strength because we are all brilliant at expressing ourselves. We must be encouraged to go deep and express ourselves and that's what songwriting is If I was to criticise I would say go beyond the telephone and listen to Elton John, listen to Rolling Stones, because the depth of what they're saying is so truthful

JASON: Absolutely. Great advice. What are you going to play for us next? What's the significance of this next record?   TOYAH: This is a really important track to me. It's off “In The Court Of The Crimson Queen”. Simon Darlow, my co-writer and I wanted to submit it to the Paralympics partly because I've had to learn to walk again three times I was born with a spine defect so I know what's it's like to keep running up that hill and get back on your feet. We wrote “Sensational” because we felt it was important to write about that everyone is utterly remarkable. No matter what body shape, what height you are, where you come from ... We are sensational and this is what this song is about - JASON: Fabulous! Let's hear it. Thank you, Toyah (They play “Sensational”) JASON: Love it! Toyah live here on BBC Radio 2. Lot's of our listeners are getting in touch. This is lovely - from Sally, who says “I'm absolutely loving Toyah's music. We miss both of our parents very much indeed” ... but your words have provided comfort for them this morning - TOYAH: Yeah. I'm so sorry. It's the hardest grief. But you learn to live with void. That's the only way I can describe it. You're never quite the same again but something quite amazing happens with your life at that point and you move forward with strength JASON: Absolutely thrilled to have you in the studio today. Thank you so much for coming in to see us. The album is out as well? TOYAH: Oh yes, “In The Court Of The Crimson Queen” JASON: Fantastic. Thank you also to Chris, Andy and John, lovely to see you guys. Keep in touch, Toyah! And hopefully I'll catch you on tour sometime - TOYAH: Yay!

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BBC RADIO SOLENT WITH ALEX DYKE 23.5.2019

ALEX: Hello, Toyah! TOYAH: How are you, Alex?   ALEX: I'm alright. How are you?     TOYAH: Really good, thank you   ALEX: You're at Theatre Royal Winchester on Sunday the 26th of May. 40 years in the business. You don't look old enough!   TOYAH: Well, I don't feel old enough (laughs) Life is very good at the moment so I feel exactly the same I did forty years ago   ALEX: This is the Greatest Hits you're doing on Sunday and some back catalogue. It's your full electric band and you're just celebrating 40 years of being in the business? TOYAH: It's inevitable it's going to be Greatest Hits because I've released in my career 28 albums and I've got to cherry-pick from this catalogue what we're going to be playing so virtually every song is a single I had a new album out in April called "In The Court Of The Crimson Queen", which is still doing incredibly well. It charted so we are going to be featuring that as well So my shows are fun, they're high energy and there's a little bit of storytelling. With the electric band our aim is to get the audience on their feet having a really lovely time, enjoying good rock music that they can dance to and usually they're singing along as well   ALEX: I've seen you loads of times and I know it's a great show. So it's forty years so that's 1979. I remember you first with the EP "Four From Toyah" with "It's A Mystery", which I guess was early '81. You were doing "Minder" and quite a lot of acting so what were you doing in '79 and 80' just before you broke through on Top Of The Pops?  

TOYAH: Whoo! (laughs) That is such a big question! I was filming with Katharine Hepburn in a film called "The Corn Is Green", which was directed by the legendary director George Cukor. I then went straight on to do "Quadrophenia", which is 40 years old this year    

So we're doing a lot of celebratory filming this year of that. I was also touring my band endlessly and in 78',79' and 80'. You had the first Indie Chart, which was available in The New Musical Express, the biggest music paper at the time. I was number one in those charts every week for two years even though I didn't have national success - the success that was going to come in '81 …   I was phenomenally successful on a kind of underground cult level. Filling venues, touring all the time, charting. I had an album out in 80' called "Blue Meaning", which went straight to number 2 in the album charts But back then you didn't get radio coverage if you were an album selling artist so I was enjoying wonderful success. It's probably one of the happiest times of my life because everything had a "Midas touch" to it – my acting and my music. I had no idea what was about to come in 1981. It was a lovely time of innocence and joy with everything doing really well     ALEX: I have to rewind there, just a couple of things I want to pick up on. First of all - I would imagine Katherine Hepburn was a lovely lady. Did you sit down, get down time, get Hollywood stories from her? TOYAH: Yes, she was a very generous person. Not only did I get down time with her, my father turned up on the film set unannounced! He was hiding on the set to watch his film idol Katharine Hepburn and she found him! She said "who are you and what are you doing here?" and he said "I'm Toyah's father". She stopped filming and took him to lunch!   She was just the most extraordinary woman. She would talk to me a lot about whoever I asked about. Her main influence and the big love of her life was Spencer Tracy. She wore his clothes every day and he had been long gone by 1979. But she would often just say "this is Spencer's jumper, this is Spencer's trousers" (laughs) and she was still very connected to him She was a very generous actress to work with. She allowed me close-ups, she would allow me to sit in her dressing room while her make-up was being done and we'd talk.   I worked with John Mills, I worked with Laurence Olivier. Even Diana Dors and they were all true stars. Today, as stars tend to be very real or reality based, these were people who were built by the Hollywood system and they were phenomenal. They were very different and I'm so glad I met them     ALEX: Well, I can't think many things cooler than hanging out with Katharine Hepburn being told one on one Spencer Tracy stories. And then Diana Dors! What did you work with her on?

TOYAH: I really have to pull this out of my my memory banks ... I did a lot of historical dramas for the BBC during this time. I did "Jekyll & Hyde" with David Hemmings (above) and I did an another one - which I can't for the life of me remember the name of! Diana Dors was, I think, in "Jekyll & Hyde" with me. She was great! Those days you'd have three months rehearsal for one of these drama series. When she came into the room she owned the room. It was “Hello, darlings! How are you?” Everyone was included, the conversation was loud and brash and the stories were legendary - kind of 1960's London But of course she worked and had a fling with Elvis Presley so she branched right across to Hollywood and back. Her stories were rich in this vein of 1960's rock culture. She was electrifying   ALEX: I could talk to you all day! Sunday, 26th of May, Theatre Royal Winchester, the 40th anniversary of the wonderful Toyah. You'll get just a great show with loads of costume changes and Toyah looking gorgeous and being fantastic! TOYAH: Can I tell you my Winchester story really quickly? ALEX: Yes! TOYAH: I did "Taming Of The Shrew" at Theatre Royal in August 1990. I was about to go on stage for the very last speech. It's a very big speech for "Kate" and the stage door, which is right at the back of the stage, opened and a fan grabbed me and pulled me onto the street for an autograph! (They both laugh) I was in shock! I didn't know what to do! Everyone was waiting on stage for me in the big banquet scene and I was going "oh gosh, help help!"   ALEX: Oh, no! But did you make it just in the nick of time? TOYAH: Yes, I ran back on stage looking incredulous and everyone thought I was delivering the speech in a different way! They thought "oh, she's going at this differently tonight". The look on my face was I've almost been shut out of the theatre! ALEX: Toyah, thank you so much and have a great night at the Theatre Royal Winchester Sunday night!     TOYAH: Thank you so much!

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BBC RADIO TEES, SOUNDS WITH BOB FISHER 17.1.2019

BOB FISHER: Toyah is on the line with me. How are you? TOYAH: Hi Bob! I'm really well. I can't wait to be at the Arc (1.2.2019, Stockton-on-Tees) BOB: Excellent! This is the first date of tour as well, isn't it? TOYAH: Yes. What happens in my year is about mid-November I stop singing and have vocal rest. It's just a really wise thing to do. Not very many singers get a change to have that break. It's not that I haven't been working – I've been flat out! But I've just not been singing BOB: I noticed that you've been in the studio this week because I follow you on Twitter. What are you working on? TOYAH: On the 5th of April I have a new album out. The fans will be familiar with about 50% of it because we play them in the set. The album is called "In The Court Of The Crimson Queen"

So we've been in the studio writing new singles because there is a single due out. I'm  putting new tracks on this particular new album. I can't tell you too much because some of it is press embargoed but there's lots of exiting things happening for the fans. New images, new songs and we're very proud of it BOB: I have to say congratulations on Celebrity Mastermind as well TOYAH: It was a miracle that night, wasn't it? (laughs) BOB: (laughs) And you stormed it! Questions on Boudica. Is she something of a specialist subject of yours? TOYAH: A huge subject for me. There's a movie in the pipeline that I'm really hoping will go into production very soon. I've been studying Boudica for a long time. As a child I was fascinated by her and she is mainly myth. The only writings about her that can be taken as historical fact were 50 years after she actually lived The reason the papers were written in Rome was because Nero, who was the Emperor at that particular time, he was cross-dressing and historians wanted to write about a woman and in Rome a powerful woman was an insult

They created Boudica as this warrior queen as an insult to Nero. And for me that is just fascinating because she did exist. She was a warrior queen in a society were it didn't matter if you were a man or a woman. If you were willing to fight then you could be a leader Whereas in Rome women couldn't be leaders at the time. So there is a lot of myth and legend built up around her. When Queen Elizabeth came to the throne the comparisons started again and you started to get Boudica in plays and in essays and in critiques

BOB: I'm intrigued by the forthcoming film. Are you involved with it at all? TOYAH: I am but I can't tell you any more! She is a big love of mine!      

BOB: Intriguing! I will pick up on Queen Elizabeth because I know you did the stage version of Derek Jarman's "Jubilee" (above) last year -

TOYAH: I loved it!

BOB: I bet! I did see your performance compared to Judi Dench's Queen Elizabeth, which I thought was intriguing. Was that a deliberate homage?

TOYAH: I hope positively compared! (they both laugh) I played Queen Elizabeth in "Jubilee" and it opened in Manchester about 14 months ago and then in London Hammersmith exactly a year ago. I loved the opportunity to play this woman, because, again, Elizabeth was beyond anything we could call femininity. She was highly educated, which people don't tend to realise about queens of that era

She was phenomenally intelligent. She spoke many languages, politically astute, she was terribly barbaric! And very clever in passing the blame to the men. She would have people killed and then put the onus on someone around her or nearby. She was quite phenomenal

BOB: And Derek Jarman himself must've been a huge influence on you because obviously you were in the original film production of "Jubilee"?

TOYAH: Yeah. Derek cast me as "Mad", a pyromaniac in the film version and it's a very kind of ramshackle film but it's utterly brilliant. It proves that you don't need polished edges for something to be watchable. It's not for everyone. It's a punk movie and it's a very violent movie and the stage play was very violent. But it did ask questions that I think theatre can ask. It can push out boundaries that sometimes only theatre can do. So it translated brilliantly on to the stage

BOB: I saw you as a teenager and it was life changing. Derek Jarman's films proved to me that you can make a film that just stands there as a piece of art. It's almost impressionistic

TOYAH: Derek was a collage maker. As an artist, on canvas, he was an collage artist and with film he was collage. But also I think Derek was very anti the beginning – middle – and end development within film and terribly anti commercialism. So his work is stand alone work

BOB: Can I ask about another film from that era? I know that the tour you're doing this year is marking the 40th anniversary of your first record deal and your first releases on a major record label. And I think you were making "Quadrophenia" at the time you signed the deal. Is that right?

TOYAH: That's true. And "Quadrophenia" is 40 years old this year as well. Yes, my very first album "Sheep Farming In Barnet"  is 40 years young. Even if I say so myself it's an utterly extraordinary album. I love performing the songs of it. They are high energy original soundscapes. They're very vital and they're full of lust for life    

On stage today, I'm sixty now, I absolutely adore performing them. "Waiting", "Neon Womb", "Danced", "Race Through Space". They are incredible songs! And again they don't tend to have an beginning, middle and an end! They're Impressionistic

My show with the band is going to be high energy and it has been forever and it will continue that way. We don't really seem to be settling down as far as energy goes. I think that particular album is very special

BOB: I've seen you wax lyrical about your song "Pop Star" as well, as one that you particularly enjoy performing?      

TOYAH: We've replaced "Pop Star" in the set this year with a song called  "Martian Cowboy", which is beautiful! We've only started performing it live for the first time in about 30 years last autumn (both laugh) Everyone's hair just stands on end. It's absolutely gorgeous BOB: Do you perform anything from "Prostitute" in the live set? TOYAH: No, we don't. It's just me and Steve Sidelnyc, who then went on to programme all of Madonna's albums. There's not the context yet to do that but it's a very good question. I will look into it because I think that would take the fans by surprise BOB: It's such an extraordinary album, honestly. I was listening to it again for the first time in a little while - TOYAH: How was it? BOB: It sounded great! It really did! It's an incredibly experimental album and it's a fascinating album. What prompted it? Did just feel you had to do something very bold and very different? TOYAH: I always have to walk away from the job I've just done. That's creatively, idea wise. I just have to walk away. I feel trapped. Which is why my career is so varied. And I think "Prostitute" came after doing "Minx". That was a signing to Portrait CBS, where I was being told to be everyone but me. I was being told to be like Pat Benatar ... I've got nothing against that but I am me. I'm not trying to be another person. I'm not an imitator       So I remember I'd just got married and the only question I was being asked was when was I going to start a family? Which was never the reason I got married and certainly never the reason I'm here on this planet. So it was an album that really came out of anger. It's a very expressive piece. It's the most critically acclaimed album I've ever done. Billboard gave it five stars and then claimed it was an antidote to Madonna - BOB: I saw that, yes! (laughs) TOYAH: I didn't make it to make enemies, I just made it because I felt powerless. So it's widely considered even today as a piece of genius. I'm not being modest here because your listeners will know I'm not the most successful female artist in the world but I am a persistent tenacious person. It's really nice to have people referring back to past album as pieces of genius BOB: Do you still feel that anger sometimes? TOYAH: I feel angry all the time - BOB: Do you? TOYAH: Well, I just think we look at gender rather than the person and we always compare artists to someone else. I don't think any artist out there is trying to be an impersonator of an other person. So I always feel anger but I always feel driven and I try to use it

For me I'd rather use it creatively writing a song than on forty digits in a tweet. I think you have to explore these feelings and develop them and then share them. And sometimes the results change people's lives and that's very important to me BOB: Is it instantly cathartic for you as well then? Can you write a song and think “that's it, it's down on paper now so I feel better about it” TOYAH: No – success is cathartic! (they both laugh) I'm always having to prove myself. With the new album there's a new song going on ... We finished it yesterday, it's being mixed and mastered tomorrow. That was a wonderful feeling of writing something that you like and a lot of people in my world have heard this song and they're just going “wow!” So that is a nice feeling BOB: So the album will be out in April?     

TOYAH:  The 5th of April

BOB: Fantastic. And the title "In The Court Of The Crimson Queen" is a little tip to one of your husband Robert Fripp's past incarnations. Did he offer a dry smile when the title was offered to him? TOYAH: There is a big surprise on the album - BOB: Is there? You're not going to tell me though, are you? TOYAH: He opens the album BOB: Oh, fantastic! TOYAH: And he's not wearing a guitar - BOB: (laughs) Rather like a prostitute! TOYAH: That's it. It's exactly that kind of part BOB: Excellent! It's been a pleasure to speak to you, Toyah. Thank you for doing this TOYAH: Thank you! And I can't wait to be at the Arc!

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TOYAH ON BBC RADIO LONDON WITH JO GOOD 23.1.2018

JO: Toyah Willcox is an award winning British rock legend with over 20 albums and 13 UK Top 40 singles. She has starred in over 40 stage productions and 10 feature films, including Derek Jarman's controversial film "Jubilee".   When it originally opened I believe Vivienne Westwood sent an open letter (NB It was an “open T-shirt”, below) to Jarman describing it as the "most boring and therefore disgusting film that I've been put through". Well, to a punk that's music to their ears.      

It's now being adapted for the stage. This time Toyah is playing the role of Queen Elizabeth the 1st and I'm so pleased to say she joins us on the afternoon show. Toyah, welcome. TOYAH: Thank you. The last time I was here, I remember I sang "I Want To Be Free" live to you     . . .

JO: It went out on a loop. I think we played it at the Christmas Special, the Easter Special, it went out again and again, thank you for that.

TOYAH: I just hope I was on tune and ....

JO: The thing about your voice … it doesn't age, actually, which is very interesting considering the amount of work you've done because it hasn't ever had a chance to rest, has it?

TOYAH: I've looked after it. I only sing four times a week. I could not do one of those tours where you are working for seven shows a week because I use so much range. I have a very large five octave range and I don't believe in doing the show if I can't hit my top notes. 

So I'm very protective and I turned 60 this year, and my voice is getting better and better. Really, I had my fame at a time when I was learning on my feet, but now I feel I am a singer and I'm getting there so I really want to look after it. It means so much to me.

JO: I'm proud of you, because I'm 63, and I think we are such a lucky generation - TOYAH: I totally agree JO: Because you've got great hair. I think that as long as you've got good hair and energy and you came bouncing in here, and we're both the same height and I said we look like bookends and I quite like at 63 being little. You said you'd like to be a foot taller? TOYAH: Yeah. I don't like being small, because it does affect how people speak to you. They speak down to you, not nastily but it's kind of . . . “well, she's small, we'll look down on her”. I have a real problem with it because mentally I feel I'm six foot tall, and then I have to keep reminding myself I'm barely five foot. I have a lisp and I hobble, so … I have to keep stopping to think that I am not Tina Turner. I'm not a supermodel. I'm short. I'd rather be a foot taller . . . JO: No, I think you're as Len Goodman called me “a pocket rocket” and you certainly are  - TOYAH: Len likes that phrase. I think he's called me that, he's not exclusive with it, obviously!

JO: I watched “Jubilee” on YouTube this morning, there are some clips, because I never saw it the first time around so I'm really looking forward to coming to see it at the theatre. I think this is an extraordinary opportunity for all of us to see it. I never saw it at the movies.   My goodness! You were always cutting edge. I remember when I last saw you I said I've been reading (Sir Laurence) Olivier's autobiography and when he was at the National he said "this young girl is hanging out of the tower (Toyah giggles) doing a vocal limber" and he said “who the hell is that?” and "they said “it's Toyah” and I went “who's Toyah?”" There you were at the National Theatre when no one like you - no punk worked at the National - TOYAH: 1976. I would absolutely rock the building because I was fresh from Birmingham. I had no idea of etiquette and behaviour. I was a wild animal, and I was so exhilarated and full of life because I was in this amazing environment so I would just shout out of the windows for wardrobe. I'd shout to wigs. Singing and running around, just feeling so lucky to be there.  

And I can remember on one occasion, the rest of my dressing room - there were six of us in the dressing room - we found some wheelchairs in the corridor, so we were racing them backwards around the corridors. I bumped into Sir John Gielgud, and he said (does a posh voice) “Toyah! This is the National Theatre, not the zoo and you are not a monkey”. It was a joy. I think people liked me and loathed me in equal measure . . .

JO: You took away the preciousness of the National. No one like you, no one like Toyah, no punk actress had ever gone into the National Theatre. It was all the Lords and the “luvvies” - and I hate that word, and then you turn up there.   You'd come from playing “Mad” in “Jubilee”, and she's the most extraordinary character. As I said I was watching it this morning – you with this sort of ginger, wonderful fuzzy head. Was that your own hair? 

TOYAH: Yeah     JO: I mean, shaven head which we'd never seen. Living in some kind of squat. Did you film “Jubilee” in London? TOYAH: Yes, it was all based from Derek Jarman's apartment in Butler's Wharf by Tower Bridge - JO: Before it was the groovy place it is now -     TOYAH: It was completely rundown and slightly bombed out, there was a brewery next door so there was a gorgeous smell of hops every day. There was an artistic community living in this warehouse. You had Andrew Logan, Sandra Rhodes, Derek Jarman, it was electric.   

And Derek particularly loved the punk movement and “Jubilee” in a way stood outside the punk movement because you can't make a movie and call it punk. It's a contradiction in terms, it's exploitation and Derek very quickly became aware of that when Vivienne Westwood, Malcolm McLaren, Siouxsie Sue – they all said they would have nothing to do with the film because it was exploiting the movement, and they were correct.   But Derek was an artist. Derek was a collage maker and at that time his style was about layering image and sound and story on top of each other to make a very rich experience. “Jubilee” was shot very much (on a) handheld (camera). It looked anarchic. He allowed us, the performers, to be anarchic. It had a great cast. The original cast was Ian Charleson, Richard O'Brien. Brian Eno did the music. It was a royalty of performers but also a royalty of punk artists as well, who agreed to do it - JO: And rumour has it that you were mates with Ian Charleson and that's how you met Jarman?     TOYAH: At the National Theatre     - JO: And then Jarman wanted you for the role of “Mad” but didn’t have a budget and said, “I don't know if I can afford you” and then said to all of the actors, “I won't have a fee. I'll pay you lot instead”. Is that true?

TOYAH: Yes. What happened Ian Charleson was making “Chariots Of Fire”, and he was at the National at the same time as me. He said “I want to take you to meet someone, I think you're made for each other” and it was Derek Jarman. Ian and I had tea with Derek and Derek handed me the script. At that time it was called “Down With The Queen”, something like that. He said “pick a part”.   So it's a story about an all female gang who raped and murdered men at a time of anarchy in the UK, slightly set in the future.  I went through the script, I knew that the punk icon Jordan had the lead in it, she played “Amyl" ("Nitrate”) and the next biggest role was “Mad”, the pyromaniac.   So I picked that role and Derek didn't even audition me, he probably trusted that because I was at the National Theatre I could act. And then a week later he phoned me and said he's had a cut in the budget and he’s had to cut characters and "Mad" had gone. He instinctively sensed that he broke me.     Everything - my dreams were relying on this film and I was a broken woman with that news. Three weeks later he found me - because back then you didn't have mobiles, didn't have email - and he found me, got in touch with me and he said “I could tell I had ruined your life in the moment I told you that. So I'm not going to be paid, my fee will pay for you to come back into the film.”  

And it was an extraordinary experience making the film because it was so hand to mouth. There were days where he couldn't pay for us to have sandwiches. He'd be in tears and he'd say, “I don't know what to do, I can not feed you”.  We said “don’t worry, we will  support ourselves, we want to be here.” And it was very much a production of everyone. Even outsiders like Andrew Logan coming in and throwing impromptu parties for us. Everyone wanted this film made. So we made it as an ensemble and we made it possible.   But Derek was very much the pivotal linchpin that kept it all running, and there were days when we didn't know if we were allowed to film on the streets so we ran out, and we just filmed and waited to be arrested. And then we ran back to base. It was beautiful, loving anarchy

JO: And do you think he’d be pleased to know it's now brought to the stage? TOYAH: Yes, he would, because Chris Goode, the director and writer of this particular version - he is passionate about the film. When the Manchester Royal Exchange invited him to put on stage anything he wanted to he chose “Jubilee” because of what it meant to him. He has bought it up to date, it's now present day, but it still very much hangs on to the story of the 1977 original.   But because we are leaps and bounds ahead within sexual politics and within politics general but we're still the same messed up world - we refer very much to gender politics, gender, sexual fluidity, gender fluidity and also today's politics that here we are again with the Tory government and the NHS is suffering, the young are having to go into debt to be students, that transgender people are still being beaten in the streets.   It's very much addressing all of that today within the original story of “Jubilee”. It's very clever, clever, it's very provocative. And another thing that Chris Goode has done - which I think is it stroke of genius - is the cast are all, in real life, political protestors. Thet're all actors but they're activists, which gives the play an incredible bravado and confidence.  

These very brilliant performers are not scared to strip off, they're not scared to offend the audience, and they live for real. Like we as punks - we lived as punks. These guys live as activists, and that has brought Derek’s “Jubilee” into the modern day with a younger generation of performers.

JO: How interesting as you say, and totally topical. And if you look back - I've read what you've said in interviews about your own youth. You said gender was never a big concern to you. You were very boyish, you were gender neutral? TOYAH: I chose to be a person, not an agenda and I used the term third gender. Well, now we have many, many genders. I still be prefer to be referred to as a person - JO: And you say and I agree with you - we're the same generation - all of that thrusting through the barriers that you certainly did and I suppose I did in my own tiny way - it was available to us. These kids now have taken the route that I never took, which is they're all qualified, they're all at university, they all have degrees ... and 50% are out of work. That is really worrying, isn't it? So we've taken a step forward and then 10 back.         

TOYAH: What concerns me is 40 years ago, when I was a punk rocker, everything was an opportunity, and I feel genuinely concerned that there's very little opportunity yet there is opportunity. With IT the way it is, with the technology the way it is . . .  If you have the right education and good ideas, there must be a way into the workplace.   I heard Billy Bragg say something utterly astonishing and it blew the top of my head off. About four years ago, he was writing for an anniversary of the “Titanic”, he wrote the most beautiful song about people that worked on the “Titanic" and he said he was the first member of his family that was not born to work in factories.   What frightens me today is within media young people are very much born to shop and to spend money, and to become ill. And what I mean by that is by entering into obesity. That really frightens me because they are being encouraged to be poor. If we don't address this  - what was phenomenal about punk was individual identity and punk opened up and pushed out the boundaries that if you had an idea that idea had a place, and it could move you forward in the world.   And I think young people need help to identify with that individuality as being part of what puts them in the workplace, their ideas have a footing there. So it does worry me incredibly that the young people today are in a completely different world to the world I came into.  

JO: Neither you or I have children and I often think it has enabled us to bounce around from job to job     - TOYAH: A lot of freedom, yeah     - JO: And it has given us a huge amount of freedom, hasn't it? I have God kids and nieces and nephews and all the rest of it and you watch them and you just think every generation thinks they're the luckiest but I truly believe we were and are -

TOYAH: Yes, I agree. We were very very lucky -    

JO: It was all out there for us  - TOYAH: It was all out there and we're still lucky  -

JO: I think punk was a voice that was listened to. It went across to the States and everything. Now ... what is there? What rebellions are there?     TOYAH: Let's just jump back to 77’ – I mean punk started really around 74’ but 77’ was the Jubilee year, we had the 1960’s, which was a huge social revolution, especially for women. It was the introduction of the pill, free love. You had amazing bands like The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, then we had amazing artists like Bowie, who was just so creative. I mean what incredible role models we had.    

Now we live in a broader world where there isso much choice, and there's so many little niches. It's quite hard to find your inspiration, because you need to find a niche to find the inspiration within it. We were very lucky. I still think the luck is there.

I just think we actually need a bit of a revolution, hopefully a bloodless one that will rebalance everything. I have no respect for people who are multibillionaires, because they're doing it because they're not paying taxes, and their parents help them be where they are, it's so unfair. We need to find a way that everyone has the opportunities we had where class, nepotism and education didn't hold others away from being successful. We all deserve success, we all should be working in the workplace. JO: I'm going to go home and see this, it's at the Lyric (Hammersmith). What a perfect theatre for it to go. Did you open it in Manchester?  

TOYAH: At The Royal Exchange Theatre     -

JO: Oh, I love that! I haven't been to the new one. I remember the old one -

TOYAH: It's mind blowing  . . .  

JO: Is it? How was it received? Who is your audience? (Is it the) Toyah audience?   

TOYAH: Well, critically it was received - it took us all by surprise. It's a huge critical success. The audience to begin with were middle aged and middle class, and we lost about 40% in the interval. But then slowly we've found the audience that can stomach the violence, stomach the nudity, stomach the sex.

It is about an all girl gang who rape and murder men but it's also abut transgender politics at the same time. It really is an eye opener. And by Act Two people are shouting approval, they agree with the politics, and they're up on their feet, crying ... it's beautiful  -

JO: And apparently you were fangirled outside?  

TOYAH: Yeah! (laughs) I've been papped as well! It's been quite a morning!

JO: Of course you will (get papped)! She's going to leave here under a blanket! Toyah, thank you so much for coming in . . .

TOYAH: Pleasure, thank you, Jo.

(Toyah and Jo at the BBC London studios)

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TOYAH ON BBC RADIO 4 WITH COLIN PATERSON 6.11.2017

TOYAH: It's the most defensive script I've ever read. It's political. It's sexual. It's rude. It's abusive and it's shocking. COLIN: Toyah Willcox on the first ever stage adaptation of "Jubilee" 40 years after the late director Derek Jarman's film TOYAH: It is the first ever punk rock movie to be made. We shot it in a bombed out part of London, near Tower Bridge, which is now the most expensive real estate area in the world. So the whole kind of weirdness of what we have today in comparison to back then is actually addressed in the play. COLIN: In the original film Toyah played "Mad", a pyromaniac in a murderous girl gang. For the stage version at Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre she has swapped roles, playing Elizabeth the 1st who time travels to see what has become of her country. The script has been updated and will be changed every day to reflect what's in the news. TOYAH: It's a very sexually political version of "Jubilee". There's seven murders, very graphic murders within the play. And I think about five full on sex scenes. I think we constantly need to be reminded that life isn't always about comfort and shopping. I think it's one of the cleverest things I've ever been in.

COLIN: However, during the final week of rehearsals, it was decided to cut the section of the original script where "Amyl Nitrate" explains her manifesto for life, and describes the Moors murderer and Myra Hindley as a "hero" and a "true artist" for realising her dreams. The speech was in the play until late on ... what changed?

TOYAH: There's been discussion all along, group discussions, about whether that line should stay in. I think Derek Jarman put it in 40 years ago into the original film because of the shock factor and punks in the beginning did do things to shock. But as punk had its maturity and it developed ... for me punk took on a social responsibility and gave voice to those that were marginalised.   And I think today it undermines the whole play if in the opening scene there is homage to Myra Hindley. We all agreed as a group, who are performing in Manchester, that it was beyond disrespectful. I couldn't bear to even hear Myra Hindley's name. We did not want people going out of the theatre, not hearing the message of the brilliant politics within the play, because of this one line COLIN: You've had a remarkable career. There was the early 1980's, all the Top 10 singles and the Smash Hits awards. You did fims starring with Katharine Hepburn and Sir Laurence Olivier. Still, maybe, the work heard by the most people ... is the Teletubbies? TOYAH: Isn't that ironic? I put the top and the end voice on, it was a favour to a friend. The only time I needed security on the streets was during the arrival of Teletubbies. It was extraordinary! COLIN: It was just two lines you did? One at the start and one at the end? TOYAH: Yes, I wasn't even seen - it was just my voice. "The sun is setting in the sky. Teletubbies say goodbye."

COLIN: What would the punks in 1977 have made of you doing Teletubbies? TOYAH: I think they'd have loved it because I think Teletubbies was brilliantly surreal 

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TOYAH ON BBC RADIO MANCHESTER WITH MIKE SWEENEY 1.9.2021

MIKE: The first time I interviewed you was in 1981. You're still performing, still writing, still recording. And it always fascinates me when people have got that longevity. Where does that energy come from and that commitment? TOYAH: I've got the best job in the world. It's as simple as that. To be in front of an audience. To affect people in a really positive way, with music or acting. It's absolutely wonderful. And I suppose part of me I'm still ambitious because I'm hoping to be discovered. MIKE: Yes, where I've watched you - you and Robert Fripp. For those who don't know - Robert was in  King Crimson. He and Toyah have been doing these lockdown concerts from their kitchen - TOYAH: Sunday lunches. Yeah. MIKE: Tell me how that came about? Because that's like watching a kid perform and that’s what you look like

TOYAH: Yeah, well, it's all from our kitchen. In May of last year, I wanted him to move more. So I started to teach him to dance and we posted a 29 second clip of him jiving really badly, but beautifully at the same time. He was just so cute. And within five minutes we had 100,000 replies from around the world as far as New Zealand, as far as Hong Kong, Bali. And we kept posting, and these messages were coming back, just saying thank you, we've cheered them up. By January of this year we had 40 million viewers, and it escalated in a really wonderful way.     And it taught us so much about what a world audience is. And it's not about us showing off as rock stars or saying "look at our cars, look at our swimming pool". It was us saying that we behave badly in our kitchens as well. And it was cheering people up and then I got the record deal in lockdown. Started writing “Posh Pop” with my co-writer Simon Darlow. Robert agreed to come on it.     And we found that we were hugely influenced by knowing this world audience and what they needed. And it wasn't that they were needy people, they just needed to be seen and to be recognised and for us to say "we're in it with you".

MIKE: I've got to be careful how I phrase this. I am old school and I’d like to think I’ve got good manners. But you look amazing in the videos. You look very young, very lively. And to a certain extent and I’m sure this is a by-product - you became a role model or a yardstick for women of a certain age to still look really really youthfull and energetic. Are you aware of that?

TOYAH:  Well, I'm 63 and I do look after myself and image is important. It’s not all vanity, it's just I want to look how I feel inside. Talking to you, I can tell you're exactly the same, the energy will never change. You are who you are. You were a punk rocker, you're still a punk rocker. I was a punk rocker, and I still have that energy. I adore performing and I'm not ready to stop.   And I found in lockdown the silence of the industry, as painful as it was, because I knew that there were people out there who were struggling, but that silence allowed me to write music and I wasn't going to let that go. I had to do it. I was driven to do it. MIKE: What was the musical moment in time for young Toyah, where you thought "I want to be in the rock’n’roll industry"? TOYAH: It was three albums. Roxy Music “For Your Pleasure.” Marc Bolan “Electric Warrior” and David Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust”. When I heard those three albums I knew that in my head the rebel I was but wasn't allowed to express externally, I knew I could do it. If they could do it, I knew that I could be the person I was in my head.

MIKE: How important was that punk era for opening the door for people like you? People like Chrissie Hynde? So many … Poly Styrene - TOYAH: Definitely Poly because Polly and I weren't your typical physical types. So up until that point you have beautiful performers. You had Lulu, you had Cher, you had Olivia Newton-John, who was just physical perfection and punk opened the doors for people like me. I'm barely five foot tall. I was three stone heavier back then. You had the gorgeous and beautiful Poly Styrene, who was just a poet. He was a female poet who wrote beautiful music as well. It opened the doors for us, and I'm so grateful. MIKE: Where do your songwriting inspirations come from? Because you get older . . . yes, you can write about - well, I could write about girls and cars  . . .  I'm 73 - it was a long time ago. So you’ve got to write about the now but you've got to write about the now without it being "I’m so weary" . . . Where do you get the inspiration from?

TOYAH: I’m 63, and my inspiration just comes from - both of us have lived a lot of life. And we have a lot of wisdom. And I've seen in people as they grow older, I saw in my parents, that they needed to be relevant. So I'm writing songs about how relevant everyone is. That we are never not needed. We are needed somewhere and people need to know that.   I think that was one of the incredible messages about lockdown, that we all were part of a community and I'm now calling that a world community, that everyone of us was still relevant, even though we were locked in a room in the middle of nowhere, and told we couldn't touch anyone.   So that brought out in me incredible messages like how privileged we were before lockdown. To be able to hold those that we love, whether they were young or old, about to pass from this world, or about to come into this world. Touch was so unique and it was a privilege. So I kind of wrote about all of that.

MIKE: I’ve asked every performer - whether it's musicians like you, whether it's actors, backstage staff, roadies, everybody. How do you manage when your life is around interacting with people in a live environment and in a studio environment, in an art environment and that stopped overnight. Psychologically - what was like for you? And Robert? TOYAH: The first three weeks was tough because I was about to go on the road with Hazel O'Connor in big venues,a  completely sold out tour. And we kept moving it and moving it and moving it hoping that we'd be able to do it by the following September.  It's now happening in June of next year. We are honouring every ticket sold. I had three movies coming out, two of which I've won Best Supporting Actress awards globally in film festivals, so it was going to be a halcyon year. But these films are still coming out.   Then the reality of the stage riggers, the lighting men, the sound crew, the tour bus drivers, the caterers, who were losing everything and had no government support . . . made me stop thinking about myself and just go right, we need to project something here that says that we're all in the same boat. I just started making the Toyah YouTube channel, and it had a very positive effect on people. Probably because of my chest (they both snigger) but also because they were very wacky wild things . . .

MIKE: Did you notice that I didn't make any reference to that whatsoever. Trying to keep my job . . . TOYAH: I love it that at 63 what I've done that with my body! I have to say I love it. And part of it is, why should age matter? It shouldn't matter. It's the spark within us that counts. MIKE: So when’s the tour going to start again? TOYAH: I've been on tour for the last five weeks because we've been able - MIKE: What’s it like? TOYAH: The first time I walked on stage was Liverpool. I could have cried. I could have just knelt down to kiss that stage, and the audience is just so there with you. More than ever before because they want this, more than ever before. MIKE: And the future? So where are we going to go from here? The record’s coming out, obviously . . .

TOYAH: Yeah, well, its midweek chart place is number five and that's midweek. So we're very very excited. I'm touring it for another year and a half, then hopefully I get into the studio and write the next album. It's very very busy because we're all buffering so many gigs from last year into this space of time while we can . . . MIKE: I’m more into you now than when I first met you 40 years ago. It’s been an absolute pleasure talking to you. Toyah, you take care of yourself. TOYAH: It’s good to see you! Don’t leave it 40 years again, alright?

Mike and Toyah at the BBC Radio Manchester studios 

You can listen to the interview here  HERE

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TOYAH ON BBC RADIO DEVON WITH RICHARD GREEN 18.9.2021

RICHARD: It's the BBC in the South West. Toyah's alongside me, brand new album out. It's your lockdown album that you did with Robert, of course. So tell us a bit about it? TOYAH: "Posh Pop" was made during lockdown. We started the main writing January of this year. My co-writer Simon Darlow and I wrote the whole album and recorded it and then we got Robert in. So we gave Robert the chord charts, half an hour every week, he'd come in to the studio, improvise over the tracks.      Now of course . . . Robert Fripp - 40th great guitarist in the world. He doesn't need very much prep time, and he only likes to do one take. So his role was very very quick and then we fed him which is the priority, he always wants to be fed. And I have to say that I think we are a magical three when it comes to creativity.   The sound on "Posh Pop" it’s very definitely Toyah but it's awfully unique at the same time, and it's just become a vast critical hit. It was number one across the board last week, but 22 in the main album charts. I don't have a Spotify audience yet, my audience like to buy LP’s, CD’s and have that physical product in their hand. So this is still 40 years on a massive learning curve for me.

RICHARD: Yeah, what about you? Do you still like to own a physical product,  if you've got something that you enjoy listening to? I mean I do. I'm always buying CD's, I feel like a bit of an old boy in that respect. What about youself? TOYAH: I think I would prefer physical product but I'm on the road the whole time. So last week I was on a ship, doing concerts for four days. Then I had to travel to a TV studio and then travel here. So having physical product for me, just with the job I do, is very, very hard. That said, I've still got absolutely every LP I've ever owned in the last 42 years. Well, actually -  I’m 63 so in the last 60 years. I've got everything I owned as a child as well. Do I get to look at it? No. RICHARD: You don't want to give it away. I heard somebody on Twitter the other day say “I got rid of my vinyl and I took it to the dump” and I thought no! Don't do that! Give it to a charity shop or something if you're going to get rid of it - TOYAH: I mean in this day and age - and I think lockdown has proved it - everything has value. Don't put it in the dump, keep it. RICHARD: I saw over lockedown - not only were you obviously with Robert and doing your album and so on and so forth. You were very active on things like Instagram and the socials keeping your fans, and yourself enthused I guess?

TOYAH: Yes, I started Toyah YouTube channel in lockdown because I had the time to. And again, it's this thing, the irony of lockdown. You took these very creative artists, me and my husband, and put us in a house with nothing to do, and we were going absolutely stir crazy, and it gave me an opportunity to develop this community. And we did it by posting very simple little videos.

 The first one was 28 seconds long, and it was me and Robert jiving and it went viral in five minutes. Then we realised there's an audience out there that were getting a lot of pleasure from what we were doing. And eventually I think January this year, when we did Metallica's “Enter Sandman”, we had 40 million views or 40 million passed through Toyah YouTube, and it's now kind of a second career for me RICHARD: It is amazing. So just tell us a little bit about performing again? Because I've heard it on good authority that when Let’s Rock Liverpool happened - I’m not certain whether you were at Liverpool - but Tony Hadley was full of nerves, so was Kim Wilde and Glen Gregory thought he was going to forget some of the words to a Heaven 17 song and all that sort of thing. So how are you now? Are you completely back into it or are you still with a frisson of nerves?

TOYAH: I’ve been performing concerts since the end of May, because I've been doing hotels, which are a controlled environment, and small venues which again are a controlled environment. And ironically, if we ever have a problem again with Covid it’s the smaller venues that can survive because we can prove testing. It’s huge events where it's difficult to control.   So I didn't have stage nerves. What was immensely emotional for me, and I could have kissed the stage, was that we could all be together again. And what Toyah YouTube has taught me is that we remained a community. The Let’s Rock is a community, and it's very much a family atmosphere. So for me - my problem was not being overcome with emotion. This event being able to be a family again, and to be a cultural community, which we were all terrified was lost forever. RICHARD: And we are a family, aren't we? Because we've known each other for years coming to the Let’s Rock event. I'm going to play something from the new album in a moment so have a little ponder in your mind as to what we ought to be playing. Whenever you go on stage, you always look stunning. Can you describe your ensemble for the radio audience that are listening now?

TOYAH: It's a very grand looking outfit. It's actually a prom dress covered completely in gold sequins that I found in a second hand shop. People cannot believe what I find. I'm an absolute treasure seeker. So this is a second hand prom dress. Only ever worn once probably. I snapped it up and it's become my signature dress. It's phenomenal. RICHARD: It will look great when you're out on stage here at Exeter. So the new album. I've heard some of the tracks actually on the radio and as you rightly say - essentially Toyah but Robert’s there as well. You can hear Robert’s touches on it as well. What should we play? TOYAH: I would love you to play “Space Dance”, because it's very very happy, very very up. The most popular tracks are  . . . “Rhythm In My House” is the runaway track on the internet. “Space Dance” I love doing live and “Summer of Love”. RICHARD: And when you say you love doing it live, what's going beyond this afternoon. Beyond performing at Exeter? What what are your plans? Have you've got a big tour planned now? 

TOYAH: I'm on tour now until the end of 2023. And that's because we've lost last year. So I play London in two weeks, and I have the Posh Pop band, we're promoting “Posh Pop” right up until June next year. Then Hazel O'Connor and I are touring together right throughout June, and then I'm touring “Anthem” which is being rereleased next year, which is my platinum 1981 album. Then after that, the touring continues and I’ve got to write a new album so it's busy. RICHARD: Yeah, I don't know when you're going find time to do that in between all those gigs but it's lovely to catch up with you again. It's great to see you out and enjoying yourself and enjoying “Posh Pop” as well. TOYAH: Yeah, thank you very much and lovely to see you. 

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TOYAH ON BBC RADIO 2 WITH STEVE WRIGHT 24.8.2021

STEVE: Toyah is in that rare category of only needing her first name to know who we're talking about. She's a British pop icon, actor and a broadcaster with a career covering more than 40 years. Her last album of new material “In The Court Of The Crimson Queen” came out in 2008, and last year she reissued some of her acclaimed early albums. But now she's back with new music. Her album, “Posh Pop” comes out this Friday. It's 10 new songs that feature the guitar work of husband Robert Fripp from prog rock legends, King Crimson. He was only given a chord sheet and told to do whatever he felt like. Well, that's some kind of privilege by being your man. He can do what he likes.

TOYAH: Thank you so much! What a wonderful introduction. With Robert he wanted the freedom to just play in the moment and he's a good enough musician that he doesn't have to rehearse beforehand, especially a pop album. He came in for half an hour  one day a week, we handed him the code chart and he blew us away.   STEVE: He’s sensational, isn’t he, really? Here’s a thing about your good self - you been round quite a time and to still be doing it with the verve and the enthusiasm and the musicality that you do it with and that's on top of being a known actress ... how do you do it?

TOYAH: Well, you know we're in a great profession. It's just utterly enjoyable. Every single moment is so enjoyable. What happened during lockdown is all artists lost their audience and that started to get very scary and I have to perform. I completely identify with life through performance and I found myself needing to write songs and needing to make videos and God bless my mobile phone because I made 10 videos on it while making the album.   I just found that it was either an opportunity or nothing was going to happen. There was no middle ground. I started Toyah YouTube with "Toyah and Robert’s Sunday Lunch". 40 million visitors. The majority saying "thank you for making our Sundays. Thank you for making us laugh". The human life stories that came back to us were an inspiration from everyone who was working in the NHS, working in medicine around the world to those who are locked in single rooms with children and it just made us want to reach out and I think this is a human interest album.   It’s called “Posh Pop” for two reasons. One, Robert is playing on it and if he wasn't it would just be called pop (Steve laughs) ... Add Robert Fripp to something and it suddenly goes up a gear. Also, we wanted people to get back into their lives and dance and celebrate and be able to hug each other. And we wanted this album to be very very up and it’s pop songs.  

STEVE: It’s pop songs, yeah. I mean, with your older hits, they were something not outside of pop, but beyond pop and you can hear some of that in these songs. It's definitely you.   TOYAH: Yeah, it's a shared rebellion because even though I think I've always stood outside of every genre, my audience - they know what I am and I’m still performing to 15,000 people at festivals. I also do small gigs to 200 people and every night is a riot.   So my audience knows my voice, they know my personality and even within “Posh Pop” we’re picking out things that we’re passionate about. A song like “The Bride Will Return” is … every bride missed their wedding for 16 months so how can I not write a song about the bride will return? STEVE: It’s got a kind of a driving riff through it, a kind of underlay? Hasn't it really, that song?

TOYAH: I saw a clip about a bride in Beirut during a photo session when a warehouse blew up and this exquisitely beautiful bride, the photo caught the shock on her face. I went straight to my piano and started that tune and took it into the studio to my co-writer Simon Darlow and we just sat there in tears writing this song in honour of that bride.   STEVE: I always remember you being quite definite about what you wanted and the other thing I remember about you in those very early days was that you lived somewhere strange. I wasn't sure where it was. It might have been like a railway arch or something like that ...

TOYAH: It was a British Rail warehouse (Toyah in her office at "Mayhem", above). It was freezing!   

STEVE: But it was handy for the train! TOYAH: Very handy for the train. Every weekend Steve Strange would take it over and Boy George would turn up. Iggy Pop would turn up. We once had 400 people in this warehouse having a party for four days.   STEVE: I always thought that must be a great place to be. TOYAH: There was just one small problem.   STEVE: What? TOYAH: There was only one loo (Steve laughs)   STEVE: I know you're touring, in fact this Friday, Somerset, the Watchet Festival  ... TOYAH: Can’t wait! STEVE: August 27th. Have you done any gigs yet?   TOYAH: Yeah! Non-stop festivals - I did five last week. It's so special, you could just kiss the stage (Steve laughs) and everyone is just so happy and it's rained non-stop for a month -

STEVE: Doesn’t matter - TOYAH: Everyone’s really happy.   STEVE: Yeah. (Reads a list of upcoming gigs) You know, everywhere basically and then there's a thing, Toyah and Hazel O'Connor, Electric Ladies of The 80s tour dates, and that's in places like Buxton, Holmfirth, Gateshead, Manchester et cetera, et cetera. But that's June of next year, so we might mention that a little closer to the gig. TOYAH: Thank you so much, we’re trying to fit in all of last year's gigs.   STEVE: You’re obviously acting still. When's your next TV or play?   TOYAH: Well, there all backed up, so I had “To Be Someone” out in cinemas last month. That was me, Lesley Ash, Mark Wingate. Some of the cast from “Quadrophenia”. My next movie is (at) Halloween and it's called “The Ghosts of Borley Rectory” (Toyah as Estelle Roberts, below), which is a true story and I'm fabulous in it (Steve laughs) and I'm the female lead.   

STEVE: Yeah. I heard that, yeah TOYAH: I’m the female lead in “Give Them Wings” which is due for distribution in the autumn.   

STEVE: Tim (Smith, also in the studio), I know that you worked with Toyah in the past, up at Radio West Midlands.

TIM: Yeah long time ago we did a programme, you presented it,  I produced it and I always remember the fact that we had to surprise you with Robert right at the end of the programme. So I'm liaising with Robert Fripp thinking “oh my God, I got Robert Fripp on the phone”, but a delightful man, as I'm sure you're well aware, we had quite a lot of fun actually doing that. Yeah, long time ago.

TOYAH: Well, you've always been fantastic to work with Tim, I adored being in your company.

STEVE: Really?  

TIM: You’re very kind .

STEVE: Yeah … you’re the only one.

TOYAH: I thought I’d get that in.

STEVE: Yeah, I can tell.  

TIM: Tell Robert I played a lot of air guitar to this album, it’s brilliant stuff.

STEVE: Yeah, it's a great. It is really, really nice. It's great. Toyah’s new album “Posh Pop” is out on Friday. Good to talk to you again and hopefully next time we’ll see you. Stay safe and all of that.

TOYAH: Thank you so much. See you out there.  

STEVE: Okay, see you out there. There she goes, it’s Toyah everybody!

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TOYAH ON RADIO BORDERS WITH HUGH BROWN 8.10.2009

HUGH: What did a young Toyah Willcox want to do when she left school? TOYAH: The young Toyah Willcox wanted to dominate the world and be like Julie Andrews and then punk came along and I very happily became a punk rocker. I always wanted to act and sing but I never wanted  to do them together. I wasn’t interested in stage musicals, even though I have ended up doing those.    I wanted to keep them separate, I wanted two very solid but diverse careers and I've managed to have about five diverse careers. But I did want world domination. But the glory about growing older as you get more experienced, you become more enriched as an artist and you get  little more realistic about your ambitions. HUGH: Tell us how you came into the punk mode then? How did you fall into punk music? Was it was a band at school or …?

TOYAH: No, I left school when I was 17 and I moved to London to be the youngest member of the Royal Theatre Company when I was about 18. And that happened because I got spotted on the streets of Birmingham and I ended up in a BBC2 play with another actor called Phil Daniels, who about four years later I made “Quadrophenia” with. Punk kind of embraced me, I was an oddball from Birmingham. I didn’t really fit into any of the compartments women were supposed to fit  into. I wasn't very ladylike, I was very tomboyish. I was small, dumpy, I just didn't fit the Farrah Fawcett-Majors kind of mould. And punk came along and made way for women like me and it also embraced women like me who are articulate but not necessarily academic. So I was very, very grateful for punk rock. And then I ended up in Derek Jarman's movie “Jubilee”, which was a punk rock movie. Ian Charleson, the actor from "Chariots Of Fire" introduced me to Derek Jarman and Derek was very, very open about his casting technique. He threw me script over a cup of tea and said “choose whichever part you want” and that's how I got the role.     And Derek kind of fell in love with me for a bit and cast me as Miranda in “The Tempest” (below) which was an award winning film of Shakespeare's “The Tempest” and that was really it for me. That kind of set me off around the world.

HUGH: We'll talk about the musical you're touring with in a moment, “Vampire’s Rock” but in that you've got a lot of heavy stage make-up. The punk era was like that as well. In fact, I have to tell you as a teenager I found you scary . . . TOYAH: I'm glad you found me scary! I've always wanted to be sightly provocative. Not a hate figure, but definitely provocative and definitely questioning that whole thing of see the person, not the age, not the gender. It's always been incredibly important to me and I've always been provocative of that issue. HUGH: And the whole punk thing obviously had a limited life span and it would come to a natural end - TOYAH: Noooo … HUGH: Is it coming back again?

TOYAH: I played, about five years ago, Wasted Festival (below), which is a punk festival that plays around the world. 20,000 punk rockers of all age groups. What I'd say is that I've moved on with my natural age. I've never stayed a punk rocker. I've always moved on with each decade, but there's plenty of punks out there and there's plenty of people out there that want their punk music.   HUGH: Do you think women in music are treated any better or worse than men in music? Because if you think again of the punk era -  that was very male dominated ...

TOYAH: Ooh no no …  I've got to tell it from my point of view. It's a very good question, a really superb question. Thank you. When I came into the music business, as  a punk rocker, it was male dominated. The music industry now thanks to punk rock, new wave and New Romanticism is probably today run by 80% women. The executives are women and that is thanks to punk rock.   But when I started, yeah, it was male dominated but it allowed women like me who were very voicy and very opinionated to come into the business and to change it. And I think music now is still 80% about women, but you have still got sexism and you still got ageism. And I think again it's down to people like me who have been around for 32 years or longer to say, well, actually we're still creative. We still got something to say. We're still pushing out the boundaries and we're not going to go away. And that's how we fight our revolution. HUGH: You mentioned “Quadrophenia”. It's an iconic film, still very highly regarded even all these years later. Was that a turning point for you and your career? Do you look back on that and think I'm glad I did that?

TOYAH: (I'm) Very glad I did “Quadrophenia”, but when it came out it was critically panned. And I don't know why it was panned because as far as I can see it was always great movie. I don't think it was released too early or too late. It was released at the right time but people really attacked Franc Roddam (the director), they attacked The Who, they attacked the script writer, they attacked the cast and it was really odd. I don't know why.   And then the audience voted with its feet. Which is the best way to have a hit. And every generation has rediscovered that film and made it their own. So I'm more than glad I did that movie and yes, it has done very well for me. Probably not as well as having hit singles in the 80’s and being part of the 80’s musical genre, but I'm certainly very, very proud of having done it. HUGH: Can we look for a second at your music because thinking of your 13 Top 40 singles and umpteen albums, songs like “It’s A Mystery”. They were unique. It was so different I think even at that time, which was, as we've mentioned, dominated a lot by punk rock, although I think towards the end of the 70’s almost anything went and we look at the Top 40, it was so eclectic -

TOYAH: It was a revolution, we needed revolution. The young people of the late 1970’s had to find a voice. We were politically in quite a bad place. There was a lot of unemployment. There was a lot of the "Winter of Discontent" going on. There were riots and England breeds phenomenal people - let me resay that - the UK breeds phenomenal people.   With great history, great culture, great attitudes, fantastic ideas and there was no outlet in the late 70’s and punk came along and let the stop valve go. We let off steam but also we recreated the culture of the youth because nothing had been happening since the 1960’s. And I think you know this is what young people do, and they do it so well, they create their own islands by which to stand on and go na na na to the rest of the world. And thank goodness it happened. HUGH: The big breakthrough single is “It's A Mystery.” Tell us about it?

TOYAH: Well, “It's A Mystery.” written by Keith Hale and it was mainly an instrumental for a band called Blood Donor and it was written in about 1979. An my record company heard it and asked if I’d buy demo it so myself and (producer) Nick Tauber rearranged it and I wrote the second verse and we made it into a song. So we demoed it. I wasn't particularly fond of it because I felt it was too feminine for what I wanted to stand for.   I was very bombastic and wanted my music to be very kind very out there and very powerful. Ironically Girl Power about 20 years before Girl Power came along. But “It's A Mystery” … was massive. Absolutely massive. It sold 75,000 units a week, I think even a day on some days, it was selling that many. I remember the vinyl printing factories had to stay open 24 hours a day to reach demand, which was incredible when you think some people get to n:o1 today, in the present climate, selling 2000 units a week. So “It's A Mystery” sold and sold and sold. 

HUGH: I was in a very well known record shop in the High Street the other day, and Cliff and The Shadows are back together and made an album and there was the CD single and a 7 inch vinyl single - TOYAH: Yeah. Vinyl is coming back. I think that's good news. People want for their money, they want something they can have a relationship with, something in their hand. It's a collectors piece. And I think what people forget about vinyl is people collected it. It wasn't just about the quality of the song, the quality of the album cover and the artist, it was actually about having a collection. And I think vinyl will come back. HUGH: The 80’s, is funny how things, you know, what "goes around comes around" because you yourself have been involved in some some 80’s revival tours and things with other artists, and they seem to be huge. The Rick Astley's, Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran, they’re all back and back in fashion again. Do you think that's because music just goes in circles and comes back again?

TOYAH: I think there's an element of we’re still alive, and I say that with respect, because I do think that because of the way media is at the moment, when someone passes away, there is incredible media about it and I've noticed since Michael Jackson's passed away that people of far nicer to me than they ever have been. (whispers) Thank you Michael! There is that element there, that Spndau are still alive and to put that into perspective about the size of audiences were getting ...   The week Oasis disbanded in Paris, on that night they were playing to 30,000 people. I opened the Rewind festival ... 30,000 people. We're getting the same amount of people as the current acts, and that never gets featured. No one ever puts their hand up and say "OK, you’re old rockers, but actually you're drawing bigger crowds than the younger people and we are". Its phenomenally popular. 

HUGH: And I think it's interesting because my daughter is just coming up on 8 and I've introduced her to late 70’s and 80’s music and although she likes the current stuff too, it's amazing - she just loves that kind of stuff and I think it is probably a lot of sons and daughters of those who came first time round -

TOYAH: Oh yeah! For me I love Cream in The Yard Birds. Early Stones, I mean magnificent songs that resonate in the part of me that had no worries and had no insecurities. Therefore when I hear those songs, I remember a time which was a really happy time. I would have been about 8 or 9 so I imagine with a lot of the 80’s stuff they allow people to kind of forget the present. And experience the fantasy of being truly truly happy, because I do think we live in phenomenally difficult times for everyone. Difficult times for the family, difficult times for teenagers thinking about the future, and I think because of that music has so much more power.

HUGH: I want to ask you about one of your recent roles, about “The Secret Diary Of A Call Girl”, working with Billie Piper (below). That must have been pretty special, I would think?

TOYAH: I love that. I mean, I've done very few days filming on it, but I love the fact that they cast me, a singer, as Billie Piper's mother. I think it's so clever because Billie, she's had a singing career. She might revisit it. But I just thought that was great. Really great. She's a tall girl. She spent most of the time kissing me on top of the head, but I'm very very fond of her. She's a very brilliant and talented actress.

HUGH: Let's talk about your tour now and tell us a bit about about the musical. What it actually involves and what the storyline is? TOYAH: “Vampires Rock” (below) is a cult musical. It's been going for about five years and I joined it last year. Has little elements of the Rocky Horror Picture Show about it, but it's not as scripted. And basically it takes the genre of classic rock. If you look at songs by Bon Jovi, AC/DC Alice Cooper, Billy Idol, they're all featured in the show and the lyrics of these songs are used very loosely to tell the story of a nightclub owner in 2020 in New York who wants to get rid of his 2000 year old vampire wife and everyone on stage are vampires.   Beautiful band on stage called The Lost Boys, they are stunningly beautiful and the girls scream after them every night. Fabulous musicians, beautiful dancers, and then you got quirky characters like me playing the Devil Queen. So it's basically a rock show that has an incredibly strong sense of theatre about it. A little bit Bowie-esque, Mott The Hoople and Alice Cooper in its visualisation. And a lot of comedy as well, but it rocks. It's really, really good. HUGH: Sort of bouncing in the aisles?

TOYAH: Yeah! Screaming in the aisles, rioting in the aisles. It’s great! HUGH:  And you’re touring with that in fact through to next year? TOYAH: Yeah, I'm touring with that until mid-February of next year and then I join it again in September and we tour right through again

HUGH: I'm not trying to write your obituary in anyway, but what's left for Toyah Willcox to do? I mean, you've done so much and we've only been able to touch on a fraction of it in this interview. What else would you like to do? TOYAH: Well, I’ve got my band The Humans, which is incredibly important to me, which is myself, the drummer from REM Bill Riefling. My husband Robert Fripp is guesting with us at the moment and we start touring in February. I created The Humans for the President of Estonia, who invited my husband to play in Estonia, but he couldn't make it so I said "well, I'll come over. I'll put band together and we will write songs in Estonia for Estonia".   This took off and the only way I can explain it's like European film noir. It's two electric basses and my voice and a lot of very weird loops and we deconstruct the pop song. So we've got a single out out at the moment called “These Boots Are Made For Walking” and all I can say is it's very New York - Seattle because it slightly deconstructed

HUGH: It’s the old Nancy Sinatra song - TOYAH: Yes, the old Nancy Sinatra song, which is a brilliant classic song. But we've brought the darkness of that song into this millennium. So I'll be working on that band for most of next year. HUGH: I think that's quite brave because it's one of those songs that you wouldn't really expect anyone to cover. Its one of those you think you'd leave well alone? TOYAH: But it's got so many connotations to it. It's a woman singing about the infidelities of a man. The song was written well before the AIDS scare. It was written well before the culture of sadomasochism, yet when you perform it in this day and age it really has quite a dark undertone to it, which is what The Humans is about. The Humans is about the face we wear behind our heads, it's about the dark nature of the human race, so it's perfect for us. HUGH: Tell us what this movie is then?

TOYAH: Yeah, I’ve just starred in a very low budget British movie called “Three To Tango”. And at the moment they're having their press showings and audience showings, which means they get test audience in and the audience kind of write reports. So it might become “Power Of Three” (below). There's two titles at the moment, and it's going to all the festivals next year and I star in it. And it's a British comedy made for £80,000 which is an absolute feat.   But the reason I'm telling you about it, the press are saying it's one of the best movies of next year. Apparently it looks as though it has £100 million budget, which is very very clever because it was filmed on high definition around Belsize Park in London. And they've used all the music off an album I wrote with my partner, Simon Darlow, called “In The Court Of The Crimson Queen”, which was out last year, went to number 6 in the iTunes Rock chart. And this is due for release next year and apparently it's wonderful HUGH: We look forward to seeing it. Will it be on general release do you think?

TOYAH: I think it’ll get a limited general release. It’s definitely written for the “Sex An The City” generation and the kind of 50 year olds upwards. It's a very pro film about women in their 50’s reinventing their lives and becoming business women . It's very, very kind of “go girl! You go out and get the life you want. It's never too late”! So I think we'll have a limited release in the cinemas. Then it'll have a TV distribution and then to DVD. But hey, who cares? You know. These films kind of like “Quadrophenia” build and build and build. HUGH: You know, I interviewed Lulu a few years ago, and you remind me a lot of her in that you are looking fantastic! If I may say so -

TOYAH: Oh, thank you! HUGH: You’re looking absolutely brilliant! TOYAH: Thank you! HUGH: How do you keep yourself looking so well? TOYAH:Well, I don't party very much and people get very cross with me because I don't drink and I'm with a team of people at the moment who do nothing but drink (they both laugh) I only allow water and green tea to pass my lips and people can’t handle that at all! And very boringly 1500 calories a day. That's it. It's so important if you want to kind of keep in show business, you just have to live that really boring routine. It’s is not rock’n’roll at all. HUGH: You mentioned about calories ... As you can see, I don't worry about them at all but … (they both burst out laughing)   TOYAH: I would like to wake up in the morning and eat a bar of chocolate and then I'd like to go out and have a fried Mars Bar and then I'd like to go out and have fish and chips and then I'd like a bottle of Bourbon and then stay up all night. I mean, if I did that for one night I would not make the show the next day.

So that gives my age away. I really live a military regime when it comes to my health, it's ridiculousbecause when I walk on stage is the Devil Queen. Spitting at the audience. If they knew I have to be in bed by 11 o'clock with a carrot stick and hummus dip and lots of water … I mean they be so disappointed. HUGH: Well, it certainly works. Toyah, been lovely to speak to you. Wish you well with the single, the album and indeed the tour as well TOYAH: Thank you very much

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[toyahinterviews]

TOYAH ON BBC RADIO LONDON WITH JUMOKE FASHOLA 3.10.2020

JUMOKE: A new drive-in music experience is coming to London on the 7th of October where you'll be able to watch live recordings from all the greats from Madonna to David Bowie from the comfort of your car or chair. Joining us now is 80's star and this year's host Toyah Willcox. Toyah - good morning! So lovely to have you on the programme! TOYAH: Thank you Jumoke. I have not been up this early in a while. I'm a concert singer like you. Mornings are very very strange places (laughs) JUMOKE: I did think that, you know! I said "Toyah! This time of the morning?!" I was like "she must be enthusiastic about this!" TOYAH: Of course I am! Absolutely. But I'm used to going to bed six in the morning. I'm usually driving back from Glasgow or I'm driving back from Penzance. Always on the road so this is fabulous! And I live in a market town and I'm looking out onto the street and it's completely quiet. It's rather beautiful JUMOKE: How lovely! Thank goodness you know how to drive because this is all about a drive-in 

TOYAH: It is for me really important because from about the beginning of April live performers – and I'm very much ... 99% … my living is as a live performer and a live musician – all our incomes stopped. And when you think about the technicians who put up all the stages, who do all the sound, they carry all the equipment  … These technicians have not had any financial support for six months now. So the whole reason that Deezer is doing this 80's drive-in is to raise funds for live musicians, mainly the technical team. The drive-in is going to be beautiful. Everything is going to be priced at 80's prices. The ticket is only £15, but you'll get a burger and a drink for 70p. And we want everyone to dress up, come with an 80's spirit. I call it a big warm 80's hug. This is the decade of showing off, exuberance, of big brash music and there will be wonderful concerts on the screen by David Bowie, Stevie Nicks, Madonna and Prince. I mean could that be any better? And I believe I'm singing too JUMOKE: Oh are you?! What a wonderful treat! It must be lovely actually to be able to go out and do that after all this time? TOYAH: It's phenomenal to be able to sing live. I don't know about you Jumoke … In my house I have a green screen studio that connects me to the world … I have recording facilities so I've been recording in New York, I've been in LA – from my home. So I've had six months of super creativity and super worry about everyone's health but it's all been from the one address. So to actually get out there and see and hear a live audience is such a privilege 

JUMOKE:

And you as an artist – it must've been an extraordinary time the early 80's into the 90's. What was it like for you a performer but also being surrounded by these legends?

TOYAH:

It was magical because back then everything was on a such a quick ascension to do with technology. I had my first hit in '81 although I was really super successful as an album artist from '78. So '81 MTV launches in August and that changed the world because not only were we singers – we had to make videos so we became very visual artists.

And what I remember about the 80's apart from playing in the stadiums and festivals to 200 000 people was that we had to create these really powerful looks that people would remember and for me it was big hair, very dramatic clothes. I always came on as a warrior woman looking far larger than life. And I remember the 80's as being very warm and very inclusive of the audience but of course when we got the 90's everyone remembered the 80's because of Margaret Thatcher and I think now we can forget the associated politics of the time and just hear the music. I have so many young fans under the age of 25 who contact me all the time saying “we've just discovered you! Oh wow!” And it's all new to this generation which is so rewarding

JUMOKE: It's interesting when you talk about the fashion as well because now everybody seems to have a stylist and a stylist and a half and three stylists, whatever - but you must've just been going "I just want to be me and this is what I'm going to do" and that must've been so exciting? TOYAH: It was very important to me as one of the rare females in the industry back then and you didn't have female executives in the industry in the UK back then – you did in the USA and it's a really important factor that women were involved in the industry so here I was, barely five foot tall, I didn't look like a supermodel – I had to make my mark. So I did by working with really wonderful arts students – a phenomenal woman called Melissa Caplan handmade all my clothes as she did for Bananarama and Spandau Ballet as well and Steve Strange of Visage. She hand painted everything so we were very very striking (below). All of our hair was never natural colour, mine was always orange so I had a lot of say in it – it meant a lot to me that I lifted that glass ceiling for women who didn't look like supermodels and said it doesn't matter what shape or size you are … If you've got an idea, that's what counts, it's your voice that counts and that was really really effective. I got about 10 000 letters a week off young girls saying "thank you, I never had confidence in myself and you've given me confidence." So that was really important to me then and it's really important to me today   

JUMOKE: Thank goodness you did do that because even today we are still battling those kind of stereotypes - which surprising given the amount of technology we've got and the opening of the doors and the glass ceiling and all of that kind of stuff that has been shattered but for some reason the music industry in particular seems to be hung up on this idea of what beauty (is) and what is accessible in terms of music and pop? TOYAH: Well, that's a really interesting question because who is driving that? Because when you look at the really big women, the über triple A-list women  - I think to some extent it's their choice and then when you look at the kind of natural level of social media … that's where the problem is because young girls think that is a normality and it isn't a normality. I think a normality comes from the beauty within and when you've got a young girl who has a phenomenal voice, phenomenal talent – that's all that counts. That's all that matters – is that that talent gets to the stage, that that talent gets nurtured, that a career gets nurtured and both you and I know this. We need those people that nurture and move us forward and  support us so we can be artists. So I would say there's a huge division between the A-listers and the young generation coming up because I think it's unrealistic to put the body beautiful before the talent. I just don't think it's right. And you've got such talent in this country and around the world so the more the industry and the executives in the industry can help the talent the better is what I say. If you were to ask me why am I still here is because I've always driven my talent and I've slightly laughed at my physicality. And the way I say that – I'm very quirky, I'm very off-the-wall, this drive-in on Wednesday I'm going to be in full costume. It's a costume (below) you either find amusing or incredibly beautiful

JUMOKE: Oh my gosh! I love the idea of this but also what I love about this idea of looking back to the 80's in this way is that it will remind people about the individualism that really structured and was part of music industry - which we hope can regain some footing TOYAH: You just hit the nail on the head. It's individuality. And that for me – I'm 62 … I remember the 60's very very well. The 70's incredibly well  … it was the incredible individuality of the artists. It seemed to come before the music to a certain extent. I think individuality opens many doors for younger generations – to just step through that door and be brave enough and put their hand up and say “I have a voice”. I think individuality is pretty glorious thing and it's not always to do with body shape or   really selling your agenda. I think it's selling your ideas so I totally totally get that. Individuality. JUMOKE: Alright - so it's this coming Wednesday, the 7th of October, it's part of National Album Day - TOYAH: And I'm a National Album Day ambassador - JUMOKE: Oh, fantastic! TOYAH: And we're celebrating on the 10th of October artists' albums rather than single songs. Complete works. So with the drive-in London – it's all to help the technicians within the music industry who are unable to earn a living JUMOKE: It's been a joy Toyah, thank you so much for joining us this morning. The legend that is Toyah Willcox! I was really inspired by that conversation. Thank you Toyah, for sharing your memories of the 80's   

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