News & New In The Archive

Toyah's Steve Strange Docu

Listen to Toyah's BBC documentary
"Steve ... A Strange Life" 14.2.2025 HERE

(UK fans can listen on iPlayer HERE )


New Limited
Edition T-shirts

Two brand new limited edition Official Toyah T-Shirts are available to order now. They feature illustrations celebrating Toyah’s Minx and Blue Meaning eras. They available only until 30.4.2025 so get yours now!

Order HERE




Sheep Farming and
Blue Meaning Picture Discs

Two limited edition picture discs of the 1980 Toyah albums
Sheep Faming In Barnet and The Blue Meaning will be released 21.3.2025 to mark each album's 45th anniversary

Pre-order Sheep from Cherry Red HERE
and Blue Meaning HERE



Intergalactic Ranchhouse, Tellurian
and Toyah's Shadow

The Official Toyah fan club Intergalactic Ranchhouse,
Tellurian and Toyah's Shadow fanzines and newsletters
are now online in full for the first time ever!

Take a dive into Toyah history year by year ↓

INTERGALACTIC RANCHHOUSE

1980-1981
1982
1983
1984-86

TELLURIAN

1-10 (1986-1990)
11-20 (1990-1992)
21-31 (1992-1996)

TOYAH'S SHADOW

Issues 1,2,3 (1998-2001)

Read just the interviews and Q&A'S HERE

Read just Toyah's letters in the Intergalactic
Ranchhouses HERE and the Tellurians HERE

Also online in full for the first time ever are
Laura's Toyah Fanzines 1980-81
and Simon and Denise's Toyah Fanzines
1982
1983
1984

NEW INTERVIEWS

LOVE YOUR WEEKEND, ITV 23.11.2024
TOYAH TALKS LOVE IS THE LAW 2024
TOYAH TALKS THE CHANGELING 2023
E4 THE LATE EDITION 24.3.2005
BBC1 LIFE AND TIMES 2000
KENNY LIVE, RTÉ, IRELAND 12.11.1994
ITV THIS MORNING APRIL 1994
ITV THIS MORNING SEPTEMBER 1992
SUMMER SUNDAY ITV TV-AM 19.7.1987
BBC BREAKFAST TIME 1.4.1987
BBC1 WOGAN With Sue Lawley 16.4.1986
BBC BREAKFAST TIME June 1985
BBC PEBBLE MILL AT ONE 29.4.1985
SKY TRAX April 1985
BBC BREAKFAST TIME September 1983
HARTY, BBC1 16.11.1983
SOUNDCHECK Issue 1, 1983
GET SET FOR SUMMER, BBC1 July 1982
COUNTDOWN AUSTRALIA 4.4.1982
SUOSIKKI, FINLAND December 1981
PARKINSON, BBC1 October 1981
BACK ISSUE FANZINE 1980

Check out all the new stuff on our sister page HERE

TOYAH ON
ITV THIS MORNING
WITH RICHARD AND JUDY
APRIL 1994

A clip from “The Ink Thief” plays

RICHRAD MADELEY: (Toyah howls like a dog in the video) You're a bit carried away there

TOYAH: Sorry!

JUDY FINNIGAN: It's a new series called “The Ink Thief”

TOYAH: Yes, with Richard O'Brien playing the "Ink Thief". I'm a dog (below)

JUDY: So you're all animals?

TOYAH: Yes, we're all kind of half-dog, half-animal, half-human. We all have the ability to speak and act

RICHARD: Did you get a choice about which animal you were going to be?

TOYAH: (laughs) I was involved with the creative talks at the beginning. We thought a dog would be very funny for me, being kind of considered a glamorous rock and roll singer. “Toyah's a dog!”

JUDY: I think you've got a feline face. More of a cat face

TOYAH: I have played a cat. Animals seem to be my speciality. I was a cat with Dawn French in “Little Pig Robinson”, many years ago in the film. Dawn was playing a pig along with Jennifer


JUDY: I'm going talk a bit more about this new series but talking about this whole body image thing, which Dawn has. She's really really got her teeth into it. She's really going for it

TOYAH: Quite right

JUDY: And good for her. Absolutely. We're talking about body image and binging and starving in the phone-in today. You used to do that?

TOYAH: I think every young woman, when she first becomes aware of men and fashion, starves herself. I went on my first diet when I was about 12, and it was hugely successful. I looked brilliant, and I only lost about six pounds. But then I'd say I spent right up till the age of 27 starving myself

I mean, not dramatically. There was certainly no throwing up, nothing like that. But being very food conscious I think it's incredibly boring. I'm 35 now, and I don't give a damn. I'm very proud of how I look. I don't know the name of the guest earlier ...?

JUDY and RICHARD: (a model) Dandida (?)

TOYAH: I think the fashion world has a lot to answer for. I really do

RICHARD: Do you think it might change now? I don't mean this year or even next? I was saying earlier to Candida - one's heard these random conversations and random articles, but they do seem to be coming together now into a general and more organised backlash against the fashion industry. Do you think it's happening?

TOYAH: I don't think so much a backlash. It's probably a backlash against prices of clothes and very thin models. But I think it's about self-confidence and self-confidence has nothing to do with your body size. It's to do with you

RICHARD: It shouldn't have anything to do with it

JUDY: What stopped you? When you say that this went until you were 27  -you're 35 now. What made you stop starving yourself?


TOYAH: Self-confidence, truly finding my own voice without being influenced by others. And an absolute passionate love of food (Richard laughs) My emotional and social life is based on food. I love it!

JUDY: But you're not at all plump. What do you do? Do you work out a lot?

TOYAH: I'd probably never be seen modelling clothes because of my body size. I'm broad, I'm healthy and I'm stocky, but I have a high pressured life. It's a fast life, and I think that helps me keep things down. Alcohol and chocolate are deadly. I think you do have to make a few compromises and they're out the window

RICHARD: You don't drink at all or just the odd glass of wine?

TOYAH: The odd whiskey once a week, but that's about it - and it's a real treat

JUDY: But otherwise you more or less eat what you want?

TOYAH: Totally, yes

RICHARD: Let's go back to this kid's program and talk about kids programmes in general. What do you think about this debate going on about videos and the influence on kids? Do you think they influence them?

TOYAH: Ooh, you're really getting me answer heavy subjects this morning

RICHARD: Yeah, let's do. Let's talk about it

TOYAH: I am passionate about protecting children. Really passionate about it. I think potential for good and evil is in all of us, right through our lives. At some point in our lives we're educated to choose the right thing - basically good. I think that that time happens in our life before puberty

I feel bewildered sometimes that we allow children to view death as an act of mankind rather than an act of God. When you see continual news and video games where you're killing things or killing people, it kind of numbs your emotions towards human suffering. I think that's unhealthy. I think a child should be protected from all that purely by the love of a parent or parents


JUDY: I also think that people often make analogies with cartoons, don't they? They say well, kids watch cartoons where cats and mice batter each other over their head. It doesn't matter. Well, of course it doesn't matter because they're not human beings, and they know that's a drawing. It's not the same thing at all

TOYAH: Yes, but children go through stages. There's the toilet stage, where they're absolutely obsessed with anything to do with the toilet. Then there's the death stage that comes around the age of eight

I think you've got to be very protective of those stages and very honest with children, but not blatantly letting them see people who've been murdered and splattered. You have to guide them. I think that's our role as adults

RICHARD: I think in the last 20 years, speaking as a society, we haven't been guiding them at all. It's been this liberal view that they should be allowed to watch more or less what they want within certain limits

JUDY: It's the availability of videos. We were talking with our older boys the other day about these new guidelines that there'll be tougher fines, tougher penalties for video rental shops if they rent videos to younger kids

I don't think the problem is that at all, and neither do they. They have problems renting 18+ videos anyway. The problem is that when the adults get them and leave them lying around the house

TOYAH: Yes

RICHARD: The other thing is, just thinking back to your show, the kind of kids television. Kids television, when I was a kid, basically had a strong moral content. If you watch "The Woodentops" (a UK kids programme 1955-1973), haha, let's have a laugh at "The Woodentops". But there was a moral content to it

Most of the stories had some kind of moral dimension, which, in a very simple way show children that if you were nasty and cruel to the dog, then the dog might suffer. And therefore it was nasty

TOYAH: We're in such a technical age and things are available to children and children are incredibly intelligent. (For example) their knowledge of computers. I have no knowledge of computers, but a child has. That is accessing them to an incredible wealth of knowledge

RICHARD: That they're probably too young to understand

TOYAH: Yes, and this is probably really dramatic, but some computer systems have a pornography thingie you can access. A child will find that no problem at all


JUDY: Your new series looks very innocent. Is it?

TOYAH: It's absolutely crazy. "The Ink Thief" is this character who can absorb print off the page. He's timeless, he can time travel. All the animals around him are called "Bumps" and we have to guide him

Richard O'Brien's character goes off the rails and starts absorbing print to become human, to become powerful, rather than to create the future. So we're all these really mad creatures trying to save the world

JUDY: When does it start?

TOYAH: It starts at the end of May on ITV

RICHARD: What time does it go out?

TOYAH: 4.25

RICHARD: Series of seven?

TOYAH: Series of seven. Rock and roll, half cartoon, half drama. It uses all -

RICHARD: Mixed with animation and all that kind of -?

TOYAH: Yeah

JUDY: Sounds like a lot of fun. And you're singing for us at the end of the show your new single “Now And Then” ?

TOYAH: Yes. I'm on the road at the moment, and “Now and Then” is the single out on the third of May

RICHARD: OK, there it is. Toyah's singing a new single “Now And Then” at the end of the programme. You can catch the new series soon on ITV. Nice to see you again, as always

TOYAH: Good to see you

Watch the interview HERE

TOYAH ON
SUMMER SUNDAY
ITV TV-AM
WITH HENRY KELLY
19.7.1987

HENRY KELLY: It's 19th of July. I'm sorry it's a bit wet where we are in London, and it's not too good around the rest of the country, but we are delighted to bring a ray of sunshine into our studio and into your breakfast

The star guest of this morning, a lady who was once described as a punk rock rebel turned classical actress, and as a woman of 100 hair colors and countless chameleon disguises - it's Toyah Willcox. Who else would it be?

TOYAH: Good morning

HENRY: Good morning. A Birmingham girl and another Birmingham girl here with us every week

CO-HOST SALLY: We've both worked quite hard getting over it, I think

TOYAH: (they all laugh) Escaping

HENRY: And of course, Anne Diamond (another TV-Am host) is a Birmingham girl

TOYAH: There's nothing really bad about Birmingham I think but I love London. I went to school in Edgbaston. That's where you were born?

SALLY: No, I went to school in Edgbaston as well

HENRY: Did you? You didn't go to the same school by any chance?

TOYAH: No, we didn't

SALLY: A few years apart, of course. I think our schools may have played hockey or something

TOYAH: Oh, you bet. I'm vicious at hockey! (laughs)

HENRY: Did you play hockey at school?

TOYAH: Yes, I was always put in goal because I was fearless

SALLY: I played goal as well

TOYAH: You get your stick and you just run at them and go grrrrh! (laughs) No one dare come near you

HENRY: Toyah, what sort of childhood and schoolgirlhood did you have in general?


TOYAH: I went to public school. I loathed every minute. I found it criminal to be put in a uniform so early and to lose your identity and your individualism. I'm all for individualism in childhood. That should be developed, and artistic things should be developed, and creative things should be developed. I didn't have that kind of upbringing, so it was frustrating

HENRY: But they do say, and there's a point in it, surely, that children are not always capable of the correct expression of individualism and artistry and you put children in a uniform rather than let them separate too early?

TOYAH: Yes, when you give children technique. I think at some point we all need to learn technique. I wasn't capable of learning technique until I was about 18 onwards, and now, as a 29 year old, I love learning techniques, especially within theatre or within acting. As a child to be taught technique I found it like a brainwashing process

HENRY: By any stretch of the imagination you've done a heck of a lot in a very short space of time, haven't you? As I said in the intro from being a pop star, writing your own stuff, performing, acting and now at the moment in “Three Men On A Horse”

TOYAH: It's great. I love it. It's got very good reviews, which is just great. It's a fabulous American comedy, and I play a moll ("Mabel", below) in it. It has a brilliant cast. It's directed by Jonathan Lynn, who wrote “Yes, Prime Minister”, which I never got to see because I was always on the road gigging at that point. But as a director he was fabulous. It's a very good show, very enjoyable show

HENRY: You were interviewed once, and at the course of it you said, “I've always worn a mask. Now I'm looking for something from within” which, coming from somebody else might sound a teeny weeny bit pompous, but I don't think you could be pompous if you try. But what does it mean?

TOYAH: I think I can be pompous. I got a very big mouth and if people ask me a question I always answer it and it's always got me into trouble (laughs)

SALLY: Expression. Honesty

TOYAH: I think what it was that in the beginning I was doing things with the wrong motivation. I started singing really wanting attention and really wanting personal acclaim. And now that I've gone into theatre and into the West End, which is vibrant and has a life of its own, it's allowing me to discover something a little more important than just the physical self

HENRY: But you're able to say this and not in any way diminish the achievements that you've had in the past. Or do you regret another phase of your life?


TOYAH: I see the past as history, and it's as simple as that. It's gone, and there's only the future to look to next

HENRY: How excellent

SALLY: Do you feel that the past has brought you to where you are now?

TOYAH: Well, yeah. I think mainly the past in my personal life. The greatest lessons I've ever learned is observing my personal life and observing people around me. Work is always slightly false, because I've been in show biz for 10 years now, and you're always just put on pedestal. It's not real

The reality comes from looking at the outside world, which is why I think I like working to a live audience much better than, say, recording in a studio or something like that. I'm now aiming my life at doing more live work, i.e. stage and live work with a band, because that's real. You're in contact

HENRY: You're in an advantage too, because in a way you had a theatrical training, so that when you came to it, even having been in the pop world, nobody could turn around to you and say “oh, this is just the pop star coming in to take a good job in the field”

TOYAH: I actually started at the National Theater of all things. At the time I was so ignorant. I turned up at a National from Birmingham with a plastic bag full of sandwiches my mum had made expecting to go home the same day. I thought I'd just go for a day's rehearsals and of course I never went home again

I can remember phoning my mum up and saying “oh, Mum, I'm staying for nine months. The contract's for nine months” and she was terribly upset. I never realised the importance of the National Theater at that time

SALLY: How old were you when you went?

TOYAH: I was 18 and very blinkered. I had pink hair and everyone would just stop and stare at me. It was just the beginning of punk and I thought people were staring at me because I was nice. Not because I looked stupid! (laughs)

HENRY: You didn't look stupid. You looked different

TOYAH: I was very fat as well. I terrified people

HENRY: It's interesting because Sally, you were just telling me that you met somebody yesterday

SALLY: I saw Emlyn Williams, and he was telling me that you were in the film “The Corn Is Green” with Katharine Hepburn (below)

TOYAH: (really taken aback) Yes! And George Cukor was directing

SALLY: It must have been staggering to have that opportunity?


TOYAH: Oh, it was wonderful! The audition for that was staggering, because again, I turned up at the audition and didn't know who Katharine Hepburn was (laughs) I was like “hi, how are you?” and I made her a cup of tea. George Cukor was there, and I had a wig on, because I was at National Theater, and my real hair color was red at that time. I knew I wouldn't get the job if I went with red hair

At midnight that same day, George Cukor phoned me and said “you've got the job. Well done. Out of 2000 people. This is it. We're going to make you big star" and all that. The next day I went in without the wig, and George Cukor asked me if I'd like to take my hat off

I said “it's not a hat. It's my hair”. Katharine Hepburn loved it. She thought it looked like feathers and it did. It was in terrible condition. It really did look like feathers

HENRY: It's wonderful to see you in such a bubbly form, and obviously enjoying yourself. We're going to have time to talk to you as the morning goes on, and we'll look at the papers together

Later in the show

HENRY: Are you a Sunday newspaper person? I mean do you get the whole big pile of them?

TOYAH: No, usually sleep on Sundays. It's the only time I get to sleep. I enjoy the trash papers, I'm afraid. I just go through News Of The World in hysterics

HENRY: We tend to call them the more popular dailies

TOYAH: Well, I don't mean trash trash. I mean it's just blatant good fun, really. I usually get The Observer if I feel like being intelligent. But I must say on Sundays I'm completely blitzed

HENRY: You prefer to be windswept

SALLY: Toyah, I was wondering, have you ever done a summer season (of theatre)?

TOYAH: I haven't done a summer season, but I've done a variety show a bit like Les' (Les Dennis) new one. It was for a National Youth Day in Devon. We followed (on stage) the local conjurer, and Frankie Howard followed us

My husband and I came on and did this rock concert in the middle of a variety show. We got all these old'ish people up and bopping. It was very good fun

Watch the interview HERE

TOYAH ON
BBC1 WOGAN
WITH SUE LAWLEY
16.4.1986

SUE LAWLEY: Somewhere along the line this actress turned singer turned actress lost her surname so I shall simply ask you to welcome Toyah! They tell me you're changing your image. Is this it? 

TOYAH: No, I'm not deliberately changing my image. I think image should change very six months (Sue and the audience laugh) I think it's nice to consciously look in the mirror and think right! You're out! Next one's in

I usually find I change my image when I learn something and I'm a great believer in learning all the time so I change with my image. I wouldn't change my image whoomph - that's it, it's going to be changed like that forever

I'm just 10 years older than when I first started in the business and I've just gone through many many many changes (laughs)

SUE: What's this one called?

TOYAH: This one's just .. I don't know. It's very Cleopatra. This is an old dress. A friend of mine made it called Melissa Caplan. I've never actually worn it. It's just a Cleopatra dress. It's made out of leather and suede

SUE: And the hair has changed colour?

TOYAH: Yes. I haven't actually dyed my hair since last summer. I've let it fade naturally -

SUE: This is its natural colour?

TOYAH: No, it's bleached (they all laugh) It comes out of a bottle! I bleach my hair. My natural colour is black and it's yuck! Poo! Horrible! I don't like it!


SUE: It would suit the Cleopatra -

TOYAH: I find that black hair when you're a midget doesn't help at all! (Sue and the audience laugh) The lighter colour hair make me look taller

SUE: The way they (the research team) talked to me about you – I thought you were going to be quite different. That you've changed. You're obviously still exactly - you're Toyah

TOYAH: Well, I'm still me. I did a film last year with Christopher Lee ("The Disputation", 1986) where I played his mistress. I went to see an agent at the same time and she said “oh, you're never going to act looking like that! It's your hair”. What I usually do when I'm acting I wear a wig so my hair and myself doesn't get in the way

SUE: But you're off the booze. You're off the coffee

TOYAH: What do you mean I'm off the booze?! (laughs and pretends to down a drink, the audience laughs)

SUE: (inaudible under the audience laughter) … You've stopped?

TOYAH: When I was much younger and going through some dreadful times at school - I mean real frustration! - I used to drink when I went to school. Now I curb the drinking to Christmas or Easter or birthdays. But I do drink

SUE: It's getting to sound very middle aged if you're off the booze …

TOYAH: (laughs) Do you know what my ambition is? I want to be 40. I think 40 in this day and age is perfect! (Sue lifts up her collar as to say “yes, I'm 40") (the audience laughs) It's wonderful! No, I don't think age comes into it. It's the mental attitude

Some people are obviously trapped within a system and if you can escape that system age never comes into it. I mean look at the Queen Mother! She's fabulous! Look at Barbara Cartland! She's fabulous! Age doesn't come into


SUE: Look at Peter Ustinov (also guest on the show, Sue gestures backstage) You've met him. He's terrific, isn't he?

TOYAH: Yes!

SUE: Now, you come from Birmingham which is where I come from (puts on a funny accent) Edgbaston

TOYAH: (puts on a very posh accent) Oh, yes

SUE: Not (in a posh accent) Edg-baston

TOYAH: (in a posh accent) Edge-baston

SUE: Is that your parents called it? Edg-baston

TOYAH: I think they called Edg-baston. I called it (puts on a common accent) Edgbaston (the audience laughs)

SUE: What happened to the accent? Did you have an accent?

TOYAH: I went to public school and I actually came out of public school (puts on a posh accent) talking like this (the audience laughs) I found that being me with my energy talking like that didn't help me. It didn't get me anywhere

I like people with a lot of life and a lot of vitality and those people have accents! So of course I picked up the Brummie (Birmingham) accent. I moved down to London and I naturally picked up Cockney

SUE: (in a mock accent) Cockney

TOYAH: (in a mock accent) Cockney (in her normal accent) I'm one of these people that naturally adsorbs accents. I absorb mannerisms too which can be very embarrassing, especially when you're with Americans (the audience laughs, Toyah looks sheepish)

SUE: What do Americans do that we shouldn't do?

TOYAH: (laughs) No, I'm not answering! (the audience laughs)

SUE: But all the time the lisp remains?

TOYAH: Oh, I've tried everything to get rid of this lisp!


SUE: Why do you want to get rid of it?

TOYAH: Because I hate it! (laughs)

SUE: But it's you

TOYAH: I haven't noticed that I have a lisp but people remind me about it (pretends to be annoyed)

SUE: I'm sorry (makes a sorry face, the audience laughs) Lisp or no lisp they tell me you're a millionaire

TOYAH: Oh, really?!

SUE: Yes. Are you not?

TOYAH: Well, you know the saying “rich bitch”? (the audience laughs)

SUE: Mmm (agrees)

TOYAH: Well, I think I'm a bitch but I don't know about the millionaire (Sue and the audience laugh)

SUE: Everybody's avoiding my questions tonight …

TOYAH: I wonder why!

SUE: We shall read it all in the silences. Do you need to be famous?

TOYAH: Oh, dear! I need fulfilment. I need to be appreciated. I think when you spend time on work – whatever your work is – it needs to be appreciated. I believe what everyone is needed within the system. Everyone is needed for the job that they do and everyone needs a pat on the back every now and then

SUE: But fame is something beyond all of that. I mean any woman could say she needs to be appreciated, she needs to be loved, she needs to be told. But you actually need to be famous (makes a “look at me” gesture), don't you?

TOYAH: (laughs) I've never looked at it that way! Fame is so fictitious. I know people who think they're famous but they are not and they behave like they are

When I'm walking down the street I must admit I wear dark glasses and a woolly hat and I kind of walk like this (with her head down)

I think that's purely because of the privilege of walking down the street is something very rare when you're famous. Fame's nice. I just like working. I'm a workaholic


SUE: There's a price of course to fame. I was just talking to Cecil Parkinson – that kind of kiss and tell, which you've suffered from recently

TOYAH: I wouldn't say I've suffered from it. I read it. I had to read it for kind of law reasons. If you read between the lines the quotes that came from my ex were very kind. He didn't say anything nasty

I don't hate the man but The Sun needed to sell their paper. Simple as that (the audience laughs) They're not going to sell by hearing a story about me being a saint. There's no hard feelings

SUE: Terrific. Smashing to hear it. And you're engaged now anyway and life is wonderful and happy?

TOYAH: Yes

SUE: Terrific. Toyah, thank very much indeed

TOYAH: Thank you

Watch the interview HERE

TOYAH ON
ITV THIS MORNING
WITH RICHARD AND JUDY
SEPTEMBER 1992

RICHARD MADELEY: She's continued to pack a punch both on stage and on screen, and now she says she's mellowed and matured, and I know she has. Welcome, Toyah

TOYAH: (laughs) I'm not mellow or mature. That's a wrong accusation!

RICHARD: Aren't you? Oh, good! Say something shocking (Toyah laughs) No, we'll move on to that in a minute, but let's talk about this play you're in. It's interesting when you reach a point of style and an influence, like you have in your career, you can actually do things that you want to do. And it was about five years ago you read this Doris Lessing book -

TOYAH: Yes, “Memoirs Of A Survivor”

RICHARD: And you thought "I want to do that as a play" and now you are

TOYAH: Yeah. It's taken a long time, though. I was looking for a project for a one-woman show, and this was the first ever Doris Lessing I wrote -

RICHARD: Read, dear. Read.

TOYAH: Oh! (pretends to shoot herself in the head)

JUDY FINNIGAN: Megalomania!

TOYAH: Sorry, Doris! (they laugh) I thought she just gave women such an incredible spiritual identity and voice. I met Richard Osborne, who's the adapter, and we went along to Doris Lessing and her agent said, “why do you want to do this?” and I said "because she gives women great spiritual identity"

Doris Lessing went “what a load of rubbish! No, that's not what this book's about at all.” But it's now a two-hander. It's not a one-woman show. There's another actress with me called Joan McInnis, and it's an incredible story


JUDY: But very hard to do I would have thought, because Doris Lessing started off being very well known for her novels about her childhood in South Africa. They have become more and more science fiction based, fantasy based. It is quite a mystical novel. It's very hard to put on stage

TOYAH: (It's) terribly metaphoric. The story starts with a woman looking out of her window, watching the world fall apart. Basically, there's a holocaust going on -

RICHARD: Collapse of society as we know it -

TOYAH: Collapse of society. Children aren't being educated. They're living in the underground system, murdering each other, cannibalising each other, and especially cannibalising the older people. And this woman, in her desperation to find out what's going on with life, has a fantasy world

Basically, she walks through the wall into a utopian world and sees life how it really can be. She sees why she is the woman today, because of who her parents were and how she was treated. So you've got all these multi-layered stories going on

JUDY: That's at Salisbury Playhouse. I know it's going well and good luck with it. But in terms of the woman you are today, you were in Anthony Clare's program a while ago, revealing all about your own childhood. At some point you had a terribly difficult relationship with your mother, didn't you?

(Read the transcript of "In The Psychiatrist's Chair" (BBC Radio 4) HERE and listen to it HERE)

TOYAH: Yes, but I think it's a very common difficulty. My mother won't quite talk to me about it still. Sorry, mum

JUDY: I don't blame her

TOYAH: My father says that they thought I was a delightful child. They seem to have forgotten the fact that I invited 60 Hells Angels round for tea when they asked where I kept disappearing to at the weekends and stuff like that. I just didn't enjoy the institution of school, and really just wanted to be out in the big wide world at a very early age

RICHARD: Was there a gentle transition then (Toyah snorts) from that interesting adolescence to what you are now? Or did it just go quickly to you wake up one morning and think “oh, enough of that. I think I'll be sort of normal like everybody else”


TOYAH: No, it takes a long time. Whatever happens in your childhood scars you in some way. My childhood was no different from any other adolescent's childhood

RICHARD: What were the big scars for you then?

TOYAH: Mainly school. I just couldn't stand school. I couldn't make anyone understand how I loathed being at school

RICHARD: Why? What was wrong with it?

TOYAH: I just felt as if no one recognised my true ability. I was definitely born to be an actress and performer, and school does not cater for that. I should have been in a stage school. I just found everything really frustrating

Stuff maths! Stuff reading! I just wasn't interested. I was a very pig-headed person and just misbehaved. I did everything I could possibly do to disrupt the order of what was going on

JUDY: Did you sort of take that out on your parents very much? The story of your mother turning up at the school play to cheer you on and smile, and then you really went for her afterwards

TOYAH: Well, it was terrible. I'm not proud of that

RICHARD: Of course not

TOYAH: My mother was desperate to try and understand me, and I was desperate that she couldn't. I really was. I just didn't want any form of love and affection

RICHARD: Do you think if you hadn't gone to an ordinary school, if you had, as you say, gone to a stage school, you would have been different? You would have actually gotten on better with your parents and on better with the world in general?

TOYAH: Who knows ...

JUDY: Most people think stage schools are a bit of a … not an abomination exactly, but I think most parents - and you haven't got any children of your own yet - but I would hate the idea of sending my child to a stage school. I would feel it somehow was encouraging them to -

TOYAH: I think my parents were trying to protect me

JUDY: From doing it?

TOYAH: Yes. I went to the best school in Birmingham. A public school, all girls school for ladies (laughs)


JUDY: So you should have turned out (to be) a lady (laughs)

TOYAH: I should've turned out wonderful!

JUDY: Something went wrong

RICHARD: Why did you go on the Anthony Clare program? He really gets under the skin

TOYAH: I was intrigued

RICHARD: To see if you could beat him? To see if you could hold your own?

TOYAH: I tried. You can't beat that guy. He's just too astute. If you try and put a veil over something, he just keeps going at it. I was absolutely intrigued and I like challenges

RICHARD: Are you glad you did it? Because you did reveal a lot about yourself

TOYAH: I'm indifferent. I'm a public figure, and I'm indifferent about exposing myself

JUDY: That's interesting, because our phone-in today is all about the privacy and the press

TOYAH: But you see because I open my mouth so readily, the press don't bother me. I'm not trying to hide anything, so I don't get them hiding in my garden

JUDY: But you do genuinely feel you are public property? That anything they say about you - providing it's true in your life - is fair game? There's nothing you want to keep hidden?

TOYAH: There's a big difference about Anthony Clare. That's a very intelligent approach to the media. I have this thing about privacy at home. I don't like fans turning up, like we had a few girls in my garden last week

I was really offended by that. There are boundaries. But if something has an intelligent approach, I don't mind. But if it's just ... bimbo time, I'm not interested at all

RICHARD: No, but you'd still take that as part of the course. I mean, as you say you're a public -

TOYAH: You have to accept it. If you're in the firing line, you're going to get shot. It's as simple as that


JUDY: Well, that's a useful insight into our phone-in. I hope this isn't impertinent, but you did at one stage say you didn't want to have any children and in fact you were sterilised?

TOYAH: After an illness - but that is reversible

JUDY: Right. And are you in the process of changing your mind now, would you actually -

TOYAH: I don't know. I don't believe in closing doors. I think to say "no" closes your whole future. So I keep everything open. To me, the idea of a perfect family is a child of your own and the rest (are) adopted

I really believe in a world where there's so many children out there without parents, and I'm wealthy - I wouldn't close the door on adoption at all

RICHARD: But are you driven a little bit by the body clock ticking?

TOYAH: Oh, the body clock is a really evil thing but it's just a trickster, isn't it?

JUDY: Yeah, the hormones. It would be interesting to see what kind of school you sent your kids to - if and when you do have them

TOYAH: I wouldn't. I'd be a complete anarchist (they all laugh)

JUDY: You'd know how to handle them. Thank you very much. Good luck with “Memoirs Of The Survivor”. Sounds fascinating

TOYAH: Thank you 

JUDY: Thanks very much indeed, Toyah. See you again sometime

Watch the interview HERE
Thanks to toyah.net

TOYAH ON
KENNY LIVE
RTÉ, IRELAND
12.11.1994

PAT KENNY: Looking back at the punk era, you were a woman of your time

TOYAH: Yes

PAT: What was it about that era?

TOYAH: The era was brilliant because I was dyslexic, so I didn't learn to read till I was 12. I'd lost a lot of education, being in hospital because I had lots of corrective surgery - which was another reason why my mother was so protective of me because she she had to teach me how to walk

She had to be with me quite a lot of the time as a child. I was born with a defect down the right side. I've forgotten the question now! I went off on a tangent

PAT: The whole question of the era

TOYAH: That's it! Punk! Now, the beauty of punk - I'm back with you now! The beauty of punk was that it said that if you've got something to express and something to say, every individual has the right to do that

And punk, to me, wasn't about spitting and being violent. It was about the blossoming and development of the individual. If you had a will, there was a way

PAT: You didn't have to have a secondary school A-level behind you to succeed in that particular world

TOYAH: Then you didn't. But I must admit, if I have any regrets, it was I didn't really take my education very seriously at all

PAT: You succeeded in spite of all of that. I mean, as an actress you've had successes, both on the screen and in the theater. And I know you're going into “Peter Pan”


TOYAH: I start “Peter Pan” next week with Frank Finlay

PAT: And you are playing?

TOYAH: “Peter Pan” (laughs) for five months (Chichester Festival Theatre - 16.12.1994 -7.1.1995 and National Tour 1995)

PAT: There's a dark side to “Peter Pan”, which you may explore of course, in the formation of the character

TOYAH: Oh, definitely. You've got to take into account “Peter Pan” is probably about 200 years old. The irony there is that you have the boy that never grows up, but he's been living for centuries so he's gained some kind of knowledge and wisdom, which I think makes him very powerful

PAT: I was going to ask you, looking back on it - besides the education thing, would you do everything again as you did, knowing what you know now?

TOYAH: That's such a big question. I would have worked harder. I kind of surfed on this big wave of fame and enjoyed it and didn't do my homework enough. I'd work a bit harder, I think

PAT: Yeah, but you enjoyed that surfing

TOYAH: (laughs) I am a very good surfer

PAT: You're married to Robert Fripp, but you don't see each other that often?

TOYAH: No. Robert lives and works mainly in America. We have a pact that we must see each other once a month. He breaks it often. We fly to wherever the other person is

PAT: Once a month?

TOYAH: Yes, occasionally

PAT: Why bother? (laughs)

TOYAH: Because he is the most perfect partner in the world for me

PAT: He proposed to you after how many days, months, years?

TOYAH: I'd known him for four days when he proposed (the audience laughs, Toyah laughs) The weird thing was my husband is as eccentric as I am. I turned up at his house to work with him, and he said “I know you're my wife. Will you marry me?”

I then discovered from his friends, three weeks before he met me he was telling everyone, “I'm about to meet my wife.” And people were going, “Who is it?” And he said “I don't know”


PAT: I take it he was ready for marriage at this stage?

TOYAH: I think he must have been ready for marriage. We've been together now 10 years, and it goes from strength to strength

PAT: It's an interesting arrangement, though, where you see each other infrequently. I presume passion is more easily renewed when you see each other seldom?

TOYAH: (laughs) Well, it is romantic. It certainly is romantic. We're two very insular people, and I think it works for us

PAT: You are, neither, interested in having children. Is that so?

TOYAH: I don't biologically want children, but I'm getting to the point where I could easily take 20 into the house. I'm getting that adoption fever

PAT: Yes, because you yourself decided that biologically, because of your genetic difficulty, as a child, that you didn't want to give this to another child?

TOYAH: It's not just that. There's enough children out there who need parents

PAT: And you're available?

TOYAH: I'm very available

PAT: You have to hide all those photographs of you, because they'd be doing that

TOYAH: What - dyeing their hair? Nothing wrong with that (laughs)

PAT: What about after "Peter Pan"? Have you got music that you can offer us on CD?

TOYAH: Yes, I've got a double album coming out in March called “Toyah Classics”. Half electric, half acoustic. There's another album coming out in the summer called “Eternity” so I'll be back on the road again. That's after I've toured “Peter Pan”. We're coming to Cork

PAT: Very good -

TOYAH: And Belfast. I can't remember the months - kind of spring. Then I'm turning it into a film

PAT: Really? So you're a busy woman for the next 12 months or so?

TOYAH: Kind of, yes

PAT: Excellent. I'm delighted that you dropped in to see us. Perhaps when you're on the road with the band again you'll come back?

TOYAH: Pleasure!

PAT: Toyah Willcox, thank you very much indeed

TOYAH: Thank you

Watch the interview HERE
Thanks to toyah.net

TOYAH ON
BBC PEBBLE MILL AT ONE
WITH PAUL COIA
29.4.1985

Comes to do the interview from singing "Don't Fall In Love"

TOYAH: I've got my family with me too (means her fans)

PAUL: That was an amazing crowd outside there

TOYAH: It's very good 

PAUL: It's your new single, but of course it marks a return. We haven't seen you singing and dancing for a long long time

TOYAH: 14 weeks

PAUL: You're concentrating on acting. Notably, of course, “The Ivory Tower”, which was a tremendous thing

TOYAH: “The Ebony Tower”

PAUL: Thank you. You're you're so beautiful I just go all … (Toyah laughs) Remind me of the lineup in that drama

TOYAH: There was Sir Lawrence Olivier, or Lord Olivier (below) I think is the correct title. I never got it right. There was Greta Scacchi, Roger Rees played the reporter. He's gorgeous. And then there was me, and really there's only about the four of us in there throughout the whole play

We were stuck in France for two months in this gorgeous chateau, and we had the French aristocracy treat us very well. We dined at big tables with 15 people sitting at one table. It's really beautiful


PAUL: Working with Sir Lawrence Oliver or Lord Olivier as you correctly said - oviously you can learn a lot of acting from him, but does he ever come out and say "teach me how to sing" or something?

TOYAH: He was fascinated with my career as a singer. I learned more from him by his charm. He was totally polite. There was no bad temper ever. Usually with a lot of stars they are a bit temperamental, but he was gorgeous

He used to arrive on the set, and he'd have a little song that he'd practice as he got out the car with the chauffeur. He'd sing this song … I can't repeat what he said. Totally unrepeatable sometimes. But I just think working with people with humor, it's really nice

Katharine Hepburn was like that when I did the film with her ("The Corn Is Green", 1979), great character and so very strong up against men. She's a feminist, but with charm. Lovely, lovely people

PAUL: Your new LP, which is coming out in summer -

TOYAH: It's called "Minx" 

PAUL: You have been a bit of a minx in the past. Do you think that maybe you're just now calming down, getting a bit more mature?

TOYAH: Inevitably I'm getting old. I can't wait till I'm 40. I going to be really wicked

PAUL: Are you really?!

TOYAH: Yeah!

PAUL: Can I come and see you? (both laugh)

TOYAH: Well, it's going be a long time till I'm 40

PAUL: But you have arrived back with this new image. How would you describe the new image?

TOYAH: Well, I've just grown up a bit, and I've done all the colored hair and everything, and I didn't want to live in the past. People see me as the kind of punkette of 1981 so I've done all that. There's no point remaining like that

You've got to keep moving on. That's what life's about. So now I've grown up a little bit (laughs) I've tried to - mentally and physically so I'm just portraying my role still as a 26 year old woman


PAUL: But of course, we mentioned films and this image of the punkette. There was a film “Jubilee” you did, which, of course, promoted that idea. What sort of films are you going to be doing now?

TOYAH: I've got a few films coming up. I've got a very historic film coming up about a very famous lady in Britain

PAUL: Go on!

TOYAH: It's called “Boudica” but I haven't signed anything yet, so it's very premature, but I'm looking forward to that if it all happens

I've got some some other plays coming up for the opposite side (nods her head to the other side of the building) So I hope by August I'll be touring and then around Christmas I'll be acting again

PAUL: We'd love to hear another track from the album “Minx”. This is “World in Action”?

TOYAH: Yes

PAUL: Ladies and gentlemen - Toyah!

TOYAH: Thank you

Watch the interview HERE
Watch the performance of "Don't Fall In Love" HERE
Thanks to toyah.net

TOYAH ON
BBC BREAKFAST TIME
WITH JOHN MOUNTFORD
AND SUE COOK
JUNE 1985

TOYAH: (Talks about Stonehenge) They're not going to go and chip it to pieces. The people that chip it to pieces are the school kids or the tourists and other nationalities who go there and see it

JOHN: Mind you, there was a lot of damage after last year's festival

TOYAH: But I bet that damage has happened throughout the year. I just don't believe that these people, who respect that place, are going to destroy it

JOHN: Do you think they really respected it that much?

TOYAH: Yes, I do

JOHN: Do you think they're sincere in their beliefs?

TOYAH: Yeah, because I used to be part of a team of people like that who would go out of their way, no matter how little money we had - we used to go out of our way to go there. It's a special occasion, and it's a group occasion where you get together on a very special day

Later in the show:

SUE COOK: Energy is the right word. You've got amazing energy

TOYAH: Oh, yes. I like to train a lot, and I think diet is very important. I was brought up on a good British diet of fried bacon and things like that. Yuck! Poo! Now I'm vegetarian purely because I feel better when I eat vegetarian food, which is quite strange

I live off fruit. Fruit is my main diet, and rice. I find, on occasions when I eat meat, I slow down. It changes me radically. But I'm sure it's very different for other people, because when my old man doesn't eat meat, he's not very well. He must need it

But I'm just very conscious about energy levels and things like that, and I think the way you live and your lifestyle can help you


Later in the show:

TOYAH: (Talking about not having kids) I want a past I can be proud of. I don't feel like settling down. I'm not the mother type. I'm very selfish, and I like to feel very free and independent

I'm sure if I had a child, it would change me drastically. I'm sure it would make me plant my roots firmly in the ground, but not yet

SUE: So what have you got to do before you feel ready to settle down? What do you have to do to complete the picture and be proud of

TOYAH: I don't know. I've got to do something that I believe I've achieved something really worthwhile. Because at the moment I'm aiming for so many directions to improve the acting, to improve the singing. I don't feel I've reached the standard yet, but I feel is worthy. I just want to keep going till I do that

SUE: But it'll be something to do with music, or something to do with acting?

TOYAH: Oh yeah, favorite fields. In my old age I'd like to write. I love writing. I get up very early in the morning and I write. And I'll probably do that one day

SUE: I'm sure you will, because you have, as I said earlier, this amazing energy. I interviewed you last time after “Trafford Tanzi” (below) -

TOYAH: Yeah! I adored doing that

SUE: The training you were doing for that was really, really hard work, wasn't it?

TOYAH: Yes, the show itself - I used to lose about four pounds in weight a night. And after a show like that you just didn't sleep. I used to sleep in the daytime, get up about two in the afternoon, and I was making an album ("Love Is The Law", 1983) in the afternoons

So I'd record for about four hours, and then go and do the show. Then after the show I'd go and record some more. It was very good to work like that. I really enjoyed it, but I developed voice problems. It was interesting


JOHN: Exciting, though, nonetheless. Exciting to be under such pressure

(A clip of the video of “Soul Passing Through Soul” plays)

SUE: You're promising an equally spectacular tour when it happens, which you think will be later

TOYAH: Oh, yeah! Definitely. I'm getting ready for that now. First time in my life I sort of sat down and seriously had singing training too, which I do at the moment

SUE: You've had opera lessons, haven't you?

TOYAH: Yeah, I've heard that female voices can mature very late into the 30s. Being quite romantic I'd like to have a go at it one day in the future, far the future

SUE: Very versatile. So you're doing your training in martial arts at the moment for this tour?

TOYAH: Yeah, I train mainly weight lifting and anything that kind of strengthens. When you go on the road you do the show for about two to three hours, and then you probably don't get any sleep that night

So I have to do things that keep you fit and keep you in tune, because that rock and roll life really takes it out of you. But I don't want to give it up for anything

JOHN: You could end up starring in the first kung fu opera, if you're not careful! (Toyah laughs) Now there's an idea. There's a project for the future

TOYAH: I want to take Arnold Schwarzenegger on! (laughs)

Later in the show:

TOYAH: (about being a vegetarian) It's very hard. It's a challenge

SUE: Most impressive

TOYAH: Yeah

JOHN: So you won't be joining us for sausages, bacon, egg

TOYAH: No! Oh, gosh, no! Ugh!

JOHN: Everyone else is having breakfast - you're working out (Toyah laughs)

SUE: We had some vegetarian sausages on the program recently, but unfortunately they -

TOYAH: (excited) What were they like?

SUE: They were not very nice! (laughs)

TOYAH: I can believe it! Ugh! (laughs)

JOHN: Stick to the lettuces leaves – I would!

SUE: Thank you very much indeed

Watch the interview HERE
Thanks to toyah.net