TOYAH ON THE
BBC THREE COUNTIES
THE LORNA MILTON SHOW
4.10.2010

LORNA: Now then, our Big Entertainment Guest today is a singer and an actress. She was the "punk rock princess" of the 80s and  in fact she must be one of the few people to have presented a sex show and "Songs Of Praise"

She’s a believer in the paranormal, she was quite open about the fact she’d had an facelift and entertained us when she went into the celebrity jungle. There are lots of good stories to come, I can feel it! Welcome to the afternoon show - it’s Toyah Willcox! Hello!

TOYAH: (On the phone) Hello Lorna, how are you doing?

LORNA: I don’t know how I’m going to squeeze it all in but I’m going to try my best (Toyah chuckles)! What came first? The love of acting or the love of singing?  

TOYAH: I was an actress first. I was the youngest member of the National Theatre Company. I joined when 18 when 1976

LORNA: My goodness!

TOYAH: Yeah. I mean they have younger people acting there now but that’s what I did first. I’d actually made five feature films before I had my first hit single. So I was very very busy from a very young age

LORNA: Did you ever think about sticking with the acting rather than going with singing? Because you fronted the band Toyah and it was a bit of slow start really, wasn’t it?

TOYAH: Well, you say it’s a slow start but I was working really hard because I was making feature films in the daytime and gigging with my band in the evening. When you’re young I think music is incredibly important to you. I’m gigging now, I do 3 or 4 shows a week and have done for the last 32 years

But I think music is a very young-at-heart profession. I was always nagged to do only acting. But I’ve always thought that acting was something I could go back to. In fact I’ve got a comedy drama coming out next week, Harry Hill is in it and Ainsley Harriott playing themselves! ("Gayle Tuesday: The Comeback") (Lorna laughs)

I’ve always been lucky to manage to run them in tandem. I don’t do as much acting as I’d like to do but I still think that when I’m in my 60s, 70s and 80s I can then fit the acting. I have no intention of retiring

 

LORNA: When you say "I was nagged to stick to the acting", was that nagged by your parents?

TOYAH: No, by my agent

LORNA: Oh, was it?

TOYAH: Yeah. Because I had a fabulous acting agent when I was in my 20s. I adored her and sadly she passed away from pneumonia. But she was really great and she came to see on the road. She traveled up from London to Birmingham and she sat me down with my parents

She said "I need to talk to you. You have to decide between the two". I wasn’t prepared to that because I was at the height of my singing career and I carried on doing them in tandem. But she very very adamantly wanted me to only act

LORNA: What did your parents think of it?

TOYAH: Well, they were happy for me to carry on singing because I was about to win what was the equivalent of a Brit Award for Best Female Singer (The British Rock and Pop Awards, 1982)

I had years of singing ahead of me and tours planned and stuff like that and this agent wanted me to join the Royal Shakespeare Company. I just wasn’t ready to do that. I wanted to experience the world

LORNA: That’s quite brave, isn’t it? Lots of people would jump at the chance and think "I’m going to go and do this and take this opportunity." But you were like "no, I’m not ready for it, I’m going to go and do something else. I’m going to go and do what I want to do"

TOYAH: I’ve always been a little bit a rebel and a bit of a free soul. Joining a very established organisation that would’ve wanted me for two years exclusively … I’d never had to do that in my life

I probably could do it now. If "Eastenders" came up now and wanted me for five years I’d be very happy! But back then I just could’ve not done it. I would’ve regretted it

LORNA: Well, there’s many things you have done, you’ve squeezed in throughout your career … Tell me about your love of the paranormal, because you were in "I’m Famous And I’m Frightened" -

TOYAH: (laughs) Oh, yes!

LORNA: We you frightened? You are famous but were you frightened?

TOYAH: Well, yes I was because they put us in a castle and I should remember this castle, I drive past it almost daily! That was supposedly the most haunted castle in the country and we stayed five nights there

I was very cold, this was in February about four years ago and it was spooky! But I don’t go out on a limb to do this regularly. This was a one off. But it was very very spooky. And very kind of spine-chilling

LORNA: So you’re a believer in the paranormal?

TOYAH: I do believe that there are certain things that happen that you can’t explain. Absolutely!

 

LORNA: And another one-off "I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here" in the jungle! (above) (laughs) Did you enjoy it?

TOYAH: Yes. Enjoyment isn’t the right word but it’s an experience I knew I would never have again. And 17 million viewers! I mean I work to be seen so I was definitely on the right job that time!
 
LORNA: Yeah!

TOYAH: I was fascinated by the technology because everyone of us, and there was 14 of us in that jungle - had 32 cameras on us 24 hours a day. And there’s these bizarre things going on. They have Australian SAS hiding in the bushes to make sure we don’t get bitten. Or if we are bitten by anything poisonous, they can get help to us immediately

LORNA: I never knew that …

TOYAH: And secondly that we can’t escape and I suppose (hesitates) TV terrorists can’t get in and do damage. So it’s a highly secure unit. It was very very exciting! But enjoyed? No! I was cold, I was wet and I was hungry. I lost 10 lbs in weight doing that show, which is a pretty extreme way of going on a diet

LORNA: Did you add it back on when you got back out?

TOYAH: Immediately!

LORNA: As soon as you got to the hotel!

TOYAH: As soon as you got out! They take you out, they put you in a caravan where a doctor examines you and checks that your heart’s healthy, your blood pressure is right. And then there’s all this gorgeous chocolate in front of you. I just ate and ate and ate! (Lorna chuckles) I soon put that back on

LORNA: I spoke to you, couple of years ago now, on the afternoon programme all about your insomnia. You were on the search ("Tonight: How Do You Sleep?") to get yourself a full night's sleep. You told me it had been 36 years since you’d had a full night's sleep. Did you ever find the answer to your insomnia?

TOYAH: Well, funny enough in the jungle I slept brilliantly -

LORNA: Did you?!

TOYAH: Because there was nothing else to do. I really enjoyed sleeping in the company of all those other people. There was something really comforting about it

But I’m still insomniac. I just get up when I wake, I don’t bother lying there trying to do nothing. So this morning I was up at 5 doing my email

I have an office in my home so I just get up and start communicating with America because my band has albums out in America and we’ll be touring in America. So I can just get up and do a lot of work

 

LORNA: Very productive. You need little sleep by the sounds of it?

TOYAH: I think I need less sleep than most people

LORNA: Were you more driven or more ambitious and more full of life in your twenties? By the sounds of it your still nifty in your 50s?

TOYAH: I think in my 20s it was a different kind of ambition and a different kind of drive because technology has made my life faster. I’m far busier now today and I think that is because of technology. It has almost speeded up my life fifty fold. It’s just ridiculous!

I am in my office sometimes from 3 in the morning till 10 at night dealing with the jobs coming in. I’m doing concerts the whole time. I have albums I have to write the whole time. My first novel is out in the summer. And this is because technology has made everything so accessible. So I’m definitely a nifty 50!

LORNA: I think lots of people are. I look at my parents and they probably have more fun now than they did when my sister and I were growing up. They’ve got the kids to leave home and they’re having whale of a time!

TOYAH: I definitely have more fun now!

LORNA: Do you?!

TOYAH: It started in my 40s and I’m now 52 and I think it’s to do with confidence. When I was in my 20s I felt the need to live by other people’s opinions and everyone had an opinion and everyone was telling me what to do. It really weighed on my shoulders. It had a weight, it had a tangibility. But now in my 50s my confidence has come from me. I know who I am and I know what I want to do

I have incredible respect for time. I like my time to be lived to the full. Most people in their 50s feel younger than they actually are. For me the clock stopped when I was 25. I don’t feel older than 25. I am traveling more, I see my friends more, I go to different places. I have these lovely short breaks, which are so fashionable. I’m enjoying myself a lot

LORNA: In a way are you sacred of growing old because you have been quite open and you’ve even written a book about it - about the fact you had a facelift?

TOYAH: That’s nothing to do with being scared. That’s about embracing technology and re-inventing yourself. I’m not growing old because I’m relatively healthy. I’m scared of losing my health because I love working and I feel defined by my work. And luckily I still can work

Many 50 year olds are coming into their own in this decade. Unfortunately the media I choose to work in highlights what life is like for 20 year olds and perhaps 30 year olds. But you don’t get much evidence of 50 year olds who are really enjoying themselves

I think it would be lovely if we had 50 year old role models or people I their 50s who were role models. Because I invested in this decade by eating sensibly in my 30s. I wasn’t sensible in my 20s. I drank a lot, I partied hard and I lived hard. But by my 30s I started to live organically and I started to really value what I put into my body

 

LORNA: Fantastic! Toyah, still nifty at 50! Will you be treading the boards in Panto this Christmas?

TOYAH: Yes, I’m in Malvern (Theatres in Worcestershire) doing Sleeping Beauty (above)

LORNA: Who are you? Not the evil witch?

TOYAH: I’m the bad fairy, yes!

LORNA: Oh boo! You play it so well though! (laughs) Toyah, it’s been a pleasure. Thank you being our Big Entertainment Guest

TOYAH: Thanks Lorna!

LORNA: And stay nifty in your 50s!

TOYAH: I certainly will!