TOYAH ON
THE ASYLUM
SWITCH RADIO 107.5
BIRMINGHAM
WITH WAYNE EVANS
JULY 2012

WAYNE EVANS: Are you ready for me?

TOYAH: (on the phone) I am

WAYNE: Now, so a career spanning more than 30 years

TOYAH: It’s quite something, isn’t it?

WAYNE: It is! It’s incredible. Correct me if I’m wrong - you're a musician, songwriter, actress, producer, author

TOYAH: No, you’re not wrong! (Wayne laughs) I mean when you’ve been working for 32 years you can cram a lot in

WAYNE: Absolutely. But that’s not all! You’ve had over ten Top 40 singles, released over 20 studio albums including various collaborations, am I right again?

TOYAH: Yeah

WAYNE: And you’ve written two books?

TOYAH: Yes

WAYNE: Now this blew me away - you’ve appeared in over 40 stage plays!

 

 

TOYAH: Oh, easily, yeah

WAYNE: Wow! And featured in 10 films?

TOYAH: Yeah, probably a few more than that but I haven’t counted lately!

WAYNE: That is just incredible and of course we can’t forget you’ve voiced numerous TV programmes ranging from "Songs Of Praise" to … you know it’s coming! ... "The Teletubbies"!

TOYAH: Yeah. And "Brum!"

WAYNE: "Brum" as well! Brum! Brum! And (Toyah laughs) You’ve been a loose woman ("Loose Women", ITV)?

TOYAH: Oh, yes

WAYNE: You’ve been the mother of a prostitute? (in "The Secret Diary Of A Call Girl")

TOYAH: Yes!

WAYNE: And you’ve eaten bugs in the jungle?

TOYAH: Yeah. It’s been pretty varied, hasn’t it?

WAYNE: Aren’t you exhausted?! And what on earth happens next?

TOYAH: Well, I don’t know! It’s an interesting one … I didn’t expect that my singing career would take off … I was 44 when I was invited to do a stadium tour on the "Here And Now" (above, 2002) shows and I hadn’t done a tour for about 15 years. That was ten years ago and I haven’t stopped since!

WAYNE: The main reason for me wanting to talk to you today, Toyah, is I’ve three simple word to say to you …

TOYAH: You love me!

WAYNE: Other than that! Walk Of Fame!

TOYAH: I know! It’s great!

WAYNE: You’re going to be unveiling the King’s Heath Walk Of Fame on the 16th of July and you’re to be the first person to be on it. It must feel incredible?

TOYAH: Well, I’m the first person of one of the most incredible lists I’ve ever heard because they’re going to do The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and I think Laurel and Hardy. So I’m just so overwhelmed by it because people probably don’t know my history that well but I lived in King’s Heath for 18 years

I was conceived and born in the same house. My grandfather built an awful lot of King’s Heath and my father owned a lot of it when I was very young. I don’t have my parent’s now but if they knew this was happening they’d be the happiest people on earth!

WAYNE: I’m sure they would! Can I just say as well, a friend of mine said he would like to see you immortalised in stone on the High Street!

TOYAH: I don’t think it will come to that!

WAYNE: He said he would pitch up a tent up and keep the pigeons away!

TOYAH: I was just thinking I don’t want to be covered in pigeon doodah! (both laugh)

WAYNE: You can say what you want – this is going to be edited! (Toyah laughs) You did swear at me at Gay Pride a few weeks ago actually when I asked for an encore of three tracks –

TOYAH: Yes!

WAYNE: I was a nervous wreck, we’d been at Birmingham Gay Pride for two washout days and it was like one thirty that you came on stage?

TOYAH: I went on at 1.30 in the morning

WAYNE: Well, I was a little bit inebriated by that point –

TOYAH: So you should be!

WAYNE: Your'e doing a gig at the Hare & Hounds?

TOYAH: Yeah, I’m so excited about this gig. We’re going to do two sets, we’re doing a long night. We’re not having a support, we’re going to be on all night. It’s an intimate venue and I think it’s going to really really rock out!

WAYNE: Do you still class yourself as a true Brummie girl, Toyah?

TOYAH: I do. When I lived in Birmingham and I was a teenager I wasn’t too enamoured with it but I’m there most weeks now. I live 30 miles out of Birmingham and I adore the centre. I love going to the Bullring shopping center, I love walking around Selfridges, never buying because I can’t afford anything

Brindley Place and the canals, it’s just fantastic! I’m always taking my husband (Robert Fripp) there to say “look, this is how you could dress! Look how you could eat!” I actually think it’s a really fantastic center of fashion and media. So I do feel as though I’m a Brummie and I’m really quite proud of what it is today

WAYNE: You’re not only doing the Hare & Hounds – you’re also doing your Halloween spectacular at the Birmingham Ballroom on October the 31st. What are we to expect for this?

TOYAH: That’s quite a big show. I'm not saying the Hare & Hounds isn’t a big show. You’ll probably get an extra hour at the Hare & Hounds. The Ballroom is going to be fancy dress and there’s going to be another 4 bands on. We’ll do a  full set but I think there will be a few surprises in store. There’s lots of competitions, there’s lots of prizes to win. Basically it’s going to be a celebration of Halloween and the Toyah band so it will be a giggle

WAYNE: That’s going to be incredible. You have been wearing your original Melissa Caplan creations as well on your recent shows –

TOYAH: Yes, I have

WAYNE: So are we to look forward to a brand new costume and hairpiece supplied by Sean Chapman? No pressure there Sean, if you’re listening!

 

TOYAH: Sean has created the new look for "The Changeling" tour so he’s always creating new stuff for me so in a word, yes, there’ll be an autumn look

WAYNE: The last album is "In The Court Of The Crimson Queen"?

TOYAH: Yes

WAYNE: Any plans for a new album?

TOYAH: Yeah. Simon Darlow and I wrote that album together and Simon plays all the instruments on it so you can imagine it’s quite a lot of work for Simon. But yes, we’re getting together to do the second album

We’ve actually already got 4 songs ready for it. It’s just the question of getting the other ten. But there is a demand for it. I love that album, I think it’s so lively and the tracks we’ve written so far are even livelier and they’re very good fun. So we’re getting there

WAYNE: How do you keep so lively? We were watching you at Pride ... you don’t stop?!

TOYAH: I just enjoy what I do. I don’t want to waste any time, I’m not getting any younger so I enjoy what I do. I think I’m about energy. I’m not a taught singer, never could be. If I tried I think people would fall asleep. But that’s what I do ... I’m about rock energy and I don’t think I could do anything different if I tried

WAYNE: You’ve just mentioned the rock energy. Can we talk about the other project The Humans?

TOYAH: I've got the whole team flying in next week to write the third album. We’ve already put down 20 ideas, which we’ve now got to formulate and get sorted. But what’s happening with The Humans, we finish off writing Humans Three next week and then we’ll fly to Seattle in the beginning of September and record it

WAYNE: I'm loving the album, "Sugar Rush", and I must say your version of "These Boos Are Made For Walking" is great

TOYAH: Oh, that’s camp! That was Bill Rieflin’s (below in the middle) idea. He lives in Seattle, he’s been drumming for R.E.M for the last ten years and he was the guitarist in a band called Ministry so he’s got this fantastic background. He phoned me up one day and he said "I think you should do "Boots Are Made For Walking"" and I just thought I would not expect that coming from a rocker like you

So he produced that and it was fantastic. I want us to be touring more but it’s really difficult even for someone like me to establish a new band so we’re working on it all the time, just pushing and pushing and pushing. It doesn’t help that two of our members live in Seattle and two live over here in England

It makes it very expensive and complex when it comes to work visas. It’s a nightmare! We were supposed be doing three gigs at the end of July and our visa applications got lost with all the Olympics stuff and we couldn’t get their visas. That week when we had to announce that I was crawling up the wall! But that’s just the problem of having an international band I suppose

 

WAYNE: When does Toyah rest?

TOYAH: At the moment there is no rest because I think everyone who’s self-employed ... you just have to keep the ball in the air the whole time. So there’s not going to be any rest this year! Next year there’s not going to be any rest

I’ve just agreed to do a tour called Rock With Laughter. They’re still in the planning stage but there is going to be 30 dates around the April period and then another 30 around the November period. It's a team of comedians with me providing the music with the band. So we’re getting ready for that already. Rest will come when I’m in 80s!

WAYNE: Wow! I can’t even imagine that to be honest with you! It’s just non-stop!

TOYAH: Well, the thing is I can still sing and my voice is still good so I want to make the most of it while I still can ...

WAYNE: Absolutely. Well, please do, don’t leave as Toyah!

TOYAH: Haha!

WAYNE: So what will happen at the unveiling?

TOYAH: The unveiling is about between 11.30 and 12 o’clock and I think it’s good at that time so that they can get it to the press. The thing about the King’s Heath Walk Of Fame is that it’s being sponsored by businesses on the High Street. It’s not a council run project

It’s actually the people of King’s Heath who want the world to know that King’s Heath has this very incredible heritage. It’s started with a musical venue, I think it was on York Street, called The Ritz where everyone played at the beginning of their careers and thus The Beatles played there, Led Zeppelin and many others

And apparently Laurel and Hardy performed there so the whole idea is that they want to put King’s Heath on the tourism map and quite rightly. I think even JRR Tolkien who wrote "Lord Of The Rings", he was involved with King’s Heath as well because he was born in Moseley or lived in Moseley. It’s helping businesses, putting King’s Heath on the map at a time when visibility is really needed for industry

WAYNE: That’s just amazing and well done you! Well deserved and long overdue. Toyah! Thank you so so much for this!

TOYAH: Pleasure!

WAYNE:  See you at the Hare & Hounds!

TOYAH: I look forward to it!

WAYNE: Love you loads, Toyah! Bye!

TOYAH: Bye!