BBC RADIO SOLENT
WITH ALEX DYKE
19.6.2013
ALEX: I'm backstage in the south on a beautiful afternoon. Sunny, a little windy and I'm with the lovely Toyah!
TOYAH: Hi! How are you doing?
ALEX: Alright! I saw you by accident on TV the other night and you were brilliant! I saw you in “The Tales Of The Unexpected”!
TOYAH: Oh! Everything has been on lately! Last week “The Corn Is Green” has been on with me and Katherine Hepburn -
ALEX: Wow!
TOYAH: “Tales Of The Unexpected - Blue Marigold”. “Minder” has been on! (laughs) I mean it's just like retro Toyah at the moment!
ALEX: Yeah! Covering all channels!
TOYAH: Yeah!
ALEX: Is that something you've left behind now or would you like to do more TV and acting?
TOYAH: Well, I was Billie Piper's mother in "Secret Diary Of A Call Girl” for two series -
ALEX: Of course you were, yeah!
TOYAH: Yeah! And I've just finished the tour of “Hormonal Housewives”, which was a sell-out tour. That's acting so I don't think I've left it behind at all!
ALEX: Oh, that's good! But really it's live music you're going to be busy with towards the end of this summer. I know you're playing some dates down in the south. So another tour?
And then I've got the Upton festival. After that I do the Toyah autumn tour which I've been doing for three years now. On this tour we're calling it “Love Is The Law – Fan Faves and More”. So we're featuring an album called “Love Is The Law”, which single “Rebel Run” came off and then we do all the classic cult hits as well
TOYAH: No, I was in Scotland for two weeks just a couple of weeks ago doing the tour of “Hormonal Housewives” and we did 67 venues on that tour so no. I'm a touring artist. That's what I'm used to
I pine for places like America. I work in Seattle a lot and I always miss Seattle and I miss New York. But I love my home, don't get me wrong, it's a fantastic home but I get there often enough
ALEX: You mentioned America just now. Were you big the States in the 80s?
TOYAH: No, I was only “cult” and I was big in the universities and the college circuit. I'm probably bigger now than I was in the 80s because people are discovering me. What I found is new generations discover me because I was in “Jubilee”, the first punk rock movie, I also did “Quoadrophenia”
These are films that each generation discover for themselves so they then go onto my music. So I'm probably working there more now than I ever have done
ALEX: Do you remember in the early 80s thinking “yeah, I want to crack America” or the management saying “we're going to try America” or did you not get the chance or was it even on your radar?
TOYAH: It's very interesting because we got the chance because I was charting over here. But I was so kind of … how can I put it? Certain papers were so detrimental towards me ... like Melody Maker and New Musical Express
ALEX: Really?!
TOYAH: Perhaps not so much “Melody Maker”. But they influenced the club promoters in America and I remember I was booked to do - (a bus starts up very loudly in the background)
ALEX: Someone is nicking the tour bus!
TOYAH: Yeah, we're out on the side and someone has just got in the car and left! I was booked to do America and I remember a particularly nasty snidey piece appeared in the New Musical Express and that was it. The tour was cancelled
ALEX: Really?! They had that much power?
TOYAH: Back then they did. They don't now but back then the certainly did. And the thing is because social networking is huge now, if anyone wants to say something that's inaccurate or unjust they usually get shot down in flames. So that's the good side of Twitter and Facebook and all of that
ALEX: I'm going to start following you from today -
TOYAH: Thank you!
ALEX: It's a pleasure! It's lovely to talk to you!
TOYAH: Good to talk to you!
ALEX: Do you mind if I play “It's A Mystery”?
TOYAH: I think you've got to! How can you not?!
ALEX: Let's do it! Toyah, thank you!
TOYAH: Thank you!
posted by ©Min2025 at July 04, 2013
1 Comments:
Toyah neglects to mention that she never happened in America because the records on Safari were never released here..if "It's A Mystery' had been released here as a single, things would have been very different for Toyah.. radio airplay would have trumped any bad press in a heartbeat.. I've been the original U.S. Toyah fan since 1981, discovered her because the fabulous Wayne(now Jayne) County was also on Safari,which led me to try Toyah..and I became a life long fan..
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