TOYAH ON
MUSIC AND MEMORIES
WCR 101.8 FM
WOLVERHAMPTON
WITH PHILIP SOLOMON
2.2.2015

PHILIP SOLOMON: We're ready to talk to my special guest tonight and it's Toyah Willcox. Toyah! How are you?

TOYAH: (on the phone) I'm really good! How are you?

PHILIP: Yeah, I'm really good. You're coming into town. You're in Wolverhampton this week, Bilston

TOYAH: Yeah, doing The Robin 2 in Bilston on Thursday. It's an acoustic show and you think acoustic, it's going to pretty laid back and cool but it's actually just as energetic as my band show. I'm really looking forward to it

PHILIP: It's a great album, I've been playing it in my car. Some great stuff on there!

TOYAH: Thank you! The thing is I always do my favourite stuff and always do what the audience want to hear. That's the whole reason I go out. I'm on the road playing to the audience that really love what I've done in the – can you believe it – 35 years!

PHILIP: Gosh! I honestly can't!

TOYAH: So it's one hell of a retrospective, it's 22 albums. I get on stage and it's hit after hit after hit. But I also manage to include what I call the cult hits for the all time fans so I do things like “Bird In Flight”, “Jungles Of Jupiter” and “Danced” which I've been performing forever and a day

PHILIP: Brilliant. You're a local girl as well, a lot of people forget that

TOYAH: I was conceived and born in the same house in King's Heath, Birmingham. So I'm very local and I still live locally. I'm only 30 miles out of Birmingham

PHILIP: Oh, right?

TOYAH: So I'm in Birmingham at least once a week and I absolutely love it! I think it's a vibrant, fabulous city! So I enjoy all my time up there, my husband loves it too and he's a Dorset man

PHILIP: King Crimson guy, fantastic performer. Are they still touring? 

TOYAH: Yeah, they're going out in September. I think they're playing the Birmingham Symphony Hall for two nights

PHILIP: In the very early days you had a comfortable middle class life but you had terrible problems with your spine and different problems that you've overcome but it must've been very difficult for you?

TOYAH: Well, in retrospect I got through it so I'm cool about it. I was born with a twisted spine and my feet were clawed. Today it's not a problem with today's science but back the conversations were about removing my right leg! My mother absolutely fought to keep me in one piece and to have a normal life

She took on my physio, I used to go to Birmingham children's hospital twice a year to be assessed. They'd teach my mother how to get me walking. And basically what I had corrected itself as I grew. At 51 I had to have a hip replacement because I didn't have sockets in my hips

By the time I was 51, which is only 4 years ago, the science was absolutely remarkable. I went to see someone who's operating on people under the age of thirty who do too many marathons. I feel I'm in a very lucky place and born at the right time

PHILIP: I've read both of your books and I think you've been a big inspiration to a lot of people. You've had that sort of difficulty and even today people think “oh, I can't do this!” You're a perfect example that you can do anything if you just go for it

TOYAH: I think if the will is there and you've got to find the will. And also you need people around you who bolster you and give you confidence. I think a lot of us tend to project negatively and unintentionally onto people

My husband is so fantastic as a friend and encourages me because I'm permanently frustrated that here I am 22 albums later and I still can't play an instrument

PHILIP: Can you not? Really? 

TOYAH: No. At the moment I study piano, I study violin and guitar and I can do enough to write a song but I could never play on stage. My fellow musicians tread the day when I'll turn up and say I want to play on stage because I just won't be up to their standard! (laughs)

PHILIP: I could always play most instruments. My work has taken me round the world but I could always -

TOYAH: You do what work?

PHILIP: Well, I'm a quite a well known medium …

TOYAH: Are you?!

PHILIP: You're very interested in the spiritual side of it, you've done a few things on TV?

TOYAH: I've done a lot. A lot of documentaries have been made in my house because it's so active. The area I live in is renown for being haunted as a general area

PHILIP: Really?

TOYAH: I'm cool about it, it's absolutely fine. But I don't feel what goes in the house is necessarily a conscious force. I think it's memory, I think there is a parallel world that we bounce between

I believe my parents are there now and you bounce backwards and forwards from these different time zones of parallel existence. I think sometimes that veil thins and sometimes things get though. So what goes on in this house doesn't surprise me at all

PHILIP: This is the thing we hear from so many people. I've never been in your company but seen you on TV and I've thought you have a mediumistic gift and a very alien gift. I think your alien gift might be channeling in other ways. We're about rock'n'roll tonight and we're having a chat about spiritual things! (laughs)

TOYAH: It's fascinating! It's such an incredible area. Do you do public shows?

PHILIP: Yeah, a few theatres. You used to work in The Alex (The Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham), didn't you?

TOYAH: Yeah

PHILIP: I've done The Alex and The Grand a few other theatres over the years

TOYAH: Do you ever get evenings where it just doesn't happen?

PHILIP: I've worked with a lot of famous mediums who've said they've had nights when it just doesn't come through. I've always had the belief to get on with the job whether it's been working for Elvis' family or doing readings for a local person. I've always believed it works and it comes through. If it didn't I would say "I'm sorry, I can't do it tonight"

TOYAH: It's a very brave thing to do. Sometimes when I'm singing I see a light above somebody's head. I get that even more when I'm acting in a play

PHILIP: Really?

TOYAH: You look out into the audience and there is a light above someone's head

PHILIP: That's exactly what mediums see

TOYAH: Wow!

PHILIP: Honestly! Toyah, I'm going to pull this back to what we were talking about ... (Toyah laughs) You had a problem with dyslexia as well and you stood up to it at a very fiery Prime Minister (when you were) very young?

TOYAH: What, Margaret Thatcher?

PHILIP: That's the one!

TOYAH: I've actually stood up to a quite a few Prime Minsters! (they both laugh) I left the all girl's public school in Birmingham. In 1972 Margaret Thatcher was the Minister of Education and she visited the school

I set alarm clocks off under the stage during her speech. Everyone knew it was me because I was the worst behaved person in school so I didn't get away with it. But one of the funniest relationships I've ever had was with Edward Heath

PHILIP: Really?

TOYAH: I used to live in Salisbury and went along to interview Edward for a documentary. He very rarely allowed women to interview him, he preferred men. And we hit it off! From then on I used to go over to him for Sunday lunch and host the lunch for him and he'd have dignitaries coming from around the world

The thing is Edward Heath had narcolepsy. You had to let everyone understand that if he fell asleep at the table he would wake up and join the conversation as if nothing had happened

So I hosted lunches for him for Sting and Andrew Lloyd Webber. There was a time when I was hosting a lunch while he was on the phone to Gaddafi for three hours. I've always ended up in these very kind of strange situations!

PHILIP: What a career you've had! But coming back to dyslexia ... it must've been very difficult for you. Obviously you're very intelligent as most dyslexics are but you left school with not a great deal of qualifications?

TOYAH: I just had music theory. I took 9 O-Levels and did not really try to pass any of them. I gave up on the system really. The thing is I'm still dyslexic today and it's still incredibly frustrating because I have all these ideas flying around in my head without the technique to be able to formulate them. It's so frustrating I've written well over 200 songs in my career but I can't sit down and play a piano

It's the same with writing and reading. I have to guess an awful lot of what I'm spelling. I think when you look at really great artists they have great technique and as a dyslexic where I'm really weak is technique. It's frustrating so I'm always battling it and trying to deal with it and I'm slightly driven by it as well

PHILIP: You wouldn't have such challenges if you weren't such a special person …

TOYAH: It really kind of you to say that -

PHILIP: It's true

TOYAH: I won't be special if I don't sit down and get my act together. The thing is I live in public so what really focuses me is the fact that on Thursday I will be performing in front of an audience at The Robin and that will absolutely focus me

That's when my creativity really kicks in. I don't think I'd be where I am today without the audience because they're people that make me, as a dyslexic, get my act together

PHILIP: I've seen you perform several times. The minute you walk on stage I think you're someone who completely changes. Do you?

TOYAH: I don't know whether I change but I'm possessed by something that I'm not possessed by in the dressing room. I walk on stage and what I need is instantly there. So whether that comes from me ...

I always feel very heightened consciously on stage. I've never walked on stage and felt “urgh, don't want to do this!” I walk on stage and suddenly the light of life turns on and something happens. I'm just addicted to it

PHILIP: It often happens with great performers. They are terrified to go on stage but the light goes on and something switches -

TOYAH: I don't feel nerves as much as I used to. I feel much more at home on stage now. I get nervous before TV or something like that but now, with the acoustic show especially, I'm tapping on 35 years in the business and there's some great stories there so I know that there is a very full of wealth of material to tap into

It's absolutely fine and on stage I've got my main guitarist from the Toyah band Chris Wong and I've got Colin Hines from China Crisis. They play, although it's acoustic, they're playing like shred guitarists and they're singing as well so we're creating a really joyous full sound

PHILIP: That's fantastic. You're going to be doing some of the old favourites in the acoustic show?

TOYAH: Oh, yeah! We do all the hits. It's basically a high energy dancey evening. We do it in two halves. The first half is story telling. I show some videos behind me and explain how rock videos are made and how scenes are done and stuff like that. The second half is like a concert and it's a song after song after song

PHILIP: That sounds really interesting. I was going to ask you about the songs and the presentation. It's a special show - it's not necessarily what we would always expect after having seen so many of your shows over the years -

TOYAH: Oh no, it's a complete departure

PHILIP: It's very different, isn't it?

TOYAH: Yeah, it's very different. But also I think it's surprising at the same time as well and that's because of how the songs are arranged and how they work acoustically

All of my lyrics are story telling lyrics and the stories really come out acoustically. You haven't got this loud rock drum drowning out certain key words. So it just works really nicely

PHILIP: Toyah, you've done so many things. You mentioned 35 years, it's a life's career. You've done so many things successfully, films - you were a big star in “Quadrophenia” back in the day

You've been on television programs, you've worked with some famous actors and actresses. You've got this fantastic musical gift but there's got to be some new things that are coming from you. Where do you see yourself going in the next few years?

TOYAH: I have another project I'm taking out in April called The Humans, which is really important to me. The key member in that band is Bill Rieflin, who was in REM for the last seven years. He also played for Nine Inch Nails and (The) Ministry so he produces (The) Black Swans

So we're out in April with The Humans. I think the nearest we get to Birmingham is Gloucester I'm afraid, the City Hall. That's quite a large commitment to me because we're based in Seattle. We record and write in Seattle and we don't tour a huge amount but when we do we want it to be really special

So I've got that. Also I've just finished a movie with the comedian Steve Oram (above with Toyah), who did a cult classic called “Sightseers” about two or three years ago. This is his follow up movie so that's myself, Noel Fielding, Julian Barrat, Julian Rind. Really great actors!

It's a really surreal horror film. There's no language in it and my husband's done the music for it. That starts previewing in the next month. So it's a busy year really

PHILIP: Sounds fantastic. We've had you at The Robin before. Everybody loves playing at The Robin, don't they?

TOYAH: I think the thing about The Robin is you arrive there and it's really quite out of the way. Then people turn up and it's busy and buzzy and it's a perfect venue for rock music. It's great

PHILIP: One thing I'm going to ask you before I let you go is how did the name Toyah come about? Is that a stage name or is that your real name?

TOYAH: It's my real name. My mother chose it and she said she had no memory of where she got it from. She said it might've been a name of a character in a book she read as a child. Toyah's got many different meanings round the world. In Germany it's “expensive”, in Japan it's “dear”

In Italy it means “your mother is a bitch pig” (Philip laughs) It's got very varied meanings. There is also a native red Indian tribe in North America called the Toyah tribe and it means water

PHILIP: I'm amazed by that! A message for the fans then, Toyah?

TOYAH: Come along! Enjoy the evening! It's up close and personal, literally. It's very revealing as I tend to tell stories you won't hear anywhere else

PHILIP: Sounds like a great night. Get down there on Thursday. In the meanwhile here's one from the album, "Thunder In The Mountains". It's been great speaking to you, Toyah!

TOYAH: Thank you very much! Good speaking to you, Philip!