TOYAH ON
BBC RADIO 2
SOUNDS OF THE 80's
WITH SARA COX 
16.9.2016 

SARA: I am completely thrilled to welcome Toyah on the show. Good evening, Toyah!

TOYAH: (on the phone) Hello! How are you doing?!

SARA: I'm marvellous! All the better for hearing you, you young lady. How are you doing yourself?

TOYAH: I'm pretty good, thank you. Enjoying this summer immensely

SARA: Excellent stuff. What can you normally be found doing on a Friday night?

TOYAH: Most Friday night's I'm actually on stage at this time. Either doing my acoustic show or my rock show. So it's actually quite nice to be here talking to you instead

SARA: Very nice. You've got some live shows coming up in October, haven't you?

TOYAH: Yes, I've got a lot coming up! October I'm doing live shows all over the UK and then in March I'm actually on the road with Paul Young for the whole month

SARA: Well, that is exciting. Your tour dates are taking you everywhere. So with Paul Young you're going from Rhyl to Leicester to Stoke to Edinburgh, all the way to Basingstoke, Birmingham, Huddersfield, London, Newcastle

It's the “80's Invasion Tour”. Including Martika and China Crisis will also be playing. That is going to be quite a tear up, isn't it?

TOYAH: I think it's going to be a lot of fun. I think there's a great mix of music there. I work with China Crisis and Paul Young all the time. I've never met Martika so I'm really looking forward to that. She had a massive massive hit with “Toy Soldiers” worldwide so I think it's going to be an absolutely fantastic night

SARA: Such a good song. We'd love to get Martika on the show actually Will you put in a word for us, please Toyah?

TOYAH: I certainly will

SARA: How do you keep yourself so fit and eager and able to do all this live work? For people listening now, might be nursing a glass of Rioja, eating something pastry based and there's you just throwing yourself around with so much vigour and energy! 

TOYAH: I think it's because the audience is getting younger, which is a total surprise for all of us. We go out there and the audience are about 18 to 30. They know all the lyrics, they know everything about us. For us performers it's sort of let's do this while we still can

I've been almost 40 years in the business now. Firstly I'm really grateful I'm doing it and I love every minute of it but I am slightly amazed so I'm not going to go away and say "I've got more important things to do – I'm going on holiday". That's just not me. I live and breathe music and just can't wait to get out there every night

SARA: I love that your audience have got a sort of Benjamin Button effect going on. As you get a little bit older they're getting younger and younger ... (Toyah laughs)

TOYAH: It's one of the most bizarre things I've ever experienced!

SARA: Do their parents turn them onto the music, do you think?

TOYAH: I think that's it. I think that is totally it. The parents still play this music. The 80s means so much to so many people. You've still got full songs, this is the decade before the 90s came in and sampled stuff so the songs are all epic

SARA: That's why we've got this show. That's why people love this show so much because, it's mine and Fiona's (producer of the show) duty to bring people the 80s hits every week

TOYAH: You are the custodian of artists like me

SARA: Yeah! We love you and we play quite a lot of Toyah and we always get a good response when we play you. So listen, we're going to play one of your B-sides now. What have you chosen?

TOYAH: I'm funny because my B-sides always let me let off steam and be slightly weird as a writer because I didn't have the pressure of radio play over my head. It's really ironic that you want a B-side. So I've chosen song called “Voodoo Doll”, which was on the 12 inch version of “Thunder In The Mountains”

SARA: We find this quite a lot with B-sides. People can be just a little bit freer, the song's a little bit longer, sometimes they're instrumentals 

TOYAH: This is something that we still play in the set so it's still relevant today for us

SARA: So it's the B-side of the 12 version of this

Plays a snippet of “Thunder In The Mountains”

TOYAH: That's correct!

SARA: Whoo! I'm skipping like a gazelle around the studio, Toyah! (Toyah laughs) We all know this! We all know “Thunder In The Mountains.” With a video was directed by Godley and Creme – fancy! But the B-side … what's it called? “Voodoo Doll”?

TOYAH: “Voodoo Doll”

SARA: Ooh, nice! What's the story behind it?

TOYAH: It's about a goth punky girl who behaves like a voodoo doll and exercises her feminine power as if it was rhetoric and mystical and magical

SARA: Toyah, always lovely to chat to you. Thank you so much. We'll play the B-side now. It's called “Voodoo Doll” as you say and it's the B-side of the 12 inch of “Thunder In The Mountains” from 1981. That record got to number 4 in the chart. There's a few facts for you

Go online, please, if you'd like to check the tour dates for Toyah. Loads of her own shows in October and you can watch “Up Close And Personal” or “Proud, Loud and Electric”. Thank you very much, Toyah!

TOYAH: Thank you, Sara, and God bless you! 

SARA: Here we go, here is “Voodoo Doll”