TOYAH ON
BBC RADIO YORK
WITH ADAM TOMLINSON
21.1.2020

ADAM TOMLINSON: Toyah Willcox has had eight Top 8 singles, released over 20 albums, written two books, appeared in over 40 stage plays and ten feature films and voiced and presented numerous TV shows. She's appeared in Shoestring, Minder, French & Saunders and Dr Who (Note: She hasn't) 

She's appeared at the National Theatre and the Royal Court Theatre and has acted alongside Katherine Hepburn and Laurence Olivier for goodness sake! Brilliant! Delighted to say that Toyah is on tour, she's coming to Selby Town Hall next month and she's with me on the line. Hello!

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

ADAM: I'm alright! How are you?

TOYAH: I'm very good. That's one of the nicest introductions I've ever had

ADAM: (laughs) Jolly good! Can you believe it's 40 odd years! It's ridiculous, isn't it?

TOYAH: I think the first thing is that – I'm in my 60's now – time goes so quickly. I mean you can't hold onto anything. It's like where is it going? Every day feels about two hours long

ADAM: Yeah. How do you look back on it?

TOYAH: Oh! I don't! (Adam laughs) The only reason is there is a lot going on and the last decades have just been unbelievable because of the resurgence of 80's music and also I've been charting with new music. I had an album out last year called In The Court Of The Crimson Queen that went straight into the Top 3. 

And this year year, in the last two weeks I've just announced a box set of solo albums called Toyah Solo (which) went to number one and number two consecutively in the Amazon pre-order chart so I'm dealing with all of that. It's very very busy and I'm loving every moment 

ADAM: From my introduction, Toyah, you know the singles, the albums, the books, the stage plays, the feature films, the TV stuff and all that sort of thing … As a child - were you one of those children that just wanted to perform?

TOYAH: Yes. I'm very very small physically and I think that's added to the fact that I've got quite a big performance personality and it's my way of being seen. There's no point in me going to a pub or the audience in a rock venue because I just get elbows in my face so part of what I am is to do with my physical stature and it's just this determination to be seen

ADAM: Were you from a family of performers then?

TOYAH: My mother was a dancer (below, with her dance troupe, in the front, 1946) She retired at 19 and to put that into perspective she was 12 when World War II broke out and she was very very dispossessed by that experience. She got moved out of London, I think she lost her mother, it's very painful memories for her as a child. 

So when as soon as she met my father - who was what was called back then a Stage Door Johnny, who followed her around – she got married as quickly as she could and had children and I don't think it was the best choice for her. She was definitely meant to remain performing. So my mother was a very frustrated performer and I don't think she had very happy memories of being a mother 

ADAM: Did she support you though, when she realised you'd got the performing bug? You got that theatricality about you. Did she support you in that?

TOYAH: Not demonstrably no, she was the complete opposite but I think that's because her life was so hard. I didn't really get support until I had major success. And then possibly it wasn't the right kind of support. It was "you've got to do well so that we have respect" and that's that generation. So I think that they found me very uncontrollable

ADAM: You're a performer, you always wanted to perform, your resume is quite simply a who's who of great places to perform and right across the board – be it in the recording studio, be it on television, on stage, in feature films, even writing books … 

You mentioned as well that the latest album, which is a sort of coming together of all the music from the 80's, the fact that it just seemed for you that you were in exactly the right place at the right time – the punk rock movement was on the rise and gathering steam. Was that a great time for you as a performer?

TOYAH: Oh, it was amazing. Punk rock for me was the doorway into show business at a time when women traditionally had to be a of a certain physical type and that was very model like, very feminine, very very beautiful. Like Farrah Fawcett-Majors. So punk came along and it kind of … I don't know – it was like a tidal wave for me. It allowed women of all shapes and sizes, all classes to just come forward with their ideas and be seen and heard. 

So it was a very magical time for me and then of course I worked with the best. I worked with Olivier, Sir John Mills, Katherine Hepburn and I got the music going as well so very very exciting. A great time of change. But obviously here we are 40 years onwards and yet again technology has made the industry completely different so I think the show business is a very hard thing to pin down, it's very fluid, it just keeps moving and keeps changing radically and the box set I've got coming out on the 28th of February is actually music from the late 80's right trough to present day. It's all my solo albums and it's proven very very popular

ADAM: You mentioned there Laurence Olivier, Katherine Hepburn, Sir John Mills .. You're not the first person to make that break from the world of music into the world of theatre and you're probably one of those ones that make you sit up and think hang on a minute, what's going on here and yes, she can actually do it, she can actually hack it. 

What's it like – you mentioned – just brilliant name dropping – Olivier, Hepburn, Mills … What was it like working with those people – who were and still are icons of theatre and screen?

TOYAH: Oh, they definitely were different. They definitely shone. They were remarkable people. I mean Katherne Hepburn, (below with Toyah in The Corn Is Green in 1979) not only a five Oscar winning woman but a woman who really had to fight for her identity and her place. She broke the mold. She wasn't particularly feminine. 

I thought she was stunningly beautiful but you've got to remember she was up against Monroe, Joan Crawford, she was up against Bette Davies, these incredible talents who really had to fight, almost on a feminist level for what they did and these people were very very different. They definitely had power

ADAM: Did you see some of yourself in her?

TOYAH: Well, she saw herself in me which I thought was very generous. I always felt utterly unique, purely again because of this physical stature but also because I'm severely dyslexic and I'm sort of starting to admit there's kind of autism spectrum for me. 

Now that we know more about it, my obsession with my work I think has held me apart from everyone in a way I've never quite understood. So did I see some of myself in Katherine? No, not at all because I've spent 40 years trying to work out who and what I am and why do I do what I do

ADAM: Well, you do what you do very well. You do what you do and you're bringing it to Selby Town Hall in a few weeks time. It's sold out … Tell us about the tour because do you enjoy the whole thing of getting out on the road and touring?

TOYAH: Well, I've done it endlessly for 20 years since this massive kind of resurgence of 80's music. Do I enjoy it? I love the show we're bringing to Selby Town Hall. It's acoustic rock. It's as loud as you want it to be and it's as quiet as you want it to be and what I mean by that is we don't have this huge amplified amount of drums which increasingly drives me crazy as a rock singer. 

So it's going to be lively comfortable show with lots of fun stories and great music. That I really enjoy, I love it. So yes, yeah. It allows me to sing and not be kind of drowned out by manic drumming

ADAM: Tell us about the guitarists Chris Wong and Colin Hinds?

TOYAH: Well, for Selby we've got Chris Wong who's my MD, he's playing acoustic and electric guitar. We've got Mike Nicholls on bass and double bass, which is just beautiful. We've got John Humphrey on percussion and snare. And we've got Andy Doble on keyboards and as Selby has a grand piano in the building he'll be playing that as well. So it's very cinematic. There's a broad spectrum of harmony and stuff like that. We all sing. So that's the theme for Selby

ADAM: And the idea – I'm just looking at the hits you're going to be performing … It's A Mystery, Thunder In The Mountains, I Want To Be Free right through to Sensational. The idea of these being stripped down I suppose really to the basics and acoustic versions. 

We'll really get the idea – first of all what the words are all about, secondly the melody is going to come through and the fact that you're singing as well … Something wonderful about stripping things back …

TOYAH: I love. I absolutely love it. We started doing this about 5-6 years ago and every show has sold out. And I think what it is - for me as I write the music as well – you realise they're good songs because they can survive being stripped down and then you've got other musicians around you who are creating harmonies and the song just grows into another dimension. It's a really lovely experience 

ADAM: So what have you got planned when this is all finished?

TOYAH: I'm doing this until December (both laugh) I'm still trying to finish a movie in Darlington called Give Them Wings, which I've been working on since the beginning of November which is based on a real life human being called Paul Hodgson, who's paraplegic from having childhood meningitis and it's his life story. I play his mother. So we've been filming in Darlington all that time. I've got one more scene to finish and it's a remarkable film. So it's ridiculously busy

ADAM: It's good news. Toyah, thanks ever so much, lovely to talk to you, it always is. Hope you have a fabulous time when you get to Selby. As I said it is sold out according to the website, maybe it's worth getting in touch with the town hall to see if there are (any tickets) 21st of February. Toyah, Up Close and Personal and that's at Selby Town Hall