TOYAH ON
MEMORY LANE 80's
WITH HAYLEY PALMER
25.7.2020 

HAYLEY: Hello and welcome to the Memory Lane 80’s show on Spotlight TV. I'm Hayley Palmer. Really good to have you here with me today. Great news! We have got more 80's pop royalty with us today. Oh yes! It’s Toyah Willcox and here is what happened when I caught up with her. Toyah! It’s fantastic to have you on the show!

TOYAH: Hello, Hayley is so lovely to see you!

HAYLEY: Aww, you too! You look lovely and bright and colourful today

TOYAH: Well, I found it really important during lockdown and even in semi out of lockdown to dress up.

HAYLEY: Yes, you're right. Absolutely.

TOYAH: I don't think I've even had one pyjama day. Just literally I am going to get up and I'm going to wear my favourite clothes and I'm going to act as if the world is as normal

HAYLEY: Oh, I love this! You'll be so ashamed to me. I've had a couple of pyjama days ... eating Doritos. Don't judge me (they both laugh) But anyway, I know you been really busy in lockdown, haven't you?

TOYAH: This is a very weird and I hope not a distasteful thing to say, but lockdown has being really OK for me and my husband. We’re both writers, so I've done about five children's books, which have just kind of silly nonsense, rhymes, things which I've illustrated. I'm doing a solo album and I get about 50 requests a day from people who just need geeing up and I have no problem with geeing people up.

I really love doing it, so it's been very busy and it's helped me realise that I'm not ready to go back to gigs where I have to share the dressing room with my band. There's no toilet backstage and the stage is sticky with beer. I've realised no! I'm going to go back into art centres and theatres and festivals! It's really helped me sort myself out.

HAYLEY: Brilliant! I've also been watching your YouTube channel as well. It's "Toyah At Home", isn't it?

TOYAH: Yes. "Toyah At Home" every Saturday, which brings my music to the fans and then on Sunday what I started as a thing to keep my husband Robert Fripp - oh got my glasses on! I’m going take them off ...

HAYLEY: No, I like it. I like it!

TOYAH: Do you like it, shall I keep them on?

HAYLEY: Yeah!

TOYAH: This is a first! ... To keep my husband, Robert Fripp, who's a world acclaimed guitarist, King Crimson, played with Bowie on “Heroes” and “Scary Monsters” ... to keep him engaged with the outside world. We've been doing quite ridiculous dance videos which he enjoyed.

HAYLEY: They’re not ridiculous, they’re brilliant! I've seen them

TOYAH: Good good. So that's all on Toyah official Facebook (NB She means Youtube) and it's been very, very rewarding for all of us.

HAYLEY: Just fabulous. We're going play out your first song “I Want To Be Free”. Talk us through the lyrics. Is it right that you actually started writing this when you were 14 at school?

TOYAH: Yes, I'm severely dyslexic. You don't get over dyslexia, but what dyslexics are utterly brilliant at doing is bluffing their way I think to the top jobs in the world. Trump is probably dyslexic. He's definitely dyspraxic. So you've got wonderful artists ... I think Gary Numan could possibly be dyslexic. We find a way of acting normal within the world.

So at the age of 14, I realised I should not be at school because the three R's were never going to work. I should have been at drama school or a music school, so in a maths lesson I was just writing down these words “I don't want to go to school, don't wanna be nobody's fool. I wanna be me, I wanna be free” and that's the birth of that song.

HAYLEY: Wow, I love that! I think I was the same in math as well. My parents always wanted me to get a C and I always got a D so it's not good,Toyah. We're going to play “I Want To Be Free”. Top Ten in 1981. Here we go. (Video plays)

I want to talk about how it all started for you because I just look at you and I just think, wow, you're just born to be on stage - but it hasn't always been that way, has it?

TOYAH: Not really. I was born in Birmingham, my family never believed I could be in show business. I'm ridiculously small. And when I was young, I had a very pronounced limp because I had one leg longer than the other, which is now being corrected. It was corrected when I was 51 and I'm now 62.

HAYLEY: Wow, you look amazing by the way! I want to know your secret!

TOYAH: I've been through quite a lot, so movement and music as two related things mean a to me thus I was born to be on stage. I was born to be a performer. I was very lucky that the head of Pebble Mill, which was where BBC was based during the Birmingham period, up from about the 1950’s into the 70’s. The head of that building said to my parents “your daughter is dyslexic. She is a star in the making. Get her out of normal school and put her in drama school” and he got me into a Birmingham drama school.

And I never looked back and within a year I was the youngest member of the National Theatre in London. I starring in a play with Warren Clarke, Kate Nelligan and then I went on to work with Derek Jarman. I made a movie with Katharine Hepburn, directed by George Cukor, who directed “Star Is Born” with Judy Garland. And then I ended up at these really high end art places - ICA, the Royal Court Theatre.

I had a fabulous beginning in acting, but all along I was developing my music because I realised that if I was going to become a singing superstar, I had to do it young. I couldn't leave it on the back burner as a hobby. I had to go for it hell for leather.

HAYLEY: Yeah, because your voice is just incredible, it's almost operatic, isn't it?

TOYAH: I studied opera. Even though I don't think I fitted into my school, they taught ballet which is why I went there to help me with my disability, to give me balance and strength. It also taught music, which is the only O level I got. And it taught me opera. So my first singing lessons which I had - two weeks with German and Italian opera.

HAYLEY: God! Toyah, you'd be so ashamed with me - I can't sing a note. Honestly, I've tried on this programme before.

TOYAH: Really?

HAYLEY: Yeah, maybe you could give me some lessons, Toyah! (laughs)

TOYAH: I don't believe people can't sing because people can express so you may say you can't sing, but there is a form of music out there that you would fit.

HAYLEY: Wow! I would take that! We’re going to go into your next song. “Thunder InThe Mountains” I really feel like this is when you are bringing in the punk energy here, don’t you, Toyah?

TOYAH: Yes! Totally bringing in the punk energy. I had started my career in 1976, the end of - into 77’, so I was very much a punk rocker right through to 1980 and the majority of my audience was serious punk rockers. So I felt I needed to bring that energy with me into the new wave into the New Romantic because my first international hit was 1981, so that's a long career before you have commercial success. So “Thunder In The Mountains” (sings the song) I mean, it's all about pogoing. It's all about rebellion, so it's very much bringing punk into the 1980’s.

HAYLEY: Well, we love it. Is bringing back a lot of happy memories, I know, for our viewers. Here is “Thunder In The Mountains”. Number 4 in 1981 (Video plays)

We've got a question from one of our viewers, Simon. He wants to know what's your favourite TV show that you've worked on because he's just been watching you on “Invasion Planet Earth” and said he really enjoyed that. He said it was very well made.

TOYAH: Oh, that's so lovely. That was a crowdfunded movie and it was made for £60 000 and it just looks so good and I loved doing it. I did it as a favour to the director, Simon Cox, and I sang the outro song as well, which is excellent song. So what’s my favourite TV programme I've ever worked on? This is such a difficult question to answer because everything I do I tend to love with a passion.

Doing “French and Saunders” at the end of the 80’s singing “Because The Night” with them on a huge wooden wheel in the background distracting me was a joy, but I would say they are slightly pipped to the post when I did Kenny Everett

HAYLEY: Oh wow! Totally brilliant!

TOYAH: He was just a master and you might be realising by now if you've watched my my clips on Sunday is that I love comedy. I don't think I'm a stand-up comedian but I think or like to think that I do have slightly good comic timing. So to be on Kenny Everett and to watch a master. Wow! It was fabulous!

HAYLEY: Fabulous! I want to know have you ever recovered from your challenge on “I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here” because I was watching it last night and I was like my goodness you are brave!

TOYAH: Thank you! It was a pretty mean thing to do because they put me in a cesspit, but what they also did is they used a chemical that stayed on my skin for five days and that chemical smelt of sewerage so they then put me back in the camp where no one would come near me.

What I experienced doing “Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here” was that all the beautiful women and there were many - you had Daniella Westbrook, you had Catalina ... there was quite a few others, but they were all beautiful. They all got helped when they needed the gunge washed off them. With me ... I walked into the camp and everyone parted like that – like the great waves. It was like “we're not coming anywhere near you, you smell!”

HAYLEY: But you got five stars, didn’t you?

TOYAH: Yeah, I did really well.

HAYLEY: Yeah you did! Well, we loved it.

TOYAH: Another thing - I went into the jungle weighing about 7 stone 10 pounds and I came out weighing seven stone.

HAYLEY: Aww yeah, I don't know how you do it.

TOYAH: Well, it was a fabulous diet!

HAYLEY: Straight to the Versace hotel afterwards though. That’s the reward!

TOYAH: Yes!

HAYLEY: Next song, “Brave New World” is just brilliant. Talk us through the memories for this.

TOYAH: This is produced by Steve Lillywhite, who was married to Kirsty MacColl and Steve Lillywhite then went on to produce U2. I'm very very proud of this song and it's off an album called The Changeling from 1982, which is about to be re-released at the end of this year or the beginning of next year. It's a very mature album for me, and this single is a very mature single and the video has won awards around the world. It was a ground breaking video. It was one of the most expensive videos to be made at the time with £32,000.

But to put that into perspective, I think three years later Michael Jackson made “Captain EO” for the Epcot Centre for $10 million, so that shows the journey of video. This was the beginning of video, the beginning of MTV. MTV had only been launched in August of 81’, so it was ascending, but I'm really, really proud of this.

HAYLEY: Yeah, I love the video to this one. From 1982 here is “Brave New World” (Video plays) Now we have got a quick fire 80’s quiz for you.

TOYAH: Oh good!

HAYLEY: She's ready to go! So - favourite TV show from the 80’s?

TOYAH: "Young Ones"!

HAYLEY: Ah! Good Choice! A thing you wish you could bring back from the 80’s?

TOYAH: There’s 2 things. JR of “Dallas” or the rah rah skirt.

HAYLEY: Oh yes! I like that! Best outfit from the 80’s? That's going to be hard for you because I'm pretty sure you've got an amazing wardrobe!

TOYAH: Yes, my designer - she was called Melissa Caplan. She made everything by hand, but she made me a dress that was actually a Japanese Samurai outfit, so it was a Samurai armour, but made in cotton, which she painted. It was utterly beautiful. I still have it and I still love wearing it.

HAYLEY: Ah, we love that! Favourite hairdo from the 80’s? Again (Toyah is furiously poining at her hair) I mean how can we decide this?

TOYAH: You've just seen it – “Brave New World”. The pink and orange hair, standing up. For me … I nailed that one!

HAYLEY: You did! I just haven't got the confidence with my hair. I wish I did because it makes you feel so different, doesn't it, when you dye your hair

TOYAH: You look beautiful, you don't need to dye anything!

HAYLEY: OK. And best thing a fan sent you from the 80’s?

TOYAH: I've got it here. This (a ring) arrived in a book from a palace in Saudi Arabia. It was a princess. She was a huge Toyah fan and obviously summered in the UK in London, the way the Saudi royals do for six months and she sent me a book and I opened the book and it was hollowed out and in it was a necklace and this ring and she said “I'm not allowed follow music but I absolutely love you” and that was about 1984.

HAYLEY: God, it’s just beautiful! Oh how lovely!

TOYAH: So I treasure that

HAYLEY: Yes, I bet you do. Well, your next song “It’s A Mystery”. Yes! My favourite. This is your first appearance on Top Of The Pops. That was an instant hit, wasn't it?

TOYAH: And you know, it was hit because of a very lucky mistake. Melissa wasn't ready. Melissa Caplan, my costume designer, wasn't ready with the outfit I was going to wear and if that outfit was ready I'd have been leaping around the stage the way I normally do. So I wore instead a beautiful dress (above) by a designer, male designer called Brown, I can't remember his first name now, but he did all of Bowie's clothes for the “Heroes” album.

And I just looked demure and beautiful, and there I was terrified on the set of Top Of The Pops, singing “It’s A Mystery” and just keeping still because I was in a dress and didn't know how to wear that dress as I never wore dresses. That I think was the winning factor that for the first and only time in my life I was really feminine because of that dress and it gave me a hit

HAYLEY: Well, it did give you a huge hit! Here it is from 1981 “It’s A Mystery” (Video plays) Oh, Toyah! I could talk to you all day! It’s gone really quickly!

TOYAH: It does go really quickly, doesn't it, Hayley, when you're having fun!

HAYLEY: Yeah! Let’s talk about the new projects because I know you've got a little bit of inside information for us, haven’t you?

TOYAH: Yes, we're doing a Rewind tour and it's going to be a drive-in tour. So I can tell you the dates (reads the dates) Now, if those go well, we're going to carry on through September. That’s drive-in and they've managed to organise it that people can get out their cars and dance, which is quite a new concept because previously you had stay in cars, which is very unappealing. So that's Rewind.

HAYLEY: This is such exciting news. I'm delighted because obviously everyone has had things cancelled, but it does look like things are coming back and things are being rescheduled.

TOYAH: Excuse the pun, but it's a brave new world and there's a lot of us out there who are just willing to perform. And also, I've got a movie coming out. “To Be Someone” (below) which is nothing to do with “Quadrophenia”, but it does star myself, Leslie Ash, Mark Wingate, Gary Shail, who happened to have been in “Quadrophenia.”

And it's a gangster comedy, so that's due out as well. Another another movie called “Give Them Wings” (below) - which hopefully will make it out into the big world this year. At the moment it's at the Venice Film Festival.

HAYLEY: Great stuff and we will definitely keep our eyes open for that. We’re going to leave you with “Sensational” of course, because Toyah has been sensational on today's show. Toyah Willcox, thank you so much for your time and your energy. You’re an inspiration to us all!

TOYAH: Yay! It’s a pleasure!