News & New In The Archive


Toyah on Strictly Come Dancing 

Watch/download Toyah on Strictly Come Dancing
(not the full episodes, just Toyah's scenes)

The Launch Show 14.9.2024

Week One 21.9.2024, Week Two 28.9.2024
Week Three 5.10.2024

 

I Belive In Father Christmas 2024

A special limited edition 10” vinyl EP of Toyah’s 1982 version of the seasonal Greg Lake classic ‘I Believe In Father Christmas’ will be released 6.12.2024

Order from Cherry Red

Love Is The Law 2024

The remastered and expanded 1983 studio album
Love Is The Law was released 8.11.2024

The LP reissue is pressed on translucent red vinyl with a new colour inner bag and a lyric insert. The 2CD+DVD edition features 31 bonus tracks. Amongst the 21 previously unreleased are B-Sides, alternate mixes, rarities, home demos, instrumentals and studio outtakes

The releases are available to order from Cherry Red

For more information and the full track list
visit Official Toyah → Love Is 2024

Rebel Run 2024
T-shirts

The rebel is running again!

T-shirts with the iconic 1983 Toyah logo
are available now

Order yours HERE and HERE

 
 

Toyah CD Covers Special Feature

Check out our new Toyah CD cover
Special Feature HERE

Full scans of the covers and the
booklets of UK release CD's

NEW INTERVIEWS

TOYAH TALKS LOVE IS THE LAW 2024
TOYAH TALKS THE CHANGELING 2023
BBC THREE COUNTIES RADIO 24.6.2023
ABSOLUTE 80s 22.6.2023
BBC BREAKFAST 21.6.2023
VECTIS RADIO 18.6.2023
BBC RADIO MANCHESTER 31.5.2023
POP, THE HISTORY MAKERS 8.5.2023
MY 80s PLAYLIST, VIRGIN RADIO 5.5.2023
TOYAH TALKS ANTHEM SEPTEMBER 2022
BBC RADIO SCOTLAND THE AFTERNOON SHOW 7.9.2022
XS NOIZE PODCAST 25.8.2022
BBC RADIO 2 BREAKFAST SHOW 16.8.2022
RETROPOP MAGAZINE AUGUST 2022
LOUDER THAN WAR 9.8.2022
HOW TO BE 60 9.8.2022
WOMEN'S HEALTH - BREAKING THE TABOOS 27.7.2022
CHOOSE 80s @ CHILFEST 2.7.2022
METROLAND MAGAZINE @ CHILFEST 2.7.2022
ON RECORD | IN CONVERSATION 12.5.2022
MY TIME CAPSULE 24.1.2022
OK MAGAZINE 22.11.2021
ITV THIS MORNING 8.11.2021
METRO 60 SECONDS 2.11.2021
BBC RADIO SCOTLAND 30.10.2021
BBC RADIO 2 23.10.2021
THE DYSPRAXIC HELP 4U PODCAST 10.10.2021
CELEBRITY BRIDES UNVEILED 2009
E4 THE LATE EDITION 24.3.2005
BBC1 LIFE AND TIMES 2000
CHANNEL 4 TONIGHT WITH JONATHAN ROSS 9.1.1991
BBC RADIO ONE  3.10.1983
HARTY, BBC1 8.3.1983
SOUNDCHECK Issue 1, 1983
GET SET FOR SUMMER, BBC1 July 1982
SUOSIKKI, FINLAND December 1981
PARKINSON, BBC1 October 1981
BACK ISSUE FANZINE 1980

Check out all the new stuff on our sister page HERE

TOYAH TALKS
LOVE IS THE LAW IN 2024

From the DVD of the Love Is Law reissue 2024

TOYAH: 1983, at the beginning of the idea of recording, at the very, very beginning, I felt very strongly that I wanted a writing process that represented the writing process we had with “Sheep Farming In Barnet” and “Blue Meaning” where we were left alone as creative artists and musicians to just write and see what would happen. So the best way we felt to do this was to move everybody into my house

I had a room that was really a dining room, but had been converted into a gym. We moved an entire studio into the gym. Simon Darlow, who I have known since I was 18, and he was 17, moved into the house with us. Joel Bogen (guitar) lived about 500 yards down the road, so he could get to me very quickly

We decided that we would start writing every day from 10 am. I was taking on a play at that time called "Trafford Tanzi" (below), but once that opened I didn't leave the house till 4.30. I finished the play around 11 pm and a car would take me to the Marquee Studios, and we'd work through the night. Now this may sound exhausting, but it was actually exhilarating. Absolutely exhilarating. To add Simon Darlow into the writing process took attention away from me and Joel. Joel always wanted something to go one way and I was always pushing in another


It wasn't that we were completely polarized, because we were great friends, but “The Changeling” was very challenging in that I felt I was edged out of it in under certain circumstances. That was mainly because Steve Lillywhite, who's a very good man and a brilliant producer, I don't think understands women

So I didn't ever want to be in that situation again where I felt like an outsider on my own project. So by moving everyone into my house I was incredibly happy. It was breathtakingly spontaneous, creative. We just could not record the ideas quick enough. Having Simon Darlow there, who was a remarkable catalyst, having him back in my life, because he did some keyboard work on “The Changeling” and the moment he walked into the studio, it's like, “thank fuck! It's like my brother has come home!”

He instantly bought me back into the fold. Having him in our house, we would actually get up early and write a song like “Haunted”. I've been working with Simon Darlow recently, and he said “you do know we wrote that at about six in the morning in your office?” and I had no memory of that. Because he was always there, and he was always with me, and he was a really supportive friend

It meant if I said something like, “oh gosh, I feel haunted by this”. He said, “That's a song! It's a song” Let's do it!” Got the keyboard out and we'd start jamming. He made everything possible for this album with his enthusiasm. He hadn't been touched in any way or tainted by how outsiders can influence a process negatively. He was just like a puppy with a new toy. He was full of energy, and it really, really helped me and Joel a lot

"Trafford Tanzi" was a media hit. It was a massive critical hit for me, and slightly highlighted by the fact that on Broadway Debbie Harry opened it the same week, and the critics on Broadway virtually closed it within a week. In Japan a version opened and the critics virtually shut it down within a week there. But our version - it's about an English, northern couple who sought their wedding problems out in the wrestling ring. So it was quintessentially an English, British project and I think that's why it worked


The music was great. It was a musical. It was completely sold out for the entire run, and it saved the Mermaid Theatre. It invigorated me. I think part of it, as the artist I am, is I needed to move between genres to find out my voice at that time, and it invigorated me to have a lot of personal freedom at that time. I traveled without security. I didn't have security at the theatre

It was a remarkable event that for five months it became a campsite outside the Mermaid Theatre with up to 130 to 300 fans sleeping rough outside the theatre. There was a tunnel, a road tunnel, that went along beside the theatre that was graffitied so often I had to pay for it to be painted twice

The fans were fantastic, and a lot of them became couples and it was a very lovely experience. So when I arrived, there was a crowd waiting for me, and I stayed and I talked with them as much as I could, probably half an hour to an hour each time. In the interval, I would go out and talk to them. You've got to bear in mind there's always been a process with me if you don't schedule a an eating I don't eat. So I used to go out with my cup of Complan, which is a meal supplement in the interval, and have my Complan while talking to them

I found it very, very grounding. It tuned me in to who and what they were and their mental frailties, as well as their joys and how they saw me and what I gave to them. Because you can get so isolated as an artist and you can get disillusioned or illusional about things. You just get the wrong impression. To be with them helped me become more grounded and bit more street level as well

That's really important, I think, to get your ideas from the street rather than from the latest wonderful dinner at the Grosvenor Hotel. It's much more important. Eventually, when we started moving to the Marquee to record, they followed. It was a small group that followed. The Marquee was down a very narrow driveway, and they couldn't fit 300 tents in, but some followed. That was a very nice experience too, because we could play them stuff on "Love Is The Law". We called about 21 of them in and said “you’re going to sing the chorus now”

I remember they all went from being really cocky, sure of themselves people into quiet as mice, slightly terrified, not understanding the process. We were lovely with them, and (the producer) Nick Tauber was fabulous with them. They were just standing at the mics like rabbits in the headlight. But we got it and all we needed them to do was chant “love is the law”and they did it brilliantly. It's just so lovely that they are there, on that recording

With this huge encampment outside the theatre they started to call themselves The Angels and Demons, which gave them their identity. It showed that they were there for a purpose, and there was a purpose in what they did every day. So The Angels and Demons came into the world at that point

The most collaborative I have ever experienced with the band was in the very beginning when Pete Bush, Joel Bogen and I would meet every Sunday and we'd write. Then when we got signed we were given time in a rehearsal studio to write. We were writing for months on end and occasionally going out and doing a series of gigs. For "The Blue Meaning" we had to do some of the writing in Battle, Hastings while we were recording. "IEYA" had only ever been an encore improvisation up until the point we went into the studio to record "The Blue Meaning"

So there was a long writing and recording process actually in the studio, which for me doesn't help. You get so pressurized and the anxiety - you're in overload. Then with "Anthem", by some magical alchemy, the band was sending me backing tracks of the songs that they'd written together with no vocals on. The alchemy was just extraordinary. I think that's partly because of the musicality of Phil Spalding (bass), Nigel Glockler (drums), obviously Joel and Adrian Lee (keyboards). You had a group of phenomenal composers all in the same room

I was writing lyrics, the top lines in the morning and recording it in the afternoon, without fail, on an entire album. I think I did it all in two weeks. On "The Changeling" the collaboration became very fractured, and I'm not sure why. It shouldn't have become fractured. I think part of it was that Joel and Phil Spalding wanted to separate themselves from Toyah the star. That point the band were being held apart from me, and it started to show. But I think the tension has worked really well in that end product. What I wanted to go back to was the sheer improvisational joy of being in a room with musicians who all have experience of songwriting

An example of this is "I Explode", which for me, is a really fucking great song. It captures everything I needed and wanted to experience as a very physical singer. I think it came from Joel creating a riff, and then Simon Darlow adding a sequencer and doing something complimentary to Joel's riff. It was so exciting. It was like an unstoppable train. I wanted to create this image, which really comes from Aleister Crowley (and English occultist) creating the myth that exploded his son through a magical spell. This was during the time of the Hellfire Club, where everyone was experimenting with the spirit side of life and with the occult and all of that

I wanted to express how I felt as a dyslexic when I can't express myself properly because you get blockages in your processes. You feel as if you're just going to explode because you know it's alive in there and you can't transfer it into the outside world. I was marrying that to the imagery of a human combustion. This song is just breathtaking! To perform it live is like a possession. I absolutely love it!

This is why that collaborative process was so magical on “Love Is The Law” because we never once sat there with writer's block. The three people who easily could have been polarized suddenly clicked, and it was really exciting. And then we brought Nick Tauber in, and Tauber has always been the right person for us, other than Steve James, who moved to Australia

Nick produced "Sheep Farming In Barnet" and "The Blue Meaning". Tauber has always been perfect. He kept us together as friends, never judged, never caused friction, made every idea we suggested possible. He was open. He just understood us and he didn't block us if he didn't understand something we were trying to do. He explored it


I think one of the funniest experiences is he had to bring me down to earth every time I arrived after the theatre performance, because I would be revving at 190% until about four in the morning because of this incredible stage show. I think he asked me to take a sleeping pill before I did either “Martian Cowboy” or “Rebel Of Love”. He needed to bring me down so I took the sleeping pill and it just made me normal (laughs) so that I could just give a relaxed performance

I love writing via improvisation. Even today Simon Darlow and I improvise for about two days and then take the songs from sections of the improvisation. It's a really beautiful way of using the truth of who you are, rather than reflecting influence from others. It's the way I find my voice. Before we went into the Marquee Studios we needed about 10 demos, so I would get home after the theatre - it would take about an hour and a half to get to North London in those days. It was a very bad journey

Simon Darlow would be ready for me, and I'd eat, and then we'd go into the studio. I can't remember drinking, but perhaps I did. I was never really a very heavy drinker, from about 1976 to about 1980 I probably did drink a lot to try and bring me down. To just get me down to a human level, because I'm really ramped all the time, naturally

I just don't know what I would have drunk. It might have been Bacardi and Coke or something like that. That is something I genuinely can't remember. They tried me with the wacky backy (weed) and I'd just fall asleep. So that didn't do its job. But I always felt very safe with Simon. Simon and I have a kind of old soul past life connection. I always feel in his company that he's never judging me. He never ever comments on my inability to play a musical instrument while he's playing even though on "Posh Pop" I could play guitar with him. He always just listened and appreciated the ideas I came out with and he loves what I do as a lyricist. So there's not only a bond, there is a very special trust and we probably worked right through the night

It was a geographical choice as well of having wonderful memories of the Marquee Studios because parts of "Sheep Farming In Barnet" and parts of "The Blue Meanin" were finished there and we did the whole "Anthem" there. So I felt very at home at those studios. It was like going home. Geographically it was close to the Mermaid Theatre as well, and it worked for the whole band

Our decision to go with Nick Tauber was that he's incredibly easy to work with. He made us feel like a band. He didn't play games with any of the members of the band. There's no hierarchy. There's none of that going on. He's a great communicator with the record label and with management. So he was a good peace keeper. He had lovely ideas as well. Sometimes he’d put about seven mics around me to get a different ambient feel. He always got the sound in my cans (headphones) that I needed to hear. He understood that I've always had great difficulty singing with anything covering my ears

So he'd even set up a speaker in the sound booth so I didn't have to wear headphones. Or he would create an ambient track that gave me the feeling of being in an open room and that way I could use my vocal cords better. He just knew and I didn't have to explain anything. I didn't have to get frustrated. He just knew, and he did it


Without a shadow of a doubt running "Trafford Tanzi" next to the writing and recording of "Love Is The Law" is the happiest time in my life. It was just breathtaking. Everything was how I wanted it to be in that I wanted, and still do,  to be an actress and a singer. I don't want to do musicals. I don't want to be in the West End doing a musical eight times a week. I don't have that stamina

But what happened with "Traffod Tanzi", ironically, which was like running a marathon every day, the separation created something in me that just made me ultra creative. I think it's that thing of the fans outside and the extraordinary audiences in the theatre. The whole world came to see this production. I remember looking out and there was Tom Baker, one of the Doctor Who's. Or looking out and seeing … was that Prince or was that Bowie?

Everyone was in that audience, and it made me feel accepted as someone in showbiz, rather than someone that was an oddball that was tolerated. It was my moment because that play really suited me. So by the time I went to the studio I was a fully rounded, confident artist. Psychologically that's down to "Trafford Tanzi" and psychologically down to the support of Simon Darlow and Joel Bogen at that time

Simon Darlow added a lot of sound presence on the album, and it's something that we all wanted, probably especially me. We wanted the album to sound futuristic. It was at the height of synthesizer development. You had Pet Shop Boys coming into the equation. You had Human League evolving into the Phil Oakey version. Then you had Heaven 17 coming in. This was the era of the synthesizer and I really wanted something that was cinematic

So with "Dreamscape", where you have this opening where the sound is traveling and panning across the stereo - the whole idea is this massive machine is arriving and then out of this machine comes a different form of human being. A differently evolved human being, and we referred to it openly back then as fairy tribes - but not fairies as in Enid Blyton – fairies as in warriors with weapons that fought each other and didn't like he elves. So it was bit more like that

What inspired me to explore love on "Love Is The Law" I think is that it’s something I have never, ever explored. I've been totally unwilling to explore (it). It's been something up until that point that had been quite evasive in my life. What I mean by that is that there was love, and people possibly loved me, but I couldn't experience or feel it. That's probably because of my background and my childhood


Really interesting around this time - the fans gave me so much and to see what I meant to them and their lives helped me understand relationships and understand that people were seeing in me the dislocation they felt in their social circumstances. I think there's an awful lot of people out there, even today, who feel they don't belong. They feel dislocated from life. They don't fit into the patterns we're told we should fit into. Being with the fans in that way outside the theatre every single day for four months I think just taught me so much

Simon Darlow was very kind and he loved women, he just saw women and just adored them. It's probably been a problem in his life but he just loved women. I think I came to a better understanding with myself during this time and was becoming more independent. The whole event changed me radically

Then immediately after, I went away and did "The Ebony Tower" with Sir Lawrence Olivier, which was all about nudity and sex. It's as if this period of doing "Trafford Tanzi", being with the fans, and making the album was teaching me enough to go into "Ebony Tower" and shoot what needed to be shot for that movie because I just don't know how else I would have done it. So it was a time of transformation for me

There's something about 1983 - it was a remarkable year in that everything I planned went to plan. So towards the end of "Trafford Tanzi" I was already in the audition process to go into a movie with Sir Lawrence Olivier, Greta Scacchi and Roger Rees and to be in the Dordogne (a region in France) for three months shooting that movie. I knew the actresses that I was up against for the part I played and I was up against the best. That kept my confidence up

Also, I just love this album. I love "Love Is The Law". I knew that every song was special. Every song worked. Nick Tauber gave it the production it deserved. He gave me the vocal presence that I wanted to hear. I think my singing was stronger and more on point because Simon was there to guide me. Simon has always guided me when I'm singing. He’d say “no, don't do (makes a sound), do (another sound)”. Little things like that just make something different. I thought the songs were fantastic

I enjoyed doing the shoot for the artwork. I wanted to look strong and tough and futuristic, like something out of the sci-fi film. We got Swanky Modes designers on board to design my outfit. We shot the video for “Rebel Run”, which was everyone's choice for the first single. There's a few others I'd have liked to have been singles as well. “Time Is Ours” I think is a gorgeous song. “Remember” is a gorgeous song. They could have all been singles

I think "Trafford Tanzi" closed, and I went immediately to Welwyn Garden City where there was a race track, and we shot the cover material with John Swannel. So I got back with John Swannel, who shot the cover of “Thunder In The Mountains “. Again John Swannell is someone that just fills me with confidence. He sees beauty, he brings beauty out so I knew he was right. We had David Mamet directing the video. The best video director in the world which was fantastic. I do have to say by the time we shot the video, which I wanted to be a little bit like the movie “Tron” I was starting to get tired. It had been a long, long six months

I wasn’t in burnout - you sometimes get times where you just don't have mental clarity. I remember the day we shot the video. It was only a few days after "Trafford Tanzi" had finished. My body had kind of gone into shock. I think it's a lovely video, and it certainly does what it says on the can. I don't think my lip syncing is great and part of that is probably just pure exhaustion

I think the thing is every album needs to have a slight redirection about it, otherwise you're just producing the same thing over and over again. I've always felt that I like to diversify every time. I just like to move in a different way every time. I think that gives your fans more information about you. I definitely wanted the look of “Love Is The Law” and “Rebel Run” to be different to anything I've done before. Part of it was I was just so muscular from having been a wrestler for four months

Physically, I was very, very strong and looked great and I just wanted to exploit that and felt confident about it. I also wanted to just look a bit more “Tank Girl” than glamor girl. This is at the time when wonderful, wonderful Duran Duran were using very beautiful girls in their videos. I thought, well, I think I'm just going to go in the opposite direction and I'm going to be a woman at war. A kind of woman on the battlefront, as it were, but a futuristic battlefront

I don't know who came up with the fencing idea behind me, but putting red against grey is a very, very strong thing to do because it makes the red really ping. It's a lovely device, and in design using red against grey makes something stand out. So this was all designed by Esme at Swanky Modes and it might have been her decision that we needed people in the background. Like a team behind me, who were all good skaters, who could all stand on their roller skates because we did a lot of posing. We did very minimalistic movement, actually. We we never moved more than about 10 feet each time, and John Swannell just capturing what we did

But the girls in the fencing outfits were absolutely fabulous. They could skate brilliantly. They were confident and they were strong. But I don't know who actually came up with that concept of putting the kind of faceless team behind me, but I imagine it was Esme of Swanky Modes. It makes sense

***

Watch Toyah talking to Esme Young about "Love Is The Law" and Swanky Modes during The Great British Sewing Bee Christmas Special 2023 on BBC1 HERE


With the logo at the time, we'd obviously had the very famous Toyah logo, which was a part of my signature and I felt that we needed just completely moving to this decade. It's a decade that was very electronic. I'd come from a kind of guitar, punky background and we just were moving forward. We're being forward thinking. I came up with this idea that it’s partly like a lightning bolt, but without the kind of stereotypical zigzag that Bowie used. So we just took it and had it in very straight, sharp angles so it looks like something you could throw at someone if it was made out of metal and that's where the idea came from

At the time this was released, I was in the Dordogne halfway through making the movie “Ebony Tower”. We had the video play on Top Of The Pops twice. I think we were really concerned that the album only went to (number) 28 (in the charts) because “The Changeling” went to number two. So it was a bit of a shock. And the single going to 24 was a bit of a shock. We didn't quite understand it. It's an interesting thing to discuss because I was doing a promotional tour on where I heard a record shop in Bristol say, “don't mark down Toyah’s sale. We're putting it under a different artist.” I don't know if that was “Brave New World”. I don't think it was “Rebel Run”. I think it was actually a bit later on

I realized that the record shops were not marking things down the way they should be. So I don't know what was going on. I was in France. I wasn't around. It was slightly concerning. It was actually really frightening because this is a brilliant album. But I think when things like that happen you haven't got a team on the ground going to the record shops and actually keeping an eye on stock. I think at that time, those things could happen

This point in time I think Joel wanted to musically move in a different direction. I think he actually went off and joined Eurythmics and toured with them. Everyone wanted me to be a solo artist and a solo artist that stood there alone without a band on the stage. So my management at the time were pushing for that. They were pushing for a big deal with CBS. Eventually I signed to the Portrait Label, along with Alison Moyet and Debbie Harry. That's the direction I went in, which seemed a very logical direction to go in at that time

I think Joel very successfully moved on to work with other artists and to do a lot of touring. That's what happened, really. None of us questioned it and none of us put a stop to it. It could have very much been helped in a negative way by “Love Is The Law” not catching fire. I think we were definitely disappointed that it didn't go Top 10. There's songs on this album that were influencing people as much as songs on “The Changeling” did. There's a lot that Joel did on this album that I started to hear other bands pick up on. So the influence was there


I think “Love Is The Law” is a very vibrant, brilliant rock/pop album. I think it's absolutely gorgeous. I think the songs are fantastic. There's songs that, when you perform them, like “Martian Cowboy” - they are just remarkable to perform. “I Explode” is remarkable to perform. I think the songs are great. I think the production is great. It just didn't get the window it needed - whether it was that MTV didn't put the video in rotation. You just don't know what that missing ingredient was. But I think this is the one that got away. I love this album

At that particular time we were all young and moving on didn't feel an odd thing to do. None of us were sacked, none of us were banned from being with each other. We all kind of made a mutual decision. I think one of the decisions was (the record company) Safari didn't have the power any more to push our albums as much as they needed pushing. They might have felt that on the back of “Anthem” and “The Changeling” “Love Is The Law” could sell itself. Well, that's never the case, and it never has been the case. I think our feeling was that we've done the job that was meant to be done. These incredible albums came out in this period of time. It's now time to move on and explore different territories and different styles

It felt absolutely fine at the time. There was no sense of heartbreak. If anything, there was a slight sense of relief because I think a bit of a vacuum was forming between us, the artist and the record label. It could be that with the introduction of MTV, which was in August 1981, where everything became slightly more politicised rather than fans having the power to put something into the charts alone, it could be we just knew we had to move to a major (record label) Simple as that

LOVE IS THE LAW - TRACK BY TRACK

TOYAH: With "Broken Diamonds", which Joel and I wrote with Simon Darlow there, it meant Simon Darlow could do these wonderful chords that the guitar couldn't quite do. On the keyboards with the synth sound, the stabbing was very 80s. Trevor Horn used the Synclavier to have this kind of orchestra stab. We were looking for this similar kind of punch to come out of the song. But also we were looking at early Motown

So what I mean (sings) “sensation, temptation”, all of those things are things that I grew up with Motown, and how their writers used three singers at once to just throw a word out, throw a theme out. This is a really remarkable period in time for song writing with Motown and everything that they put out. I wanted that influence to be put through the mixer as it were, along with my punk/new wave history and what was going on in 1983. We used that kind of style of just using words with three syllables or two syllables to just kind of punch the message home


But also because Simon Darlow (above with Toyah at the Marquee Studios) is a very good arranger, that meant that we could take the song beyond the verse, bridge, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus, and we could develop the middle eight into another journey. So we wanted it to build and build and build and then just gently come down again. A lot of my work is about unrequited emotions and "Broken Diamonds" is about breakdown in communication - of not being able to express oneself or one's true feelings

And also, I think there are people out there, and I'm definitely one of them, even though I've been married for 38 years, where love has never been a mutual experience. It's always been something I've just kept to myself. I keep those feelings to myself. That's probably going right back to my upbringing where I was never allowed to express love so with "Broken Diamonds", it's about that lack of ability of communication and how something is broken before it ever is born. It's just about unrequited, broken love in a relationship where something needed to be expressed and couldn't be expressed

“I Explode” is my favorite personal all time song. I am so in love with this song. It does everything I've ever wanted a song to do. The repetition is extraordinary and very, very powerful - especially live. It's so challenging for a guitarist to play that riff. What I love about it, it's about standing in moonlight, basically, alone in the moonlight with complete frustration. Again, it's a relationship song, but it's about the inner voice and the repetition is what allows it to grow and to go where it goes. So it's about frustration. It's about realisation of frustration. It's about the power of the individual. Is about anger and it's about release

It's just the most extraordinary song. I'm in love with it and I'm probably in love with it because there's an ambiguity about it as well. Yes, it's a relationship song, but it's also an identity song. It's about self identity, and it's a song about how powerful an individual can be to the point that they do actually explode or implode. It's just pure force. I think it's fantastic. I loved recording this song. It was recorded at about midnight one night after a performance of "Trafford Tanzi". Because Nick Tauber was at the controls he gave me such a great sound that I could sing very minimalistically, which allowed me to move the notes with greater dexterity than when you're fighting against a bass drum in your ears

So I wanted the beginning to be very kind of soulful. Might not be the right word, but soulful, emotionally in (sings) “skimming the surface of a dream”, it's melodic, it's beautiful. You don't know where it's going and then the tension builds with the anger, and the anger comes in. But then I wanted backing vocals to come in that were ever so slightly Motown’ish in their delivery - that it's kind of punchy and that brings the listener in. It says welcome in and then whoomph - it just takes off with this kind of roller coaster of anger of I explode, I explode, I explode


“Rebel Of Love” was a very satisfying track to write. Joel Bogen, myself and Simon Darlow - we always have loved experimentation. Joel has a love of jazz and a free form, and I have a love of poetry and what I call lyrical images. My writing is always involved with imagery. I wanted to write something about a boy that was completely unreadable, and that he was unreadable because basically he was not human. This boy knew something before the singer knew it. This boy lived in a different place, a different time. Kind of transcended time, and that's what “Rebel Of Love” is about. It is deliberately abstract and it's abstract because it's about that kind of otherness when you meet someone who's impenetrable yet utterly charismatic

When I write, especially when I write with Simon Darlow, we come up with the song with improvisation. So we've been doing that now for close to 50 years. So when we go into the studio, we just improvise. Now I've got apps like Soundtrap, where I can actually build an idea and I build the first 30 seconds and say “Simon, what do you think?” and then he'll build a track on that and I go in and we improvise some more. So we've always come up with the song we intend to write through improvisation

With “Rebel Of Love” we were in the gym at my home, and Joel and Simon were just playing this kind of very mysterious music and I started to improvise something I was feeling very strongly and that was this boy that was being idolized for not being human and for being something completely different. So it started as an improvisation, but once we made it to the Marquee Studios, it got its form. I worked on it. I honed it, because I needed Nick Tauber to understand what we were aiming for, and it had to have form for Nick to be able to produce it. But the beginning was improvised, yes

When you're recording an album, you do have to keep in mind that something has got to be a single. We didn't really do that with “The Changeling”. We were just lucky that “Brave New World” was so poetical. When I'm writing a song, I'm keeping in mind all the time do I want to perform this live? It's really important to me. If I'm writing something and I'm thinking I don't want to ever perform this live, it's not quite right. So with “Rebel Run”, which Simon Darlow and I wrote, Simon put that pulse in (sings the pulse). It's a really important pulse, and it's the whole backbone of what I'm talking about, which is rebels, it's revolutionaries, its people winning back their town, winning back the industries around their town

It's about change. It's like a sci-fi Che Guevara. It's all about the romanticism of rebellion. I wanted it to just have that really important pace, this beat in it, this heartbeat. I think it's done that particularly well. I think it resonates very well. It's fabulous to perform live. And today, in this new millennium, I'm performing it quite often in front of people who are seeing me for the first time


When that bass starts, it's like whoa. It's one of those moments. You know they're not going to forget that song. We made the video not long after I finished "Trafford Tanzi". The whole run of "Trafford Tanzi", that four months, I never was able to come down from that sheer energy of doing a show that was three hours of wrestling every night. Funny enough, when we got to the (video) shoot with David Mamet, I felt exhausted. I was actually really exhausted. I can see it in the video. I can see it in my eyes, I can see the lip sync isn't quite on. I think I was starting to physically crash

The video we wanted to base on the movie "Tron". That kind of someone moving through tubes. We didn't have internet at that time, but moving down kind of optical pipes and all of that. I think that's very successful. It is quite a unique video in that, but it's only me. It's an interesting one. I think when I look at it I just see how I physically felt on the day and it was like ugh! My god I need a holiday!

“Martian Cowboy” - I've always been totally in love with this song. I love its pace. I love its delivery. I love the musicality of it. Really love the lyrics. There is this story that I was given a sleeping pill and I'm not sure who gave it to me. I might have even had my own sleeping pill. I do know that we we did something very naughty and we slipped one into Joel’s drink. He ended up between the sound booth and the recording booth just going “where am I?” I remember that and I think by that time I might have recorded the whole vocal

The thing is, you give me a sleeping pill ... all it does is make me normal. I don't ever really slow down. Nick needed me to just be able to deliver something at a very gentle pace, and that's very rarely me. I'm always a 100 miles an hour in everything I do. So I think there's truth in that story. Who gave me the sleeping pill? I don't know but I know they were too involved and I slipped one to Joel (chuckles)

I loved doing that vocal. I really loved it. And it could be that the sleeping pill took away my natural anxiety and doubt about myself that I was just able to float away into the track. I think it’s fabulous track. Fabulous. Performing it live every hair just stands on end because it's so beautiful. “Pop Star” on "Anthem" is about me. It's about alienation. It's about not being able to reach out and contact people with the natural social freedom everyone else has - because fame, ironically, just stops all that. And then when we got to write “Martian Cowboy”, Martian cowboy is the yin and yang. The Martian cowboy is the other person in that relationship, so they both kind of meet up, pop star and Martian cowboy. But the Martian cowboy has exited the song. It's a song of yearning

With “Dreamscape”, we just wrote a song that I wanted to perform, and we wanted it to be really, really big and able to use the latest technology in doing it. I wanted something that literally as an experience to listen to would swallow the audience, swallow the listener, and also be about the listener. “The whole of the world needs a dreamscape”. It's an ideology. It's a utopian song, rather than dystopian. I just wanted something that was really, really big and warm and comforting. It's like the treacle sponge and custard song. It wraps you up and it's it's beautiful comfort and warmth


When we recorded it, Nick Tauber just entered into the spirit of it completely. There was so many things he wanted to try. The thing with Nick, he wasn't a producer that worked on his own. He worked with the musicians. So when he wanted to try something we were the people that were playing the instruments. It wasn't Nick. So he completely entered into the spirit of this. He said, “let's try this. Let's loop this. Let's play this backwards. Sing that. Simon, play that. Joel try this”. So we were really involved with everything on this album, and especially with that track. And he enjoyed it as much as us. It was pure expressionism

With “Time Is Ours” I was about to turn 25 and this is such a marker point, because at the age of 25 no one warns you of that feeling of never returning to youth, or never returning to the irresponsibility of being a youth. And it hit me, 25. What's next? 30? And I never thought beyond 30. So “Time Is Ours” I think is an absolutely beautiful song in its melodic movement. It’s gorgeous. It's perfect. It's actually about loss and it's about learning to live in the moment, because we are moving through time and if you live in the past, you're losing the present. It's a song about grief and grief of self, but I think at the same time, it's an absolutely stunning pop song

With “Love Is The Law” I wanted a song that involved the fans. This is because the fans had been so present in our lives for the whole of this writing process, with them camping outside the Mermaid Theatre where I was performing and then following me to the Marquee Studios. They were there all the time. When we weren't in the studio, when we were in the green room, either having a cup of tea or eating, we could hear them outside. So we started to get more and more involved with them and involving them on some of the tracks, especially “Love Is The Law”. We'd play them tracks. We'd say “what do you think of this? What do you think of that melody? What do you think of that?” We got feedback actually in the moment, which was extraordinary

With “Love Is The Law” I wanted something that was a bit like a tribal, urban chant. It was this kind of discovery that love holds everything together. I actually personally, and especially now, that I'm about to turn 66, think love is something that transcends time. I think eternity is love. So it holds on to the past, it's in the present, and it reaches to the future. I think there's something really powerful there. If we want a time machine, look at what love does to us, what love creates, what love makes possible. Then I think we transcend into something other than human

"Love is the law" is a saying from Aleister Crowley but also, I think there's a massive clue there in that love is something that is utterly extraordinary. So to bring the fans in on this, and have them do the chorus (sings) “love is the law, love is the law” - it's as simple as that, and bringing in the power of nature and the power of animals and the power of the environment of Earth. It was a song I felt very passionate about when I was writing and very passionate about when I was recording. Funny enough, it's quite a difficult one to do live and if I was ever to do it - the service it needs live, I would have to have a choir on stage and a lot of technology on stage. But I think in the context of this album, it works really, really well


The song was definitely written in the gym at my home and it was something where I was saying I just want this very big chorus of “love is the law”, and we worked on it in the gym. Joel, myself, Simon Darlow - we worked on the sounds. We did a demo, took that into the studio. I've always loved the phrase "love is the law." Never quite understood why Crowley used it, because Crowley was definitely an anarchic and he didn't want the structures we live by today. But when you look on the term "love is the law", it should be something that every nation uses. Separate it from its history and use it as what humans must represent to outer universes. This is the law of life. Love is the law

My memory of writing “Remember” is it's one of the last songs. We were coming towards the end of the album, and this is one of the last songs. Probably Joel presented us an idea, like a riff or a section, and then we decided we'll go with that. Let's write a song, because we need another song. That's my kind of feeling about it. But also, when you look at the lyrics, “remember the past”, and it's all about remembering a relationship. It was probably coming towards the end of the recording, and the end of "Trafford Tanzi" and everything that had been so remarkable and in a bubble

About four months was coming to an end. There's a melancholy in it. It's "no one gets out of here alive". It's goodbye. It is quite a sad song, really. I cannot remember this story that the lyric came about because I was angry with a fan who was drunk and apparently tried to hit me. I can't remember that incident at all and I can't remember that reason. But when I look at the lyric, the lyric is kind of like a warning, and it's the coming to the end of something. With the fans outside the Mermaid Theatre during the run of "Trafford Tanzi" we were a very happy bunch, but there were some arguments developing between some of the fans towards the end

There may have been kind of one occasion where someone would turn up drunk and didn't quite fit in because of that. If was angry at anything, it would be that I was trying to hold so much together and suddenly I was dealing with someone's very personal issues. That would not have been appreciated at a time when I was starring in a play and writing an album. It would be just “don't waste my time, get your life together.” That might have influenced me in some way, but I cannot remember that incident

“No one gets out of here alive”. I first heard the term come from Jim Morrison of The Doors. When you say that to someone who hasn't hit 25 it's a terrifying thing. It hits home. No one gets out of here alive. It's so negative. It's such a downer. I think it's also a wake-up call. Today at the age I'm at, it's like god, no one gets out of here alive. Can't fucking wait to move on (laughs) You feel so differently about it. It's a natural process that you've had the privilege of time to experience and understand. I think that no one gets out of here alive is just fact. So make the most of your life. Simple as that

I think “The Vow” was Joel and myself wanting just mature and being more mature writers and definitely release more mature material. We felt that we had a lot of great history, great music behind us and that we wanted to just be seen in a different light. It's a very brave choice to have written “The Vow” and to release it as a single, especially at Christmas. This was a time where we just wanted to sing about peace among mankind and a song about the effects of war on other planets and how that affects how those planets see somewhere as green and as beautiful as Earth

Simon Darlow’s father did the string arrangements on it. He also did the string arrangements on “Rebel Run” as well. He was a fantastic arranger, really gorgeous. What he brought into the space was beautiful and perfect. It was lovely to see Simon Darlow so proud that his dad was involved. I think “The Vow” is a gorgeous song, and the fans have always loved it. Ironically, whenever we've performed it live all they do is talk through it. They never listen! Off to the bar. They're talking at me “Hello, Toyah! When are you going to do “Race Through Space”? It's a song they can never focus on yet they always request it

It's a song I like and I'm very happy that we released it and that we stood by it. Very happy. “The Vow” is a very rare song in our repertoire. It's a quiet love song. It's a slow, inward looking love song. I think it's a very sobering song as well. It's a song with a message and that is we've got to stop fighting each other, we've got to stop allowing wars, and we need to promise each other we'll never let that happen. So it's a song about an unspoken promise. I think it's a very natural song to finish “Love Is The Law”

Listen to the interview ↓


See also the Love Is The Law 2024 Special Feature

TOYAH IN SUOSIKKI
DECEMBER 1981

This interview by Markku Fagerlund is from a Finnish music magazine Suosikki conducted in Stockholm 1.12.1981 during the Good Morning Universe European Tour

THE NEW WILD GIRL OF ROCK:
I'M CRAZY ABOUT BUNNIES!

Now I’ve seen her – the hottest rock girl in the world Toyah (Willcox) Compared to this red-headed hurricane other female singers – and some men – look like statues of salt. Toyah is 145 cm of pure fizziness and sex

After the concert Suosikki was granted a special interview with her. An honour that only a few magazines in the world have had. Toyah had a look through the latest issue of Suosikki and liked what she saw. Her message to the readers is “keep going strong!”


Toyah Willcox is a 23 year old multitalented artist who has finally had a breakthrough during this year. The latest album “Anthem” has been well received in Europe (it's currently n:o 2 in the UK) and the gigs have been massively successful

Toyah is also famous as an actress. Her sexiness has been noticeable in films like “Quadrophenia”, “Jubilee”, “The Corn Is Green” and countless TV series including “Shoestring”, in which she plays an uninhibited punk singer. The episode aired in Finland as well. In December Toyah was on a European tour so we got the chance to get to know this ferocious singer

On stage Toyah is like a small red-headed whirlwind. Despite her tiny size she is an entertainer of a great calibre. She is a bundle of speed who does not give her audience a moment’s respite. Toyah has a very talented four peace band which is lead by guitarist Joel Bogen, her musical partner of many years

On the records Toyah’s music is mystic, melodic rock which plays with different themes. Kind of a mix of David Bowie and Kate Bush. On stage the music is a lot more untamed. The drums and the synths create a pulsating platform which Toyah directs with her tight sexy voice

She knows how to control the audience. Dressed in a black mini-skirt (which is just a belt really), black tights and a tiny top Toyah dances around the stage with a wireless microphone. She squats down by the front of the stage to pose, gets up and continues to move quickly around, singing the whole time

The majority of the songs are from “Anthem”. At first the audience sits completely still, not knowing how to react to this devil but then they start to move to the music. During the most famous hit “I Want To Be Free” the fans rush to the front of the stage and sing along. Another conquest for Toyah

The Toyah I meet after the gig is thankfully a bit calmer and very sympathetic. There’s no signs of being a diva but even in normal clothes and makeup she still looks so damn good it hurts

MARKKU: Which one is more important to you – singing or acting?

TOYAH: Both. Otherwise I wouldn’t do both. I’ve loved acting since I was a kid and it’s a part of me. But then I couldn’t live without music either because I can be myself. When I’m acting I’m playing someone else

MARKKU: How did you get interested in acting?

TOYAH: Even in school I made up all sorts of stories and pretended to be whatever just to make my life more interesting. That’s where it all started, I guess

MARKKU: What about music – did you have certain idols?

TOYAH: Of course, many. But above anyone else David Bowie and Marc Bolan. I admire Bowie because he’s like a chameleon. He's always changing his image and music. He’s constantly ahead of his time

MARKKU: Judging by the record covers, stage clothes and makeup image is important to you

TOYAH: It’s very important. I spend an enormous time designing the record covers. One took 24 hours to shoot before I was satisfied with it. Somebody might say it’s dangerous to concentrate so much on the images but we’re a live band

If I was creating these looks only in a studio without people seeing me in real life that might be the case. It’s happened to a lot of bands. The different mystic images are just a part of me


MARKKU: During your gigs you have a habit of going amongst the audience to sit and talk. Isn’t that dangerous for a woman?

TOYAH: Only in England where the audience starts to grope me. But I think it’s fun to get involved with the audience

MARKKU: How do you deal with the troublemakers?

TOYAH: Feel that (Toyah shows me her arm muscles, which feel really hard and trained) I punch them to the floor

MARKKU: When are you thinking of slowing down, maybe getting married and having kids?

TOYAH: Not for years. I think I’m still a kid myself. My biggest love at the moment is bunnies. When I find a suitable place I’m going to start a funny farm. They’re so cute, do the stupidest things, wave their big ears about and eat grass. I’m mad about them

MARKKU: I’ve heard you have your own makeup line?

TOYAH: Yeah, so the kids can imitate me. No, not really. I’ve designed an affordable collection of makeup which is named after me. The idea is also to give the kids tips because I know all the makeup tricks. The makeup is being manufactured in 3 different factories and it’s selling better than in my wildest dreams

Toyah’s career isn’t just a bed of roses. Last spring she fainted during a gig due to overexertion

TOYAH: According to the doctors it was a close call. I might’ve died. I should’ve stopped the tour but carried on to the end with willpower. After that I’ve made sure something like that never happens again

I exercise daily (ballet, jazz dance, gymnastics) and have a good diet. One experience of overexertion was enough. It was horrible. It was as if my heart exploded and I felt the most awful pain. I’ll never forget it 

You can read the interview in Finnish below
(click on the image to view a large version)

TOYAH IN
BACK ISSUE FANZINE
1980

Interview by D. Fischar, A. Brannan, C. Nightingale 

DF: What made you decide to star a group after acting on stage and films?

TOYAH: It’s something I’ve always wanted to do but never had the guts to actually get up and do it. I lived in Birmingham until I was eighteen and one night at a New Year's party I met some musicians and I said “look, I can write music, would you help me out? We started rehearsing for a year and the chance came to become professional so I did

DF: Did the punk explosion play an important part in deciding to start a group?

TOYAH: It was important to me because it was a form of recognition of my strange taste of clothes. I used to like wearing weird things. I started off about two years pre-Sex Pistols. I had pink hair and used to wear great big Andy Pandy outfits

Punk came along and it sort of justified my taste because everyone thought I should be put away in a mental home. It sort of saved my life. It did help, it gave me a lot of encouragement. I used to doubt my own sanity. I came along and helped me

DF: Did you attract a following straight away?

TOYAH: More thanks to "Jubilee" (film) than our actual music. The band has always had a following and it’s always been a strong punk following but we don’t consider ourselves a punk band. When we started off I used to be really outrageous. I used to be permanently drunk and I wouldn’t be able to stand up or say anything

I just used to stand up and fall over throughout the set and I slowly got myself together because I was just so nervous of singing. The following became a much stronger one. It was much more musically influenced rather than people just coming to see us out of interest


AB: You said you don’t call yourselves a punk band. Why not?

TOYAH: Because what is punk? I’ve never really known what is punk. A lot of bands, which call themselves punk, seem to be into just making a noise or a kind of music to move to, whereas we don't class ourselves as anything because we don’t really know what we’re aiming for yet. We don’t know the sort of music we categorise ourselves under so we like to remain free of categoratisation

We are thought of as heavy punk because I look like it. I’ve got the hair for it but it’s just out of personal taste. I hate black hair, which is my natural colour. If you’re going to dye it why not go the whole way

DF: How did you get the part in "Jubilee"?

TOYAH: I was at the National Theatre and at that time I was causing quite a stir because no one could understand what the fuck I was about. (The director) Derek Jarman happened to appear at the company and he wanted to make a punk movie to kill all other punk movies. I went to tea with him and he offered me the part. It was as simple as that

DF: In your interview with "Sounds" in ‘79 the band said they didn’t like that. Why not?

TOYAH: We signed to Safari in February last year and we had to get an album out and the band as yet wasn’t ready. We weren’t happy with the drummer and we weren’t happy with the bassist so we sacked them both. Due to contractual problems we had to borrow a bass player and a drummer and we weren’t really a band. We were not happy and to us the music sounded terrible

And me personally - I couldn’t sing, not as well as I can now. It was lack of experience. It was also overproduced. Too many ideas were coming from outside of the band. It wasn’t a band creation at all, really

This album we’ve just done, which will be out in May, is going to be called "Blue Meanings" and it's just fucking super against the quality of the A.P (Alternative Play, the EP "Sheep Farming In Barnet") because of the energy there. We’ve managed to put onto vinyl what we are like live rather than trying to be visual on vinyl. I mean there’s no one to look at


DF: Did Safari contact you or did you go to Safari?

TOYAH: Safari came to us after a review of a gig we did at the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts, London), which appeared in "Record Mirror". Safari flew over from Germany to see us at rehearsals and we signed that day

We didn’t want to go to a bigger company. We had offers from bigger companies like Virgin and we just didn’t want to go because we were such naive little bunch of kids at that time

DF: What do you think about having your voice compared with Siouxsie Sioux and Kate Bush?

TOYAH: I think it’s a load of shit. I mean my voice is nothing like theirs

DF: You said you hated hearing your own voice. Why?

TOYAH: Because when I sing I sound different. When I listened to it, it destroyed the illusion I had of myself. To me my voice sounds so much like a little girl and I always think of myself as being big and strong. It just breaks down what I think of myself

DF: I think your voice plays an important part in the music, like at the beginning of "Danced"

TOYAH: Oh, right. I mean I’m not just a vocalist stuck in a booth. Another thing about the A.P. is that my vocals are too overindulgent and they block certain aspects of the music. On this present album my voice is more restraint with the band rather than just a vocal stuck on top

AB: You said you didn’t want to sign to Virgin. Do you believe in all this stuff about selling out?

TOYAH: Oh, no - I didn’t want to sign to Virgin then. We are going to be moving hopefully within a few years to a bigger record company because you can outgrow a small record company so easily and therefore you are blocking out your own career in other countries

AB: So you think it’s more a stage of growing?

TOYAH: Oh, yeah. If we went to Virgin I think they would have killed us completely. They would have been too heavy for us because we didn’t understand how dirty the record business could be. Virgin would have wiped us out completely. I don’t think Virgin would have been patient with us like Safari have been

DF: Don’t you think they’ll make you change your music or style?

TOYAH: No, they can’t. Record companies aren’t allowed to do that now


DF: Will some … (?) big labels because they might be pressurised

TOYAH: Only if that band is not able to get a deal together. It’s a general myth. Record companies do like choosing your producer and the artist to do the cover but if you really objected to do it then you can say “no, I refuse to do that” and you can make the choice. It’s only bands who really don’t know what they want to do that get fiddled about with

DF: I know you admire David Bowie. Does his music influence yours?

TOYAH: He influences my imagination but I don’t go "Bowie did this so I’ll have a got at it". He is the one person that can trigger my imagination when I’m feeling really down and uninspired. David Bowie’s the main influence but I’m really into beat music. Not the reincarnation of Mod but the real beat, musically

DF: I heard somewhere that the album tells a story. Is this true?

TOYAH: No, it doesn’t but the forthcoming album will do. The album from Germany was an even bigger embarrassment than the A.P because it is the A.P plus something like three other tracks. A lot of kids were buying the album thinking it’s going to be totally new material, which is a bit of an embarrassment to us

I mean OK, the album sold really well considering. It’s better quality than the A.P but it wasn’t advertised enough that it was the A.P and some tracks

DF: How come it was pressed in Germany?

TOYAH: Because Safari is a German based company and the album was purely for Germany but it was requested to come over as an import so to make it cheaper we had it moved over here so that it wouldn’t go up to £7 or something

DF: What’s all this about Nostradamus on the back of the German LP?

TOYAH: It’s all related to WW3. Everything on the back of the album is just things that could possibly happen. It’s just things that make you think. It’s nothing that I'm preaching and saying will come true

DF: Has it got anything to do with the music?

TOYAH: No, it’s just an avid vision


DF: Where do you get your ideas for songs from?

TOYAH: Very bad nightmares, usually. I have a fabulous time in my sleep, it’s really bizarre. It’s only a matter of remembering them. Usually a good argument starts off the best in me. It’s usually my life in general. If I have a bad day then I’ll write something really horrible

There’s a number on this new album called “She”, which I wrote when I had a really big fight with this old slag who I really hated. It’s the nastiest piece of music I could have done. I ? on because it was so perverse

DF: In the "Sounds" interviews you contradict yourself. In the first interview you said that you help write the songs and in the second you said that you’re there just to sing and the band can do without you at rehearsals

TOYAH: I didn’t say that. The band said that and they’ve been severely talked to for saying that. The trouble with the band is that they are very paranoid that I get all the publicity and when they are included in interviews they just keep blowing it

I wrote “Victims Of The Riddle” and since then the band hasn’t forgiven me for how popular it has been and it’s just a band problem. The band said that, I didn’t. We have two rehearsals. A rehearsal where the band can jam for hours on end and a rehearsal where I come in and we get down to some self-controlled work

DF: How did you get the band together? Were you all friends?

TOYAH: No, Joel Bogen (lead guitar) and me are the original members. We formed it about three and a half years ago and then we advertised for a keyboard player. That’s when Pete Bush came along. We completed the rhythm section when Steve Bray (drums) came along

DF: Do you prefer singing in front of a live audience or acting in front of a camera?

TOYAH: I like both. The reason why I do both is because I like them. I only do what I like doing and I’m not doing it for any other reason really. But I prefer singing to a live audience than in a studio


DF: In the "Sounds" interviews from ‘79 you said acting was your first love and the band was something you did just for fun

TOYAH: Yeah, that’s when we didn’t really have a band together. Now I can equally appreciate the band because it is a band now and not a bunch of arguing musicians - which we were then

DF: Do you still think that (about acting) after considering the band’s recent success?

TOYAH: Acting is my first love because it’s so much easier for me. It’s more natural for me whereas in the band I really have to work my fucking guts out because I’m having to keep up with four other men who are so much stronger than me in a way

They’re physically stronger and they can really take more than me but I enjoy the challenge. It’s the challenges that keep me going. I love challenges

DF: When you’re on stage you’ve been described as provocative and blatantly sexist. Do you think this is necessary to sell records?

TOYAH: No. It’s because I’m not a paranoid feminist that has to go “ooh, you’re a man, I hate men so fuck off!” I hate feminists because a real feminist, when she sees a man, freaks out on the spot. That isn’t what it’s about. Women are too intelligent, women are the superior race and women do not have to be so paranoid at the presence of a man

On stage I just take the piss out of men's sexuality by showing them I have no inhibitions. If they want to grab my tit they can but they’ll get a good kick in the bollocks for it. So I just provoke them and teach them that sexuality is nothing. It’s all up there (points to her head)

DF: You said you want to change that now because of people who come to see you just because of that

TOYAH: Oh, it’s great. They shout “get your knickers off!” and just ignore them and let them get frustrated. I like to think I’ve ripped those people off because they’ve come to see me take my clothes off and they won’t (see that)


DF: Given the chance would you play in big places like Hammersmith Odeon, because most of the gigs are in small places?

TOYAH: We’re not that big. We’re not such a big band really. We haven’t had a top twenty hit, which is what really puts you in Hammersmith Odeon. I’ve never really thought about it

The thought of being that popular really does appeal to me. If we did play the Hammersmith Odeon I’d like to have a big budget. I’d want to put films on as well and really make it a big show

I’ve only ever seen one band at the Hammersmith Odeon, the Pat Travers Band and I just happened to be there at the right time. They were playing and I thought they were fucking awful. I just didn’t like the set-up because I was right at the back and you couldn’t see a thing. I prefer playing colleges to clubs

DF: Because of the atmosphere?

TOYAH: The audiences are so much better. The audience are all on one level and they can all see you because colleges have better facilities whereas in clubs you can jump and knock yourself out on the ceiling. Especially here in London

DF: You said you like your stage show to be full of lights and effects. How come you didn’t do this on your recent tour? I saw you at the Harrow Tech (8.2.1980)

TOYAH: Do you know what happened at the Harrow Tech. They had two plug sockets and I spent £200 getting a generator for the night and it could only just power the PA. The lights at the front weren’t allowed because there weren't any bouncers to make sure the audience didn't steal them

We had lot of problems at Harrow and apart from all that I had gastroenteritis. I was running to be sick everywhere. It was a bad gig

DF: How come your show at Harrow was so short because people were complaining at the end?

TOYAH: It was cut short. I collapsed after that gig. I was in hospital so that I could do the Music Machine (in Camden the next day). I was very ill. We cut out about four numbers because I just couldn’t go on. I was in fucking agony

AB: At the gigs you get some Mods because of "Quadrophenia" and you get a lot of skinheads who go round beating people up

TOYAH: I don't know why we get skinheads but we do. In London there’s a thing where you get a certain gang of skinheads who latch on to you (the band) to try to recruit people to the British Movement. It’s quite a big thing. They’ll go round using bands to recruit people. There’s nothing you can do about it because they’re so fucking good at it. It’s a real drag


DF: At the end of the Harrow gig all the black people were getting beaten up. How do you feel about violence at your gigs?

TOYAH: I can’t stand it but you can’t do anything about it. Especially us because we're not a big band. If I had had heavies (bodyguards) - we normally do - then they would have been stopping it. I do fucking hate it

I’d preach about it on stage if we saw it happening. We’re not a political band and we’re not going to get up there before any trouble has started and start preaching that it shouldn’t happen. That’s putting it into people's minds

CN: Did you enjoy making "Quadrophenia"?

TOYAH: No. I hated it but I got this feeling of having to do it. It was another challenge for me. It was the first time I worked with people of my own age. I was physically fucking exhausted throughout the whole thing because we’d been up at five and for doing a lot of riot scenes in Brighton. We’d have to run on average ten miles a day to shoot those particular scenes

We were ordered to run across the street (above, Toyah in the middle) and there was no one blocking the cars. A few people got run over and trampled by horses. I did enjoy it but at the same time it was fucking agony. It was at a time when the Mod movement hadn’t started off, which made it so much nicer and so much better because it wasn’t cashing in on a fashion

It was creating something that happened, like creating history rather than saying “oh look, Mods. Let’s cash in on it” sort of thing, which is what it turned out to be

CN: How did you get the part in it?

TOYAH: Thanks to "Jubilee". The director Franc Roddam saw "Jubilee" the night before he had a casting session and he asked me to to do it

CN: Did you find after "Shoestring" (TV series, Toyah played a singer called "Toola" in an episode called "Find The Lady" that aired 2.12.1979) that your success was boosted?

TOYAH: Oh yeah, it was really incredible because I didn’t think anybody would watch it because of the Gala performance (Royal Variety Performance) on the other side. Instant success came for the band more than anything else

The audience capacity just tripled. The audience liked us before we went on and we had to prove ourselves not realising how interested the audience was in us because of "Shoestring"

CN: Did you enjoy doing it because it was a mixture of singing and acting?

TOYAH: Oh yeah, it was fab being able to combine the two because it’s so rare being able to do it. I really enjoyed doing it. Our bass player had pneumonia so we had to have a stand-in bass player


DF: You do remember the songs you played in "Shoestring"?

TOYAH: We started off with “Neon Womb”, then “Waiting” and it ended up with “Danced”

DF: Do you play a big part in the BBC production of "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde"? (1980) (Toyah played a servant girl called "Janet", above with David Hemmings as "Dr Jekyll")

TOYAH: It’s not a massive part at all. It’s about the same as "Quadrophenia" but more important

AB: Would you like to make a film with the band?

TOYAH: Yes, we are going to (do that) in September. It was a film that was scheduled to be made in America and has now been brought over here. I’ve been offered the lead part in it

I’ll actually be doing all the music to it with a producer called Steve James, who has done the A.P. and the album which is about to come out and the band will be appearing in it. They might even get acting parts

DF: What’s the film going to be about?

TOYAH: The film is not supposed to be a musical, it’s a psychopathic murder thriller in which there’s a sort of rapist going round and it turns out to be me. It’s a really fucking good horror story and that’s why we’re doing it. The music just happens to be in it. But I haven’t signed anything yet! It might all fall through!

DF: Will you be putting new songs into it?

TOYAH: Totally new. We won’t use any of the old stuff. When we re-release singles I hate to release singles from the album and the B-side will be something totally new. So for the film we’ll be doing totally new stuff, which you’ll be able to get separately as a single track

DF: How did you get on to the Old Grey Whistle Test? (Aired 4.3.1980)

TOYAH: That was thanks to the album “Sheep Farming In Barnet”. You have to have an album to be on that and then you’re invited to it

DF: What did you think of your performance on it?

TOYAH: Awful. I think it was bad. My voice was terrible on it and also we had the greatest bad luck to do it in Glasgow. It was the second ever Whistle Test done in Glasgow and you got all the Glaswegians going “what do we have here? What knob do we twiddle?”

They just didn’t know what to do. And the lighting - we were saying "no, take it down. Let’s have moving lighting and coloured lighting" so it was an incredible battle against these Glaswegians but it was good fun


DF: Do you think being a woman had hindered your success in any way?

TOYAH: Well, put it this way if I could start all over again I would come back as man. I’d really prefer it because I hate people saying “oh, you’re a woman” and sitting back and waiting for you to fail

DF: You are obviously succeeding so aren’t you triumphing over them?

TOYAH: I’m triumphing over them but I’d still like to be a man. I always think of myself as a man and when people grab me around the tit I think "oh, God! I’m a woman". That’s how I am on stage - ignoring my sexuality

DF: What’s all this about a death wish?

TOYAH: I’ve got this death wish. I like teasing Dr Death and getting away with it. Put me in a car and I’ll crash it and if I survive I survive but if I die it doesn't matter because I have to go sometime anyway. It’s that sort of attitude. I like daring myself and if I fail I’m determined to do it again the next day to succeed

CN: You you dare yourself in the record business?

TOYAH: Oh, totally. They way I keep progressing is by dare that I don’t think I’ll achieve and it’s because of the fact that I’m so frightened of falling I manage to do it and I like that. It’s the permanent adrenaline that keeps you going. You don’t need drugs