News & New In The Archive


2026 Songs & Stories Tour

The 49-date Songs & Stories Tour
starts on the 22nd of March

Book yours tickets HERE


Meteorite

A new memoir called Meteorite
was released in November

The book is accompanied by an exclusive 9-track CD
“Swipe Right, Paradise” of previously unreleased
demos curated by Toyah

There's also a Superluxe Edition which includes an Archive Scrapbook of images, doodles and handwritten materials across the decades and an exclusive 9-track vinyl

Order
Luxe Edition
Superluxe Edition  

Ophelia's Shadow and Take The Leap!
Picture discs and CD's

2-Disc CD's and a limited edition picture discs of both Ophelia's Shadow and Take The Leap! are out now

Order

Ophelia's Shadow
Take The Leap!

For more information visit Official Toyah


Chameleon – The Very Best Of Toyah

Toyah's new compilation
Chameleon – The Very Best of Toyah
on Cherry Red Records is out now

For more information visit Official Toyah

Order

2CD Edition

3CD/Blu-ray Deluxe Edition

2LP Gatefold Gold Vinyl Edition

 

NEW IN THE ARCHIVE

POPNERD 26.2.2026
BBC RADIO SCOTLAND 26.2.2026
BBC RADIO SCOTLAND 11.1.2026
BBC RADIO 2 TRACKS OF MY YEARS 1.9.2025
BBC RADIO LONDON 13.9.2025
BBC RADIO 2 8.8.2025
BBC BREAKFAST AUGUST 2025
BBC RADIO 2, SOUNDS OF THE 80'S 19.7.2025
BBC RADIO SCOTLAND 13.2.2025
LOVE YOUR WEEKEND, ITV 23.11.2024
TOYAH TALKS LOVE IS THE LAW 2024
TOYAH TALKS THE CHANGELING 2023
E4 THE LATE EDITION 24.3.2005
IT'S YOUR FUNERAL, CHANNEL 5 2001
BBC1 LIFE AND TIMES 2000
LIVE TALK, ITV August 2000
KENNY LIVE, RTÉ, IRELAND 12.11.1994
ITV THIS MORNING April 1994
ITV THIS MORNING September 1992
ITV HTV WEST RECOLLECTIONS October 1987
SUMMER SUNDAY ITV TV-AM 19.7.1987
PEPSI LIVE! April 1987
BBC BREAKFAST TIME 1.4.1987
BBC1 WOGAN With Sue Lawley 16.4.1986
BBC BREAKFAST TIME June 1985
BBC PEBBLE MILL AT ONE 29.4.1985
SKY TRAX April 1985
BBC BREAKFAST TIME September 1983
HARTY, BBC1 16.11.1983
BBC GET SET, TRAFFORD TANZI SPECIAL 23.4.1983
BBC 1 BREAKFAST TIME 28.3.1983
SOUNDCHECK Issue 1, 1983
GET SET FOR SUMMER, BBC1 July 1982  
COUNTDOWN AUSTRALIA 4.4.1982
SUOSIKKI, FINLAND December 1981
PARKINSON, BBC1 October 1981
TISWAS 26.9.1981
ATV TODAY May 1981
TISWAS 14.3.1981
BACK ISSUE FANZINE 1980

Check out all the new stuff on our sister page HERE 

TOYAH ON
POPNERD
WITH HOLLY CARNEGIE
26.2.2026

HOLLY: My guest today is English singer songwriter, actress and presenter Toyah Willcox. Toyah rose to prominence in the late 1970's and early 1980's as a distinctive voice of the new wave and punk movement. Fronting the band Toyah, she achieved major UK success with her 1981 album “Anthem” and hit singles including “It's A Mystery” and “Thunder In The Mountains”, which both peaked at number four in the UK Singles Chart, respectively, and earned her multiple Brit Award nominations

Beyond music, Willcox has maintained a diverse career in film, theatre and television, performing on stage at the National Theatre and appearing alongside Phil Daniels, Ray Winston and Sting in The Who's rock opera film “Quadrophenia”. She is married to guitarist Robert Fripp of King Crimson, and we do discuss in this chat their creative and rather humorous videos they post on social media

We touch upon Toyah's life growing up in this chat, her surprising thoughts on AI in songwriting and where on earth she gets all that energy from. Welcome to "Popnerd", Toyah. Thank you so much for joining me today

TOYAH: It's a pleasure. Thank you so much for having me

HOLLY: This for you is a big year of performances. You've got Henley on Thames, you're performing at "Rewind", you've got some Christmas shows, but you start things off with this marvelous tour called "An evening with Toyah - Songs and Stories". What can we expect with this show?

TOYAH: It's a visual show. Because everything I do I prefer to be visual. It's how I work. Music for me is a very visual thing. When video came into being around 1981, when it really took off with MTV, it was fantastic for me because I just have always written music with visuals in my head. So with the “Songs And Stories” tour we have a small screen and the visuals will be up there, but they'll be synced to what I'm doing

So the whole thing, like when I sing a song, will be synced to the official video. When I'm telling stories about working with Katharine Hepburn and Lawrence Olivier (below with Toyah, Greta Scacchi and Roger Rees in the 1984 film "The Ebony Tower") there will be photos to accompany it

Also there'll be some behind the scenes photos. So I want to immerse my audience in my experience, and also inspire the audience to believe in themselves. We live in a world of saturation. I think many people have dreams that they've never visited, or ideas that they've just let go of as soon as they thought of them

I just want people to go out of my show on this particular tour and think “oh, my goodness, I really want to have a go at that. I really want to see if I can do something in my life that I've always intended to do but have never been encouraged to do”. I'm really into that. I'm hoping that I'll inspire people to just look at their own creativity


HOLLY: This is a message that has been woven through a lot of your music throughout your whole career. I'm just thinking of "I Want To Be Free" or something like that. I can imagine you performing that and feeling the same sentiment that you had when you first performed it

TOYAH: Well, I feel it even more now. That song means more to me now than ever before - but so do most of my hit songs because it's a shared experience, yet again, with the audience. When I sing, “I Want To Be Free”, "It's A Mystery" or even "Rebel Run" I see the audience being taken right back to a memory of old, which they're revisiting. It's highly emotional

Most of the time I'm looking out at people that sometimes are in tears because I've taken them back to being with their parents or their first kiss. I always say with “I Want To Be Free” I hope it takes you back to your first detention (Holly laughs)

But that song is not a novelty song. It's a song from a severely dyslexic human being. Even my parents told me I would amount to nothing, let alone my educational background and that song really means something to me. It's got such truth in it

The most prized memory I have of this song is in 2018 when Derek Jarman's movie “The Jubilee” was brought to the stage by a gender neutral cast. They chose that song as a representative of who and what they are in their generation. That was just so profoundly powerful for me

HOLLY: It's really interesting because you touched upon your dyslexia as a child. I'm really interested to go back to your childhood. You were someone who really championed the arts and acting and singing and music. Did you come from a musical household? Was that something that was really encouraged?

TOYAH: When I was very young I had absolutely no idea that I was perceived as someone with learning difficulties. So my very young childhood was very naive but incredibly happy. My mother was a professional dancer from the age of 12 till 19, when she got married. She toured alongside people like Max Wall, the comedian, and many of the vaudeville stars of the time. She was a very beautiful woman. She was like a beauty queen as well

So I inherited some of that. My father loved music, but he was tone deaf. He used to put on the Coldstream Guards (an regiment in the British Army) every morning and sing along to it but in one note. There was only one note and it used to drive me bonkers (Holly laughs)

So in my childhood I remember as being very happy, but then it just took a sinister turn. In the early to mid 60's there was a stock market crash and my father was hit by that. So by the time I was 12 my parents were going to lose the home and lose everything. By the time I was 16 I was the breadwinner and that's fine. I remained the breadwinner right through to when they died. I bought the family home so they could stay in in their home. I bought them a retirement home and I financially supported them

I thought that's what I was supposed to do. I don't resent that, but it made life very challenging. I could never have a day off. That feeling of "I will be punished by losing my home if I ever take time off" has never left me. But creatively that desire to be as creative as I am came from being told I will amount to nothing


HOLLY: Wow, that's crazy. That's just crazy, isn't it?

TOYAH: Well, today I'm so inspired by people telling me I'm no good at what I do (Holly laughs) Honestly, if you want me to work twice as hard as I already work, tell me I'm no good at what I do because I will prove you wrong

HOLLY: But then that's what helped create the unique Toyah sound. That's what brought you that amazing sound and that sound world. That punky energy that you had in the late 70's, early 80's period

TOYAH: I agree. But I think one of the biggest things that contributed to my creativity, and I do a lot of creative writing today, was discovering the book “The Lord of the Rings”. It took me three years to read. Literature really meant a lot to me, and that literature, again, was visual. When I read a book it's a film in my head. That emotion and that drive and that endorphin lift from reading a great book just makes me want to write music and sing and storytell through music

HOLLY: I know in your songs you've referenced Shakespeare and Carl Jung and all sorts of figures. I'm going to hazard a guess here. Are you the kind of person who writes lyrics first before you write a melody when you're writing a song?

TOYAH: In this present day I do write lyrics first. When I was contributing as a co-writer on “Posh Pop” (the 2021 album) I was writing on guitar and coming up with chord sequences first. It's a little of both. I have to say, with the advent of AI I can put lyrics into AI and they're teaching me how to scan them. What I mean by that is I sometimes have to dilute my lyrics for how I scan as a singer. This is how I place words within a tune

AI is helping to teach me to use a different scanning that I can fit more complex words into a line. The prime example of someone who scans brilliantly is Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey. Their scanning is unbelievable. I never learned to do that. No one ever taught me to do it, but AI is teaching me. So I can put a lyric that I really want to keep pure and I really need it to tell the story to get to the chorus - I can put that in AI and it will scan it to 4/4 (timing) for me. Then I create the melody

HOLLY: Wow, that's so interesting. It's so cool

TOYAH: I'm having this argument with quite a lot of people because they just don't want AI in music. I've always had a problem with how to scan. You can hear it on the very first two albums I made, which I think is what makes them so unique. I'm slightly off the beat and now I don't have to be off the beat. I can learn how to scan

HOLLY: Wow, that's so fascinating because I think a lot of musicians are very against AI. It's got quite a bad press, but it actually can be used to really help and hone that creativity

TOYAH: Yeah. I will not let AI replace me, which is the argument. AI learns everything we do and it can replace you. With me it's just lifting the frustration out of my life and saying "you can fit that word into this melodic line"


HOLLY: It's really cool. Your melody lines are so fascinating to me. They're really quite angular and you push your voice to the extremes in quite a lot of your songs. I'm interested to know do you sit at a piano and write those kind of lines or does it just come to you like "this is what I'm feeling and this is what I'm giving it"?

TOYAH: When I write a line it belongs somewhere but hasn't yet been given its place. So (for example from "Thunder In The Mountains") “where the mountains meet the sea” - that was visually stronger to me the moment I wrote it. Then I thought "well, how do I represent that in music?" Then I just ... I don't know. I go somewhere deep inside me to do with my base chakra or my solar plexus and I just think "OK, we're looking at these chords. How can I make those words resonate as powerfully within music as they do within the image that's in my head" 

So it's all just making connections. With “IEYA”, which is off "The Blue Meaning", which my long term die-hard fans really love - I wanted something that they just represented. The human being shouting beyond the ether into the universe and I just chose those syllables. That is a purely emotional, emotive chorus. Whereas “I Want To Be Free” is an absolute statement

HOLLY: Absolutely. It's so interesting. He's a very different sort of performer to you, but I watched an interview with Rick Astley -

TOYAH: Oh, I love him!

HOLLY: He's great, isn't he? He was talking about how when he sung songs written by (the producers) Stock, Aitken and Waterman they were really tricky to sing because they would really push him vocally to the limits. The songs would be quite high

TOYAH: That's a scanning thing as well. Stock, Aitken and Waterman write on the piano. They do a scanning of the words on the piano, which is constructed through the fingers. If you aren't vocally acrobatic like Mariah Carey or Celine Dion or Adele, it sometimes doesn't suit your vocal style or the muscular use of your vocal cords. I totally get what Rick Astley is saying. So where did he come out of that conversation?

HOLLY: He was saying with Stock, Aitken and Waterman it sat really high and they'd really push him to the limit. But when he writes his own songs it sits really comfortably. He sits it in the middle of his range. I feel you're sort of the opposite of that. "It's A Mystery" - which I know you contributed to a little bit feels more straightforward vocally. Then something like “Neon Womb” sits very low and it goes very high. You're really happy to push your vocal range to the extreme and I love that

TOYAH: I love performing "Neon Womb". It was one of the first songs that I co-wrote with (guitarist) Joel Bogen and (keyboardist) Pete Bush - 

HOLLY: Who were in your band at the time -

TOYAH: They were in my first band. "Neon Womb" was on "Sheep Farming In Barnet" (the 1979 album) and it's one of the first tracks I ever recorded. Within a live performance I like to feel possessed by the music. I like something else to come into my body in a completely different experience

So with “Neon Womb" and "IEYA" - when I sing those it's as if I've touched the higher self and I'm just completely taken over. Something comes into the body that plays my body like an instrument. "It's A Mystery" was written by a man and it was written for a man's voice, which is why it's a slightly more stable vocal line


HOLLY: Yes, interesting. It's very cool. When you're getting ready for these performances that are vocally quite challenging and a big performance, how do you warm yourself up for that? Are you doing vocal exercises and warming up the body and that sort of thing, or do you just go out there and rock it?

TOYAH: There's very split decision on this, because I know so many people that do do vocal warm ups. I never do because I suffer from nerves. I mean very good nerves before a performance. The tension goes right into my body and if I start doing a warm up it's signaling to my body that I'm about to put it through a shocking experience. So the best thing that I can do is relax

I pace, I constantly walk. I sometimes hum very low, but I never ever use my voice until I'm in the the atmospheric air of the performance arena. You can warm up all you want in a centrally heated dressing room but once you get onto that stage, the humidity of the audience is completely different. So I always open with a song that is relatively easy for me to sing

HOLLY: Nice. So that's the warm up 

TOYAH: That's the warm up. Then I start to open the vocal cords. I have to open my vocal chords before I do “Thunder In The Mountains” or they will shut down. So I find the second song is usually something I can open up the vocal chords to like “Echo Beach”. That way I don't start coughing when I go into the chorus of “Thunder In The Mountains”

HOLLY: Absolutely. You touched upon "Echo Beach" there. You're someone who's done numerous fantastic covers of songs. The one that really sticks out to me is your wonderful performance of “Slave To The Rhythm” by Grace Jones. Am I right in thinking you sung the demo of that song?

TOYAH: Yes, I was on the original demo when it was being formed and written

HOLLY: Amazing. You've also sung (Frankie Goes To Hollywood's) “Relax” as well. So you've done a couple of Trevor Horn tracks

TOYAH: Trevor, after he heard Simon Darlow's (below on the left, with Toyah and her husband Robert) and my version of “Slave To The Rhythm” - because Simon Darlow is one of the original writers of it - Trevor invited me to do "Relax". It's an interesting story. He wanted it to be a robotic version, possibly AI, but he wanted a robot voice singing “Relax”. The record label in Germany didn't accept it. They said no, it had to be a human. So he asked me if I would do it. The record company accepted that, but he very much wanted me to sing it robotically

HOLLY: In a lot of your songs you're often not the sole songwriter. There's you and a few others members of your band. Has collaboration always been quite an important aspect to you of music making?

TOYAH: It's very important when it comes to arrangement. I can send a song in that has the basic chords, it has the full lyric and the vocal melody, but I can't do what a band does. So it's really important to have that collaboration and respect that collaboration, because they bring something to the song that makes it more fully formed


HOLLY: I can totally imagine that. Moving on to what you're doing with your life, performances and everything coming up. I'm part of Generation Z, which is people who were born between 1997 and 2012 but we're quite a nostalgic generation. We're very much looking back at a time which we weren't actually around for

I'm interested to know, particularly with your YouTube channel that you do with your husband, Robert Fripp, and also your live shows - have you noticed that people are bringing maybe their sons and daughters along? Or younger people are coming along instead of just people who lived through that era?

TOYAH: Absolutely, very much. My audience age is very, very mixed. There's less eighty year olds because they don't live as long. But I remember this show where there was an eighty year old lady standing right by the speaker. I said "are you going to be okay there?" Because that's really loud, but she had a lovely time

At the front there's lots of very young people. I think some of them are trans, a lot are definitely gay. Very young, between 18 and 20 and then they start to get around 30 upwards. A lot in their 60's, because I'm going to be 68 this year. I like it. It's a really nice mix. It's a very friendly mix

HOLLY: Yes, and I imagine a very accepting audience of everybody who's in it, particularly with the message of your music as well

TOYAH: Oh, within an audience there's no judgment whatsoever. I'm totally accepting

HOLLY: Touching on the younger generation and social media - you have a fantastic social media presence and the videos you're doing. There's stories, there's covers, there's showing your bunny rabbit. There's also just a real eye opening world into the world of Toyah and Robert Fripp. It's fantastic

TOYAH: Well, we're two very, very straight vanilla human beings - until you put a camera in front of us

HOLLY: Yeah, that's not the vibe I get at all. Vanilla! Wow!

TOYAH: We're not into sadomasochism. We're not into plural sex (Holly laughs) We are really vanilla. But what we do on our videos is try and say “what are you calling normal?" Nothing is normal. What you see you may think is normal, but is what you see the only reality?

We're also trying to say OK, we're pensioners, but it doesn't mean you disappear and it doesn't mean you don't have the same rebellion you had when you bought your Rolling Stones albums. We're questioning what reality is all the time and that's gone down really well

HOLLY: Absolutely yeah, for sure. It's holding on to an amazing legacy that you've already got, of amazing songs that both you and Robert have done together and separately as well. I saw an interview with an actor from "Stranger Things" called Finn Wolfhard. I don't know if you watch "Stranger Things". I know you quite like horror things. He was asked, "what are your four top favorite films?" and the first film he said was “Quadrophenia”


TOYAH: Yay!

HOLLY: And I thought, yes, there she is. There's Toyah. He's in his early 20's and he wasn't around when "Quadrophenia" was out. I just thought this is incredible. This is somebody who wasn't there, and yet it's one of his favorite all time films

TOYAH: "Quadrophenia" is big in LA

HOLLY: It's huge!

TOYAH: It's huge. It still has conventions and it is big around the world. It is that kind of cult film that's really a smash hit

HOLLY: Absolutely. Did you realise how much of a legacy that film and how much of a cult following that was going to have?

TOYAH: When we were making it we knew it was good. We knew the cast was good. We knew the director, Franc Roddam, was great. We knew The Who were wonderful. We knew but when it came out it was critically not well received. But over the years it's grown and grown and grown by audience strength and audience demand. The thing with critics and criticism - I've never found it accurate. I've never, sadly, in my case, found it truthful

I've had reviews where we knew the reviewer wasn't in the room. But the wonderful thing about social media is we now can expose the people that do that. With “Quadrophenia”, with your example of the actor from “Stranger Things” - he's discovered the film and he loves it and that's all that matters

HOLLY: It's extremely cool. So I suppose, going back to your music, similarly - did you take note of what critics were saying or did you very much feel like "this is what I'm doing and this is how I am"?

TOYAH: I do react very much to criticism. Therefore, I don't always read it because my reaction is personal. When a critic writes something, they're not thinking about the person. They're thinking about the time they feel they wasted being there. So I don't generally read the criticism. My team are very good at sending the good reviews to me (laughs)

HOLLY: (laughs) “Look at this!”

TOYAH: “Look at this!” You really can do it. You really are good.” It's very interesting. The most important critics to me are my audience

HOLLY: They're so positive on social media. All of those comments on those YouTube videos, all those views you're getting every week on your YouTube channel. This isn't, by no means, a small thing. You're getting 50,000 - 100,000 plus views on these weekend videos. You've got a real following

TOYAH: It's fabulous. But in hindsight, I never saw myself as a very small woman that is slightly muscular, slightly bulky and has short legs and a lisp. I never saw myself that way. I went into an industry that wants their women to be of a certain height, a certain weight with great legs. "Oh, if they can sing, if they can write -  well, that's a novelty. It's even better. "

I never saw myself as that because punk rock didn't lump me with that. But within the industry that I love, which is the music and film industry, it has been slightly problematic and I'm now shrinking inches per year (Holly laughs) I think how am I going to walk on that stage and have physical confidence? You've just got to face it  

HOLLY: The final thing to say to wrap everything up is the energy - where you get your energy from when you're on stage? Every time I talk to people and I say "I'm interviewing Toyah" the first thing they say is "I want to be Toyah's best friend". And the second thing they always say is "where on earth does she get this energy from? Because she is just a real firecracker when she's on the stage"

TOYAH: There's something so magical about what I call "the church of being on stage". When you've got a group of people together that are focused on the same thing they create a very unique and special energy. You see it in arenas. That energy, I really feel it. It feeds me. I can't go on stage and not have that energy. It's there   

Also, I have a very wonderful secret that almost got me arrested the first time I played the Isle of Wight Festival in 2022. I said to someone "I've just got to have my green tea. It's like speed." They literally thought I was taking speed. I had this slight reaction to green tea that for two hours I could run a marathon. I remember the police followed us from the Isle of Wight Festival to the ferry and they're going to pull us over. They think I'm carrying some drugs and they waited for us to get on the ferry and left. This is green tea. It's tea leaves!

HOLLY: It's just green tea. That's the answer. Oh, Toyah, this has been an absolute delight. Thank you so so much for coming on the show

TOYAH: Well, thank you, Holly. It's been really great to touch base with you

Listen to the interview HERE

TOYAH ON
BBC RADIO SCOTLAND
AFTERNOONS
WITH MICHELLE MCMANUS
26.2.2026

MICHELLE: Let's turn our attention now to our guest for today. There are very, very few people who can claim to be a singer, an actor, a TV host, an author, a multiple Brit Award nominee and a film star to boot. My next guest has worn more hats than possibly any other and she's back on tour mixing her incredible music with tales from her life so far. This woman's stories are unbelievable  

What a night this is going to be if you're going to see her on tour. I'm of course talking about the fabulous Toyah Willcox and I had the pleasure of chatting to her earlier. Toyah, it is such a joy to have you back on "Afternoons". You know what huge fans we are when you are on this show. Can I just start by saying you look out of this world. You look phenomenal, as you always do

TOYAH: (On a video call) Well, thank you very much. That's very kind of you. I have to announce when I get to Scotland I will have had a birthday by then and I'll be 68 years old

MICHELLE: Stop it!

TOYAH: So I'm now calling myself the punk pensioner

MICHELLE: (laughs) The double p! But you must get told all the time how phenomenal you look. I think that's not just even about your outward appearance. I think it's where you are in your career, right? Just this place you're in and the control that you have and that you get to do the things that you want to do. That's very empowering

TOYAH: It is empowering. I enjoy being older, funnily enough, because I feel well. I have had incidents in the past where I've had to work through illnesses. I think that's inevitable. But here I am in my late 60's and I feel really great. I'm loving what I'm doing. I can't wait to do this tour and to be with these wonderful audiences who want to enjoy the stories I have to tell

We're going to have a lot of laughter on the evenings I spend in Scotland. A lot of music and I'm going to be encouraging the audiences to join in with the music as well. It's a really good place to be. I would like to say to everyone out there who is approaching 60 or their late 60's that life can get better and it certainly has for me
 

MICHELLE: This is so exciting for the fans because this is the content that people want. You don't need me to give you the stats, but I'm going to do them for the sake of it. You've had eight Top 40 singles, released more than 20 albums, written three books, appeared in more than 40 stage plays, 10 feature films

The list goes on. It is such a hugely impressive career. For you to be doing this tour "Songs And Stories" and allowing the audience in ━  because of course we get to see all of that glitz and glamor, but it's almost like pulling back the curtain, right?

TOYAH: Oh, yeah!

MICHELLE: We are not short of dates in Scotland. You're going to be in Aberdeen on the 10th of June, Greenock on the 11th of June, Edinburgh on the 12th of June. Airdrie on June the 13th and then beautiful Perth on the 14th. You enjoy coming to Scotland, because sometimes when people come, they'll do Glasgow and they'll leave. Or Edinburgh and they'll leave, but you've really got (gigs) across the country here

TOYAH: I feel really honored that I get to spend almost a whole week in Scotland. I'm used to going into Scotland to do a show, just for an afternoon and then having to leave again. That's just scheduling. The problem of scheduling it's not by choice. So here I am. I'm going to actually be in Scotland

My husband is going to be with me. I'm going to be with the wonderful audiences.  My experiences of playing Scotland, especially Glasgow and Edinburgh, are pretty amazing. You don't forget those performances. So I'm very, very excited

MICHELLE: With this show how have you been able to distill all of these things I've just mentioned and you've achieved so much more - how do you narrow all of that down? What is the process of deciding what makes it onto the show?

TOYAH: It's a very visual show. We have a screen. We'll be showing videos. I will be showing behind the scenes and telling stories about one of the most amazing things about being in show business (and that is

) what happens away from the camera and the kind of people you end up in rooms with. There's a story of when I played Uxbridge College, which is near London, in 1978. When I arrived at the college, there were four members of the KGB waiting for me. They were there to pick up exchange students and get them back to Russia

They didn't want to go, so they stayed with me. They stayed and watched the show. They sat on stage because they wanted to see what punk rockers did, and they wanted to see them spitting at each other. Then they came to the dressing room and they didn't leave. We did not leave that dressing room until nine the following morning. It's these really peculiar situations you find yourself in that I'm going to be talking about, because they are hysterical and unbelievable

Like being flown into the middle of a rainforest in Belize to meet Martin Scorsese, go to his ranch there and have lunch and then leave again. Things you never expected to happen. I think this is what I find interesting about my work. Being a creative person opens so many doors, but I want my audience to come and be inspired. I want my audience to leave the show feeling “oh, I've had this idea. I think I could make that work in a business sense”. What's so exceptional about every single one of us is we have ideas. I have to wake up every day and create a new idea so that I can go out on tour. I'll be talking about all of this stuff. It'll be very funny, because everything in my life tends to be funny


MICHELLE: But here's the thing, even those little things that you've just dropped in our laps there, my jaw is kind of on the ground. The audience must be hanging on your every word because I know what you're saying  ━ that we can all do this, but we actually can, right? You have done it and I think you've had such a strong identity. No one says your name and no one doesn't know who we're talking about, right? The image pops up in the head, we know exactly who you are

You've always been your true authentic self or certainly that's what it seems like to those of us that have followed you  ━ which was hard, by the way, in some of the decades that we're talking about. To be that person, be female and be in the music industry, in the film industry and all that kind of stuff

But the audience must be hanging on every word because we haven't lived that life. You're so lovely and humble the way you're just dropping it in there. But for an audience what an exhilarating evening to be there and also to feel that you're part of that interaction, because you are sitting and you're talking to the audience. It's spoken words

TOYAH: It's spoken word. We are doing all the hits and we're going to do the music that inspired me. So there will be Black Sabbath “Paranoid” and Alice Cooper “Schools Out” (Michelle laughs) but there will be all the Toyah hits as well. But also, I wanted to say that I became a hair model very, very young in Birmingham. I was 16 when I started to travel around the UK doing shows

To have brightly colored hair back then could be dangerous. Taxi drivers wouldn't pick me up. Some busses wouldn't allow me on the bus. People were threatened by it. This was pre━punk. Now I think women have the freedom to be who and what they feel they are and what they want to be. If that includes hair color they can do it safely. It's their choice. But back then you couldn't

MICHELLE: But do you not think some of that's got to do with you and women like you and the people who kind of walked that walk for us? I know you know this anyway, you'll have had these discussions before, but if those kind of pioneers don't come forward, like yourself at 16, who just goes “this is what's happening. I'm doing this because creatively, this is where I'm as a person.” If you don't do that, the rest of us don't get to do it now and we don't get to be in this place


TOYAH: I totally agree that every new idea needs a pioneer. We're very good at recognising them these days but back then when women kind of stepped out of the "sugar and spice and all things nice" it was very challenging

The beginning of my creative life was when I started as a professional at the age of 18, working at the BBC. I did a drama there and then moved to the National Theater when I was still 18. It was a fabulous revolution for women. We're still working on it, but it was the start of the wave and it was a fantastic time to be working

MICHELLE: This is why we need the show, because it's the insight, it's the content. It's what the fans want, because we know the success and we know the story and what's being presented to us. But I also think it's so brave as well to be a little bit vulnerable on stage and talk about these things. I know there's a lot of laughter and you need laughter. Even in the darkest times we need light

Laughter and comedy is a great way to do that, but to entwine that all with the music, it just sounds like such an incredible evening for the fans that are going to come along. Is this where you're most comfortable because you have done everything. We just had the third book ("Meteorite") coming out. You have starred in movies, you have been on TV and performing and now we have this. Being in front of a live audience, essentially, is that where you feel you're most comfortable?

TOYAH: Well, not only am I in front of a live audience ━ I'm in front of an audience that wants to see me

MICHELLE: A safe space

TOYAH: It's incredible. It's a safe space and I do love it. We're going to do a Q and A in act two which I'm just going to have so much fun with. I've seen a few other artists do this particular style of show and the questions are outrageous. I just can't wait

MICHELLE: (laughs) Especially up in Scotland. But also I think it's a great vehicle for new fans to come and see you. You'll have the fans that have been with you the whole way through it and that's a great side of streaming. I know there's a different debate with music online and stuff, but for the the new generation of fans that are coming through this will be maybe the first time they get to see you in person

TOYAH: Well, yeah and our social media has just been ridiculous since lockdown. I'm very grateful for it. I think we've had 150 million people come to our sites and in the last three months 17 million people have viewed the content that I've made

MICHELLE: You're an influencer. We'll add that to the list of things that you are. You're now an influencer!


TOYAH: If you told me this 50 years ago  ━  that we'd be able to do this, the power of being able to do it and the independence of being able to do it is fabulous   

MICHELLE: It is fabulous, Toyah. That's why we adore you. We're such huge fans and I want to thank you for taking the time to speak to us again. We love having you on "Afternoons" here on BBC Radio Scotland

Let me just remind our listeners, because they're going to have to be really quick if they want to get tickets. And then the next time we'll see you at "Rewind" on the 23rd of August in Henley. Thank you for taking the time to come on. Have the best week when you're here in Scotland. Fingers crossed you get some sunshine when you're up here

TOYAH: Yes!

MICHELLE: It's been a joy to speak to you again

TOYAH: Very good to see you, Michelle. Thank you so much and lots of love

MICHELLE: Oh, she was just amazing. What a woman, what a career. I think that will be an incredible show. So do not mess about. Make sure you get your tickets for that. "Songs And Stories" touring Scotland in June. Aberdeen, Greenock, Edinburgh, Airdrie and Perth. Don't forget she's also got a new autobiography "Meteorite". That'll be a great read

Listen to the interview HERE  

TOYAH ON
IT'S YOUR FUNERAL
CHANNEL 5
WITH KAYE ADAMS
2001

KAYE: Hello and welcome to “It's Your Funeral” where we ask celebrity guests what they want their final send-off to be like. This week I'm talking to a woman who first found fame in the 80's as a Britpop punk goddess

As an actress she made a mark in such films as “Quadrophenia”, and more recently she has mellowed, we hope, into a popular television presenter and alternative health enthusiast. Toyah Willcox - I have to say it's your funeral

TOYAH: Ahh (laughs) It's not something I want to think about too much

KAYE: Is it not?

TOYAH: Well, I think you do think about it but you don't dwell on it, do you?

KAYE: No

TOYAH: I think some people don't think about death at all, and I think that's a huge mistake. It's interesting to kind of confront what a funeral is

KAYE: So would you think about death before you would actually think of the funeral?

TOYAH: Oh, totally, yes. Because death is going to last longer than the funeral. And also I always believe that life is attaining to whatever happens that moment after death. Life is a journey to that moment. So I've never thought hey, wow, this is it - 80 years of fun. I've always had that kind of Eastern philosophy that the whole of your lifespan is a growing curve

KAYE: And are you as excited about what comes after as you are in the moment?

TOYAH: As it grows closer, no (laughs) I always said in my 20's I can't wait to die, (it's the) the biggest adventure of all. Now, as it does grow closer, I'm completely frustrated by the lack of time because as you grow older, you're more ready to live

I'm finding that with age comes a wisdom, therefore comes the ability to confront and face the world in a way that you couldn't when you were 20. So that's really frustrating

KAYE: So it's getting better for you, is it?


TOYAH: Oh, yeah. Definitely

KAYE: As regard to your funeral I have to say, with the possible exception of one other guest on the series - your plan is the most mind-blowingly imaginable. It really is. So I'm going to leave it to you to give it a name, and tell us what it entails

TOYAH: I would love a sky burial. A sky burial is a Tibetan tradition of how you dispose of a holy man's body. It's carried out in secret. Society, women, communities are not allowed to see sky burials. The body is taken up by the elders onto a mountain somewhere in Tibet. It's a Buddhist practice. Then the elders, the males of the village, dismember the body and it's quite gruesome

They hack it apart and then they pommel bits of the body with a brick. Well, not a brick, but a boulder or stone. (They) mix it with flour and then they feed it to the vultures. It's the highest, most sacred burial you can have in the Tibetan culture

The idea is that you're returning the body, the flesh, back into the cycle of life on Earth and you're placing the soul up into a higher sphere. I love the idea of, say, my father and my husband - and I would like to go before they do, because they're so precious to me -

KAYE: Both of them? Your father too?

TOYAH: Oh god, yeah

KAYE: Because that's against the natural cycle. If we're talking about natural - you know, returning to the earth

TOYAH: (Chuckles) Well, you know, things can happen. I not a safe driver (they both laugh) I love the idea of, say, the Malvern Hills. As a child, I grew up in with the Malvern Hills as this beautiful view. I read “Lord Of The Rings” and always thought it was about the Malvern Hills. I studied Elgar for my music O-level and Elgar wrote “The Variations” within the view of the Malvern Hills

So, say, there's a sacred quiet spot on Malvern Hills. My father and my husband could have my body delivered there and they could, if they could stomach it, take the body apart, pummel it, feed it to the pigeons (they both laugh) or some kind of imported vultures and then below there's this kind of wonderful wake going on

KAYE: We'll talk about the wake in a minute. But I mean, you use the phrase “if they could stomach it”. Have you discussed this with your father and your husband (Robert Fripp, below with Toyah)?


TOYAH: Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism I've discussed with my father all my life. My father explored Hinduism and Buddhism when he was a sailor in the war and he was in the Middle East. So those ideas would not be at all gruesome to him. I think it would be more upsetting that his daughter has asked him to do that. My father had extraordinary experiences in the war, so I think he could face it

As for my husband I think he'd do anything I'd ask, to be honest. So it's a selfish thing to ask, but I think it's also a very privileged thing to ask. And it's this thing about the flesh. I was brought up to be afraid of cultures that ate flesh or practice cannibalism. Yet when you examine cannibalism it's about consuming the spirit. It's the continuation of the spirit

It's the greatest mark of respect to eat someone's flesh in those cultures. With the Tibetan culture, to actually take the flesh away, to destroy the person, to destroy the anchor that holds the spirit in the physical world is the greatest act of love that you could perform

KAYE: You're obviously educated about these cultures. Do you have a fascination with this?

TOYAH: Oh, yeah, totally

KAYE: Where does that come from?

TOYAH: Because I'm so frustrated by Western cultures. I was brought up a Christian. I think the basic message of Christianity is absolutely fine, but the taboos with death just drive me mad with frustration. We are saying on one hand we're Christians. We believe in life after death and on the other, we're saying oh no, don't destroy our memory. Don't destroy our physical body. We live in fear of dying and I just find that polarization completely maddening

KAYE: But death is scary

TOYAH: Of course it is. It's the biggest adventure we'll ever have and it's the biggest act of trust we ever have to consciously travel through

KAYE: Are you scared of it?

TOYAH: I'm scared of the process, because even in Tibetan culture, where wise men have died and believe they've died many times - death is not easy. They say within the culture that when you die you relive your life and then after a period of days you really live your death and that's very painful

Then after something like 49 days you start to relive your death tenfold so the pain and emotional content of your life concentrates and by that you find the essence of what your soul is. So death is, in a way, probably the most testing awful thing and yet the most liberating thing we can go through and the reason we go through it is it prepares the soul for the next life

KAYE: Do you believe that will happen to you?


TOYAH: I never believed in reincarnation. Purely because I can't bear the thought of coming back here. If someone says, "OK, you've got a choice: have nothing or come back here and go through that education system again" I think I'd go for nothing. I loathe the structure of the society I've been brought up in. I loathe it with a vengeance

KAYE: How do you find happiness then? Or don't you?

TOYAH: (Chuckles) Happiness for me is in being creative. It's in writing or having creative thought or even something as small as breaking an old habit

KAYE: Let's go back to your funeral. We've got the process of you being chopped up and fed back to the earth, hopefully, by your father and your husband. This is in the Malvern Hills. Is there going to be some kind of ceremony to accompany this?

TOYAH: Yes. I'd like the cutting up and disposing of the body to be away from view, away from eyes, because I don't want pity and I don't want horror and I just want it to be one with nature. But down the bottom of the hill there would be, say, some huge tents with a wonderful ceremony going on with all my heroes and heroines in the world attending

I've never met David Bowie, well, been in the room with him, and I'll never work with him, but I would like him to carry a flame and to carry that flame and light an eternal flame in memory of me

I would like an orchestra there, playing my favorite music. And all my heroes like Peter Gabriel, Billie Whitelaw, Dawn French - everyone who I've ever admired in my work (but) who I don't really know - I would just like them there. And there's an image that I'd like remembered of me more than anything

It was an image from a song I did called “Brave New World” where my face is painted in birds (below). Just like an enormous, dominating print of that, almost at the altar. Just so people can say goodbye. Very egotistical (laughs)

KAYE: So that stage in your life where you had these dramatic images, and in fact you said at the ceremony in the Malvern Hills you will have this massive visual image of yourself - sort of in the early 80's, yeah?

TOYAH: Yes


KAYE: When you looked so dramatic. Was that a cathartic process for you? Did you manage to burst through something?

TOYAH: Yes, all those images were based - we're talking about 20 years ago now - when you weren't allowed to look different. When punk evolved it was extraordinary time for women because suddenly you could wear anything and still be seen as an intelligent human being

The whole point of the face painting that I went through as a pop singer was to try and express how I was feeling internally and wear it externally, rather than try and hide it

Now, I was brought up middle class, and it's often been said and it's a bit of a cliche that the middle class are particularly good at hiding things. It's probably because I was brought up to hide everything I felt that I naturally was that I just had to kind of expel it all. Kind of wear my heart on my sleeve in some way

KAYE: The music. You mentioned Elgar - would his music feature?

TOYAH: Yes, he would. Elgar was madly in love with his wife and the majority of the music he wrote, usually, from what I believe by the history books, was in a state of tears over his wife. One piece was called “Nimrod” and he was so in love with her that all that emotion kind of transcribed into the music. I just think that would be very very fitting

KAYE: OK. Well, if you think it's fitting as you say - this is your fancy, this is your funeral so we have done this for you. We have got a rendition of Elgar's “Nimrod” by our own string quartet Sigma so let's listen to that now

The string quartet plays

KAYE: An incredible send-off it's certainly proving to be so far. We've had a Tibetan sky funeral, where your body is hacked up and fed to the birds and then this fantastic ceremony down below in the Malvern Hills, where all your heroes - David Bowie, Dawn French and everyone is there

TOYAH: (laughs) Are made to suffer

KAYE: Now you yourself said that this is a funeral which is normally afforded to very holy people and you were loathed to sort of put yourself in that category, really, but it does seem a funeral of a special person. Do you regard yourself as a special person?

TOYAH: It's not that I regard myself a special person. I think funerals should be special. I think people don't spend enough time (on them) I think a funeral should be like a wedding. It should be joyous. It should be really brilliantly contemplated. It should be an expression of everyone's love and everyone's memory towards that person

I'd like a funeral where everyone who knows me is involved on a certain level rather than coming and seeing a priest or a vicar, who never knew me, kind of run through my CV and then say “right, stick her in the ground”. I just think a funeral should be very creative


KAYE: Is it for the person who's gone or is it for the person who left behind in your mind?

TOYAH: Well, the one I created today is definitely for me (laughs). In a way it's a form of closure. So it should be as much for everyone left behind. It should also be a bridge, because I do actually believe there is eternal existence. I don't believe a soul can ever die. Well, it can but you have to work really hard at it. And therefore, the funeral is the bridge between the living and the person who passed into the next realm. So it's for both

KAYE: Right. Would there be any readings at the funeral?

TOYAH: Yes, there's a poem that I read at my mother-in-law's funeral which was very hard to read. The vicar actually asked me to read it. It's called “I'm Not Gone” and it's by Miss DJ. And it's stunning. Only a woman could have written it. It's full of love and it evokes the feeling of eternal life without the pretentiousness and the elitism that religion can sometimes have

KAYE: Would you perhaps (gestures Toyah to quote the poem)

TOYAH: Do you want to hear a bit? “I am not gone. I am part of forever in every season. Every bird song, in flowers, clouds and each rainbow. I am part of them. They are part of me. Do not grieve, only remember”

KAYE: So where do you think you will go? You said the funeral is the transition between this life and some other dimensions. What is that? Can you describe that at all?

TOYAH: Well, what I believe at present - and my belief always shifts as I learn more, is that the really holy people don't have to come back. They can stay in a kind of state of nirvana. The reason we come back is we have something to address. We have something to learn

KAYE: Do you think you would want come back then, or have you -

TOYAH: I really don't want to come back at all (laughs). I can't even bear thinking about it.

KAYE: It's kind of sad to hear you say that

TOYAH: If I did come back I'd like to come back as a man. I'd like to sin forever. On one level I think being a woman has been great, but I'm fed up of the culture and men telling me that I'm second class 

KAYE: Do you feel oppressed by it?


TOYAH: I think if people reflect negativity on you enough you do feel oppressed by it, yeah

KAYE: So what have you felt?

TOYAH: I didn't like my growing up, my being a child, having femininity forced upon me. I would have rather been genderless. I didn't want it presumed that because I was a girl I'd like to wear dresses and have dolls. I loathe all that role playing

KAYE: So are there still things that you want to deal within yourself?

TOYAH: Oh yeah, all the time. Creative issues, really. I believe we're all born with incredible potential but none of us, or some of us don't have the drive throughout life to reach that potential because you actually have to remain almost in a state of pain, emotional pain, to reach those highest creative levels

I'm talking here about ambition and people that are insomniacs, because all they can think about is being creative and they suffer for that creativity. Part of me would love to still be a great singer, a great writer and a great actor but part of me resists facing the pain that you have to to achieve that

KAYE: What about on a personal level, or are the two indistinguishable for you?

TOYAH: For me they're indistinguishable

KAYE: How important is it to you that you are remembered?

TOYAH: I think being remembered is incredibly important. Again it's a slightly ego thing. If you're not remembered then you haven't changed anything in your lifetime. Change can be very subtle, so I think it's very sad to be forgotten because no one saw what you gave to others or your presence kind of helped the ongoing growth of generations

KAYE: So how would you like to be remembered then?

TOYAH: Oh, I haven't got a clue at all

KAYE: But you think so much about everything you've got to know


TOYAH: (asks herself) What would I like to be remembered for? I'd like to write a book that makes people think. Now, most books make me think but there's a book that I'd like to write and have the technical ability to write that wakes the soul up, because sometimes theoretically souls don't like to be woken up. They're more comfortable sleeping

KAYE: It's such a massive ambition -

TOYAH: I'll never achieve it! (laughs)

KAYE: Hopefully you will do it because somebody has to. But I'm thinking more of - I'm going back to the service in the Malvern Hills and thinking of your husband - if he is there standing up, or your father. What would they say about Toyah?

TOYAH: My father will laugh his head off and think “thank god she's gone!”

KAYE: He won't!

TOYAH: What will my father say about me? He's always thought that I think too much and he's always been very upset that I'm obviously not happy being a woman. He feels some kind of responsibility towards that

So I think he'd be very happy for me that if I had a sky burial that I've at least had something I want (laughs) And as for Robert I don't know what he'd think, really. He'd probably think “Oh, at last. I can have some peace”

KAYE: You don't believe that (Toyah laughs) Do you?

TOYAH: I don't know. I can't answer for them

KAYE: You can't fill in the blank “Toyah was”?

TOYAH: “Toyah was”. The one thing I often think - and this is my favorite subject, that's why I know so much on it. Theoretically, when you pass over, you face god. You face your god. And the big question is “what have you contributed in my name?”

I've been thinking and contemplating on this one a lot lately. What have I contributed in God's name? Because everything I've done has been an act of the self. Kind of I want this, I want that. I want to do that. What have I done in god's name? I can't answer it. Can not answer it

KAYE: Well, hopefully you've got some time left

TOYAH: Hopefully, yeah!

KAYE: Is it something you would address?

TOYAH: I think about it, yeah. I think about it often. I think it's a very good question, because it's the most unselfish question that you can be asked

KAYE: I haven't quite worked out yet, and I doubt very much whether I will work out whether you are happy in this life, but once you have gone to whatever is there anything you will miss about this life?

TOYAH: Performing. The only time I'm really happy is when I'm performing. The stage has been my church - whether it's acting, singing, presenting. There's a very unique focus about it. I've often felt when you're on stage acting in a play - if you've got it right here's a moment when the whole audience is one mind and you can feel it. Your skin starts tingling. Everything changes. And that's such an extraordinary feeling that nothing can replace it (below, Toyah on stage as "Trafford Tanzi" in 1983)


KAYE: The cod (an amateur) psychologist would say that's because you're not happy being you sitting in a dark room -

TOYAH: Well, obviously I'm an actress. I mean, yeah, you're right. I think it's very hard being one person. Very hard

KAYE: I don't think you ever have been (just one)

TOYAH: No

KAYE: How's the ceremony drawing to a close?

TOYAH: (laughs) By this time I've got David Bowie, Peter, Gabriel, Dawn French and Billie Whitelaw chained to the altar, and I own them

KAYE: I definitely want an invite (Toyah laughs)

TOYAH: I've made them witness the kind of condensed version of my life. How would it end? I think it has to go out with a 40 piece orchestra playing “I Want To Be Free” and people can join in karaoke style if they want

KAYE: And that's the end of the day?

TOYAH: Oh, no - they've got to go away, get extremely drunk and overeat. All my favorite foods will be there - just to be selfish. Foods from different cultures. From Turkey and India and China and Japan. There'd have to be a feast

KAYE: How do you think this day would make people feel? People who were there?

TOYAH: I would like them to feel confused, actually (Kaye laughs) and I'd also like them to think about their own funerals and the conclusions of their own life. And to realise that everything doesn't have to be in a compartment or a little box

KAYE: And an epitaph?

TOYAH: Oh, I always said my epitaph should be “she came, she lisped, she went” (Kaye laughs)

KAYE: I don't think you get anything better (they both laugh) Toyah, thanks so much for sharing your funeral with us. It has been utterly fascinating, and all of your other thoughts surrounding it

We are going to play that little request for you. You want to finish your ceremony with a rendition of “I Want To Be Free” so we have asked our woodwind trio to do that for you. So here you are. It's all for you

TOYAH: Great

A rendition of “I Want To Be Free” plays

Watch in the interview on Youtube HERE