TOYAH ON
GREATEST HITS RADIO
GREAT CONVERSATION
WITH JACKIE BRAMBLES
19.3.2026
“Thunder In The Mountains” plays
JACKIE: Welcome to the “Great Conversation” with Jackie Brambles. This is the home of great conversations with your favourite artists of the 70's, 80's and 90's. Tonight's special guest represents the very essence of what the 80's were about. Rebellious, visually striking with a point of view and plenty of opinions
And of course surfing along on that early 80's post punk new wave sound, such as our opening track, “Thunder In The Mountains”, which got to number four in 1981 for our special guest, her third consecutive top 10 hit that year
She started out as an actress, breaking through in movies like “Jubilee” and “Quadrophenia”, and she's never stopped creating. During lockdown, her and her iconic guitarist husband, Robert Fripp entertained a grateful nation with their YouTube “Sunday Lunch” performances in their kitchen, which continue to this day. What a joy to welcome back to the “Great Conversation” the one and only Toyah!
TOYAH: Hi! How are you doing?
JACKIE: I'm good. How are you, my lovely?
TOYAH: Yeah, really good. I don't know about you, but life is crazy busy!
JACKIE: I've just been reading up on what you're doing lately. Often special guests come on and they've got an album – or they've got a tour, and there's 10 dates, or 15, if it's a really big tour. You've got 49 dates coming up!
TOYAH: I know. And I'm already promoting the same tour for next year. We haven't announced it yet, but I think I'm doing 53 of these next year
JACKIE: That is good (but) bonkers. You've got so much energy!
TOYAH: It's being tested because I'm actually making a new album as well. I was up at three this morning doing vocals
JACKIE: Oh, my goodness! Is that because you're naturally a night owl? You're more productive at night? I know I am
TOYAH: I can't answer that. I never know when I'm going to be productive. It's so erratic. Being my age I just grab it when I can
JACKIE: Well, you're looking rather fabulous. Do you work hard at looking after yourself - because you look spectacular?
TOYAH: It's a very good question. I need more time to look after myself these days. I don't want to go on the jabs (fillers, botox etc) I'm 68 this year and my ass is getting huge (Jackie laughs) I really don't want to go on the jabs
JACKIE: Don't go on the jabs. You've got a beautiful, sculpted face as it is. You don't want that face that some people get
TOYAH: Oh my god, yeah!
JACKIE: You're going to be racing around a stage for 49 nights starting very soon. March the 22nd isn't it, the first date?
TOYAH: As soon as I start singing my body pulls into shape. It's like doing two hours of yoga every night
JACKIE: How amazing. When you stand here where you are in your career right now, with all that you've learned, with all that you've done, with all the ups and downs - if we could put you in a time machine and magic you back to speak to the young Toyah, who was just about to break through, be on Top Of The Pops and it's all about to go bonkers … what words of wisdom would you whisper in her ear?
TOYAH: It's a very good question, because the world was such a different place back then. I would have said education, education, education. Practice, practice, practice. I never believed that technique was important. I came from the world of punk, where everything was spontaneous. But I do think that like a virtuoso piano player, a violin player, a cello player - practice and control conserves energy and uses the body like an instrument
So I was wasting a lot of time just kind of running marathons, when all I needed to do was hone what I had. In hindsight, I really think that education is the greatest gift in this life. Have good acting lessons, good technique lessons. I would have gone back and done that, because the instrument I was born with was very, very good, but my psychology was askew
JACKIE: Isn't that the case for all of us? When we're youngsters we think we know better
TOYAH: We own the world when we're young
“I Want To Bee Free” plays
JACKIE: “I Want To Be Free”. It got to number eight in 1981 for our special guest, Toyah. So let's go way back, if that's okay with you, to figure out the earliest influences over you as a person, as an artist. You've been quite open about your childhood over the years. (It was) not an easy one
TOYAH: My childhood was complex because my mother was harbouring a secret she never told anyone. ancestry.com revealed this secret to me in 2021. My mother had already passed by then. She was illegitimate. Her father murdered her mother and from the age of about 16 to the age of 19, when she married my father, she had to have a 24 hour chaperone live with her in case her father came for her. We never knew this and it not only came as a shock from ancestry.com but it put all the pieces together
My mother was the most negative human being I've ever known and the most broken human being I've ever known. You've got to add to that equation that there was maternal love there, there was protection there, but she was complex and I could never connect with her
For the time she was in my life, from the day I was born until she died about 13 years ago, so I'd have been about 55 - she couldn't say one positive word to me. She never said “I love you”. When I told her I'd won the “Rock & Pop Awards" in 1981 her reaction is typical of what it was like being with her. “You will fall on this award and it will kill you”
JACKIE: Oh, my god! How did you thrive beyond that?
TOYAH: She made me feel mad every day and she made my father feel mad. My siblings loved her, but we just couldn't bear being with her. Every single day was destructive, but she had been through something appalling. So I do open my show with this story, because there was so much love there. But it kept turning. It kept showing the other face
JACKIE: It's a very twisted and disturbing picture that you paint, Toyah. I wonder whether music became your safe place, your respite from the chaos going on at home. What songs remind you of that period of your life?
TOYAH: The songs for me for the first 10 years of my life - I was born in 1958 - I thought the only band in the world was the Beatles. I was never aware there were any other bands. My song for me would be “She Loves You”, which I used to sing to the family and shake my head like Paul McCartney and just have them laugh hysterically at me
The Beatles “She Loves You” plays
JACKIE: The Beatles, “She Loves You” got to number one in 1963. (It was) an early influence in the life of our special guest who had that song imprinted on her when she was but a five year old. Her new book “Meteorite” is out now, and she kicks off her 49 date “Songs And Stories” tour of the UK this coming Sunday in Chelmsford
So before the break, Toyah, you were sharing with us the pretty miserable existence that you endured as a kid growing up. As you got older did music become an escape for you?
TOYAH: It was definitely the driving force. The wake-up call for me was David Bowie, who so obviously was unconventional, and so obviously was not going to be told who he should be. In the face of his adversity - because he had a very sad young life with his brother's schizophrenia and his mother's schizophrenia - he gave my generation strength
When I first heard “Space Oddity” I loved it but when I heard “Starman” and I saw this human being that was not gender specific I realised … oh, this is who I am. This is what I need to be. Bowie helped me break away. I went to see him as “Ziggy Stardust” in Coventry about 1972. I saw him many times through my life and I value Bowie as someone that gave me my personal freedom
JACKIE: How amazing then that you ended up marrying your husband, Robert Fripp, a master of the guitar and of course founder of the band King Crimson. Bowie specifically asked him to come and play on his records. Robert was on both “Heroes” and “Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)” to name but two
How have you coped with meeting him over the years when he was still with us? In that kind of almost social studio way where you're with your husband and this man, who meant so much to you during difficult periods of your life, is just chatting away?
TOYAH: One of the the most challenging things for me was to be in the presence of David Bowie. I never got over it because my husband worked with him, and Bowie was regularly in touch to ask Robert on projects. I would stand within 18 inches of Bowie thinking I'm going to pass out. I can't open my mouth, I can't breathe. Eventually Bowie realised it was a problem for me, so he never tried to talk
JACKIE: He just realised that you were so excruciatingly uncomfortable
TOYAH: I was just like … well, I can't swear, but I mean ... it was like bog off Bowie. It was like ... I'm not opening my mouth. I'm just gonna blow my cover
Davie Bowie “Starman” plays
JACKIE: “Starman” by David Bowie, a hit in 1972 when our special guest would have been a young teenager. So let's talk about as you got a little older and you decided you wanted to pursue a career in music. How did that all come about?
TOYAH: I was so lucky. As soon as I moved to London I was the youngest member of the National Theatre as an actress. But then a wonderful actor from “The Chariots Of Fire” called Ian Charleson introduced me to the film director Derek Jarman and I've never looked back. When I made the movie “Jubilee” I was acting opposite Jordan, who, at the time, managed Adam And The Ants and The Sex Pistols. Adam Ant was in the movie, and Adam and I wrote a song together called “Nine To Five”
I started to work with people in the room, such as The Stranglers. I did the Rainbow Theatre with The Stranglers when Hugh Cornwall was a guest of Her Majesty's prison (Jackie laughs). I just worked with these phenomenal people. Iggy Pop rehearsed his tour for the “The Passenger” in my home, the warehouse (“Mayhem" in Battersea, London, below) I was just mixing with fabulous, glorious people. I just got on with my life
JACKIE: How amazing. Not just that you got to mix with the sort of the peers of the time but it was at a time when music and technology was changing
TOYAH: It was so good! I would throw four day parties that Steve Strange was the host of and he would bring in 400 kids into this warehouse. Boy George would be in there. You would have members of The Clash. Steve Strange was becoming a big star in his own way with “Fade To Grey”. Spandau Ballet did their first ever concert in my warehouse. It was a wonderful and the music was fantastic
JACKIE: That's amazing. So you had this space that you lived in and people could just come and do their creative thing there
TOYAH: Hazel O'Connor came and she formulated the music for the movie "Breaking Glass" there. We were having four days raves!
Hazel O'Connor “Eighth Day" plays
JACKIE: That song got to number five in 1980 and was the breakthrough hit for Hazel O'Connor. “Eighth Day, which she wrote, along with the other songs from the “Breaking Glass” soundtrack at Toyah's warehouse squat. So your warehouse provided this creative home for so many artists of the early 80's. When did you get your own big break and land that record deal?
TOYAH: I actually think my big break started when my first TV (show) went on BBC Two. It was called “Glitter” (1976). A superstar called Maximilian Schell was watching with the brilliant actress Kate Nelligan, and they invited me to join them at the National Theatre. That was a big break because I was working with Kate Nelligan, Brenda Blethyn and Warren Clark
I went from astounding job to astounding job and I eventually ended up starring opposite Katharine Hepburn in a movie called “The Corn is Green”. (It was) directed by George Cukor, who directed Judy Garland in “A Star Is Born”
When I was doing that, the production office of a movie called “Quadrophenia” opened next door. The director, Franc Roddam, asked me to get Johnny Rotten through a screen test (for the role of “Jimmy” which went to Phil Daniels), which I did. Then I didn't hear anything and I knew he hadn't cast “Monkey” in the movie of “Quadrophenia” so I stalked Franc Roddam every day. I was outside his office window saying “give me the job”. I got the job
So I was getting a lot of attention. Everyone knew “Quadrophenia” was going to be a big movie. I had a call from a record label called Safari. (They said) could I go and do a kind of promotional concert in front of the heads of Safari? I got the signing. We got signed to Safari Records for about five albums and that was my big break. It took a bit of time. I was a quite a controversial, oddball punk artist for the first releases
Then I was working with a writer called Keith Hale, who'd written a song called “It's A Mystery”, which was a 28 minute music track. We turned that into the single format with a verse chorus, verse, chorus. I wasn't confident about it. It was very feminine at a time when I really didn't want to be gender specific, but it just took off. But the biggest irony is that my costume designer, Melissa Caplan, who designed for us all back then, couldn't get my outfit to me (on time)
I was gender neutral at the time but I had to wear a dress on Top Of The Pops. It was a beautiful dress (below). It was by David Bowie's designer, Willie Brown. I wore that dress and I looked gorgeous - I looked feminine. I went straight to number four in the charts
JACKIE: How amazing. I remember buying that single. You were the equivalent of watching the female version of David Bowie when you were on TV. It was like “OK, what is this? What am I seeing right now? I've never seen anything like this before”
TOYAH: I love that. Thank you
“It's A Mystery” plays
JACKIE: How did you deal with the overnight fame that came with having such a big hit?
TOYAH: I went literally from about four to five years of being in this hierarchy of artists in London to suddenly not being able to leave my front door unescorted. I loved every second of it. I didn't have paparazzi follow me that I know of, but it was pretty intense, and the workload was intense. I was doing at least 14 interviews a day, and those included photo sessions. Then I'd either be doing a TV show or a concert. I did really love it and I'm so grateful for it, but you lose yourself
I always talk about staying in touch with my authentic self. I think the most annoying thing as the years went on was people only saw the colour of my hair. You get this phenomena that everyone talks about that no one listens to you because you represent something in the other person's life that remains fixed. So my first Top Of The Pops remained fixed in quite a lot of new fans heads
So as I moved on with new music, new hair colour, new styles ... they wanted that moment. They wanted you to remain how you were in that moment. That's quite hard to deal with. It makes you feel a bit trapped. But these days I am so grateful and so proud of what I've done and respectful of who and what I was. I really want to take my fans back to those moments, especially with the live show
I'm singing “It's A Mystery”, “I Want To Be Free”, “Thunder In The Mountains”, “Rebel Run”, “Good Morning Universe”. There's so many. I can see in their faces and their eyes that I've reconnected them to something that gives them clarity about themselves. For me it's a very deliberate move. I want to reshare that moment with them
JACKIE: Yeah, you're absolutely right. I remember buying that record. I remember seeing you on Top Of The Pops the first time. It was important because it wasn't just a song I liked. You expanded my mind as well in that moment and that imprints itself on your memory
TOYAH: It really does. I think that's why music is so special and so brilliant
JACKIE: I'm just looking at the Top Of The Pops database to see when your first appearance was -
TOYAH: Late February, early March 1981
JACKIE: Correct. Do you remember who was on the show with you?
TOYAH: Oh, I do. I think it was Midge Ure. There was the artist who sang ”Shaddap You Face” (Joe Dolce) There was The Human League and there was definitely Adam Ant
JACKIE: How lovely with Adam being a key figure very early on in your career that you were both on Top Of The Pops together
TOYAH: I know and we toured together last year. It was a phenomenally successful tour
Adam And The Ants “Kings Of The Wild Frontier” plays
JACKIE: Let's talk about some of the highlights for you over the course of your career, Toyah. We must mention Toyah and Robert's “Sunday Lunch” on YouTube because it's such an anomaly, so unique. The incredible success of it helped a grateful nation through lockdown. Who saw that coming, eh?
TOYAH: I certainly didn't. We've made remarkable friends. Robert Plant is a regular friend. He comes with us to our local pub. Tony Iommi (of Black Sabbath), we see him socially now. Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top loved our version. And Alice Cooper's been in contact too. It's all because of the kind of stupidity of what we do in our kitchen
JACKIE: Any other full circle moments for you?
TOYAH: I see Paul McCartney at least once a year. He awarded me a fellowship for LIPA (Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts) alongside Nile Rogers (below, in 2022). With Paul it's like you're with your brother. He makes you feel like family
JACKIE: It's the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts that he is a founder of, right?
TOYAH: Yes. So every year, when the students graduate, all the fellowship people come and support the students, which means that we get to socialise. Paul always attends and he's absolutely brilliant. The day I got my fellowship, Paul, Nile Rogers and myself were sitting on the stage for three hours together and I'm thinking “I wish my parents could see this”
Paul McCartney “Pipes Of Peace” plays
JACKIE: From 1983 “Pipes Of Peace” from Paul McCartney, providing a pretty special full circle moment for our guest, Toyah - one she wishes she could have shared with her parents. You have come such a long way from from a difficult childhood with a lot of challenges to this amazing career that has spanned 50 years and counting - and an enduring loving marriage of 40 plus years, which is not easy in this business. With the wisdom that time bestows upon us, what's the big life lesson for you? What are you realising at this moment in your life with this perspective?
TOYAH: I always say to people trust your instinctive inner voice. I was brought up to distrust everything and everyone and that's because of my mother's circumstance. My inner voice is really accurate. It's really strong and it's always right and that means everybody else's is too. I would say to anyone trust who and what you are
JACKIE: I love that. That authentic self again, tuning into that. What song would you like us to wrap up this hour with, Toyah?
TOYAH: Let me think ... I want to share some music with your audience. So I would probably go for Nirvana's “Smells Like Teen Spirit” because deep inside it proves in every decade we're still rebels
Nirvana “Smells Like Teen Spirit” plays
JACKIE: From 1991 “Smells Like Teen Spirit” from Nirvana, the final track of our Great Conversation hour, as chosen by tonight's special guest Toyah. Let's remind folks that the new “Songs and Stories” UK tour kicks off this Sunday in Chelmsford and is visiting 49 destinations across the nation. Or you can also see Toyah at the Rewind Festival this summer in Henley on Thames on August 23rd so I will definitely be seeing you there, Toyah
TOYAH: Come and say hello, please!
JACKIE: Oh, I certainly will. And the new book is called “Meteorite”. Is it available now?
TOYAH: Yes, it's available on the website awaywithmedia.com
JACKIE: Got it. All right, my lovely. All the best. What a pleasure to catch up
TOYAH: It's a pleasure. Thank you
JACKIE: That's Toyah, such great company. I'm sure her shows are going to be so much fun too
Listen to the interview
