TOYAHZINE INTERVIEW
BY LAURA MARSH
23.4.1981


This is an interview by Laura Marsh, who published
five issues of the fanzine in 1980-81

LAURA: Favorite color?

TOYAH: At the moment yellow, but it changes every week

LAURA: Favourite food?

TOYAH: Seafood. Octopus and squid. It's been my favorite for a year now, so it must be good 

LAURA: Favourite drink?

TOYAH: Feshly squeezed orange juice. I have gone non-alcoholic at the moment

LAURA: Favourite film?

TOYAH: “Suspiria”. It is about a ballet school. It's a normal horror movie. The exceptional things about it are the lighting, the camera work, the music and the special effects. Is three years old, and it flopped because it is a really weird movie

LAURA: Favourite book?

TOYAH: "Lord Of The Rings" – J.R.R Tolkien

LAURA: Favourite TV show?

TOYAH: "Mork & Mindy". But I prefer documentaries. I also like watching the schools programs (A BBC TV series called "Broadcast For Schools" covering various subjects)

 

LAURA: Favourite song?

TOYAH: I do have one that springs to mind, as I have so many. It's "In The Year Of 2525" by Zager and Evans. It frightened me when it first came out. I thought, oh my god, is that true?

LAURA: Favourite group?

TOYAH: I like Teardrop Explodes and I like Ultravox. But there is no actual band or group I'd flip over

LAURA: Favourite male singer?

TOYAH: David Bowie and Eno

LAURA: Favourite female singer?

TOYAH: I like Kate Bush’s voice, but not the songs

LAURA: Favourite actor?

TOYAH: James Dean

LAURA: Favourite actress?

TOYAH: Billie Whitelaw. She's got a face like David Bowie, and it's just lovely to watch her speak

LAURA: Favorite makeup brand?

TOYAH: I prefer using Biba and Mary Quant. And there are specialized people I use for stage, which is a makeup A La Carte and Aqua Color, which are paints. I can paint pictures on myself without them smudging

LAURA: Favourite shop?

TOYAH: Swanky Modes for clothes and when I'm feeling very posh and pleased with myself anywhere in South Molton Street, which is a very expensive area - but I very rarely go there

LAURA: Favourite country?

TOYAH: Japan

LAURA: Favourite place?

TOYAH: In England Norwich, because it's so old and crooked and crumbly. Out of England I think the people in Berlin are wonderful

LAURA: Favourite pastime?

TOYAH: Cinema. I love going to the cinema

LAURA: Ambition?

TOYAH: Astronaut

LAURA: Favourite street?

TOYAH: I like driving down Bishops Avenue (in North London). I just can't believe the size of the houses. I do like Kings Road. I like to watch the people, because they keep me in touch with reality. You know what's going on - where people's tastes are going. When I was at the Royal Court Theater, I used to sit looking out the window all day watching the people, all those amazing characters

LAURA: Favourite type of music?

TOYAH: Electronic music, purely because you don't have to listen to it. You don't have to waste time listening to it. It is just there, and it's relaxing

FAVOURITE: Favourite perfume?

TOYAH: Yeah! is my favorite, but I would never wear it because I always gas people with it. There is one - Carnation by Flores, which is lovely and there is another one Fleur De Lis by Hobert. But I will never go out of my way to buy perfume, because people think you may wear perfume to hide something

LAURA: At what age did you choose your career and what did your parents think?

TOYAH: I was roughly nine when I seriously decided. I have always wanted to do both acting and singing, basically because I was a greedy child. I also get bored doing the same things. If you're in music and you get bored ... it shows. The energy dies. My parents said no way. If I wanted to do it, I would have to do it off my own back. They did not finance me in any way, except for sending me to school

LAURA: How did you actually start?

TOYAH: Music was the priority, but I knew that I would have to start with acting as I was so frightened to sing. I would actually lose my voice if I ever had to sing a solo in the choir. I just couldn't do it. I had really bad nerves. I went to drama school and the reason I went to drama school was not to learn how to act, but to meet people that could help me

Within a year at being a drama school, I was virtually spotted by a director, which led me to do a half hour play in which I helped write two songs which I sung in it. It was called “Glitter” with Noel Edmonds and a band called Bilbo Baggins. Phil Daniels played my boyfriend

LAURA: When did you first form a band?

TOYAH: At the National Theater where I met Joel Bogen. I had some songs that I had written and I wanted to play. It was in the punk era when everyone was picking up a guitar saying they could play, but they couldn't and I wanted someone who could genuinely play. But for a year we messed around and it was not a proper band. After a year, we decided to take it seriously

LAURA: What was the band called?

TOYAH: I think it was called Joe Bogen’s Boogie, or Joel Bogen’s Army. He had a very large ego that was totally unmentionable. He just stood there playing a solo for an hour while I just started putting lyrics in here and there. But when we decided to take it seriously. I took over and said what direction the band should go

 

LAURA: How long did (the play) "Tales From The Vienna Woods" last for?

TOYAH: Nine months

LAURA: Did you get on well with Sir John Gielgud?

TOYAH: No. Well, he's a very classy person, very upper class and I was completely the opposite. I was very noisy, very young and very boisterous. A lot of top actors just want peace and quiet backstage. I was known as the “Animal” because I always behaved as if I was in a zoo

LAURA: Did you prefer acting in something like (the film) “The Tempest” or something more like (the play) “Sugar And spice”?

TOYAH: I prefer “The Tempest”. Acting on stage can be monotonous. I would like to act in a film like “Sugar And Spice”. To me films are much more rewarding, whereas a play is over in nine months or so but a film is always there. A film is over so much more quickly, and the whole world gets to see it. I like the memory of celluloid. That's that is what's so great about James Dean and Marilyn Monroe. They are dead, but will never be forgotten

LAURA: Did you find memorising scripts easy?

TOYAH: Very easy. It's a program with me. I treat my brain as a book, and by memorizing lines I sort of write the lines down in my head and as you turn the pages you can read the book. It takes practice, but I'm starting to learn

LAURA: Which did you like best - (the films) “Jubilee” or “Quadrophenia”?

TOYAH: I enjoyed making “Jubilee" more, but I think that “Quadrophenia” was a better film. Even though it was disjointed, it was quite fun. It was the first movie I had ever made, and I was a bit naive. I thought it was the big time when of course, it wasn't. I was among London's elitist people, and as I was quite young I was treated badly, but I enjoyed it all the same

LAURA: Would you ever make a film or video about the band?

TOYAH: Yes, I'm making a video next week for the new single, but not one for the band yet. They are not developed yet as performers. So far the only person who looks good and knows what he's doing is Phil Spalding. He doesn't try - the others tend to try too hard but I will make a video of the band when they're ready

LAURA: Do you prefer the new band to the old?

TOYAH: Oh, god, they're wonderful. Well, with the old band - we all hated each other. We were all jealous of each other. We all bickered and we all wanted to have our own say but this band we all just keep to what we're good at, and we never stop laughing. Life is a complete laugh

We did a photo session for the cover of the new album on Tuesday. I had them all wrapped up except for Joel, he had a gold arm. They all had a gold face, and the others had gold lips and gold eyes. So they were all different. I just had them all wrapped so they look like chrysalises. I'm like a butterfly - the species (is) a Toyah species with all little Toyah’s around me

I’ve got great big dragonfly wings looking very romantic holding this alien head as though I have just had a war. The inside cover is the band as the chrysalises. They couldn't move as they were wrapped up like mummies and they all wanted to wee. It was just great fun. They were so patient. The other band wouldn't have stood for it

 

LAURA: Will you ever write your own film or play scripts?

TOYAH: I'm working on some now but I would never put them on the video until they are perfect. I think that they may be ready after a good three or four years

LAURA: Do you have lots of ideas for film work?

TOYAH: Oh, totally. The video I'm doing with Lol Creme and Kevin Godley, who did the Visage video, is the idea of a gigantic alien playpen and things have got to get of it – an assault course. It’s partly my idea to have pyramids and things that come out and grab me. I want it to be vastly colorful and incredibly surreal. When I write a lyric I see the pictures first and then I write the words

LAURA: Do you find it easy to write lyrics?

TOYAH: Incredibly easy. For the album very easy because the standard of the songs is so much higher, and the standard of my singing is the best yet. For the first time in my life I sound bold. I could never do that before because the music was not of a high quality

LAURA: Did you like making (the film) “The Corn Is Green?”

TOYAH: I liked it but I also found it hard that I was playing someone who was six years younger than me. It was a disciplined film. It was good fun, but yet again I was not accepted as I was young and came from Birmingham

LAURA: Did you get on well with Katharine Hepburn?

TOYAH: She was really wonderful. Her and George Cukor did give me a good time, but the rest of the actors really didn't know how to take me. Patricia Hayes and I used to go around together in a little gang terrorising this town called Betws-y-Coed in Wales. At that time she was recognised and I wasn't

So she kept telling everyone else I was Benny Hill's daughter, because people kept going up to her saying “I saw you on the Benny Hill show” and then she would say “yes, but this is Benny Hill's daughter.” We were followed all around. She was so rude to people who would come up and go “I know your face”. She would say yes 10 out of 10 and stick a cream cake in their hand. She was much worse behaved than I am and we had a really great time

LAURA: What is “The Blue Marigold” about in (the TV series) "Tales Of The Unexpcted"?  (below)

TOYAH: It is a very cliche story. It is about a model who has grown too fat and ugly to be a model and is no longer wanted and goes mad. The story is she has a boyfriend who uses her while she's famous and he walks out when she loses her job and that is why she goes mad. 10 years later she meets her biggest rival when she was a model who's now going out with that particular boyfriend. This was the hardest part for me acting wise. I had to play a 30 year old because 30 year olds are neither old nor young. They (the roles) are very hard to portray

I'm not telling you the rest, because it will ruin the story. I put a sequence in. The director was very kind and he let me try and take some of the cliches out. The sequence is in a mental home, which is purely a dream. I'm just in a white room, a baby, who is looking around gormlessly at what is going on. We put a lot of surreal touches in it, points of view from a mad person so it would be quite strange to watch

 

LAURA: Did you enjoy doing Tiswas? (A children's television series 1974-1982) Even the messy part?

TOYAH: Oh yeah, because that's what people don't realise - it’s totally unorganised. I spent most of the hour before I went on running away from kids with custard pies who were trying to cover me. One kid actually got me before I went on. I was frantically wiping custard pie off me because I had one coming from Sally James (the host). It was great. And then suddenly they said, “read this board” and I was in “The Bucket of Water Song”. No rehearsal or nothing. It was great fun

It really was my ambition to do Tiswas. I said to Sally James before could my dad come in and put a custard pie in my face? But eventually we couldn’t get him in as he too shy. So I said to Sally would she put it in my face for him. We did an interview about the next tour and eventually she said “this is from Toyah’s dad”

LAURA: Why did you decide to add another date to your tour? (5.6.1981)

TOYAH: Because the first one was sold out within one week, and I just thought it was necessary. If people want to see me then let them see me because I won't tour again this year so it has to be good. But at Christmas we are doing a big freebie. It might be at Wembley. It has got to be enclosed, as it will be in winter. So it has to be big as we think there will be about 10,000 people

LAURA: So how long does it take you to prepare for a performance?

TOYAH: I don't rehearse properly with the band. At The Rainbow I didn't rehearse at all. As you probably know I went wrong with every other song with the words so I made them up as I went along. I prefer not to rehearse. I'm so bloody frightened of forgetting them (the lyrics). It really brings the best out of me. It makes me hectic. But for this next tour we will rehearse a lot because I have got a film show and I've got things I want the band to do. The special costumes they will be wearing will make them look better

We've got three weeks in rehearsal. The band will rehearse a week without me. I will go in and rehearse singing with them, and then we will be going to Shepperton (studios) to rehearse the actual show, which is vast and a great light show and stage. I will choreograph the band, because they will have to be choreographed. I don't choreograph myself

LAURA: How long does it take for you to get ready?

TOYAH: Two hours each night. That's more therapeutic than need. I could make myself up in 15 minutes but I have to calm down. I mustn't waste energy before the show so I try to be as still as possible. The best way to do is do it is to spend two hours on the makeup

 

LAURA: Are you going to change the style of your music?

TOYAH: Yes! We have. It shall change for the whole album, a complete change

LAURA: When's the album coming out?

TOYAH: Mid-May

LAURA: What is it basically about?

TOYAH: It's a concept album. It does have a story, but not a very obvious story. I have poems to introduce the songs. It's a fun album. The main theme, although it is not a happy theme, is war, love and death. That's pretty usual. It’s a very sci-fi album. It is about space pilots and things like that. The stories are very strong. They are actually stories in music. It is all about spirit of adventure

LAURA: And you said that the cover is you as a butterfly?

TOYAH: It's me with dragonfly wings, not so much butterfly, having won a war, basically, and the whole album is the feeling of winning. Even though it is about war, it's about winning war

LAURA: Do you make your own jewellery?

TOYAH: Not all of it. I make the copper pieces that I put on my costumes purely because it is cheap to do that as they get ripped off so quickly

LAURA: Do you make the bangles?

TOYAH: No, I buy those because they're hard wearing. I lost those in Ireland. The audience took everything I had

LAURA: When did you go to Ireland?

TOYAH: Two weeks ago

LAURA: I read about it in Hot Press (music magazine based in Dublin)

TOYAH: Yeah, it did go very well. It was amazing. We were in this hotel that was surrounded by barbed wire yet they (fans) still got in, banging on the door, screaming Toyah! Toyah!

LAURA: What about your famous glass eye ?

TOYAH: (It's from) Carnaby Street. It is the ring out of "Lord Of The Rings" that Bilbo Baggins had

LAURA: Do you contribute a lot to the basic Melissa (Caplan, Toyah's clothing designer in the 80s) designs?

TOYAH: I say what direction to go in. Melissa makes a lot of the clothes in material like this (Toyah pulls on the hessian/woolly sofa she is sitting on) I don't like those so ask her to use cottons and drill and tell her to paint them. She made this (tugging on her blue and gold tunic) which is wonderful. In that way I'll contribute

LAURA: Do you ever make your own clothes?

TOYAH: Well, in Record Mirror - did you see that thing on “What You Wear”? I made that outfit

LAURA: The one with the fringes? (below)

TOYAH: Yeah, like a squaw. I made that about three years ago. It was one of the very first things I ever wore on stage, and they said that Melissa made it

 

LAURA: You must be good at making clothes then?

TOYAH: Oh yes, I did it in school. I've got a room at my flat where I make stuff

LAURA: Do you find it easy?

TOYAH: Yes, I never use a pattern as I know my own size. I just cut everything out and stick it together and it comes out okay

LAURA: Do you have a hobby?

TOYAH: Making clothes, making things. I love books with pictures in, not so much reading as I'm such a slow reader. So My hobbies are books, anything creative, cinema and putting my makeup on

LAURA: Do you go out a lot?

TOYAH: No – well, not since the single is a hit. I've not gone anywhere, literally. I went to this big posh restaurant the other day where the waiters are not allowed to bother anyone, as it is a big showbiz restaurant in The Strand where they all go for dinner. I walked in and got bloody mobbed. If you can't even go to the showbiz places, you can't go out. Just driving down the street I'll get kids running after the car. I never go out undisguised

I can't believe it is happening. I've got women going berserk. Some woman hung out of this minibus, screaming and banging on my window. So I said “hello, how are you?” and she went hysterical. I can't go out on my own because of it. They just don't believe you go out

LAURA: It must be hard for you?

TOYAH: No, I just worry about them. Why are they acting like that?

LAURA: I heard you went to a youth club in Redbridge as my uncle runs the place. What did you do there?

TOYAH: I went there to present some albums to people who raised money for the National Youth Club Association, which is a thing I've been supporting over the year. They said there will be about 40 people there, but this building was surrounded by kids, and it turned out to be quite frightening. So I just presented the albums, signed a hell of a lot of autographs and ran because it got really out of hand

LAURA: Will you be getting married?

TOYAH: I might do one day. That's all I can say. There is no actual plan. I think my career stepped in the way, and I don't think I can let it go while it's getting on so successfully

LAURA: I heard you were interested in the occult. Is this true?

TOYAH: I'm fascinated by it, but I would never practice it. I believe you need to know about things like this because they do exist

LAURA: Tell me about you and “The Necronomicon”? (A book by H.R. Giger)

TOYAH: I was given this book as a present and it fascinated me. The pictures brought back memories of nightmares I had, and they were the actual pictures I saw. I was young, I did not understand some of the dreams. I would love to get Giger to paint the cover of our next album

The interview in the fanzine ↓ 
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