TOYAH ON
BBC RADIO TEES
SOUNDS WITH BOB FISHER
17.1.2019

BOB FISHER: Toyah is on the line with me. How are you?

TOYAH: Hi Bob! I'm really well. I can't wait to be at the Arc (1.2.2019, Stockton-on-Tees)

BOB: Excellent! This is the first date of tour as well, isn't it?

TOYAH: Yes. What happens in my year is about mid-November I stop singing and have vocal rest. It's just a really wise thing to do. Not very many singers get a change to have that break. It's not that I haven't been working – I've been flat out! But I've just not been singing

BOB: I noticed that you've been in the studio this week because I follow you on Twitter. What are you working on?

TOYAH: On the 5th of April I have a new album out. The fans will be familiar with about 50% of it because we play them in the set. The album is called "In The Court Of The Crimson Queen"

So we've been in the studio writing new singles because there is a single due out. I'm putting new tracks on this particular new album. I can't tell you too much because some of it is press embargoed but there's lots of exiting things happening for the fans. New images, new songs and we're very proud of it

BOB: I have to say congratulations on Celebrity Mastermind as well

TOYAH: It was a miracle that night, wasn't it? (laughs)

BOB: (laughs) And you stormed it! Questions on Boudica. Is she something of a specialist subject of yours?

TOYAH: A huge subject for me. There's a movie in the pipeline that I'm really hoping will go into production very soon. I've been studying Boudica for a long time. As a child I was fascinated by her and she is mainly myth. The only writings about her that can be taken as historical fact were 50 years after she actually lived

The reason the papers were written in Rome was because Nero, who was the Emperor at that particular time, he was cross-dressing and historians wanted to write about a woman and in Rome a powerful woman was an insult 

They created Boudica as this warrior queen as an insult to Nero. And for me that is just fascinating because she did exist. She was a warrior queen in a society were it didn't matter if you were a man or a woman. If you were willing to fight then you could be a leader

Whereas in Rome women couldn't be leaders at the time. So there is a lot of myth and legend built up around her. When Queen Elizabeth came to the throne the comparisons started again and you started to get Boudica in plays and in essays and in critiques

BOB: I'm intrigued by the forthcoming film. Are you involved with it at all?

TOYAH: I am but I can't tell you any more! She is a big love of mine!

BOB: Intriguing! I will pick up on Queen Elizabeth because I know you did the stage version of Derek Jarman's "Jubilee" (above) last year -

TOYAH: I loved it!

BOB: I bet! I did see your performance compared to Judi Dench's Queen Elizabeth, which I thought was intriguing. Was that a deliberate homage?

TOYAH: I hope positively compared! (they both laugh) I played Queen Elizabeth in "Jubilee" and it opened in Manchester about 14 months ago and then in London Hammersmith exactly a year ago. I loved the opportunity to play this woman, because, again, Elizabeth was beyond anything we could call femininity. She was highly educated, which people don't tend to realise about queens of that era

She was phenomenally intelligent. She spoke many languages, politically astute, she was terribly barbaric! And very clever in passing the blame to the men. She would have people killed and then put the onus on someone around her or nearby. She was quite phenomenal

BOB: And Derek Jarman himself must've been a huge influence on you because obviously you were in the original film production of "Jubilee"?

TOYAH: Yeah. Derek cast me as "Mad", a pyromaniac in the film version and it's a very kind of ramshackle film but it's utterly brilliant. It proves that you don't need polished edges for something to be watchable. It's not for everyone

It's a punk movie and it's a very violent movie and the stage play was very violent. But it did ask questions that I think theatre can ask. It can push out boundaries that sometimes only theatre can do. So it translated brilliantly on to the stage

BOB: I saw you as a teenager and it was life changing. Derek Jarman's films proved to me that you can make a film that just stands there as a piece of art. It's almost impressionistic

TOYAH: Derek was a collage maker. As an artist, on canvas, he was an collage artist and with film he was collage. But also I think Derek was very anti the beginning – middle – and end development within film and terribly anti commercialism. So his work is stand alone work

BOB: Can I ask about another film from that era? I know that the tour you're doing this year is marking the 40th anniversary of your first record deal and your first releases on a major record label. And I think you were making "Quadrophenia" at the time you signed the deal. Is that right?

TOYAH: That's true. And "Quadrophenia" is 40 years old this year as well. Yes, my very first album "Sheep Farming In Barnet" is 40 years young. Even if I say so myself it's an utterly extraordinary album. I love performing the songs of it. They are high energy original soundscapes. They're very vital and they're full of lust for life

On stage today, I'm sixty now, I absolutely adore performing them. "Waiting", "Neon Womb", "Danced", "Race Through Space". They are incredible songs! And again they don't tend to have an beginning, middle and an end! They're Impressionistic

My show with the band is going to be high energy and it has been forever and it will continue that way. We don't really seem to be settling down as far as energy goes. I think that particular album is very special

BOB: I've seen you wax lyrical about your song "Pop Star" as well, as one that you particularly enjoy performing?

TOYAH: We've replaced "Pop Star" in the set this year with a song called "Martian Cowboy", which is beautiful! We've only started performing it live for the first time in about 30 years last autumn (both laugh) Everyone's hair just stands on end. It's absolutely gorgeous

BOB: Do you perform anything from "Prostitute" in the live set?

TOYAH: No, we don't. It's just me and Steve Sidelnyc, who then went on to programme all of Madonna's albums. There's not the context yet to do that but it's a very good question. I will look into it because I think that would take the fans by surprise

BOB: It's such an extraordinary album, honestly. I was listening to it again for the first time in a little while -

TOYAH: How was it?

BOB: It sounded great! It really did! It's an incredibly experimental album and it's a fascinating album. What prompted it? Did just feel you had to do something very bold and very different?

TOYAH: I always have to walk away from the job I've just done. That's creatively, idea wise. I just have to walk away. I feel trapped. Which is why my career is so varied. And I think "Prostitute" came after doing "Minx". That was a signing to Portrait CBS, where I was being told to be everyone but me. I was being told to be like Pat Benatar ... I've got nothing against that but I am me. I'm not trying to be another person. I'm not an imitator

So I remember I'd just got married and the only question I was being asked was when was I going to start a family? Which was never the reason I got married and certainly never the reason I'm here on this planet. So it was an album that really came out of anger. It's a very expressive piece. It's the most critically acclaimed album I've ever done. Billboard gave it five stars and then claimed it was an antidote to Madonna -

BOB: I saw that, yes! (laughs)

TOYAH: I didn't make it to make enemies, I just made it because I felt powerless. So it's widely considered even today as a piece of genius. I'm not being modest here because your listeners will know I'm not the most successful female artist in the world but I am a persistent tenacious person. It's really nice to have people referring back to past album as pieces of genius

BOB: Do you still feel that anger sometimes?

TOYAH: I feel angry all the time -

BOB: Do you?

TOYAH: Well, I just think we look at gender rather than the person and we always compare artists to someone else. I don't think any artist out there is trying to be an impersonator of an other person. So I always feel anger but I always feel driven and I try to use it

For me I'd rather use it creatively writing a song than on forty digits in a tweet. I think you have to explore these feelings and develop them and then share them. And sometimes the results change people's lives and that's very important to me

BOB: Is it instantly cathartic for you as well then? Can you write a song and think “that's it, it's down on paper now so I feel better about it”

TOYAH: No – success is cathartic! (they both laugh) I'm always having to prove myself. With the new album there's a new song going on ... We finished it yesterday, it's being mixed and mastered tomorrow. That was a wonderful feeling of writing something that you like and a lot of people in my world have heard this song and they're just going “wow!” So that is a nice feeling

BOB: So the album will be out in April?

TOYAH: The 5th of April

BOB: Fantastic. And the title "In The Court Of The Crimson Queen" is a little tip to one of your husband Robert Fripp's past incarnations. Did he offer a dry smile when the title was offered to him?

TOYAH: There is a big surprise on the album -

BOB: Is there? You're not going to tell me though, are you?

TOYAH: He opens the album

BOB: Oh, fantastic!

TOYAH: And he's not wearing a guitar -

BOB: (laughs) Rather like a prostitute!

TOYAH: That's it. It's exactly that kind of part

BOB: Excellent! It's been a pleasure to speak to you, Toyah. Thank you for doing this

TOYAH: Thank you! And I can't wait to be at the Arc!