TOYAH ON
BBC RADIO WM 95.6
THE OTHER SIDE OF
WITH ADRIAN GODLBERG
5.8.2018

ADRIAN GOLDBERG: Today it's “The Other Side Of” Toyah Willcox. Toyah is 60 but as you will hear she is full of energy, full of drive and determined that her career isn't all in the past

There's plenty going on now and in the future as well. I'll touch on one or two sensitive subjects, not least her relationship with her mother. Toyah is not short of a forthright answer or two either

ADRIAN: When I say you were born in King's Heath – you were raised in King's Heath weren't you, Toyah?

TOYAH: I was conceived and born in the same house and lived in for 18 years -

ADRIAN: Where exactly?

TOYAH: Grove Road, King's Heath -

ADRIAN: Where's that? I know King's Heath pretty well, I can't think of -

TOYAH: It's the road where The Red Lion (pub) is …

ADRIAN: Oh, yes! I know The Red Lion really well -

TOYAH: Why does that not surprise me?

ADRIAN: Off Vicarage Road?

TOYAH: That's it exactly!

ADRIAN: Near Cornwall School -

TOYAH: Every now and then I drive past and have happy memories. I owned the house for a while. I bought it off my parents so that they could retire. Then I moved them down to Pershore in Worchestershire, where I now live

I still have very fond memories of the house at Grove Road because my grandfather built it. My grandfather was part of Willcox-Lang so he built most of Tenbury Road, Vicarage Road, Grove Road, Edgbaston. Stop me when you get bored!

ADRIAN: What a thing to have in your family though! The knowledge that as you drive around – a family member was responsible for all of that physical environment?

TOYAH: And it makes me very fond of 119 Grove Road. I hope I'm allowed to actually signal it because I don't live there any more, obviously. But to know that my grandfather built that house and my father kind of helped him finish it off

It's a really strange feeling because houses are so solid and so tangible and permanent that I very rarely think of them as something built with hands. So here is a house my family built and it brought me into the world. I find that just extraordinary! 

ADRIAN: That is incredible. Now, today we are going to talk about how that girl from King's Heath went onto have hit records, went onto make movies, be in countless television programmes and to find out what she's doing now. Toyah is still incredibly busy, incredibly active. Let's have a little flavour of Toyah's hits … (after the music) How does it feel listening to those again, Toyah?

TOYAH: What do you mean? (smiling) I sing them every day! “I Want To Be Free” was just featured in a play I starred in in London called “Jubilee”. I was playing Queen Elizabeth I in it and at the very end I sang “I Want To Be Free”. I sang “I Want To Be Free” in Gran Canaria 7 days ago, in Manchester 6 days ago, tomorrow in Newcastle I'll be singing it!

I don't actually step away from my music at all. I do 4 concerts a week in two countries most weeks so it's still incredibly busy. And of course this is festival season so sometimes I do two shows a day -

ADRIAN: Incredible! I'm glad to hear it! I'm glad to see you still enjoy it. Your face lights up when you talk about it -

TOYAH: Listening to the original recordings, what made me laugh – I now work with bands in the big stadium shows and I have to say to the very young backing singers “don't imitate my voice” because that makes it pastiche. They come along very well rehearsed with the lisp and the kind of “a-shot-in-the-dark!” and I say “I don't do it like that anymore” ... I went to the RSC, I re-trained my voice, I've spent thousands re-training how I sound so just forget about the past but honour the song

So that does make me laugh when I hear the original recording because I've got a much bigger voice now and a much more controlled voice. It's huge! I sing for hours every day … So it is quite funny hearing the original, when I hadn't quite had enough experience as a live singer to be a recording artist. But I think the attention in the writing is still incredibly relevant today - 

ADRIAN: We'll come to what you're doing today in a bit more detail as we go through but take us right back to the start of the story. “Ride A White Swan” (the first record Toyah has picked to play on the show) You're 60 this year … Is this one your first musical loves? T. Rex?

TOYAH: I think my very first single was “Fly Away Peter, Fly Away Paul” by Cliff Richard, which I absolutely loved. And then came along “Bridge Over Troubled Water” - Art Garfunkel, which was more of a spiritual experience that I'd ever had in my life. But I was probably too young to realise that that was a spiritual experience. “Ride A White Swan” was my first crush and that was Marc Bolan

He appeared on Top Of The Pops with Lift Off with Ayshea with glitter on his face and he wore satin. Beautiful brightly coloured satin. This was the beginning of the glam rock era, which was very inspirational to me. I just fell in love with Marc Bolan. I mean forget that “Ride A White Swan” is actually a really brilliant song and it comes out of phenomenal history of a folk fairy tale group called Tyrannosaurus Rex -

ADRIAN: Which was Bolan's band pre T. Rex -

TOYAH: With Steve Peregrin Took – which was hugely influential in the progressive movement. I bring that in because I've been married to one of the leaders of progressive rock for 32 years - Robert Fripp. So When I saw Marc Bolan's “Ride A White Swan” is was just lust (Adrian chuckles) I went out with 12 shillings and six pence to a record shop … I think it was something like Vicarage Lane at the bottom of King's Heath by the Beaumont where there was a beautiful little record shop

I bought my first 12 “ single with the removable vinyl centre, which I kept popping out because it was like a toy to play with. And then you set the record player at 45 RPM and just play that vinyl to death ("Ride A White Swan" plays)

ADRIAN: What a great track that was, Toyah. And you said you saw T. Rex -

TOYAH: Yes, at the Birmingham Odeon, New Street, about 1971 or 72. To get there and be in the kind of Bolan uniform, which was satin and glitter, I had to sneak out of school early. Church Of England College For Girls, Cornwall Road, Edgbaston. I walked to Five Ways with my best friend

We got changed in the loos out of our official uniform into our Bolanesque stuff and we got caught by Mrs Cox, out maths teacher who marched us back to school, made us wash our faces and put our school uniform back on

But we made it to the concert, we were in the front row. I can remember just dancing wildly and screaming all night and the security just beating us on the back until we sat down and behaved. But no one behaved that night! (Adrian laughs) Little did I know that ten years later I would be experiencing the same thing on the same stage

ADRIAN: Your childhood was difficult though, wasn't it? For one your were born with a number of physical difficulties?

TOYAH: As a child I didn't know I had anything different about me. It was my normality. So my mother never told me what was going on but I'd pick up snippets of conversation. I was looked after by the Birmingham Children's Hospital – really well – and the Orthopaedic Hospital, which is now on Broad Street. My mother was taught to give me physio. I had a twisted spine and I had clawed feet and one leg longer than the other so I had a raise on my left side in my shoes

I was just taught to do physio twice a day with my mother, which I found very boring and I absolutely hated. But it was extraordinary things – I'd do paintings with my feet and I could type “O”'s with my feet. It was all to do with dexterity and movement and trying to train my back to go straight to avoid surgery. (I had) the big plaster cast, which they used to use back then. But what I didn't realise was that all of my childhood my mother was trying to save my right leg which … back then, what I was born with would've been removed

ADRIAN: And was there a name for your condition?

TOYAH: Well, I've got many conditions. Pelvic dysplasia, which is now being corrected. I have artificial joints. That was fantastic and they made my legs the same length. Unfortunately it made me below five foot, which is really annoying! (laughs) My feet can't be corrected so I just don't wear nice shoes

There is nothing I have that I can't live with and there's nothing I have that hasn't made me a fighter. But I do remember conversations when my mother had to buy two pairs of shoes every time we went into Clarks (a UK shoe shop chain) The conversation was “well, how long is your daughter going to have this foot?” and I remember my mother saying “she's going to keep her feet” -

ADRIAN: Did you have club feet then?

TOYAH: Yes, but also you can't remove toes. If you remove toes you cause major disability in the traction of the knee and the traction of the rest of the leg. So what I had removed was my joints. I'd been spotted by the age of nine by Vy Thomas at the Solihull ice Rink. Vy trained John Curry, the ice skater and she spotted me as a talent

I was a very physical child, even with this disability. Incredibly physical. I was always breaking my nose, breaking my teeth, breaking my bones because I just flung myself into things. Vy said I could be a competitive ice skater. So I would go to Solihull Ice Rink six in the morning before school, do my figure of 8 training and at 7 at night to do free skating training. I loved Vy, I loved her to death. She was very disciplined and I did little ice shows at Solihull with John Curry. It was my first foray into show business and I adored it

But then the surgery started with correcting the feet and the toes. It just became too painful. I lost my sense of balance. My feet were too painful to restrict and I stopped skating. Which is kind of sad but my physicality has always remained hyper. Which is for me, I think, my saving grace

ADRIAN: Children can be cruel though, to those -

TOYAH: Your family can be cruel! I was known in my family as "Hopalong", stick-in-the-mud because I was overweight. Lurch! I mean this was my own family! (laughs) (Toyah with her dad Beric, below)

ADRIAN: What about other kids?

TOYAH: Well, I suppose they picked up on the lisp more than the limp (they both laugh) I learned to be tough really quick. I am tough, I'm very resilient. I'm tenacious and I don't give up. If I don't like something … I don't march by those rules. So yes, it was tough and there were moments of bullying and crying but I gave my fair fight back, as it were

ADRIAN: You say you're a fighter … One of the people you fought with as a child was your mum, wasn't it?

TOYAH: Yes. My mother and I didn't get on. When I hit my teens I was so rebellious because I knew there was absolutely nothing within my living circle that was contributing to what I wanted to be. I knew I was going to sing, I knew I was going to act and I knew that no one was going to help me within my immediate circle. My mother was very disciplinarian, so was my father and I just rebelled big time. I rebelled against their negativity

When I was about 11,12 my father lost the companies. He lost all his money in the big share slump. He'd just changed all the factories from joinery to exclusively making doors for mass development. And then you had the big share slump and it just wiped the slate clean

So my parents weren't happy. They were about to lose everything. I was in private education that was very expensive and I didn't want to be in that education. I rather would've gone to the modern secondary education in King's Heath although I'm glad I didn't because I would've been distracted by boys. Because I liked boys! So it was not a happy family and not a happy time. I was probably the worst daughter they could have at that time

ADRIAN: How rebellious did you get? You write in your autobiography about being physically aggressive towards your mum?

TOYAH: Oh, mum and I used to fight non-stop! My mother would whack me and I'd whack her back. My mother would always insist on brushing my hair and she would brush it very violently and it was really painful. I just couldn't take any more. Whenever I had some good news, for instance the head of Pebble Mill, Jack Johnson at the time, recognised that I was a show person and voted me into the Old Rep Birmingham Theatre School and I excelled there. Absolutely excelled! Because I was in an environment where I knew I was supposed to be

And I'd come home and my mother would just be dissing it and saying “there's no future for you. Why are you doing this? Why are you wasting your education?” I just didn't want that kind of info. Trying to dissuade me from my dream. One thing I really believe in is you never dissuade anyone from their dream and it's probably because of that experience

So I didn't get on with my mother and eventually I moved in with a wonderful family called the Gerads on Selwyn Road in Edgbaston, who took me in. Their daughters are still my best friends. Hindu family. And when I couldn't live with my mother anymore Mrs Gerad said to my father “bring her over here, she can live with us”. So I lived with them for months. I remember as soon as I arrived Mrs Gerad said to me “you are not to influence my daughters! My daughters are good girls!” And we have remained friends for 45 years

ADRIAN: Incredible stuff. Now you talked the song that gave you, in retrospect, your first spiritual experience, “Bridge Over Troubled Water” by Simon and Garfunkel (plays song) Toyah, you talked about yourself as a “show person”. You say that you were spotted quite early on as a “show person”. You've been successful in the movie world, you've been successful as a TV actress, you've been successful as a singer. Which came first for you?

TOYAH: Theatre. I was at drama school at the Birmingham Old Rep Theatre School when two directors, brothers called Bicat, heard about this very strange girl with green and yellow hair. This was pre-punk, it was early 70s. They were trying to cast for a play about a young girl, who breaks into the Top Of The Pops studios for BBC2 "Second City First" series of plays. So they asked the theatre school if they could come and see me. I wasn't told they were coming to see me and they just sat in on a class

Then I was invited down to London to do an audition with an actor called Phil Daniels, who I later made “Quadrophenia” with. I got the part, we shot it at Pebble Mill Birmingham and when that showed three months later, I think it was Christmas 1976 – Kate Nelligan the actress, and Maximilian Schell, the German superstar film star, was about to direct his first ever play at the National Theatre. They were watching this play called “Glitter” with me in it. And apparently Kate turned to Maximilian Schell and said “that's our "Emma" (of "Tales From The Vienna Woods")

I ended up, at the age of 18, at the National Theatre. The youngest company member ever at that time. So I moved to London, I worked on a play called “Tales From The Vienna Woods”. I lived at Kate's house for 9 months. Worked with Brenda Blethyn, Oliver Cotton, Warren Clarke. They were all in the play. I met and extraordinary film director called Derek Jarman, through friend of mine Ian Charleston, who was just making “Chariots Of Fire”. And Derek cast me in his punk film “Jubilee”. That was my first ever movie

"Jubilee" has just come full circle because I've just starred in it again on stage (below) It's just lovely the way that has happened. What's particularly lovely for me about the life of Derek Jarman – who was quite ostracized at the time … You had wonderful producers like Michael White who did the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” - they would actually lock the office doors when they saw Derek trying to get in

He had a reputation of people not wanting him their office because of his demands of money to make movies. Just now, suddenly younger generations are discovering Jarman's work. And Jarman discovered Dexter Fletcher, Tilda Swinton – I mean phenomenal talents! 

Today younger generations are celebrating his work. And for me – having been in show business for … 41, 42 years – I think I've been in it for long enough to see these wonderful events happen. If that makes sense? People who are just born before their time suddenly arrive in the right place decades later because their artistry is just too out there -

ADRIAN: And Derek Jarman is now being acknowledged in that way I suppose -

TOYAH: As a genius!

ADRIAN: You mentioned your punk'ish attitude around that era as well.  You were, I guess, in London at the time punk rock kicked off?

TOYAH: No! This is a really good question! I felt completely alienated in Birmingham. I didn't get on at school, I wasn't getting along with my mother, I was making my own clothes, I was a hair model at Rackham's on Corporation Street. I met the hair dresser if I may his name, Derek Goddard, who dyed my hair different colours for his shows, which we used to do in Liverpool and Blackpool and places like that. We'd travel all over the country doing hair shows

So there I was in Birmingham, standing out like a sore thumb, looking like an alien in a strange land and thinking I was the only weirdo in the village. Then someone said to me “you need to see this band called The Sex Pistols, they're playing Bogarts tonight”. This about 1974 and I went along. I was all on on my own, feeling very sorry for myself and I walk into a room and there's 350 people in that room who look like me!

And I thought “where have you been?! I've not seen one of you!” in my life's journey around Birmingham. I realised that I was part of a movement and that movement was punk and we were all there to see The Sex Pistols. And it was slightly pre-punk. It was the very beginning

ADRIAN: The next track we're going to play is not a punk track. Black Sabbath “Paranoid”. Why that?

TOYAH: Well, I have, all my life, very much loved the energy of rock and when I was 11 and being naughty at school and truanting I was also breaking into rock concerts. You have fantastic rock venues in Birmingham but they were really easy to get into. You just kicked the exit door and walked in

So this is how I got into Hawkwind at the age of 12, Black Sabbath at the age of 12, Uriah Heep. I saw them all before I was a teenager. What amazed about Black Sabbath was the music was great and it was full of energy but at that time the audiences weren't huge. I can remember standing in this venue, in the Bullring, thinking why is everyone just standing and watching? I want to climb the walls and run around the room! This is great!

ADRIAN: Your acting acreer took off and you had the privilege of taking part in at least two cult classic films. The Derek Jarman film that you mentioned “Jubilee", the film “Quadrophenia” with Phil Daniels as well. That was the late 70s into the 80s. Then you start having hit records so how does your music career take off?

TOYAH: My hit records actually started in '78. I was in the first Alternative Chart in '78 for 12 months with a song called “The Victims Of The Riddle”. But that wasn't the national chart, it was the Alternative Chart. My second studio album “Blue Meaning”, which came out in 1980, went straight to number 2 in the album charts. And that's before I'd had a nationwide hit single.

I formed my band, the Toyah Band, when I was at the National Theatre in '77. When I was making “Quadrophenia” in '78 I was still one of the very few punk rockers that was unsigned. Yet 2000 people a night were turning up to see me play Top Rank Birmingham or the Bull & Bush, Shepherd's Bush. They were just turning up in their thousands

And it seemed madness that I wasn't signed. I can remember I was making “Quadrophenia” and Sting was a very great friend to all of us. We used to sit in his hotel room at the end of filming each day and he's teach us the harmonies to “Roxanne”

He said “this is crazy, why aren't you signed? You have a massive following.” I got a phone call from an Indie label called Safari while making “Quadrophenia” and they said “can you showcase for us tomorrow at lunchtime?” So I had to put that on while making a movie. I put that on, they liked us, they signed us

Our first releases, which were indie releases, charted but not in national charts. Then a song called “It's A Mystery”, written by Keith Hale of a band called Blood Donor, came through the letterbox. I was asked if I would demo it. It was originally a 12 minute vocal and 15 minute instrumental. I wrote the 2nd verse. We changed it into a pop song format because you couldn't give radio stations a song longer than 3 and half minutes in those days or they wouldn't play it – although Queen bust that one with “Bohemian Rhapsody”

So I agreed to do it. I wasn't happy about it because I think it's a very vulnerable song. The last thing I wanted to put forward at this time for women in the world was vulnerability. I wanted to be seen as Joan of Arc. But it just went through the roof! It sold something like 75 000 units a day

We had to keep that amount of sales up to keep the chart placing so I could actually appear on Top Of The Pops. Shops started to run out of vinyl and I remember sitting down with the record company saying “what are we going to do? We will lose the Sunday chart placing if we don't keep these sales up by Saturday”

We had to hire men in white vans to go round indie record shops and buy up all the broken vinyl and bring it to the pressing plants. We managed to do it and we managed to keep up that level of sales. I went into the Top 30 somewhere in the high 20s, got my first Top Of The Pops, which was the happiest day of my life. And then went straight to number 4 after that and stayed there for about six weeks. It was an extraordinary time! Top Of The Pops for me, in Birmingham, was something that kept me alive. It was the one thing that gave me hope. And there I was on it. It was just lovely!

ADRIAN: You didn't want to present an image of vulnerability back then and I suspect not now either because you're on the front foot, a very positive person. Your next musical selection though, definitely a tinge of melancholy about this, I would say. “Luka” by Suzanne Vega

TOYAH: I've chosen this because it shows how wonderfully diverse songwriting can be and how powerful it can be. This came out in the 90s at a time where music in this country was being stripped down to one line and a lot of drum'n'bass and keyboards. Suzanne Vega came along, who had a history as a model but she is also a songwriter. This is a song about domestic abuse and it was a worldwide hit

I've chosen this because it proves that good songwriting, good realisation, good connection within a story can bring the power of songwriting back into the mainstream ("Luka" plays)

ADRIAN: So your next selection – Kate Bush “Moments Of Pleasure”. Why this?

TOYAH: Well, I love everything Kate does. I love her as a person, I love her as an artistic genius. When I first heard this song I crashed the car! It was written about her mother and the loss of her mother and ... I was so overcome (gets really emotional) … This is me, I get overcome by music so easily. I crashed the car! At two in the morning. I know Kate and I told her this and I said “because of you I almost killed myself!” (laughs)

ADRIAN: Did it have a resonance for you given the fractious relationship with your own mum?

TOYAH: I think what it is – Kate has such a power of relating the right musical notes to the right words with this extraordinary voice. Kate and her family are very close and when her mother died it was a big shock to Kate. In the middle of this track is her mother talking on the answerphone. When my mother died my answerphone wiped itself and I lost my mother's last message to me

I think because of that and because of what Kate touched on this is song - that just transcends time because we all experience that grief. When I first heard it in 93' my parents were still alive but the grief of it ... I could connect to the future and know that I would never have that relationship with my mother

ADRIAN: (Toyah is very emotional) It's OK …
(After the song) You referenced your marriage to Robert Fripp, originally of King Crimson. How long ago did you meet Robert?

TOYAH: I first met Robert in 83' when I was in the West End starring in play called “Trafford Tanzi” -

ADRIAN: Which is about a female wrestler, if memory serves me right -

TOYAH: Female wrestler, yes. All of it took place as a conversation between a man and wife in a wrestling ring, which was just fantastic! I met Robert at an charity event that year. We had the same management. We had a picture taken together with Princess Michael of Kent. Then I didn't see Robert again for another two years and that was at the same event. Robert realised two years later I was his wife. Even though we'd never spoken and we'd only ever had a photo taken

He'd flown back from America because his diary hadn't filled for this particular week. He was living in New York and he realised he was flying back to meet his wife (Adrian laughs) Now, let me put this in context. Robert worked with David Bowie, did two albums with Bowie - “Heroes”, “Scary Monsters”. Very influential

Robert has prophetic dreams. This maybe heresy on a Sunday but his dreams do come true. For example when Bowie decided to come back, I think with “Last Day” (sic, it's "Next Day"), his second to last album – Robert had a dream he was recording with Bowie and wrote it up in his diary

Bowie was trying to keep his recording a secret and the press picked up on this diary as real and announced Bowie was doing a new album. Tony Visconti wrote to Robert and said “how dare you expose Bowie's in the studio” and Robert said “what do you mean – it was a dream” -

ADRIAN: Visconti being the producer, Bowie's producer -

TOYAH: Yeah. So anyway – Robert had a dream 1985 that he was about to meet his wife and that's why this week in his diary wasn't filling. So he flew to England and the first person he met in the taxi on the way to this charity event was me

And he said “this is it. This is my wife”. He proposed within a week and I said “well, this is a bit quick for me!!! But can we get to know each other?” and nine months later we were married. Married for 32 years

ADRIAN: Incredible. So he didn't know that it would be you. He just had this prophetic dream that in this week he would meet his wife and you were the first person …

TOYAH: It was a little more poignant than that. He said the moment he met me two years earlier - there was something there and he knew he was coming back to see me. He knew he was going to the event with me

ADRIAN: Well, it's a good pick-up line if nothing else, isn't it? (laughs)

TOYAH: Well, I think when you trace it back to how organised it was that we were in the taxi together and then ended up in the recording studio together two days later, I think he really was in control of the reigns

ADRIAN: I'm going to ask you the next question – I realise it might be a bit sensitive but I know you've written about it and spoke about it before … that you haven't had children and that in your younger life you were sterilized. Just explain that because some listeners might not know the backstory to that?

TOYAH: Well, I knew I would never have children. I don't think I physically could have children. So rather than repeatedly thinking that I might be carrying and lose it I decided to be sterilized

ADRIAN: This is because of your childhood conditions?

TOYAH: Yes. And also it really wasn't a problem for me. There's no sorrow here, there's no sensitivity. I just didn't want to be irresponsible. I think I was 27 when I was sterilized and that's it. It's as simple as that

ADRIAN: Although that's an incredibly young age to be sterilized. Many women might come to a point in their life later on in their 30s, mid-30s, early 40s and they realise actually "I can still have children"

TOYAH: Well, yeah that's them. I don't think I ever could -

ADRIAN: But was that just physical or do you think there is something in your psychological make-up that made you feel -

TOYAH: It's deeply psychological. I had a phobia about giving birth. When I discovered in my first biology lesson about it I virtually had a nervous breakdown. I was terrified! If you play John Hurt's belly busting scene in the “Alien” film … that's how I felt about the potential of giving birth! I had a phobia. So there was absolutely no way I was ever going to go through that

I don't want to be flippant about it because obviously there are women out there who are desperate to have children … I just knew I never would. And then about 2009 I had a very minor cancer scare but I had to have radical surgery. The surgeon said “I don't know how you survived that” meaning that my internal condition was as badly affected as my external body was. So I was never going to have children

ADRIAN: Let's get your next track. This is The Rolling Stones “Sympathy For The Devil” -

TOYAH: I just love The Stones! I think they're gods! I didn't like them as a child – I was a definite follower of The Beatles but as time has gone by and you see these marvelous documentaries about them … I've never seen them live. I just think their creativity from the early 60s right through to the mid-80s is just phenomenal! I love every song they've ever written (The songs plays) 

ADRIAN: I have to say, Toyah, and I hope you don't mind me saying this but you're 60 and you look astonishing! You did write just over a decade ago a book called “A Diary Of A Facelift” (laughs) How much of the way you look is down to you and your vegan lifestyle … how much is it down to the art of surgery?

TOYAH: (not impressed) Well, the fact I'm walking is the art of surgery (Adrian laughs) and the fact that I'm alive today is the art of surgery. So I'm not adversed to surgery at all. I look after myself, I do very big shows as well as very intimate shows. I do arena shows right through to stately home shows and it is important how you look and I embrace that

I have no interest in retiring and I have no interest in acting old. I don't feel old, I am very healthy in my lifestyle. I would invest in what you eat, invest in what you use as fuel for your body because it does pay off. I don't eat red meat and I drink five litres of water a day. I eat only fresh food – nothing processed. And I move a lot

ADRIAN: And you're very proud of the fact that even today you're still incredibly active? Professionally?

TOYAH: Well, yes because as a woman I think society and culturally we're reflected on the “you hit sixty - you're not going to work any more or you're going to stop being creative” and I think we need to break that mould. We need to break those conceptions, they're misconceptions

So this year I've already got a honorary doctorate from Birmingham University which I got in 2003, a doctorate in media. Paul McCartney is awarding me a Fellowship in July for songwriting

I am producing two movies. I'm acting in one called “Give Them Wings”, which is a true story about a remarkably amazing football fan who's paraplegic. I'm playing the mother. I am doing four shows most weeks right up until mid-November. That's concerts … and I write and device TV programmes so I'm really busy and I enjoy my life. I'm not going to slide into any stereotypical behaviour or patterns just because I'm a woman of sixty. I just don't live that way

ADRIAN: As a woman you've worked in an era, as we know, sadly, women were very often physically abused, exploited. And you've been a strong woman throughout in four decades of show business …

TOYAH: One of the reasons I have survived so long is because I was not scared of being disliked by men. This whole abuse scandal happened because women were vulnerable and they didn't expect to be abused by someone with such power. I have seen this abuse go on in many many fields from nightclubs up North, through to publishing houses, record companies, TV stations. I have seen it with defenceless beautiful women who don't know how to behave and are scared of losing their jobs

Well … I was the other side of the coin. I was the worst thing these men could meet! (Adrian laughs) I remember my manager in 81' lunged at me across the office and I picked up a glass ashtray and I smashed him over the head with it. I had a reputation for standing up for myself and therefore I very rarely had to stick up to abuse. Because people knew I would stick up for myself. I don't know whether to be proud of it but I'm pointing it out that the women who did stand up for themselves did suffer in the workplace but they didn't physically suffer abuse

ADRIAN: Toyah, it's been great to speak to you today. Thank you so much. "The Other Side Of" Toyah Willcox. Long may you run!

TOYAH: Thank you! 

You can listen to the interview HERE