TOYAH ON
BBC RADIO SOLENT
WITH ALEX DYKE
23.5.2019 

 

ALEX: Hello, Toyah!

TOYAH: How are you, Alex?

ALEX: I'm alright. How are you?

TOYAH: Really good, thank you

ALEX: You're at Theatre Royal Winchester on Sunday the 26th of May. 40 years in the business. You don't look old enough!

TOYAH: Well, I don't feel old enough (laughs) Life is very good at the moment so I feel exactly the same I did forty years ago

ALEX: This is the Greatest Hits you're doing on Sunday and some back catalogue. It's your full electric band and you're just celebrating 40 years of being in the business?

TOYAH: It's inevitable it's going to be Greatest Hits because I've released in my career 28 albums and I've got to cherry-pick from this catalogue what we're going to be playing so virtually every song is a single

I had a new album out in April called "In The Court Of The Crimson Queen", which is still doing incredibly well. It charted so we are going to be featuring that as well

So my shows are fun, they're high energy and there's a little bit of storytelling. With the electric band our aim is to get the audience on their feet having a really lovely time, enjoying good rock music that they can dance to and usually they're singing along as well

ALEX: I've seen you loads of times and I know it's a great show. So it's forty years so that's 1979. I remember you first with the EP "Four From Toyah" with "It's A Mystery", which I guess was early '81. You were doing "Minder" and quite a lot of acting so what were you doing in '79 and 80' just before you broke through on Top Of The Pops?

TOYAH: Whoo! (laughs) That is such a big question! I was filming with Katharine Hepburn in a film called "The Corn Is Green", which was directed by the legendary director George Cukor. I then went straight on to do "Quadrophenia", which is 40 years old this year

So we're doing a lot of celebratory filming this year of that. I was also touring my band endlessly and in 78',79' and 80'. You had the first Indie Chart, which was available in The New Musical Express, the biggest music paper at the time. I was number one in those charts every week for two years even though I didn't have national success - the success that was going to come in '81 …

I was phenomenally successful on a kind of underground cult level. Filling venues, touring all the time, charting. I had an album out in 80' called "Blue Meaning", which went straight to number 2 in the album charts

But back then you didn't get radio coverage if you were an album selling artist so I was enjoying wonderful success. It's probably one of the happiest times of my life because everything had a "Midas touch" to it – my acting and my music. I had no idea what was about to come in 1981. It was a lovely time of innocence and joy with everything doing really well

ALEX: I have to rewind there, just a couple of things I want to pick up on. First of all - I would imagine Katherine Hepburn was a lovely lady. Did you sit down, get down time, get Hollywood stories from her?

TOYAH: Yes, she was a very generous person. Not only did I get down time with her, my father turned up on the film set unannounced! He was hiding on the set to watch his film idol Katharine Hepburn and she found him! She said "who are you and what are you doing here?" and he said "I'm Toyah's father". She stopped filming and took him to lunch!

She was just the most extraordinary woman. She would talk to me a lot about whoever I asked about. Her main influence and the big love of her life was Spencer Tracy. She wore his clothes every day and he had been long gone by 1979. But she would often just say "this is Spencer's jumper, this is Spencer's trousers" (laughs) and she was still very connected to him

She was a very generous actress to work with. She allowed me close-ups, she would allow me to sit in her dressing room while her make-up was being done and we'd talk. I worked with John Mills, I worked with Laurence Olivier. Even Diana Dors and they were all true stars. Today, as stars tend to be very real or reality based, these were people who were built by the Hollywood system and they were phenomenal. They were very different and I'm so glad I met them

ALEX: Well, I can't think many things cooler than hanging out with Katharine Hepburn being told one on one Spencer Tracy stories. And then Diana Dors! What did you work with her on?

TOYAH: I really have to pull this out of my my memory banks ... I did a lot of historical dramas for the BBC during this time. I did "Jekyll & Hyde" with David Hemmings (above) and I did an another one - which I can't for the life of me remember the name of! Diana Dors was, I think, in "Jekyll & Hyde" with me. She was great!

Those days you'd have three months rehearsal for one of these drama series. When she came into the room she owned the room. It was “Hello, darlings! How are you?” Everyone was included, the conversation was loud and brash and the stories were legendary - kind of 1960's London

But of course she worked and had a fling with Elvis Presley so she branched right across to Hollywood and back. Her stories were rich in this vein of 1960's rock culture. She was electrifying

ALEX: I could talk to you all day! Sunday, 26th of May, Theatre Royal Winchester, the 40th anniversary of the wonderful Toyah. You'll get just a great show with loads of costume changes and Toyah looking gorgeous and being fantastic!

TOYAH: Can I tell you my Winchester story really quickly?

ALEX: Yes!

TOYAH: I did "Taming Of The Shrew" at Theatre Royal in August 1990. I was about to go on stage for the very last speech. It's a very big speech for "Kate" and the stage door, which is right at the back of the stage, opened and a fan grabbed me and pulled me onto the street for an autograph! (They both laugh)

I was in shock! I didn't know what to do! Everyone was waiting on stage for me in the big banquet scene and I was going "oh gosh, help help!"

ALEX: Oh, no! But did you make it just in the nick of time?

TOYAH: Yes, I ran back on stage looking incredulous and everyone thought I was delivering the speech in a different way! They thought "oh, she's going at this differently tonight". The look on my face was I've almost been shut out of the theatre!

ALEX: Toyah, thank you so much and have a great night at the Theatre Royal Winchester Sunday night!

TOYAH: Thank you so much!