TOYAH ON
BBC RADIO YORK
WITH ADAM TOMLINSON
21.1.2020

ADAM TOMLINSON: Toyah Willcox has had eight Top 8 singles, released over 20 albums, written two books, appeared in over 40 stage plays and ten feature films and voiced and presented numerous TV shows. She's appeared in "Shoestring", "Minder", "French & Saunders" and Dr Who (Note: She hasn't) 

She's appeared at the National Theatre and the Royal Court Theatre and has acted alongside Katharine Hepburn and Laurence Olivier for goodness sake! Brilliant! I'm delighted to say that Toyah is on tour. She's coming to Selby Town Hall next month and she's with me on the line. Hello!

TOYAH: (On the phone) Hello! How are you?

ADAM: I'm alright! How are you?

TOYAH: I'm very good. That's one of the nicest introductions I've ever had

ADAM: (laughs) Jolly good! Can you believe it's 40 odd years! It's ridiculous, isn't it?

TOYAH: I'm in my 60's now. Time goes so quickly. You can't hold onto anything. It's like where is it going? Every day feels about two hours long

ADAM: Yeah. How do you look back on it?

TOYAH: Oh! I don't! (Adam laughs) The only reason is there is a lot going on and the last decades have just been unbelievable because of the resurgence of 80s music. I've been charting with new music as well. I had an album out last year called "In The Court Of The Crimson Queen" that went straight into the Top 3

In the last two weeks I've just announced a box set of solo albums called "Toyah Solo" (which) went to number one and number two consecutively in the Amazon pre-order chart so I'm dealing with all of that. It's very busy and I'm loving every moment 

ADAM: From my introduction, Toyah - the singles, the albums, the books, the stage plays, the feature films, the TV stuff … Were you one of those children that just wanted to perform?

TOYAH: Yes. I'm very small physically and I think that's added to the fact that I've got quite a big performance personality and it's my way of being seen. There's no point in me going to a pub or the audience in a rock venue because I just get elbows in my face so part of what I am is to do with my physical stature and it's just this determination to be seen

ADAM: Were you from a family of performers then?

TOYAH: My mother was a dancer. She retired at 19 and to put that into perspective she was 12 when World War II broke out and she was very dispossessed by that experience. She got moved out of London. I think she lost her mother. It's very painful memories for her as a child

So as soon as she met my father - who was, what was called back then a "stage door Johnny", who followed her around – she got married as quickly as she could and had children. I don't think it was the best choice for her. She was definitely meant to remain performing. My mother was a very frustrated performer and I don't think she had very happy memories of being a mother 

ADAM: Did she support you though, when she realised you'd got the performing bug and theatricality about you?

TOYAH: Not demonstrably. She was the complete opposite but I think that's because her life was so hard. I didn't really get support until I had major success. Then possibly it wasn't the right kind of support. It was "you've got to do well so that we have respect" and that's that generation. So I think that they found me very uncontrollable

ADAM: You're a performer, you always wanted to perform. Your resume is quite simply a "who's who" of great places to perform and right across the board. Be it in the recording studio, be it on television, on stage, in feature films, even writing books … 

You mentioned the latest album, which is a coming together of all the music from the 80s. You were in exactly the right place at the right time. The punk rock movement was on the rise and gathering steam. Was that a great time for you as a performer?

TOYAH: Oh, it was amazing. Punk rock for me was the doorway into show business at a time when women traditionally had to be a of a certain physical type. Very model like, very feminine, very very beautiful. Like Farrah Fawcett-Majors. So punk came along and it was like a tidal wave for me. It allowed women of all shapes and sizes, all classes to just come forward with their ideas and be seen and heard

It was a very magical time for me and then of course I worked with the best. I worked with Olivier, Sir John Mills, Katharine Hepburn and I got the music going as well so it was very exciting. A great time of change. But obviously here we are 40 years onwards and yet again technology has made the industry completely different so I think the show business is a very hard thing to pin down

It's very fluid, it just keeps moving and keeps changing radically. The box set I've got coming out on the 28th of February is actually music from the late 80s right trough to present day. It's all my solo albums and it's proven very popular

ADAM: You mentioned Laurence Olivier, Katharine Hepburn (below with Toyah in "The Corn Is Green", 1979), Sir John Mills. You're not the first person to make that break from the world of music into the world of theatre

And you're probably one of those ones that make you sit up and think hang on a minute, what's going on here? Yes, she can actually do it. She can actually hack it. What was it like working with those people, who were and still are icons of theatre and screen?

TOYAH: Oh, they definitely were different. They definitely shone. They were remarkable people. I mean Katharne Hepburn - not only a five Oscar winning woman but a woman who really had to fight for her identity and her place. She broke the mold. She wasn't particularly feminine

I thought she was stunningly beautiful but you've got to remember she was up against Monroe, Joan Crawford, Bette Davies. These incredible talents who really had to fight, almost on a feminist level, for what they did. These people were very different. They definitely had power

ADAM: Did you see some of yourself in her?

TOYAH: Well, she saw herself in me, which I thought was very generous. I always felt utterly unique, purely again because of this physical stature. I'm also severely dyslexic and I'm starting to admit there's kind of autism spectrum for me

Now that we know more about it, my obsession with my work, I think, has held me apart from everyone in a way I've never quite understood. So did I see some of myself in Katharine? No, not at all because I've spent 40 years trying to work out who and what I am and why do I do what I do

ADAM: Well, you do what you do very well. You're bringing it to Selby Town Hall in a few weeks time. It's sold out. Do you enjoy the whole thing of getting out on the road and touring?

TOYAH: I've done it endlessly for 20 years since the massive resurgence of 80s music. Do I enjoy it? I love the show we're bringing to Selby Town Hall. It's acoustic rock. It's as loud as you want it to be and it's as quiet as you want it to be. We don't have this huge amplified amount of drums, which increasingly drives me crazy as a rock singer

So it's going to be a lively comfortable show with lots of fun stories and great music. That I really enjoy, I love it. It allows me to sing and not be drowned out by manic drumming

ADAM: Tell us about the guitarists Chris Wong and Colin Hinds?

TOYAH: For Selby we've got Chris Wong who's my MD (below on the left) He's playing acoustic and electric guitar. We've got Mike Nicholls on bass and double bass, which is just beautiful. We've got John Humphrey on percussion and snare (below at the back). And we've got Andy Doble (below on the right) on keyboards. Selby has a grand piano in the building he'll be playing that as well. So it's very cinematic. There's a broad spectrum of harmony and stuff like that. We all sing. So that's the theme for Selby

ADAM: I'm just looking at the hits you're going to be performing … "It's A Mystery", "Thunder In The Mountains", "I Want To Be Free" right through to "Sensational". With these stripped down to the basic acoustic versions we'll really get the idea of what the words are about and the melody is going to come through. There's something wonderful about stripping things back …

TOYAH: I love. I absolutely love it. We started doing this about 5-6 years ago and every show has sold out. For me, as I write the music as well, you realise they're good songs because they can survive being stripped down. Then you've got other musicians around you who are creating harmonies and the song just grows into another dimension. It's a really lovely experience 

ADAM: So what have you got planned when this is all finished?

TOYAH: I'm doing this until December (both laugh) I'm still trying to finish a movie in Darlington called "Give Them Wings", which I've been working on since the beginning of November. It's based on a real life human being called Paul Hodgson, who's paraplegic from having childhood meningitis and it's his life story. I play his mother. So we've been filming in Darlington all that time. I've got one more scene to finish and it's a remarkable film. So it's ridiculously busy

ADAM: Toyah, thanks ever so much. Lovely to talk to you. Hope you have a fabulous time when you get to Selby