HEREFORD & WORCESTER
WITH TAMMY GOODING
14.8.2021
She has some fantastic new material out and she's been very busy in lockdown making music and videos and her Sunday Lunch series as well so we had lots to talk about. So off I went to Pershore and had a lovely, beautiful morning in her garden. Hello!
TOYAH: Hello!
TAMMY: I'm sat in your garden!
TOYAH: On a beautiful day!
TAMMY: Oh, it's glorious. The sun is shining and I feel as I've stepped into some kind of haven. The vibe here ... it's absolutely beautiful. It's like a little garden of Eden
TOYAH: Well, this is one of the oldest streets in the UK. It's one the longest Georgian streets in the UK, so the building on this street started - well, they would've been wooden huts and fishermans's huts here from day zero but the real building as we know it started in the mid 1500's so that's an incredible history. This has been through the reformation, everything
TAMMY: Good Lord! If these walls could talk, eh?
TOYAH: Well, yeah! I'm glad they don't! (they both laugh)
TAMMY: Yeah, they'd be on all night wouldn't they?
TOYAH: Yeah!
TAMMY: This place - you're a rockstar - you could live anywhere in the world, and here you are in Pershore. I can see why now - stepping into this beautiful home and thank you again for inviting us but what is it about this place? Why were you drawn to Pershore? Why do you stay here? You could be anywhere!
TOYAH: When I was born my parents had a boat at Wyre Milll Club, which is local to where we are now. They had a caravan as well and my happy times were down at Wyre Mill Club, which is part of Wyre, the village.
Every weekend we would leave King's Heath, Birmingham, Friday night - I can remember my mother (Barbara, below with Toyah) bundling me up in a blanket, putting me down in the back seat of her Triumph Herald and driving me down what was the M5 then - which I'm sure was a single road because I'm 63 ... and arriving asleep, waking up in the morning on the boat in this beautiful surrounding.
And where we are now, which is the next town along, was a tearoom. My home used to be a tearoom owned by the Squires sisters and I bring that up because they're still very present in the house and my mother used to bring me here for tea.
So I've been coming here all my life. Now, I don't remember coming here when I was one, two, three years old but I still have the little boots I wore when my mother brought me here and they're now on the mantelpiece in the living room.
TOYAH: Well, that's very interesting of you to say that because we got here out of such painful circumstances. We had an incident in my life where we had to leave home and that was the murder of Jill Dando. Very very painful, awful excruciating exprience where I was told never to go back to where we lived and this was a whole sequence of events.
We lived in in Salisbury at that time and the community were very kind and very supportive but we ended up living too far away. We lived in Dorset and I had to commute every day, sometimes to Manchester, sometimes to London and I was holidaying in Wyre where I have two properties. One was for my parents and one was for me as a bolt-hole when I couldn't do all that travelling so I could be near these towns I had to be near as a travelling actress. And my father said there's a For Sale sign on the river and he took me and my husband down by boat on the Avon to the end of this garden and he said "look, that's for sale".
And my husband and I said let's go and be nosey, let's just go look around it. We had no intention of buying. And we literally walked in to view the property and I burst into tears and my husband went very quiet because we knew this was our home. We just knew and yet we'd just been through this unbelieveably difficult process of upping roots, having a secure home somewhere else, knowing that I could not function as an actress and singer from that address with the amount of travel I do.
When we left the viewing of this house ... I was just absolutely broken and I said "you can not talk about that property ever again because I don't know what we're going to do" and two months later he was in America and I phoned him and I said "something's going on in New York, something's going on with the Twin Towers and I just don't know if you're going to get home" and he said "oh, I hope I get home because I've just bought this house".
And that's how I found out he bought it! And again we were in a situation of incredible grief about an event and just thinking how are we going to make this work? And within two months we were living here and it's been the greatest 20 years of our lives in every aspect. In our careers, in our home life, in our social life, we came home.
TAMMMY: Wow! That's beautiful. What an amazing story. You talked about a vibe here as well and we've talked about the history place but there is something about it, isn't there?
TOYAH: It’s a very lively house but the town is known for being incredibly haunted. There’s houses on this street that no-one will go in. That workmen won't go in. We're not quite that bad but there is one particular house that is renowned for workmen not going in there.
Of course it's going to be lively, it’s seen so much, it used to have the most powerful monastery and the most powerful nunnery ever in history of Christianity. It was the main coach swapping post for the trip from London to Bristol. So the Angel Inn here was the biggest coaching house in the UK at the time. It's got amazing history that the Roundheads came into battle in the fields across the river for the Battle of Worcester. It is inevitable that there is going to be something going on here.
TAMMY: A wonderful space for entertaining. All I can see is just greenery and beautiful flowers. It's a stunning garden! A great place for entertaining. You must've smuggled a few famous faces down the river or round the back?
TOYAH: Yes, we have - and by the way we have two very wonderful gardeners - I'm not responsible for this
TAMMY: I was going to say! Where do you get the time? (laughs)
TOYAH: Funny enough American superstars can walk in. They come in off the street, even their tour buses can park outside and no one would bat an eyelid. We have smuggled people in who have more secret lives. But the one person that stopped Pershore functioning with Keith Lemon (comedian Leigh Francis as Keith Lemon, above, stepping out of Toyah's front door during the filming of "Through The Keyhole" in 2014. Watch it here).
Keith Lemon was filming here and he went out the front door to get some cash (from) what was the bank next door and literally within 5 minutes there was 500 people on the street and traffic couldn't get through. And they wouldn't leave untilthey saw him.
So we've had world superstars here that no one has batted an eyelid at. We've taken them to dinner at the Angel, we've taken them to the restaurant, on the balcony opposite us. It's amazing how people do not believe they're seeing a world superstar, yet if they see someone who's on their telly every Saturday they go crazy.
TAMMY: I love that story. That's great, isn't it? (laughs) Which kind of brings us to music making in this place. Your neighbours must be very lucky because from time to time occasionally maybe the sound of your music making with Robert might just spill out into the garden. I've absolutely loved looking at your "Sunday Lunch" lockdown shenanigans.
For those people who are not familiar with them and haven't seen them yet, and let’s face it a lot of people have, tell us the story about how they came about, where the idea came from?
TOYAH: It started in lockdown, and I was concerned that my husband wasn't moving enough because there was something about being told we were in lockdown that seemed to stop that effort of wanting to get up and go for walks and moving and it's ridiculous in a house like this, in a garden like this that you don't move.
My husband said he just went into a deep meditative state to write a book while I argue the point here though that you'd still have to move and the first film we posted was me teaching him to jive to Bill Hailey’s “Rock Around The Clock” and I realised that this world famous guitarist could not tell his left foot from his right.
When we posted this and it was a 30 second video - within 5 minutes we had 100,000 views. Most of the replies were from Japan, the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia. People saying thank you, we've made their day. So we started to post every Sunday. And we built and built and then last January we hit 40 million views, which is extraordinary
TAMMY: Wow! Congratulations
TOYAH: Thank you and at that point we realised it was rock music as well as us being a couple that was the magic ingredient. We've done it ever since and we will continue to do it. Presently my husband is in America for three months but we've pre-filmed an awful lot and we're trying out new formats and once he's back in the UK we will go back to the Sunday Lunch format
TAMMY: They are brilliant and I must mention a few of the things that you've done, and I'm wondering how you've chosen the likes of Britney and “Toxic” -
TOYAH: Oh well, that was easy. Britney, we wanted to support her, get out of her father's custody.
TAMMY: You've always used your platform to have something to say. We will talk about that in a minute. Black Sabbath, “Paranoid” … it looks like you're in a vault or a panic room or a jail. Where did you find these locations in lockdown?
TOYAH: We own two houses, one was Barclays Bank, and that's now our offices. It's also my green screen studio. I have to do an awful lot of green screen shoots for America and for here and when I audition for the movies, I do that in the green screen studio and then I'm directly in contact with the producers and the directors in LA.
So next door has two bank vaults and on last Halloween I said to my husband let's do Black Sabbath "Paranoid" and I covered him in false tattoos. But both these houses have five floors. We have underground tunnels, underground basements, we have attics. They are huge houses, they're TARDIS. You can't guess from the street how big they are.
TAMMY: Wow, incredible. I'll mention a few of the others here. Motörhead, "Ace of Spades". The wind in your hair! The deck of cards! What's lovely about it is and I shouldn't be surprised - because of course you are an actress and a singer - is that theatrical nature of it all.
The costumes are incredible. I mean weird, wacky, wonderful, captivating. The confidence - you so engaging with the camera. You must have had a lot of fun making those?
TOYAH: They were a lot of fun, a bit stressful with a husband who hates being filmed ...
TAMMY: Under duress, was he?
TOYAH: He hates being filmed. He hates being photographed. What drew him in 100% in the end was that we were getting so many positive responses from people whose lives were supported by it, just on an emotional level - that you had two people that are perceived as stars acting as idiots in their kitchen and it really helped people and it was something for them to look forward to. It was a bit of a battle in the beginning but it also allowed my husband to study other band’s music.
He doesn't play in their tuning to start with, their standard E tuning, which is rock tuning. My husband plays in cello tuning - just to make life more difficult. And he's very rarely plays in 4/4 tuning and eventually he got enticed into it by learning other artist’s time signatures. But also I think he really enjoyed what I was getting up to.
I've made, I think Wikipedia says I've made ten movies - I've actually been in at least 40. I'm partly producing some of them, so it's very much my background, but I've not been in big blockbusters. I've been in Brit flick hits like "Quadrophenia". I've got three out this week. I've got "To Be Someone", "Give Them Wings" and "In Extremis" is being re released. Oh and "The Ghost Of Borley Rectory" (Toyah as estelle Roberts, above), which I've just been nominated for a Best Supporting Actor for, so I'm very, very present in British film but they're not high profile, and that gives me great experience in front of the camera.
TAMMY: I've loved them. Genuinely- the Sunday Lunches. Go and have a look and you will be blown away because having watched them I've got two questions before we move onto the new album. Number one - have you had any feedback from the people? Who's said "you did my song my song and I loved it"?
TOYAH: Every bit of feedback I've had has been absolutely joyous but when I had to witness Alice Cooper watch it in real time I was so embarrassed because I love Alice Cooper to the moon and back and he's made so much possible for me confidence wise within music and I love the fact that he's theatre and music.
And he was shown it by his band. And they were all laughing and I was so embarrassed. And that was the only time I watched what we did. We did "Poison" and I watched it and I thought I'm a 63 year old woman dressed as a nurse. Is it right?
TAMMY: It really was! It was great! (laughs)
TOYAH: Judas Priest actually thanked us, and they thanked us beautifully. They said they’re about to tour. We did - I think it was “Get Out Of Jail”. They just said thank you so much. It did so much good for the tour. And then a lovely one was Robert Plant, who is local, I mean Kidderminster. He texted "that was a whole lotta laughs". We got to know Robert Plant in lockdown because I'm about star in a movie I wanted him to play my love interest in and we still still trying to persuade him.
TAMMY: Come on, Robert, if you're listening, what's the matter with you?!
TOYAH: He's such a good actor. I'm due to start filming that in October. So we've made beautiful connections to the artists through doing this.
TAMMY: I had a lightbulb moment having watched those, having listened to a couple of tracks on the new album, and then reflected on your back catalogue. And I think it's something I hadn't really thought about before, which is a bit stupid ... Björk, Billie Eilish, Florence And The Machine, Gwen Stefani, PJ Harvey, they all listened to you ...
That swagger, that you've got that unconventional, "I'm being me" kind of female attitude. I'm sure they must have watched you back in the day. Have you ever heard from any folk like that?
TOYAH: I think with the list you've given, which is one of my favourite lists of female performers in the world, it would have been subconscious to them. And I say that because I've just not been given what I deserve in the world press for the last 40 years.
All that's changing, because my back catalogue is now owned by a label called Cherry Red and they're re-releasing and they're absolutely staggered at the numbers that are selling and I've got my first chart placing. December my first album made 40 years ago "Sheep Farming In Barnet" (went in) straight in in the Top 30, "Blue Meaning" in May - straight into the Top 30, the pre-sales on "Posh Pop" my new album - I'm now Amazon's top selling pre-sale artist.
So that's all changing. And that started when Shirley Manson of Garbage wrote an open letter exactly a year ago, to her following, which must be in the millions, saying "I put my hand up and say I have never given Toyah credit for doing what I do". And she used the very feminist term, but she said that I nurtured her into music. And then Miley Cyrus last week tweeted to her 147 million people that I'm a legend. I mean, that makes a difference in your life.
TAMMY: Significantly so yes, because, you know, if we rewind back to 1980, we didn't have that platform, did we? That social media platform in order to say things like that, in order to - you could've not done the Sunday Lunch thing (below) in the same way so -
TOYAH: Glorious thing about social media, and we must not give power to the trolls - the most glorious thing about social media is we are now totally connected. And that brings an incredible honesty. And it should remain honesty. And we should always point out the propaganda and the lies. And this is what social media can do.
When I came into the industry, and I hate using this term, but history was always being rewritten by the privileged. This is why Bristol history wasn't at the forefront. This is why history in Worcester wasn't at the forefront, history of Birmingham. And now because of social media, every cultural group, every biological group, every trans group can now have their moment. And this is how we're going to get to equality
TAMMY: That leads onto the album. By the way, if you can hear a bird fluttering around -
TOYAH: It's a huge pigeon living in our rain drain, which is on the roof, and it's so vocal and it's really having a wonderful time building a nest up there
TAMMY: You must see all sorts in a garden like this because you know, near water, all of this greenery - I mean it's huge, it's stunning
TOYAH: We've got an otter
TAMMY: An otter?!
TOYAH: Yes. Very rarely sighted. We've got too many mink. You know, that's the problem where you've got water. We've even have Muntjac deer that we think got washed up on this side in the last flood. So that dear little Muntjac is no more than 12 inches high by about 11 inches. It's having a wonderful time in this garden. What else? ... Oh, we've got a wonderful fox with its cubs. They're such cheeky fat little things, come right up to the back door. We have winery, they go in there and eat the tomatoes.
TAMMY: You've got real compassion and you sound like you love nature and you love your garden and you love where you are. Interestingly the last time we met before all of the lockdown a little while ago, you came into the studio and you talked to me about your lifestyle ... because you you look fantastic. Please take that as a compliment as intended. And you inspired me - I'm now vegetarian.
TOYAH: Yes!
TAMMY: How about that thing?
TOYAH: That's amazing!
TAMMY: It inspired me!
TOYAH: Is it difficult?
TAMMY: No! I tried vegan but really missed cheese but I don't actually drink dairy milk anymore and stuff like that, but yeah, I'm vegetarian now!
TOYAH: Well done!
TAMMY: It's all your fault!
TOYAH: I think that's brilliant, but I think there's something - you're a lot younger than me, a lot younger, good 20 odd years younger than me, but I think there's something about my age group and I'm 63, where I think it's really important that you eat fresh fruit and vegetables as a priority over everything else. Yesterday I tried in our local Tesco, I saw something on the shelf which was vegetarian ham and I tried it ... It was it was .... vile. Vile.
TAMMY: I'm not doing ... I suppose if you're not going to eat meat why eat pretend meat?
TOYAH: It's good route to start eating less meat
TAMMY: True. That's true
TAMMY: (laughs) Brilliant. Let's talk about the new album "Posh Pop". I've got down here the 27th of August. Is that about right?
TOYAH: 27th of August ... "Levitate" the first single is already out. "Zoom Zoom" is the next single. “Posh Pop”was written here, but also recorded and half written in Chipping Norton. What I did in lockdown I have a long time writing partner called Simon Darlow. He's the author of Grace Jones’ “Slave To The Rhythm”
TAMMY: Oh, I love that song!
TOYAH: He wrote for Dollar. He's also one of the authors on “Video Killed The Radio Star” so great pedigree, super pedigree and we've been writing and working together since I was 18 and he was 17. So we’ve known each other a long time. We created a pod so I regularly tested and he was able to regularly test which meant I could go to Chipping Norton and record in his outhouse. We, over period of six months, wrote 10 songs.
"Levitate", the first single is already out. "Zoom Zoom" is scheduled - that's the next single. There was something about the silence of the world that didn't distract us that we could use and get on with it and then when the 10 songs were completed I, with a very gorgeous local man called Carlo Marshall, created 10 videos within the house. And the idea of making the videos within the house is to say creativity is on every level.
There was something about the silence of the world that didn't distract us that we could use and get on with it and then when the 10 songs were completed I, with a very gorgeous local man called Carlo Marshall, created 10 videos within the house. And the idea of making the videos within the house is to say creativity is on every level.
So with a modern iPhone we shot everything and we shot everything in High Definition. My message is, because MTV is saying that these are too basic to show on MTV, and my argument is if you support creativity in a world like today, where that gap is getting larger between those who have not and those who have, you're missing the message of this video album because it's also coming as CD and a video album in the same package.
Every outfit I'm wearing is from a charity shop either here or in Norwhich where I have someone search for my clothes. No more than £10. Everything is recycled. We used everything we have in the house and these are glorious looking videos
TAMMY: They are!
TOYAH: And it's become a bit of a political issue in the industry and people like me who are cult and I'm not actually a world superstar ... even though that seems to be changing quite rapidly (they both laugh) but the idea is the creativity can start in the home and let's face it, some of the Grand Masters, the Dutch Grand Masters you see in museums were created by pregnant women in the 1700's in Holland while they were making the food for the family or breastfeeding.
This is another part of history that needs to be addressed that creativity starts as soon as you're born. And with these videos the message is I made every video for a budget of £500, they look glorious and the messages are really hard hitting. They're really hard hitting and people who've seen them just said "Oh my goodness! How have you done that!?"
TAMMY: I want to talk about "Levitate".
TOYAH: Yes
TAMMY: For me it starts off ... ethereal almost and then as it grows, it's like punky rock dance -
TOYAH: (that) Is correct
TAMMY: Is that right?
TOYAH: Yes
TAMMY: Because I could dance to that tune
TOYAH: That's exactly what we want
TAMMY: It's got a punky edge to it, it builds and builds and it goes like a train, doesn't it? I mean it's great. Tell me about "Leviate", the story behind the song?
TOYAH: "Levitate" is the first song we wrote for the album and we were still in lockdown. And we very much wanted something that consciously acknowledged everyone in a one bedroom apartment on their own. And the idea being that here comes out of lockdown. So let's just lift ourselves out of this, and physically just levitate above it all. See it for what it, is learn by it.
And people call me a revolutionary, but I'm still a pupil, I'm still learning and what I was revolutionary about 40 years ago is very different to what needs to be taught to me today and what I need to learn today. It's a new world, a completely new world because of lockdown. So in "Levitate" I'm just saying let us all rise above this together, recognise everything that we now have the power to change and the power to acknowledge.
And it is supposed to be dance, and the energy and the anger probably comes from my husband's astonishing guitar playing. We brought him in once a week, handed him a chord chart, because he's a great improviser of music. And within three takes he'd got it. So he was in the studio for no more than half an hour, hour each week. We said to him "do whatever you want" ... he just added this incredible energy and anger and comment
TAMMY: That's incredible though ... because working with your husband ...
TOYAH: The most difficult man in the world -
TAMMY: However if anyone can get away saying "I don't want that" or he can say to you "no, don't do that" - you've got that relationship. You're not tiptoening around each other -
TOYAH: We do not tiptoe around
TAMMY: I had a feeling that would be the case (Tammy laughs) Good for you! We're gonna play "Levitate" and then when we come back we're going to talk some more ... ("Levitate" plays)
TAMMY: I am sipping black Early Grey tea ...
TOYAH: Yeah, because I don't have milk in the house
TAMMY: It's fine. It tastes divine. Thank you ... in a beautiful ... is it china?
TOYAH: I imagine so, bought from a local shop which we love
TAMMY: You love your High Street don't you?
TOYAH: I love it
TAMMY: You do and it's got bees on it and a lovely gold handle. I'm sat here in the sunshine and effectively what I suppose is a kind of ... we've come from a little cobbled area into this lovely courtyard. And then beyond, I mean, just garden and garden. It just looks like levels and layers of garden ... I just don't know how much there must be there. It's magnificent!
TOYAH: In feet, it could possibly be as much as 500 feet
TAMMY: Good Lord!
TOYAH: It goes down to the river and what's so clever about this High Street - we're one of the first houses built as a solid house on this High Street. They picked the highest place on the High Street. We are 15 feet above the river Avon and and the gradient is so subtle. You can't see it and then the coaching driveway to the High Street - because this was made for coach and horses - goes right down, it dips down by two feet which meant if the floodwater ever came up to the house it would go right through to the High Street first
TAMMY: That's smart, isn't it?
TOYAH: They knew
TAMMY: We have a lot to learn from them when we look at everything else that's modern and flooding
TOYAH: They absolutely knew that you have to create gradients to protect houses
TAMMY: We've been talking about your new album "Posp Pop". You can get the vinyl, you can get the CD and DVD package with ten music videos on which we talked about just now. I'd like to talk about "Zoom Zoom". Because we've all been Zooming, haven't we?
TOYAH: Yes. Simon Darlow, my co-writer is very high up with a music company called PRS, which you will know about - collects royalties for artists. During us making the album he kept having to break away to have Zoom calls with as many as 50 people at a time and it's a group of composers that are making sure that we all get our royalties and he turned to me and he just said "if I have to do another zoom zoom ... aaaahhh! There's the song "Zoom Zoom"!"
He said we're going write us song called "Zoom Zoom" and you just think why hasn't anyone done that already because it's so beautiful to say. So we set about writing a lyric that was about young people's revolution with their iPhones and the power they have with their iPhones.
So the first lyric is “do you want to start a revolution? You can do it in your bedroom”, which is true, we can, but then we reflect back and I’ve juxtaposed 1973 over the last 15 months and I go back to Studio 54 in the lyrics “Hunter in the night has his eye on you.” So that means predatory people watching what we put on social media, but also predatory people on the street.
So “Zoom Zoom” is a very clever pop song with a kind of flavour of Talking Heads political attitude, it’s social comment on my generation saying to the younger generation you have more power than you know, don't waste it on a beach having a holiday.
TAMMY: Social commentary. Political commentary. You use your lyrics in your platform. You will always got something to say. And as you said earlier, you feel like you're always learning. I think that's very grounded. As someone who was met all these people and done so much over the years ... We were afraid to tap your door, but we did. We came in and you couldn't have made us more welcome, more at home. (Tammy with Toyah in her garden, below) Cup of tea, have a biscuit and I just wanna thank you for that and for staying true to who you are.
TOYAH: Thank you very much
TAMMY: You haven't got lost in any of it, have you?
TOYAH: Well, that's partly why we live here. We have lived in stately homes and it was very difficult and interestingly the people who felt they should be living in stately homes made it very hard for us to live in a stately home
TAMMY: Really?
TAMMY: I think we should go out on "Zoom Zoom" and thank you so so very much for your time. We're just outside of your kitchen here by the way and as I look in it looks rather splendid. It looks like a kitchen that you enjoy using. Are you a cook or is it always Robert the cook?
TOYAH: The only complaint I have about the last 15 months is preparing lunch every day. I do not like being in the kitchen. I think that's why I turned it into the worldwide event it became. This kitchen needs to become about music. Otherwise I'm just going to hate it forever. I would like to just flag up Pershore Plum Festival if it can go ahead -
TAMMY: Of course
TOYAH: Because this town deserves to be visited and loved. It's a great destination town
TAMMY: Toyah, it's been a joy! "Posh Pop" 27th of August is the brand new album, check out the single "Levitate" that's out now. We're going to play the next one "Zoom Zoom" and look out for more of those Sunday Lunch events
TOYAH: There's lots going on Toyah YouTube. You can see me learning Jimmy Hendrix on guitar. You can see my travel diaries. You can see Robert sending his travel diaries from Florida at the moment. It's a continual living platform
TAMMY: Here's to the rise and rise of Toyah I say! Thank you. You've been a gracious host. Thank you so much
TOYAH: Pleasure
You can listen to the interview HERE
posted by ©Min2024 at August 15, 2021
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