TOYAH ON
BBC RADIO 2
WITH STEVE WRIGHT
24.8.2021

STEVE: Toyah is in that rare category of only needing her first name to know who we're talking about. She's a British pop icon, actor and a broadcaster with a career covering more than 40 years. Her last album of new material “In The Court Of The Crimson Queen” came out in 2008, and last year she reissued some of her acclaimed early albums. But now she's back with new music.

Her album, “Posh Pop” comes out this Friday. It's 10 new songs that feature the guitar work of husband Robert Fripp from prog rock legends, King Crimson. He was only given a chord sheet and told to do whatever he felt like. Well, that's some kind of privilege by being your man. He can do what he likes.

TOYAH: Thank you so much! What a wonderful introduction. With Robert he wanted the freedom to just play in the moment and he's a good enough musician that he doesn't have to rehearse beforehand, especially a pop album. He came in for half an hour one day a week, we handed him the code chart and he blew us away.

STEVE: He’s sensational, isn’t he, really? Here’s a thing about your good self - you been round quite a time and to still be doing it with the verve and the enthusiasm and the musicality that you do it with and that's on top of being a known actress ... how do you do it?

TOYAH: Well, you know we're in a great profession. It's just utterly enjoyable. Every single moment is so enjoyable. What happened during lockdown is all artists lost their audience and that started to get very scary and I have to perform. I completely identify with life through performance and I found myself needing to write songs and needing to make videos and God bless my mobile phone because I made 10 videos on it while making the album.

I just found that it was either an opportunity or nothing was going to happen. There was no middle ground. I started Toyah YouTube with "Toyah and Robert’s Sunday Lunch". 40 million visitors. The majority saying "thank you for making our Sundays. Thank you for making us laugh". The human life stories that came back to us were an inspiration from everyone who was working in the NHS, working in medicine around the world to those who are locked in single rooms with children and it just made us want to reach out and I think this is a human interest album.

It’s called “Posh Pop” for two reasons. One, Robert is playing on it and if he wasn't it would just be called pop (Steve laughs) ... Add Robert Fripp to something and it suddenly goes up a gear. Also, we wanted people to get back into their lives and dance and celebrate and be able to hug each other. And we wanted this album to be very very up and it’s pop songs.

STEVE: It’s pop songs, yeah. I mean, with your older hits, they were something not outside of pop, but beyond pop and you can hear some of that in these songs. It's definitely you.

TOYAH: Yeah, it's a shared rebellion because even though I think I've always stood outside of every genre, my audience - they know what I am and I’m still performing to 15,000 people at festivals. I also do small gigs to 200 people and every night is a riot.

So my audience knows my voice, they know my personality and even within “Posh Pop” we’re picking out things that we’re passionate about. A song like “The Bride Will Return” is … every bride missed their wedding for 16 months so how can I not write a song about the bride will return?

STEVE: It’s got a kind of a driving riff through it, a kind of underlay? Hasn't it really, that song?

TOYAH: I saw a clip about a bride in Beirut during a photo session when a warehouse blew up and this exquisitely beautiful bride, the photo caught the shock on her face. I went straight to my piano and started that tune and took it into the studio to my co-writer Simon Darlow and we just sat there in tears writing this song in honour of that bride.

STEVE: I always remember you being quite definite about what you wanted and the other thing I remember about you in those very early days was that you lived somewhere strange. I wasn't sure where it was. It might have been like a railway arch or something like that ...

TOYAH: It was a British Rail warehouse (Toyah in her office at "Mayhem", above). It was freezing!

STEVE: But it was handy for the train!

TOYAH: Very handy for the train. Every weekend Steve Strange would take it over and Boy George would turn up. Iggy Pop would turn up. We once had 400 people in this warehouse having a party for four days.

STEVE: I always thought that must be a great place to be.

TOYAH: There was just one small problem.

STEVE: What?

TOYAH: There was only one loo (Steve laughs)

STEVE: I know you're touring, in fact this Friday, Somerset, the Watchet Festival ...

TOYAH: Can’t wait!

STEVE: August 27th. Have you done any gigs yet?

TOYAH: Yeah! Non-stop festivals - I did five last week. It's so special, you could just kiss the stage (Steve laughs) and everyone is just so happy and it's rained non-stop for a month -

STEVE: Doesn’t matter -

TOYAH: Everyone’s really happy.

STEVE: Yeah. (Reads a list of upcoming gigs) You know, everywhere basically and then there's a thing, Toyah and Hazel O'Connor, Electric Ladies of The 80s tour dates, and that's in places like Buxton, Holmfirth, Gateshead, Manchester et cetera, et cetera. But that's June of next year, so we might mention that a little closer to the gig.

TOYAH: Thank you so much, we’re trying to fit in all of last year's gigs.

STEVE: You’re obviously acting still. When's your next TV or play?

TOYAH: Well, there all backed up, so I had “To Be Someone” out in cinemas last month. That was me, Lesley Ash, Mark Wingate. Some of the cast from “Quadrophenia”. My next movie is (at) Halloween and it's called “The Ghosts of Borley Rectory” (Toyah as Estelle Roberts, below), which is a true story and I'm fabulous in it (Steve laughs) and I'm the female lead.

STEVE: Yeah. I heard that, yeah

TOYAH: I’m the female lead in “Give Them Wings” which is due for distribution in the autumn.

STEVE: Tim (Smith, also in the studio), I know that you worked with Toyah in the past, up at Radio West Midlands.

TIM: Yeah long time ago we did a programme, you presented it, I produced it and I always remember the fact that we had to surprise you with Robert right at the end of the programme. So I'm liaising with Robert Fripp thinking “oh my God, I got Robert Fripp on the phone”, but a delightful man, as I'm sure you're well aware, we had quite a lot of fun actually doing that. Yeah, long time ago.

TOYAH: Well, you've always been fantastic to work with Tim, I adored being in your company.

STEVE: (sarcastically) Really?

TIM: You’re very kind .

STEVE: Yeah … you’re the only one.

TOYAH: I thought I’d get that in.

STEVE: Yeah, I can tell.
 
TIM: Tell Robert I played a lot of air guitar to this album, it’s brilliant stuff.

STEVE: Yeah, it's a great. It is really, really nice. It's great. Toyah’s new album “Posh Pop” is out on Friday. Good to talk to you again and hopefully next time we’ll see you. Stay safe and all of that.

TOYAH: Thank you so much. See you out there.

STEVE: Okay, see you out there. There she goes, it’s Toyah everybody!

You can listen to the interview HERE