TOYAH ON
BBC BREAKFAST TIME
WITH JOHN MOUNTFORD
AND SUE COOK
JUNE 1985

TOYAH: (Talks about Stonehenge) They're not going to go and chip it to pieces. The people that chip it to pieces are the school kids or the tourists and other nationalities who go there and see it

JOHN: Mind you, there was a lot of damage after last year's festival

TOYAH: But I bet that damage has happened throughout the year. I just don't believe that these people, who respect that place, are going to destroy it

JOHN: Do you think they really respected it that much?

TOYAH: Yes, I do

JOHN: Do you think they're sincere in their beliefs?

TOYAH: Yeah, because I used to be part of a team of people like that who would go out of their way, no matter how little money we had - we used to go out of our way to go there. It's a special occasion, and it's a group occasion where you get together on a very special day

Later in the show:

SUE COOK: Energy is the right word. You've got amazing energy

TOYAH: Oh, yes. I like to train a lot, and I think diet is very important. I was brought up on a good British diet of fried bacon and things like that. Yuck! Poo! Now I'm vegetarian purely because I feel better when I eat vegetarian food, which is quite strange

I live off fruit. Fruit is my main diet, and rice. I find, on occasions when I eat meat, I slow down. It changes me radically. But I'm sure it's very different for other people, because when my old man doesn't eat meat, he's not very well. He must need it

But I'm just very conscious about energy levels and things like that, and I think the way you live and your lifestyle can help you


Later in the show:

TOYAH: (Talking about not having kids) I want a past I can be proud of. I don't feel like settling down. I'm not the mother type. I'm very selfish, and I like to feel very free and independent

I'm sure if I had a child, it would change me drastically. I'm sure it would make me plant my roots firmly in the ground, but not yet

SUE: So what have you got to do before you feel ready to settle down? What do you have to do to complete the picture and be proud of

TOYAH: I don't know. I've got to do something that I believe I've achieved something really worthwhile. Because at the moment I'm aiming for so many directions to improve the acting, to improve the singing. I don't feel I've reached the standard yet, but I feel is worthy. I just want to keep going till I do that

SUE: But it'll be something to do with music, or something to do with acting?

TOYAH: Oh yeah, favorite fields. In my old age I'd like to write. I love writing. I get up very early in the morning and I write. And I'll probably do that one day

SUE: I'm sure you will, because you have, as I said earlier, this amazing energy. I interviewed you last time after “Trafford Tanzi” (below) -

TOYAH: Yeah! I adored doing that

SUE: The training you were doing for that was really, really hard work, wasn't it?

TOYAH: Yes, the show itself - I used to lose about four pounds in weight a night. And after a show like that you just didn't sleep. I used to sleep in the daytime, get up about two in the afternoon, and I was making an album ("Love Is The Law", 1983) in the afternoons

So I'd record for about four hours, and then go and do the show. Then after the show I'd go and record some more. It was very good to work like that. I really enjoyed it, but I developed voice problems. It was interesting


JOHN: Exciting, though, nonetheless. Exciting to be under such pressure

(A clip of the video of “Soul Passing Through Soul” plays)

SUE: You're promising an equally spectacular tour when it happens, which you think will be later

TOYAH: Oh, yeah! Definitely. I'm getting ready for that now. First time in my life I sort of sat down and seriously had singing training too, which I do at the moment

SUE: You've had opera lessons, haven't you?

TOYAH: Yeah, I've heard that female voices can mature very late into the 30s. Being quite romantic I'd like to have a go at it one day in the future, far the future

SUE: Very versatile. So you're doing your training in martial arts at the moment for this tour?

TOYAH: Yeah, I train mainly weight lifting and anything that kind of strengthens. When you go on the road you do the show for about two to three hours, and then you probably don't get any sleep that night

So I have to do things that keep you fit and keep you in tune, because that rock and roll life really takes it out of you. But I don't want to give it up for anything

JOHN: You could end up starring in the first kung fu opera, if you're not careful! (Toyah laughs) Now there's an idea. There's a project for the future

TOYAH: I want to take Arnold Schwarzenegger on! (laughs)

Later in the show:

TOYAH: (about being a vegetarian) It's very hard. It's a challenge

SUE: Most impressive

TOYAH: Yeah

JOHN: So you won't be joining us for sausages, bacon, egg

TOYAH: No! Oh, gosh, no! Ugh!

JOHN: Everyone else is having breakfast - you're working out (Toyah laughs)

SUE: We had some vegetarian sausages on the program recently, but unfortunately they -

TOYAH: (excited) What were they like?

SUE: They were not very nice! (laughs)

TOYAH: I can believe it! Ugh! (laughs)

JOHN: Stick to the lettuces leaves – I would!

SUE: Thank you very much indeed

Watch the interview HERE