TOYAH ON
PEPSI LIVE!
MUSIC BOX
APRIL 1987

HOST NINO FIRETTO: Now, then - she's here. You're very early. We've got a bit of time to kill
 
TOYAH: I wanted to come have fun with you

NINO: We'll have a look at your video later. It's a remake, isn't it?

TOYAH: Yeah, of “Echo Beach”

NINO: By Martha And The Muffins. The Damned have done a remake as well

TOYAH: Have they really! (giggles)

NINO: I can't get any sense out of her, bless her (Toyah's giggling) It's been a long day!

Couple of music videos play

NINO: Hello. There was Tony Hadley with “Communication” from the Spans (Spandau Ballet). He wants to be an actor

TOYAH: Hahaha! Don't we all! (laughs)

NINO: You've already cracked it. You've done it

TOYAH: No one ever cracks it. It's a lifetime!

NINO: Do you prefer acting or singing? 

TOYAH: I like working full stop. I am a performer. I love music and I love acting, but they're two very separate personalities within me. I think one of the best people I ever worked with was Katharine Hepburn, who was mad! She was a wild woman. She'd cycle to work each day

NINO: I heard her new album. It's very good, isn't it? (Toyah laughs) When you were little and you were growing up did you think right, I'm going to take that line there and become a singer, or am I going go over there and act?


TOYAH: Originally I wanted to be a spy and then I wanted to be a female fighter. I've always been into physical things. I wanted to be a Thai kickboxer and I spent a lot of time getting very muscly

NINO: Strange, but I like it

TOYAH: And then “Sound Of Music” came out. By this time I'd burnt all my dolls that my mother tried to give me and I decided I wanted to act and sing. I was about seven then

NINO: There's not a lot of Thai boxing in “Sound Of Music” (Toyah laughs) I've seen it. You're actually doing “Cabaret” (at the Strand Theatre, London), aren't you? Is that the old Liza Minnelli version?

TOYAH: It's Berlin in 1932 so it's about pre-war and and there's no money around, and very it's decadent

NINO: But you're having troubles, darling

TOYAH: I know!

NINO: Wha's happening?

TOYAH: Well, rumor has it that the orchestra strike* tonight will bring the show off. So I don't know until I get there

NINO: Ah! What do you think of your old image? In your new video you're chopping up your old photos

TOYAH: Images are disposable. They're transient, like fashion. It all moves on and fashion captures the time. It catches the moment and that's all the images are about. I didn't really want to remain in anything

NINO: So let's have a look at “I Want To Be Free”, and see what you think of this afterwards, right? This is you sort of getting upset at all the cutlery (Toyah laughs)

The video of "I Want To Be Free" plays

NINO: That is a brilliant video!

TOYAH: I love it!

NINO: A total rebel, aren't you? Are you really like that?


TOYAH: That was actually the real me

NINO: Which of your old videos is your favorite?

TOYAH: I like that one. And I also like “Thunder In The Mountains”. Anything that's very wild and over the top and quite dangerous

NINO: Was that the one with the horse?

TOYAH: Yes, "Thunder In The Mountains" was me on a chariot. I almost killed myself doing it. "Brave New World" was me on a horse that really didn't like me and was doing everything it could to get me off it

NINO: What's happened to "Toyah" in the past what year? You haven't been so much into the singing and -

TOYAH: I've been making an album. I got married to a man called Robert Fripp, who's a guitar player. That's an understatement. Been acting, doing films, the usual things. I just I wanted to drop the kind of "Toyah has colored hair and she's zany and mad". That wasn't the reality of it. I just wanted to get away from it and then come back in again

NINO: Can I? So this is your own hair? (touches her hair)

TOYAH: This is my hair

NINO: So you've grown all this. Is it a different image for you then? All change?

TOYAH: Well, I'm kind of a woman now. In that video - it was almost 10 years ago. Well, six years ago. I was young and fresh and now I'm a woman

NINO: So you've not quietened down? Married life hasn't quietened you down?


TOYAH: No! (laughs) It's making me worse!

NINO: Making sultry eyes at me. It's making my toes curl. I'm forgetting the next question! “Echo Beach”. Why did you cover that?

TOYAH: I really don't know. I was making an album and my manager came to me and said “Oh, do a cover version. Everyone's doing cover versions.” I said, “do I really have to?” I wanted to do a Sex Pistols one originally and they said, “No, that won't make it as a single”. I said, “Well, why not "Echo Beach"? because it was when pop became an art form

People like Blondie and Martha And The Muffins made pop a respectable item. It's a three minute work of art. It was kind of the Andy Warhol thing. I just thought I'll do "Echo Beach" - bring it up into '87 because it's almost 10 years old as a song, and just wanted to bring it into the computer age

NINO: Before we have a look at "Echo Beach" - once you finish "Cabaret" will you go on the road and do tours and PA's in Europe?

TOYAH: I want to be on the road as soon as possible

NINO: Good, wonderful. So that means you've got no plans

TOYAH: No plans except I'm going to do it. It doesn't involve anyone else (laughs)

NINO: We'll have a look now at "Echo Beach". This is you ripping up all your old publicity shots

Watch the interview HERE

*= Musicians' Union Strike 1987