Toyah is an 80s culteral icon. From punk princess to film and stage actor, presenter, author, and torch carrier for those who relish being an outsider. Aside from her 80s hits including 'It's A Mystery' and 'Thunder in The Mountains, Toyah and her husband Robert Fripp have transcended generation gaps and brought us great music and performances with their legendary Sunday Lunch shows on social media.
We caught up with Toyah at Rewind South
PHOTOGROUPIE
How does it feel to be back at Rewind?
TOYAH
I love it. I do 20 minutes. Every other night I'm doing two and a half hours, so this is really lovely. It's fun. I can give it 150% and not worry about act two.
PHOTOGROUPIE
Now I know you're on the road with Robert tell us about that.
TOYAH
I'm on the road now. I've been on the road since March. The Sunday lunch official tour starts at the end of September through October.
PHOTOGROUPIE
So what can we expect from the Sunday Lunch Tour?
TOYAH
Well, it's classic rock. What we do on Sunday lunch is mainly classic rock. So when we kind of research the songs we're going to do next, we're looking for specifics we're looking for things that we feel are eternal songs. So I was taught Beethoven, Chopin, Elgar, when I was at school, I think children will be taught Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Metallica. So we're looking for classics. We are presenting the show with what we regard as classic music now.
PHOTOGROUPIE
Will there be a lot of performance art as well as videos?
TOYAH
We're discussing that at the moment, there won't be video Sadly, the venues we're in aren't deep enough. So Birmingham Town Hall has a massive organ at the back of the stage, and we can't cover it. With have a problem with quite a few of the town halls we're in, we don't have the depth for the projection. So we're gonna have to probably use that next year. It's all done and everything, we've just got this dilemma. It will be very much a rock show referencing the things that I got up to. But it's mainly a rock show.
PHOTOGROUPIE
So no paint and some of the theatrix that we've seen?
TOYAH
We just can't do it. Also, I don't want back myself into a corner, where that's expected from me. I'm a musician and singer; but there are some things we are going to be doing.
PHOTOGROUPIE
I do have to ask the question. I heard a story that you told about when you heard the Kate Bush track 'Moments of Pleasure'. Could you tell us the impact that song had on you?
TOYAH
I was driving. I was driving about one in the morning and it came on the radio. I think where Kate is absolutely extraordinary, is every ounce of emotion she experiences translates through her voice. And I think with moments of pleasure it being about having lost her mother and a beautiful holiday she had in New York with her mother and reflecting on it. I crashed! I crashed the car into a wall.
PHOTOGROUPIE
Were you ok?
TOYAH
The car wasn't, I was fine. I was just openly weeping. It's a song I can't listen to, even now. Kate's a friend, she just has this remarkable power.
PHOTOGROUPIE
You're both very theatrical performers and you've also done a lot of acting too. How do you approach your acting?
TOYAH
It depends who you're working with. I won the critics award at the Richard Harris Film Festival for my role in 'Give Them Wings' last year. We shot it in the very beginning of 2020 and then went into lockdown. I had a fabulous actor called Bill Fellowes who's now in Coronation Street. And Bill was playing my husband, he's a Yorkshire man, I was playing Alice a Yorkshire woman. And Bill just pulled me into his culture. Just put me right in. Sometimes you're you're on film sets where you just have to take your own initiative. It's never the same.
PHOTOGROUPIE
What's going on in the Thunder in the Mountain video. That looked pretty dangerous?
TOYAH
There was like there's no harness! All they did was saw a car in half and take the wing mirror off. So the thing the wing mirror attached to was embedded in my stomach and I was on that all day. It wouldn't happen now, it couldn't happen now.
PHOTOGROUPIE
How do you feel looking back at that time in your career?
TOYAH
I don't really look back because today is busier. Toyah and Robert is huge. 120 million visitors on our socials and it's full time.
PHOTOGROUPIE
Is there anything more going to happen with the Humans or has that finished now?
TOYAH
My dear gorgeous co-writer Bill Rieflin passed away during lockdown. So unless someone requests it. I know Eddie Vedder loved the Humans and he used to come and see us in Seattle. If he said, would we do a human set for one of his shows? I think we'd all say yes. Otherwise, without Bill alive, it's really hard.
Check out Toyah and Robert's Rock Party Tour 2023 tour dates
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