TOYAH RECORD REVIEWS
ALBUMS
SHEEP FARMING IN BARNET (1979)
Toyah Willcox is a classic example of a new-age hippy. An all purpose self improving dilettante, one minute acting, the next singing and the next reputedly picking up vast sums for services rendered to the advertising world.
Her one or two oddball singles and EP of the same name as this album are all included here on a package initially released abroad to meet the excessive demand (!). Well maybe the Europeans didn't realise that there aint no sheep in Barnet (I can vouch for that, I only live up the road) or perhaps they retain a fond fetish for that phenomenon affectionally known as acid rock.
For it is into these realms that Toyah and her not inconsiderable cohorts take us, the narrow lipped lady herself coming on like some post punk Grace Slick. Titles like 'Neon Womb' obviously have an ecological element which goes with the excellent sleeve photo of the early warning "golf balls" on the Yorkshire Moors and the likes of Pete Bush and Joel Bogen on keys and guitar are adapt enough to flesh out the ideas with some ambitious instrumental arrangements
Toyah's voice is certainly better on record than it is live, but that doesn't mean there isn't a fair bit of frenzy obliterating the lyrics. Maybe mood is more important than words, hence 'Elusive Stranger' where the sense of mystery is enhanced by sea breeze effects conjuring up memories of 'The Prisoner' TV series.
While the first single is sub-titled 'Heaven', the reverse is 'Hell', although the music isn't necessarily anymore, er, fiery. 'Danced' is pretty enough to make daytime radio, whilst 'Last Goodbye' befits one with aspiration towards the (melo)dramatic world.
Elsewhere things get sorta spacey, but if there's a message of concept I'm afraid it eluded me. Still, there are plenty of ideas here and even if few of them appear to be fully realised, Toyah's career still has extensive voyeur potential. ***
Mike Nicholls
NME
1980
SHEEP FARMING IN BARNET (1979) (BOX SET 2020)
Classic Pop Magazine, January 2021 Reprobatepress.com 17.11.2020
The usual story of Toyah’s career is that she started out as a punk and then quickly sold out to the pop world with hit single It’s A Mystery, which took her on a rapid creative downward spiral of Top of the Pops, Saturday morning TV and increasingly unadventurous music. There’s a certain truth to that – Toyah was definitely absorbed into the entertainment mainstream, her singles become blander and her image more contrived – notably with the original band logo replaced by bright, unchallenging-to-the-kiddies lettering on record covers – as ‘Toyah’ moved from a band to a solo project.
However, the idea of Toyah as a punk always felt a little wide of the mark and unnecessarily restrictive and ultimately damaging. Sure, she would often talk about herself in that way, she appeared in Derek Jarman’s Jubilee and she had the right look – the multi-coloured hair, at least – for people to make that assumption. But her work seems to have been guaranteed to immediately alienate punk traditionalists and set her up for dismissal early on.
If you listen to those early albums – up to and including the fantastic Anthem, where the first mainstream-cracking hit singles were pulled from – you get a very different sound from the UK punk of the time. Toyah was more art-rock, stripped-back industrial gothic experimentation that is closer to the more experimental end of the new wave scene than the Sex Pistols, and almost more prog than punk in approach.
Her marriage to Robert Fripp seems like a meeting of minds when you consider that King Crimson was taking a similar direction in reconstructing prog into angular, edgy, cold musical experiments at the time. Toyah was punk, perhaps, but not in any way that would have been recognisable as punk at the time – or even now
Of course, her pop star persona has always played against any serious re-examination of her career – no one took her seriously in the mid-Eighties, and few people have been inclined to do so since. Her albums have not been considered worthy of reconsideration, until now.
Cherry Red – who I think we can safely say are Britain’s premiere musical archivists and archaeologists – have taken Toyah’s first album, Sheep Farming in Barnet, and given it the luxury treatment – a two-CD and DVD set that is as luxurious a release as you could hope for and almost demands that you take it seriously.
I’m not going to try and say that I was some sort of visionary, but as a teenage fan of metal, prog and psych in the 1980s, I saw something in Toyah that went beyond the pop artist. As I mentioned earlier, Anthem was a magnificent LP, one that I bought on a whim from a second-hand shop and found to be closer to the progressive acts that I was intrigued by than either pop or punk. I probably should’ve explored further, because Sheep Farming in Barnet is a lot more experimental – less polished in both musicianship and production, and edgier in feel.
There’s no pop here, at least not in the conventional sense – there are tracks here that would become staples of her live shows and are a little more immediately familiar in style; of course, I say that as someone who was wallowing in rock’s most extreme and experimental noodlings at the time, so my take on ‘familiar’ might not be everyones.
But a track like Neon Womb, or Waiting at least doesn’t feel overly alien and album closer Race Through Space is almost conventional; other tracks, however, throw all sense of commercial compromise out of the window. Victims of the Riddle (Vivisection) is as experimental a piece of music as you will ever hear, as startling now as it was then in the way that it simply disregards any musical rules.
This is industrial electronica closer to Throbbing Gristle than any pop act – or, if we want to continue with the punk connection, a sound not dissimilar to that of early Siouxsie and the Banshees, but with a more controlled and artier bent. If Toyah’s career had continued along these lines, it’s safe to say that she never would’ve graced the sofas of cosy chat shows and Saturday morning kiddies phone-ins.
Maybe the pop stardom was what Toyah wanted – there’s little doubt that she was very ambitious, and if we are to wear a cynic’s hat for a moment, we might note at how easily she took to being part of the mainstream. Perhaps her acting career, which always ran concurrently with her music, simply allowed her to inhabit different roles at different times for different people.
It’s hard to say she was wrong to ‘sell-out’ because her career might have simply been a footnote in music history if she hadn’t – any credibility that she lost at that point was arguably borrowed credibility because, without the hit records, her career might have fizzled after a couple of albums anyway.
In that sense, what came later didn’t really matter, as it was the work of a different artist (especially as, Alice Cooper-style, Toyah started out as a band and then became a solo artist). At the same time, I know that there are people who will dismiss this album unheard – or, worse still, grudgingly listen to it having already made their minds up and then refuse to be swayed – who would love this if they didn’t know who it was – and disguising it as something else would be a difficult trick to pull off because Toyah had one of the most distinctive voices of the era.
Her singing is a mix of punk attitude, yelping, classical singing and ethereal, gothic distance that is entirely her own. At points, Sheep Farming in Barnet reminds me of Kate Bush, but not because the two singers sound alike – they are worlds apart, but they both play with similar vocal experiments and both are singers who have really sought to reinvent what music can be. Ironically, Kate Bush was the more conventional artist in 1979, though the roles were quickly reversed.
The re-release of the album certainly sets new standards for luxury editions. The main album sees an extra eight tracks – unreleased songs, demos and four performances from the band’s appearance in British detective show Shoestring. Then, there’s a second CD of demos and alternative versions, many of them tracks that are not on the original album.
And finally, there’s a DVD with a feature-length interview and track-by-track commentary, new acoustic sessions and vintage footage from Granada’s What’s On and The Old Grey Whistle Test – impressively arch and aggressive live performances and embarrassing, of-their-time interview slips. For an album that started life as a six-track seven-inch, it’s an embarrassment of riches.
If you’ve read this far, I’ll assume that you are at least open-minded enough to put aside any preconceptions you might have and give Toyah the benefit of the doubt. Sheep Farming in Barnet feels like a good place to start a further exploration of her fascinating and unpredictable career.
David Flint
goldminemag.com 21.11.2020
Toyah was, to put it gently, something of an acquired taste. Even at the height of the new wave’s struggle to escape the crash of punk by aiming for the art school stars, Ms Wilcox came over as somewhat quirky, with a voice that found the middle ground between Kate Bush and a fax machine, and an image lurking somewhere between Kings Road punk and David Bowie’s sketch book.
Bluntly, you either loved her, or you ran screaming from the room.
Time has softened the edges a little, as it so often does. What seemed totally out there in 1978 was so long ago incorporated into rock’s mainstream mannerisms that even avowed Toyahphobics can now listen without breaking out in hives, and her six song debut EP rumbles along with all the focus and genius that her fans always said they saw.
This package exceeds even their highest hopes, however. The EP itself is bolstered by no less than 14 bonus tracks, including the five songs that were added to bump it up to album length later in the year, a single, two out-takes and four songs recorded for the BBC detective drama, Shoestring.
Disc two then heads for the demo studios for 21 further tracks (including a handful more EP/album out-takes), and it’s fascinating to follow her progress across the course of the sessions. And finally, a DVD throws in a couple of period TV performances, a documentary on the album’s creation, a track by track commentary and an acoustic session filmed earlier this year, revisiting three songs from way back when.
It’s a gloriously compiled and annotated package, a mass of memories and fresh discoveries, and hopefully the herald to a full scale Toyah reissue package. Because we haven’t even got to the hit singles yet.
themidlandsrocks.com 26.11.2020
Now celebrating its 40th anniversary Sheep Farming’s longevity is partly due to its avoiding easy categorisation. Released when the charts were full of dour young men and bubbly synth-pop Toyah didn’t fit in either camp and album opener ‘Neon Womb’ arrives as if from an alien craft. Discordant saxophone and a stomping beat create a claustrophobic sense of tension which is finally released as the song bursts into life.
You could draw vague comparisons with Diamond Dogs-era Bowie but ‘Neon Womb’ sounded like nothing else on earth (and still doesn’t). Toyah’s schooling in stagecraft becomes evident on the cinematic ‘Indecision’ which is a cornucopia of cascading guitars and warlike drums. There’s a strong dystopian vibe running throughout and that comes to the fore on the strangely prophetic ‘Computer’ as Toyah’s catlike vocals creep atop before ‘Victims Of The Riddle’ crawls all over your speakers like some evil red weed.
Nowadays it seems fanciful that an artist would be afforded such freedom on a debut that Toyah was on Sheep Farming but it’s a record that constantly pushes the boundaries of alternative rock from the lyrically abstract ‘Elusive Stranger’ to the haunting ‘Danced’ via the bass rumble of ‘Our Movie’. However, it’s with ‘Victims Of The Riddle (Vivisection)’ that things really get interesting. Like Throbbing Gristle jamming with Neu! it takes the motif from its namesake (introduced earlier) and inverts it so it becomes totally discombobulating.
The sound of musical scientists experimenting late at night it could quite easily have fallen flat, but in a case of fortune favouring the brave it works with great aplomb. Stark and startling it’s an arresting song that demands your full attention and will leave you slightly stupefied at its conclusion. In juxtaposition ‘Race Through Space’ is the albums most commercial track and brings the LP to a rocket propelled conclusion.
Expanded with an additional nine tracks (six of which are previously unreleased) this version of Sheep Farming finds Toyah and band existing within a creative hub and first of the bonus tracks is ‘Gaoler’. Recorded in 1979 it’s a punk-infused high octane slab of R&B that sounds as if it was born in a bawdy boozer. The light and airy ‘Bird In Flight’ was Toyah’s second 7” and contained the stomping ‘Tribal Look’ on its flip.
A veritable treasure trove of rarities, this disc is completed by four tracks specially commissioned for the BBC drama Shoestring. Recorded months after the versions which appeared on the album they’re more raucous and minimalist and ‘Danced’ brings down the curtain in a suitablyracous manner.
CD2: Rare & Archive Material
Before the band became known as Toyah they went under the moniker Ninth Illusion and recorded a demo at Cambridge’s Spaceward Studios. Opening with an embryonic ‘Computer’ the band display an unrefined yet tight sound with many of the nuances that would surface on Sheep Farming yet unearthed. But those flashes of brilliance are there with the riff on ‘Close Encounters’ surfacing later on ‘Danced’ and ‘Watch Me Sane’ featuring lyrics that would be developed on ‘Waiting’.
Seven months later the band returned to Spaceward (now as Toyah) to record six tracks. A new rhythm section seems to have galvanised the group as the huge and expansive ‘Jailer’ veers into metal territory while ‘Race Through Space’ is being pieced together for inclusion of the forthcoming debut.
Some reissues and deluxe editions give the impression of scraping the barrel, especially in terms of bonus tracks but that’s certainly not the case with Sheep Farming and the second disc is proving an enjoyable listen. The six alternative mixes reveal different sides to the album tracks with a naked ‘Neon Womb’ (sans saxophone) bringing the guitars to the fore, ‘Our Movie’ is now bass heavy whilst ‘Vivisection (Improvisation)’ becomes even more haunting with its banshee like squeals. This disc runs in chronological order and a four track set from Rollerball Studios in October 1979 follows and it’s interesting to look back and see how the band developed over 18 months.
DVD: Rare & Archive Footage
The icing on a perfect package is this DVD. Firstly we get the story of the album in Toyah Willcox’s own words and it’s an informative telling that speaks of the struggle and strife that birthed Sheep Farming along with the inside story of that cover. Likewise, the track by track commentary is very illuminating but it’s the Acoustic Session that bears the ripest fruit. Stripped of all the studio wizardry these acoustic numbers reveal three songs that are heavily laden with groove and melody. ‘Neon Womb’ in particular becomes more wistful with Toyah still hitting all the right notes 40 years later.
After the acoustic set we feel the full force of ‘Race Through Space’ and despite its grainy quality its undiluted power shines forth. Two tracks from the legendary Old Grey Whistle Test close the disc with a lively ‘Danced’ and a blitzkrieg version of ‘Indecision’ which finds Toyah pirouetting like a punky ballerina.
A cornerstone of its era (alongside Dirk Wears White Søx and The Scream) Sheep Farming In Barnet never really got its deserved critical acclaim. That all seems set to change with this set, lovingly produced by Cherry Red, that demands some long overdue respect and reappraisal.
Peter Dennis
bigtakeover.com 2.12.2020
In recent months Toyah Wilcox has leapt back into our thoughts. The social media videos featuring both the lady herself and husband Robert Fripp have entertained spectacularly. With tongue-in-cheek reinventions of classic tracks, the fun side to Toyah became a light in the darkness of lockdown. Which is why this release, forty-years after it’s initial incarnation, is both welcomed as a reminder of that undeniable, musical talent.
Due for reissue on December 11th, Sheep Farming In Barnet is still an energetic debut by any artist. Toyah injected every ounce of her creative passions, her vision and her personality into every inch of the record. It is that bridge between Punk and New Wave, creating a soundscape and landing zone of influence for those early eighties sounds. Indeed, the album is almost a conceptual piece of work, intentional or not.
Tracks such as “Neon Womb” (Birth), to “Last Goodbye” (Death) and “Victims Of The Riddle” (Existence) add to that flavour of darkness to the overall sound. Although Sheep Farming In Barnet started out life as an Ep, before becoming broadened to the full long-player and with this mixture of tracks, the continuity is surprisingly intact.
Of course, as with most reissues there is a noticeable improvement in quality, or perhaps a greater clarity. The meat on the musical bones however is the abundance of extra material (not on the vinyl release). On offer is a white vinyl, remastered pressing of the classic album. Furthermore there is the double compact disc and DVD deluxe set (You may find yourself buying both). This includes the non-album double A-Side single “Bird In Flight”/ “Tribal Look”, a staggering thirty bonus tracks, made up of non-album singles, rarities and demos, twenty of which are previously unreleased.
Some of this material is made up of the band’s first ever, pre-signing 1978 demos. The region free DVD contains two brand new features with Toyah, including an interview about the album, a track-by-track album interview, and an exclusive acoustic three-song session of songs from the era filmed in August this year. Along with rare 1979 television interviews and performances, this really is a stunning bang for the buck.
Most releases such as this contain demos which are disposable, those one-listen and forget affairs. And gladly this does not fall into that category. The second disc opens with “Computers”, the early synth driving what is an almost fully realized track. Even at this stage the vocals of Toyah are as steadfast as on the album, her unique vocal lines are something that is one part Kate Bush, one part menacing angel. Continuing “Little Boy” sounds joyously energetic, “Watch Me Sane” is a cracking, daunting listen.
“Race Through Space” is equal to that of the album version, with the mind blowing keys on full display against the illuminating guitar cranks. The weaker tracks still have an obscure charm, such as “Problem Child”, and “Israel”. The festive “Christmas Carol” is glorious, and a pretty good insight into the power of musicians Joel Bogen, Peter Bush, Keith Hale (Hawkwind), Mark Henry and Steve Bray.
It is the full immersive experience. For fans, it is a moment of excellence that displays how Toyah Wilcox and the band were operating and evolving at that moment in time. For newcomers to the work I do recommend the first disc, the album itself, and the DVD to get the full impression of the dynamic, and importance of what was going on.
Above all else though, and perhaps the most important factor to take on board, is it is entertaining. Though it is only the beginning of an overhaul of Toyah’s back catalogue, albums which were originally released by the defunct Safari Records, so for that reason there is a lot more to look forward to
SHEEP FARMING IN BARNET 140g BLACK VINYL REISSUE (2023)
Spectrum Culture 27.6.2023
Toyah Willcox is much beloved in the UK as a broadcaster/national treasure, a standing which has only been reinforced by her YouTube videos with husband Robert Fripp. Back in the early ‘80s, she and her self-titled band were genuine pop stars too, scoring three Top 10 singles, plus another 10 or so that charted. And yet, though she’s been famous for the past 40 years and has never gone away, her music isn’t much considered compared to many of her post-punk/new wave/new romantic peers.
By the time the Toyah’s debut, Sheep Farming in Barnet – initially an EP, and then extended into an album for its European release – came out in 1979, Willcox was already a familiar face and well-known personality on the punk scene and had appeared in a high-profile acting role in Derek Jarman’s 1978 film Jubilee, so there was an element of skepticism in the critical response to the album. But like Jubilee itself, Sheep Farming… is definitively an artifact of its time, and as interesting as it is typical.
The sound of Toyah in 1979 was definitely new wave, but it was a colorful, flamboyant and theatrical new wave, rather than the chilly, bleak and wiry post-punk of peers like the Cure or Wire. At times – also typical of the period – there’s a noticeable Roxy Music and Bowie influence and the band (Toyah, plus guitarist Joel Bogen, Peter Bush and Keith Hale on synths, bass player Mark Henry and drummer Steve Bray – were accomplished enough musicians to stray far outside of the standard three-chord punk template for the majority of the album’s tracks.
The opening song, “Neon Womb,” sets out the band’s ambitions in style. It immediately recalls the sonic landscape of Bowie’s late-glam masterpiece Diamond Dogs – an epic guitar riff, dramatic squalling sax, tinkling, Mike Garson-like piano and, just in case that’s all too easy on the ears, Toyah’s possibly inimitable vocals.
Toyah, for those who were around in the UK in the early ‘80s, is one of the most immediately identifiable vocalists of the period. Her voice is clear, dramatic, sometimes squeaky and occasionally unexpectedly booming and indomitable, but always with that theatrically clear diction and audible lisp.
Toyah had lots of things in common, vocally, with other great female singers of the punk movement like Poly Styrene, Pauline Murray and Siouxsie, but really she only sounds like Toyah Willcox. For some, that makes her music immediately difficult to take seriously, but it’s her self-consciously eccentric singing that lifts Toyah out of the ranks of new wave also-rans and gives the band its very distinctive character.
This is a straightforward reissue of the original LP version of Sheep Farming… with the five extra songs that expanded it from its original EP status, but none of the extras from the various CD releases or expanded versions. It’s a patchy but never boring album. “Neon Womb” is great; it has a big, gleaming cinematic sci-fi quality. “Indecision” is quality robot-pop and Toyah sounds like a blend of Johnny Rotten and Siouxsie, which is sometimes silly but quite effective.
“Waiting” has more of a synth-pop feel, not as glacial as Tubeway Army, but with some of that same blank quality – it has a great sound, especially the lightly treated vocals, but it kind of churns along without ever going anywhere.
“Computer” is far better, a slightly similar sound that is – aside from an anomalous acoustic guitar solo – reminiscent of the textures of Bowie’s Low. It has a far more distinguished tune than many of the Sheep Farming . . . songs and has one of Toyah’s best vocal performances. “Our Movie” is equally as good; it has a groove reminiscent of Roxy Music’s “Love Is the Drug” and particularly impenetrable and peculiar lyrics.
“Last Goodbye” is another strong track in a similar vein, building a formidable head of steam thanks to its dynamic structure and Toyah’s theatrical vocal. Toyah’s lyrics deserve mention because although as often opaque and occasionally silly as they are, like the music, they’re interesting, colorful and they rarely pander to the level of chart-centric lowest-common-denominator music.
On the other hand, musically, Toyah (the band) sometimes moves in more daring, experimental directions, but though the results are pretty cool they seem happiest when dealing with relatively straightforward catchy post-punk pop tunes. The pulsing, electronic “Victims of the Riddle,” has an atmospheric synth riff that sounds like a combination of Giorgio Moroder and early Depeche Mode, over which Toyah sings, declaims and shrieks in a variety of voices without ever really establishing a tune as such. Similarly, “Elusive Stranger” plays with synth textures and is full of interesting details, but its structure wanders a little too much for it to really register as a song, despite some powerful passages.
The same is true of “Danced,” which has good sections but never really gels, despite an interestingly cacophonous middle section. “Victims of the Riddle (Vivisection)” bears little relation to “Victims of the Riddle” despite its title and sounds almost abstract, like people messing around with synthesizers rather than playing an actual song. That said, the sounds the band conjures are interesting and the song does develop a certain amount of tension as well as building an alien kind of atmosphere, over the course of its just-under-four minutes.
The closing “Race Through Space” feels far more commercial than most of the album, but it’s just as eccentric. It blends a kind of Sparks-ish sophisticated pop feel with a punchier semi-industrial post-punk sound and if it had a catchy chorus it could have been even more impressive, but it’s a powerful performance nonetheless. Overall, Sheep Farming in Barnet is a real collage of the various routes out of punk that were happening in 1979.
Partly in thrall to the experimental-but-still-mainstream pre-punk past, partly reaching out into the electronic future, it’s entirely a product of its time, but with Toyah’s unique presence – at once dominating, fragile, articulate, obscure, funny and funny-peculiar – overseeing it, the album remains a fascinating, if not always wholly convincing piece of work.
Summary: Few would have predicted the pop stardom awaiting Toyah from the deliberately wayward and experimental Sheep Farming in Barnet, but the band’s exploration of the post-punk musical landscape is fascinating. 67 % Interestingly Uneven 3/5 stars
Toyah Willcox is much beloved in the UK as a broadcaster/national treasure, a standing which has only been reinforced by her YouTube videos with husband Robert Fripp. Back in the early ‘80s, she and her self-titled band were genuine pop stars too, scoring three Top 10 singles, plus another 10 or so that charted. And yet, though she’s been famous for the past 40 years and has never gone away, her music isn’t much considered compared to many of her post-punk/new wave/new romantic peers.
By the time the Toyah’s debut, Sheep Farming in Barnet – initially an EP, and then extended into an album for its European release – came out in 1979, Willcox was already a familiar face and well-known personality on the punk scene and had appeared in a high-profile acting role in Derek Jarman’s 1978 film Jubilee, so there was an element of skepticism in the critical response to the album. But like Jubilee itself, Sheep Farming… is definitively an artifact of its time, and as interesting as it is typical.
The sound of Toyah in 1979 was definitely new wave, but it was a colorful, flamboyant and theatrical new wave, rather than the chilly, bleak and wiry post-punk of peers like the Cure or Wire. At times – also typical of the period – there’s a noticeable Roxy Music and Bowie influence and the band (Toyah, plus guitarist Joel Bogen, Peter Bush and Keith Hale on synths, bass player Mark Henry and drummer Steve Bray – were accomplished enough musicians to stray far outside of the standard three-chord punk template for the majority of the album’s tracks.
The opening song, “Neon Womb,” sets out the band’s ambitions in style. It immediately recalls the sonic landscape of Bowie’s late-glam masterpiece Diamond Dogs – an epic guitar riff, dramatic squalling sax, tinkling, Mike Garson-like piano and, just in case that’s all too easy on the ears, Toyah’s possibly inimitable vocals.
Toyah, for those who were around in the UK in the early ‘80s, is one of the most immediately identifiable vocalists of the period. Her voice is clear, dramatic, sometimes squeaky and occasionally unexpectedly booming and indomitable, but always with that theatrically clear diction and audible lisp.
Toyah had lots of things in common, vocally, with other great female singers of the punk movement like Poly Styrene, Pauline Murray and Siouxsie, but really she only sounds like Toyah Willcox. For some, that makes her music immediately difficult to take seriously, but it’s her self-consciously eccentric singing that lifts Toyah out of the ranks of new wave also-rans and gives the band its very distinctive character.
This is a straightforward reissue of the original LP version of Sheep Farming… with the five extra songs that expanded it from its original EP status, but none of the extras from the various CD releases or expanded versions. It’s a patchy but never boring album. “Neon Womb” is great; it has a big, gleaming cinematic sci-fi quality. “Indecision” is quality robot-pop and Toyah sounds like a blend of Johnny Rotten and Siouxsie, which is sometimes silly but quite effective.
“Waiting” has more of a synth-pop feel, not as glacial as Tubeway Army, but with some of that same blank quality – it has a great sound, especially the lightly treated vocals, but it kind of churns along without ever going anywhere.
“Computer” is far better, a slightly similar sound that is – aside from an anomalous acoustic guitar solo – reminiscent of the textures of Bowie’s Low. It has a far more distinguished tune than many of the Sheep Farming . . . songs and has one of Toyah’s best vocal performances. “Our Movie” is equally as good; it has a groove reminiscent of Roxy Music’s “Love Is the Drug” and particularly impenetrable and peculiar lyrics.
“Last Goodbye” is another strong track in a similar vein, building a formidable head of steam thanks to its dynamic structure and Toyah’s theatrical vocal. Toyah’s lyrics deserve mention because although as often opaque and occasionally silly as they are, like the music, they’re interesting, colorful and they rarely pander to the level of chart-centric lowest-common-denominator music.
On the other hand, musically, Toyah (the band) sometimes moves in more daring, experimental directions, but though the results are pretty cool they seem happiest when dealing with relatively straightforward catchy post-punk pop tunes. The pulsing, electronic “Victims of the Riddle,” has an atmospheric synth riff that sounds like a combination of Giorgio Moroder and early Depeche Mode, over which Toyah sings, declaims and shrieks in a variety of voices without ever really establishing a tune as such. Similarly, “Elusive Stranger” plays with synth textures and is full of interesting details, but its structure wanders a little too much for it to really register as a song, despite some powerful passages.
The same is true of “Danced,” which has good sections but never really gels, despite an interestingly cacophonous middle section. “Victims of the Riddle (Vivisection)” bears little relation to “Victims of the Riddle” despite its title and sounds almost abstract, like people messing around with synthesizers rather than playing an actual song. That said, the sounds the band conjures are interesting and the song does develop a certain amount of tension as well as building an alien kind of atmosphere, over the course of its just-under-four minutes.
The closing “Race Through Space” feels far more commercial than most of the album, but it’s just as eccentric. It blends a kind of Sparks-ish sophisticated pop feel with a punchier semi-industrial post-punk sound and if it had a catchy chorus it could have been even more impressive, but it’s a powerful performance nonetheless. Overall, Sheep Farming in Barnet is a real collage of the various routes out of punk that were happening in 1979.
Partly in thrall to the experimental-but-still-mainstream pre-punk past, partly reaching out into the electronic future, it’s entirely a product of its time, but with Toyah’s unique presence – at once dominating, fragile, articulate, obscure, funny and funny-peculiar – overseeing it, the album remains a fascinating, if not always wholly convincing piece of work.
Summary: Few would have predicted the pop stardom awaiting Toyah from the deliberately wayward and experimental Sheep Farming in Barnet, but the band’s exploration of the post-punk musical landscape is fascinating. 67 % Interestingly Uneven 3/5 stars
THE BLUE MEANING (1980) (BOX SET 2021)
Classic Pop Magazine, May/June 2021
Mr Kinski's Music Shack 22.4.2021
I would imagine anyone reading this review will be familiar with The Blue Meaning, so no in-depth review of the main album is needed. The album has been remastered by Nick Watson at Fluid Mastering, and is the best the album has sounded.
The Blue Meaning is often both musically and lyrically darker than its predecessor Sheep Farming In Barnet, and it works well as a complete album, with a real continuity of sound and lyrical themes. Opening with fan favourite Ieya (I bet you are chanting Zion Zooberon Necronomicon in your head now), other key tracks include Ghosts, the addictive Mummies, the percussive Tiger! Tiger!, the obtuse Insects and my personal favourite, the post-punk delights of She, which still sounds great today.
As with the Sheep Farming In Barnet deluxe reissue, The Blue Meaning is overflowing with extras, and pulls together all the key live and out-take recordings from this era. Silence Won’t Do and Jack & Jill hint at the next stage in the band’s career, with the Four from Toyah EP and 1981’s Anthem album. The Merchant & The Nubile was reworked, with fresh lyrics added on top of a more fleshed out production for Four From Toyah‘s War Boys the following year.
Session versions of Sheep Farming In Barnet‘s Danced and Last Goodbye, along with Love Me from The Blue Meaning are included on the first disc. My favourite from these sessions is the version of Danced, with a Mike Oldfield sounding guitar solo.
The shortened single mix of Ieya and its b side, Helium Song (Spaced Walking), the full version of the album track, rounds off CD one in this deluxe edition. The second disc opens with a trio of tracks recorded at the ICA London, Love Me, Waiting and Ieya. A couple of alternative vocal takes, including a longer version of Blue Meanings and a version of She with less reverb lead into a weirder, acapella version of Spaced Walking. This is crying out for someone to add their own music and give us a 2021 version. Go on, you know you want to!
Three album songs in instrumental form are next, followed by different takes of Silence Won’t Do, Jack & Jill and The Merchant & The Nubile (these are different recording takes and alternate vocals). Its interesting to hear the development of these songs, presented here in their more raw incarnations.
It’s A Mystery (Original Version) is performed by Blood Donor Feat. Toyah Willcox, and would go on to reach #4 in the UK Singles Charts when re-recorded and released in 1981 as the lead song on the Four from Toyah EP. Most of the original parts of the song are intact in this older take. The only time I saw Toyah live was around this time, in February 1981 at The Rainbow, London.
I remember enjoying Huang Chung who were also on the bill. Founder member Jack Hues has said that their early album’s will be re-released on CD soon, so something to look forward to. Huang Chung later renamed themselves as Wang Chung, and went on to have huge hits in the UK and the USA in the mid to late 80s.
Back to Toyah, sorry about the slight digression. The rest of disc two is made up of good quality demo recordings, recorded at Pete Townshend’s Eel Pie Studios in late 1980. I prefer the arrangement of the demo version of Angels & Demons, and another highlight is the Banshees meets The Cure instrumental version of Sphinx. Anthem will also be familiar to fans, as this track formed the basis of the top 10 single I Want to Be Free from 1981, although the punky guitars are the stars on this version.
The final disc (not provided for review) contains three brand new features – an interview with Toyah Willcox about the album/period, a track-by-track album commentary plus an exclusive acoustic three-song session of songs from the era, filmed in October 2020. The DVD also includes rare archive BBC TV performances of Mummies and Danced from Friday Night, Saturday Morning (November 1980).
We Are Cult 18.5.2021
1980 was a busy year for Toyah. Working as both an actress and a musician she was only 22 but had already appeared in films such as Quadrophenia, Derek Jarman’s Jubilee and The Tempest and George Cukor’s remake of The Corn Is Green with Katherine Hepburn and Patricia Hayes. As well as television work in Shoestring, Second City Firsts and the TV remake of Quatermass, Toyah had also already acted in productions at the National Theatre.
In this short one-year period Toyah starred in a Royal Court production of the controversial Nigel Williams play Sugar and Spice, filmed over the course of three months for an hour-long ATV documentary, appeared in the TV series A Question of Guilt and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and guest-hosted the talk show Friday Night, Saturday Morning in which she interviewed (and played Space Invaders with!) Steve Strange, Derek Jarman and Vivian Stanshall. The year was also the prelude to her chart success of 1981, which occasioned hit singles It’s A Mystery, I Want To Be Free and Thunder in the mountains and numerous Smash Hits and Look-In covers.
From this pivotal year, Cherry Red’s remastered and comprehensively extended new edition of the first full length album The Blue Meaning is the label’s second release of Toyah’s early output. Appearing originally on the Safari label the re-release Includes the original running order as well as live tracks, session takes and demos. It also includes extra tracks and a 24-page booklet.
Originally produced by Steve James and now remastered by Nick Watson, the line up for The Blue Meaning was Toyah on vocals, Joel Bogen on guitar, Steve Bray on drums, Charlie Francis on bass and Pete Bush on keyboards and trumpet – a line up that broke up shortly after the album was made reportedly due to resentment about Toyah’s acting ambitions.
The album opens with the fantastic live favourite Ieya – at eight minutes long it’s a song that was originally created from a live jam during an encore at a NF-disrupted live concert. The lyrics were supposedly inspired by childhood nightmares and H.R. Giger images from the Necronomicon. The haunting song ends with screeching and expectoration sounds from Toyah and the re-release also includes the shorter single version and a live rendition.
The next track Spaced Walking may be the only song in pop history recorded after inhaling helium! Over a synthesiser theme Toyah sings “empty cobbled houses, old men… funny trousers” and giggles. On the alternative takes The Helium Song and Spaced Walking (Helium acapella) you can hear her actually go into hysterics. It’s great fun.
The album is full of lyrics that reflect Toyah’s interest in sci fi, occultism and Nostradamus, in songs like Vision, Insects and Love Me where Toyah enunciates the words like an actress over early ‘80s synthesisers. Self-admittedly pretentious in a good way, Toyah’s lyrics and singing style often also seem to be influenced by Broken English-era Marianne Faithful and Patti Smith. Insects also reflects the inappropriate behaviour of male audience members at her live shows of the time and her reaction to this.
Standout tracks on the double album rerelease are Blue Meanings (which in the ATV documentary Toyah was shot at Battersea Power station), She and Angels and Demons from the second disc, which is strong enough to have been released as a single.
Previously released tracks also appear in different formats. Last Goodbye which is a session version is an entertaining mixture of Bowie influenced Baal-style Kurt Weill and Patti Smith and there is also a great session version of Danced. The Cockney/Brummie ditty Cotton Vest is also great fun.
The Blue Meaning reflects a busy and transitional period for the young and ambitious Toyah and sounds a bit inconsistent for that reason, but it is a fascinating collection typically well presented by Cherry Red. Paul Morley wrote in the NME at the time that the original album sounded like “Toyah in Wonderland”. The Blue Meaning reflects an interesting time also for music and image generally – the very beginning of the ‘80s when artists with punk credentials started becoming pop icons and the sky really was the limit!
James Collingwood
At The Barrier 26.5.2021
Cherry Red Records have done it yet again! This week’s lucky recipient of their deluxe reissue treatment is Toyah and the band’s second album, 1980’s The Blue Meaning. In fact, Cherry Red are working their way through Toyah’s Safari Records catalogue – the band’s debut album, Sheep Farming In Barnet, has already received the deluxe repackaging and the rest of the bunch, Anthem (1981) The Changeling (1982) and Love Is The Law (1983) will be along soon – a veritable treasure trove from the happiest, most productive and most creative period of Toyah’s career.
Oh – and for clarity – at this stage in the career of Toyah Willcox, Toyah was the collective name for the band in which she featured – Joel Bogen on guitar, Charlie Francis on bass, Steve Bray on drums, Peter Bush on keyboards and Toyah herself on vocals (or verbals and unusual sounds, as the album’s excellent sleeve notes put it.)
Toyah had already generated quite a stir on the live circuit before Sheep Farming In Barnet saw the light of day. Willcox had built quite a reputation for herself following acting roles in such productions as Glitter, a BBC television play and Tales From The Vienna Woods, a National Theatre production and, in 1977, she, Bogen, Bray and Bush, plus bassist Mark Henry got together to form the embryonic version of the Toyah band. A recording deal with Safari Records followed soon afterward.
Charlie Francis (“A giant of a man… The coolest human being ever” according to Willcox) enlisted just before the band entered the studio to record the Blue Meaning, and the stars were aligned for the production of what turned out to be an extraordinary album. Although the band’s roots were firmly buried within the Punk movement, alt-rock, new wave, jazz and prog were all influences, and the impact of those influences is plainly visible on The Blue Meaning.
The Blue Meaning catches the original Toyah band at the point just before they fragmented. By the end of 1980, Bray, Bush and Francis, perhaps overwhelmed by the “special” attention that Willcox was beginning to attract, had all departed and Toyah, with a new band, was stratosphere-bound. The next album, Anthem, hit the upper reaches of the UK albums chart and singles chart success was secured with the Four From Toyah EP, the ubiquitous It’s A Mystery, I Want To Be Free and another EP, Four More From Toyah. Suddenly, Toyah was everywhere!
But back to The Blue Meaning… An album that is variously described as Intense, Dark and Disturbingly graphic, it’s loaded with lyrics that are angry and perverse and which deal with such subjects as death, the supernatural and the occult. As Toyah herself has said: “The actual making of the album was intense. Expectation was weighing heavy on us all, being keen to avoid vanilla commercialism we headed to the dark side and created songs like She, Mummies and the astonishingly bleak Blue Meanings.”
Disc One of this expanded version of the album features the original ten tracks, duly remastered, plus nine bonus tracks, four of which – Silence Won’t Do, Jack And Jill and session versions of Last Goodbye and Love Me – have never been previously released.
Disc Two comprises a further eighteen bonus tracks, variously live cuts, demos, studio works in progress (I particularly love the hilarious Ian Dury-like Cotton Vest), a fascinating acapella, helium-infused version of Spaced Walking and the early original version of breakthrough hit It’s a Mystery with Toyah backed by Keith Hale’s band, Blood Donor.
The set is completed by an excellent and intriguing DVD that includes 2020 interviews with Toyah (erudite, lucid and articulate as always) which discuss the album, the events of the period and a track-by-track commentary, acoustic session versions of three of the album’s most iconic tracks – Ghosts, Blues Meanings and Ieya – and rare archive BBC TV performances of Mummies and Danced from a November 1980 edition of Friday Night Saturday Morning.
The package also includes an informative, well-presented 24-page booklet with an introduction from Toyah, comprehensive notes by Craig Astley and a whole stack of rarely seen photographs. It’s a fantastic package.
Of course, the central focus of this elaborate package are the ten tracks that comprised the original album, and I was immediately struck by how fresh this remix sounds. The songs are dramatic, unsettling and generally complex. The eighties feel, particularly the crashing drum sound and the gothic-encroaching keyboard is retained, and the range, presence and spine-tingling drama of Toyah’s vocals seem to have been subtly enhanced. The album springs into demonic life with Toyah’s screech that signals the start of tour-de-force Ieya.
The song was developed from an on-stage jam that often lasted in excess of 20 minutes and for the sake of the album was trimmed to a digestible 8.15. Tales still abound of the strange happenings that took place in the studio as the band recorded the song “Like summoning a demon,” according to Toyah. Ieya, still a highlight of Toyah’s live sets, was the only single to be taken from The Blue Meaning (the shorter single cut is also included in this package), and it’s as unsettling today as it was when it first saw the light of day.
Spaced Walking is trippy and almost psychedelic and that helium-vocal still sounds hilarious, particularly at the parts where Toyah dissolves into laughter… Ghosts is closer to conventional Punk but, thanks to Toyah’s wild, wordy vocal, it doesn’t get close enough to become formulaic – it’s a fast, furious number that seems to float along in defiance of gravity.
The excellent Mummies – a reference to the mummified human remains in the Mexican city of Guanajuato (a story in itself) – is truly evocative and conjures a vivid image of a marching army of embalmed bodies.
Blue Meanings, the album’s title track, was inspired by the oppressive industrial landscape of water towers and smoke-belching chimneys that were a feature of Toyah’s childhood Birmingham home. It’s a dystopian, dramatic piece that comes from the same place as Joy Division’s monochrome dirges, packed with references to Blake’s Dark Satanic Mills.
The percussion-driven Tiger! Tiger! continues with the Blake references and quotations and Vision, perhaps the most “conventional” song on the album is built around a grinding guitar/keyboard riff that, for some unfathomable reason, reminds me of Alex Harvey’s Tale Of The Giant Stone Eater!
Toyah’s lyrics to Insects were inspired by the unwelcome tactile tendencies of her audiences. Many felt entitled to grab and grope her as she performed, and she likened their attentions to an attack by a plague of insects. The tune is punchy and nightmarish, built on a solid bass foundation, with thudding, incessant, drums and some ghostly backing vocals.
The original album’s penultimate track, Love Me, was a live favourite. It’s a typically Eighties tune, dominated by Pete Bush’s keyboard and elevated by yet another stirring Willcox vocal.
The album’s original closing track, She, returns us to the deep, disturbing, forbidding mood that was established by opening track Ieya. Insistent drums and a haunting, repetitive keyboard riff provide an other-worldly backing to Toyah’s bitter, muddy and intensely angry lyrics that were inspired by the bullying treatment she received at her hated all-girl Church of England school.
It’s a definite case of directing a last laugh into the faces of her former tormentors and a stunning end to what this reissue demonstrates is a very special album.
And what happened next for Toyah? Well she’s continued to make albums (her most recent was 2008’s In The Court of the Crimson Queen,) she still tours regularly, she married King Crimson founder and guitarist Robert Fripp in 1986 and she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Central England in recognition of her achievements in the performing arts, media and broadcasting.
During lockdown, her regular YouTube postings, Toyah and Robert’s Sunday Lunch in which Toyah and Robert perform usually hilarious covers of familiar songs have been a joy to behold. I was fortunate to catch Toyah’s fantastic performance at Cropredy Festival in August 2015, on a bill that also included Fish, Paul Carrack, The Proclaimers, Level 42 and, of course, Fairport Convention.
It was an occasion to relish as Toyah enraptured the assembled throng with a set that included the hits and more, all laced with entertaining anecdotes from the past. A lady at consummate ease with herself, her audience and her achievements held a crowd of 20,000 in the palm of her hand – and I’ve a feeling that there’ll be more to come from Toyah!
John Barlass
TOYAH! TOYAH! TOYAH! (1980)
In over two years of reviewing albums at this place this is the first record I have heard that utterly amazes me why people should or will want to buy it. Accepting that the post punk Mediocrity Clique (from Subs to Killing Joke) is a ripping off an awful lot of latent prat-punks, accepting also that these short-arse thirteen year old "punks” are too wilfully stupid to realise there IS something else to buy, I still can't get over the fact that "Toyah" etc is so unashamedly dreadful.
And therefore can only suggest that the reason it will doubtless shift to those middles class latent-punk homes in a cartloads is due in some way to Toyah's vague androgynous (a)sexual appeal. She cashes in on kids' personal sexual confusion, caused by her peers, and provides them with a misty motherly and masturbatory ideal. Which is what Bowie has been doing for numerous years of lousy albums, only he can write the odd decent song.
Toyah's problem is simple. She cannot write songs, never mind good songs. And so the debish debonair Toyah spouts out what is the insulting equivalent of "pop songs" they would give you on Schools Television (the BBC at any rate) or what Nationwide would think up if they ever did a groovy, Street-Cred punkarama.
Toyah is a fake. You can spot her a mile off, from the way her would-be Siouxsie's squeal contrasts with a Surbiton actress high note, right down to the self-conscious, would-be cockney banter low bit, wherein she displays that ugly, nauseating lisp which has done the unforgivable in the past months and ruined episodes of both “Shoestring” and “Minder”. That lispth makesth me thshudder ...
Recorded at Wolverhampton for the ATV documentary of the same name (I hear she's doing another special, this time with Max Bygraves. It's going to be called "I Wanna Toyah Story" ...), with a kind of jack-boot regularity and a production so clear and bright that it leads one to think that the Wolverhampton PA must have been extraordinarily good (wink wink) on the night, this live album reaches astounding heights of pure boredom with disconnected music that is totally void of any true rock and roll spirit.
Indeed, I insist that this band could not possibly have any inkling for or love of rock music. They sound at best like Caravan. They would make first rate Personnel Managers at Safeways. They are as efficient as electric typewriters. They make Radio Two midland orchestra sound like Motorhead at 78.
Toyah herself is the great black hole. She has a voice like a neutered gerbil. In the end she puts the final nail into the band's well-nailed coffin because she fails to give them any central persona. She ends up being pompous in a very small way and rather hollow and vacuous in a large and disastrous way.
Honestly, "Toyah etc" from the lazy title onwards would make great material for National Lampoon if they wanted to assess how conservative and regressively untalented things-were-after-punk-in-punk. But then National Lampoon would have called it "Lousy! Lousy! Lousy!", would have Benny from Crossroads on guitar, Brian Clough on drums, a revengeful Dennis Waterman on bass, and then dear Toyah would have been in natural environment.
Faking it up.
Dave McCullough
Sounds 6.12.1980
TOYAH! TOYAH! TOYAH! (1980) (REISSUE 2006)
Another slice of Toyah's back catalogue - with jam on
In the liner notes to this reissued live album (recorded in Wolverhampton in 1980), Toyah claims it represents 'one of the last gigs I did as a club act. Three months later I was the biggest thing in England since sliced bread'.
The diminutive singer-cum-TV presenter was never one to hide her light under a bushel, but this claim is as fatuous as it is conceited. OK, she made a crust from the odd chart hit, but it was crumbs in comparison to 1981's real breadwinners (Adam Ant, The Police, Human League ... Shakin' Stevens, even).
Ego-related niggle aside, this comprehensive reissue will delight fans by adding eight tracks to the original 10-track release. It's a crisply-recorded (though undeniably dated and somewhat lacking in crowd dynamic) live effort showcasing much of the singer's then-current Blue Meaning album. Single Ieya is probably the best-known song of the lot, and Toyah takes to it in suitably anthemic fashion.
By the time It's A Mystery made the Top 10 the following year a new backing outfit was in situ. As a result, Toyah initially dismissed this live album as irrelevant, though completists revelling in the additional live tracks (two originally appeared on B-sides) and 1982, will doubtless disagree.
Steve Adams
Record Collector
2007
TOYAH! TOYAH! TOYAH! (1980) (REISSUE 2022)
Another slice of Toyah's back catalogue - with jam on
In the liner notes to this reissued live album (recorded in Wolverhampton in 1980), Toyah claims it represents 'one of the last gigs I did as a club act. Three months later I was the biggest thing in England since sliced bread'.
The diminutive singer-cum-TV presenter was never one to hide her light under a bushel, but this claim is as fatuous as it is conceited. OK, she made a crust from the odd chart hit, but it was crumbs in comparison to 1981's real breadwinners (Adam Ant, The Police, Human League ... Shakin' Stevens, even).
Ego-related niggle aside, this comprehensive reissue will delight fans by adding eight tracks to the original 10-track release. It's a crisply-recorded (though undeniably dated and somewhat lacking in crowd dynamic) live effort showcasing much of the singer's then-current Blue Meaning album. Single Ieya is probably the best-known song of the lot, and Toyah takes to it in suitably anthemic fashion.
By the time It's A Mystery made the Top 10 the following year a new backing outfit was in situ. As a result, Toyah initially dismissed this live album as irrelevant, though completists revelling in the additional live tracks (two originally appeared on B-sides) and 1982, will doubtless disagree.
Steve Adams
Record Collector
2007
TOYAH! TOYAH! TOYAH! (1980) (REISSUE 2022)
Classic Pop Magazine, May/June 2022Classic Rock 12.5.2022
Toyah explores unexpected sonic territory on Toyah! Toyah! Toyah!
Expanded 1981 live album Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! captures the end of Toyah’s punk-lite phase
Released just as Toyah’s eponymous band were on the cusp of top five pop fame, this 1981 live album was recorded at Wolverhampton’s Lafayette Club in June 1980. Part of Cherry Red’s ongoing run of Toyah reissues, Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! is a lovingly repackaged historical artefact, interesting today mostly as a document of that liminal period when the experimental ethos of post-punk was being tamed and codified into a slicker, softer, more commercial new-wave aesthetic.
Although much of the music now sounds toothless and dated, tracks like Love Me or Visions still have an agreeably discordant, angular, squawking energy, with hints of reggae and prog rock that place them at least in the same exploratory sonic terrain as PiL or the Banshees.
The previously unreleased Ghosts also has an enjoyably adrenalised powerpop bite, while Ieya is one of Toyah’s strongest early songs, a whooshingly dramatic synth-rock epic that gains extra clout from the gnarly crunch of this analogue-era live recording.
On its original release the album was promoted with a tie-in TV documentary profile of Toyah, which is included as a DVD in this reissue package, in which the flame-haired actor-singer proves to be every bit as gauche and pretentious as any 22-year-old with grandiose showbiz ambitions can be.
Velvet Thunder 13.5.2022
The deluxe Toyah reissue series reaches its third instalment here, with this 1980 live album getting the treatment. It is slightly confusing now, as a later compilation album was given the same title (coming, of course, from the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora!, about the bombing of Pearl Harbour), but this is the original.
Coming after the first two albums, Sheep Farming In Barnet and The Blue Meaning, it finds Toyah just on the cusp of becoming a mainstream success, as the next release following this would be the Four From Toyah EP containing It’s A Mystery, and everything would suddenly go up a level in terms of profile. This release, then, manages rather neatly to cap the first phase of Toyah’s career, that of the underground ‘rebel’ new wave/art rock figurehead, before the words ‘pop star’ had even hovered on the horizon.
This was, however, more by happy circumstance than grand design, as the recording was arranged for inclusion in a TV documentary special for ATV, who had got wind of the stir that Toyah was beginning to make, and sensed a popular (and no doubt in their minds ‘trendy’) bit of youth programming.
To that end, a special performance in Wolverhampton was tacked onto the end of the UK tour (the last she would do in club venues), recorded and filmed, and thus formed the material for this record. In fact, as revealed in the accompanying booklet, Toyah herself claims to have had no idea the gig was going to be filmed until she arrived to find a camera crew setting up on the stage.
When the original album came out, it contained ten tracks out of the 14 songs performed on the night (normally several more would be included in the show, but the set played was cut by several songs for the purposes of the filming), but here we get, for the first time, everything which was played at the show.
Looking at the album as originally released, for fans of the earlier albums it is still an essential document, as it takes a series of highlights from those studio releases and generally gives them a real energy makeover, with things like the opener Victims Of The Riddle and both sides of the single Bird In Flight / Tribal Look crackling with bite and aggression.
Despite highlights such as those on the first side (Vision is another great performance), the album always came into its own with the four tracks originally on the second side. Danced is a track which would remain a favourite throughout Toyah’s career to date, and it opened the side with a bang – although listening to it now, wit the audience participation such an obvious factor, it is a little surprising that it didn’t get kicked up to a faster tempo in the live arena.
Insects and Race Through Space both outstrip their studio counterparts, but the real meat, now as ever, was reserved for the set-closer Ieya. Having opened the Blue Meaning album in astonishing style, this lengthy and unsettling mantra-cum-rock-tour-de-force manages to completely outdo that already exceptional original. Representing pure and total Toyah music in crystallised form, all of her trademarks are here, from the ritualistic delivery of the sinister lyric through to the vocal gymnastics which still astound today.
Those who claim that Toyah’s perceived habit of yelping or shrieking is a mere affectation or gimmick would do well to lend an ear to this, as it is abundantly clear that every time she rises to a note that seemingly only dogs will be able to hear, it is totally controlled, and the notes are hit right on the nose. It gives the impression of some arcane entity being summoned, and is hypnotically effective.
Sharing equal billing here, however, are the band. Guitarist Joel Bogen is is superb form throughout, but on this track it is the contribution of bass player Charlie Francis, especially towards the end, which really impresses. Parts of his performance on the track really do verge on the brilliant, in a way that none of Toyah’s bandmates have ever received due credit for their talents. It finishes the album proper with a bang and then some, but we have another chunk of the night in store for us yet ...
When the album came out originally, two songs (Ghosts and Neon Womb) were omitted and instead used on the B-side of the Danced 12-inch single, and even then Neon Womb was truncated and faded out to save the running time, but they are here in all their glory. Neon Womb is an astonishing version, leaving the original in the dust (or should that be in the womb?), with Bogen contributing some proper, genuine ‘axe hero’ guitar work.
It’s a massive plus, especially in its far superior unedited guise. Following that are the two songs which made up the encore but were omitted from the original album.
She, from The Blue Meaning, is first up, and it is a treat to hear it, even if it fails to completely capture the remorseless, rolling, crushing power of the original’s wall of studio sound. Following that is a sort of ‘reprise’ version of Danced again, this time with more instrumental content, less vocals and none of the quiet bits, focused purely on getting the crowd into a frenzy.. It’s understandable why it was decided to leave these two off the album when first released, but it is good to have them here now.
So, what we now have is the album with nothing withheld from the performance, and sounding better than it ever has done. That alone is reason to pick this up, but there’s more, as a second disc is a DVD containing that age-old ATV documentary, which is rarely screened these days and has for a long time been sought after by fans.
It looks and sounds absolutely top-notch, and is a cracking watch, with the fly-on-the-wall footage quite an early example of what is by now a staple ‘reality TV’ approach. There is great footage from the show as well. To be honest, just a stand-alone DVD of that would have made a nice thing to have, so to get it as an extra with the album is a masterstroke. It would have been nice had the full film of the show been available, but that is just being greedy!
These reissues are a long-overdue reassessment of Toyah’s early-’80s output, and reaffirm just how much depth and sheer great musicianship and songwriting there was to her catalogue. For too long there has been a tendency to trivialise her to a cartoon-ish image of a wild-haired ‘punk popster’ with an odd way of pronouncing ‘Mystery’, and that’s a massive disservice.
Toyah Wilcox was one of the major talents to emerge from the post-punk new wave scene, with more of an ‘art-rock’ foundation than a great many of the time, but whereas contemporaries such as Magazine, the Banshees or Wire, for example, have a serious cachet attached to them, this has often been missing from Toyah’s reputation. Hopefully, these reissues will go some way to redressing that. They are certainly good enough to. Next up will be the ‘breakthrough’ album Anthem – and I for one can’t wait.
At The Barrier 13.5.2022
So – here we are again. Just about a year ago, we were pleased to review the deluxe reissue of Toyah’s second album, The Blue Meaning, and now, here comes installment number three in Cherry Red Records’ Toyah reissue series – a CD/DVD reassessment of the seminal 1980 live album, Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! And, as usual, it’s a cracking package. The CD-half of the package comprises, for the first time, the entire concert – complete with encores – from Toyah’s show on 17 June 1980 at Wolverhampton’s legendary Club Lafayette.
The CD is accompanied by a DVD of the 1980 ATV documentary film ‘Toyah’ – a splendid period piece that captures Toyah at home, at work and at play, just as she reached the very cusp of her major commercial breakthrough. As usual, the package comes complete with an informative booklet, this time with detailed sleevenotes from Craig Astley, Toyah’s official archivist, and an introductory reminiscence from Toyah herself.
The gig at the Club Lafayette was added, for the benefit of the ATV camera crew, to the itinerary of Toyah’s 1980 Ieya Tour to provide some live footage for inclusion in the documentary that was in the process of being compiled. The band played a slightly shorter set than was normal for the time, with material drawn exclusively from the debut album Sheep Farming In Barnet and the (then) new release The Blue Meaning and the resulting live album, Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! was a triumph.
Toyah is on top form as she shrieks, squeaks, groans and howls her way through a dramatic performance. The recording captures the enclosed atmosphere of the packed club wonderfully – in the way that the best live albums always seem to manage – and the setlist is inspired. Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! Reached number three in the indie chart and stayed in that chart for over a year and was Toyah’s first album to creep into the national album chart, peaking at number 22. Big things were just around the corner, and that impending breakthrough seems to ooze from the very grooves of this album.
The band lineup for the Wolverhampton show was the one that had just released The Blue Meaning – Joel Bogen on guitar, Pete Bush on keyboards, Steve Bray on drums, Charlie Francis on bass and, of course, Toyah Wilcox on vocal noises, and they’re tight, punchy and cooking – a fact that hits the listener right away on set opener Victims Of The Riddle.
Producer Nick Watson has done a great job in remastering these tracks; the typically 1980s synth-heavy sound is retained, but the drums have been given a new depth and crispness and the excitement of the live event has been emphasized.
Toyah’s anecdotes are an enjoyable feature of her present-day shows and I found it striking that on Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! the dialogue between band and audience was kept to a minimum and I suspect that, even back in 1980, it was with reluctance that the gregarious Toyah limited her audience interaction to an occasional “Thankyou” and short announcements of the song titles.
Nevertheless, the band is on fire as they surge through a set that includes a sizzling version of the punchy Indecision, an emotional take on Love Me, an epic Vision, a stompy, heavy run through Danced and a creepy, yet somehow alluring delivery of Insects, Toyah’s riposte to the members of her audience who believed that their entrance fee entitled them to grope her whenever she came within touching distance.
Elsewhere, there’s a scary, fatalistic version of Race Through Space, in which Toyah delivers her vocals like a demented siren, before the usual set-closer, Ieya, which builds and builds until it sighs to a grateful climax and Toyah offers the crowd a plaintiff “G’bye, Thankyou.”
And there it was that the original album ended. Now, thankfully, the four-song encore has been added to the tracklisting. First encore, Ghosts, had previously featured as one of two tracks on the B-side of the live single, Danced. A great song, of course, and not without a dose of humour, and the band’s enjoyment in playing it is evident here.
A curtailed version of Neon Womb was also included on that B-side and now it’s included in its entirety, in its rightful sequential place in the live set. It’s rocky and exciting, particularly as the band gets faster and faster in an instrumental coda that, strangely, reminded me of Lynyrd Skynrd and Freebird!
The energy expended on Neon Womb has clearly exhausted Toyah, but she’s still game for more as she introduces the final two encores, the sinister She and a reprise of Danced. She entreats the audience to give it everything, as she says “I wanna see you all knackered after Danced!” For She, a number from The Blue Meaning, Toyah is at her dramatic best, as she takes a fiendish delight in singing the sado-masochistic lyrics with a relish that is, in equal parts, uncomfortable and alluring.
The reprised version of Danced is, perhaps, rougher than the version played earlier in the set, but the excitement in the venue comes over loud and clear. This year at At The Barrier, we’re focusing on great live albums; we’ve already suggested a number of classics that bring the excitement of a great gig into your living room and, with Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! I think we’ve got another classic to add to our list!
But this deluxe reissue doesn’t end there – oh no! The accompanying DVD, imaginatively titled “Toyah” was originally screened by ATV, a regional television channel that served London and the Midlands, on 17 November 1980. It’s no exaggeration to suggest that the documentary film played a significant role in lifting Toyah’s public profile and in paving the way for the phenomenal success that was to come in 1981.
Along with copious shots of British Rail and London Underground trains, the film includes lots of footage of Toyah going about her business of in-store record signings, television appearances, drama rehearsals, band rehearsals, recording sessions and some fascinating scenes of Toyah at home in the Battersea warehouse she christened “Mayhem.”
I particularly enjoyed the clip when she appeared on the television chat show, Straight Talk, and held her own as she was quizzed by a panel of unbelieving establishment figures. The concert footage of Danced, Insects and Ieya from the Wolverhampton concert that provided the material for Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! is wonderful and the film also includes promotional videos for New Womb and Blue Meanings but, perhaps the most enjoyable features of the film are the quotes that Toyah fires out with such amazing reassurance.
It’s through these quotes that we get a real insight into the way that Toyah’s mind was working back then – “I am not part of the old movement called punk. I’m part of the future,” “I think like a man, because I work with men, and I don’t like being beaten,” “I’m not a punk. I’m a modern woman,” “Cilla Black and Lulu have both done what I have done” and “I would like to become a commercial cult figure ... the sort of audience I’m looking for is an obsessed audience,” are just five examples that leave the viewer in no doubt of the strength of Toyah’s resolve
So what happened next? The Toyah band split up just a couple of months after that memorable show at the Lafayette Club. Toyah was distraught but soldiered on and, in February 1981, the EP Four From Toyah, featuring lead track It’s A Mystery was released. It stormed the charts, hitting the number one spot in the indie chart and peaking at number four on the national singles chart, and things were never the same again. In Toyah’s own words “I became the biggest thing in England since sliced bread.”
Cherry Red has done a great job with this repackage of Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! and there’s surely more to come in the pipeline. Here at At The Barrier, we’re keeping a sharp lookout for the next albums in this series; let’s hope that Anthem (1981), The Changeling (1982) and Warrior Rock (1982) are not too far away from receiving deluxe treatments of their own!
We Are Cult 20.5.2022
After only two albums it may have seemed slightly early in Toyah’s career to record a live album. However there appeared to be three reasons for the release of Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! in 1980.
One: Toyah had been filmed for a one-hour ATV documentary that included clips from this gig and brought her nationwide coverage. Two: It was a last add on gig of a UK tour and would be the last time she played with this particular band. Thirdly: She was on the cusp of stardom and becoming a regular Smash Hits and Look-In cover star.
Cherry Red continue with their impressive chronological repackaging of Toyah’s Safari Records albums with their re-release of the live album Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! Presented as an expanded deluxe CD+DVD and a limited edition coloured vinyl LP this album includes the full ATV documentary Toyah!, originally broadcast December 1980, a 24-page booklet with artwork and photos, an introduction by Toyah herself and sleeve notes by Toyah’s archivist and compiler Craig Astley.
Toyah must have been the hardest working woman in showbiz at the time and really was on a mission to succeed. She seems to have been everywhere. As well as fronting and touring with the band Toyah was constantly working as a TV, film and stage actress. On stage she had recently appeared in Nigel Williams’ Sugar and Spice at the Royal Court. She had appeared as Monkey in Quadrophenia, in Derek Jarman’s Jubilee and The Tempest, and who can forget her appearance in Shoestring!
The eponymously-titled ATV documentary of the artist was directed by Graham Moore (Emmerdale, The Bill and Brookside) and is a ‘fly on the wall’ film that captures the band rehearsing at their Battersea warehouse known as ‘Mayhem’, concert footage of fan favourites Insects, Danced and Ieya, in sessions, clips of Toyah rehearsing plays and video performances of Neon Womb and the Blue Meaning.
Recorded at the Club Lafayette in Wolverhampton using the famous Rolling Stones Mobile Recording Unit the concert album has high-quality sound for a live recording and features tracks from both Sheep Farming in Barnet and The Blue Meaning and the six-track Safari EP. This edition also includes an unreleased track called She, a reprise of Danced and a longer version of Neon Womb.
The band comprises of Joel Bogan on guitar, Pete Bush on keyboards, Steve Bray on drums and Charlie Francis on bass and, as noted before, was the last time this particular line-up would play together. Toyah stated in an NME interview with Paul Morley around this time that the rest of the band were resentful of her acting commitments and only guitarist and co-writer Joel Bogan stayed.
For the song Visions Toyah’s vocals are reminiscent of The Slits’ frontwoman Ari Up but for a lot of the tracks the band sound more prog than punk. Were it not for Toyah’s idiosyncratic vocals, Neon Womb could almost be a Genesis or Black Sabbath song complete lengthy guitar solo. Toyah seems to have a rapport with the audience but the crowd noises don’t interfere with the audio quality.
Reports of Toyah gigs at the time suggest that crowds could get unruly, and at one stage you can hear her tell the crowd to “move back a bit”. Stand-out tracks are the opener, debut single Victims of the Riddle, Love Me, Tribal Look with its lyric “Don’t break laws… you’ll never stand a chance”, Race through Space, the apocalyptic and disturbing Insects, Toyah standard Ieya and two strong versions of the crowd pleaser Danced with its enthusiastic stomping jig.
Toyah really is a strong performer on this album and the album and documentary captures a moment in time. It’s not perfect but it is that rare thing – a live album that works.
LIVE AT THE RAINBOW (1981) (REISSUE 2022)
Mr Kinski's Music Shack 12.10.2022
Toyah – Live At The Rainbow is released for the first time on CD with seven additional songs, all previously unreleased and restored exclusively for this release.
Previously only available on VHS, the 53-min concert film has been remastered from the original Rolling Stones multitrack reels for the DVD release with improvements to both picture and sound. The newly remixed and remastered audio has been integrated to the concert for an enhanced viewing experience. All audio remastering was approved by Joel Bogen.
Three of the seven unheard songs appear exclusively on the CD as mono-only (originally mixed by Nick Tauber) bonus tracks, where no existing multi-tracks were available to present new stereo remixes. These three tracks do not appear on the 16-song double vinyl LP edition. Toyah provides a brand-new introduction in the 24-page booklet which contains iconic live photography by Barry Plummer and new notes by Craig Astley, Toyah’s official archivist.
I went to this gig, and so was happy to travel back in time, some 41 years later. 41 years, how did that happen? The DVD was not supplied for review, so I will have to wait until I receive my pre-order to fully relive the experience, so I am only reviewing the CD here. There has been some re-jigging of the original concert order for this release, which had to be done because of the issue of three of the tracks only being available in mono, but this release gives a good representation of the original show, and the remaster is of a high standard.
One of the support bands for this gig was Huang Chung, who became Wung Chung and had success later in the 80s. I saw on Jack Hues twitter account a couple of years ago that the bands albums, including Huang Chung’s debut from 1982, are due to be re-released in the near future, so one to watch out for.
Along with founding members Toyah Willcox and Joel Bogen, new band members Nigel Glockler, Phil Spalding and Adrian Lee make up this line-up of the Toyah band. The set opens with the heavily percussive War Boys from the Four from Toyah EP that had recently given the band their first major UK hit single. Next up is the first selection from 1979’s Sheep Farming in Barnet album, with the punky-prog of Neon Womb, Waiting and the pop-thrills of Race Through Space.
An extended version of Four From Toyah‘s Angels & Demons slows the pace, before The Blue Meaning‘s Love Me dials in the post-punk feel again, along with album companions Mummies and Insects.
“This next one you might have seen on Top of the Pops” introduced It’s A Mystery, which still sounds so fresh after all these years. The bass and drum interplay from Spalding and Glockler is a highlight of this 1981 live incarnation of this landmark Toyah song.
Computers makes a rare return to the set after a long absence, and early single Tribal Look highlights the added keyboard presence of new member Adrian Lee, with some wonderful Rhodes piano. Bird In Flight (the double A Side that accompanied Tribal Look) works so well with this new line-up, and this could turn out to be my favourite version of this early Toyah song.
Two of my favourite Sheep Farming In Barnet tracks follow, with Victims Of The Riddle and Danced. A powerful, just under 8 minutes version of the haunting Ieya ends the main set.
The final three tracks are mono, so lose a little of their sparkle. Revelations from the Four From Toyah EP is bookended by two Sheep Farming In Barnet tracks, Our Movie and Indecision, the latter of which loses some of its power for me, but that could well be the mono mix, with less space for the performances to breathe.
Live At The Rainbow is a great keepsake of one of Toyah’s most loved live performances, and will be welcomed by fans of the band, who have waited a long time for an updated release to replace the previously released VHS version.
The Midland Rocks 21.11.2022
Coming off of the back of her second album 1981’s Blue Meaning, Toyah and her band were keen to capitalise on the success of their first official UK top 50 single ‘Ieya’. Both the live album Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! and the ATV Toyah TV documentary had helped to reinforce her place as “one to watch” as the world moved away from punk into the more refined tones of the new romantics.
With a new line-up in place consisting of Phil Spalding on bass, Nigel Glockler on drums and Adrian Lee on keyboards alongside the only surviving original band member Joel Bogen on guitar the band released the Four From Toyah EP which hit #4 in the UK charts and featured her best-known song even today, ‘It’s A Mystery’.
By a quirk of fate, a planned concert at London’s 2000 capacity Lyceum (which had been double booked) was moved to the larger 3000 capacity Rainbow Theatre. The former cinema had become an iconic venue hosting the likes of Jimi Hendrix, The Who, David Bowie and The Osmonds so the pressure was on for the pint-sized punk princess.
Titled as Live At The Rainbow, it is that concert which is documented on this latest Cherry Red Records remastered and expanded release. Originally available on VHS, Betamax and Laser Disc, the 53-minute recording is available on DVD for the first time accompanied by the full 19 track set on audio CD. A 16-track vinyl LP is also available which omits the three mono bonus tracks (‘Our Movie’, ‘Revelations’ and ‘Indecision’) from the CD listing.
As the crowd noise fades in Glockler’s hefty drumbeats lead the way before Spalding and the high energy Wilcox takes to the stage joining the rhythm for the chanting ‘War Boys’ pulled from the then recently released Four From Toyah EP. Toyah returns to her musical beginnings with ‘Neon Womb’ displaying her punkier side which she was at this point already moving away from in favour of a cleaner new romantic sound. ‘Waiting’ and ‘Race Through Space’ continue the banshee wails of the Sheep Farming In Barnett era.
Following a short introduction, the audience are treated to ‘Angels & Demons’ another cut from Four From Toyah which perfectly displays the story telling skills which had become more apparent on the Blue Meaning album and would be developed even further on the release of the Anthem album later in the same year. Up next a trio of Blue Meaning tracks, ‘Love Me’, ‘Mummies’ and ‘Insects’, making the most of the latest line-up’s crisper more clipped sound before ‘It’s A Mystery’ which despite sounding quite out of place amongst the earlier material with its (Top Of The) pop bounce lights up the hall. ‘Computer’ eases back into an edgier place as bass takes the lead over the electronic warbles of Lee’s keys.
Early single tracks ‘Tribal Look’ (which sums up Toyah’s onstage image at the time) and the pleasantly catchy ‘Bird In Flight’ are punctuated by ‘Ghosts’ which retains the racing bass/keyboard stride of its original studio version. Toyah’s debut single ‘Victims Of The Riddle’ provides an ever-building finale to the main set finally displaying Bogen at full tilt. The bouncy ‘Danced’ was played earlier in the set originally but here is placed before the encore as the fists in the air ‘Ieya’ bids you farewell with a squeal and a punch.
And that completes the main audio . . . however, on this CD you are also treated to three mono tracks taken from the original recording (no stereo mixes have been found) ‘Our Movie’ has something of a Stranglers vibe while ‘Revelations’ channels Gary Numan’s ‘Cars’ and ‘Indecision’ has an attention-grabbing pumping piano accompanying it’s driving riff. Despite the mono mixes these add-ons do not sound out of place in the quality stakes. Wilcox’s energetic presence remains evident throughout the performance even minus the visuals.
The DVD finds the show edited down to 12 tracks from the set with Toyah taking to the stage in Egyptian style tabard like a whirling dervish. All wind milling arms and kicking legs her red hair somehow manages to out bounce the rest of her continually active body. The energy that she still exudes to this day obviously stems from her early persona as her choreographed moves constantly excite the pubescent males which make up the front row and probably much of the sweaty audience.
All eyes and cameras are on the central figure with limited band and audience footage adding to the 4:3 aspect and bulky radio mic to date the mostly clear filming. In the occasional shots of Glockler in his headband he already looks like the heavy metal drummer that he went on to become in Saxon, but Toyah’s visual image proves to be the star making this DVD a great addition to the full audio soundtrack. Just a shame that they couldn’t have dug up a few period extras to bulk out the DVD’s content.
As we all know since these formative days Toyah has gone on to record many albums with varying success and in recent years has become something of a national treasure alongside her similarly famous partner in life, Robert Fripp (Sunday Lunch appears in a theatre near you soon). This audio recording completes a trio of live albums recorded between 1980-82 alongside Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! and Warrior Rock when she was at her most rebellious and is a worthy companion.
Liverpool Sound and Vision 27.11.2021
For anyone who was on the cusp of either being a teenager or enjoying the revels of the age in the late 70s and early 80s in the areas that surround King’s Heath, the once former hamlets before incorporation into the city of Birmingham, the likes of Selly Park, Stirchley, Moor Green, Wake Green, Hall Green and Cotteridge, they must have looked at what was going on around the rest of Birmingham and felt bitter pangs of jealousy . . . for everywhere it seemed had their music heroes, they had an identity in which to hang their youth and their anger upon, and they had none.
Yes there was Martin Barre from Jethro Tull, but by this time, a period of social unrest, of despondency even in one of the city’s more affluent areas, was crawling through the feelings of dejection, of rampant unemployment, of facing down multiple enemies of state and the fear that they would grow into adulthood stuck in the same beige, follow the rules, behave and gain acceptance from an older generation that in all honesty never really understood that Generation X had woken and was angry. Jethro Tull, whilst remaining one of Britain’s foremost exponents of music, were not attuned in such a way as Toyah Wilcox.
South Birmingham had a hero, and what was more she was fiery, she stood no nonsense, she was the reflection of the change needed, the leafy greens where Gardener’s Question Time was filmed, the memory of the birthplace of Tony Hancock, the poetry of W.H. Auden, and even a city zoo on the Pershore Road as you entered Selly Park from Edgbaston, these were signs of an order in need of radical change, and who better than a woman who embodied the reputation of Boadicea, who terrified the damaged by Victorian repute, who thrilled a generation willing to follow her into battle at the drop of a hat.
For all the early albums, for the drama, for her appearance in the sublime Quadrophenia, the one thing denied many who were in awe of her, but unfortunately just on the wrong side of following her around the country and waving the south Birmingham flag, was the experience of the famous gig at The Rainbow, and whilst old video tapes have surely worn themselves free of any images of the young Toyah captivating the crowd, the opportunity to hear the message on vinyl was always one prevented.
Toyah: Live At The Rainbow is the missing audio link, a tour de force of feminist passion, of youth sounding the drums of war against all that was considered safe and secure, but in which was in reality a yead stick to beat against the backsides of a generation daring to dream in colour and not nostalgic black and white, in monochrome.
This is Toyah arguably at her most raw, at least captured for eternity in the realm of recordings, the beauty radiates with the same intensity as the flashing drive that made the shops of old King’s Heath quake with reckoning to come, and the no 11 bus soon drove on as if pursued by a wolf with bright orange hair.
Forty years on and the night at The Rainbow stands firm, tracks such as Neon Womb, the excellent Angels & Demons, Insects, Victims Of The Riddle, and the chart topper It’s A Mystery all feature with pride, an album that truly stands statuesque, a weapon of a new order hammering at the door of outdated conformity.
Live At The Rainbow, a moment caught in time for the pleasure of the ears and the soul, just simply incredible.
Goldmine Magazine 6.1.2023
Originally released as a VHS video in 1981, capturing Toyah at the very peak of her early '80s triumphs, fans have been calling out for a digital equivalent for years now… and finally it’s here.
Spread across two discs, with the full VHS performance on DVD, and the entire concert (four songs longer, plus three further bonus tracks) on CD, Live at the Rainbow is both a captivating performance and a curious time capsule - a reminder of a time, to begin with, when Toyah was considered a weird looking lady, and a weird sounding one as well.
These days, you see more dramatic costumes working in banks, and hear stranger voices reading the news.
Shove such thoughts aside, however, and the DVD, in particular, illustrates just what a dynamic performer Toyah was, with a repertoire that danced closer to the edge than many far more feted left fielders, and a stage presence that pushed her leagues ahead, again, of the competition. Indeed, enjoyable though the audio disc is, it’s the DVD to which you will continually return, simply to bask in the sheer delight of the show.
ANTHEM (1981)
With her fourth album in well under three years, one might have expected a resting on the proverbial laurels or just a straightforward decline in quality, but 'Anthem' quickly establishes Toyah as growing ever nearer her best work and unlikely to disappear from sight for a long, long time (not until she actually wants to I suspect), it may not be everyone's cup of tea, but there are several different styles contained within the album; yet all variations on the Toyah theme. As a marketing move, it's highly successful. On a musical level very hard to ignore.
With any recognisable sound first impressions are one of mixed beguilement. Certain things remain primarily the same, and give convenient points of observation. The voice still remains the most potent force, revealing her wide range of abilities, often alternating between hard and soft in the course of one verse, button this album there seems to be more thought in the actual presentation, instead of going overboard as on some of 'Blue Meaning' Toyah herself remains quite restrained, singing more for effect than pure show.
The music has both improved and changed in parts, for which the band must be humbly applauded. Joel Bogen takes a backseat role and on some tunes appears to be completely absent, as the songs shift towards a topically tribal bent, with keyboards and drums the main instruments.
More often than not the songs appear almost subdued in nature, occasional bursts of life intruding on the sublime and dreamy arrangements that show the mature side of Miss Willcox's imagination. Nigel Glockler's drumming and Adrian Lees keyboards realty do steal the show, but Phil Spaulding on bass plays perfectly, adding impetus when required, but mainly lurking in the background oozing supremely. Joel Bogen who co-wrote half of the songs plays consistently well when he does appear, generally on the more straightforward songs. Very much a band effort.
Toyah herself refuses to keep to one vocal style and it can plainly be seen that her work is improving. No needless bellowing, no overdramatic whispering. On this album she realises the perfect role.
All this praise doesn't necessarily mean that every song is a bona fide classic; far from it. As a collection of songs it is genuinely impressive, but no songs stand as instantly memorable, and a couple appear well dodgy. 'I Want To Be Free’ the current single is her most crass commercial tune to date, and although I enjoy it I wouldn't say it was a particularly wondrous item. Likewise 'Elocution Lesson' doesn't appear to work at all, with it's messy stop/start arrangement.
The main highlights within this 11-track offering include the slowly building 'Pop Star' with the alternating vocals (one minute sharp and deviant, the next soaring ambivalence), the doomy bass-ridden 'I Am', 'Marionette' with its sparse opening, and thumping ending, and the bustling bracing 'We Are' which features the band at its flowing best, similar in many ways to 'It's A Mystery', which is also included here. Any of these tracks are as good, if nor better than their previous work. -
Where the difference really shows is in the likes of 'Masai Boy' and 'Jungles Of Jupiter'. The former has the sparsest arrangement of all, with tribal drum intro, keyboard intrusions and strangely rising vocals. The latter gives Joel Bogen a chance to fling out a memorable guitar motif whilst all around the band build slowly upon the quiet start, to roar along and then forsake, the expected explosive finale In favour of a cunningly designed climax. Both songs are simply stunning.
Despite the one or two unworthy items, the album strikes me as an overtly musical work, much needed these days as a refreshing alternative, well deserving of your attention. Toyah's certainly got a brain up there, and her ideas are now meeting accord with the band. A shame the cover designer wasn't similarly equipped, having come up with a poor man’s Roger Dean painting. Who cares anyway? The music is 90 per cent faultless and the wait for the next album should be well worth it, because she’s not even at her peak yet.
Mick Mercer
Melody Maker
1981
With her fourth album in well under three years, one might have expected a resting on the proverbial laurels or just a straightforward decline in quality, but 'Anthem' quickly establishes Toyah as growing ever nearer her best work and unlikely to disappear from sight for a long, long time (not until she actually wants to I suspect), it may not be everyone's cup of tea, but there are several different styles contained within the album; yet all variations on the Toyah theme. As a marketing move, it's highly successful. On a musical level very hard to ignore.
With any recognisable sound first impressions are one of mixed beguilement. Certain things remain primarily the same, and give convenient points of observation. The voice still remains the most potent force, revealing her wide range of abilities, often alternating between hard and soft in the course of one verse, button this album there seems to be more thought in the actual presentation, instead of going overboard as on some of 'Blue Meaning' Toyah herself remains quite restrained, singing more for effect than pure show.
The music has both improved and changed in parts, for which the band must be humbly applauded. Joel Bogen takes a backseat role and on some tunes appears to be completely absent, as the songs shift towards a topically tribal bent, with keyboards and drums the main instruments.
More often than not the songs appear almost subdued in nature, occasional bursts of life intruding on the sublime and dreamy arrangements that show the mature side of Miss Willcox's imagination. Nigel Glockler's drumming and Adrian Lees keyboards realty do steal the show, but Phil Spaulding on bass plays perfectly, adding impetus when required, but mainly lurking in the background oozing supremely. Joel Bogen who co-wrote half of the songs plays consistently well when he does appear, generally on the more straightforward songs. Very much a band effort.
Toyah herself refuses to keep to one vocal style and it can plainly be seen that her work is improving. No needless bellowing, no overdramatic whispering. On this album she realises the perfect role.
All this praise doesn't necessarily mean that every song is a bona fide classic; far from it. As a collection of songs it is genuinely impressive, but no songs stand as instantly memorable, and a couple appear well dodgy. 'I Want To Be Free’ the current single is her most crass commercial tune to date, and although I enjoy it I wouldn't say it was a particularly wondrous item. Likewise 'Elocution Lesson' doesn't appear to work at all, with it's messy stop/start arrangement.
The main highlights within this 11-track offering include the slowly building 'Pop Star' with the alternating vocals (one minute sharp and deviant, the next soaring ambivalence), the doomy bass-ridden 'I Am', 'Marionette' with its sparse opening, and thumping ending, and the bustling bracing 'We Are' which features the band at its flowing best, similar in many ways to 'It's A Mystery', which is also included here. Any of these tracks are as good, if nor better than their previous work. -
Where the difference really shows is in the likes of 'Masai Boy' and 'Jungles Of Jupiter'. The former has the sparsest arrangement of all, with tribal drum intro, keyboard intrusions and strangely rising vocals. The latter gives Joel Bogen a chance to fling out a memorable guitar motif whilst all around the band build slowly upon the quiet start, to roar along and then forsake, the expected explosive finale In favour of a cunningly designed climax. Both songs are simply stunning.
Despite the one or two unworthy items, the album strikes me as an overtly musical work, much needed these days as a refreshing alternative, well deserving of your attention. Toyah's certainly got a brain up there, and her ideas are now meeting accord with the band. A shame the cover designer wasn't similarly equipped, having come up with a poor man’s Roger Dean painting. Who cares anyway? The music is 90 per cent faultless and the wait for the next album should be well worth it, because she’s not even at her peak yet.
Mick Mercer
Melody Maker
1981
A Little Girl Full Of Emanation
Toyah's first proper studio album is a bit difficult. How do you react to a flamboyant, stylishly arranged and well played album, on which an angry "little girl" sings about mystic punk'ish things?
The fantastic music on "Anthem" is down to four guys, led by guitarist/composer Joel Bogen. The keyboards are the most important instrument. The synths bring out the atmosphere of the mystic/historic themes of the album. Toyah Willcox sings well despite her lisp but it's not easy to make any sense of her lyrics.
Looking at the cover art and lyrics it's easy to work out she's interested in mystical fairy tale creatures mixed with the original punk message of fighting against narrow-mindedness and intolerance.
The dramatic and over the top hit single "I Want To Be Free" is a good example of lyrics full of selfish childish bluster.
"IWantToBeMeIDontWantToGoToSchoolDontTellMeWhatToWear". The Finnish band Kadotetut have a similar "punk music for children" style.
The beautiful "Pop Star" has a very tasty synth background and the lyrics mix old and new. "Elocution Lesson" combines Nina Hagen's European style of singing based on Brecht and Weill. "Jungles Of Jupiter" mixes its mystic vibes with a reggae beat. "Marionette" is almost medieval thanks to the synths.
To sum up you will end up liking this album as long as you don't take what Toyah sings about too seriously. The whole album is like the vinyl version of John Boorman's film "Zardos". It will be interesting what Toyah comes up with next ... if she ever comes back down to earth.
Pertti Ojala, Soundi (Finland), Issue 10, 1981
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ANTHEM (1981) (REISSUE, BOX SET 2022)
Classic Pop Magazine, Sept/Oct 2022
The Reprobate Press 17.9.2022
With Charm And Chance: Toyah’s Anthem Revisited
Looking back at Toyah’s magnificent 1981 breakthrough album and its dystopian, rebellious sci-fi concepts.
Back in the 1980s, when teenage musical tribalism was at its height, stepping out of your lane was simply not the done thing. Yet for many of us, the strict divisions that split punk from metal from pop and all points in between seemed increasingly ludicrous and arbitrary, as much based on what a band or performer looked like as on their musical output. I rather threw all that aside very early into my teenage musical fixation.
After all, bands themselves – especially what we now call classic rock but what at the time was often dismissed as old farts* – were sneered at for chasing trends, sometimes with good reason but often unfairly in retrospect.
There was nothing wrong with developing and experimenting with your sound, and those artists who managed to escape the sneering by remaining defiantly art rock – Peter Gabriel, say – were just as likely to be making albums that were nothing like their past work and, in retrospect, very much of their time.
This preamble leads us to your author’s curious fascination with Toyah, who was – depending on which period of her career in the 1980s you were talking about – seen as a punk or a pop star. I’ve already made the case that she was neither, at least musically at the start of her career – the ‘pop star’ dismissal by former punk admirers has a bit more credibility as her career shifted towards kid’s TV appearances, increasingly less arty record covers and more radio-friendly singles, but we could make that particular accusation against many performers.
Once Toyah had a couple of hits – which we’ll come to shortly – then she was unavoidable, and as a teenager with a fascination for the terminally uncool worlds of prog, art rock and industrial music, there was something that drew me to her.
The hit singles were undeniably catchy but you immediately got the sense that there was something else there. I bought her double live album Warrior Rock from the remainder bins of WH Smith as a sort of low-cost experiment and also picked up the re-released single Ieya – admittedly drawn by the clear vinyl/picture disc combo because I was a sucker for gimmick vinyl.
Toyah was, by this point, very uncool – having lost the punk purists, she was also on the verge of the hit singles drying up. This was, in other words, the ideal time for someone like me to get into her music.
I also picked up a second-hand copy of her breakthrough album Anthem, which remained in my record collection for a very brief time before falling foul of my occasional clear-outs and a sudden disillusionment with music that saw me go from buying a couple of albums a week to none for over two years. Getting rid of that album was a source of continual regret because unlike the other albums that made their way back to the second-hand market, this was an extraordinary record.
The record’s return to my possession as a multi-disc, bells and whistles special edition on CD is therefore very welcome (the new vinyl edition seems even more desirable but you can’t have everything).
Let’s first look at the original album. In fact, let’s first get those hit singles – the ones that shifted Toyah from underground post-punk arty experimentalist to appearances on Swap Shop and Cheggers Plays Pop – out of the way. For some people, an artist having hit singles is the point of departure, the moment of ‘sell-out’ even if the hit single sounds exactly the same as the rest of their output and even if these purist fans only discovered the music that they are now so devoted to through hit singles by other acts.
Toyah had two big chart singles taken from Anthem – It’s a Mystery and I Want to Be Free, both of which remain the songs that people associate with her. For better or worse, they are career-defining tracks in that sense.
It’s a Mystery started out as the lead track on the EP Four from Toyah; actually, it started out as an instrumental by Blood Donor, a band that Toyah Willcox had dabbled with after the first incarnation of her bad had split. We should, of course, point out that Toyah was a band, not a solo act – like Alice Cooper before them, having a band named after the lead singer was always going to lead to confusion about creative ownership and band status. The EP was the first try-out for the new line-up and producer Nick Tauber and gave them a fresh direction.
The lead track was a commercial, if ethereal number – far removed from anything we might call ‘punk’. It’s keyboard-heavy, though not in the synth-pop, New Romantic style of its 1981 contemporaries – if anything, it feels like prog rock’s more commercial moments. Not for nothing did Tauber end up producing Marillion – this could easily fit with their poppier moments. It’s also hook-driven and infectious – and it feels like a great introduction to the album, where it is given a slightly meatier, rockier mix and opens side two.
I want to Be Free calls back to punk rebellion, maybe a bit too much at points – but its message of individualism and lightweight anarchy is good-hearted fun. Essentially, it’s the most ‘pop’ thing on the album and is an interesting choice as the opener. It doesn’t really set the mood for the rest of the record, but equally, I can’t think where else it could go. Having it as the opening song perhaps allows the record to get it out of the way – which sounds more dismissive than I intend.
It’s a great little pop song in its own right but it perhaps belongs somewhere else. I miss the days when bands treated and released singles and albums as entirely different things, recognising that what works on one format might not work on another.
The album is broken into two halves – two sides, as we used to have. Once Upon a Time and Happy Ever After? are not necessarily that separate but there is definitely the whiff of the concept album here. Whether that is by design or coincidence is open to question but there is a definite thematic style running through here, a sci-fi-influenced post-prog experimentalism showing that Toyah was far from a mere pop act at this point. Track two, Obsolete, is the punkiest thing here in terms of being a loud, fast, aggressive tune – after that, things get decidedly odd.
You have to wonder what the pop kids who bought the album on the back of the hits made of tracks like Pop Star (which, despite the title, is defiantly removed from anything resembling pop music) or the weirdly discordant Elocution Lesson, a track that still sounds unlike anything else that you’ve heard – well, maybe not anything, but your comparisons will nearer acts like Diamanda Galas than anything in the charts at the time.
Jungles of Jupiter is an infectiously bouncy slice of space rock, diving deep into the fantasy scenarios of Hawkwind and their fellow astral travellers as well as the spaced-out themes of a lot of prog. Look, I know I keep mentioning progressive rock here but it’s inescapable. Whether Toyah was consciously aware of it or not (and Willcox admits to being a huge Tolkein fan in the booklet notes, so reach your own conclusions), this is much closer to prog than punk.
It might be the prog of the 1980s, which was always more song-structured than the more indulgent experimentation of the 1970s, but still. Is it too much to say that this album was probably a huge influence on that second wave of progressive rock that emerged shortly after this album came out? I think not.
There’s a fair amount of tribal beats at work through this album, most notably on Masai Boy, a track that would doubtless be seen as cultural appropriation or such these days rather than the character study that it is. It feels like one of the weaker moments here, to be honest – and I have to say that white Western songs about the African tribal experience rarely come across well.
However, it sets up a warrior theme for side two that continues with the moody Marionette and the bleak Demolition Men adding to the futuristic dystopian theme that has run through the album – this might be an LP offering visions of the future, but that future doesn’t seem to be a particularly bright one.
Willcox, of course, was an actor as well as a singer – and you can feel the two sides of her career blurring across this album, with dramatic readings of the texts throughout. She’s not a classically good singer – but she’s perfect for this material, adding a sense of the theatrical to the album. On that note, we should mention the impressive stereo mix that includes gasps, crashes and other sound effects that make the whole thing seem intriguingly cinematic.
The two sides end with tracks that are a conscious reflection: I Am and We Are, statements of identity that move from the individualism that began with I Want to be Free to a collective statement of rebellion against a controlling, violent world. We Are returns the album to a world of pop beats and (literal) escapism after taking us on a surprisingly dark journey.
The new edition of the album includes the original Four from Toyah EP, which features non-album tracks like War Boys – a live favourite that might have been a better choice for the album than Masai Boy if a track about war boys was required – and Angels & Demons. There are also B-sides and tracks from a Flexipop disc. Disc Two has the Thunder in the Mountains single and its B-sides – another hit single that seemed a step into the pop world at the time but now feels suitably anthemic (so ideal for inclusion here, you might say) – as well as a 1981 BBC In Concert six-track live recording from the Paris Theatre in London, alongside instrumentals and outtakes.
The DVD disc on the album has new interviews and new performances of the hits, promo videos and TV performances on Top of the Pops, Something Else and those pesky kid’s shows mentioned earlier. If you go for the luxury edition that comes with two vinyl LPs, you also get a third CD of instrumentals, tough cuts and outtakes. If there is anything left from the album sessions after this, I think we can safely say that you don’t need it.
Anthem is, without question, a great album – one that has probably been overlooked by a lot of people who would love this simply because of who recorded it. Toyah – as a band or a solo artist – continues to be a line in the sand for some people, an act not to be taken seriously. We might think that Willcox dug a hole for herself with a shift from fronting a band to being a solo artist (or at least someone widely perceived as such) playing increasingly throwaway pop that would only ever have a short shelf life – but that was long after this album and plenty of other acts have done worse and been forgiven, even eulogised by fans and critics.
It’s tempting to think that some people still have a problem with the theatrical female singer and her extravagant hairstyles – but that is surely impossible in this day and age. More likely is that no one can get past the idea of Toyah as pop punk and refuse to even listen to the albums – and isn’t that a little sad? They’ll never know what they’re missing, but it’s their loss. For everyone else – we very much suggest picking this up. If you think you know what Toyah was from the hit singles, you’ll be in for quite a surprise.
* These were men – mostly men – in their early thirties whose careers were barely a decade old. Such was the ruthlessness of youth culture at the time.
David Flint
Goldmine September 2022
This is it — the big one, both in commercial terms and, compared to previous releases in Toyah's reissue series, packaging, too. Anthem was Ms Wilcox’s fourth album, but it was home, too, to her greatest single hits yet — and if you only need one super deluxe early '80s album, this might well be it.
Disc one here is the original album; disc three is a DVD stuffed with promos and TV appearances; discs two and four add in the outtakes, demos, remixes, backing tracks and live cuts. Including the nine bonus tracks appended to the album itself, and four more on tucked away elsewhere, there’s some 40 largely unreleased performances to get your teeth into.
Plus the album on picture disc, a 12-inch mini album and a four track 7-inch EP. Which can, if you wish, be slimmed down to a simple 2CD + DVD package, or reduced even further to a gold colored LP of Anthem alone. In every guise, Anthem shines brightly.
The most confident sounding of Toyah’s early albums, if not the most unexpected (that remains her debut), Anthem was the sound of Toyah finally finding her direction. The songs are generally stronger than before, the band is definitely tighter, and her voice feels more controlled, without losing an iota of its original idiosyncrasy.
Indeed, though her detractors might say that Toyah mauled as many eardrums as she melted, for a time she felt unstoppable. Her fans were certainly out there in droves, and she seemed forever to be on TV (from the BBC alone, seven different period performances are included on the DVD).
“I Want To Be Free” reached No. 4 on the singles chart, “Thunder in the Mountain” made No. 8… she even pulled an old fashioned extended play EP into the Top 5, as Four From Toyah kicked off with the eternal earworm of “It’s a Mystery.” The album itself made No. 2, and still stands among the most courageously ambitious LPs of its day, its two sides (subtitled Once Upon a Time and Happy Ever After) offering contrasting visions of a self-contained art exhibition, viewed from the ruins of the post-punk dystopia.
Writing Toyah off as “quirky,” as some journalists tried, was the coward’s way out, and it’s fascinating to discover, 40 years on, that Anthem still takes that same insoluble grip upon the imagination. In fact, the bonus material (especially six cuts taped for a BBC Radio concert) only tighten its grasp even further.
Dave Thompson
Velvet Thunder 3.10.202
With this 2CD/DVD set, the deluxe Toyah reissue campaign from Cherry Red reaches 1981 – with an amazing four releases having spanned the previous two years from 1979. Anthem, the third studio album, was both the mainstream breakthrough and simultaneously an album which almost didn’t get made. Following the previous year’s live album Toyah! Toyah! Toyah!, the band (which we must remind ourselves, was itself named ‘Toyah’, in much the same way as ‘Alice Cooper’ was originally the band name as well as the frontman) fell apart, leaving just Toyah herself and creative lynchpin guitarist Joel Bogen. A short-lived band was assembled but quickly fell apart again after not really working out, and it seemed as if Toyah, the band, might be done.
Toyah herself almost became the full-time vocalist with the band Blood Donor, who had the original version of It’s A Mystery in their repertoire, but after a few demo recordings that didn’t come to fruition. Nick Tauber, recruited as producer again after his work on the live album, pulled together a new crew along with Bogen, comprising bassist Phil Spalding, keyboardist Adrian Lee and future Saxon drummer Nigel Glockler.
The new line-up recorded and released the four-track EP Four From Toyah early in 1981, with It’s A Mystery as its lead track, and the record’s unexpected massive success ensured the would not look back from that point on.
The album Anthem, released later in the year, became Toyah’s biggest seller to this point by some profound distance, thanks in no small part to both It’s A Mystery and also I Want To Be Free preceding the album’s release as top ten singles. It is also the album with which I personally entered the Toyah orbit back then as, in 1982, as a confirmed prog rock fan with only a smattering of Toyah’s hits to my knowledge, I heard that Marillion had elected to use Nick Tauber as producer having been impressed by his work on Anthem and, my curiosity piqued, I decided to investigate.
What I found pulled me in to investigate the rest of the catalogue, both past and future, as Anthem is a remarkable record. Straight away it must be said that, contrary to many people’s expectations from the hit singles (particularly I Want To Be Free), Anthem is in no way a commercialisation or any form of ‘sell-out’ of the previous wild experimentalism of the first two albums. It is merely pulled into sharper focus and tied to more consistently excellent songwriting.
Having said that, the record does announce itself a little misleadingly to casual listeners as it leads off with I Want To Be Free. While still an excellent single, and one which it is difficult to avoid singing along to, it is the closest to straight ‘pop’ on the album. Following that up, however, we hit the real deep-cut meat of the release, with the driving and insistent Obsolete giving way to one of the album’s most avant-garde moments, the decidedly misleadingly-titled Pop Star, which is anything but.
Harking back to the heady mix of ‘art-rock’ and post-punk which ran through the Sheep Farming In Barnet album in particular, it is a jarring and unnerving track which must have confused the buyers from the Top Of The Pops audience no end! Still, at least it will have prepared them for the following Elocution Lesson, which is deliciously sinister and menacing.
When those teen popsters reached this one, lyrics such as ‘The door is a whore, and it’s open wide / Naked as the beast, we feast inside’ must have made them feel a long way from ‘So what if I dye my hair’, only three tracks ago! Next up we get the mix of ‘white reggae’ and soaring chorus which is the brilliant Jungles Of Jupiter, more accessible but still a long way from simplistic chart-friendly song construction, before what was the first side of vinyl ends with I Am – breathy, whispered, intimate and, again, slightly unnerving in its hypnotic mantra effect. It’s a great side of vinyl. But a better one was to come.
The old second side opens with the monster hit It’s A Mystery. A deceptively complex and intricate song instrumentally, it manages to fuse that with mature and thoughtful lyrics and a chart sensibility which made it a perfect hit single. It’s a slightly different version to the single, but not overwhelmingly so unless you listen for it. Masai Boy follows this, a brave and creditably successful attempt to invoke a reflection of authentic African tribal beliefs and ritual chanting.
It could have been awkward in other hands, but they make it work extremely well. Next up, Marionette, is possibly the album’s standout moment – allegedly written about Margaret Thatcher in the guise of malignant and controlling puppet-master, it has a huge chorus which could satisfy the most demanding heavy rock fan. You could call it a ‘power ballad’, but you would be doing it a grave disservice to do so.
Lyrically, it has always bothered me slightly that the ‘marionette’ of the song, which ‘pulls the strings’, seems wrong, as the marionette would, in general usage be the puppet itself rather than the puppeteer, but since ‘The Marionettist pulls the strings’ would sound clumsy, it is one of those examples where the sound and the effect outweighs the pedantic examination.
It remains one of Toyah’s most underrated and overlooked songs, and is a genuine classic. The powerful Demolition Men, all dystopian lyrical imagery and darkly claustrophobic atmosphere, leads into the final track, the joyous release of We Are, which apparently was considered as a single release, and really should have been. There is, to my mind, little doubt that it could have easily cracked the top ten, yet once again there is no lack of depth, as it brings the album to a brilliant conclusion.
The disc concludes with a tremendous run of bonus tracks, as we get the whole of the Four From Toyah EP, including the single version of It’s A Mystery, along with the two B-sides of I Want To Be Free (Walkie Talkie and Alien) as well as two tracks from a magazine cover-mount flexidisc in the shape of For You and the excellent Sphinx. The EP is particularly noteworthy, consisting as it does of four consistently excellent tracks, with War Boy, the darkly anti-nuclear Revelations and the standout Angels And Demons all marvellous to have collected here.
As with all of these editions though, there is much more beyond that first disc. The second CD here is stuffed full of goodies, beginning with all three tracks from the non-album single Thunder In The Mountains. From there it only gets better, with a full 35-minute, six-song BBC live broadcast from the Paris Theatre recorded in April, a month before the album’s release.
It’s a remarkable, if frustratingly brief set. War Boys and Angels And Demons are great additions, while there is room for a fine version of the debut album’s Neon Womb. The crowd favourite Danced is perhaps a slightly subdued rendition, but the final two tracks are astonishing. The version of It’s A Mystery here blows every other recording of it I’ve ever heard out of the water, only a couple of months after its release and still sounding incredibly fresh.
Taken at a faster pace and walking an edgy tightrope of energetic abandon and tight musical precision, it’s utterly definitive. The finale of the broadcast is, of course, Ieya, and what a run through this is! Introduced jokingly by Toyah as being ‘an hour long version, to frighten the BBC who want us to only do 35 minutes’, what we get may be substantially shorter than that, but nonetheless is slung out with such force that one feels it could have gone on for that full hour and still not overstayed its welcome.
The broadcast is a brilliant find, and also raises a smile midway through, just before Danced, when Toyah comments that she believes time ago, but I don’t believe even 40 years ago that a trek of 30 miles or so required a compass and
a team of sherpas ...
Following this on the disc are a series of seven instrumental tracks, recorded during and after the album sessions. Four of these make the album, while three others, titled Joel & Phil, Turkish Delight and Television, are unused yet full of potential. Normally, instrumental versions of otherwise released songs are skippable at best, but there is an exception here in the form of the extended instrumental take of It’s A Mystery, which is a revelation to listen to.
Shorn of the vocals which are unavoidably the usual focal point, it is fascinating to hear the nuances of the backing track, which are so intricate and precise that it makes for an absorbing listen on its own merits.
Not only that, it adds considerable weight to the experience of hearing the finished song again afterwards, as various instrumental contributions become apparent in what they add almost unconsciously to the track. It’s something I would never have expected to be a highlight, and yet it is. All in all, a great disc.
That’s still not all. however, as there is a DVD which rounds up some great vintage TV material, as well as Toyah herself being interviewed about the album in fascinating form. There’s a 2021 semi-acoustic three-song session as well, but the contemporary 1981 stuff includes the promo videos for I Want To Be Free and Thunder In The Mountains (you know the one, the iconic and visually startling chariot ride), but also three Top Of The Pops appearances as well as such diverse slots as I Want To Be Free on the ghastly Cheggers Plays Pop, It’s A Mystery on Swap Shop and finally Thunder In The Mountains and, amazingly, Ieya in a live session on the oft-forgotten ‘made by youths for youths’ BBC2 show Something Else.
There is also a super-deluxe release containing a double vinyl album as well as another CD stuffed with instrumental and other alternative versions for the real collector, but this three-disc edition marks the sweet spot for those wanting the real quality stuff with one eye on their purse strings. As expected, the packaging is impeccably presented, coming as it does in a four-panel digipak foldout together with a sumptuously illustrated and extremely informative booklet, including the thoughts of Toyah herself.
Toyah fans, of course, will find this as essential as all of the releases in this series, but this is, of all the Toyah reissues this far, also recommended to the casual fan. It contains just as much challenging ‘meat’ as the previous albums, but with the familiar hooks which will help less seasoned travellers navigate the truly fascinating outposts. Unreservedly recommended.
Steve Pilkington
LIVE AT DRURY LANE (1981) (REISSUE 2023)
Classic Pop Magazine, May/June 2023
WARRIOR ROCK (LIVE) (1982)
It’s a DOUBLE live album that you can play all in one go! Maybe I’m dreaming. Oh go on, hoot all you like but even with the drawback of Toyah's alarming Top Of The Pops performance still clear in my mind I can safely predict many hours with this to company in my little room. Green light, let’s go ... It's going to make Safari an absolute fortune, the main reason for if existence I should imagine, because that's what all live albums, except bootlegs, are for. Bloated foul smelling things purchased in hotheaded moments, played once and then thrown out two years later. The lot of the live album is not a happy one. But this... this one is different.
It’s released at a curious time in relation to the career step the live album generally represents in most bands' traditional schedules, especially so recently after "Anthem" and "The Changeling". But it does offer alternative versions of many songs that were forged in certain situations (steeped in stillness), and the live experience brings a certain transformation. Such as ...
‘Good Morning Universe’ (hello old fart!). It sounds great, a frisky little nothing that . bids us enter and keeps us well entertained. Where once slop washed over the heads of the, listener, there now exists a freshness and a vital step; definitely not the things of which live albums are normally made. Straight away I am up on my haunches, eager to investigate.
A jaunty ‘Warrior Rock’ and a reasonable ‘Danced’. A vastly improved ‘Jungles OfJupiter’ and a stunning ‘Castaways’. that was always in the realms of dodgy before. And so it goes on! Indeed only a ramshackle "’Thunder In The Mountains’ dribbles through and draws a grimace, the rest just coasts along and builds in power as a celebration of joy, the four sides flying by.
What is a mystery to me, and one which has festered over the last couple of years, is the curious role that guitarist Joel Bogen has in this band. The most stalwart of aides to Toyah, he is capable of startling work but onstage, as this album shows with an accurate portrayal of their sound, he is slowly drifting away from our ears.
Instead of cutting or soaring (as of old), embellishing both strident and smooth passages alike with his invigorations, he now seems content to go ping. I can't understand it. He is, or was, as much a part of Toyah as Toyah herself, but with strangely drum/keyboard dominated sound mixes, the strength is sapped. Next tour he'll stand there minus guitar looking extremely silly. Snap out of it boy. Be Loud. BeProud, etc.
Anyway, there's always the brilliant Willcox vocal staircase for us to enjoy. A cackle and a whoop. A snarl and a sigh. Don’t let her pass you by. There's so much there, but everywhere people pour scorn.
Toyah has a distinctive voice, an unmistakeable fact I would say: a voice rich in capabilities, although a trifle short of emotion in her latest material. The tension jaw that squeezes sharp breaths and the full throttle howl are there to relish. And it won't go away.
On ‘Brave New World’, beautifully infested with echo, she booms away, and then cuts back. On ‘Angel And Me’ it’s a potent yearning in magnificent surroundings (with the pimple on the angel’s nose being the wholly unnecessary backing vocals that come over just a little too Sound Of Music for my liking) and in ‘I Want To Be Free’’ it’s the central core of a slipshod but unavoidable melee.
‘Ieya’ naturally leads things out and tug, tug, tug ... you sense the end. I attended the tour this was recorded on and it remains as something much more than short range nostalgia fodder. It s an alternative "Greatest Hits” from the last two years in the Toyah reign. Even the drum solo (whoops!) is short and leads into a song, so you can nip out top the loo and return just in time for ‘War Boys’.
None of that sneering either, you know you like them really. Tapping your feet as you knit. It's a rare little beast and that’s more than enough for me.
Mumble, mumble, mumble…
Mick Mercer
Melody Maker
1982
It’s a DOUBLE live album that you can play all in one go! Maybe I’m dreaming. Oh go on, hoot all you like but even with the drawback of Toyah's alarming Top Of The Pops performance still clear in my mind I can safely predict many hours with this to company in my little room. Green light, let’s go ... It's going to make Safari an absolute fortune, the main reason for if existence I should imagine, because that's what all live albums, except bootlegs, are for. Bloated foul smelling things purchased in hotheaded moments, played once and then thrown out two years later. The lot of the live album is not a happy one. But this... this one is different.
It’s released at a curious time in relation to the career step the live album generally represents in most bands' traditional schedules, especially so recently after "Anthem" and "The Changeling". But it does offer alternative versions of many songs that were forged in certain situations (steeped in stillness), and the live experience brings a certain transformation. Such as ...
‘Good Morning Universe’ (hello old fart!). It sounds great, a frisky little nothing that . bids us enter and keeps us well entertained. Where once slop washed over the heads of the, listener, there now exists a freshness and a vital step; definitely not the things of which live albums are normally made. Straight away I am up on my haunches, eager to investigate.
A jaunty ‘Warrior Rock’ and a reasonable ‘Danced’. A vastly improved ‘Jungles OfJupiter’ and a stunning ‘Castaways’. that was always in the realms of dodgy before. And so it goes on! Indeed only a ramshackle "’Thunder In The Mountains’ dribbles through and draws a grimace, the rest just coasts along and builds in power as a celebration of joy, the four sides flying by.
What is a mystery to me, and one which has festered over the last couple of years, is the curious role that guitarist Joel Bogen has in this band. The most stalwart of aides to Toyah, he is capable of startling work but onstage, as this album shows with an accurate portrayal of their sound, he is slowly drifting away from our ears.
Instead of cutting or soaring (as of old), embellishing both strident and smooth passages alike with his invigorations, he now seems content to go ping. I can't understand it. He is, or was, as much a part of Toyah as Toyah herself, but with strangely drum/keyboard dominated sound mixes, the strength is sapped. Next tour he'll stand there minus guitar looking extremely silly. Snap out of it boy. Be Loud. BeProud, etc.
Anyway, there's always the brilliant Willcox vocal staircase for us to enjoy. A cackle and a whoop. A snarl and a sigh. Don’t let her pass you by. There's so much there, but everywhere people pour scorn.
Toyah has a distinctive voice, an unmistakeable fact I would say: a voice rich in capabilities, although a trifle short of emotion in her latest material. The tension jaw that squeezes sharp breaths and the full throttle howl are there to relish. And it won't go away.
On ‘Brave New World’, beautifully infested with echo, she booms away, and then cuts back. On ‘Angel And Me’ it’s a potent yearning in magnificent surroundings (with the pimple on the angel’s nose being the wholly unnecessary backing vocals that come over just a little too Sound Of Music for my liking) and in ‘I Want To Be Free’’ it’s the central core of a slipshod but unavoidable melee.
‘Ieya’ naturally leads things out and tug, tug, tug ... you sense the end. I attended the tour this was recorded on and it remains as something much more than short range nostalgia fodder. It s an alternative "Greatest Hits” from the last two years in the Toyah reign. Even the drum solo (whoops!) is short and leads into a song, so you can nip out top the loo and return just in time for ‘War Boys’.
None of that sneering either, you know you like them really. Tapping your feet as you knit. It's a rare little beast and that’s more than enough for me.
Mumble, mumble, mumble…
Mick Mercer
Melody Maker
1982
This is the second live album from Toyah in less than two years and her 6th album altogether. For her size she's very productive - 6 albums and about a dozen singles in just over three years.
"Warrior Rock" was recorded during the last night of Toyah's 1982 summer tour at London's Hammersmith Odeon. The material on this double album is from the last two albums "Anthem" and "The Changeling" and a few songs off singles, which are not included on the albums. There's no new songs. The oldest songs included are "Danced", which first came out a on six track EP in 1979 and "IEYA", which was released as a single before "The Blue Meaning" came out in 1980.
Soundwise this album is so much better than the somewhat scruffy recording two years ago but the song arrangements still sound pretty much the same. Of course they sound a bit "heavier" as is the style right now and synths have been used more.
The band are the same guys who play on the "The Changeling". Guitarist Joel Bogen, who has been there from the very beginning, bass player Phil Spalding and drummer Simon Phillips. Keyboardist Keith Hale has joined the band for this tour.
The band have been getting tighter and tighter as the tour has progressed and by the end of it they sound fantastic. Bogen and Hale takes turn to plays solos. Hale should in fact solo even more as he comes up with some splendid keyboard "trickery", while Bogen tends to stick with the traditional technique of let's make the guitar sound as loud as possible.
In a concert bands tends to make the songs too long by stretching the solos. On this record that does not work as Toyah's songs sound much better as the three minute originals. The songs that work the best are "I Want To Be Free" and "Thunder In The Mountains". Also the song Toyah usually finishes a concert with, "IEYA", does not sound too tedious and remains spectacular because it is so interesting.
You can't call "Warrior Rock" a "best of" because so many good songs are missing but it will defend its place among live albums.
Jorma Jortikka, Soundi (Finland), Issue 3, 1983
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WARRIOR ROCK (LIVE) (1982) (REISSUE 2005)
I have to say first of all that if you're looking for an unbiased review of this album then you'll need to look elsewhere.
You see this is a live double album recorded at London's infamous Hammersmith Odeon in 1982 and I was actually there. At the time it was, without any shadow of a doubt , the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me and if I'm honest it's still up there with the best of them.
It wasn't my very first gig although it was certainly one of the first, but it was my first Toyah gig and in 1982 Toyah was at the very heart of my life ... obsession is an ugly word but in retrospect having 400 or so Toyah press cuttings and pictures on my bedroom wall back then speaks volumes!
I can remember the thrill of buying this album when it was first released ... the very weight of the double vinyl and the new ink smell of the gatefold sleeve, and then the perilous journey home - my heart in my mouth in case I dropped it, scratched the vinyl, bent the corners, left fingerprints on the cover... then getting home and putting the vinyl on the turntable, a rumble a couple of crackles and this...
The album opens with the noise of the crowd chanting for Toyah and then simply exploding as she comes on stage in the wake of strange pulses, sounds and drum rolls... the euphoric rush as 'Good Morning Universe' kicks in still makes the hairs on my neck rise twenty-three years later and I'm instantly drawn into Toyah's tribal world of colour and drama and excitement ...
Immediately the strength and talent of the live band is apparent, notably the contribution of Simon Phillips on drums who puts on a fantastic show, underpinning every second with his precision drumming, and Toyah herself is in great voice - her voice soaring - and evidently enjoying every moment of the night. This is the sound of a band coming together as one and to this day 'Warrior Rock' remains one of my favourite live albums ever.
The title track 'Warrior Rock' is up next, originally a b-side on the 'Brave New World' single, the song is a true call to arms and has been adopted as a clarion call by the Toyah faithful and they welcome it here with open arms and the hysteria mounts as Toyah goes into one of her very greatest tracks 'Danced', a true crowd pleaser.
The mood softens and mellows as Toyah romps through Anthem's 'Jungles Of Jupiter', the obligatory 'It's A Mystery' and The Changeling's 'Castaways' before leading into one of Toyah most overlooked and sublime songs 'Angel & Me' which starts off quiet and fragile and explodes into one of the albums finest moments.
Exhausted after this frenzy we have 'Brave New World' which slows the pace back down and has never sounded more plaintive, the band giving his live version fresh verve and aspect as they add swoops and twirls of their own that showcase the power of this often forgotten single.
I've never really been a fan of 'The Packt' which comes next but Anthem's 'We Are' is a jubilant build-up for the inevitable 'I Want To Be Free' which, complete with audience singalong, brings the excitement to dangerous levels before moving into 'Dawn Chorus' which is another tribal audience singalong number.
Penultimate song 'War Boys' allows Simon Phillips to step into the spotlight opening with an awe-inspiring drum solo which by taking the tribal elements of the song by the scruff of the neck and puts it on a new level and makes this live version an album highlight.
As any Toyah fan knows, a Toyah show has to close with 'Ieya' (it's the law!) and 'Warrior Rock' is no exception, again the band throw in new details and styling and turn an already powerful song into a vast epic and this recording is possibly the best version of the many that are available.
As the album finishes I actually feel drained by the experience, not as draining as actually being there I admit, but this is a record that immediately and effortlessly transports me back to my early teens when nothing was more important than music and no-one in music was more important than Toyah and that's a great feeling...
Briefly I feel like I touched the pure power of music again, and it's exactly those feelings that made me start RememberTheEighties.com in the first place ... Toyah, here's to you, with thanks!
Richard Evans
2005
WARRIOR ROCK (LIVE) (1982) (REISSUE 2024)
Velvet Thunder 22.7.2024
With 1982’s The Changeling just out, and consolidating on the success that the preceding Anthem had brought, Toyah was riding something of a crest of a career wave at the time of the two July 1982 Hammersmith shows captured here.
A string of hit singles had taken her from the experimental, edgy, art-punk beginnings to selling out large theatres with a mass audience, in just under three years, Which isn’t bad progress in anyone’s book, and especially for someone like Toyah, whose albums had never caved in to easy, commercial appeal on the back of the Top Ten hits; even the breakthrough Anthem had featured some very edgy material indeed alongside It’s A Mystery and I Want To Be Free, while The Changeling was a very bumpy ride for the Top Of The Pops-watching casual listeners, with some wilfully challenging music repaying repeated listening (the similarity of the words Changeling and Challenging may be a coincidence, but it’s an apt one).
Add to that the fact that the Toyah band was the strongest line-up yet, with long-standing guitarist and writing partner Joel Bogen joined by Keith Hale on keyboards, Phil Spalding on bass and the vastly experienced Simon Phillips on drums – the latter a really strong addition in particular. The album is available as either a three-disc box containing a host of bonus tracks, or alternatively if just the original album is your preference, there’s a beautifully designed transparent green double vinyl edition. I will be looking at the CD edition for the purposes of this review.
On this 3CD set, the original double album is spread across the first two discs, with the first three vinyl sides on Disc One and the fourth on Disc Two. The remainder is made up of soundcheck audio, tour rehearsals and a host of alternate versions of songs recorded elsewhere on the tour (with three which missed the cut for the original release). There had been excellent live material from Toyah before this – 1980’s Toyah Toyah Toyah (the title later confusingly reused for a compilation) was a raw, high-energy summation of the first two albums, and was a thrilling listen.
The video soundtrack Live At The Rainbow and the since-released Live At Drury Lane both captured the year that Anthem broke the band wide open, and are also excellent live documents. However, if you only want one Toyah live album, to be as close to definitive as you’re likely to get, Warrior Rock is the one. In the Toyah catalogue it’s the Made In Japan, the Space Ritual or the Seconds Out – simultaneously the go-to listen for newcomers and also revered by fans alike.
The choice of material is a very good mix of the crowd-pleasers and the deeper cuts, and the performances are without exception first-rate. For the love of the mainstream, hit single side of Toyah, there is the opening Good Morning Universe, the recent Brave New World, the air-punching Thunder In The Mountains and, of course, the ‘big two’ from Anthem, It’s A Mystery and an extended I Want To Be Free.
Beyond that, however, deeper delights await. Dawn Chorus becomes an unexpected triumph in the live setting, while We Are tees up the pre-encore set closer I Want To Be Free on a riotous note. The Packt, from the recently released The Changeling, seems a brave and risky choice to attempt live, but it emerges with flying colours, outstripping the studio version for drama and menace. Castaways and Angel And Me from the same album also come over well.
For the hardcore, of course the big hitters from the first two albums are present and correct here: a brilliantly played Danced, showcasing just how underrated a guitarist Joel Bogen was and still remains, and of course the final encore of Ieya, the massive outpouring of stream-of-consciousness Necronomicon-referencing invocation, thrown out to the audience over eight or nine rollercoaster minutes. It never gets old, and assumed a place in the Toyah set somewhat akin to Won’t Get Fooled Again for The Who, and it’s just as good as ever here.
Perhaps the only tracks I could have done without are Warrior Rock itself and War Boys, but as they are both rhythmic, tribalistic pieces cut from very similar cloth, that could say more about my preferences than the tracks themselves – neither has ever seemed totally convincing to me, but the crowd love them and they both give Phillips a chance to shine on the drumkit.
That original album alone is probably all the casual listener needs, but the rest of the material is a goldmine for the serious fan. First up is the very welcome live out-take of Street Creature, which was originally cut. Two soundcheck recordings are hit and miss – the nine minute Hammersmith Jam is actually several one or two minute shorter pieces of instrumental improvisation roughly joined together along with the usual cries of ‘One Two’, and I would be surprised to hear of anyone wanting to hear it twice; Good Morning Universe is different however, again done as an instrumental (it would appear Toyah herself may not have been keen on the soundcheck procedure), but fascinating for that very reason as it allows you to hear the deceptive amount of tight and skilful playing going on in an apparently simple tune.
The five tour rehearsal recordings are generally less than essential, but it is interesting to hear Life In The Trees which was dropped from the set for the tour itself.
The remainder of this disc, and the whole of the third, is made up of performances of every song performed on the tour, recorded at different dates around the UK. The great thing about this is that we get recordings of songs which were either dropped by the time of the Hammersmith shows in July which made up the album, or else simply not included in the final tracklist.
Thus, we get bona fide tour live versions of Neon Womb and a superb Bird In Flight, thus representing the early days of Toyah’s career more strongly. Interestingly, Warrior Rock itself, which was included on the album, had been dropped after the first few dates, so for its inclusion on the album it was recorded at the soundcheck before one of the shows, and dropped in with attendant crowd noise – with the bonus tracks we get an actual live take, from an earlier Hammersmith date in June.
It seems very questionable as to why this would have been done for the album, beyond the wish to have the title track included, but even so, putting it back into the set for the show would have made more sense. It is hard to escape the view that Bird In Flight would have been a stronger inclusion. As regards the alternative live recordings in general, they lack the dynamic fidelity of the professionally recorded and mixed album, being cassette recordings from the soundboard – but despite that there are some which one could identify as possibly even superior to the album performances.
There is just one more of the original Safari albums still to come at this point (the highly underrated Love Is The Law, the tour on which I myself saw my first Toyah show), but while the whole reissue series has been excellent so far, Warrior Rock is a contender for the strongest. It’s not far from being a genuine ‘greatest hits live’, as the track listing would make a very reasonable compilation given the original 2LP limit, and there is no track which is definitively inferior to its studio original.
The packaging of the set is excellent, as have been all of these reissues, with new notes added by Toyah herself along with an essay together with plenty of live photos from the tour, including panoramic shots on the digipak foldout, and behind the discs themselves. Perhaps the only misstep is the presence of two pages with the text printed in purple and red against a black background, and hence impossible to read without a 747 landing light and a telescope! Other than that, it’s hard to see how this could have been improved.
Steve Pilkington
I have to say first of all that if you're looking for an unbiased review of this album then you'll need to look elsewhere.
You see this is a live double album recorded at London's infamous Hammersmith Odeon in 1982 and I was actually there. At the time it was, without any shadow of a doubt , the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me and if I'm honest it's still up there with the best of them.
It wasn't my very first gig although it was certainly one of the first, but it was my first Toyah gig and in 1982 Toyah was at the very heart of my life ... obsession is an ugly word but in retrospect having 400 or so Toyah press cuttings and pictures on my bedroom wall back then speaks volumes!
I can remember the thrill of buying this album when it was first released ... the very weight of the double vinyl and the new ink smell of the gatefold sleeve, and then the perilous journey home - my heart in my mouth in case I dropped it, scratched the vinyl, bent the corners, left fingerprints on the cover... then getting home and putting the vinyl on the turntable, a rumble a couple of crackles and this...
The album opens with the noise of the crowd chanting for Toyah and then simply exploding as she comes on stage in the wake of strange pulses, sounds and drum rolls... the euphoric rush as 'Good Morning Universe' kicks in still makes the hairs on my neck rise twenty-three years later and I'm instantly drawn into Toyah's tribal world of colour and drama and excitement ...
Immediately the strength and talent of the live band is apparent, notably the contribution of Simon Phillips on drums who puts on a fantastic show, underpinning every second with his precision drumming, and Toyah herself is in great voice - her voice soaring - and evidently enjoying every moment of the night. This is the sound of a band coming together as one and to this day 'Warrior Rock' remains one of my favourite live albums ever.
The title track 'Warrior Rock' is up next, originally a b-side on the 'Brave New World' single, the song is a true call to arms and has been adopted as a clarion call by the Toyah faithful and they welcome it here with open arms and the hysteria mounts as Toyah goes into one of her very greatest tracks 'Danced', a true crowd pleaser.
The mood softens and mellows as Toyah romps through Anthem's 'Jungles Of Jupiter', the obligatory 'It's A Mystery' and The Changeling's 'Castaways' before leading into one of Toyah most overlooked and sublime songs 'Angel & Me' which starts off quiet and fragile and explodes into one of the albums finest moments.
Exhausted after this frenzy we have 'Brave New World' which slows the pace back down and has never sounded more plaintive, the band giving his live version fresh verve and aspect as they add swoops and twirls of their own that showcase the power of this often forgotten single.
I've never really been a fan of 'The Packt' which comes next but Anthem's 'We Are' is a jubilant build-up for the inevitable 'I Want To Be Free' which, complete with audience singalong, brings the excitement to dangerous levels before moving into 'Dawn Chorus' which is another tribal audience singalong number.
Penultimate song 'War Boys' allows Simon Phillips to step into the spotlight opening with an awe-inspiring drum solo which by taking the tribal elements of the song by the scruff of the neck and puts it on a new level and makes this live version an album highlight.
As any Toyah fan knows, a Toyah show has to close with 'Ieya' (it's the law!) and 'Warrior Rock' is no exception, again the band throw in new details and styling and turn an already powerful song into a vast epic and this recording is possibly the best version of the many that are available.
As the album finishes I actually feel drained by the experience, not as draining as actually being there I admit, but this is a record that immediately and effortlessly transports me back to my early teens when nothing was more important than music and no-one in music was more important than Toyah and that's a great feeling...
Briefly I feel like I touched the pure power of music again, and it's exactly those feelings that made me start RememberTheEighties.com in the first place ... Toyah, here's to you, with thanks!
Richard Evans
2005
WARRIOR ROCK (LIVE) (1982) (REISSUE 2024)
Velvet Thunder 22.7.2024
With 1982’s The Changeling just out, and consolidating on the success that the preceding Anthem had brought, Toyah was riding something of a crest of a career wave at the time of the two July 1982 Hammersmith shows captured here.
A string of hit singles had taken her from the experimental, edgy, art-punk beginnings to selling out large theatres with a mass audience, in just under three years, Which isn’t bad progress in anyone’s book, and especially for someone like Toyah, whose albums had never caved in to easy, commercial appeal on the back of the Top Ten hits; even the breakthrough Anthem had featured some very edgy material indeed alongside It’s A Mystery and I Want To Be Free, while The Changeling was a very bumpy ride for the Top Of The Pops-watching casual listeners, with some wilfully challenging music repaying repeated listening (the similarity of the words Changeling and Challenging may be a coincidence, but it’s an apt one).
Add to that the fact that the Toyah band was the strongest line-up yet, with long-standing guitarist and writing partner Joel Bogen joined by Keith Hale on keyboards, Phil Spalding on bass and the vastly experienced Simon Phillips on drums – the latter a really strong addition in particular. The album is available as either a three-disc box containing a host of bonus tracks, or alternatively if just the original album is your preference, there’s a beautifully designed transparent green double vinyl edition. I will be looking at the CD edition for the purposes of this review.
On this 3CD set, the original double album is spread across the first two discs, with the first three vinyl sides on Disc One and the fourth on Disc Two. The remainder is made up of soundcheck audio, tour rehearsals and a host of alternate versions of songs recorded elsewhere on the tour (with three which missed the cut for the original release). There had been excellent live material from Toyah before this – 1980’s Toyah Toyah Toyah (the title later confusingly reused for a compilation) was a raw, high-energy summation of the first two albums, and was a thrilling listen.
The video soundtrack Live At The Rainbow and the since-released Live At Drury Lane both captured the year that Anthem broke the band wide open, and are also excellent live documents. However, if you only want one Toyah live album, to be as close to definitive as you’re likely to get, Warrior Rock is the one. In the Toyah catalogue it’s the Made In Japan, the Space Ritual or the Seconds Out – simultaneously the go-to listen for newcomers and also revered by fans alike.
The choice of material is a very good mix of the crowd-pleasers and the deeper cuts, and the performances are without exception first-rate. For the love of the mainstream, hit single side of Toyah, there is the opening Good Morning Universe, the recent Brave New World, the air-punching Thunder In The Mountains and, of course, the ‘big two’ from Anthem, It’s A Mystery and an extended I Want To Be Free.
Beyond that, however, deeper delights await. Dawn Chorus becomes an unexpected triumph in the live setting, while We Are tees up the pre-encore set closer I Want To Be Free on a riotous note. The Packt, from the recently released The Changeling, seems a brave and risky choice to attempt live, but it emerges with flying colours, outstripping the studio version for drama and menace. Castaways and Angel And Me from the same album also come over well.
For the hardcore, of course the big hitters from the first two albums are present and correct here: a brilliantly played Danced, showcasing just how underrated a guitarist Joel Bogen was and still remains, and of course the final encore of Ieya, the massive outpouring of stream-of-consciousness Necronomicon-referencing invocation, thrown out to the audience over eight or nine rollercoaster minutes. It never gets old, and assumed a place in the Toyah set somewhat akin to Won’t Get Fooled Again for The Who, and it’s just as good as ever here.
Perhaps the only tracks I could have done without are Warrior Rock itself and War Boys, but as they are both rhythmic, tribalistic pieces cut from very similar cloth, that could say more about my preferences than the tracks themselves – neither has ever seemed totally convincing to me, but the crowd love them and they both give Phillips a chance to shine on the drumkit.
That original album alone is probably all the casual listener needs, but the rest of the material is a goldmine for the serious fan. First up is the very welcome live out-take of Street Creature, which was originally cut. Two soundcheck recordings are hit and miss – the nine minute Hammersmith Jam is actually several one or two minute shorter pieces of instrumental improvisation roughly joined together along with the usual cries of ‘One Two’, and I would be surprised to hear of anyone wanting to hear it twice; Good Morning Universe is different however, again done as an instrumental (it would appear Toyah herself may not have been keen on the soundcheck procedure), but fascinating for that very reason as it allows you to hear the deceptive amount of tight and skilful playing going on in an apparently simple tune.
The five tour rehearsal recordings are generally less than essential, but it is interesting to hear Life In The Trees which was dropped from the set for the tour itself.
The remainder of this disc, and the whole of the third, is made up of performances of every song performed on the tour, recorded at different dates around the UK. The great thing about this is that we get recordings of songs which were either dropped by the time of the Hammersmith shows in July which made up the album, or else simply not included in the final tracklist.
Thus, we get bona fide tour live versions of Neon Womb and a superb Bird In Flight, thus representing the early days of Toyah’s career more strongly. Interestingly, Warrior Rock itself, which was included on the album, had been dropped after the first few dates, so for its inclusion on the album it was recorded at the soundcheck before one of the shows, and dropped in with attendant crowd noise – with the bonus tracks we get an actual live take, from an earlier Hammersmith date in June.
It seems very questionable as to why this would have been done for the album, beyond the wish to have the title track included, but even so, putting it back into the set for the show would have made more sense. It is hard to escape the view that Bird In Flight would have been a stronger inclusion. As regards the alternative live recordings in general, they lack the dynamic fidelity of the professionally recorded and mixed album, being cassette recordings from the soundboard – but despite that there are some which one could identify as possibly even superior to the album performances.
There is just one more of the original Safari albums still to come at this point (the highly underrated Love Is The Law, the tour on which I myself saw my first Toyah show), but while the whole reissue series has been excellent so far, Warrior Rock is a contender for the strongest. It’s not far from being a genuine ‘greatest hits live’, as the track listing would make a very reasonable compilation given the original 2LP limit, and there is no track which is definitively inferior to its studio original.
The packaging of the set is excellent, as have been all of these reissues, with new notes added by Toyah herself along with an essay together with plenty of live photos from the tour, including panoramic shots on the digipak foldout, and behind the discs themselves. Perhaps the only misstep is the presence of two pages with the text printed in purple and red against a black background, and hence impossible to read without a 747 landing light and a telescope! Other than that, it’s hard to see how this could have been improved.
Steve Pilkington
Classic Pop July/August 2024
THE CHANGELING (1982)
Elfin Efficiency
Oppressed by the ordinary - and her own ordinariness - Toyah, bless her, keeps on declaring that the extraordinary exists. Fundamentally good natured, completely non-cranky, a conformist in the sweetest kind of way, the lady Hayot forces upon herself an unlikely confused romantic pessimism "The most merciful thing in the world", she tries to say, "is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents."
All her songs - and they bleed into the world with formidable consistency - are based on the basic lore or legend that this world was inhabited at one time by another race who in practising black magic lost their foothold and were expelled, yet live on outside, ever ready to take possession of this earth again.
Those of you who recognise the saggy skin of HP Lovecraft hanging around Toyah's waist are of course correct: Toyah bursts open and collapses in on herself in a terribly vain attempt to mimic Lovecraft's "guerrilla warfare against civilisation and materialism". Life, she wants so much for everyone to believe, is for her a hideous thing - when really she's truly the content cat.
At times during 'The Changeling' it seems as if Toyah is cultivating a defiant self mockery, as if she is totally aware of her own delightful phoniness - there are glimpses of someone at work setting themselves up as a perverse pop-art object and taking a surrealist delight in watching people's over-serious response to it.
Most of the time, though, it's obvious that Toyah is a daft, happy young girl who is beginning to seriously believe that she has a meaning all of her own - 'the world can be transformed by play acting and ideals.'
Whichever way - cheeky and knowing or simple-minded and desperately over-ambitious - 'The Changeling' by Toyah reaches the type of irresistibility her previous LPs never did: of the second rate new pop entertainers, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Classix Noveaux, it is Toyah that is the most likeable, because her arrogance is beautifully stated and maintained, never limp.
The best song on the record, 'Run Wild, Run Free', is classic Toyah: massively over compensating, done in a way Bauhaus wouldn't know how, and featuring a type of arrogance that doesn't cause titters as it usually does but a strange dizziness: "I'm devious / I'm small / I'm impeccable / I'm a warrior / I'm immaculate / I'm imperial / I'm unique / I'm inscrutable / I'm gonna break free."
Now that's lovely. I could almost believe her.
Paul Morley
NME
1982
Record Mirror, 12.6.1982
THE CHANGELING (1982) (REISSUE, BOX SET 2023)
When an album has the feel of a concept perfectly weaved through it, and yet does not have the final essence that gives it that stamp of recognition, that is the sign of total mastery by the artist, and arguably what might be considered the best album of a career because of it.
Toyah, the undisputed Queen of Birmingham’s gig theatre experience, stepped out of the adulation received for the album Anthem, and perhaps found a different way to express her own feelings, her emotions, and turned the poetry and art within her rage to one which is almost Progressive, beyond verse, it is punk but with an extra emotional drama attached to it.
The Changeling is impressive as it is raw, it is the anger and dichotomy of existence of being a performer and being reserved when in reflection, and in a final bow of the studio group as a whole, it is an album of dramatic finesse that sees the woman from Kings Heath tackle demons with sincerity and heartfelt warrior class.
From the opening of Creepy Room and Street Creature, the scene is set on a combination of songs that growl with infamy and prowl and stalk the emotions of the listener like a panther in darkness in search of prey.
Joel Bogen, Andy Clark, Phil Spalding, and Simon Phillips add heat to the ferocity of Toyah’s vocals and as tracks such as the amazing The Druids, Life In The Trees, Angel & Me, and Castaways play with imagery and language, with determination and fire, and it is glorious to the extreme, and melancholic in its powerful enthused animation.
What came before, whilst intelligent, belligerent, fantastic, was merely a prelude, and arguably provided Ms. Willcox the framing of what was to come, and that insight of moving beyond the trailblazing 70s sensational start is why she has been at the forefront of British musical freedom of expression ever since.
The Changeling is a reminder that we must alter our outlook occasionally if we are to progress, and what a way to frame that feeling but with an album of intense pleasure and feeling.
Rating 9/10
Ian D. Hall
Liverpool Sound and Vision
1.10.2023
The excellent Cherry Red reissue campaign of Toyah’s classic early 1980s catalogue continues here with 1982’s The Changeling, the fourth Toyah studio album in just over three incredibly prolific years. Nowadays it is common for people, particularly those from a prog rock background, to simply regard Toyah as her contemporary incarnation as ‘Mrs Robert Fripp’, and the person responsible for dragging the famously irascible and studiously earnest King Crimson keystone out of his shell and into an ongoing series of light-hearted and often hugely entertaining YouTube video clips of them performing together in a variety of guises.
All of which is fine as far as it goes, but there was far more to her wonderfully creative musical side than that – and this reissue series really ought to bring that to the fore in the public consciousness. Far from being the musical Yin to Fripp’s Yang in those 1980s days, comparison of their respective works reveals as many creative similarities as there are differences.
Following an intensely creative 1981, it would have been a very tempting – and indeed understandable – development for The Changeling to follow a relatively commercial and public-pleasing course. Just a year previously, the album Anthem – and particularly its two hugely successful singles It’s A Mystery and I Want To Be Free – had sent her into the world of mainstream TV and media in an easily marketable guise as a sort of ready-made ‘pop-punk with glam’ persona, with subsequent hits such as Thunder In The Mountains continuing that impression. As that whirlwind year came to an end, however, Toyah and her band (led by her chief songwriting partner and musical soulmate Joel Bogen) had other ideas.
Indeed, not only did Toyah want to go back to the darker, more challenging template of previous works such as 1980’s The Blue Meaning, but she also planned to base the new album conceptually around how the events of 1981 had affected her on a personal level. The resulting album was certainly not the one which the record company executives wanted or expected her to produce, yet despite, or indeed because of that fact, it has remained one of her key creative statements.
Now, given that Toyah had, by this time, become an accomplished and commercially successful act with significant chart success, there was no way this album was going to revert to the end-to-end post-punk-prog experimentalism which marked the Sheep Farming In Barnet debut, or even its astonishing follow up The Blue Meaning. However, the more anticipated direction of leaning to the Thunder In The Mountains / I Want To Be Free / It’s A Mystery template was even further from the truth, as the band actually went further from that idea than the Anthem album had, rather than refining it and making it still more palatable.
For sure, there are great ear-friendly tracks on here – Brave New World, for example, is one of the greatest singles Toyah ever released, while the fan favourite Angel And Me and the lyrically expectation-subverting Dawn Chorus can both lodge themselves into your head without any attendant irritation. That’s an EP worth of good solid yet commercially-savvy music. Elsewhere, however, we go severely off-piste, as the legion of new converts to Toyah fandom surely had their loyalties tested to breaking point with such unsettling sonic mosaics as the opening Creepy Room, the elegantly unhinged The Druids or the dramatic boundary-pushing of The Packt.
Run Wild, Run Free sounds precisely nothing like the fast-paced celebration one might expect in its gently melodic poise, while Street Creature is an almost tribal, urban percussive-driven anthem. This was an exceptionally brave album to produce at the time, a fact which sadly has become all too forgotten over time, with it being almost regarded as a sort of Anthem Part 2, which does it a severe disservice.
This being Cherry Red, however the story doesn’t end with the ten songs on the original album, not even close. The first disc of this 2CD/DVD set adds on eleven bonus tracks, consisting of non-album singles, B-sides and EP tracks, along with a few other curiosities. These are a mixed bag as expected, ranging from the sublime (Good Morning Universe, Stand Proud, In The Fairground and a top-notch alternative version of I Want To Be Free) to the less so (Warrior Rock, Urban Tribesmen and the pointless ‘tour intro’ Go Beserk). A nice round-up for sure, mind you. And good to have the whole of the Four More From Toyah EP in one place.
Disc Two contains 20 tracks of even deeper diving, with the first ten being almost an ‘alternative Changeling‘, with work-in-progress takes of all ten tracks, in sequence, which is very illuminating and food for thought in places. There are also instrumental outtakes and seven home demos by Joel Bogen, several of which can be easily seen as the precursors of final finished pieces. Chariots, for example, is virtually an unchanged run-through for Good Morning Universe, while Piano Ballad lends much to Angel And Me, and as good as Dawn Chorus is, I cannot help but wish it had retained its formative title of Bus Station For Heroes!
Finally there is the DVD, which is an absolute treasure trove of nostalgia, and a reminder of just how dreadful some of the early ’80s ‘pop’ television actually was! After the real ‘meat’ of the disc in the shape of a couple of insightful interviews about the album from this year, and some 2018 unplugged performances, we head into some wild and choppy waters with appearances on such dubious and not-at-all-missed delights as Top Of The Pops Xmas Party, Get Set For Summer and – God help us – a performance of Brave New World on Cheggers Plays Pop!
There are even a couple of songs – including Ieya – on something called Pebble Mill 6.55 Special, which completely passed me by at the time I must add (Pebble Mill At One, I do remember). It’s heady and delightfully entertaining, if sometimes cheese-laden stuff, and an excellent DVD all told.
I know a lot of fans will be eagerly snapping up all of the reissues in this series, and to them I can unequivocally say that this is up to he high standard set so far. In terms of beginners or casual fans, this may not be the easiest album with which to start – of the ones covered so far, Anthem would be the safest bet, while those drawn to the post-punk, spiky early Toyah incarnation would be directed to Sheep Farming In Barnet.
Those wanting some classic material delivered alongside some darker and more challenging fare, however, will be excellently served by this, or indeed 1980’s The Blue Meaning. Either way, this is an excellent way to celebrate what was indeed a Brave New World in 1982 – and remains remarkably relevant and vibrant some 40 years later.
Steve Pilkington
Velvet Thunder
18.12.2023
When an album has the feel of a concept perfectly weaved through it, and yet does not have the final essence that gives it that stamp of recognition, that is the sign of total mastery by the artist, and arguably what might be considered the best album of a career because of it.
Toyah, the undisputed Queen of Birmingham’s gig theatre experience, stepped out of the adulation received for the album Anthem, and perhaps found a different way to express her own feelings, her emotions, and turned the poetry and art within her rage to one which is almost Progressive, beyond verse, it is punk but with an extra emotional drama attached to it.
The Changeling is impressive as it is raw, it is the anger and dichotomy of existence of being a performer and being reserved when in reflection, and in a final bow of the studio group as a whole, it is an album of dramatic finesse that sees the woman from Kings Heath tackle demons with sincerity and heartfelt warrior class.
From the opening of Creepy Room and Street Creature, the scene is set on a combination of songs that growl with infamy and prowl and stalk the emotions of the listener like a panther in darkness in search of prey.
Joel Bogen, Andy Clark, Phil Spalding, and Simon Phillips add heat to the ferocity of Toyah’s vocals and as tracks such as the amazing The Druids, Life In The Trees, Angel & Me, and Castaways play with imagery and language, with determination and fire, and it is glorious to the extreme, and melancholic in its powerful enthused animation.
What came before, whilst intelligent, belligerent, fantastic, was merely a prelude, and arguably provided Ms. Willcox the framing of what was to come, and that insight of moving beyond the trailblazing 70s sensational start is why she has been at the forefront of British musical freedom of expression ever since.
The Changeling is a reminder that we must alter our outlook occasionally if we are to progress, and what a way to frame that feeling but with an album of intense pleasure and feeling.
Rating 9/10
Ian D. Hall
Liverpool Sound and Vision
1.10.2023
The excellent Cherry Red reissue campaign of Toyah’s classic early 1980s catalogue continues here with 1982’s The Changeling, the fourth Toyah studio album in just over three incredibly prolific years. Nowadays it is common for people, particularly those from a prog rock background, to simply regard Toyah as her contemporary incarnation as ‘Mrs Robert Fripp’, and the person responsible for dragging the famously irascible and studiously earnest King Crimson keystone out of his shell and into an ongoing series of light-hearted and often hugely entertaining YouTube video clips of them performing together in a variety of guises.
All of which is fine as far as it goes, but there was far more to her wonderfully creative musical side than that – and this reissue series really ought to bring that to the fore in the public consciousness. Far from being the musical Yin to Fripp’s Yang in those 1980s days, comparison of their respective works reveals as many creative similarities as there are differences.
Following an intensely creative 1981, it would have been a very tempting – and indeed understandable – development for The Changeling to follow a relatively commercial and public-pleasing course. Just a year previously, the album Anthem – and particularly its two hugely successful singles It’s A Mystery and I Want To Be Free – had sent her into the world of mainstream TV and media in an easily marketable guise as a sort of ready-made ‘pop-punk with glam’ persona, with subsequent hits such as Thunder In The Mountains continuing that impression. As that whirlwind year came to an end, however, Toyah and her band (led by her chief songwriting partner and musical soulmate Joel Bogen) had other ideas.
Indeed, not only did Toyah want to go back to the darker, more challenging template of previous works such as 1980’s The Blue Meaning, but she also planned to base the new album conceptually around how the events of 1981 had affected her on a personal level. The resulting album was certainly not the one which the record company executives wanted or expected her to produce, yet despite, or indeed because of that fact, it has remained one of her key creative statements.
Now, given that Toyah had, by this time, become an accomplished and commercially successful act with significant chart success, there was no way this album was going to revert to the end-to-end post-punk-prog experimentalism which marked the Sheep Farming In Barnet debut, or even its astonishing follow up The Blue Meaning. However, the more anticipated direction of leaning to the Thunder In The Mountains / I Want To Be Free / It’s A Mystery template was even further from the truth, as the band actually went further from that idea than the Anthem album had, rather than refining it and making it still more palatable.
For sure, there are great ear-friendly tracks on here – Brave New World, for example, is one of the greatest singles Toyah ever released, while the fan favourite Angel And Me and the lyrically expectation-subverting Dawn Chorus can both lodge themselves into your head without any attendant irritation. That’s an EP worth of good solid yet commercially-savvy music. Elsewhere, however, we go severely off-piste, as the legion of new converts to Toyah fandom surely had their loyalties tested to breaking point with such unsettling sonic mosaics as the opening Creepy Room, the elegantly unhinged The Druids or the dramatic boundary-pushing of The Packt.
Run Wild, Run Free sounds precisely nothing like the fast-paced celebration one might expect in its gently melodic poise, while Street Creature is an almost tribal, urban percussive-driven anthem. This was an exceptionally brave album to produce at the time, a fact which sadly has become all too forgotten over time, with it being almost regarded as a sort of Anthem Part 2, which does it a severe disservice.
This being Cherry Red, however the story doesn’t end with the ten songs on the original album, not even close. The first disc of this 2CD/DVD set adds on eleven bonus tracks, consisting of non-album singles, B-sides and EP tracks, along with a few other curiosities. These are a mixed bag as expected, ranging from the sublime (Good Morning Universe, Stand Proud, In The Fairground and a top-notch alternative version of I Want To Be Free) to the less so (Warrior Rock, Urban Tribesmen and the pointless ‘tour intro’ Go Beserk). A nice round-up for sure, mind you. And good to have the whole of the Four More From Toyah EP in one place.
Disc Two contains 20 tracks of even deeper diving, with the first ten being almost an ‘alternative Changeling‘, with work-in-progress takes of all ten tracks, in sequence, which is very illuminating and food for thought in places. There are also instrumental outtakes and seven home demos by Joel Bogen, several of which can be easily seen as the precursors of final finished pieces. Chariots, for example, is virtually an unchanged run-through for Good Morning Universe, while Piano Ballad lends much to Angel And Me, and as good as Dawn Chorus is, I cannot help but wish it had retained its formative title of Bus Station For Heroes!
Finally there is the DVD, which is an absolute treasure trove of nostalgia, and a reminder of just how dreadful some of the early ’80s ‘pop’ television actually was! After the real ‘meat’ of the disc in the shape of a couple of insightful interviews about the album from this year, and some 2018 unplugged performances, we head into some wild and choppy waters with appearances on such dubious and not-at-all-missed delights as Top Of The Pops Xmas Party, Get Set For Summer and – God help us – a performance of Brave New World on Cheggers Plays Pop!
There are even a couple of songs – including Ieya – on something called Pebble Mill 6.55 Special, which completely passed me by at the time I must add (Pebble Mill At One, I do remember). It’s heady and delightfully entertaining, if sometimes cheese-laden stuff, and an excellent DVD all told.
I know a lot of fans will be eagerly snapping up all of the reissues in this series, and to them I can unequivocally say that this is up to he high standard set so far. In terms of beginners or casual fans, this may not be the easiest album with which to start – of the ones covered so far, Anthem would be the safest bet, while those drawn to the post-punk, spiky early Toyah incarnation would be directed to Sheep Farming In Barnet.
Those wanting some classic material delivered alongside some darker and more challenging fare, however, will be excellently served by this, or indeed 1980’s The Blue Meaning. Either way, this is an excellent way to celebrate what was indeed a Brave New World in 1982 – and remains remarkably relevant and vibrant some 40 years later.
Steve Pilkington
Velvet Thunder
18.12.2023
Classic Pop Magazine, Sept/Oct 2023
LOVE IS THE LAW (1983) (REISSUE 2005)
My passion for Toyah is well documented throughout this website. To me she is a chameleon character who has constantly evolved; from the punky near-jazz experimentation of her early work, through the well known pop-punk years of 'Anthem' , into an altogther darker, artier, gothic place with 'The Changeling' and then onto this album ... 1983's 'Love Is The Law' which is now available on CD for the first time.
It's obviously nearly impossible for me to nominate a favourite Toyah album, but if someone was to really push me then I would probably choose 'Love Is The Law'. Where 'The Changeling' was dark and brooding 'Love Is The Law' is celebratory and upbeat and although when it came out I would have bristled at anyone who tried to dismiss this as 'pop' music, hindsight reveals it to be a great pop album!
'Love Is The Law' gave us two singles - 'Rebel Run' and 'The Vow', the first a solid, pop-rock song that checked all the necessary boxes for a Toyah single - upbeat, singalong and with an undertone of rebellion. A safe choice for a single but still a surprising one given the wealth of stronger tracks available on the album. As far as the charts were concerned it peaked in the twenties and vanished pretty quickly.
'The Vow' is definitely one of the Toyah classics that never was ... an emotionally charged ballad that exhibited a more mature side to Toyah and which showcased her voice to great effect over a wash of strings. It bothered the charts not at all, entering at around fifty and disappearing immediately.
But the singles are only the tip of the iceberg here - this is an album sparkly with great songs, from the searing and plaintive epic rock of 'Broken Diamonds' to the balladry of 'Martian Cowboy' and it's an album that sounds bright and polished and confident, even now it sounds modern and (mostly) contemporary and twenty-two years later I find myself seduced back into the glittering sci-fi world is creates.
I don't know if this will make any sense to anyone else but for me it's an album of light ... the imagery is of stars and planets and space travel, of lights and lasers, of love and yearning over vast star-filled distances. A modern, even futuristic album unlike anything Toyah had done before.
'I Explode' is an irresistable, fizzing, timebomb of a song, it's brash and upbeat and Toyah's voice is fully utilised from the growling pent-up aggression of the choruses to the moment of release where the song takes off and explodes in a flurry of synth tones.
Where some of Toyah's albums seem to feature Toyah using different voices to give the songs drama and tension 'Love Is The Law' s tracks seems to be from one ... one voice exploring futuristic visions with an optimism and enthusiasm that is sometimes absent on Toyah's early work. 'Time Is Ours' is one of my favorite tracks and, along with the sleek hypnotic 'Dreamscape' and 'Remember', sounds sure and confident, comfortable in this new direction.
Toyah herself is is great voice and somehow sounds relaxed and happy ... typical of Toyah the songs are full of drama; slow bits against fast bits, lyrics softly crooned against screams and shouts.
The one track that doesn't quite work for me is the slightly dischordant 'Rebel Of Love' which sounds like a hangover from the more angst-charged 'Changeling' and seems out of place on this sleek album.
This CD edition of 'Love Is The Law' also features five bonus tracks ... one single, 'Be Proud Be Loud (Be Heard)' which bridged the period between 'The Changeling' and 'Love In The Law' but was never included on a studio album, with it's b-side 'Laughing With The Fools' and the b-sides of 'Rebel Run' and 'The Vow', all strong tracks in themselves which make this a fine album with decent extra tracks and no fillers.
There was once a point in my life where I knew these songs so well I didn't actually need to play them ... I could just think of them and hear them in my head, and although that time has now gone I've already played this CD edition enough times to start to think of these songs as old, and very good friends who I know I will never lose touch with again!
Richard Evans
2005
MINX (1985) (REISSUE 2005)
It's a strange thing to be a fan ... once you've nailed your colours to a particular mast it's very difficult to be objective and back in 1985 when Toyah released 'Minx' I was perhaps at the height of my obsession with her and her music, but even then I knew that 'Minx' wasn't the album I wanted it to be and now, twenty years later it's an uneasy listening experience...
The album kicks off postively enough, rattling through 'Soldier Of Fortune, Terrorist Of Love' which neatly bridges the gap bewteen 'Minx' and preceding album 'Love Is The Law', but the pace falters with 'Don't Fall In Love (I Said)' which to my ears is still a disappointment even now, all these years after the original release ... it's a pleasant enough track but isn't 'pleasant' a bit of a dirty word? It's a track that sounds like all traces of personality, passion and excitement have been meticulously removed in order to leave a track that is likely to appeal to the widest possible audience.
The result in fact is a track that is sadly bland, middle of the road and tame, but likely to be utterly inoffensive to the widest possible audience. Things don't improve markedly with the next track - and second single - 'Soul Passing through Soul', similarly polished to a high sheen of production this is a track with every production device known to man - saxophones, chimes, and liberal use of what sounds like those shakers and scrapers that used to be the staple instrument in junior school music lessons - set to maximum and any true soul or grit set to minimum.
It's a relief therefore when things pick up massively with 'Sympathy', a slow, searing and impassioned song, dripping with strings which features perhaps Toyah's best vocal performance and which benefits from such shiny eighties production ... one of Toyah's best torch-song moments for sure.
'I'll Serve You Well' sees Toyah on more familiar ground musically and lyrically (it's about S&M) and is probably my favourite Minx track - the production here is still polished but there is a starkness to it which gives the track depth and substance which makes Toyah's tense, clipped delivery shine.
The next track 'Over Twenty-One' I'm going to skip ... it's my second to least favourite Toyah track ever (pipped to the post only by 'Love's Unkind' on the next album, 'Desire', in case you were wondering) and given the strength of some of the project's b-sides (more of them later) I still can't believe that this track ever made it onto the album.
Thank god then for 'All In A Rage' which is a fantastic upbeat track and a welcome moment where Toyah's middle-of-the-road mask slips and she gleefully careers through one of the albums true hightlights.
'Space Between The Sounds', with it's faux-mystical pretentious lyrics, and darkly swirling atmospherics could be something from 'The Changeling'... in the (excellent) sleevenotes Toyah readily acknowledges the pretentions of the song, but I liked it then and I think it has stood the test time better than many of the other tracks here.
Alice Cooper's 'School's Out' is next ... not a terrible version but just a weird song to include - it sounds odd in the context of the album and unfortunately it's a bit of a karaoke version with Toyah seeming to give little of herself to the performance which makes the experience rather flat and uncomfortable.
The third single to be taken from 'Minx' comes next. 'World In Action' is to my mind one of the strongest tracks here and would have made a great lead single ... it's distictively Toyah with it's theme of alienation and futurism, but it's an updated version of the Toyah people would have expected at that time.
The production is rockier and slightly grittier than much of the album and the pop-rock delivery would have certainly made it a more palatable single for Toyah's fanbase than 'Don't Fall In Love'.
A version of Latin Quarter's 'America For Beginners' is next and it's great ... precise, measured vocals and lush, minimal backing makes it a slightly unnerving, menacing and eerie listening experience. 'Vigilante' then relaxes the mood and is an enjoyable closer to the original album.
That this release is an expanded version of 'Minx' allows Toyah to present some of the strongest b-sides and bonus tracks of her career - 'Snow Covers The Kiss' the b-side to 'Don't Fall In Love' could so easily have been the single that Toyah's fanbase wanted to hear, like 'World In Action' it's distictively Toyah, but an updated version, ditto really for 'Kiss The Devil' also a b-side to 'Don't Fall In Love', both these tracks owing more perhaps to the 'Love Is The Law' project than the more grown-up 'Minx' campaign which is perhaps why although they are without a doubt strong tracks in their own right they didn't make the final album tracklisting.
Twelve-inch versions of the three singles make up the rest of the bonus material presented here - 'Don't Fall In Love' and 'Soul Passing Through Soul' both benefit from the extra room to breathe that the format allows, but it's 'World In Action' that pushes the 12" format the furthest, the two mixes presented here each taking the song to new heights and fuelling my opinion that this could have been a better first single choice.
'Minx' is the sound of Toyah at a career crossroads - and you can almost hear the tension between the two directions crackle across the album; whether to deliver the fan-friendly album that would perhaps be the safer option, or to persue a wider audience that would take her to new career heights, albeit as a slightly different kind of artist. Ultimately though the album fails on both counts and is a compromise left uncomfortably struggling somewhere between the two.
A worthwhile release for collectors, the packaging is excellent, the sleevenotes are interesting and entertaining and it does feature some great tracks, but this album made me uncomfortable for Toyah when it came out and I have to say it still makes me uncomfortable now...
Richard Evans
2005
SEE ALSO: SOLO BOX SET (2020) ↓
MINX (1985) (REISSUE 2024)
My passion for Toyah is well documented throughout this website. To me she is a chameleon character who has constantly evolved; from the punky near-jazz experimentation of her early work, through the well known pop-punk years of 'Anthem' , into an altogther darker, artier, gothic place with 'The Changeling' and then onto this album ... 1983's 'Love Is The Law' which is now available on CD for the first time.
It's obviously nearly impossible for me to nominate a favourite Toyah album, but if someone was to really push me then I would probably choose 'Love Is The Law'. Where 'The Changeling' was dark and brooding 'Love Is The Law' is celebratory and upbeat and although when it came out I would have bristled at anyone who tried to dismiss this as 'pop' music, hindsight reveals it to be a great pop album!
'Love Is The Law' gave us two singles - 'Rebel Run' and 'The Vow', the first a solid, pop-rock song that checked all the necessary boxes for a Toyah single - upbeat, singalong and with an undertone of rebellion. A safe choice for a single but still a surprising one given the wealth of stronger tracks available on the album. As far as the charts were concerned it peaked in the twenties and vanished pretty quickly.
'The Vow' is definitely one of the Toyah classics that never was ... an emotionally charged ballad that exhibited a more mature side to Toyah and which showcased her voice to great effect over a wash of strings. It bothered the charts not at all, entering at around fifty and disappearing immediately.
But the singles are only the tip of the iceberg here - this is an album sparkly with great songs, from the searing and plaintive epic rock of 'Broken Diamonds' to the balladry of 'Martian Cowboy' and it's an album that sounds bright and polished and confident, even now it sounds modern and (mostly) contemporary and twenty-two years later I find myself seduced back into the glittering sci-fi world is creates.
I don't know if this will make any sense to anyone else but for me it's an album of light ... the imagery is of stars and planets and space travel, of lights and lasers, of love and yearning over vast star-filled distances. A modern, even futuristic album unlike anything Toyah had done before.
'I Explode' is an irresistable, fizzing, timebomb of a song, it's brash and upbeat and Toyah's voice is fully utilised from the growling pent-up aggression of the choruses to the moment of release where the song takes off and explodes in a flurry of synth tones.
Where some of Toyah's albums seem to feature Toyah using different voices to give the songs drama and tension 'Love Is The Law' s tracks seems to be from one ... one voice exploring futuristic visions with an optimism and enthusiasm that is sometimes absent on Toyah's early work. 'Time Is Ours' is one of my favorite tracks and, along with the sleek hypnotic 'Dreamscape' and 'Remember', sounds sure and confident, comfortable in this new direction.
Toyah herself is is great voice and somehow sounds relaxed and happy ... typical of Toyah the songs are full of drama; slow bits against fast bits, lyrics softly crooned against screams and shouts.
The one track that doesn't quite work for me is the slightly dischordant 'Rebel Of Love' which sounds like a hangover from the more angst-charged 'Changeling' and seems out of place on this sleek album.
This CD edition of 'Love Is The Law' also features five bonus tracks ... one single, 'Be Proud Be Loud (Be Heard)' which bridged the period between 'The Changeling' and 'Love In The Law' but was never included on a studio album, with it's b-side 'Laughing With The Fools' and the b-sides of 'Rebel Run' and 'The Vow', all strong tracks in themselves which make this a fine album with decent extra tracks and no fillers.
There was once a point in my life where I knew these songs so well I didn't actually need to play them ... I could just think of them and hear them in my head, and although that time has now gone I've already played this CD edition enough times to start to think of these songs as old, and very good friends who I know I will never lose touch with again!
Richard Evans
2005
MINX (1985) (REISSUE 2005)
It's a strange thing to be a fan ... once you've nailed your colours to a particular mast it's very difficult to be objective and back in 1985 when Toyah released 'Minx' I was perhaps at the height of my obsession with her and her music, but even then I knew that 'Minx' wasn't the album I wanted it to be and now, twenty years later it's an uneasy listening experience...
The album kicks off postively enough, rattling through 'Soldier Of Fortune, Terrorist Of Love' which neatly bridges the gap bewteen 'Minx' and preceding album 'Love Is The Law', but the pace falters with 'Don't Fall In Love (I Said)' which to my ears is still a disappointment even now, all these years after the original release ... it's a pleasant enough track but isn't 'pleasant' a bit of a dirty word? It's a track that sounds like all traces of personality, passion and excitement have been meticulously removed in order to leave a track that is likely to appeal to the widest possible audience.
The result in fact is a track that is sadly bland, middle of the road and tame, but likely to be utterly inoffensive to the widest possible audience. Things don't improve markedly with the next track - and second single - 'Soul Passing through Soul', similarly polished to a high sheen of production this is a track with every production device known to man - saxophones, chimes, and liberal use of what sounds like those shakers and scrapers that used to be the staple instrument in junior school music lessons - set to maximum and any true soul or grit set to minimum.
It's a relief therefore when things pick up massively with 'Sympathy', a slow, searing and impassioned song, dripping with strings which features perhaps Toyah's best vocal performance and which benefits from such shiny eighties production ... one of Toyah's best torch-song moments for sure.
'I'll Serve You Well' sees Toyah on more familiar ground musically and lyrically (it's about S&M) and is probably my favourite Minx track - the production here is still polished but there is a starkness to it which gives the track depth and substance which makes Toyah's tense, clipped delivery shine.
The next track 'Over Twenty-One' I'm going to skip ... it's my second to least favourite Toyah track ever (pipped to the post only by 'Love's Unkind' on the next album, 'Desire', in case you were wondering) and given the strength of some of the project's b-sides (more of them later) I still can't believe that this track ever made it onto the album.
Thank god then for 'All In A Rage' which is a fantastic upbeat track and a welcome moment where Toyah's middle-of-the-road mask slips and she gleefully careers through one of the albums true hightlights.
'Space Between The Sounds', with it's faux-mystical pretentious lyrics, and darkly swirling atmospherics could be something from 'The Changeling'... in the (excellent) sleevenotes Toyah readily acknowledges the pretentions of the song, but I liked it then and I think it has stood the test time better than many of the other tracks here.
Alice Cooper's 'School's Out' is next ... not a terrible version but just a weird song to include - it sounds odd in the context of the album and unfortunately it's a bit of a karaoke version with Toyah seeming to give little of herself to the performance which makes the experience rather flat and uncomfortable.
The third single to be taken from 'Minx' comes next. 'World In Action' is to my mind one of the strongest tracks here and would have made a great lead single ... it's distictively Toyah with it's theme of alienation and futurism, but it's an updated version of the Toyah people would have expected at that time.
The production is rockier and slightly grittier than much of the album and the pop-rock delivery would have certainly made it a more palatable single for Toyah's fanbase than 'Don't Fall In Love'.
A version of Latin Quarter's 'America For Beginners' is next and it's great ... precise, measured vocals and lush, minimal backing makes it a slightly unnerving, menacing and eerie listening experience. 'Vigilante' then relaxes the mood and is an enjoyable closer to the original album.
That this release is an expanded version of 'Minx' allows Toyah to present some of the strongest b-sides and bonus tracks of her career - 'Snow Covers The Kiss' the b-side to 'Don't Fall In Love' could so easily have been the single that Toyah's fanbase wanted to hear, like 'World In Action' it's distictively Toyah, but an updated version, ditto really for 'Kiss The Devil' also a b-side to 'Don't Fall In Love', both these tracks owing more perhaps to the 'Love Is The Law' project than the more grown-up 'Minx' campaign which is perhaps why although they are without a doubt strong tracks in their own right they didn't make the final album tracklisting.
Twelve-inch versions of the three singles make up the rest of the bonus material presented here - 'Don't Fall In Love' and 'Soul Passing Through Soul' both benefit from the extra room to breathe that the format allows, but it's 'World In Action' that pushes the 12" format the furthest, the two mixes presented here each taking the song to new heights and fuelling my opinion that this could have been a better first single choice.
'Minx' is the sound of Toyah at a career crossroads - and you can almost hear the tension between the two directions crackle across the album; whether to deliver the fan-friendly album that would perhaps be the safer option, or to persue a wider audience that would take her to new career heights, albeit as a slightly different kind of artist. Ultimately though the album fails on both counts and is a compromise left uncomfortably struggling somewhere between the two.
A worthwhile release for collectors, the packaging is excellent, the sleevenotes are interesting and entertaining and it does feature some great tracks, but this album made me uncomfortable for Toyah when it came out and I have to say it still makes me uncomfortable now...
Richard Evans
2005
SEE ALSO: SOLO BOX SET (2020) ↓
MINX (1985) (REISSUE 2024)
Classic Pop Magazine, Sept/Oct 2024
MAYHEM (1985) (REISSUE 2005)
This weird one is coming out on Cherry Red any day and has deserved a release on CD having long been a collector’s item, originally issued by Safari in the mid-1985 but I must admit that I missed it.
It’s a weird mixture cobbled together. ‘Clapham Junction’ is certainly daftly enjoyable, taking a lightly euphoric spin on her earlier, darker style and it’s a sumptuous opener. Unfortunately ‘Change Of Scenery’ is high-falutin’ garbage. (‘I live in London town, and I like to get around’? Please!)
From Barbara Dickson to an agitated Bonnie Tyler in mere minutes, she crawls through a fluffy ‘Problem Child’ which isn’t a Damned cover. Equally grand in its slick nonsense is ‘You’re My Hero’ all mock-dramatics and wibbly drivel. Given that this gets an airing they should have dug up an old live tape of the days when they apparently covered ‘Freebird’ – I bet that would be hilarious.
‘Cotton Vest’ is older, so these must be the demos. This is flat post-punk doldrums, with far more life than the above. ‘Gaoler’ finds an eager, roaring Toyah, with twitchy guitar, and a rockier feel. ‘Paradise Child’ is an early song with a big commercial hook, which seems odd, timewise.
Toyah blazes through this which is a good indication as why labels were prepared to pounce. ‘Israel’ is slower, with farcical lyrics and delivery, then we tumble into a simple, charming ‘Christmas Carol’ which has nothing Yuleish about it, just chomping keyboards, skinny guitar and odd sounds gliding beneath the woozy vocals.
'The Merchant And The Nubile’ is playfully epic, with ponderous drum tones, and a measured mood which Toyah controls in a masterful, swishing fashion. It gurgles and throbs superbly, leading into a cool demo of ‘Danced’ which starts fresh and innocent and then bounces off into the distance with cute, curly keyboards everywhere and a magnificent vocal performance.
‘I Believe In Father Christmas’? Yes, that thing, done with a simple gloss, passionately. ‘Guilty’ is a bit ropey, sounding like a second-rate ‘Run Wild’, ‘Three Sided Face’ has an angular frothy poise, sidling along sternly, but ‘Island Race’ is quite ghastly, and that’s the point about cobbled together compilations, where the good and bad mix together. Overall the quality shines through and keeps the rubbish is respectful shadows.
Mick Mercer
2005
PROSTITUTE (1988)
As a singer Toyah has been a great actress - straining for effect, jaunty when she wanted to rock. Well, Prostitute could be the start of something else. Dumping pop band and format, she builds on bare rhythm, mostly machine made and jerked around by bursts of found sound, then layers on the vocals.
Being sung at by a whole troupe of Toyahs may seem a fearsome prospect, but the way she whispers, giggles, shrieks and belts it out you'd have to be really scrooged up not to give her an even break.
The Prostitute in question is tart and a wife, but also everyone selling their lives cheap. Although it's a theme both difficult and done before, there's a certain extra frisson to the sexual politics.
And she must be onto something when she can entwine the influences of Dylan and Prince Charles in one lyric about Ghosts In The Universe who are "hiding in the architecture building up big plans, bang to bang designing ... it's cowdung Disneyland".
Q Magazine
1988
SEE ALSO: SOLO BOX SET (2020) ↓
OPHELIA'S SHADOW (1991)
It's been a decade since Toyah Willcox lisped her way hitwards with the likes of 'It's A Mystery' and 'I Want To Be Free'. Since then she has carved out a bizarre showbiz career, appearing almost simultaneously at the National Theatre and on children's ITV, playing Sally Bowles in a West End production of Cabaret (where the orchestra walked out, leaving Toyah to sing her way through the entire show acapella), and becoming a rock wife to Robert Fripp. Meanwhile LPs like 1987's 'Desire' and 1988's 'Prostitute' have slipped out unnoticed and unchartbound.
Clearly, Toyah Willcox has not been idle and said lack of idleness is reflected on her new album. Liberally salted with playing by the lies of Fripp and top pianist Keith Tippett, 'Ophelia's Shadow' is several galaxies away from the clunking sub-Diamond Dogs pop of 'Thunder In The Mountains and its crazy-coloured ilk. 'Ghost Light' and 'The Shaman Says' glide and shimmer in a manner similar to recent work by Kate Bush or even David Sylvian.
Willcox's voice is a more thoughtful instrument than of yore and - despite a far from operatic range - wraps itself effectively around the snakey (and even occasionally African) rhythms of her band's playing and she even feels confident enough to give us a wedge of Hamlet at one point. What these songs are actually about is something of a mystery but the're always slinky and interesting. Future outings may prove fascinating.
Q Magazine
1991
When gifts of musical credibility were being handed out, old Toyah was a fair way down the queue. From her nascent days as brash new waver to the woman warrior who belted out a string of hits in the early '80's, her success was always dogged by critical sniping.
But 'Ophelia's Shadow', her third album for the esoteric EG label, sees her long disenfranchised from the pop mainstream. Gone is the kitsch melodrama of old. 'Ophelia's Shadow' sounds like a marriage of convenience between the vocal eccentricities of Danielle Dax and David Sylvian's ambient soundscapes.
The mood is calm: keyboard and guitar lines weave a subtle, spacious mesh around the songs. On 'Turning Tide' the rhythms reach a CAN-like syncopation. The playing is neat and accomplished throughout but what's missing is a shot of inspiration. There are signposts towards some promising experimental directions, but frustratingly Toyah ends up stuck in a musical cul-de-sac.
The highlight of the whole shebang is pianist extraordinaire Keith Tippett's scintillating coda on 'Lords Of The Never Known'. Unfortunately, it merely underlines what's lacking elsewhere.
Select
1991
We recently received three CD's from the Voiceprint Label, two re-releases and one new album, which span Toyah Willcox's (more serious musical) career. To say I struggled with these albums would be an understatement, but sadly not for the right reasons. Pre-conceptions and bias clouded the issue rather than any appraisal of the music. How could Toyah feature in a serious progressive rock Ezine? How might our readers view the inclusion of her material? Will I ever be taken seriously again?
So when I say that each time one of these CD's found their way into my CD player, I was less than enamoured with the prospect of repeated listenings or even committing my time to evaluating the music. However mindful that the general view of progressive rock is surrounded by ignorance, bias and narrow-mindedness I delved into the music with (hopefully) a more open mind.
Eventually and after much listening, I reached the conclusion that only one of the three albums contained enough "progressive elements" to be of possible interest to our readers - Ophelia's Shadow. I was mindful that it may be viewed that I had selected this album because much of it had been co-written with Robert Fripp, or that it featured fellow King Crimson bass man Trey Gunn and although I cannot discount this as a major factor, it was in fact the material that eventually made my decision - and yes it does sound very much like a King Crimson album albeit with female vocals. Robert Fripp's engaging and uniquely fluid guitar style, off beat rhythms are nicely counterbalanced by Toyah's voice.
The arrangements although instantly recognisable are less aggressive than those employed in KC and again more suited to the Toyah's vocal tones. Toyah's voice works extremely well in the main, my only criticism is when it drifts back to those more commercial 80's phrasings as in Brilliant Day, Prospect and Lords Of The Never Known.
Contrasting this would be the more fluid performance in Ophelia's Shadow, or the more theatrical vocals of The Women Who Had An Affair With Herself. Worth noting here that at the time of Ophelia's Shadow life was somewhat more settled and happier time for Ms Willcox, and this is reflected within the lyrics - gone is the anger of Prostitute, but drawing from her acting and literary skills the words still remain observant and thoughtful.
As with any album that features the writing of Robert Fripp there is no way in which his influence can be disguised and it was therefore difficult to view this as a merely a Toyah solo release - and it does make you wonder whether this album was the pre-cursor to an ongoing 'live' and recording venture. If we add Trey Gunn and Paul Beavis into the melting pot this could well have been an extremely interesting project.
The tracks that appealed least (mentioned above) were those which echoed back to the more commercial 80's vocal performances, with the possible exception of Homeward, with its more unique combination of styles - a funky Camel-like rhythm bordering on a 70's disco groove and with touches of KC's eccentricity. The strongest songs for me were the percussive Turning Tide, The Shamen Says and the title track Ophelia's Shadow.
Briefly before concluding this review, mention of the other two CD's which arrived. The re-released Prostitute (1998) was a landmark album for Toyah full of pent up emotions and lyrically a savage backlash at those who were manipulating not only her career but also intruding upon her private life. Musically I found it to be very indicative of the 80's albeit without the usual crass commercial production and although two tracks were co-written with Robert Fripp I deemed it of little interest to our readers.
The Velvet Lined Shell [EP] her latest offering brings us up to date and sees a maturity of writing style, commercial but with a distinct edge. Instantly recognisable as Toyah but a far cry from the singer I remember. Again the straightforward song structures and overall writing style suggested that this would be of minimal interest to DPRP readers.
Ophelia's Shadow has not been available for quite some time, its re-release marks the return of a pair of albums to Toyah and as part of the "settlement between Robert Fripp and Virgin after a lengthy legal battle between Robert and his former label and management company - the label and Management company shared by Toyah".
In conclusion, it could be all to easy to say that Ophelia's Shadow would mainly be of interest to King Crimson completists, but there is more to this album than just this. Granted a liking for the music of KC would be almost essential if you were to consider purchasing this CD, however, it is an album well worth investigating further. Conclusion: 7 out of 10
Bob Mulvey
Discoveries Magazine
2004
SEE ALSO: SOLO BOX SET (2020) ↓
TAKE THE LEAP! (1993) (REISSUE 2006)
Toyah's 1993 album 'Take The Leap!' is a bit of an oddity in that it's a heady mix of the old and the new, featuring six new songs alongside eight re-recorded versions of classic Toyah tracks. This edition, 'Take The Leap ... Plus!' adds a further four tracks - two demos and two alternative mixes of the tracks presented here - which adds to the general schizophrenic nature of the release.
'Take The Leap!' has only ever been commercially released in Japan although cassette copies were onsale at Toyah's live shows in 1994. I bought one (of course!) so it's good to see this coming out on CD, particularly given the quality of the artwork, the bonus tracks and the excellent sleevenotes.
The six 'new' tracks open the album with 'Now I'm Running' leading the assault and setting the tone for the album as a whole ... this is a rock record, guitar-heavy and a little rough and ready around the edges.
The track also sees Toyah in fine voice and takes some interesting twists and turns along the way. 'Lust For Love' is a more inventive and exciting track which showcases some clever guitar work which sets off Toyah's breathless vocals perfectly, put simply this is a classic Toyah moment!
'Invisible Love' is up next - the second of three love-themed tracks in succession - and although it's not a slow song by any means it takes the pace down a couple of notches and allows Toyah to demonstrate the sweeter and more melodic facets of her voice, offset by a catchy 'where have I heard that before?' chorus and fading to a dramatic and plaintive close.
A salvo of chunky, rock guitar opens 'Name Of Love' which is a a dark and contemporary-sounding song, with effective guitar squiggles and sees Toyah using her voice to great effect as she sings, growls, teases and swoops through a fine performance, another great Toyah moment and further evidence that some ten years after her commercial peak Toyah had lost none of her edge and.
'Winter In Wonderland', perhaps the most accomplished song of the six new tracks, sounds deceptively simple and melodic and Toyah's voice is pure and controlled; a pretty hypnotic performance which showcases yet another facet of Toyah's vocal abilities.
'God Ceases To Dream' completes the set of six new tracks and is easily my favourite of the set. Toyah's vocals sound very controlled - giving the impression that at any moment a torrent of emotion is about to boil over, yet instead of taking that explosive path the song sweeps towards a yearning that reminds me of Toyah's best-known album, 'Anthem'. If I had been in the studio I would have pushed for the track to be maybe a minute shorter, but at the end of the day you can't have too much Toyah!
Toyah's anthemic 'Ieya' - perhaps her definitive song and a true crowd-pleaser - kicks off the selection of re-recorded versions of her classic tracks and vocally it's very similar to previous versions but the band's work on the song, in particular the swirling and juddering guitar, is what updates it and makes this a very worthy version which can stand proudly alongside the many fine versions already out there.
'Waiting', 'Neon Womb', 'Elusive Stranger' and 'Our Movie' dig deep into the pre-'It's A Mystery' Toyah catalogue and it's brilliant to hear them updated so competently and effectively.
The quartet serve as fine reminders of the power and inventiveness of Toyah's early work and her delivery is effortless, confident and proud. Later on the album there's also a great 'Alternate Mix' of 'Waiting' which takes the track in a spikier, vicious and distorted direction which is an effective, unsettling and experimental.
The section of the album dedicated to updating the hits kicks off with fairly pedestrian versions of 'Thunder In The Mountains' and 'I Want To Be Free', Toyah's delivery is faultless but at times, and particularly in the choruses, they lack some of the passion they deserve. The 'Take The Leap!' version of 'It's A Mystery' is much more successful and takes the song in an edgier, less poppy direction, personally I prefer other versions but it's a brave experiment which I think owes a lot to the way Toyah performs the song live although her, to my ears it doesn't quite live up to it's potential.
This album also include another version of 'It's A Mystery' as a bonus track; entitled the Weybridge Mix this takes the song in what I can only describe as a 'baggy' direction ... imagine Toyah singing while the Happy Mondays provide the backing and you'll have an idea of what I mean.
The echoing backing vocals on this version are a nice touch which hint at African influences but it's somehow at odds with the song as a whole but again it's a interesting attempt to take a well-worn classic in a new and creative direction.
'Take The Leap!' also contains demo versions of two new tracks; 'Requite Me' and 'Tears For Ellie', 'Requite Me' is a very stripped back song, almost acoustic in feel which displays a new maturity to Toyah's voice, an impassioned song of warmth and beauty and a brilliant addition to any Toyah collection. 'Tears For Ellie' is another gem, a mid-paced song where Toyah's vocals are layered effectively over echoing beats and piano hooks, offset by dramatic violins which gradually builds momentum. Distinctively Toyah but it's a very different Toyah, a hint of a Toyah to come.
'Take The Leap!' is an oddity of an album, but put into context as a kind of coming-of-age record, the updated versions of old songs bridging the gap to the new songs, it's an essential chapter in Toyah's fascinating and ongoing story.
Richard Evans
2006
Myssstery solved as 1994 Japanese album gets UK release
Toyah's long-lost album is neither a Smile-style tale of artistic exasparation (despite its slightly schizophrenic new and old content) nor, sadly, much of a mystery. All the same, fans will be delighted it's finally seen the light of day.
Originally sold at shows on her 1993 tour as a cassette-only album (simply called Leap!), a CD version was released in Japan the following year, but shelved in the UK in favour of Dreamchild's ambient noodlings.
In contrast, Take The Leap! is straight-ahead (and at times borderline goth) rock, recorded in the wake of a tour with youthful backing band, Friday Forever. The mish-mash album features six (predictably indie) new tunes and eight reworkings of older material, including the ubiquitous I Wanna Be Free and a woefully weak It's A Mystery.
If anything showcases the super-tight backing outfit, it's Toyah herself, whose often weedy vocals don't always fit the music. Things work better on the ambient Requite Me and Tears For Elie, two exceptional demos that appear among this expanded reissue's four bonus tracks.
Steve Adams
Record Collector
2007
SEE ALSO: SOLO BOX SET (2020) ↓
VELVET LINED SHELL (2003)
Fans of Toyah's will already know three of the six songs presented on this mini-album from Toyah's 2002 limited-edition 'Little Tears Of Love' ep, but it's good to see them finally get a more public airing alongside some long awaited new material.
Accompanied by a press release that promises the influences of artists as diverse as Marilyn Manson, Elbow, Mogwai and Nick Cave it is with some trepidation that I first listen to 'Velvet Lined Shell' and fortunately fears are unfounded - those artists may have been influences on Toyah, but the sound sidesteps them and is very much a continuation of Toyah's past rock style.
Opening track 'Every Scar Has A Silver Lining' is a bombastic rock track based around a simple guitar riff, and overlaid by Toyah's distinctive vocal although her voice has deepened since her heady days of pop stardom, is less aerobic in range and has just an edge of the awkwardness of someone trying a little bit too hard to please.
No such criticism for 'Velvet Lined Shell' however; the title track fares much better with a slow and dignified vocal that make the atmosphere far more dangerous and prickly than all the rock energy and attitude of the opener.
'Little Tears Of Love' continues in this vein, vocals breathy and slightly distorted over a staccato guitar backing. 'You're A Miracle' and 'Mother' are the closest tracks to the Toyah-sound of the eighties; 'You're A Miracle' finds Toyah upbeat and in fine voice whereas 'Mother' is a surprisingly fast song that manages to sound slow and passionate. 'Troublesome Thing' rounds off the set with some ponderous and slighly cliched nu-metal guitar riffs saved by a Kate Bush vocal and a strong Toyah chorus.
An interesting addition to the Toyah catalogue, 'Velvet Lined Shell' nonetheless manages to sound like a work in progress - but given time to live and breathe, and with decent production rather than the heavy handed and muddied sound achieved here they could be the start of a very exciting new musical chapter for Toyah.
remembertheeighties.com
SEE ALSO: SOLO BOX SET (2020) ↓
SOLO (BOX SET) (2020)
Classic Pop Magazine, March 2020wearecult 28.2.2020
Toyah Willcox has been a household name since her eponymous band burst onto the UK pop charts in the early 1980s. Juggling her musical career with high profile work as an actress on stage and screen, and a string of television presenting work was both a blessing for her career longevity and a poisoned chalice when it came to her enduring legacy as an artist in her own right.
The release of Solo – the first ever Toyah boxset – is the first step for Willcox and her faithful master of the archives Craig Astley in a bid to right those wrongs.
Compiling most – but crucially not all – of Toyah’s solo albums released since the Toyah band broke up in 1984, alongside a collection of rare and unreleased material, plus a bonus DVD, the release starts a dedicated reissue campaign which continues with standalone coloured vinyl pressings of almost every studio album in the set in March, bringing most of them back into print for the first time in over a decade.
First up is 1985’s Minx – Toyah’s solo debut and her only recording for CBS/Epic Records. The Toyah band had burned brightly since 1978, with multiple top ten hits and the Anthem album narrowly missing out on topping the UK Album Charts in 1981. Yet, by 1983 the general public appeared to be moving on, and singles from that year’s Love is the Law failed to crack the Top 20.
By 1984, Toyah’s primary songwriting partner and band mainstay Joel Bogen had decided to move on, and Willcox began searching for a new contract, very much as a solo artist.
Enter new CBS subsidiary label Portrait. The 26 year old hit maker was a high-profile signing for the fledgling label, and they set about promising larger budgets than Willcox had ever had before for her elaborate ideas. But while the album boasted stunning cover photography from Terence Donovan, Toyah’s own songwriting was relegated to only 50% of the track listing, with a push from the label to crack the elusive US market leading to an enforced songwriting team structure, with a couple of carefully chosen cover versions selected to make up the rest of the material.
The album still contains some magnificent moments – from the haunting string vocal only take on Rare Bird’s Sympathy, to the high-NRG hysteria of the final Willcox/Bogen composition, All In A Rage.
Yet, with a glossy production sheen, the album was absolutely not what the Toyah fait Whilst it’s safe to say that Minx hasn’t dated as well as Toyah’s previous records, thhful had in mind. Initial single Don’t Fall in Love (I Said) stalled in the lower reaches of the top thirty, and subsequent singles missed the Top 40 altogether. Portrait folded shortly afterwards – leaving the album out of print until a reissue in 2005.
Sadly, this was to be a situation that Toyah would find herself in again throughout the following years, thanks to her subsequent signing with EG Records – a company who infamously lost millions of artist royalties in the early 1990s (including those of Toyah’s husband, Robert Fripp), prompting high profile legal battles that kept most of this material out of print until the millennium.
First up was 1987’s Desire (here getting its first ever CD reissue, though a limited red vinyl pressing was released on Record Store Day a few years ago should you wish to complement those new vinyl reissues). The album itself didn’t chart in the UK, though lead single Echo Beach (a cover of the Martha and the Muffins track that’s arguably superior to the original) did manage to scrape to #54 that year.
Unfairly ignored due to its relative obscurity, Desire is a better album than its predecessor – perhaps because it’s a little bit more certain of what it wants to be. Songs like Moonlight Dancing and The View feel like a continuation of the sound that the Toyah band was developing on Love is the Law, and while it is just as rooted in the production of the period as Minx was (check out those snare drums on When a Woman Cries), the album does contain some of Toyah’s most heartfelt material, and a nice guest slot for Ronnie Wood too.
Then again, like Minx before it, the record has compromises. EG Records insisted Toyah cover the Donna Summer song Love’s Unkind – and while as a listener there’s lots to enjoy in this summery take on the song, Willcox absolutely detested it and only recorded the track under protest because the very existence of the album was under threat if she didn’t concede.
With the commercial failure of Desire bringing to an end Toyah’s commercial period, Willcox was left feeling she had become – in her own words – “staid and predictable”. Angry at the way her marriage to Robert Fripp had highlighted blatant sexism within the music industry, Wilcox poured all her fury into an aggressively creative period and one of her boldest projects to date.
Prostitute was an experimental record made entirely out of samples, live drums from Steve Syldnick, minimal instrumentation from Toyah, and her unmistakable vocal delivery. Much like David Bowie’s 1.Outside would seven years later, the album features Willcox utilising effects to distort her voice into different characters, and layering up soundscapes over which she half-speaks, half-sings cryptic poetry and crude aggression.
Perhaps because it sounds like nothing else before or since, it’s barely aged a day, whilst the raw issues at its fast beating heart make it a vital recording not just of Willcox’s career, but of the 1980s. That it’s been unavailable since a very limited print run in 2003 is a crying shame, and one hopes that the highlights of this bold and fascinating record will finally reach a wider audience this time around.
While Billboard Magazine in America joined the hype around the album, stating it was “the dawning of a new era” for Willcox, and it went on to be cited by feminist theorists for years to come, the album again did not chart, and Toyah went back to the drawing board.
1991’s Ophelia’s Shadow was actually one of two albums released by the group line up of Willcox, Fripp, Trey Gunn and Paul Beavis: the other being the same year’s Kneeling at the Shrine credited to the band Sunday All Over The World and therefore not part of this current batch of reissues.
A gentler affair than its predecessor – the album’s less abrasive, brooding heart has an ambient core to its sonic canvas that calls forwards to latter day Kate Bush. Indeed, my first reaction upon hearing 2005’s much acclaimed Aerial album was that it was just the softer bits of Ophelia’s Shadow with less interesting tunes! Not that there isn’t a spike here ...
The Shaman Says may be haunting and atmospheric, but then there’s the discordant drive of Prospect. There’s a song called Ghost Light which has long been rumoured to have been inspired by the Doctor Who story of the same name. And with Lords of the Never Known, Toyah doesn’t just showcase how much of an influence David Bowie was on her work, but also seems to predate the jazz-tinged art-rock of some of his later works like Bring Me The Disco King or Sue (Or In a Season of Crime).
With EG Records collapsing inwards, Toyah suddenly found herself without a record label. Undeterred, she went off to Berlin to record with progressive jazz-rock band Kiss of Reality (these songs are included as bonus tracks in the box set), then setting about recording ambient tribal demos with dance musician Phil Nicholas.
During this period, she also began revisiting her back catalogue, reconstructing some of the songs she’d recorded with the Toyah band in an early ’90s alt-rock style with her new live band Friday Forever. A fusing of these various projects resulted in the album Take the Leap.
In the UK, the album was initially released as Leap! – a cassette only set which was sold exclusively on tour. Plans for a commercial release on CD stalled, except for in Japan, and it took until 2006 for the rest of the world to get hold of a copy, and another 8 years before it was released digitally.
Which, of course, is a huge shame, because the album has some energetic new material – the raucous rocker Lust for Love is a highlight of the period, and Winter in Wonderland is a timeless ballad which still sounds fresh. It’s true that the new recordings of the catalogue tracks all pale in comparison to their originals, but as a time capsule of how they were performed live in 1994, they’re a solid record of times long since past.
Throughout the rest of the ’90s, Toyah released three more studio albums, though all of them are conspicuously absent from the Solo box set and the vinyl reissue series. 1994’s Dreamchild was a dance-orientated piece led by producer Mike Bennett which was later reissued under the name Pheonix (with an additional track). Given it was last given a reissue by Cherry Red in 2010, this doesn’t feel like a huge shame: Toyah’s writing credits for the album were minimal, it’s easy to skip this one as a curious side-line collaboration.
The following year saw the release of two albums of reconstituted classics. Looking Back featured twelve new reworkings of (mostly) Safari-era material – and eight of these (arguably the best eight) do make it into the Solo set, and five join the Take the Leap vinyl release to make up Side Four.
Completely absent from the current campaign however, is the mostly sublime The Acoustic Album which featured 15 more reworkings and strings from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Given Toyah’s previously stated that the strings version of It’s A Mystery from this record should be played at her funeral it feels an odd omission and one can only hope that a future release will finally bring this record to vinyl.
Then in 2002, a full eight years since her last new compositions and seven since her last recordings, Toyah returned with the Little Tears of Love EP – initially sold exclusively on tour. Three of its four tracks received a commercial release with three new songs the following year via the Velvet Lined Shell mini-album.
Both projects were collaborations with songwriter Tim Elsenberg, and the band formed for the recording continued working together as Sweet Billy Pilgrim, who have gained a cult following in their own right since. The only song on Little Tears of Love which is not on Velvet Lined Shell was Experience – a track which Sweet Billy Pilgrim later recorded in their own right, and while it’s included in the Solo set, it’s sadly not been squeezed onto the Velvet Lined Shell vinyl, despite being one of Toyah’s finest moments.
Sadly, the record was – like everything else in this collection, mostly ignored. Indeed, upon release Toyah didn’t tour with the band, but instead ended up making an ill-fated appearance on I’m a Celebrity instead!
But while Willcox has continued to battle her mainstream work as a presenter with her commitment to her music, she has continued to experiment in the years since. A selection of seven additional songs (mostly collaborations) recorded between 2004 and 2019 round out the Solo set, but the story doesn’t end there.2008 saw the release of the sublime In the Court of the Crimson Queen album, reuniting Toyah with Simon Darlow who had been part of the final Toyah band line up and was part of the songwriting team on Minx all those years earlier.
The album was reworked in 2019 with new production, new instrumentation and an alternate tracklisting, and released for Record Store Day on purple vinyl, with an expanded CD version coming a few weeks later. This new version has superseded the original on all platforms, so hang on to your original CD pressings if you want to hear how it was first intended, but both are worth owning if you can!
Between these two versions of Crimson Queen, Toyah released three albums as part of The Humans – a minimalist collaboration with REM drummer Bill Rieflin and her regular live guitarist Chris Wong. Wong was also a part of another project – This Fragile Moment – who released a self-titled ambient record in 2010. And with Willcox still bouncing up and down the country as a regular on the live circuit, it’s safe to say that there’s much more to come from Toyah yet.
So while the Solo set pulls together most – if not all – of her work since 1985, this is a fine time to look back at the career of an underrated artist who has fought against compromise time and time again, and ultimately won out with her own singular vision. Given how long it’s been since most of this material has been available, this set – and particularly the vinyl reissues – are a long time coming.
And best of all, Toyah has teased that this is only the beginning… could a set of 1978-1983 reissues be next? Or a brand new album? Or both? Either way, my wallet is going to feel the strain, but my ears are going to have the BEST TIME.
POSH POP (2021)
Classic Pop Magazine, September 2021
atthebarrier.com 24.8.2021
Anthems, hope and escapism – it’s all there on the first Toyah album for 13 years!
The last time Toyah graced these pages was back in May, when we reviewed the reissue of her 1980 album The Blue Meaning. In that review, we gave a brief a resumé of what Toyah has been up to in recent years, including a mention of the hilarious You Tube postings, Toyah and Robert’s Sunday Lunch (and if you haven’t seen this yet, check it out – it’s unmissable!) and releasing her (until now) most recent album, 2008’s In The Court of the Crimson Queen.
Well ... She’s back, and how!! Posh Pop is Toyah’s first album of new material for 13 years, and it’s a blast. Toyah herself is very proud of Posh Pop, considering the album “A career best,” and she could very well be right.
It’s a joyful album that draws copiously on Toyah’s glam and punk roots and builds upwards from there; the 80’s synth sound is still around, tempered and enhanced by lots of stunning rock guitar from Toyah’s husband, “Bobby Wilcox” and the lyrics are clear and excellent, covering topics as diverse as the lockdown “Zoom Boom,” space exploration, ageing, bereavement, the devastation of war, the fate of humanity and the Beirut explosion. And it all comes enclosed in a wrapper of addictive, anthemic rock and pop.
And overall, and despite the apparent heaviness of some of the subject matter, the theme of the album is optimistic. We’re coming out of lockdown (we fervently hope ... ) and Toyah wants everyone to celebrate that. As she says: “The album was written for people trying to escape within their home. I wanted to help people go beyond the feeling of imprisonment. Posh Pop can still do that once we’re out of lockdown, because music is about escapism and memories. It was important to make music to energise people and give people optimism. And so say all of us!
I’m sure that many of you will be asking – “But how does Toyah sound, nowadays?” Well – there’s excellent news on that front, I’m pleased to say. There are still plenty of glimpses of vintage Toyah on Posh Pop, but it’s a new Toyah that really calls the shots. There’s no shrieking nowadays, her voice is mellow and melodic whilst retaining her trademark authority and determination and the tunes are an interesting mix of guitar and synth, packed with catchy choruses and irresistible hooks.
And “Bobby’s” guitar contributions are fantastic. I’ve spent a lot of lockdown listening to the King Crimson back catalogue and the solos and riffs that he adds to Posh Pop are, for me, the icing AND the cherry on the cake!
The synths and drumbeats on opening track, Levitate, offer more than a hint of the old Toyah, before we step back towards a more 70s sound with the excellent glam/metal Zoom Zoom, a reference to the uptake of the video communication App that took place during lockdown, that observes that anyone wishing to start a revolution can now do just that, without leaving the comfort of his/her bedroom.
Things take a decidedly serious turn with The Bride Will Return. The song tells the story of Dr Israa Seblani, the Lebanese/American bride who, famously, was having her wedding photographs taken when the August 2020 Beirut explosion occurred. Over a persistent guitar/synth theme, the song considers how, despite the mayhem, the world’s lasting impression of that catastrophe is of the bride’s beauty and her determination to complete her wedding.
The tune builds ominously to reflect the events of the day and the song ends with the optimistic refrain: “No matter what they say, it’s your day – can’t take it away. No matter what they do, you are you. Beautiful you.” We’re left in no doubt that the bride will, indeed, return.
In contrast, Space Dance, a song that deals with humanity’s “burgeoning efforts to colonise new worlds” is a thumping, bouncy, eighties dance tune – another slice of classic Toyah, and Barefoot on Mars, a tender remembrance of a departed loved one, is a big, synth-driven anthem that wouldn’t have been out of place on a 1984 edition of Top of the Pops.
The refrain, “You’re never too old to shine,” is the central feature of Rhythm In My House, and it’s a personal reflection of Toyah’s life and career. Viewers of Sunday Lunch will already realise that rhythm is, indeed a staple of life chez Toyah/Fripp, despite (what might be perceived as) advancing years.
As Toyah is keen to point out: “[You’re never too old to shine] ... is absolutely the message of this album. It’s never too late. Life is about the journey, from birth to your last day. It’s not about doors closing.” And that’s a message that Toyah lives and breathes; it won’t do anyone any harm to do likewise.
“Bobby” excels on the ironic anti-war song, Summer of Love. His strummed acoustic guitar introduction blossoms into some of the best electric soloing that you’ll hear this side of Christmas. Toyah plays a strong part too with a vocal that alternates between quiet and soft in the verse to strong and frantic in a chorus that yearns for the peace ethic of days gone by.
As the refrain says: “All we need is a Summer of Love, bring it back, we’d only just begun. All we need is a Summer of Love, Let’s get it on. Ban the Bomb.” – And it’s an ex-punk that’s singing those words!
Monkeys offers an observation on the fate of humanity, as taken from a simian viewpoint, to the backing of a persistent guitar line and an anthemic chorus, in what is probably the most straightforward rock song on the album, and Kill the Rage is a song of stark contrasts with a laid back, rational verse and a furious, frantic chorus. Things are brought to a breathless close with take Me Home, a happy, loud, riffy rock song that celebrates the unity of mankind, as perceived from another world.
The chorus, “Take me home to our rock amongst the stars, we’re not alone on our rock amongst the stars” is idealistic and, once again, anthemic, and hints, perhaps, at a unity that we haven’t yet been able to achieve. But such is the optimism in the words that you can’t help wondering whether, one day, that unity will, indeed be waiting for us.
Thank you, Toyah, for a great album. And welcome back – we’ve missed you!
theartsdesk.com 25.8.2021
Post-punk pop star bubbles with righteous energy but doesn't quite hit its mark
Toyah, always a one-off, has been a surprise star of the COVID-19 lockdowns. Her YouTube Sunday Lunches, kitchen-filmed cover versions with her husband, King Crimson’s Robert Fripp, have been celebratory shared moments, jaunty, unlikely, silly, revelling unashamedly in pop music (and, bawdily, in her own physical attributes!). Toyah is enjoyably eccentric, even when her music does not appeal, thus I really wanted to like this album, a celebration of her indefatigable spirit, but it failed to win me over.
Co-written and produced by regular collaborator Simon Darlow, and with contributions from Fripp, the overall tone is ebullient, but the production doesn’t reach the music’s anthemic ambition. It is big music scaled to production that's oddly flat, the groove muted, whether the Brit-pop drive of “Summer of Love” or the metal underpinning of “The Bride Will Return”, the latter a song about a videoed Beirut wedding interrupted by last year’s massive explosion that aspires to be a metaphor for all nuptials interrupted by the pandemic.
Born of punk but imbued with a prog rock sensibility, much enhanced since meeting Fripp, Toyah weaves sixth-form poetics all over her first album since 2008, and there are some notable clangers along the way, most especially “Everybody do the space dance/Everybody go round the sun/We’re the human race, man/Big fat evolution, having fun” (as far as I can hear it). Her voice is strident but can be vulnerable. Perhaps the best song is the elegiac slowie “Barefoot on Mars”, about her relationship with her late mother.
The bizarrely named Posh Pop is packed with ideas (every song comes with a video!). Despite its flaws, what comes through is verve and energy, a sense that Toyah and her compadres threw themselves wholeheartedly into it. However, while this intent is clear, what pours from the speakers is not musically persuasive. Toyah isn’t far from the terrain wandered by her more critically lauded proggy peer Kate Bush, yet there’s a musical ocean between them. Recently, a Toyah album appeared called Mesmerised: Rarities and Remixes 85-94 which, for my money, is a more interesting reminder of the talents of this most individual pop-rock celebrity.
tinnitist.com 27.8.2021
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In recent times Toyah has seen something of a cultural renaissance with younger female artists acknowledging the huge Influence of her groundbreaking and uniquely singular career. Last year Shirley Manson of Garbage went as far as to write a moving, open letter, apologising for mocking Toyah to friends as a teenager when, in fact, she was a fan who “sucked at Toyah’s teat [but did] not have the strength of character to admit it.”
Now recognized as a pioneer who’s remained defiant since acting in Derek Jarman’s punk classic Jubilee and her trailblazing uncategorisable debut album Sheep Farming In Barnet in 1980, Toyah sees this as a turning point and validation; she’d always been able to sell out venues, always had an audience, but never the back-up, feeling that in the past women were played against each other in an industry where men made women enemies of each other.
That the world is ready for Toyah means that Posh Pop will be justly celebrated. The most complete, uplifting pop record of Toyah’s inspirational 41-year career, Posh Pop is a triumphant album, its 10 songs encompassing euphoric partying, redemption, glam rock, interplanetary exploration, industrial grooves, revolution, the fate of humanity as viewed by monkeys and, above all, anthems. Every song here is a masterclass in pop, condensing a world of wonder into barely 40 minutes. It’s maximum pop and it’s also classier than virtually any other music you’ll hear all year. It’s posh pop.
The album was made with Simon Darlow, who also co-wrote and produced Toyah’s previous solo album, 2008’s dramatic In The Court Of The Crimson Queen. They first worked together in 1977, brought together to write songs then again five years later when Simon played keyboards on Toyah’s album The Changeling in 1982, remaining friends ever since.
Posh Pop’s additional musician is Toyah’s husband, guitarist Bobby Willcox (aka Robert Fripp). Provided with just a chord sheet, he was in the studio for no more than half-an-hour a week. Told to do whatever he felt like, feeling free and completely spontaneous, within a few takes Bobby produced stunning guitar lines.
Whether channeling her glam roots on the addictive Zoom Zoom, celebrating the unity of mankind on the communal Take Me Home or offering solace in the achingly tender Barefoot On Mars, the only predictable aspect of Posh Pop is that a giant hook will be along shortly. Building from simple acoustic guitar chords, Summer Of Love builds to an instantly catchy chorus, on a deeply ironic anti-war song, exploring the concept of women on the battlefield.
Continuing the exploration of serious themes, over a refrain Toyah initially started on the piano, The Bride Will Return is about the tragic bride of Beirut’s wedding day, when the warehouse blew up, catching both the moment of explosion and Israa Sablani’s beauty. Space Dance explores our burgeoning efforts to begin colonising other worlds, wrapped around an infernally catchy chorus that wouldn’t be out of place in The Rocky Horror Show.
The refrain You’re never too old to shine from the song Rhythm In My House applies to Toyah’s life and career. “That’s absolutely the message of this album,” Toyah emphasises. “It’s never too late. Life is about the journey, from birth to your last day. It’s not about doors closing.”
retropopmagazine.com 27.8.2021
Toyah embodies the essence of pop music on her latest LP ‘Posh Pop’ The collection was recorded with husband Robert Fripp and co-writer/producer Simon Darlow during lockdown – a theme that underpins each of the 10 tracks. Opener and lead single Levitate deals with the forced confinement and sees the star rise beyond the realms of the pandemic and reacquaint herself with a world seemingly gone by.
It encompasses the overall theme of the album, which for listeners and as a creative pursuit for Toyah, is about escapism. While songs like Space Dance and Rhythm In My House are through and through pop numbers, the genius of ‘Posh Pop’ is in the lyrics, which simultaneously reference the world today while remaining timeless. Zoom Zoom is an anthem for change that’s clearly inspired by the video conferencing platform, yet the phrase itself refers more generally to pushing forward and getting things done.
Another track, The Bride Will Return, can be heard in the context of wedding ceremonies being cancelled, while Kill the Rage – ‘Wash me clean beneath the rain / Freedom is calling’ – has myriad interpretations. Barefoot on Mars, the most personal cut on the LP, explores the singer’s relationship with her late mother while reflecting on those who lost loved ones while visiting hours were off the cards. ‘I walked away / I know that you loved me / Turned my back on all you valued / I held you when you died’ she sings. ‘Posh Pop’ is as much about the past 16 months as it is about Toyah navigating the situation while forced off the road and left without work.
It comes to a head with Take Me Home, which looks forward to a return to normalcy and – for Toyah – stepping back on stage. It’s apt that ‘Posh Pop’ is out weeks after Toyah performed her first gig in almost two years, marking the beginning of a new chapter for the singer with a body of work that stands amongst the best of her career.
God Is In The TV 2.9.2021
Even in her sixties and not far off her free bus pass, Toyah is still able to turn heads, as evidenced by the striking imagery on the artwork of Posh Pop, and also by the many highly entertaining videos she and her husband, King Crimson‘s Robert Fripp, have been unleashing on us throughout the lockdown period, providing some much-needed light relief along the way.
What I hadn’t expected though, was the diverse range of reference points you can hear on this, her first long-player since 2008. For example, recent single ‘Levitate‘ seems to take its lead from Roisin Murphy‘s recent splendid resurgence, all fidgety dance beats and breathy vocals, whereas the fantastic ‘Barefoot On Mars‘ recalls Bowie in its composition and is a heartfelt paean to her late mother (“Turned my back on all you valued, I held you when you died“) – it’s deep and poignant, and stopped me in my tracks – I hadn’t anticipated that Toyah was going to release one of the strongest songs in her canon this late in her career!
Elsewhere, ‘Zoom Zoom‘ is seventies rock, pop and glam all rolled up and smoked in one pipe, while ‘Monkeys‘ is pleasingly off-kilter in its delightful chorus.
Posh Pop is a far better album than its title might lead you to believe. It deserves a better moniker, to be frank, otherwise, I fear there’s a danger of it ending up in the 20p bargain bucket at Age UK, and that would be a crying shame. After all, the dramatic ‘Kill The Rage‘ is surely a nailed-on future Bond theme, and the rather pretty ‘The Bride Will Return‘ gives some sound advice over dreamy, almost proggy instrumentation – “No matter what you do, you are you, beautiful you. No matter what they say, it’s your day.”
Back in the day, certain music journalists were somewhat dismissive of Toyah’s punk credentials. But they were missing the point – she’s always been a ‘pop’ artist at heart, and that is unashamedly showcased quite perfectly here. Ok, its closing track, ‘Take Me Home‘, is a little too close to the more ‘polished’ pop of 35 years ago for my liking, but ironically is one of the strongest lyrical pieces on the entire record. It’s all quite endearing really.
So yes, in summation, it’s a triumphant return for Toyah – and I, for one, am glad to have her back thundering in the mountains. And yes, I know that was a shit pun. Sorry.
Edinburgh Evening New 3.9.2021
Fabulous, flawless, five-star pop from Toyah - Liam Rudden It's a mystery how time has flown. I remember clearly the first time I heard the name Toyah Willcox.
I was 15, hanging around the square behind the family home in Leith when a purple-mohicaned punk called Pete appeared. He was visiting pals in the scheme and we got talking about music. He was a fan of a singer who, he claimed, could unite mods, rockers and punks. Some feat in those days.
"Everyone charges to the front when she comes on," he said, adding, “They don't even fight when Toyah's singing." The next day I headed to Ards Record Shop on Great Junction Street and found a copy of Sheep Farming In Barnet. One listen and I was hooked.
That was 42 years ago, it's still a brilliant album as is Toyah’s latest, Posh Pop, released last weekend.
Reunited with long term collaborator Simon Darlow and with husband Robert Fripp on guitar, Posh Pop is at once reflective and optimistically forward thinking.
So much so that, after listening to it twice, I tweeted: '#PoshPop, the new album from @toyahofficial is fabulous and flawless. There are tears, laughter and moments of beautiful contemplation in these 10 gloriously uplifting songs. That’s the topic for my next @edinburghpaper column sorted.'
So here goes …
Recorded during lock down and co-written by Willcox and Darlow, the songs evoke many of the thoughts we have all shared over the last 18 months and are accompanied by simple, effective ‘home-made’ videos, filmed on an iPhone.
With an hour to myself on Saturday morning, I settled down to see what Toyah and co had produced with little more than a picturesque garden, country kitchen, church and giant green screen; from spaceships to monkeys, it's a fun journey through the songs with the odd outrageous costume or two thrown in for good measure.
The opening number, Levitate, is insanely catchy and a bit of a banger. Its anthemic nature making it an obvious single choice.
Zoom Zoom, with its laid back hook, 'yeah, yeah, yeah,' follows and, though it first appears a bit too relaxed, it quickly becomes a grower. The first of my two highlights, The Bride Will Return, is beautifully haunting. Toyah's vocal proving quite hypnotic. It's a glorious listen as is Space Dance, albeit for very different reasons. A quirky celebration and playful slice of Eighties sci-fi pop, it's imbued with an infectious sense of youthful wonderment and humour.
Barefoot On Mars, my highlight of the album, is an arrestingly emotional, uplifting and joyous tribute. A tear-inducing salute to Toyah's mother, it will touch the soul of anyone who has lost a truly loved one. A degree of lightness returns with Rhythm In My House, an easy listening number brought to life with unicorns and bubbles, which is followed by Summer Of Love and an unapologetic Sixties' 'love and peace' vibe.
Monkeys, perhaps more than any other track, boasts the exciting rawness of the Toyah songs I loved as a teenager. Again it's a grower, while Kill The Rage simmers with the anger at injustice that has frequently fuelled the singer's lyrics.
Finally, the ethereal Take Me Home brings Posh Pop to a close with an environmental message of love and a gentle wave goodbye.
Fabulous, flawless, five star pop.
IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON QUEEN - RHYTHM DELUXE EDITION (2023)
Classic Pop Magazine, Jan/Feb 2023
SINGLES
Victims Of The Riddle (1979)
Toyah's backdrop is a quirky maze of fixing electronic and electric sounds, an intelligent sub-disco underlay. Toyah herself screeches and howls and makes the simple art of reviewing something of an endurance test.
Angry and powerful, that's what it is, riotously and genuinely performed. But painful and disappointing too, after all the pre-release build up, the reviewer concludes. "Is there a heaven?/Is there a hell?/Do both exist?/Who can tell?" runs the deep intellect on the sleeve front. Theatrical froth.
NME
April 1979
Sheep Farming In Barnet (7″ EP) (1979)
I was barely familiar with Toyah from seeing a review of “Anthem” in the pages of “Dogfood,” out local New Wave newspaper that was published by Record Mart chain in Orlando in the late 70s/early 80s. The positive review piqued by interest as it was written by Robin Shurtz; a guy I knew from teaching English at my junior high school. Robin had interesting music tastes.
Then, in 1981, I bought an issue of Flexipop that had an ad for Toyah’s “Thunder In The Mountains” single. The extreme styling and pose of the photo was sort of like a femme take on “Aladdin Sane” but the eerie calmness of the singer’s pose looked interesting. The look fit right in with Visage and the New Romantics I liked. It made me wonder what music by someone who put that forth as their image might be like. On a trip to the godlike Record City in Fern Park, I got my chance.
There I saw the debut Toyah 7″, an EP [the label called it an “A.P. – alternative play”] featuring six tracks on a 7″ record, so yes, the results spun at 33 rpm and was pretty tinny. But this was the first Toyah music that I heard and I went on to buy a lot more. “Neon Womb” was a pretty vivid opening statement.
It began with ragged sax and and an electric piano at a calm tempo before accelerating to full shrieking chaos by the song’s end. It was a unique blend of post-prog rock at frantic punk tempos with some free jazz sax added in there for discomfort. Toyah would not earn any gold stars for her singing. She sounded untrained and living in the moment.
“Indecision” was based on a monumental bass riff with a tribal drum loop that never resolved. Very energetic and Toyah was bouncing off of the walls with her delivery. As an actress making inroads to music more than vice versa, she tended to have a very ornate and heavily theatrical delivery.
“Waiting” was an insular, unresolved number. It actually sounded as if it had been recorded in a metal can and the unceasing rhythm could have been a loop. It sounded more like a fragment of a song. “Our Movie” sported exceptionally fruity delivery, heavy on the trills and rolled “r”s from Toyah and the vibe was more solidly New Wave than the other, more frantic material thus far.
The standout track here was “Danced” which managed to shine through as the one pop moment of this EP, but with great difficulty. The long, slow intro lasted for almost two minutes before the song found its center and took flight with a memorable guitar riff from co-writer Joel Bogen.
But even then, as the song was ascendent, a “what-were-they-thiking” excursion into annoying varispeed technique [it worked for Bowie] scuttled the chorus at exactly the wrong point. Still, in a correct world, this song might have been edited down from 5:13 to a killer succinct 3:00 hit. Finally, the dour “Last Goodbye” ended the EP on a sour note.
All military tempos and vocoders for maximum alienation with Toyah herself having the last, strident word as the song ended as cold as stone on her vocal. If I had to compare this to anything, Siouxsie + the Banshees were an obvious jumping off point, but if you cut Toyah and Siouxsie together, they would both bleed Bowie.
He’s the elephant in the room. I detect a lot of “The Man Who Sold the World” in these songs. She and Siouxsie were both proto-Goth but Toyah had too much Prog in her system to rank as an influencer in that genre, even though her second album, “The Blue Meaning,” is a as Goth as it gets. Meanwhile, Siouxsie and the Banshees, went on to become prime architects of Goth.
Toyah would move from her dark roots all over the map, even flirting with dance pop and getting some hits in the process. I like her later, post popstar art rock material quite a bit. The incredible “Prostitute” album sounded every inch like the woman who matured from the girl on evidence here making music that was tempered by her circumstances and fueled by her intellect and passions.
But this EP certainly gave indication that here was someone to keep an eye on. Even if she was one member of the UK New Wave movement who almost never ever crossed the Atlantic to plant her flag in America. I think the only Toyah ever released in America was on “Urgh! A Music War.”
Post-Punk Monk 2019
Bird In Flight (1980)
Surprisingly gentle song by the banshee from Birmingham. It has an insidious quality that slowly gets under your skin and is a good pop song.
The effective keyboards give it a desirable spacy atmosphere. Also more than a nod in Patti Smith's direction.
NME
February 1980
Four From Toyah (1981)
Victims Of The Riddle (1979)
Toyah's backdrop is a quirky maze of fixing electronic and electric sounds, an intelligent sub-disco underlay. Toyah herself screeches and howls and makes the simple art of reviewing something of an endurance test.
Angry and powerful, that's what it is, riotously and genuinely performed. But painful and disappointing too, after all the pre-release build up, the reviewer concludes. "Is there a heaven?/Is there a hell?/Do both exist?/Who can tell?" runs the deep intellect on the sleeve front. Theatrical froth.
NME
April 1979
Sheep Farming In Barnet (7″ EP) (1979)
I was barely familiar with Toyah from seeing a review of “Anthem” in the pages of “Dogfood,” out local New Wave newspaper that was published by Record Mart chain in Orlando in the late 70s/early 80s. The positive review piqued by interest as it was written by Robin Shurtz; a guy I knew from teaching English at my junior high school. Robin had interesting music tastes.
Then, in 1981, I bought an issue of Flexipop that had an ad for Toyah’s “Thunder In The Mountains” single. The extreme styling and pose of the photo was sort of like a femme take on “Aladdin Sane” but the eerie calmness of the singer’s pose looked interesting. The look fit right in with Visage and the New Romantics I liked. It made me wonder what music by someone who put that forth as their image might be like. On a trip to the godlike Record City in Fern Park, I got my chance.
There I saw the debut Toyah 7″, an EP [the label called it an “A.P. – alternative play”] featuring six tracks on a 7″ record, so yes, the results spun at 33 rpm and was pretty tinny. But this was the first Toyah music that I heard and I went on to buy a lot more. “Neon Womb” was a pretty vivid opening statement.
It began with ragged sax and and an electric piano at a calm tempo before accelerating to full shrieking chaos by the song’s end. It was a unique blend of post-prog rock at frantic punk tempos with some free jazz sax added in there for discomfort. Toyah would not earn any gold stars for her singing. She sounded untrained and living in the moment.
“Indecision” was based on a monumental bass riff with a tribal drum loop that never resolved. Very energetic and Toyah was bouncing off of the walls with her delivery. As an actress making inroads to music more than vice versa, she tended to have a very ornate and heavily theatrical delivery.
“Waiting” was an insular, unresolved number. It actually sounded as if it had been recorded in a metal can and the unceasing rhythm could have been a loop. It sounded more like a fragment of a song. “Our Movie” sported exceptionally fruity delivery, heavy on the trills and rolled “r”s from Toyah and the vibe was more solidly New Wave than the other, more frantic material thus far.
The standout track here was “Danced” which managed to shine through as the one pop moment of this EP, but with great difficulty. The long, slow intro lasted for almost two minutes before the song found its center and took flight with a memorable guitar riff from co-writer Joel Bogen.
But even then, as the song was ascendent, a “what-were-they-thiking” excursion into annoying varispeed technique [it worked for Bowie] scuttled the chorus at exactly the wrong point. Still, in a correct world, this song might have been edited down from 5:13 to a killer succinct 3:00 hit. Finally, the dour “Last Goodbye” ended the EP on a sour note.
All military tempos and vocoders for maximum alienation with Toyah herself having the last, strident word as the song ended as cold as stone on her vocal. If I had to compare this to anything, Siouxsie + the Banshees were an obvious jumping off point, but if you cut Toyah and Siouxsie together, they would both bleed Bowie.
He’s the elephant in the room. I detect a lot of “The Man Who Sold the World” in these songs. She and Siouxsie were both proto-Goth but Toyah had too much Prog in her system to rank as an influencer in that genre, even though her second album, “The Blue Meaning,” is a as Goth as it gets. Meanwhile, Siouxsie and the Banshees, went on to become prime architects of Goth.
Toyah would move from her dark roots all over the map, even flirting with dance pop and getting some hits in the process. I like her later, post popstar art rock material quite a bit. The incredible “Prostitute” album sounded every inch like the woman who matured from the girl on evidence here making music that was tempered by her circumstances and fueled by her intellect and passions.
But this EP certainly gave indication that here was someone to keep an eye on. Even if she was one member of the UK New Wave movement who almost never ever crossed the Atlantic to plant her flag in America. I think the only Toyah ever released in America was on “Urgh! A Music War.”
Post-Punk Monk 2019
Bird In Flight (1980)
Surprisingly gentle song by the banshee from Birmingham. It has an insidious quality that slowly gets under your skin and is a good pop song.
The effective keyboards give it a desirable spacy atmosphere. Also more than a nod in Patti Smith's direction.
NME
February 1980
Four From Toyah (1981)
Classic Pop Magazine's Top 20 EP's Feature, Jan/Feb 2023
Four More From Toyah (1981) (40th Anniversary 2022)
At The Barrier 9.12.2022
And so the story continues. Back in early 2021, we were pleased to review the deluxe reissue of Toyah’s second album, The Blue Meaning and then, last May, we raved over the combined CD/DVD repackaging of her seminal 1980 live album, Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! Cherry Red has certainly been busy and, since we last paid a visit to Toyah-land a super-deluxe edition of her 1981 album, Anthem, has hit the racks, along with a CD version of her breakthrough February 1981 concert at London’s Rainbow Theatre – a recording that was previously only available in video formats. And now, Toyah’s back again, this time with a delightful, expanded, 12” neon violet vinyl version of her third EP, Four More From Toyah.
Originally released in November 1981, the EP continued Toyah’s run of chart success, thanks this time to the popularity of lead track, Good Morning Universe. The original EP climbed to No.14 in the UK singles chart; for 2022 viewers, it’s been expanded into a mini-album, with the addition of four further tracks, two of which receive a commercial release for the first time.
The original EP comprised the first material to be studio-recorded since drummer Nigel Glocker’s departure to join NWOBHM-ers, Saxon, and the line-up on display for the eight tracks in this package is: Toyah Willcox (vocals), Joel Bogen (guitar), Adrian Lee (keyboards), Phil Spalding (bass) and new drummer, Simon Phillips. And the band sound rock-solid! I was particularly impressed by the concrete foundation, often edging towards the funky side of things, that Phil and Simon laid down; and Toyah sings with a maturity that is only hinted at on her earlier recordings, without losing any of the sinister edge that could often make her vocal delivery such a chilling experience.
Originally released in November 1981, the EP continued Toyah’s run of chart success, thanks this time to the popularity of lead track, Good Morning Universe. The original EP climbed to No.14 in the UK singles chart; for 2022 viewers, it’s been expanded into a mini-album, with the addition of four further tracks, two of which receive a commercial release for the first time.
The original EP comprised the first material to be studio-recorded since drummer Nigel Glocker’s departure to join NWOBHM-ers, Saxon, and the line-up on display for the eight tracks in this package is: Toyah Willcox (vocals), Joel Bogen (guitar), Adrian Lee (keyboards), Phil Spalding (bass) and new drummer, Simon Phillips. And the band sound rock-solid! I was particularly impressed by the concrete foundation, often edging towards the funky side of things, that Phil and Simon laid down; and Toyah sings with a maturity that is only hinted at on her earlier recordings, without losing any of the sinister edge that could often make her vocal delivery such a chilling experience.
Side A of this new collection features the four tracks of the original EP, and it’s the ‘hit,’ Good Morning Universe that gets things underway. Written by Toyah and guitarist Bogen, it’s a joyful affair, indeed. A wonderful snatch of bass and drums from the new rhythm section provides the launch pad for a bright, lively tune. I’d have to admit that, first time around, Adrian Lee’s eighties keyboard licks weren’t really up my street but, with hindsight, they certainly add a sparkle – I’d honestly forgotten what a great song Good Morning Universe really is!
Jungle noises provide the intro to Urban Tribesman, a full-band composition with lyrics that express the freedoms and potential of adolescence. Phil and Simon are at their solid, funky best and Toyah provide a rip-roaring, unrestrained vocal, particularly as the song moves into its, somewhat disturbing, refrain of “Incestuous heroes come forth . . .” We get a first taste of the dystopia that Toyah communicates so effectively on In The Fairground, a fascinating song that contrasts the doom and gloom of the verses with a light-as-air poppy chorus – and I love the slightly sinister fairground-y coda!
Side A, and the original EP, is brought to a close with The Furious Futures, an angry song with lyrics relating to poverty and deprivation that resonate as strongly today as they did at the time they were written. My abiding memory of the early nineteen-eighties is of a period of relentless dark days in which hope and optimism were sparse commodities, and it’s disturbing to discover that those sentiments are back with us – but, at least we’ve got lots of appropriate songs to recall to provide a ready-made commentary for the gloom, as Toyah demonstrates here!
It’s perhaps on Side B of this new collection that things start to get particularly interesting. The side’s opening track, Go Beserk – released here in recorded form for the first time – was originally used as the band’s stage entry music during their 1981 European Tour. It’s scary, emotion-building stuff, full of fearful breathing, shrieks and dramatic cries of phrases like “My nails are growing!” “Let ‘em grow” and “Break out.” Adrian’s keyboard drone increases in intensity to reach a crescendo, and it’s easy to imagine the excitement in the audience as the band make their entry onto the darkened stage.
Stand Proud was included as a free flexi-disc with early issues of the original EP and it was often used as the set opener by the band on their early-eighties tours. It’s another slice of undiluted excitement; Toyah’s cry of “Ieya” harks back, of course, to an earlier incarnation of the band. Simon’s drums provide a dominating rhythm as Toyah screams the primitive lyrics. In contrast, the bright, bouncy Clapham Junction is Toyah at her poppy best although, having said that, lines like “I am a priestess and I like to bite” demonstrate that, even in a poppy mood, she was never the sweet little girl next door. Clapham Junction is an out-take from the session that yielded Toyah’s Thunder in the Mountains single, embellished with a new drum part from Simon and revised lyrics and vocals from Toyah.
This short, enjoyable mini-collection is brought to its close with the inclusion of a 1982 re-recording of Toyah’s hit single, I Want to be Free. Produced by Steve Lillywhite at Roundhouse Studios, this version (previously commercially unavailable) was used for the band’s performance at the 1982 British Rock and Pop Awards, when Toyah received the Best Female Singer award. This take is heavier and more intense than the original hit single version, and it’s a lot of fun.
And – just a note about the album’s packaging. Cherry Red has, as usual, done a great job. The sleeve contains an out-take from the original EP photo session and all lyrics are reproduced on the album’s newly designed inner bag. Early purchases of the album will include an exclusive postcard.
I thoroughly enjoyed this expanded version of Four More From Toyah, and I suspect that many At The Barrier visitors will do so too. Try it – it’s well worth a spin . . . And any viewers of the Toyah and Robert’s Sunday Lunch podcast will be well aware that Toyah remains the sheer force of nature that she was back in those heady – if also darkly depressing – days of 1981. Toyah Willcox is a National Treasure.
Jungle noises provide the intro to Urban Tribesman, a full-band composition with lyrics that express the freedoms and potential of adolescence. Phil and Simon are at their solid, funky best and Toyah provide a rip-roaring, unrestrained vocal, particularly as the song moves into its, somewhat disturbing, refrain of “Incestuous heroes come forth . . .” We get a first taste of the dystopia that Toyah communicates so effectively on In The Fairground, a fascinating song that contrasts the doom and gloom of the verses with a light-as-air poppy chorus – and I love the slightly sinister fairground-y coda!
Side A, and the original EP, is brought to a close with The Furious Futures, an angry song with lyrics relating to poverty and deprivation that resonate as strongly today as they did at the time they were written. My abiding memory of the early nineteen-eighties is of a period of relentless dark days in which hope and optimism were sparse commodities, and it’s disturbing to discover that those sentiments are back with us – but, at least we’ve got lots of appropriate songs to recall to provide a ready-made commentary for the gloom, as Toyah demonstrates here!
It’s perhaps on Side B of this new collection that things start to get particularly interesting. The side’s opening track, Go Beserk – released here in recorded form for the first time – was originally used as the band’s stage entry music during their 1981 European Tour. It’s scary, emotion-building stuff, full of fearful breathing, shrieks and dramatic cries of phrases like “My nails are growing!” “Let ‘em grow” and “Break out.” Adrian’s keyboard drone increases in intensity to reach a crescendo, and it’s easy to imagine the excitement in the audience as the band make their entry onto the darkened stage.
Stand Proud was included as a free flexi-disc with early issues of the original EP and it was often used as the set opener by the band on their early-eighties tours. It’s another slice of undiluted excitement; Toyah’s cry of “Ieya” harks back, of course, to an earlier incarnation of the band. Simon’s drums provide a dominating rhythm as Toyah screams the primitive lyrics. In contrast, the bright, bouncy Clapham Junction is Toyah at her poppy best although, having said that, lines like “I am a priestess and I like to bite” demonstrate that, even in a poppy mood, she was never the sweet little girl next door. Clapham Junction is an out-take from the session that yielded Toyah’s Thunder in the Mountains single, embellished with a new drum part from Simon and revised lyrics and vocals from Toyah.
This short, enjoyable mini-collection is brought to its close with the inclusion of a 1982 re-recording of Toyah’s hit single, I Want to be Free. Produced by Steve Lillywhite at Roundhouse Studios, this version (previously commercially unavailable) was used for the band’s performance at the 1982 British Rock and Pop Awards, when Toyah received the Best Female Singer award. This take is heavier and more intense than the original hit single version, and it’s a lot of fun.
And – just a note about the album’s packaging. Cherry Red has, as usual, done a great job. The sleeve contains an out-take from the original EP photo session and all lyrics are reproduced on the album’s newly designed inner bag. Early purchases of the album will include an exclusive postcard.
I thoroughly enjoyed this expanded version of Four More From Toyah, and I suspect that many At The Barrier visitors will do so too. Try it – it’s well worth a spin . . . And any viewers of the Toyah and Robert’s Sunday Lunch podcast will be well aware that Toyah remains the sheer force of nature that she was back in those heady – if also darkly depressing – days of 1981. Toyah Willcox is a National Treasure.
Brave New World (1982)
What Can I Say? She seems such a nice girl when she's on the box or talking on these pages. You can't help but admire her energy and utter professionalism. But as soon as she sings I get this awful feeling that she's somehow, er, exaggerating. All her songs have to be about some grand matter and sung with talent competition gusto.
Knock 'em in the aisles, sock 'em in the back row of the balcony, grab 'em and shake 'em. My first instinct is to duck. That said, this is relatively restrained and should get on fewer nerves than the likes of "It's A Mystery".
David Hepworth
Smash Hits
May 1982
Be Proud Be Loud (Be Heard) (1982)
A mere bop around the studio, shaped into something more substantial by means of an ear-bending synth riff and an arrangement that does a lot to hide the fact that Toyah, umpteen hairdo's on, remains much more a performer than a singer.
Fred Dellar
Smash Hits
October 1982
Rebel Run (1983)
Fresh from her part as a wrestler in the play Trafford Tanzi, Toyah grapples with the knotty problem of trying to get a hit single. There hasn't been one for a while and this might just solve her problems.
She sings well and I bet her visual presentation is up to her usual wacky, weird but high standard.
Lenny Henry
Smash Hits
September 1983
Don't Fall In Love (12") (1985)
Toyah managed to finagle her way to the UK top 10 in 1981 after a year or two of slogging away at her semi-prog, semi-NewWave hybrid sound as well as taking the odd acting job [“Quadrophenia,” “Jubilee”].
In ’81 she managed a hit single with “It’s A Mystery” and spent the rest of her remaining two years at UK indie Safari Records as a semi-regular on the UK charts; never topping her initial chart placement with “Mystery.”
But by 1983 her sound was even more out of step with the soul slop [Culture Club, Wham] taking over the UK charts at the time. Career seemingly in decline, it was surprising to see that she finally made the leap from indie to the majors when CBS/Portrait picked up the option for her next album, “Minx.”
This was the advance single for that album and it submitted for our ears an impossibly glossy Toyah new sound; all Fairlight Page R and Yamaha DX-7. The Christopher Neil [Sheena Easton, Mike + The Mechanics] production sounded extremely thin and plastic, as did most of the early digital synth productions of the era.
The tune was a cynical look at love, co-written by Toyah with the trusty Simon Darlow [keys – Buggles MK II] and fortunately, the mix on this 12″ version addresses some of the lack of oomph that afflicts the 7″/LP mix of this track.
The track has been lengthened slightly from 3:45 to 5:12; negligible in terms of what we used to look for in a 12″ version, but the mixing/EQ on this 12″ manages to take a trifling thing and give it a slight sense of purpose. In all frankness, it’s one of the two great songs on the album from which it came, with “America For Beginners” being the other track that will keep me from recycling this particular album.
“Snow Covers The Kiss” is a very elegant number that sounds far better than much of what made it onto the album. Too bad it’s followed by “Kiss The Devil;” a parody of a Toyah B-side if ever there were one. The nerf-metal content is an embarrassment to all concerned.
But it does reflect the cod-prog mystikal leanings that made Toyah such a queer duck in the Post-Punk era. The conflict her style embodied is definitely what makes me intrigued by her output, which can vary wildly in style and tone.
None were more shocked that I was when it transpired that she married Robert Fripp the year after this single was issued, but in that he’s another chimera who straddles the New Wave/prog divide, in retrospect it seems like a natural fit.
Post-Punk Monk
2012
SEE ALSO
TOYAH in CLASSIC POP, UNCUT & RETROPOP MAGAZINES
TOYAH in SMASH HITS 1979 - 1985
Albums
Singles
Reissues
Live Albums
Collaborations
Picture Discs
Toyah On Tape
Rare and Collectible
Anthem Reissue (2022)
Vinyl Reissues (2018-24)
The Changeling Reissue (2023)
The Blue Meaning Reissue (2021)
Toyah Talks Solo (Box Set) (2020)
Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! Reissue (2022)
Sheep Farming In Barnet Reissue (2020)
Alternative Domestic And Foreign Releases
Toyah Talks Music : The Albums In Her Own Words
Live At The Rainbow & Live At Drury Lane Reissues (2022-23)
What Can I Say? She seems such a nice girl when she's on the box or talking on these pages. You can't help but admire her energy and utter professionalism. But as soon as she sings I get this awful feeling that she's somehow, er, exaggerating. All her songs have to be about some grand matter and sung with talent competition gusto.
Knock 'em in the aisles, sock 'em in the back row of the balcony, grab 'em and shake 'em. My first instinct is to duck. That said, this is relatively restrained and should get on fewer nerves than the likes of "It's A Mystery".
David Hepworth
Smash Hits
May 1982
Be Proud Be Loud (Be Heard) (1982)
A mere bop around the studio, shaped into something more substantial by means of an ear-bending synth riff and an arrangement that does a lot to hide the fact that Toyah, umpteen hairdo's on, remains much more a performer than a singer.
Fred Dellar
Smash Hits
October 1982
Rebel Run (1983)
Fresh from her part as a wrestler in the play Trafford Tanzi, Toyah grapples with the knotty problem of trying to get a hit single. There hasn't been one for a while and this might just solve her problems.
She sings well and I bet her visual presentation is up to her usual wacky, weird but high standard.
Lenny Henry
Smash Hits
September 1983
Don't Fall In Love (12") (1985)
Toyah managed to finagle her way to the UK top 10 in 1981 after a year or two of slogging away at her semi-prog, semi-NewWave hybrid sound as well as taking the odd acting job [“Quadrophenia,” “Jubilee”].
In ’81 she managed a hit single with “It’s A Mystery” and spent the rest of her remaining two years at UK indie Safari Records as a semi-regular on the UK charts; never topping her initial chart placement with “Mystery.”
But by 1983 her sound was even more out of step with the soul slop [Culture Club, Wham] taking over the UK charts at the time. Career seemingly in decline, it was surprising to see that she finally made the leap from indie to the majors when CBS/Portrait picked up the option for her next album, “Minx.”
This was the advance single for that album and it submitted for our ears an impossibly glossy Toyah new sound; all Fairlight Page R and Yamaha DX-7. The Christopher Neil [Sheena Easton, Mike + The Mechanics] production sounded extremely thin and plastic, as did most of the early digital synth productions of the era.
The tune was a cynical look at love, co-written by Toyah with the trusty Simon Darlow [keys – Buggles MK II] and fortunately, the mix on this 12″ version addresses some of the lack of oomph that afflicts the 7″/LP mix of this track.
The track has been lengthened slightly from 3:45 to 5:12; negligible in terms of what we used to look for in a 12″ version, but the mixing/EQ on this 12″ manages to take a trifling thing and give it a slight sense of purpose. In all frankness, it’s one of the two great songs on the album from which it came, with “America For Beginners” being the other track that will keep me from recycling this particular album.
“Snow Covers The Kiss” is a very elegant number that sounds far better than much of what made it onto the album. Too bad it’s followed by “Kiss The Devil;” a parody of a Toyah B-side if ever there were one. The nerf-metal content is an embarrassment to all concerned.
But it does reflect the cod-prog mystikal leanings that made Toyah such a queer duck in the Post-Punk era. The conflict her style embodied is definitely what makes me intrigued by her output, which can vary wildly in style and tone.
None were more shocked that I was when it transpired that she married Robert Fripp the year after this single was issued, but in that he’s another chimera who straddles the New Wave/prog divide, in retrospect it seems like a natural fit.
Post-Punk Monk
2012
SEE ALSO
TOYAH in CLASSIC POP, UNCUT & RETROPOP MAGAZINES
TOYAH in SMASH HITS 1979 - 1985
Albums
Singles
Reissues
Live Albums
Collaborations
Picture Discs
Toyah On Tape
Rare and Collectible
Anthem Reissue (2022)
Vinyl Reissues (2018-24)
The Changeling Reissue (2023)
The Blue Meaning Reissue (2021)
Toyah Talks Solo (Box Set) (2020)
Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! Reissue (2022)
Sheep Farming In Barnet Reissue (2020)
Alternative Domestic And Foreign Releases
Toyah Talks Music : The Albums In Her Own Words
Live At The Rainbow & Live At Drury Lane Reissues (2022-23)
