13.11.15

TOYAH'S BLOG 2015

Read Toyah's blog on the Official Page HERE



JANUARY 2015


HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!

Well December has been a total surprise to me. Never is it quiet in the Fripp household, there is always some ripple effect travelling through the corridors. Three days after playing London Islington o2 I had eye surgery, nothing major, just reconstructive work under my eyes but for some unexplainable reason I came around from the op with an aversion to chocolate!!!!!! In fact I didn’t eat anything at all for about four days. I think my body has had enough of anaesthetic. But I seized the moment and thought I’ve been waiting for an appetite suppressant like this for years . . . I AM GOING TO GIVE UP SWEETS. WHAT’S MORE I AM GOING TO GIVE UP SUGAR.

But why the aversion to chocolate? This is the holy grail of all that is edible. In fact I have tried to eat it twice in the last five weeks and it isn’t doing it for me at all. Not only that but my Christmas day tradition of eating marshmallows and Liquorice Allsorts was scuppered for the same reason and the bags of sweets my hubby put in my stocking lie untouched, within view, within reach . . . unopened in a bowl in the kitchen. It’s a small miracle. This is unheard of. For the past three or four years I have been so addicted to sugar I have had something sweet at tea time, puddings after lunch, puddings instead of supper and I have hated myself for it.

So . . . how can I make this condition last . . . I don’t recommend surgery, that’s too dangerous, too drastic but ever since my op I have been slightly self hypnotising myself to refrain from ever tucking into sweets again by making myself associate sweets with feeling nauseous and so far it is working. I’d quite happily say my Christmas present to myself was to lose 10lbs in weight and dumping the sugar addiction. I pray it stays this way! December has been incredibly social. Early in the month I took the actor Desmond Barratt to high tea at the Hyde Park Hilton. (I had one cake and felt queasy. Hurray!).

This is a real feast for the eye and a great way to make a fuss of your friends. Des and I worked together in the NATIONAL THEATRE production of THREE MEN ON A HORSE, with Ken Stott and Geoffery Hutchings in 1987. It was a great experience and Des has remained a great friend ever since. Geoffrey and I used to hide behind the scenery when Des was alone on stage with the audience and we’d make farting noises to make Des laugh . . . he is a very forgiving man.

I have a lot of business meetings at the Hilton, earlier this year I was very amused to be facing the main lobby window whilst in a meeting when a film crew arrived, very quietly, sneaking equipment into the hotel and I realised it was Tom Cruise and his team. They managed to get into the hotel without anyone on the street recognising what was happening probably to film a sequence in the Sky Bar.

Christmas Day was one of the best ever for myself and Robert. Roberts present to me was a midi keyboard, an I-pad dock, speakers, headphones and programmes to write loops on for THE HUMANS. Robert thought I’d hate it but its great and I am playing it all day long! It’s just as well because I am in Seattle until mid January writing with Bill Rieflin and now I can take lots of sounds, moods and loops to him to play with. After Christmas we went to Canterbury to catch up with Chris Wong who is musical director for the panto at the Marlowe. It’s a fantastic show and at the very end Chris flies over the audience playing lead guitar to Bon Jovi’s Keep The Faith . . . its brilliant!

Poor Chris, he finishes panto on the 11th Jan and we are back on the road by the 17th Jan. it’s a very busy year! My best wishes and healing thoughts go out to Nigel Glockler, who suffered a bleed on the brain at the beginning of the month and he had to have two operations to get him into safety and recovery. Nigel has been very good to me over the past 30 years, ironically two years ago we where both snowed onto the M23 for 15 hours, over night. Nigel was 100 yards from me in his car and he kept phoning me to check I was ok through out the night.

This Christmas I had my sister home, which was a huge relief, after she sailed around the world. I’ve posted a picture of her in my sister in law’s apartment in San Francisco after three months at sea, devouring chocolate and red wine before setting sail again! I cannot wait for 2015 to get rolling. There is so much to do, so much to look forward to. We have some amazing shows lined up. Forty-two so far!

THE HUMANS are touring the UK and AHHHHH is released . . . WOW!

I wish you all a HAPPY, PROSPEROUS, SAFE NEW YEAR.

LOVE TOYAH XXXXXXXXXXXX


FEBRUARY 2015

HELLO THERE!

THE HUMANS TOUR is getting closer and I am overflowing with excitement and anticipation. The USA last April was one of the best set of shows we have ever done and I know we are going to blow people away in the UK too. In March we will start teasing you with the set list! My year started in Seattle. Robert and I were over there to start new projects with Bill Rieflin whom we professional share now that he is in THE HUMANS and KING CRIMSON. We did something the three of us have never done before and that was sit in one studio . . . myself writing on the computer and keyboard for THE HUMANS 4 and Bill and Robert working on CRIMSON rhythms, we had a little creative factory going. I managed to pen 5 new ideas for HUMANS 4. We also had time to play.

On the first Sunday in January Bill treated us to the Seattle Symphony, a matinee concert, but when we arrived we were half an hour late because Bill hadn’t looked at the time on the tickets. The usher at the symphony hall took our tickets and said “don’t worry the first ten minutes isn’t that exciting”, what we saw we loved! Bill also took us over to his family’s log cabin, across the Puget Sound and I decided THE HUMANS have to make our next album there. Talking of Seattle yesterday I saw the trailer to 50 SHADES OF GREY and I burst out laughing in the cinema because it appears to have been partly shot in an apartment I have been trying to buy in Seattle for the past two years! Boy our house is active at present, well for the last two months it has been like living on the set of PARANORMAL.

December was OK, just few knocks and bangs, a few things disappearing but January has been exceptional. Nobody believes it until they have BEEN here, especially if they have ever slept here. Our friends and neighbours are all cool about it because the whole town has a reputation for hauntings. So when friends come for supper some one in passing will ask “who’s the women at the window?” and we nonchalantly turn and say “oh someone from the 1500’s.” Bill Rieflin last year (Bill lives with us when he’s in England and has his own room in the house) was constantly kept awake because he believed WillyFred the wonder bun was outside his bedroom door digging at the carpet . . . that was the ghost of the last owners dog!

When the house gets this active I know something major is going on. Usually a natural catastrophe or death of a major person is about to happen. Presently the house is alive with loud bangs, doors slamming, running footsteps, items moving. Amid all this we watch WillyFred. He can see what we cannot, like cats do. He is constantly engaged with something we just cannot see. In a way this is reassuring because I’d rather have a spectre in the house than an unknown living human being.

WillyFred feels the same way too, he only runs away from Humans he doesn’t know, as for ghosts, he stays and plays. This leads me on to technology. Nothing in the house is working as it should in the manual. All mobile phones die in the house, computers slow, which means my mini-film making, whatsApp films, even tweets have to happen when I am away. This is because once I am over the town borderline everything works normally again. One story that explains this a little is a few years ago the actress Rula Lenska was visiting and her car died on the edge of town.

So she got out and walked to my door all the time fearing something she could sense, she could sense screaming children, this is something I have never experienced but it has led to Rula not wanting to visit again in a hurry. It has made interesting explaining to BT BROADBAND. “our technology dies in this house. All batteries drain including those in land line head sets.”

But we now have the reassurance that many workman and technicians don’t want to be in the house alone . . . so we know we are not imagining it. One day the technology will be invented that can capture what is going on and when that happens the whole town will have a story to tell. In the last two months I have accidentally fallen into a massive health kick. It started with my successfully making myself feel revulsion at the thought of chocolate. This hasn’t lasted forever, thoughts of sweets and puddings are creeping back around 4pm every afternoon and I fight it. That said I have managed to kick my habit of eating chocolate everyday. I allow myself a treat a week, but I have to be really careful because sugar is as powerful as the hard stuff and I really don’t want to revert back to those eating habits that made me so lethargic I thought “this is it, this is old age making me so tired and mentally dulled.” When in fact it was as simple as my eating habits.

Two weeks ago I read Jason Vale’s bestseller SUPER JUICE ME, after Kate Way recommended it, as it has revolutionised her life. Kate cannot eat solids and needs to find maximum nutrition from liquids. So I read the book. I agreed with the dietary requirements. Totally believe in eating RAW fruit and veg BUT there is no way I can live off just juices. I need to masticate (that’s chew for those of you who think I’ve just added a sexual act into the equation) Chewing for me is the same as breathing. I get through 4 packs of chewing gum a day . . . I NEED TO CHEW! So I thought, “Wait a minute. Why not take all the juice ingredients and just eat them whole and raw!”

So I did. And its great. Robert is doing it too. I have so much energy, my brain is great, I can think, I can remember peoples names (oh yes a big bug bear of mine, never remember names nor faces) I can add and subtract and what’s more I’ve got a will to fight for the things I believe in and the ability to argue my corner, having in the past been made an intellectual numb head from too much sugar and white flour. So this leads me to the conclusion that process foods not only kill your body they kill your freedom of thought too.

Steve Oram has just been in touch to say he is super chuffed with the film AHHHHHH. He says it is excellent and works incredibly well. The screenings start for the industry this month. so there should be news on this front very soon. I have to say I have been hooked into Big Brother in recent weeks. Without knowing Perez’s celebrity “knocking” from the past I took him at face value and found he wears his personality on his sleeve therefore I quite liked him and his madness.

Whereas Katie Hopkins so reminds me of the “snobby middle class girls at school” who ridiculed and bullied and shamed me through my kindergarten years I find myself wanting to smash the TV most nights. Anyway I am off to eat a raw carrot and learn a new arrangement for COME from CRIMSON QUEEN as we are adding it to the acoustic set. From now on I get really busy with shows until November, so I hope you manage to see one or two. We also have a new t-shirt for 2015 for sale on the tour with the very first original TOYAH logo + all 2015 dates on it!

We intend to have fun, fun, fun, FUN, FUN, FUN, FUNNNNNNNNNNNN!

BE PROUD , BE LOUD , BE HEARD

LOVE TOYAH XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


MARCH 2015

HELLO AND WELCOME TO THIS MONTH’S CHAOTIC BLOG!!!!!!!!!!

It is all happening in the FrippCox household this month. Bill Rieflin arrives to live with us for a month, to start King Crimson rehearsals and THE HUMANS tour. This means lots of home cooking to fatten Bill up. I like to send him back to his wife half a stone heavier, which Bill reproves me for but Frankie, his wife, titters about. Apart from 7 concerts in March and apart from promoting THE HUMANS tour plus the other 50 (and growing) gigs this year I now have a lovely cameo in a British Horror film to squeeze in . . . it will be my first acting role in a horror . . . I am so excited . . . horror is my favourite genre.

I love how this part came about. It was off-chance. Having changed acting agents last month is has been all go…. shooting new images for the website, cutting a new showreel and putting my hand up eagerly to “self filming my auditions”, which kind of allows casting agents to see you in a role you fancy doing but they don’t think of you for. In my case, (I cant tell you too much as the script is top secret) I had to learn two pages of solid dialogue in 12 hours, make myself look at deaths door and find a friend to film me. I couldn’t ask my husband because he can remarkably inefficient when time isn’t on your side, so I phoned a friend and apologised for what I was about to put him through but he agreed to come over at 8am the next morning and film me.

We shot the clip on my kitchen table with workman walking in and out of the house, my husband making his morning coffee, cell phones going off, cleaners trying to tidy up the props but we got it done . . . then Robert, my friend and I spent two hours trying to work DropBox . . . we were like three silver surfers tackling the internet for the first time. Eventually got the film to the agent and hey presto got the job . . . so BLOODY HAPPY! I shoot my sequence in the film next week!

The Toyah Band hit the road this month. Grimsby . . . the place where people like to say “it’s grim in Grimsby” . . . when in fact it was far from Grim. It was bustling, alive, vibrant . . . pretty bloody industrial but that’s what keeps people alive! I remember when Hull had a thriving ship building industry, when the miners up north were allowed to prospect for coal . . . so to see Grimsby teaming with life and industry, for me, made it far from grim! The first thing we asked for after soundcheck was Grimsby Fish n’ Chips and by gads they were stunning. The show at the Yardbirds was really good.

We loved the venue, small and intimate, great sound, run by bikers who were all very sweet but also had the edge of “don’t F— with the boys” about them which led to lots of titters in the dressing room as we realised this would be one show where certain fans certainly will not be taking advantage of anything or anyone! There was one fan absent……you know the one…..he always hits people when he dances . . . who we secretly wished was there because on this night we knew he would end naked and taped to a lamppost outside Grimsby Police station with W—– tattooed onto his forehead.

After the show we all drove in convoy, one mile to the hotel, following Chris Wong . . . after an hour we realised he hadn’t a clue where we were going, that and no sense of direction what soever, Kate on two mobile phones talking to Paul Nicholson (sound engineer) in one car and John the drummer in another car simultaneously and myself shouting out the car window “turn right”, Wong shouting back “no left”. An hour later we all turn right and the same place we had been to about 5 times and found the hotel. I am not a drinker but I had a cider in the bar and calmmmmmmmmed dowwwwwwwn before going to bed! Wakefield Warehouse was great. It’s a venue that is like settling in at home for the evening. They have just got it right. Backstage is big enough to find privacy, clean smelling and well equipped for a bunch of tea drinkers.

The show was pretty awesome but I experienced something that doesn’t happen too often thank god. The bass subs where so efficient that when a song was bass heavy the vibrations rattled up through my feet and stopped my vocal chords meeting . . . it was disabling to say the least and I had to request that Paul reduced the frequency or I wasn’t going to get thorough Brave New World . . . with top notes it is better to let the vocal chords just touch . . . not force them together the way you hear in heavy metal singing…..with a female voice that doesn’t get a great tone . . . but on stage this night my vocal chords were so rattled by the bass frequency it was like trying to get two similar pole magnets to meet. When you see me push ear plugs into my ears between songs I am minimising what the bass frequency is doing to my vocal chord shape . . . all very technical.

Last month I saw AHHHHHHHHH with the cast. Noel Fielding, Frippy, Steve Oram and the crew. OMG . . . it is awesome. It isn’t a film for your granny or the children but it works, it really works. Robert’s music is magnificent. The film starts on a slow burn then tumbles like a boulder into hell . . . we all applauded with delight as the credits rolled. The film will certainly rattle all the right cages. For updates the LINCOLN STUDIOS FILM website is the one to watch. Anyway I must sign off. Lines to learn, HUMANS songs to refresh and a slight sinus cold to beat into submission. A big thank you to Dean Stockings, Sean Chapman and Leigh Carter for a great shoot last week. See you out there.

BE PROUD , BE LOUD , BE HEARD

LOVE TOYAH XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


APRIL 2015

HELLO THERE!

Right I am back with the world, having reached the last page of GONE GIRL . . . well I never expected that to grip my attention like a vice for the week, what a story!

THE HUMANS are now in rehearsals and we are all excited. When we get together we just smile continuously and talk about future plans and dreams. I think it is safe to say we all love this band so much we cant wait for each new project, which might be because we don’t spend all year touring together, an event that seems to rip the seams of passion from any group of people who spend too long in each others company . . . in confined spaces such as dressing rooms, tour buses and uni-sex shower cubicles . . . joke.

Fortunately or unfortunately we have other very successful areas of our lives keeping us apart for now but here we are this month rocking! We are going to perform all of STRANGE TALES. Very exciting! It is a beautiful album and takes such a crazy journey in sound. It will be intermixed with HUMANS 1 and SUGAR RUSH making the whole set PERFECT! The set is dark, almost hilarious and wonderfully delirious.

My brother-in-law, is the head professor of Bedford Medical University. He specialises in child epilepsy, a world renowned expert on brain function. He has a passion for classical music. He told Bill that when he heard the first track on HUMANS1 he thought “this is an acquired taste”, then he heard the rest of the album and thought “I’ve acquired the taste.” This is exactly what we are aiming for, a journey into a different perception of the things you thought you knew so well but then you realise nothing is fixed, the predictable doesn’t exist, it’s a trick the mind plays to try and keep you calm.

In February I changed acting agents, after 20 years with my wonderful agent, who I adored. I felt it was time to shake things up and my feet haven’t touched the ground since . . . it has been crazy. I’ve found my world has opened up to a new younger work force, having stripped away older traditional conventions like waiting to be asked to go to auditions I am now self-taping and reaching more people thus more is happening and I am loving it. It does mean, though, I am never “off” call but I am just about coping . . . so far.

I had a fabulous day on EXTREMIS, a British feature film, a psychological thriller (not a horror film but a psychological story). It involved an emotionally complex scene where my character did all the talking plus a rather strange physical situation which I am not going to give away, as it is fabulous . . . right up my street! It took eight hours in a freezing cold disused hospital to shoot 21 camera set ups for just one scene . . . I loved it! The leading man is David O’ Hara. He was great, the poor guy had to listen to me all day as we ran the scene over and over encouraged by a very excited director/write Steve Stone and many producers huddled around the viewing monitors, all thrilled at what was happening . . . a very special day indeed. Easter actually feels like a holiday. It isn’t that I am on holiday…but everyone else who usually wants my attention is on holiday thus the pressure is off for four days.

About 6 months ago I decided never to answer my mobile phone again. Yes, this is true. Because the only people who phoned me where either hypochondriacs with a newly invented disease du jour or people who just wanted me to do their job for them, life has improved 100% since I turned the ringer off. BUT karma is at my door, grabbing my attention in other ways.

WILLYFRED will always take a turn for the worse as I am about to pack my bags for a short tour, the car will break down, a pipe will burst in the ceiling above my head . . . there is always something that will grab that carpet your think you have a safe footing on and give it a tug as you step out of the door. SO Easter feels like a holiday because everyone else has turned his or her phones off. JOY. That just leaves me to feed the boys . . . FRIPP and RIEFLIN . . . do RIEFLIN’S laundry . . . (no complaints about RIEFLIN living with us, he has managed to re-string my Strat, some thing nether Robert nor I could do) . . . get bunny to the vet . . . pick up the post from the sorting office cause the post man cant get it through the letter box . . . change the tyres on the car . . . get the brakes renewed . . . pay umpteen insurance bills . . . and deal with those who cant get to me by phone/ facebook/ post or text who are now scripting their disgruntles by e-mail . . . E-MAIL IS THE NEXT THING TO GO!

When I have days at home, no immediate gigs, no immediate TV or film projects I love the interaction and constant drive from my agents and press people, it is very motivating and always exciting but there is no “stop” button for the times like now, as we start THE HUMANS rehearsals when the outside world isn’t welcome because all the band want to do is submerge in the rehearsal process. So this week we all leave our familiar surroundings and dive into the subterranean world of the rehearsal room. The good news being the hours will dissolve very quickly as there is so much to do and the first show will arrive on our doorstep very quickly . . . like lightning.

We are all excited. We have a new band member Jake Willson. I do believe he is 29 years old . . . only 29yrs younger than me . . . this is so cruel, I feel like I’m 12 years old, not 56 . . . yikes. BUT at least it wont just be me who will feel ancient in his presence . . . we all will. I hope you can make it to the gigs. The band is very different to when we last toured the UK. It is all very exciting. Don’t forget you can get the STRANGE TALES album CD hard copy at the gigs too. See you out there!

BE PROUD, BE LOUD, BE HEARD.

LOVE TOYAH XXXXXXX


MAY 2015

HELLO THERE! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! TO EVERYONE WHO SAW THE HUMANS!

The last month has been thrilling. We tripled our audience, the band and the music were superlative, even if I say so myself! I wasn’t sure about going back to the 100 Club after 37 years; I thought the sound might be a struggle for this particular bass heavy band. But it was stunning; the best sound of the tour and the atmosphere was electric. My favourite moment was witnessing two Japanese men rocking out on the front row. They were about 40 something but really rocking out! Fabulous.

I still don’t know if they were there to see the 100 Club or to see THE HUMANS. I do know they left HUMANS fans. A lot of people travelled a long way to see this show, quite a few from Germany, some from France, Canada and Australia. An indication of the success of this tour is Bill Rieflin actually enjoyed it. This is like saying the portrait of the Mona Lisa cracked a laugh, Bill is tough to please and when we took him to the airport he was making plans for next year’s tour. In a blink of an eye the summer is upon us and my diary is so full I’ve had to buy a second diary to fit all the work appointments in.

As I start performing the summer shows and festivals I am now filling my diary with autumn gigs and concerts for 2016. And it isn’t just concerts getting me out of bed in the morning. KALEIDOSCOPE MAN has the funding now to finish filming, my scenes are the last set up so I start filming in June. I think you will hear more about this from the film’s web page as they might need crowd scene extras . . . always worth looking into. MY GOODNESS WHAT A WARPED WORLD WE LIVE IN. I had my first anonymous blackmail (e-mail) letter in about 30 years. It went straight to the police as does most things these days. The letter hinted at threatened to ruin my “good reputation” if I performed at a certain festival. It was sent to all my agents, a good thing, as my agents look after high profile people and have the resources and the police contacts to go straight to the top and get something done.

Maybe this is an indication of the culture we live in. So many people have gripes with others, sadly to say. This particular letter had a gripe with a board member on the festival, but as an artist we just turn up and play, we have nothing to do with the set up or the boards on these events. I suppose the thing about living a long time is you see, the good and the bad many times over. A couple of weeks ago I made it to my home in France and I was shocked to see how people in an area had physically changed in 6 months. In the past you very rarely witnessed overweight people in France and would never see over-weight children because there’s too much running around to do in the sun. On this visit what I saw shocked me.

The food industry has a lot to answer for because I didn’t just see adults who had eaten too much but I saw babies . . . BABIES . . . who were enormous! They were born over weight and there is only one thing that can cause this and that is contamination of the food chain with over processed foods! Secret ingredients such as corn syrup, hydrogenated fats etc . . . Things we would never in a million years eat if we knew we were putting them in our mouths.

Foods today can be highly addictive. Foods are scientifically designed that way . . . TO MAKE SURE WE BUY THEM! TO MAKE SURE WE CRAVE THEM. TO MAKE SURE WE ARE ADDICTS! I have total sympathy for people who are so overworked, time short that fast food, processed food, cheap food is the only option. It is because of these foods less people go hungry in the world and ironically live longer but what quality of life does this offer and to see obesity in babies . . . who are being born overweight, who will be forever dieting because they have somehow been born large is heart breaking. I was born to be large. My ability to put weight on is quite shocking.

Within a week I can get out of shape . . . as simple as that. The only way I can deal with my sugar and fat addiction is to stock my fridge and cupboards with fresh veg and gluten/sugar free items and NOTHING ELSE . . . I get so bored of eating healthy but the consequences terrify me if I don’t, because I don’t have to try when it comes to weight gain . . . I have to try when it comes to weight loss. How dare the food industry do this to the human race, then blame people for being sedentary. There is more to this than laziness and greed . . . far more. There is only one cure, only one solution EAT PURE. Eat only fresh food. Its time consuming, it can take hours prepping veg each day, but you can eat as much as you want and you don’t pass the food industries cynical tampering onto your children. AND you give power back to the farmers.

While in France I also saw something else I had only read about in news papers, the migration of desperate men across the Italian boarder, looking for safety and work. I live right on the border between Italy and France, on the coast of Menton. The Italian boarder is only 5 mins walk from my front door. One morning I was walking over to Italy to buy food at a shop on the Italian side and I saw a group of men hiding down in the rocks that line the coast line. One by one, every 20 mins one of them would walk over the boarder, then call their friends on their mobile to say they were safely over.

Robert and I watched this for quite a while. The men looked Somalian. They looked hugely relieved to have made it over the border, but they needn’t have worried the border guards were paying no attention. Within Menton this community has integrated well from what I have seen, they are not criminals, they are not exploitative, they are just desperate enough to walk Italy and France for work having no doubt made a terrifying crossing by boat over the Mediterranean. People understand the hardship they have been through and the men themselves want to build a new life and work.

Whether these men were being trafficked wasn’t evident but they looked well, if somewhat fatigued, god knows how long they have been walking. Seeing this first hand was shocking. It really brought home the hardship they must have experienced and it was terrifying to think how close this hardship is to all of us. The balance of our lives can shift at any time. It made me feel powerless and cowardly at the same time. HOW THE HELL DOES THIS SITUATION GET RECTIFIED?

My father once told me his father walked from Lincoln to Birmingham pushing a wheelbarrow in search of work, sleeping in barns and relying on people along the way to feed him out of the goodness of their hearts. He was welcomed into homes and outbuildings and never went hungry. That was almost 100 years ago. Nothing changes, nothing is fixed, we all need to survive and we all need to feel safe. I don’t believe in war. I don’t believe in acts of terrorism. I don’t believe in hating someone so much I could harm them. I do believe the purest form of “free speech” is honest non-hostile persistent criticism by the masses, relentlessly pushing back cynicism and using the power of being a non consumer, not buying into in anyway the things that cause others pain.

I don’t want to be a follower, I don’t want to be lead and I certainly don’t want to lead. I do want to be a responsible contributor to a thriving community. I want to understand. How, what, why, have these situations got so bad. The bankers who caused the financial collapse are richer than ever, the large supermarkets are selling foods that quite frankly should be banned, the super rich manage to tax dodge, the NHS struggles with so many needing care . . .

And 2000 miles away, and closer to home, there is human trafficking. I write this as we remember VE DAY. My father spent 6 years away from home serving in the WW2. He gave his youth for what he believed in. May this never happen again. May the divide between those who have and those who have not cease to widen . . . May we all have a right to be and feel safe AND to make changes for the better? It’s my Birthday this month! 57 . . . can you believe it! Frippy is taking me away after I play THE WATERSIDE ARTS CENTRE . . . he is a romantic. It is also our 29th wedding anniversary and Frippy’s birthday too . . . he’s 69! Imaging getting the “bumps”?!!!!!

BE PROUD, BE LOUD, BE HEARD

LOVE TOYAH XXXXXXXXXX


JUNE 2015

HELLO THERE!

Is there anybody out there doing research into how some people cannot be near electronics without them breaking? If you are out there and you need a live test human being who breaks phones, computers, car systems and cash tills just by standing next to them . . . I AM YOUR PERSON…WILLING AND ABLE TO BE RESEARCH MATERIAL. Perhaps I could have a new career as a kind of living weapon. I am beginning to believe I have some kind of “survival DNA” where my body repels technology. As if I am made to survive in a world where technology has broken down . . . an Armageddon gene. I KID YOU NOT!

As the world accelerates towards everything in life being run by computers I am starting to feel quite bonkers and slightly concerned I will remain an “outsider” because of my predicament. My problem is the erratic behaviour of technology. Or should I say my erratic behaviour influencing technology AND I have witnesses. My husband is amazed and frustrated by how I can turn a peaceful occasion into a mad panic of “what the F— did that!” EXAMPLE: new computers freeze when I am near them . . . I walk away . . . they work.

My husband had the pleasure of witnessing every file on my computer converting to Spanish whilst I was just sitting at my desk . . . well at least we know there’s a translation available. Arriving at Bosscombe this week my car electrical circuits burnt out and Wongoose’s headlamps broke, then I walked into the venue and their projector went from projecting films to only showing a pink light and had to be discarded. I set up my computer on stage and my POWERPOINT has self edited out pics and randomly rearranged my presentation. Shop tills still break when I go to pay but as I’ve said many times before I like that. I am perfectly happy to ignore all this but how can anyone ignore this in a world where shops have “self-serve” and car parks have “pay machines” and telephones no longer have wires?

For me there are permanent ghosts in the machine and I have no choice but to accept it because I live in a time where electronics and computers are our constant companions. So I am asking . . . is there anyone out there researching this because I am sure I am not the only person having this experience and it isn’t going to go away. Robert has noticed when I am distressed the problem increases ten fold. Well I am distressed about 80% of the time . . . my life is a horizon of troughs and peaks, the troughs being other people managing to mess up perfectly simple processes and the peaks are being on stage . . . stress is ever present . . . the only way to rid my life of it is to stop doing what I love and for me that would be like walking away from not only a challenge but a war on technology frustration.

Presently life is like a marathon of fun and frolics with metaphorical big bad B——- dragging on the ground. The shows are sublime. The best part of my working life. Last night I played Carnglaze Caverns. Wonderful! To sing THUNDER IN THE MOUNTAINS and JUNGLES OF JUPITER deep under a large seam of rock was ecstasy. The night before we played Babbacombe Theatre, which I have to admit I had low expectations about, as to wether we would have an audience. Calamity Jane once did a matinee to three people in Torquay so I was dreading the same in Babbacombe but 500 people turned up and they were the most wonderful audience we have had . . . pure joy.

That night we stayed at the EXMOUTH VIEW HOTEL. My car limped into the car park with no electrics and the owner Dave called his mechanic friend and arranged for repairs in the morning . . . then made us sandwiches. Bless him! What a wonderful man. As we arrived to check-in a coach of holidaying OAP’s arrived from 5 miles where I live and told Dave that they see me in the local Asda and they know where I live . . . 6 degree’s of separation or what?

Today I am at Burghley House in Stamford. The sun is out, the venue is stunning and I can relax a little as others are running the show. Heaven. Karen and Sarah from Bananrama are sunbathing outside of their winnebago . . . I’m in mine writing. I even have a double bed in mine . . . sadly hubby is in New York State! I love these show days, all I have to do is sing! I shoot KALEIDOSCOPE MAN next week so my script is with me, and I have a pilot drama to shoot with Jamie Winston to learn for august, but there is sanity in the air. On the TOYAH shows it is so different, it is crazy. I am singer, tour manager, banker, driver, PA, and secretary to myself!

It has been a great four weeks. I can’t remember my birthday, I know it was lovely, but there’s so much going on every day is a blur. I do remember the Ivor Novello Awards. It was quite terrifying getting up and talking in front of Elton John, Annie Lennox, Tony Iommi, Paul WillIams, Kylie, Ed Sheeran . . . I am still shaking! The one thing about that day that will stick with me forever is to never feel unconfident because of my lack of height. Because Elton and Ed are about my height yet they are giants. I hope you get to see some of this month’s shows. Today I am updating, changing stories and adding new content to the acoustic show.

Have a great June!

BE PROUD, BE LOUD, BE HEARD.

LOVE TOYAH XXXXXXXXXX


JULY 2015

HELLO THERE!

I am so excited!!!!! AHHHHHHH! will premiere at the FILM4 FRIGHTFEST on 28 August, at Leicester Square. The cast, myself and Steve Oram will be doing a Q&A at the opening. I will be popping up here and there with Steve when the film tours cinemas in the UK in the autumn.

There will also be news about EXTREMIS this year too . . . more to come. Thanks to both films I enter new territory as an actress in 2016…more to come!!!! And . . . I am back writing with Simon Darlow. The music we are coming up with is blisteringly exhilarating. On our first day in the studio this week we put three ideas down, straight out of the blue and they sound great. Edgy, high energy and very rocky . . . almost punkish. Really Simon and I should be writing all the time, we have a synergy, an ESP, which is rare and wonderful. When we write the ideas flow effortlessly. We have now been writing together for 37 yrs.

Hopefully Simon will have more time to offer once his political duties ease up . . . he is running all over the world improving conditions for writers and tackling pirating and free downloading/streaming as Deputy Chairman of PRS. These issues are so important as massive companies manage to wangle out of paying artists any royalties. For artists like me the internet is a God send but it would be great to earn a living from what is out there! Thank goodness I have a “live performance” career to pay the bills!

Last week I played the London Palladium with John Shuttleworth. The last and only other time I was on the Palladium stage was to perform ECHO BEACH on JIMMY TARBUCK LIVE FROM THE PALLADIUM. This was a live Sunday night variety show, which went out on ITV in 1987. I remember it well because the dancers with me had to pull off a secretarial style skirt to reveal a rah-rah skirt and one of the dancers on the night was too zealous and tore my tights and cut my thigh with his nails, all very nerve wracking on live TV, this was then followed by a typically sexist remake off the host as I left the stage “I don’t care what anyone says about her legs I think they are great.” These remarks have been commonplace over a 40yr career.

One of the most astounding and funniest was after a free show in KINGS LYNN MARKET PLACE where 15,000 people took the town over to see me. (2000 were expected). After 2 power cuts and an astoundingly successful and mind-blowing show the town councillor who was compering walked on stage took my mic off me and said “next year we will have a bigger and better name” . . . I grabbed the microphone back off him and said in no uncertain terms he was lucky to have me there. John Shuttleworth’s show was great fun, as you’d expect. Gordon Giltrap, Chas Hodges (Chas and Dave) Bill Bailey to name a few were all brilliant. To be back on this stage singing live with the wonderful Chris Wong and Colin Hinds with me was exhilarating and erased the “tights nightmare” from my emotional memory.

Last week I was in France. My home there has become the one place I can go to where people do not walk in and disturb my creative thinking. Here in England my home with Robert has become like a train station, you never know who is in the house at what time, this drives me bonkers because when I write I don’t want casual conversations about anything. So I escaped to France for a week to write a song for a film. I arrived at my apartment late, about 10pm and ran out to get provisions . . . shops were closed but there was a midsummer-night music festival on through the night which meant I could get ICE CREAM! Yipeee! So standing in a non existent queue (the French don’t believe in queuing) there was a boy of about 10 in front of me.

He turned and looked at me and screamed and ran off with his concerned mother in pursuit. The boy was Italian and I could understand some of what he was saying. He was terrified of me and his mother was telling him to calm down in case I understood what I was saying. He was refusing to come back to the queue and be anywhere near me. This made me paranoid and I wondered what had been on TV lately, as the French/Italian watch the BBC, so I am not always anonymous when I am in France.

So I ordered my ice cream in Italian so they knew I understood them and I walked away perplexed. On asking my business partner out there, who has two daughters who have similar skin/hair to me it appears people of my skin type . . . olive skin, green eyes and strawberry blonde hair are considered to be Vampires. The boy genuinely thought I was a vampire! My business partner said she has to shoo people away from her daughters who stare at them in fascination.

SO . . . I finally get back to the UK, after a riot at NICE airport which meant I had to walk down a motorway with my luggage and through a barricade of taxi-drivers to get into the terminal. Fly to Gatwick (this took an hour and a half) then sit on the M25 for three hours and a further 3 hours to Worcestershire (I could have walked quicker) to where my husband and Bill Rieflin are awaiting my arrival. I tell Bill the story of the boy screaming and running away from me, to which Bill replied: “The boy was Italian? He thought you were the dwarf in DON’T LOOK NOW”. Summer is here, I am going to make the most of it because I have a feeling the next 18months are going to be a roller coaster. I hope to see you at REWIND.

I am hosting CHESTER and PERTH, singing at Perth too!

BE PROUD, BE LOUD, BE HEARD!

LOVE TOYAH XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


AUGUST 2015

HELLO FROM THE HAIL AND RAIN IN PERTH!!!!!!!!!

As I write this I am spending the weekend in Perth hosting and singing at REWIND SCOTLAND and I have never seen weather like it. Yesterday, Saturday, there was hail the size of small marbles, in abundance, in late July. The audience were heroic, 20 thousand of them, armoured up in only flimsy plastic rain macs endured the 20 minute onslaught of hearty hail from the heavens. Howard Jones was on stage at the time and nothing was going to distract his fans. For me, this weekend, the majority of what I have to do is run around backstage researching the artists and then introducing them to the audience but I cant help slipping in personal stories, for example: meeting Hugh Cornwall for the first time….(UK’S DARK LORD OF PUNK . . . according to Rolling Stone magazine). . .

Hugh is a lovely, quiet, modest man. Our paths have crossed but we have never met until this weekend. In 1979 Hugh was a guest of Her Majesty, I am not sure why and it doesn’t really matter, its confined to history, so back then in support of Hugh many, many artists stood in for him with The Stranglers for two nights at the iconic Rainbow Theatre in London. I sang with Hazel O’Connor and Ian Dury (my husband Robert Fripp played on one of the nights but I didn’t met Robert that time, that happened 4 years later).

In the 70’s a And 80’s I never got to meet Hugh until back stage this weekend at REWIND 37 years later. He came over and said hello, what a sweet guy! Talking of hubby, he was a blessing this weekend. I had a charity appearance in Derby then we drove over night to Carlisle, staying in a truly depressing hotel . . . but we slept . . . for 5 hours and then hit the road to Perth. Hubby made it possible, it would have been hell on my own…..8 hours in the car each way but bless him, he did most of the driving and was completely zonked once we got on site! Robert only has three weeks until King Crimson start their world tour. He will be away until Christmas week, so we are having as many “hot dates” as possible, REWIND was one of them!

When not on stage I am learning my lines for BBC DOCTORS. My episode is filmed this week and it is a great story. Sadly I am not allowed to tell you any more…but it is very different and quite “out there” for day time drama! I think my episode airs on the 9th or 10th November . . . look out for it because I am very happy indeed with my role…HA HA HA!Being on DOCTORS has hooked me up with friends from the radio drama series I was in 8yrs ago SILVER STREET. We have a lot of catching up to do and a lot if giggles over the pressure of shooting 20 pages of dialogue a day, but I am loving it! Also I have my first role in a feature film with Bollywood actors . . . there’s no songs or dance routines in this feature film . . . which I would have loved . . . I adore traditional Bollywood . . . no this is a dark drama being shot in northern England. All of the Bollywood stars fly into the UK for the filming in Sept/Oct.

I start in Sept with the filming very conveniently fitting around my concert schedule! This project is also exciting me because there is a major Irish film star in the lead role, when I told Robert he went “WOW!” What the hell is going on in the world . . . Cilla Black has passed away and Sam Fox has lost the love of her life Myra. It is one of those weird, weird times, when the universe decides to rearrange and unsettle us. Hubby and I had supper with Cilla a couple of years ago and she was already saying she was finding age hard. She was upset that her hearing was going but she put on a brave face and was wonderful company, but in retrospect I can now see she was finding life hard physically . . . BLESS HER. She was exceptional. AND now I’ve just read that Sam Fox’s partner Myra has passed away after a two year fight with cancer . . . this is an awful week for news. Sam and Myra were inseparable.

Dear Sam, Dear Myra. Simon Darlow and I have managed to continue writing. We are coming up with some really great stuff. Simon has two sons who are about to enter advanced music college and he invited one into listen to a finished song this week, Arthur. I was nervous that he might think of us as silver surfers with guitars but the reaction was great. I don’t think he’s seen his father dancing around the studio and out onto the lawn before! I pray August will have some sunshine. There are plenty of festivals in the calendar and I want the audience to have the time of their lives. Rewind North, Clumber Park, Eastbourne, Cropready, Aylesbury Park . . . YIPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! I love festival season and I can’t wait to get out there!

I am also looking forward to the first ever London outing for the ACOUSTIC, UP CLOSE & PERSONAL show on 13 Sept at London Hippodrome. NOW back to the rain!

BE PROUD! BE LOUD! BE HEARD!

LOVE TOYAH XXXXXXX


SEPTEMBER 2015

HELLO THERE!

Life has so many gears at the moment! AAAAAAAAH! the movie has taken us all by surprise.

Even the Hollywood Reporter is writing that it is an important film with major new talent and heaps of social comment. Having appeared in Q&A’s with Steve Oram I really like the way he gives nothing away other than the technicalities of how the film was made. If this film carries on creating the momentum we have seen so far I think all of us who have taken part have hugely different stories of perception to tell about the making of the film. Steve announced at the premiere that he has destroyed the original script because we, the actors, were saying how funny it is and we want to do a dubbed version of the film.

All the reviews are picking up on the power of the film as a piece of social comment. The social comment situation was evident to all of us but not at all why the film was created, the social comment was completely accidental but thanks to the internet and freedom of communication we see a weirder world in reality than we ever knew 30 yrs ago. The really scary thing will be if AHHHHHHHH ever becomes the norm!

The premiere was so positive, so receptive, it was the hottest ticket in town and it was very clear Oram has a huge following who love his off side take on the world. We are now experiencing future film showings being moved to larger venues because of demand. VERY EXCITING TIMES! August was one of the best months of my life, everything seems to be falling into place. Time has matured the band beautifully, the concerts have been out of this world and festival season makes 37years of hard work well worth it as we looked out over 20,000 people most days. What a joy.

Because of an ear infection I developed after a bad cold in April this summer I have started to use “in ear systems” and it has radically changed how I sing for the better. My ears became over sensitive to the drums, agony actually, at the Southampton Mayfair in May this reached the stage of “unbearable and how are we going to deal with it”, so “in –ears” seemed to be the solution where I can block the drums out almost completely and only have my voice . . . it’s worked! It’s fabulous! I can’t tell you how the volume on stage can be a form of torture, especially when I never liked volume in the first place. Now I am isolated with my voice and I can sing with feeling again . . . heaven!

There have been moments when I sweat so much the in-ears pop right out, or I get my hands tied up in the wires, or when my bra strap holding the radio pack in place breaks. Every thing new brings new challenges but what the heck! Towards the end of August I have been submerged in writing the outro song for the movie EXTREMIS. I have a fabulous cameo scene in this film, I am over the moon with it, it is very emotional and bleak and when the director Steve Stone asked me to write and perform the outro song my heart jumped out of my mouth.

So for the past couple of weeks I have penned three drafts and finally I had a huge break through last week when I stripped the instramentation right down to just vocal rhythmic support beneath the main vocal. Now I am ready to bring Simon Darlow in to help finish the arrangement, it is a love song to a father and has been so rewarding to be immersed in. KING CRIMSON opened this week too, their UK tour runs through September, then I have hubby home for three weeks before he ventures to Canada and Japan.

I was going to Japan but work commitments are now keeping me in the UK . . . MY DIARY HAS GONE THROUGH THE ROOF! The Crimson show is epic and wonderful HUMAN Bill Rieflin is in the band as well, he is amazing, spiky, humorous and lightening sharp. Last Sunday the wonderful K. Bush came to see the run through and she was blown away. We laughed so much in Fripp’s dressing room over the fact that last year she created one of the greatest stage shows of all time and still has a 20yr old mobile phone . . . adorable. Bill and I have scheduled HUMANS 4 to start in the early spring of next year.

We know what we want, the sound we want, the energy we want . . . it will be yet another fabulous twist in the evolution of THE HUMANS. This week alone I am recording LIVE WITH . . . TOYAH for VINTAGE TV, Vintage are filming a mini-version of the acoustic show. I have a pilot for a new Chanel 4 drama with Jamie Winston, three concerts coming up, a photo shoot in Hull, AAAAAAAAH! screenings with Q&As.

I also start LIES WE TELL, this is a very small role for me, I was originally offered a larger character but I had too many concert commitments, so I said I want to be involved so offer me a character that fits in my diary! All this and on the street outside my London home last week I bumped into a school friend I haven’t seen for 40 years and I am trying really hard to meet up and catch up. Crazy, crazy, crazy. Lastly I have learned major lessons in the past four weeks. A man came up to me after a brilliant show in Eastbourne and he said “ I came to see you in London 5 years ago expecting to hear soulful, emotive singing and all I got was shouting.” This made me really think, what did he mean by shouting?

Then it occurred for me, for years, decades, I have had to try and hear myself above the drums. The audience can always hear me through the PA but I could never hear “me” on stage because I was deafened every night but the intolerable volume of the bass drum and snare, so since this comment I have taken the physical effort I usually put through my vocal chords “down” and found the tonality I had 37 years ago, and thanks to in-ears I can hear myself for the first time in a decade, my timing, tuning, tonality is spot in. Then another throw away comment, again from a man, had me fuming this week.

After playing Aylesbury Vale Park, which was a huge success, someone in the business said to me “that was fantastic, you were great, you dressed like a serious singer. All those costume changes you used to do had no credibility at all.” And I asked what costume changes? He said “at Rewind”, and I thought and thought about this, because firstly this person asked me to loan my costumes to a museum, secondly I don’t do costume changes at Rewind there isn’t time, his perception was inaccurate. The only time I ever did costume changes was in 4 years ago I believe, on the request of promoters for something different and also to celebrate the great Melissa Caplan who later was exhibited in the V&A.

Fripp was witness to this comment and we both agreed what you wear doesn’t effect what comes out of your mouth but it does effect how those around you perceive their own status . . . I was celebrating a great designer who changed the face of fashion and who has influenced what the young are wearing today, he was watching something equivalent to going shopping with the wife. I will stick to my own beliefs and be myself. Men what are they good for? Well in my life great fun, hugely vulgar humour, fab musicianship and friendship . . . but never never expect them to be interested in what you are wearing.

BE PROUD, BE LOUD, BE HEARD

LOVE TOYAH XXXXXXXXXXXXXX


OCTOBER 2015


HELLO THERE!

The exciting news has just come in that the digital download release of DESIRE has charted on Amazon! AND . . . OPHELIA’S SHADOW AND PROSTITUTE have entered on iTunes download charts too. THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO MADE THIS POSSIBLE!

This is a fantastic way to remember these albums. Ophelia’s Shadow has long been one of my personal favourites and Desire was the album I made after setting up home with Robert. September has been both glorious and testing. Of course Mercury went retrograde on the 17th Sept . . . it does this three times a year and I cannot bring myself to love this time at all, the mechanical failures, the misunderstandings etc. I really should get used to the car tyres bursting, the TV’s not working . . . but I never do. Luckily there have been no problems with the stage equipment that we couldn’t deal with. Having got used to my “in ear” system it stopped working in Stonehaven and I reverted back to good old ear plugs to keep the volume of the drums out of my ears.

Stonehaven was fabulous. A really happy holiday town. My apartment for the weekend overlooked the bay and it was heaven. Below me was THE MERMAID confectionary shop . . . WOW . . . it was the best. The best ice cream, the best chocolate. Luckily the owners left a lot of chocolate for me in the apartment because all weekend there was a queue around the block for the shop from 9am till 9pm for ice cream. Wongy ate the chocolate!

After the Dundee gig I had two days hidden away in my favourite hotel in the Peak District. I was waiting to be called to Bradford for my first day on LIES WE TELL, but they were running behind and cancelled this week’s shoot for me and I had a holiday instead. All over the UK I’ve found secret hideaways that are beautiful and SECRET!

One of my favourite things to do is to travel alone . . . I can go off road and have adventures. When I do this I take lots of pictures on my mobile because these automatically load onto Roberts computer wherever he is. Often these pictures are to make him laugh, but more often they make me laugh. So here I was in the middle of a forest, on my own, laughing my head off because I was taking pictures of myself cross eyed and goofing around when I suddenly realise another walker had stopped to observe me and had turned back on gone the other way to avoid me! I was taking pictures of a rock pool when I realised it was filling up really quickly and I had to run up the side of the valley to avoid being caught up in the water.

Apart from having fantastic Toyah shows, King Crimson have been on the road and I spent most of my free time looking after “MY BOYS”….MR. FRIPP and MR. RIEFLIN . . . And also honouree members of the FRIPP/COX/BIBBLE tribe Miss K. Bush, and Mr. P. Gabriel. Miss K. Bush so loved the show she came to see the band twice and at Hackney she whooped and whistled her approval louder than any one else. We love her so much she is tons of fun. My main objective when I “look after the boys” is that they eat properly. That their laundry gets done and that they sleep enough, this was all a success.

I got my hubby home for the first time in 7 weeks on the 27th Sept. I made him a yummy Sunday lunch of Veg stew, salmon and corn on the cob but he managed to swallow his front tooth! I asked him if he chews his food, because he didn’t notice his front tooth had gone until he felt the gap in his teeth. After much panicking the dentist made him a new tooth in 24hours.

We love going to the movies. A week after the tooth incident we went to see the opening of “The Scottish play”, with Michael Fassbinder. It was my Mother’s Birthday so I had been a bit weepy this day. As we entered the screening I realised we had brought my mother to this cinema years ago to see The Last Samurai of course this seemed only right, that out of 10 screens in this particular multi-plex we were in the one we brought my mother to 11 years ago.

So Frippy and I were sitting there, waiting and waiting for the “Scottish play” to start and it seemed to be running late when suddenly a film called “The Intern” started. We where in the wrong screen, we looked at the tickets and we were in the right screen according to the tickets but to see Spectre in two weeks time. Nice one Mum . . . we laughed all the way through The Intern, remembering Mum-eating sweets loudly through The Last Samurai.

Darlow and I have finished OUR HEARTS STILL BEAT for the film EXTREMIS . . . AND we are thrilled with it. It is like nothing we have written before, a beautiful song of love and connection. Again my mother made her presence felt. It was the day after the cinema visit and I was driving to Darlow’s studio and I came up with a new opening line to the song “you cannot loose me” and the locking system on my car started locking and unlocking the car doors. At this point I knew mum approved. AAAAAAAAH!

Has had more screenings added because of demand. At the Birmingham screening a young man came up to me afterwards and said he found the film profoundly beautiful, which is a new one on me. Then Robert said he found it beautiful too and poignant. The screening was at The Electric Cinema on Station Street, next to my old drama school but also next to the new John Lewis and New Street Station right opposite . . . it looks incredible, like a space ship.

Birmingham is become exciting and beautiful and I am so proud of it. VINTAGE TV’s LIVE WITH . . . TOYAH airs this week with broadcasts on Wed 7 Oct and Mon 12 Oct. I think it is going to be one of the best things we have done. Having seen the trailer I am very happy, the double bass adds subtle depth to the sound. 2015 is getting very close to ending, especially gig wise. There’s plenty of acoustic shows to catch and of course the band shows in Holmfirth, Bristol and London. Get your tickets now as they will be busy. See you out there and thank you for all your support.

BE PROUD, BE LOUD, BE HEARD

LOVE TOYAH XXXXXXXXXXX


NOVEMBER 2015


HELLO AND WELCOME!

October has been a customary whirl of shows / travel / pressure/ demands / filming and joy! Finally I made it on set to do my very small part in LIES WE TELL. But I made the most of it. This was the largest budget film I have been on since Quadrophenia HUGE crew . . . about 90 people, HUGE cast . . . well over 40 actors.

Originally I was offered a main role but it would have meant my cancelling the STONEHAVEN weekend to fit in with the filming schedule and I have a policy neither to mess venues nor the band around like that. So I asked the producers if they had a character I could play that fitted in with my ridiculous schedule. They did and I ended up playing a non-speaking role that is on camera for all of 4mins, but I loved every minute of it.

I had to arrive the night before shooting for a costume and make up test. The filming was in and around Bradford, so I arrived on set about 9pm mid October. As my make up was being done I looked at all the pictures of the cast covering an entire wall of the make up wagon and I asked: “I need to know who is playing my husband?” We were shooting a funeral scene the next day and I was the widow of a billionaire. As I scanned all the pictures of the many actors I was trying to guess which one was my husband. “Harvey.” Said the make up lady.

“Which one’s Harvey?” I asked. “Harvey Keitel!” I am telling you . . . I needed to be peeled off the ceiling. This was terrifying! Luckily I didn’t have any scenes with him, my scenes were all with Gabriel Byrne’s, who didn’t terrify me quite so much. In fact Gabriel held us all together with his incredible knowledge and story telling.

I was sitting with him waiting for a helicopter to arrive for a funeral sequence and he said . . . “You were in Trafford Tanzi? North by North Theatre Company I believe?” How the hell did he know that! He knew everything. He either researches his co-workers in depth or he has a greater knowledge of everything. He was fabulous and quite wicked on set. We had to shoot a sequence where a helicopter arrives to take myself and my son, plus the coffin with my dead husband in (Harvey Keitel) off to Greece for the funeral and as the helicopter came in to land Gabriel said to my son “of course Harvey is still in character, he has been in the coffin all night.” Thankfully I managed not to burst out laughing.

In fact the memory of my parents funerals kept me focussed. Coming up on Tuesday 10 November . . . my role in DOCTORS filmed earlier this year… Afternoon of the Living Dead is broadcast BBC One at 1:45pm . . . be sure to check that out. My year is about to change considerably as I am preparing for a one-month writing sabbatical. This comes after one of the busiest, most unpredictable 11 months of my life.2015 has been great. 3 movies, more concerts than ever before and some great song writing all ready for 2016.

I have a reading list ready for when my sabbatical starts in December. Many of the books I am choosing to study are about production of independent film as well as script writing. Not that I have ever had the full confidence to write a script but I have definitely found that a deeper knowledge of this industry I love helps me work with everyone around me when I am on set. My key writing in this period will be for Simon Darlow, as there is a greater interest in our writing partnership than ever before and also for HUMANS 4, which starts in MARCH 2016.

I can well and truly say Panto isn’t on my agenda any more. I will never say never, but apart form the doubt that my body can ever do 14 shows a week again, I feel time is so precious that I want to get my writing as sharp as possible. This year, mainly thanks to the acoustic show, my singing voice has gone from strength to strength and I want to utilise this within my future style of song writing. Who would have thought the acoustic show would have helped all involved grow so much as artists. Also this show has honed every corner of me as a performer…it’s has built my confidence, helped me explore story telling and increased my vocal range beyond my dreams.

I can’t wait for 2016 to take it further. 2016 is looking as busy as this year. Already 2 movies are being talked about, one in America and the other in south London! THE HUMANS have a whole album to write in March. This usually means I turn up with about 10 song ideas, Bill Rieflin says “no lets write other stuff.” Then a week later we return to my original 10 songs and use those instead. You know when you see a dog chase it’s own tail…that’s THE HUMANS experience, but I am not knocking it because Bill has the ability to turn everything I originally write into a completely different audio story and that’s why we do it! Simon Darlow and I plan to have the follow up to CRIMSON QUEEN ready for a preview at Glastonbury . . . in the PRS tent.

Simon and I have written one of the most beautiful songs of our lives: OUR HEARTS STILL BEAT. Everyone who has heard it is blown away by it. Steve Stone, director of the film EXTREMIS which the song is going to be used in said he finds “it beautiful”. In September I beamed it over to the KING CRIMSON tour bus for Rieflin and Fripp to listen to and they were both in tears.

When you get to hear it next year on the release of the film EXTREMIS . . . keep in mind both Darlow and I cried so much whilst recording it we found it hard to actually sing! All our Christmas decorations are up . . . they went up two weeks ago to give Fripp a Christmas before he flew off to Canada and Japan for the last leg of the Crimson tour. I fly out to Canada next week to join them for a few days. The Christmas shopping is almost done. I need to buy my hubby one big pressie and then I am done.

WillyFred the wonder bun goes from strength to strength. 3 years ago the vet said he had a week to live but the little bunny seems to be getting younger and younger. Miraculous bunny! Because he lives in our bedroom…we moved him there thinking he would die over night, three years ago……we believe because we know his every mood that we have managed to capture any down turn in time to get him to the vet…thus he is getting stronger and stronger. This rabbit has the life of a deity . . . so spoilt.

So now I am off to LONDON for the last band gig of the year at THE GARAGE in Highbury . . . I hope you managed to catch one of the shows this year.

BE PROUD, BE LOUD, BE HEARD!

LOVE TOYAH XXXXXXX


DECEMBER 2015

Hello There! HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

THANK YOU FOR MAKING 2015 ONE OF THE BEST YEARS EVER. This has to be the fastest year ever. Time seems to be running ahead, dangling a carrot we cannot reach no matter how much effort we put into racing to catch it.

BUT what a great year. So much ground covered, great shows, fabulous film work, this undoubtedly goes up alongside 1983, 1993, 2003 as a perfect year and it doesn’t even have a “3” in it!

One of the many things that put a smile on my face is to have seen so many KING CRIMSON fans in my audience. Surely “never the twain shall meet”, but this year they have and spectacularly so. KING CRIMSON (my husbands band) are notoriously complex, thus so are their audience in many ways, they expect complexity and to be challenged as an audience . . . me, I am instinctive, my shows are the complete reverse, but still take experience and craftsman ship to execute. Don’t get me wrong because I like to think my unique art is openness with no veneer, the depth coming from vocal story telling as well as a hot band, a different kind of showmanship, perhaps more personally engaging than the notoriously reclusive Mr.Fripp and undoubtedly musically many miles and decades apart.

To see people in my audience who seriously like us both has been fabulous and reassuring. We are doing something right. I will remember 2015 for a record-breaking amount of shows, for me, AND a record amount of SOLD OUT shows, with the acoustic show going from strength to strength. Currently I am re-writing and adding content for 2016’s run of acoustic shows. We are adding new songs, new stories, new behind the scenes footage and for the first time I am including stories about me and Fripp . . . I always keep to the funny stuff and with Fripp and I there is plenty of that….after all we are the ODD COUPLE of rock . . . for example . . . our wedding day will be going in . . . the bad dress . . . the press showing up . . . Fripp running away from the church so as not to be photographed, so I didn’t see him again until the reception!

2016 is shaping up brilliantly, the music bookings are ahead on the previous year, (2016 looks busier) and this week the festivals are coming in thick and fast. December/ January are down time for me, by that I mean no distractions, this is a contradiction because I am still in the office handling booking after booking but I have a cut off point and I allow myself to study and top up on my reading, some thing I miss greatly when I am travelling hundreds of miles a day. I am giving myself the time to reshape shows, write, study and plan creatively, after all THE HUMANS write in MARCH and Darlow and I need to finish the follow up to CRIMSON QUEEN.

In a way 2 months isn’t enough! Shows start again in February and the feature films start in March . . . oh I can feel time dangling that carrot already. Frippy lands in the UK on the 22nd December . . . in time for a fabulous Christmas week of socialising. This year and probably every year for the rest of our lives now, we are having a “sugar free” Christmas. For Frippy and myself that is like a fish saying it is planning a “swimming free” Christmas. Sugar is my drug and it has to go . . . and that means Christmas too. We don’t have a tree this year because Robert isn’t here to see it but all my mothers decorations are out . . . hanging off door knobs, light shades, mirrors so I have a sense of family.

Christmas is so powerful at turning up the volume on missing those who have passed. I am missing my mother dreadfully this year. When I was younger I though it would be the loss of my father that I would never get over but in fact I miss my mother more strongly and I cannot fathom why this should be. I put it down to the spiritual connection of my mother physically bringing me into the world.

Here at home the blossom is on the trees. Leaves are trying to burst out. Mushrooms are sprouting up all over the lawn, the roses are in flower as are the clematis and the daffs are already visible . . . how strange is this winter? There seems to be four seasons in one. It makes me thing of the chorus of THE PACKT. Nature is a powerful law unto itself . . . I see it as vengeful rather than the victim of out actions . . . respect to planet Earth.

I cannot go with out mentioning the happenings in Paris last month. Everyone I know within the music world has been badly affected by the event. We all knew people who were there, who were wounded or killed, or who miraculously escaped. To go on stage all over the UK in the following month was impossible without thinking of the safety of all within the auditorium. I cannot image the fear, confusion, the thoughts, the sights , the smell, the incredibility of it all.

By nature I am an angry person, who keeps a firm control of my ability to react, especially when I was brought up to be defensive. So in the last month I have needed to button my mouth and think . . . think . . . think and try to understand how this brilliant world, with billions of potentially amazing human beings, who all have the need to nurture and love . . . HOW it could all come to this.

How do 7 billion people repair the damage and stop the rot? Unity. We must find and hold firm to our unity.  There is 1% out there who hold the planets wealth (really how much money do you need to feel safe and powerful?) But there are also 7 billion of us who the 1% rely on to maintain their power. Through unity we will be even more powerful than that 1% possibly even break free from their manipulations.

We need to find that unity and not feed the beast through fear. This week I listened to Bjork’s UNRAVEL, where lyrically she tells the story of heart break making the devil manifest for all eternity, without being able to reverse the process. See the video, it is exceptionally executed. It there is fear and loathing in the world then there can also be love and healing in equal measure, even in greater measure. Let’s not give the devil reason to exist . . . we are too cleaver, too brilliant and too deserving.

Thank you everyone for a brilliant year. Thank you to my wonderful band, to my agents and above all THANK YOU . . . TO YOU.

PEACE, LOVE, HARMONY.

BE PROUD, BE LOUD, BE HEARD

LOVE TOYAH XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

SEE ALSO
The Toyah Blog Archive

TOYAH'S BLOG 2014

Read Toyah's blog on the Official Page HERE

JANUARY 2014

HELLO THERE AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Boy I am a little nervous and very excited. For the past two months I have been learning to high dive with Tom Daley for ITV’s SPLASH!.

I started training whilst on tour with my band and I had to keep quite about it, I hadn’t even told my brother or sister. Tom Daley is a stunning boy in every way. Thoughtful, kind and accepting of all ages, shapes and sizes. He quite literally has taken my breath away in that such a young person could be so centered, strong and yet beautifully warm of heart. Whilst training with my team and I stood next to him on the 7.5metre platform and he suddenly did a dive! The sound was like a gun going off, the strength he exhibited was like none I have ever seen before in my life. He is a great guy and he has me on his side all the way, forever!

My dive is on the 11th January . . . it will be live! For me it will be as terrifying as it is exhilarating. Terrifying because we only get one chance . . . a split second chance . . . and exhilarating because once I have faced my fear I will be thrilled.

The news I would be doing SPLASH came in the summer and ever since I have been building up my physical strength and working on my inner confidence, not because of the diving itself but because I have a real anxiety about wearing swimwear in front of people! I look at the newspapers every morning and feel a tinge of terror for all those celebs caught on the beach in their swimwear, even when they look a million dollars, the exposure for me is a tad too far. I find the concept of being judged in swimwear really alien to all my beliefs about what show business is. Well I have really put myself out there now and I have to toughen up about it !

My last real holiday was in the Maldives in 2001! That is how much I don’t like being in a swimsuit! My body confidence is somewhere between “0” to “-10”. It has always been like that. It has nothing to do with weight, I am the same weight as thirty years ago, (not the same shape sadly) it has nothing to do with my age, I felt like this as a child . . . it is just one of those things we all burden to some extent, a kind of demon on my shoulder.

That said the process of learning to dive has been wonderful . . . why? . . . Because it has nothing to do with how you look in a swimsuit and everything to do with how you understand your body in freefall . . . much more exciting! Really challenging. AND anyway . . . my swimsuit always comes off the minute I hit the water. I think poor Tom Daley has unwittingly seen my baps on at least two occasions. The producers are so concerned about my “break free cleavage” they have got in a costume designer to rein the blighters in!

It was about 3 weeks ago, whilst training, that I realise my best wont be good enough for this show because the competition is so good. There are some breath taking people taking part, really good high divers so in the last couple of weeks I’ve had to up my game, bite the bullet and fall from heights I’d never choose to fall from ever again, unless there is 5metres of water beneath me!

Am I any good . . . well wait and see. For a 55 year old with a hip replacement and who never bothers to diet (because I am a healthy eater so why diet) I look my age in a swimsuit but I can dive . . . relatively speaking, to a certain degree but it always hurts.

Pain has been the common topic of discussion among those competing. It is a constant surprise that hitting the water hurts. And I have not been alone when it comes to the “ouch” moment. Every competitor I have trained with has surfaced from a dive with a grimace of pain on their face at least two or three times . . . including me. We are hitting the water at 30 miles per hour and if you haven’t positioned properly in the air and not locked your arms forward to break the surface tension of the water then you are . . . in TROUBLE! It is like falling onto a hard unforgiving surface.

BUT I LOVE IT! I have never felt so well. Now I am convinced swimming if the cure for all ills. December has been magical for me. I decided pretty much 11 months ago I would not do a Christmas show this year but instead have a proper Christmas with friends. It started in Seattle, USA with my hubby and fellow HUMAN Bill Rieflin searching the venues of the city to find the right place for THE HUMANS play in April . . . we found THE TRIPLE DOOR, which is a perfect. It is a seated 1930’s cabaret venue, so right for the weirdness of our band, we will be doing two nights there. I cant wait.

Bill made sure Robert and I had a fantastic time mostly because neither Robert and I have family near, my sister is sailing around the world participating in the CLIPPER RACE. Bill included us in his family celebrations with his parents, which I loved. I miss my parents so much especially at Christmas so Robert and I had a present opening session with the Rieflin household.

Once back in the UK I returned to focussing on diving. There was a training day either side of Christmas Eve and Boxing Day. This kept me on my toes. I didn’t eat too much over the festive season, instead I WORRIED and WORRIED about how I was going to find the guts to dive higher . . . this has been my consuming thought for about 8 weeks now, boy I’d like an extra week training before the 11th Jan but I am not going to get it . . . tee hee!

Luckily I have a very busy year to occupy my mind when I don’t want to worry about diving. I am devising the ACOUSTIC TOYAH show and the new TOYAH BAND TOUR, which takes constant thought, there’s a lot to learn once the set lists are chosen and I’m making sure both shows will be lively, warm and fun!

I even have the hard task of deciding to go to CANNES FILM FESTIVAL this year. I’ve been invited because the short film I have appeared in THREE SIDES OF THE COIN has been chosen to show. So I either go to CANNE and be there for my birthday or I head for Seattle where Robert and Bill will be that week . . . a hard decision indeed!

What are my New Year Resolutions? Live every minute with awe and excitement because awe and excitement exists in every little thing . . . as well as the big things in life AND be creative in the home, at work and with friends . . .

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL….SEE YOU OUT THERE IN 2014

BE PROUD, BE LOUD, BE HEARD

LOVE TOYAH XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


FEBRUARY 2014


HELLO THERE . . . YIPEEEEEEE IT’S FEBRUARY!

Mr. Bill Rieflin arrived in the UK this week for the start of KING CRIMSON rehearsals. This means I have him on home turf and can make plans for the HUMANS and HUMANS 3.

We have decided to make THE HUMANS’ new album available digitally through iTunes, Amazon etc in time for the USA dates in April. There has been much too-ing and frowing-ing between interested record labels but no commitment to release dates so we want to make the album available to the solid fan base whilst we actually play live.

I am excited about the release as the album is fabulous, one of the best pieces of work I have ever been involved with. Make sure you are signed up to the TOYAH BREAKING THROUGH MAILING LIST for an announcement straight to your inbox fairly soon! On 19 February it will be the 20th anniversary of Derek Jarman’s passing away. There is a lot going on to celebrate his remarkable talent and his “at the time” unconventional ways. Somerset house has PANDEMONIUM, an exhibition of Derek’s note books and SUPER8 film footage which he constantly shot turning the then waste land of London Docksides into romantic burning pyres.

I remember when I used to hang out with Derek in 1977 through to 1980 his home in Butler’s Wharf stood among ruins of pilled high red brick and broken wooden pallets now you would be lucky to buy a small box like flat there for under one million. On the 12th February I will be introducing Derek’s wonderful film THE TEMPEST at BFI Southbank, London in which I played MIRANDA. A film I love and have incredibly happy memories of making. A film that gave me a nomination for EVENING STANDARD BEST NEWCOMER.

Last year I was a guest at the BIRMINGHAM BALLET and the artistic director took me aside and said my role in the Tempest has inspired him to choreograph a future project at the ballet . . . I was thrilled to say the least. Like many people in the UK I am determined not let this winter govern my life! For 55 years I have been on this planet and I still hate winter. Cant stand the ‘all enveloping’ dark, I always sleep with the curtains open, much to my hubby’s annoyance in the hope the room will be lit by moonlight. Can’t stand the wet upon WET! There’s nowt as bad as water on the skin when it’s below freezing. Cant stand the grey grumbling skies . . . gggggggrrrrrrrrrrr YUK! YUK! YUK!

But I LOVE the turnaround, when magic flows through everything. I look out the window and see buds on the trees swell, the snowdrops, the crocus push through the tombstone soil and this wonderful feeling of hope and optimism starts to emerge from a frozen heart . . . SPRING IS COMING!

YIPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEE! That’s how I am feeling now February is here. The world is leaping back to life. I always keep myself busy through the winter months. This year it was training for SPLASH. The whole process was incredible fun and wonderful terror all merged into one ecstatic ball in the stomach. Funnily I hate water on my skin in the winter months, unless if is piping hot, the sensation for me is not a pleasant one and on some mornings in the pool in South End the weather was a foggy freeze outside and the pool inside didn’t manage to heat to that nice tropical bath temperature one expects.

But I wanted to do well and I knew the only way was commitment so I pushed through my winter whinges and excepted that being wet and cold was part of the joyride . . . that and constant pain from all the twists and turns the water played with ones body. You think you would hit the water and glide away but no, hidden forces within the water sometimes ricked the vertebrae of your neck sickeningly back into an unnatural stretch or twisted your spine in a vicious jerk till you thought something had broken . . . dealing with the pain became a bigger issue than the fear of height . . . yet if I were to be asked to do it again . . . I’D SAY YES!

Now onward into 2014. Two weeks ago my acting agent Michael Hallett sent me this message . . . ” This sounds MAD! But could be very funny, and ace people involved. Let me know what you think x”. A script was attached from the comedian/ director/ writer Steve Oram. I saw his last film SIGHTSEERS just recently by coincidence. I immediately set aside my afternoon, working on TOYAH ACOUSTIC and read Steve’s script “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”. My jaw hit the floor. It is very, very funny. Very, very violent. Quite brilliantly written but preceded with the instruction “ALL CHARACTERS IN THIS FILM SPEAK LIKE MONKEYS OR IN GIBBERISH SPEAK. WRITTEN DIALOGUE IS JUST TO SHOW INTENDED MEANING.“ WHAT THE? AHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Steve and I have already shot some improvisations, partly on my recommendation, as I have never done anything like this and the results are great . . . it works! It’s funny! So I have this to look forward too once I land back in the UK from THE HUMANS West Coast dates.

Now back to formulating TOYAH: ACOUSTIC, UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL. This will be a music driven evening with unusual anecdotes and in most venues I will have a screen to use, where I can show short film clips and behind the scenes pics. Chris Wong and Colin Hinds will be on guitar for these shows. Im really looking forward to the “newness” of it all. The three of us filmed two acoustic tracks for Vintage Sessions VINTAGE TV too which will be broadcast later in February too.

Then we kick off the TOYAH BAND 2014 on 21 Feb in Holmfirth . . . perfect . . . all dates are on the gigs page.

SO back to my desk . . . see you out there! Here comes spring! YIPEEEEEEEEEEEE!

BE PROUD, BE LOUD, BE HEARD

LOVE TOYAH XXXXXXXX


MARCH 2014

HELLO THERE!

It is thrilling to see the response to HUMANS 3. Thank you everyone who has downloaded the “STRANGE TALES” album which entered Amazon’s Rock Chart at 26 today!

The artwork is an actual photo not a constructed artwork. The photographer, Konrad Puddick, was taking pictures of moths when he realised he had an otherworldly “orb” in one of the developed shots. Andy Doble of the TOYAH band sent me the picture saying, “Can you believe this orb!” I fell in love with it because Andy sent the picture as a close up of the orb, the scale of the moth and it’s antennae against the orb are like an insect invasion, that and the added fact insects where here long before us, the humans, makes it perfect for our artwork. There is a digital album booklet for STRANGE TALES now available from my discography.

Bill and I came up with the title over lunch in Seattle last December. We were in a typical American diner and I was explaining how I liked to get up at the crack of dawn and watch the sun rise over Puget Sound and see all the boats come to life and the night people disappear and the market stall holders take over…. so many strange tales. Bill liked this immediately. This is a rare happening. Bill is very hard to please.

In the studio, whilst recording, there was a piece of paper on the wall for album title suggestions. This filled up very quickly with unprintable and very likable titles. My favourites being “Bill’s face was made for sitting on”, this had the piece of paper torn up and started again to which I added our all time favourite, and I must state here because of my physical history it was accepted I had the experience to suggest this . . . “Cripple Disco”, (this came from my history of having to learn to walk again) a title suggestion that had all press people, management and potential record companies screaming NO! NO! NO!

For the entire period in the recording studio this piece of paper filled with obscenities mainly aimed at Bill which he ignored until friends visited and as their eyes naturally moved towards the piece of paper on the wall titled SUGGESTED ALBUM TITLES Bill would dive head first to rip the page from the wall in case gems like…I LIVE IN BILLS UNDERPANTS, BILL: A PRIME REASON TO JUSTIFY CANNABILISM, BILL HALF MAN HALF MELON where spotted by his very credible list of high profile friends.

Great people made this album possible for us, Pearl Jam made the studio available to us and Death Cab For Cutie loaned us their equipment…THANK YOU GUYS! STRANGE TALES is very close to my heart. It sees a first…I play brushes on Get In Your Car And Drive! Everyone who has heard it says it’s the best work I have ever done musically and as a vocalist.

Apart from the happy memories of writing and recording in Seattle there was a discipline applied to creating this album that I have never experienced in past recording. Because we recorded onto two-inch tape and transferred to digital there was a lot of mathematics involved in how many tracks where available, how to wire up all the equipment and how to place the stereo. There were many occasions when silence fell and we all had to put our heads together and just map out the track listing. On IMPROBABLE THING there are about 20 vocal tracks on the chorus.

Bill Rieflin produces with a fist of iron, he wont let anything slip by the by. If he doesn’t like a lyric then I am sent away to re-write or we address it as a team. Sometimes he realises the original is the best and we return to my original idea, sometimes a completely new approach to a song is born. It is satisfying to be pushed, pulled and pummelled this way; it caused new directions to emerge.

I cannot wait to perform it live! The TOYAH shows have already started in the UK. TOYAH ACOUSTIC kicked off in Buxton and was a success. I love performing TOYAH songs acoustically. They sound fresh and contemporary. The lyrics had more meaning and clarity in the sonic space of the two acoustic guitars. In Lytham we had two promoters in who said the songs where excellent and had completely changed their view of me as a songwriter. We had a great offer to be put on quite an amazing bill of artists later in the year.

Many more of these shows are being added into the autumn schedule. It was fun to do and easy on the ear…no drums thundering around my head! It also means Chris Wong sings…Chris hates singing…. so the more he sings the better tee hee. This doesn’t mean less TOYAH shows with the rock band, in fact more of those are going in too. The TOYAH AUTUMN TOUR DATES will be announced later this month. The dates are in and they are good places, big cities!

It was quite a leap going from acoustic Toyah into Electric Toyah. Holmfirth was a wonderful venue, rammed to the rafters. We had a slight emergency with Tim Rose not being available but Mick Nichols stepped in and was fantastic, this meant we had to slightly alter the set list but the show went on and every song was a TOYAH classic. It rocked! Nuneaton too was incredible, what a wonderful audience. Rammed to the rafters again. Now our bassist emergency is over we will be adding CRIMSON QUEEN songs by Bury St. Edmunds when we have Tim Rose back.

I have a lot of learning to do in March. There’s the HUMANS set to learn and “AAAAHHHHHHH” the film script to learn as we start rehearsals on the 16th March. This film requires a different technique of acting style. Slightly heightened emotion and accessing hysteria for brief sudden bursts because we are all gibbering like apes rather than speaking English. Also all the characters are very normal but prone to sudden violence . . . it’s capturing the normality that will be the challenge!

Last night I was a guest of David Bintley at the Birmingham Royal Ballet. I went to see The Prince of the Pagodas where one of the characters was a salamander. The characterization was stunning and gave me a lot of ideas for sudden mood changes in “aaahhhhhhh!” My husband was away for Valentine’s Day this year so I took the King Crimson boys, who were in the UK rehearsing, out for a hot date. This was a good trade off.

No hubby but three fabulous Americans, Bill Rieflin, Tony Levin and Pat Mastoletto. We trundled off to a Japanese restaurant on Waterford High Street, Hanako. A very modest address but an incredible chef, the food was great. Bill was in heaven. Both Bill and Pat ate my food as well as their own. Our table became a battleground of munching!

Tony Levin spends most of his time touring with Peter Gabriel so the talk across the table was mainly about creativity and private jets. Bill having spent seven years on the road with REM had a lot of private jet stories. All discrete, all matter of fact . . . Boy how the other half live!

My only experience of a private jet was in 1983 when Sir Laurence Olivier, Greta Saatchi, Roger Rees and myself flew to the Dordoyne to film The Ebony Tower. We were served about four bottles of champagne on the flight before the stewardess told us there was no loo on board . . . when we landed all four of us ran past passport control shouting “Où sont les toilettes s’il vous plait!”

BE PROUD, BE LOUD, BE HEARD!

LOVE TOYAH XXXXXXXXXXX


APRIL 2014


HELLO AND BOO!

I am intrigued to read my husband’s diary blogs on dgmlive.com where he regularly tells stories that I wait for him in the dark recesses of our home during the early hours to JUMP OUT at him, to scare him witless. What he never mentions is he does it to me too.

I mention this as he is getting Face book comments that I might give him a heart attack…HE MIGHT GIVE ME A HEART ATTACK! It is a revelation to read about how he perceives me with his public voice. Yes there is a LOT of practical joking in the Fripp household but it isn’t one sided. Oh woe is little me. The times I come back from buying our lunch to have him leap out of a room or corridor to scare me… so no wonder I hide in the dark of his shower in the morning waiting for him to sleepily step inside, put the light on and find me there smiling at him inanely.

These episodes get so competitive, so heated we occasionally have to call a truce to gather out wit and sanity . . . then a friend comes to stay . . . and that’s when the Fripps become a team . . . working together to jump out at innocent and unwitting acquaintances . . . FABULOUS. 6 years ago I had a conversation with Michel Faber about his book UNDER THE SKIN, for me one of the most powerful modern literary works in the world. Film 4 held the film rights and I mentioned my ambition to play the lead protagonist Isserley. At this time Faber believed Isserley would be created through computer generated imagery which kind of made sense as she is an alien with dog-like appearance who tries to disguise herself as human.

Last week I managed to see the finished film starring Scarlett Johansson. Even though I found the film utterly brilliant, Scarlett included, along with her innocent co-stars, this film doesn’t capture the stark genius of Faber’s writing. The film is a very separate entity, which instead, for me, captures the brilliance, warmth, vulnerability of Glaswegian men! Most of whom were filmed secretly according to the press. This month has allowed me to read my first book in almost a year. Reading is a necessity for me; my brain turns to flab without it. As proven when I took part in Celebrity Pointless last month where I shamefully answer the first question with such inaccurate stupidity I came away determined to find time to read.

I can always tell when I am talking to someone who reads books and someone who doesn’t. Book readers have a different relationship to speech and language, it’s nothing to do with intelligence even though books obviously tune the reader into a different world thus freeing their imagination, it has more to do with how a book reader thinks before they talk, the pacing, the considering, the awareness of consequence . . . they are different to say a teenager who interacts with the world of gaming. When I stop reading books my speech speeds up and I open my mouth without thinking basic common sense through!

For Valentines Day Hubby gave me Detmar Blow’s account of his marriage to Isabella Blow, stylist for Tatler and Vogue, called BLOW BY BLOW. I don’t think I ever met Isabella but all my friends knew her well, so I often heard about her extraordinary behaviour at parties, she was prone to boob flashing and I heard about her legendary expenditure on photo shoots. My friend and neighbour is the head of Conde Nast in the UK and he often received quite incredible credit card bills after one of Isabella’s shoots, but that said everyone I know loved her and valued her.

On the 4th June I am giving a talk with my best friend Helen David of ENGLISH ECCENTRICS for SOHO CREATE FESTIVAL and Helen was very close to Isabella.

I always imagined this exotic bird of paradise would have been the happiest soul in the world, effortlessly gliding from one adventure to another but reading her story filled me with horror. She appeared to inhabit a cruel, uncaring world which sent her off kilter, a world where incredibly successful people used her and turned their backs on her. The one beacon of light who stuck with her through thick and thin was Bryan ferry, and for that fact his first wife Lucy Ferry too.

On reading the book I was shocked that our paths appeared to cross repeatedly and unnoticed for about 25 years. We knew exactly the same people, we lived in the same areas and privately, but to a much MUCH lesser extent, I experienced her same frustrations within my creative world. When I sat down to start reading the book I couldn’t put it down. I read it from beginning to end with out a gap. Once finished I called Robert, who was in Mexico and listed all the synchronicities. The question being “how on earth did we never meet this person?” We lived streets away in London, socialised with the same people and knew the same people out of London too!

Isabella attempted suicide several times in different locations, once near Chiswick and Ealing, by jumping off an elevation and surviving, another time in her car on the A417 and finally by drinking weed killer at her home near Gloucester. Every location was within reach of one of my homes. Reading the book made me wish I could have sat down and talked to her about the plain fact that anyone who lives in the world of showbusiness and fashion has had their boundaries severely tested and there is no greater sign of success than riding above the “shit storm” no matter how mad, crazy, bewildered and cast adrift it can make you feel.

On the phone to Robert in Mexico I thanked him for being my guiding light when things got to tough and he reminded me that I have been his guiding light through his shit storms too. Life is much saner now we are older and that’s how I like it!  The shows so far this year have been great. Fabulous audiences and the band are playing at their best, we are all enjoying the new material, it is naughty, rocky and fun!

My suitcase is packed and I am about to leave for San Francisco where I am supposed to see my sister arrive on one her legs for the ROUND THE WORLD CLIPPER RACE, but her boat has been held up by 5 days because of weather and crew injury, so I will miss her!

I know she will need a huge amount of chocolate to keep her going, there is another 4 months before she finishes back in London, so I will leave a package of chocolate and hair conditioner for her as I have to be in Seattle to promote THE HUMANS: STRANGE TALES by the 9th April!!!!!

MORE SOON!

BE PROUD, BE LOUD, BE HEARD

LOVE TOYAH XXXXXXXXXXXX


MAY 2014

HELLO THERE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

April was dominated by AMERICA. Learning THE HUMANS set whilst touring the TOYAH BAND and TOYAH ACOUSTIC was interesting. It taught me to keep my brain cells agile.

I am determined to keep testing myself with learning something new everyday, even if it’s the spelling of a town I pass through whist on my way to a venue, a town I might never visit again or drive through again. It is worth learning all the same.There is value in doing this, my hubby says I am the only person he knows who can drive anywhere in the UK with out sat nav or a map. Come the apocalypse I will know where the towns and cities are. Next I want to learn how to travel by using the position of the sun and the stars.THE HUMANS in the USA was a phenomenal success.

Robert and I flew to San Francisco first. This was a trip planned last July 2013, to meet my sister as her fleet arrived from racing in the Pacific. But bad weather and an injury set them back by 5 days in China, so we never got to see her, instead I left a package behind waiting for her . . . full of chocolate bars! The picture is my sister in SF diving into the chocolate whilst still on land. We stayed with Robert’s sister Pat, who only the other week had flown to the UK to see me in Wimbourne. Every morning Robert and I would rise with the dawn and start to learn our sets for the tour and Pat would bring us fantastic fruit/kale/yogurt smoothies.

On arrival in Seattle I joined THE HUMANS who had already had two days rehearsal and programming and within an hour we were running our intended set and it was great, every song made sense and added to the experience. The new material from STRANGE TALES was just the best! It was pure joy to be back together again. I have missed working with Bill Rieflin so much.

At lunch on the Friday, we were in a small backwater of west Seattle when Bill pointed out a Mexican bar he innocently walked into being inquisitive once where he was immediately frog marched out and told never to return…he realised something “bad” was going down. I then had the weekend off because Bill and Robert needed to rehearse Slow Music with Peter Buck so I set off exploring Seattle on my own.

For me Seattle isn’t like any other place in the USA. In comparison I found the meandering, loud mouth street attitude of the San Francisco people really eye-opening and headache inducing. It’s as if they cannot walk at a normal pace in a straight line without shouting audibly over the traffic. Whereas in Seattle there is a silence, people move more directly and never invade your space with noise. I think this is why I love to go there to write, there is so much mystery it opens up my mind to fantasy and possibility. There is water wherever you look and it really takes you back to how it must have felt living there 500 years ago as a tribal community. AND now it is this space age automaton with down and outs on every corner who probably all have university degrees and people silently maneuvering from building to building . . . I could people watch all day!

By Sunday I was pretty bloody nervous…OK I was crawling up the wall! I can’t remember butterflies in the stomach quite so bad. We all arrived at the TRIPLE DOOR to set up at the same time. There were going to be 9 musicians on stage during the night. The venue was just perfect, a 1930s cabaret venue with dinning tables and waitress service. Both nights in Seattle were sold out which added to the excitement. People had flown in from all over the place to see not only Slow Music but THE HUMANS and myself too. Fans waited outside with their entire collection of TOYAH albums to be signed, with bunches of flowers and gifts. It was very moving.

It was slightly nerve-wracking back stage as the only women performer, not only was I trying to get changed discreetly in a quiet corner but I was also trying to do so without famous musicians walking in on me. Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam) innocently walked into the room whilst I was “sans” dress…I ran away and said to Peter Buck “ there’s a strange man in my room and he’s asking for you!”

This was THE HUMANS first live performance in three years. We walked on stage and what I experienced was thrilling. The audience totally flipped from the first number onwards . . . they loved the concept of bass driven songs. By the third song GET IN YOUR CAR we were surfing the tidal wave of knowing this was “happening”. Standing ovations, cheers, rounds of applause after tricky vocals such as PSYCHOPATH filled our ears. It was pure joy! We had great audiences every night and a lot of fabulous musicians came to watch . . . Death Cab For Cutie, Pearl Jam, REM members . . . all being keen supporters of THE HUMANS where there to cheer us on. It was JUST GREAT!

As with all things fun the time flew by and no sooner had we arrived than we were back at the airport and returning home. A new experience has started to happen to me and I cannot fathom why. People are mistaking me for a child. I am sure I am not that small, and I am certain I am not shrinking . . . in fact the opposite. At Seattle airport security, a man waved me over to the x-ray machine with “ come here little girl! That’s a pretty summer dress you have on!” I could hear Robert hooting with laughter behind me. As I have a hip replacement, when travelling in the USA I have to produce a card to declare I have metal in my body. On holding this up to the security man he said “ and what do we have here?” “My hip replacement identity card.” Stunned silence. Followed by a red face…his. Some people must have really bad eyesight because I have the face and the body of a middle aged women!

Now back in England it is great to be gigging through a very busy summer.In fact for the next 5 months it will be non stop. There are festivals, concerts, films and TV. It is fast becoming a blur, but a very enjoyable one!

See you out there.

BE PROUD, BE LOUD, BE HEARD

LOVE TOYAH XXXXXXXXXXXXXX


JUNE 2014


HELLO!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for all your well wishes for little WillyFred the wonder bunny. He is the oldest bunny I have ever had. White rabbits tend to live for 6 years but WillyFred is now in his 8th year.

He took a turn for the worse on the 10th May. I was away touring and Robert called to say he didn’t know what to do as WF had become like a rag doll. The only thing to do was to get him to Diane The Rabbit Whisperer. Diane held bunny for 24 hours, through the night! . . . Because she thought he was on his way to bunny heaven . . . then three days later he suddenly perked up and ever since he has been a brand new bunny.

It might have been a diabetic episode as he used to eat too many sweet treats. Now he is on a diet that Gwyneth Paltrow would approve of. Simple greens, hey and grass pellets. This is his diet for life. He is off all medication too and he is leaping around the house like a spring bunny, if somewhat sugar starved!

Finally I am over my hayfever, well at least I am for now. It is disruptive when you are a singer. For me I couldn’t get enough air in my lungs for the high notes needed in THUNDER, also I needed to cough all the time. The shows in May were all wonderful . . . perhaps a little wet! On stage in Plymouth at Volksfest I had to have a cup of tea on stage to try and stop my coughing. As soon as I walked on stage in the huge event field my eyes started streaming, my nose was streaming, I needed to cough and I was sneezing . . . ridiculous. Now, four weeks later, my top notes are back and my lungs can fill with air again.

The weather in May was biblical. Just as we were about to sound check in Crick there was a hail storm like no other I have seen in my life, it left about 2 inches of hail stones on the already sodden ground and the noise of the hail hitting the tent was louder than the PA. We all thought the event would have to be cancelled and thank goodness it wasn’t as it was utterly brilliant. The show rocked . . . and it was an acoustic show to boot!

So many people turned up they had to open up the sides of the tent because they couldn’t fit everyone in, then the organizers closed the entrances to the site with SOLD OUT signs, as people kept on coming, fabulous. May was also extra special for me because I have laid all but one ghost to rest. Last year after a virus my ability to walk was effected for about 5 months. This happened when I was on tour with Hormonal Houswives. In April and May this year I managed to visit quite a lot of those towns on that tour and walk them. It affected me greatly last year to not be able to explore but now I’ve managed to re-visit many of the towns and walk them from top to bottom. I feel I have put the ghost of 2013 behind me.

My heart sang as I walked Durham on May 11th. I love this town so much. My main aim this day was to pray at the shrine to St.Cuthbert, in the magnificent cathedral, for little Willy Fred to get through his illness, also for one of my greatest friends and influences to be cancer free after 3yrs of fighting the disease. I must have frightened off sightseers on this Sunday as I sat there with tears rolling down my face, but I always head to this shrine when someone needs divine intervention.

We live in a small world, as I left my hotel in Durham my next-door neighbor from Worcester was waiting for a taxi . . . we just looked at each other and burst out laughing! Robert and I spent our birthdays and wedding anniversary in Seattle with Bill Rieflin and his wife Frankie. Robert and Bill were touring the west coast the following week so both were a little preoccupied with arranging their equipment and travel but we managed to have a great week. For me when I had time on my own I walked the city. My ambition on this trip was to walk 5th avenue from beginning to end, then 1st avenue the same. These avenues are miles long!

My head floods with ideas in this city and I always have to rush back to base and write them all down. This is how most of the lyrics to The Humans Strange Tales came about. Also I never feel alone in Seattle. People constantly stop me to say they like my style! (This happens in France too). People just stop me and say how great my clothes are and they really “dig” my appearance . . . at first I thought this was a one off event but when it happened everywhere I walked, especially in this city, I thought it might be because the British high street does dresses so well.

The Humans will be playing the UK in the last two weeks of April 2015. We start writing our fourth album in December this year and we will record over the summer of 2015 in Seattle. Here’s a little warning to you . . . Mercury is in Retrograde from the 7th June until the end of the month. I HATE MERCURY IN RETROGRADE!!!!!!!!! It means mis-communication and electrical failures for three weeks . . . and I am reliant on everything electrical and mechanical when performing.

Even my everyday household stuff is being affected. Already my Hoover has burst into flames, the electrics have failed in Roberts new car, the electrics have failed in my car, my recording system died whist rehearsing for Bristol Rocks, my office printer has died . . . oh BLAH BLAH BLAH!!!!!!! WE HAVE THREE WEEKS OF THIS! Be warned! Luckily Steve Oram’s film shoot starts on the 30th June, so fingers crossed all will run smoothly and effortlessly once we get into July for the rest of the shoot.

Steve and I are in regular contact as he sends me test films where he and other cast members have got together and improvised how we are going to deal with the lack of language. He has stripped the language down to the bare minimum of guttural grunts and the way he is shooting the scenes . . . all I can say . . . it makes one hell of a comment about life . . . I find his idea of there being no language as we know it, very sinister as well as funny. He has struck a great idea here.

Yesterday I talked at SOHOCREATE. This is a new festival about creativity on all levels. Wow! What a fabulous festival. The idea of putting a vast mix of creative people together in an environment where we were able to talk to and with the audience about the creative process was very rewarding. I found everyone has similar blocks, similar experiences and it was good to talk these out openly from so many different perspectives.

Today I play Clacton. The sun is out and it feels like summer. I wish you a fab June. This is my favourite month of the year!

Remember . . .

BE PROUD, BE LOUD, BE HEARD

LOVE TOYAH XXXXXXXXXXX


JULY 2014

HELLO THERE AND WOW!

I apologise for the late arrival of this web blog . . . it has been very very busy.

Not only have I been full time on the film AHHHHHHHHH but I’ve had concerts too plus the phone keeps ringing with work for 2015. Non stop! Since the 7th June Mercury has been in retrograde. It was retrograde until the 1st July but it still causes chaos right up until the 14th July. As a result this is the fourth draft of my web letter because I just couldn’t stop groaning about the way I hate this period so intensely. It seems to bring the “dumb arse” out in people for example . . . I’ve narrowed my Mercury retrograde gripes down to a top 10:

1. Why does my husbands driver call me before I go on stage to tell me he cant pick him up from the airport . . . call my f—— husband. I am not his secretary!

2. A builder calls to say I haven’t paid him an invoice from 6 months ago…..so I scan the invoice, the photocopy of the cheque, the proof he cashed the cheque and I get this reply . . . ”Thank you, I didn’t do my accounting so didn’t know it had been paid, you have now done my accounting for me.”

3. Why do people send me photos of their children…if I wanted a family I would have had my own. I own up . . . I am family phobic.

4. There’s a 6 foot tall police man who hides behind a tree on the Chelsea Embankment with a speed lazer gun catching out everyone who genuinely believes it’s a 40mph limit when it is actually a 30mph limit even though there isnt one speed indication on this stretch of road . . . GGGRRRRR….F—— GGGRRRRRR

5. First I curb my back tyre and have to buy a brand new one . . . then the new one explodes on the M1 when I am doing 50mph in roadworks.

6. I wait 2 hours, on the M1, in the dark, for the RAC to come and help me.

7. So I borrow my husbands car and his sat nav has a nervous brake down and my mobile decides to die just when I am lost in Manchester!

8. Why does the local radio station call my mobile 6 times a day when I haven’t answered their calls for over 8 years?

9. Why do I sign TV contracts “WILLCOX” and the titles always say WILCOX . . . any idiot can look up Wikipedia!

10. Why did the sound crew at Chillfest line check the microphones for the other bands through my entire set?

Believe me I could write pages on the gripes of the last 6 weeks. Mercury makes communication, technology and the world challenging. So it’s 5am and I am asking myself this . . . ” you hate people moaning, so why are you intending to send a moaning blog out…..cut the crap.”

So . . . lets start as I intend to finish . . .

UG! UG! UG!

I have now finished filming AHHHHHH!

The making of the film has been enjoyable if somewhat strenuous. My larynx has had a major work out with all that ape-ing around. For the actors to know where we where in a scene we had to rehearse each shot in English then we would film that scene in ape language.

It was surprisingly exhausting improvising into imaginary language . . . but FUN! Julian Rhind-Tutt who plays my younger mate told me when he was ten his father bought him my first three albums and he used to lock himself away in his bedroom just staring at the covers. Then when he was eleven he was allowed to see me at Hammersmith Odeon in 1982 which he described as “life changing” . . . well we were performing The Changelling at that show!

It was uplifting to hear from various members of the film team that I was their first “artist” of interest when they were younger. Our make-up supervisor said I was the reason she went into make up. Steve Orman’s (writer/director/film editor and general good egg) first time on stage was during a school trip to the theatre, when he came up to join me on stage, at the opening of act two in the TAMING OF THE SHREW, which I was touring nation wide in 1990 . . . he actually joined me for the banqueting scene and never forgot it, always intending to work with me in the future. The show was at the Malvern Theatre at the time.

I cant tell you too much about AHHHHHHH because the creator Steve Oram dislikes advanced information going out. So the moment will come when the film is finished and people will see it . . . Then we will talk about it. It is possibly one of the most outrageous things I have done since Jubilee! My sister arrived home on her birthday. The 12th July from sailing around the world. I haven’t seen her yet, my schedule is too manic but we are throwing a party for her at the end of the month. My sister holds my remaining family together, as I am hopeless at being in contact with anyone, so is my brother . . . so now my sister is home I am looking forward to family get “togethers”.

In the past 11 months I have talked to my brother three times. We are close but we never get involved in dross so conversations can last all of one sentence “How are you” . . . ”Great. How are you?” . . . ”Great.” . . . ”OK….See you then.”  We have one very common personality trait . . . we are unsentimental. The concerts in the last 6 weeks have been fab. Isle Of Man was wonderful. Peel was one of the most beautiful places in the British Isles. It also has an ice cream parlour to challenge the one in Menton, France. I am an ice cream addict! We returned from our “sell out” show feeling as though we had had a good holiday.

I managed to get Robert to come with me to Guernsey a couple of weeks ago to join Chris Tarrant for his charity cricket match on Herm Island. WOW what a beautiful place. I am planning on going back without my phone and without my computer so I can just escape this manic world of technology and actually read a book! Robert, who is usually anti-social, had the time of his life . . . hopefully he is mellowing with age.

I have to accept life is so manic the only time I get any space is on stage . . . I never thought I’d ever say that! The only time I escape the phone is whilst singing……singing has become my solace . . . now that’s a great place to be!

Right . . . there’s numerous TV’s to prepare for this week, plus ROCK CHOIR and the summer shows….no rest for the wicked!

BE PROUD, BE LOUD, BE HEARD

LOVE TOYAH XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


AUGUST 2014

Hello and how are you?

My life has become ever so slightly calmer.

With August here most of my agents and management go on holiday which usually means I get a chance to read/ write/ study . . . until they get bored on the beach and start e-mailing me again. Whereas all of June I was in “ mercury in retrograde hell”, this last month has been a lot smoother but with the odd bump along the way.

Yesterday my hubby informed me cameras had been installed in our garden which record permanently. I thought nothing of this, we need the cameras as most nights some local kids come over the garden wall to look around but then I realise just how many times I go outside in nothing but my birthday suit, sometimes just pants, sometimes pants and bra . . . bending over weeding, scratching buttcheek, picking my nose, eating fruit straight of the tree and spitting stones out . . . OMG! So the memory discs have been wiped! Now I am much more “well behaved” in my own garden! (hubby still pees in the flower pots though.)

This has been a wonderful year with all the live shows. Especially the acoustic show which is so much fun . . . no drums making my ears bleed….that said the festivals have been great. All the shows in the past four weeks have been heavenly . . . Rotherham Stadium, Birmingham Symphony Hall, Victoria Hall Settle and New Quay all utterly wonderful.

But finding unadulterated time to write/study is proving testing. I am studying piano/ violin / guitar, which requires routine and discipline. This is a concerted effort to keep my brain tuned and my body responsive. I made a decision last month to stop watching any TV that didn’t nourish my soul other than the news channels. Already my life is richer. I am convinced we are all being controlled like “test animals” by the constant barrage of banality from divisive advertising to mind numbingly boring repetitive themes of crisis and denial in drama and reality TV . . . where’s the depiction of the inspirational lives we all lead?

Because August can be relatively quiet in contrast to the rest of the year (September will become a marathon, with bookings for 2015) I have set my days like a college schedule . . . one hour per subject . . . to see if I can follow a strict routine and improve my learning ability . . . it goes like this:

1 HOUR : VIOLIN

1 HOUR: KEYBOARD

1 HOUR: GUITAR

1 HOUR: MUSIC THEORY

1 HOUR: SERIOUS READING

1 HOUR: EXERCISE

It may look nuts and it certainly looks repetitive but my day completely disappears just sitting in my office at the computer and I don’t even interact with social media. If I did that too my night would evaporate along with the day. My ONE HOUR theory is that “to address a learning desire we need to add it as a discipline into our lives so the brain knows you intend to use it!)

Often I am asked if I have regrets. This is one of my most loathed questions in the world because basically journalists are asking you to not only define yourself by regrets but also to go down in living memory as a person of regrets which to me is a pile of bollocks. But I will admit I do feel regret that I didn’t learn an instrument when I was a child, because I am constantly frustrated that I cannot play anything. Chris Wong (my guitarist and MD) has expressed he’d prefer me not to know too much about the rules of music because I come out with extraordinary ideas that haven’t been cancelled out by too much knowledge of the rulebooks but all the same I have a strong desire to delve into the mystery of music. So for August I am testing my discipline to see if I can stick to learning whilst the telephone is quiet.

One rare event that takes a lot of time up is if a promoter decides to re-schedule a concert. We try under all circumstances to not let this happen within 6 months of a show date. All shows are booked almost a year ahead of time. I, as the named artist take all liability for my musicians income in the event of a show not happening which is incentive not to allow promoters to do this. So this year we have had one show that needed re-scheduling. (this is lucky in some ways as sometimes it can be more).

I totally understand how bad this is for any ticket buyers. Myself and RAM Management run around like headless chickens trying to calm and solve everyone’s needs but I do need to express that when a promoter does this they almost never take into account the effect on the musicians and the audience, leaving the prevailing shitstorm for the artist to sort out.

So with York on the 24th July, a few days before the show, the promoter decided to re-schedule which left me needing to pay full performance fees to the musicians, chasing the audience and trying to inform ticket buyers and my management trying to organise refunds that really the promoter should be dealing with as myself and the venue wanted the show to happen. All I can say is thank god these events are rare, . . . apart from being a few thousand down in costs what really irked me about this, as well as letting my audience down, is I lost a weeks creative time just sorting it out.

So apologies to all effected by this . . . we are onto it and it will be sorted! Recently I was shopping for a new make up bag (I get through these quite quickly) when I came across a bag with a picture of my mother, when she was 18, on it. I was in total shock. My mother was a professional dancer from the age of 12 till she was 19. The photo of her was taken in Weston Super Mare where she was appearing in a show with Max Wall the comedian. Mum’s face has been photoshopped onto a collage of other girls. I suppose the original photo is now out of copyright. But it has made me think I don’t want this happening to my image in 70 years time, I need to look at controls on this after my death!

If you follow me on twitter you will have seen I had an accident at home, which put me in A&E. I am totally OK now but the timing of the accident was close to comedy in its unveiling. My home is very old, parts of it are over 500 yrs old and the piping close to 100 years old. Well I was in my hubby’s shower room, a room I rarely go in . . . it is a boys room when part of the piping collapsed on me, bringing down about 2 or 3 kilos of solid iron on my right arm and crushing it . . . it hurt! AND I was in the process of leaving the house to buy a violin! The metal crushed my bow arm. Bloody typical! So off to A&E where it appears the bone is bruised but no brake.

I can only say thank goodness this didn’t happen to Robert, as his arm is far more precious than mine, also it didn’t happen to Bill Rieflin who had been staying with us, who again, his arm is more precious than mine! Right . . . time to put the ONE HOUR theory to the test . . .

BE PROUD, BE LOUD, BE HEARD

LOVE TOYAH XXXXXXXXXX


SEPTEMBER 2014

HIYAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

The trailer for the film AHHHHHHHH! Is now ready and Steve Orman came over to play it to Robert. As obscure as this film truly is, quite surprisingly it makes sense. Robert watched the trailer totally absorbed, up till now he had only seen the improvisations Steve and I had done in February.

Having seen the trailer Robert offered Steve 14 hours of improvised music to narrate the film. This has now been added and it is as if AHHHHHHH and The Crimson Projeckt music where made for each other. Now the film truly is crazy and yet makes even more sense! Dare I say it is like Tellytubbies in Mayhem Land. I have made so many long term commitments this month . . . well commitments that are challenging to a comfort loving, slightly lazy Taurian.

It has been a rollercoaster of exhilaration and desperation with new technology being added into my office. The addition of all this equipment to my daily routine has made time dissolve far too quickly, due to my absorption into so many subjects and interests that would normally take four years at university to conquer. Having kept to my “an hour a day per subject” for the whole of August I found myself committing to yet more life changing skills. Film making and editing. This is because one of my Apple Tutors is a guerrilla filmmaker and he has persuaded me to join his experimental film classes.

I am sensible enough to narrow all this learning down into areas I know I excel at. So the Piano, violin, guitar lessons remain sacred, as does learning computer skills but I do have a serious desire to be totally creatively independent and filmmaking teeters into my future vision of things. August has been perfect to “just get on with it”, as most of the people who keep me distracted all day go away with their families and don’t want to hear from their artists . . . Yipeeeee . . . no distractions.

But I do feel I have just completed a world tour when it comes to energy spent. I’ve had lessons before. For the past 30 years I have tried to improve my guitar playing, always hitting the same limitations, the same barriers, the same frustrations but this time I am pushing through them because even if I never master the instrument I will come out of this knowing and understanding it far better than ever before.

With the live shows this month the summer adds a special high when it comes to an energised happy audience. There is a kind of hedonism that is reserved especially for the last month of summer. New Quay rocked, the audience and the town was full of music loving revellers walking from venue to venue. Our stage was for some reason extremely slanted, one side higher than the other, almost by a foot, it was like playing on a ship that had been frozen in time mid tilt on a storm wave . . . I found myself teetering sideways whenever I was focussing intensely on listening to the band.

At Osfest we played like demons, but yet again, as with Chillfest, we had other artist’s soundmen meddling with our onstage sound. At Osfest the sound man of the artist to follow us actually unplugged the whole of the TOYAH band’s “in-ear” system and de-programmed Wong’s guitar programmes at the same time, during BOOTZ. Luckily the audience stayed with us as BOOTZ went from sounding like an electric track to an acoustic track. We played on and conquered.

It takes incredible inexperience on the offending soundman’s part to do this to an established artist. Not only can it lead to the culprit having they faces rearranged it means their reputation for stupidity proceeds before them for many years to come. Karma paid us a compliment as most the audience left for the fairground attractions after we left the stage. Which was unfair on the following artist but god knows what their soundman managed to do to them whilst they were actually performing! Falmouth was wild, really wild. Impressively so. Even though I have never been to Ibiza I imagine Falmouth was exactly like Ibiza on a Saturday night. The audience where great. All dresses up and rocking out.

This was a rare occasion as I managed to get my hubby to come with me. And for the first time ever we made it to see the Eden Project. This is a place I want King Crimson to do their only UK show. I have sown the seed. No doubt by Christmas Robert will come back to me and say “I’ve had this idea. I thing King Crimson should play the Eden Project!”

This week I played an acoustic show in Norwich. It was one of those shows that lifted you up and carried you along with it. As if an invisible hand is pulling you along on a journey. I told the audience the story of working with the great Hollywood legend Katherine Hepburn.

Normally I show a clip of the film we did together THE CORN IS GREEN but my computer was playing up (as it usually does when I really really need it) so I could only show pictures. After the show the management came to me with a leather bound autograph book and said the book was full but there was one area I could fit my signature in . . . it was under Emlyn Williams’ signature. Emlyn Williams was the great welsh playwright who penned THE CORN IS GREEN. He had worked at the theatre in Norwich, The Maddermarket Theatre, and signed this book alongside his cast.

My god what an honour, I could have wept.

I must go now. Tonight I play Stroud, Up Close And personal. Tonight the Wongoose and I decide the set list for the autumn tour . . . that’s a story for next month.

BE PROUD, BE LOUD, BE HEARD

LOVE TOYAH XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


OCTOBER 2014

HELLO THERE!

HURRAY THE TOUR STARTS THIS MONTH! WOW! WHAT A MONTH SEPTEMBER HAS BEEN.

I always knew September would be special after a call from Kate Bush’s PA in August inviting me to see BEFORE THE DAWN. Then after I was to fly to Philadelphia to meet up with the KING CRIMSON tour . . . that’s a lot to look forward to.

Firstly I had three acoustic shows to complete and they were great. Norwich, Stroud and Totnes were rammed to the rafters and brilliant! My tour management phoned me (from their holiday in Gran Caneria) and said “Have you seen the reviews! Because if you haven’t you should!” There is something about the acoustic show that is working that is beyond our planning. I think it’s because the acoustic guitars just ooze joy and the songs are heard in a different light. There are subtleties and depths that are possible to experience without drums dictating the volume. Yet there is boundless energy coming from the three of us . . . it’s lovely!

Before seeing Kate I went to see Lenny Henry’s opening night at The Birmingham Rep “Rudy’s Rare Records”. Sitting with the director Paulette Randall the nostalgia of my teenage years came back to me. This is a play about a record shop in Birmingham. I used to go into it as a teenager. The goodhearted, spirited drive and humour of my home city poured out over the audience. Lenny Henry was brilliant, his character being the most grounded, sensible one on stage gave a new perspective to the Lenny Henry we used to see on TV in the 70s. Lenny has blossomed in his maturity.

Then the next day after numerous TV meetings I get to see Kate at Hammersmith Apollo. I knew it was going to be life changing. Having loved everything she has written but not being able to guess what I was going to see on stage. Firstly her voice was magnificent, powerful when needed and subtle when chosen. The whole experience was perfect. It wasn’t just Kate who was spellbinding, the band where sublime, the directing, the events, the music . . . it was perfect! I had tears in my eyes from the moment everyone walked on stage until the end. AND part of this exceptional experience was the attention of the audience . . . no one took pictures, no one filmed . . . everyone listened and it made the event completely different to any other. Having been invited backstage after the show, not something that comes naturally to me as I know how tired people can get after a show, I was reassured Kate is a night owl and she wanted to say hello. In the green room were the team who put ECHO BEACH together for me in 1987. The production team where Kate’s team, which I had forgotten!

It was almost overwhelming to see Kate after such an incredible performance. She wrapped her arms around me and kissed my face. We had a bit of catching up to do, the last time I saw her son Bertie he was 6 years old now he is a man. Agreeing to see her after the “madness has ended” I left on cloud nine and didn’t come off it until over the following week I told every member of KING CRIMSON how bloody fantastic it was!

The next day I flew to Philadelphia and joined the KING CRIMSON tour. Hubby and I had been apart for 6 weeks and when I got to the hotel the tour manager sent me up in the lift not knowing I need a room key to work the lift, so six rides up and down in the lift later I bump into Bill Rieflin and we eventually found Robert. Then we all went out to supper. The next day I saw the band. My thoughts partly were on “how will this entertain after Kate Bush?”

I needn’t have worried. This was the best incarnation KING CRIMSON I have ever seen. It was like an unstoppable machine with so much colour, energy and VA VA VOOM I was laughing from beginning to end. The humour in their complexity was genius. Sheer genius! I had a blissful week with my two soul mates. Robert, Bill and I consider ourselves family. We happily stick together like glue and Robert had the most fun I have ever seen him have whilst on the road! Robert loves to embarrass me at every opportunity especially in public. This started immediately when I overheard him and Bill ask a security guard in a chemist “my wife is looking for the arse beauty department,” when these moments happen I run and hide, pretending not to know my companions but Robert always finds me and starts breaking wind very audibly whist following me around the shop.

Bill is no different, except he doesn’t break wind. Instead he just refuses to keep to the rules. Every afternoon Bill and I would walk for two hours. This is part of Bill’s ongoing recuperation after an awful health scare three years ago. In Philadelphia we walked six miles before one show, which concerned me he’d be too tired for the evening but he was fine. When we reached the ART MUSEUM Bill decided that if he was only going in for a few minutes he wasn’t buying a ticket and he walked straight into the building telling the security so . . . and he got away with it.

In Boston, Bill was more interested in the shops and wanted to see the Chanel store. Upon entering Bill was not shy about asking the staff to give him a tour. So there was Bill in his scruffy tour clothes and me in my Sunday best being shown the entire collection. I am convinced the staff believed he was a designer and I was his PA. I needed to get back to the UK to prepare for the autumn shows. I have to say the last two weeks have been more testing than ever before. Having invested in a lot of new technology for my office which would allow me to broadcast and film . . . none of it is working. Where I live some major building work down the street has resulted in the fibre optic cable being broken and this has stuffed my plans till all is mended. But I cannot blame that incident alone.

It appears I am toxic to the new world. Technology doesn’t like me. AND I don’t like it presently. I’m averaging 6 hours a day dealing with technical teams. My hubby says it’s me. Even tills at shops break when I stand next to them. People’s wristwatches break when I stand next to them. Someone somewhere must have a use for this talent to break everything by just standing by it.

The list this month is: The list this month is: Chris Wong’s acoustic guitar battery died as soon as he walked on stage in Stroud and when he reloaded from a completely new box . . . every battery in the box was dead. Every sensor in my car has had to be replaced.

The list this month is:

The same with Roberts’s car if I drive it . . . kaput!

My vacuum cleaner….burst into flames

My mobile phone . . . again . . . this one’s a new one!

My computers…at home . . . and in london. 2 of them!

Robert’s computers . . . 2 of them!

The TV

My camera

My iPad

AND my favourite . . . fans cameras . . . I secretly enjoy that one, tee hee. (forgive me. I just smile as their camera batteries mysteriously die when they try and take a picture of me) Really I’d totally understand it if I got banned from places of importance…hospitals, police stations, fire stations . . . STEP AWAY FROM THE FIRE ENGINE WE NEED IT. God I lament the simplicity of just sitting down and creatively writing for 8 hours and then at the end of the day opening the post and making phone calls.

GET ME ON THE ROAD WITH THE BAND AND OUT OF HERE! We are doing quite a different set list. THE MINX tracks sound awesome! There is a tour countdown now live here at this site too . . . keep your eyes peeled!

SEE YOU OUT THERE

BE PROUD, BE LOUD, BE HEARD

LOVE TOYAH XXXXXXXX


NOVEMBER 2014

HELLO THERE!

This blog should be about how fantastic the new tour is, which it is. AND how wonderful the new set list is . . . which it is but to be honest it has simply been a pig awful month punctuated by wonderful shows that have given me respite from endless problems . . .  MERCURY IN RETROGRADE rides again!

The new show is great. The whole band loves it. We have added three songs from MINX, not an easy album to slot into our repertoire of twisting slightly surreal rock but I love it when ALL IN A RAGE STARTS, then six songs later SOUL PASSING THROUGH SOUL really rocks every one’s shoes off. The problem with MINX as an album is it is so quintessential 1980s I don’t think it ever fitted into my genre. Even though I was fantastically successful in the 1980s I don’t think I fitted what the 80s has become in retrospect . . . fast funky keyboards and disco beats . . . I was and still am more rock.

MINX is also the first album in my career where an A&R man had as much power over the say of the album as I the artist had and for me this shows, there is no honesty within the concept, it is almost a construct. We have cherry picked the three songs that still allow us to have acid in our bite and heat in our message . . . yes . . . this tour rocks! I really must not wish my life away for any reason nor for any length of time but October was a hell hole of a month that I am glad to see the back of. It was that bloody Mercury In Retrograde period which I loathe, where all technology fails and niggly things happen, one after another with endless repercussions.

The whole of 2014 has been similar. Small problems floating around like little Icebergs that just wont be solved with immediate attention . . . dragging on, dragging on and dragging on! For most of 2014 the live shows have been my solace. The only escape I have had from the gripes and the constant demands of my time have been when I walk on stage. A place where the magic of creativity does it’s miraculous healing/ bonding/ mass sensory thing . . . and the only place in the world where e-mail, telephone calls and mind numbing daily activity cannot invade the space.

There has been something about 2014 that has made it like no other year. Shoulder to shoulder with wonderful experiences like making the feature film AHHHHHHH, touring in the USA with THE HUMANS and performing career defining shows there has been endless problems off stage, most times nothing serious but a drag to a creative writer and incredibly distracting and time wasting.

It started on New Year’s day when I was called about a burst pipe in a property I have in Canterbury. There’s nothing unusual or out of the ordinary about a burst pipe in winter…but the call came after I’d been at the property the day before and into my property management office (and no one told me there was a leak) and I was now training for SPLASH in Southend and being distracted from what is a highly dangerous sport.

The way I define 2014 is it has been punctuated by small irritating incidence that could have all been avoided if communications where clearer, on time and accurate. With the burst pipe event I discovered very quickly the insurance broker I used for that property (a specialised insurance was needed for an unusual property) lied about the insurance to me. They actually LIED to get my custom. So when push came to shove I wasn’t covered . . . so you go from dealing with a leak, to dealing with a dishonest contract to dealing with removing all your custom from a company you believe specialised in insurance…….all because of a leaking pipe.

The year has continued to be defined by small events that have either grown into big problems or been so miss-handled by others that they have dragged on. I admit I have a problem with attachment. I don’t like anything latching on to me and sticking. This goes for problems with 6 degrees of separation. That cloying feeling sets in like treacle seeping up your nose into your sinus cavities…cripes I should have been a nun, or a hermit, or an astronaut or plain invisible.

If the year has been like this for me it very likely has been like it for everyone . . . I bet. Is the universe doing this or have our lives become so invaded with technology that where once we all encountered two, maybe three forms of breakdown a year we now encounter it daily? Add to this the sadness and inevitability of people you know passing away and what do you have . . . a kind of whirlpool of confused thoughts and emotions.

I didn’t know Lynda Bellingham personally, but I had worked with her in the past on a few occasions. She always struck me as stylish, confident and very dignified. So when she announced her decision to stop her chemo and let nature do its thing I felt great admiration and support for her. We need people to lead the way on this. Thus when she passed I felt grief for her close friends and family. But in a way I saw Lynda as a conqueror. She achieved her wish, autonomy in the face of terminal illness.

Alvin Stardust was a shock. I’ve worked with him on many occasions and over the decades I had grown to feel enormous respect for him. He was a fabulous musician and taught me a lot about the art of entertaining, something he was a master at. He could create a crowd out of no-where, master a crowd and send them home happy they had seen improvisation at its best….he was extraordinary and unless you had seen him in the flesh you’d never have know he had this quality.

Then four days ago, a wonderful friend passed away and shocked my world to the core. It had already been a bad week. A taxi driver in Glasgow decided to take me to meet his friends without my consent, at midnight, after a show, it was very frightening even though well intended, an hour later I finally made it to my hotel. Bunny was having a surgery that might finish him off. I had a car prang that happened in slow traffic but I wish to hell it hadn’t as it affected a young family who I have been worried sick about since and totalled my husband’s car. Then just before the start of the show in Howden I get the news of a close friend passing.

October and 2014 can disappear up the A— H— of a dwarf star tomorrow and it wouldn’t be soon enough. SO. I intend to see this year out with the passion I give every show. Giving it 110per cent and thanking my lucky stars that at the age of 56 I am still rocking and with a prayer in my heart that in 2015 I can be left alone to get on with it, to write THE HUMANS 4 in peace and to look forward to the huge amount of shows already booked in 2015…..and to the release of AHHHHHHH which I hope will cause the controversy and stir it deserves.

From the bottom of my heart I say to 2014 BUGGER OFF, I am now getting on with 2015 ahead of time. Don’t miss the last four shows of the tour, it is a goody and it is very different.

BE PROUD, BE LOUD, BE HEARD

LOVE TOYAH XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


DECEMBER 2014

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Am I ready for Christmas? In regards to socialising and entering the festive spirit . . . ABSOLUTELY! But in regards to actually being set with all the Christmas shopping done, the Christmas cards sent and the store cupboards stocked . . . NOT A CHANCE IN HELL! Already I am doing press for 2015. The diary is full for the next twelve months. I’ve kind of leapfrogged Christmas so far and my head is fully in The Humans tour 2015 and the new album.

I will be forced into the Christmas spirit once everyone else goes away on their holidays. My Christmas will be a frugal one this year as I’m the guarantor for The Humans tour and the album, both very costly processes. Anyway Christmas isn’t about the spending. It’s about seeing friends I haven’t had a chance to see for months on end. Christmas is good company, good food and friendship. That said I like to spoil my husband rotten.

I managed to get over to France in November for the first time in 14 months and I found a tiny wooden trinket box in thrift shop that was dated between 1799 & 1800, the end of the French Revolution and the beginning of the Napoleonic wars. The French have no interest in stuff like this, so it’s relatively easy to find. My hubby will love it. That’s the best part of crimble the joy of finding him gifts he’d never have expected.

So if my head is buried in 2015 already, what do I intend to do for Christmas itself? Well Christmas Day for us is no different to any one elses . . . we eat and eat and eat. My favourite treat being to sit in bed Christmas morning with Robert surrounded by our wrapped pressies and as he opens them I eat a packet of liquorice allsorts and a packet of marshmallows! That for me is my Christmas . . . HEAVEN. Even though Robert guzzles them while my back is turned and starts opening my presents when his are all opened . . . WAR!

I am doing something Christmas week I’d never expected to hear myself say . . . I’m taking Robert to the panto in Birmingham! He can’t wait. Really my husband is a super cool dude until you put him in a panto audience and all of a sudden he wants a “light up” fairy wand and flashing reindeer ears . . . he is such a kid at heart. For the past two weeks all he is talking about is going to the panto!

Obviously (as you will probably know or realise by now) I am not appearing in a pantomime this year. In fact I am not sure I ever will again AND though I believe in saying NEVER SAY NEVER, I think I want my Decembers to be with my hubby who isn’t getting any younger and who I want to enjoy the festive season with . . . oh and by the way I am not getting any younger either!

Our Christmas lunch is always a feast. We allow ourselves no boundaries when eating and as both of us are pudding addicts we will eat at least two to three different types of desserts. Living on a busy high street a lot of our friends are traders and they are mostly exhausted come Christmas Day, so the ones who have no family and intend to spend the day alone watching DVDs come to us for lunch . . . for three hours then we send them home completely rat arsed!

What are my hopes over Christmas? Above all the safety and happiness of all those in my life and all those around me. I am still in complete shock over the car prang I had in October, where the event happened so quickly. It has completely re-set my mind about driving and how safe we are in our cars and the effect we can have on other people. I have no regrets about my past but if I could take any split second back and re-set events the car prang would be the only one I’d wish to re-write out of happening.

Other hopes for Christmas? Peace in all its meanings from peace of mind, to silent peace. Where has silence gone? As for the more common meaning of peace I’m starting to believe in my lifetime it might never be seen. We seem to be entering a future similar to Bladerunner where the machine, the logo and the news stations rule the world . . . where has the simplicity of just “being” gone? Oh for the silent joy of just watching a river flow by . . . without hearing “candy crush” being played on the next river bank.

What a fantastic year 2014 has been. The concerts have allowed me to travel the UK and parts of the USA meeting fans new and old and also sharpening my performance skills. It has been a growing year and 2015 promises to be the same with more shows, more demands and more music . . . I wonder if there will be more acting? At the beginning of November I managed to get to my home in France having only spent three nights there since buying it in September 2013. This had been planned for almost a year. Having never holidayed alone with my sister it was quite an experience. Very quickly I realised she is more hyper than me!

Neither of us sleeps well, so we’d both surface by 4am. I usually do all my office and creative work in these early hours but my sister likes to walk, and walk, and walk and walk. I swear I wore a pair of trainers out. One day we walked to Monte Carlo AND walked to Italy. (I live in the middle of both in Menton). This was exhilarating and challenging as I am still building my strength up from the virus two years ago, but I did it. My sister is a tough person. When my parents were alive and my sister was still in nursing her nickname was “Butcher Willcox”, a name one could use back then without connotations of murder. She is resilient and takes no shit. Her last job was to man the NHS TERRORIST RESPONSE TEAM for the London 2012 Olympics. My sister can be terribly bossy, even when there is a language barrier.

I took her to see Monaco, purely because the place is an absolute horror, the pigs arse of the monied. It is a hell money has constructed and it just has to be seen. In Menton the French are wonderful, family orientated, welcoming people but once in Monaco it is ‘dog eat dog’ and this somewhat shocked my sister even though she has tackled terrorism face on, the arrogance of Monaco caught her off guard . . . everyone in Monaco is arrogant even those selling sandwiches and I had to get my sister out of the place when she started shouting at the locals for not understand English . . . because they choose not to! It was a great experience. Having lost a year of my sister’s life to her sailing around the world, it was a chance for us to be sisters again. I came away having learned I am the quiet one in this family!

Thank you to everyone for making 2014 so special. Thank you for your support with the shows, it was great to play for you all. BIG THANK YOU’S to the team . . . Chris Wong, Tim Rose, John Humphrey, Andy Doble, Paul Nicholson, Alan Sawyers, Davie Dreamscape, Kate Way, Colin Hinds and all at ROCK ARTIST MANAGEMENT. It’s been fab.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

BE PROUD, BE LOUD, BE HEARD

LOTS OF LOVE, TOYAH XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

SEE ALSO
The Toyah Blog Archive