TOYAH MUSIC BIO

Toyah Willcox has a highly successful, prolific and incredibly diverse career of which music is the major component. In a career spanning over 40 years she has amassed 13 top 40 singles, recorded 20 albums, toured live across the world and written and recorded with Simon Darlow, Steve Lillywhite, Nick Tauber, Mike Hedges, Christopher Neil, Tim Elsenburg, Trey Gunn, Robert Fripp and Bill Rieflin. 

In 1977, Toyah put together the first embryonic line up of her own band with Joel Bogen. Whilst the band line up continued to evolve and change the band played the college and university circuit for two years and gathered a repertoire of their own original material. German based independent label Safari Records signed the band in late 1978.

By 1979 Toyah's band was gaining critical success with the debut single Victims of the Riddle (no 1 in the independent charts) and a six track EP Sheep Farming in Barnet. The following year, Toyah's album The Blue Meaning became a Top 40 hit. An ATV Documentary "Toyah" and an accompanying live album Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! confirmed her status as one of the most significant new talents of the Eighties.

A European tour, further television roles and chart successes including It's A Mystery, I Want to Be Free and the platinum album Anthem followed and 1981 ended with a Christmas Eve concert from Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, screened live as The Old Grey Whistle Test Christmas Special. 1982 saw her winning Best Female Singer at the Rock & Pop Awards and extensive touring in support of the follow up album The Changeling and the hit singles Thunder In The Mountains, Brave New World and Be Proud (Be Loud, Be Heard) 

The Toyah band recorded an released their last studio album Love Is The Law in 1983.

In 1984 Toyah became a solo artist. She was signed to the CBS label Portrait, and her first solo album Minx was released in 1985. Toyah's first collaboration with King Crimson-founder and her husband Robert Fripp came in 1986 with the project album The Lady or the Tiger, released under the moniker Toyah & Fripp. 

The album consisted of Toyah's spoken word narration set to Fripp and The League of Crafty Guitarists's soundscapes. A second solo album Desire followed in 1987, and included the first co-write between Toyah & Fripp. Robert Fripp and Ronnie Wood also played - albeit un-credited - guitars on the album.

Her least commercial album Prostitute was released in 1988. This experimental album is seen as the benchmark for the newest generation of honest and expressive singer songwriters. 

With Robert Fripp she formed the band Sunday All Over the World, who became known for their strong live performances and toured before recording the debut album Kneeling at the Shrine 1988.

She also appeared at the 'Women in Music Festival' at London's Shaw Theatre with an aptly named girl band, 'The She-Devils'. During 1991 Toyah and Robert Fripp travelled to America to promote both albums released that year, Sunday All Over the World and Toyah's self produced Ophelia's Shadow, the album Toyah feels is her strongest to date.

1992 saw Toyah tour Germany, Britain and Poland with progressive-rock/jazz outfit Kiss of Reality and in Spring of 1993 they recorded an album. In the summer of 1993 Toyah recorded a rock album Take the Leap! which included a brand new recording of It's A Mystery. To aid this return to her rock roots she brought in a band of young musicians from Salisbury and they embarked on a successful tour of Britain.

In March 1994 she began a music tour which would be one of the biggest Toyah had undertaken, continuing throughout the year until the end of November, playing England, Ireland, Scotland and South America. The Dreamchild album was released in May and received rave reviews in Europe and the UK whilst second single Now and Then was remixed by DJ Tim of Utah Saints. Toyah went onto play live as the special guest at the UK Heineken Music Festivals appearing in front of audiences of 5,000 to 10,000 people.

During 1996 Toyah guested on Trey Gunn's "The Third Star" album and in the autumn she returned to her hometown, Birmingham to perform a series of acoustic concerts at the prestigious night-club Ronnie Scott's. She also released Toyah - The Acoustic Album, featuring the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on two tracks. 

In 1997 Toyah toured the UK with her band, recorded a studio album version of the musical Cabaret with Nigel Planer and joined music station VH1 as VJ presenter. Toyah made her first musical recording of the 21st century in 2001 with a vocal contribution to the track Killing Made Easy with punk band Family of Noise.

Toyah joined her fellow 80's pop stars ABC, Howard Jones and ex-Spandau Ballet in April 2002 when she performed on the Here and Now UK stadium tour. The nostalgia-filled tour saw Toyah perform her biggest hits to a sold out Wembley Arena and a crowd of over 20,000 at Manchester Evening News Arena.

2002 saw Toyah return to songwriting as she co-wrote and recorded new material for a limited edition EP, Little Tears of Love and a one-off preview concert at London's prestigious Ronnie Scott's venue. Carlton Television also made a documentary on Toyah's music career in December as part of the Rock Legends series.

Toyah continued to record material and in May 2003 a brand new mini-album Velvet Lined Shell was released on Toyah's own record label Vertical Species Records, showcasing a darker, edgier direction. In addition, her personal favourites and most critically acclaimed albums Prostitute and Ophelia's Shadow were repackaged with commentary from Toyah and reissued on Vertical Species. In October 2003, Toyah performed a one-off concert at the Mean Fiddler in London to mark the celebration of her 25 years in showbusiness and the music industry.

2004 saw Toyah return once again to her musical roots as part of The Best of the 80s Tour - a month-long national UK tour alongside fellow 80s hit-makers Nick Heyward, Curiosity Killed the Cat and Altered Images. In 2005, demand resulted in the reissue of Toyah’s 80s albums Warrior Rock – Toyah on Tour and Love is the Law, receiving their first ever CD release. 

This was followed by CD reissues of the 1985 studio album Minx and a rarities anthology, Mayhem. This series of reissues all contained material and bonus tracks previously unavailable on CD.

In addition, Cherry Red issued two CD collections which compiled all of Toyah’s A-Sides and B-Sides from 1979-1983. Toyah successful played at many of the 2005 summer festivals including the Wasted Punk Festival and the Hastings Beer & Music Festival, performing alongside Keane to 4,500 festival-goers. An Autumn concert date featuring Toyah, her band and a guest brass section, was recorded and released in November as the DVD, Wild Essence – Live in the 21st Century.

In the autumn of 2006 she embarked on The Hitmakers Tour, a series of live UK dates with Howard Jones and ABC’s Martin Fry. The year also saw two further CD album releases, - a reissue of the live album Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! and the first ever UK release of the acclaimed album Take the Leap! - previously only available on CD in Japan, complete with four bonus tracks and two critically acclaimed previously unheard demos.

In 2007 Toyah has continued to perform concerts with her band, including a series of summer dates at prestigious outdoor venues across the UK. Toyah also began writing and recording a brand new studio album with Simon Darlow, and signed a brand new worldwide publishing deal with Zomba Music. 

The year has also seen the launch of The Official Toyah MySpace which has exclusively previewed the new album material. Toyah has also produced a series of videos to present the music which are being previewed on the recently launched Official Toyah Youtube Channel.

October 2007 saw Toyah’s first ever digital single release of the album’s lead single, Latex Messiah (Viva La Rebel In You). The full album, In The Court Of The Crimson Queen followed in September 2008 with worldwide release on iTunes and a physical CD available online and on the road during Toyah's first stint in the hugely successful rock show, Vampires Rock.

The show took in several cities around the UK and was followed up with a short West End run. Toyah's starring role as the Devil Queen would see her perform such rock classics as School's Out (a track she had recorded for her album Minx in 1985) and Sweet Child Of Mine (a cover she has been performing in her own gigs and appearances since 2004). 

In addition, In The Court Of The Crimson Queen favourite, Lesser God, was to be Toyah's opening number in the show, which goes back on the road in September 2009 when Toyah will reprise the role.

Alongside 2007-2008's solo album project, Toyah began a collaboration affair with Bill Rieflin (REM) and Chris Wong on the band project, The Humans. Described as “European experimental meets West Coast American grunge", The Humans debut live performances took place as a short series of concerts in Estonia in October 2007. 

The Humans recorded their debut album We Are the Humans in Seattle in 2008, released in Estonia in May 2009 to coincide with the band's return to play in front of the country's president. The album received a UK digital release in September 2009, along with a single "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'".

At the end of the year Toyah came seventh in a BBC series naming the "Queens of British Pop", as voted for by the British public. In 2010 Willcox with The Humans performed at the London's Roundhouse Haiti earthquake fundraiser concert. 

On 17 June 2011, Toyah  commenced on a special From Sheep Farming to Anthem tour, celebrating the 30th anniversary of her breakthrough hit "It's a Mystery" and the platinum-selling album Anthem, starting at the London's Leicester Square Theatre. The set included selections drawn exclusively from Toyah's first three albums, Sheep Farming in Barnet (1979), The Blue Meaning (1980) and Anthem (1981). Andi Fraggs, a British electronic musician, supported her on chosen dates. 

On 14 April 2012, Toyah launched the Changeling Resurrection 2012 tour at the Concorde 2 in Brighton to celebrate the 30th anniversary of her album The Changeling (1982). On 16 July 2012, Toyah performed a concert in her birthplace of Kings Heath, Birmingham, to celebrate being the first artist with a star on the King's Heath Walk of Fame. Andi Fraggs made a surprise appearance, duetting Willcox's 1981 hit single "Thunder in the Mountains".

In 2013, Toyah released a deluxe edition of her 2008 album In the Court of the Crimson Queen and embarked on the tour revisiting the Love Is the Law (1983) -era material.
Toyah continues to tour both with her full band and also with an acoustic line-up for her "Up Close And Personal" shows. 

In 2018 Toyah toured her #Toyah60 show, which marked her sixtieth birthday and fortieth year in music. This was accompanied by the release of her Four From Toyah- Birthday Edition EP of new material, which charted highly in the digital charts. 

In 2019 Toyah charted at #74 in the UK album charts with a re-issue of her 2008 album In The Court Of The Crimson Queen. It also peaked at #22 on the Official Charts Company's sales chart and #7 in the independent chart. This was Toyah's first appearance in the British album charts since 'Minx' in 1985.