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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
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