Toyah Appreciation Thread

OP isn't she married to Robert Fripp, the guy from King Crimson, and they've been doing those weekly YT uploads during the pandemic? Is that the same person. They are fun.

Love her look!

Yes, r1. That was my first introduction to her. I was blown away after reading her online biography/ resume. Anyone who is into bands like Siouxsie & The Banshees, Visage, Gary Newman, Altered Images and Dollar should check into her discography.

^^Add British artist Hazel O’Connor to the list above.

She had three years of good to mediocre chart success in the UK. She always gave off a try-too-hard vibe. Still does.

Her speech impediment kinda grinds my nerves but her hair always did a great job of detracting from that. Fantastic hair.

I knew her from Derek Jarman films. I never knew she was a pop singer.

I hate chart queens on the DL. Not every artist is like Madonna. Fuck! I don’t care if she had 3 years or 3 weeks of chart success. I do not base my listening preferences off of chart numbers and I hate people who do. They’re limited.

R8 I love Neon Womb

Her audio commentary with the newly reissued The Blue Meaning album is very interesting to me.

R9 is having a seizure.

Looks so limited.

Barbara Thorndyke at r12.

I think the video to Don’t Fall In Love (I Said) is iconic. Probably one of the most striking performances in a music video. She was freezing to death and never showed it. She instead stayed on point and strutted through that freezing forest in the night singing the anthem Don’t Fall In Love I Said. That body!!! That rubber dress! That hair! Toyah!!!!

[quote] I knew her from Derek Jarman films

She played an extremely repellant character in that very ugly film called 'Jubilee'.

I’ve watched some recent interviews for her new album reissues. She’s interesting, energetic, remembers everything and has a great opinion of herself. Love her.

She's had a rather rich reissue campaign going on for the past few years. I've been tempted to get a few of her earlier albums because they've been very generous with additional material on each set, which I'm usually a sucker for. But, like in the past, whenever I think I'm ready to give her music further investigation her lisp is a huge turn off to me. I just can't get past the way she enunciates her lyrics. Besides, she's always seems like a generic brand of other punk/new wave chicks like Nina Hagen, Kate Bush, Poly Styrene...

Nice try OP.....we know you're the Toyah obsessive who's posted here many times before!

I'm only familiar with "It's a Mystery" which I discovered very recently. I think her lisp is cute, but I did wonder if whoever wrote that song for her was having a lend of her, because there are so many lisping words in it:

[italic]It'sh a myshtery, oh it'sh a myshtery

I'm shtill shearching for a clue

It'sh a myshtery to me

A shhot in the dark

The big queshtion mark in hishtory

Izh it a myshtery to you?[/italic]

It's actually kinda fun to sing along with it.

^Oh and in addition, I'd really like to see that version of The Tempest that she was in. I came across the "Stormy Weather" scene on YouTube and it looks campy and like fun. I'd love to do a deep dive into Jarman's films in general but they're hard to find. Criterion are devoting this month to him, and just looking at the trailer makes me want to see his films, because their look very stylish in an interesting way to me, but I'm not in North America, so can't really access it.

Toyah's 1983 album - Love Is The Law was reissued last Friday.

I’m listening to my Toyah favorites playlist this afternoon. My dogs love Toyah!