TOYAH and suchlike - classic or dud?

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I was thinking about stuff that is beyond any critical redemtion, and here I would like to point out that a/ I mean no-one writing for a fancy musick magazine would dare take a punt on saying anything nice about them and b/ beyond any critical redemption doesn't necessarily mean bad. Anyway, Ms Wilcox seemed to me to be thee ultimate example of such an act. I mean, she was a big big ole popstar back in thee 1980's, on telly all thee time and all that, and now? I believe she's on late night tv occasionally, and I don't remember her recording anything in the last 10 yrs. No one mentions her, and I mean pretty much not ever. Plus, she wanted to crawl through the alleyways, being very loud. Anyway I want to hear people saying nice things about Toyah's rekids, b/c I can't really remember anything about them (and I did own a couple) except for the cover of "Sheep Farming in Barnet" being really 80's futuro-cool, w/Ms Wilcox standing in front of IIRC filingdales early-warning station.

http://www.geocities.com/toyahdreamscape/album1.jpg

Fukc, nuclear apocalyptic themed as well!@# How much more of its time could it possibly get?¿?¿?¿ Plus, I also remember this track called either "Dance" or "Dance" which had this GRATE ping-pong ball guitar riff. IIRC there was also some really naff sci-fi-ist lyrick stuff in said track. Pff, whatever. Gimme what U got on
a/ Toyah, and
b/ that which was once hot shit but which has now dropped off thee map.

― N0RM4N PH4Y, Saturday, 31 August 2002 18:03 (twenty-three years ago)

blimey she's been quite prolific actually

― N0RM4N PH4Y, Saturday, 31 August 2002 18:05 (twenty-three years ago)

I'll think you'll find on ILM that nothing can't be critically redeemed. Toyah fans to thread!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Saturday, 31 August 2002 18:53 (twenty-three years ago)

She is now happily married to Fripp. They made some experimental albums together in the late eighties and early nineties.

― didi, Saturday, 31 August 2002 19:03 (twenty-three years ago)

A friend of mine had a toyah/fripp album, & he described it as being "like Tin Machine, if Tin Machine were any good", which I did think quite intriguing. I haf never found a copy tho'.

― N0RMaN PH4Y, Saturday, 31 August 2002 19:38 (twenty-three years ago)

i heart toyah!! (entire cosmos falls over in unfeigned astonishment) yes i do!! her music is kinda rub mostly, sadly

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 31 August 2002 22:19 (twenty-three years ago)

she said she was going to "turn suburbia upside down", but i haf not been there for ages so do not know if she did

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 31 August 2002 22:31 (twenty-three years ago)

http://www.ragdoll.co.uk/imagesnew/pob4.gif

― sorry i got distracted by this while looking for toyahpix (mark s), Saturday, 31 August 2002 22:33 (twenty-three years ago)

http://www.dorraine.supanet.com/Toyah.gif

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 31 August 2002 22:38 (twenty-three years ago)

http://www.nigelglockler.com/images/covers/tiwtbf_b.JPG

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 31 August 2002 22:41 (twenty-three years ago)

http://home.zonnet.nl/jhibels/rees/55e672c0.jpg

― promo still from a TV play that was even worse than it looks, astonishingly (mar, Saturday, 31 August 2002 22:45 (twenty-three years ago)

important thread spin-off: child soapstars burdened w.names inherited from half-forgotten pop icons #245876
TOYAH BATTERSBY

http://www.georgiataylor.co.uk/heatfront.jpg

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 31 August 2002 22:50 (twenty-three years ago)

http://recent.picture.of/starry/sarah.jpg

― Graham (graham), Sunday, 1 September 2002 00:16 (twenty-three years ago)

Toyah of course now campaigns against asylum seekers coming into her hometown. What a nice person. I thought she wanted to "turn suburbia upside down", though?

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 1 September 2002 05:29 (twenty-three years ago)

Toyah Battersby = Seven of Nine (although not really in that pic)

When I was at secondary school we were taken to see a play abt wrestling that starred Toyah - it wasn't v. good either...

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Sunday, 1 September 2002 06:19 (twenty-three years ago)

Toyah was the first 'live' - well, mimed - music act I ever saw. I was in the audience for the 80s kiddie quiz 'Hold Tight!' (at Alton Towers! Hosted by Bob "hoooooolllldddd tiiiiiiigghhhhhhttt!" Carolgees). And Toyah played on a platform that went up and down! Can't remember what song she sang though, but i'm sure it didn't trouble the charts at all.
My freind and I booed her, I'm afraid to say. We just wanted to hear ourselves on telly, is all.
Toyah is now campiagning to stop an asylum seeker concentration camp being built her home village of Throckmartin, not far from me. Well, it's in the same county.

― DavidM (DavidM), Sunday, 1 September 2002 08:26 (twenty-three years ago)

ok well i don't heart her any more then: can we blame fripp?

i haf a v.weird toyah artefect i got for 1p from a library sale years ago, which is basically an obsessive fan's web-page only 20 years too early => a geek-journal turned into a book by Rocking Russian: the fan was written out lots of lists of "facts" about her idol, but everything is shot through with subliminal rage

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 1 September 2002 08:33 (twenty-three years ago)

This whole Pink/Avril Lavigne thing leads me to think that some music executive somewhere saw that TOTP2 with Toyah on and thought "This Is A Really Good Idea!" This may just be me. I do not see the genius of any of them. I don't think I ever want to.

― Mr Swygart (mrswygart), Sunday, 1 September 2002 18:12 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

I am so disappointed to learn about the asylum seeker thing :(

I d/led "I Want To Be Free" and "It's A Mystery" and they're good! Actually she reminds me a bit of BILLIE.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 12 February 2004 01:35 (twenty-two years ago)

And of course her version of "America For Beginners" was better than Latin Quarter's!!!!!!!1

― Old Fart!!! (oldfart_sd), Thursday, 12 February 2004 13:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Toyah insists passionately and furiously that the press got the wrong end of the stick on the asylum-seekers thing, and annoyed that her opposition to the site is used as an indication that she is racist: "I was there because the site the Government has chosen is totally unsuitable. They want to build an asylum centre on a disused airbase and I felt compelled to protest not only because the area can't sustain such a huge influx of people but because the proposed site lies just yards from where 130,000 foot-and-mouth infected carcasses have been buried."

Knowing her and her husband's real estate obsessions, this is not far-fetched.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Thursday, 12 February 2004 13:50 (twenty-two years ago)

nine years pass...

She is now happily married to Fripp. They made some experimental albums together in the late eighties and early nineties.
― didi, Saturday, August 31, 2002 7:03 PM (10 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=64VGyoIyBgc

― Eyeball Kicks, Tuesday, 21 May 2013 14:08 (thirteen years ago)

two years pass...

Anyone really listened to those Toyah/Fripp albums?

― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 21 June 2015 17:15 (ten years ago)

Much more of a fan of her acting career. She plays the best character in both Jubilee & Quadrophenia.

― Dave fischer, Sunday, 21 June 2015 18:40 (ten years ago)

http://www.toyah.net/t83retcc.jpg

Toyah, Mari Wilson and Kim Wilde at the launch of Just Seventeen magazine in 1983

― soref, Sunday, 21 June 2015 21:43 (ten years ago)

I'll never forget her appearance on Never Mind The Buzzcocks. She made these genuinely scary sexual threats toward Mark Lamarr.

― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 21 June 2015 22:11 (ten years ago)

one year passes...

has anyone else here listened to Toyah's experimental 1988 album "Prostitute"? it sounds kind of like Toyah trying to do Laurie Anderson and is very odd, but compelling

― soref, Saturday, 15 October 2016 01:44 (nine years ago)

three years pass...

Toyah & Robert's Sunday lunch this week is a visual representation of what King Crimson's "Fracture" sounds like to Toyah, the hardest #KingCrimson song to play on guitar 🐭 ☕ 🎸 #ToyahWillcox #RobertFripp #Fracture #mouse #caffeine pic.twitter.com/epnWdu5enW
— Toyah Willcox (@toyahofficial) June 14, 2020

― ... (Eazy), Sunday, 14 June 2020 13:27 (five years ago)

Somehow I only just clocked that Fripp gets classical posture when playing electric by wearing a strap while seated.

― Feel a million filaments (Sund4r), Sunday, 14 June 2020 13:56 (five years ago)

one month passes...

I finally started digging into her back catalogue; previously I only really knew Sunday All Over The World which is an album that I really enjoy, mainly because I'm a fan of Fripp's late 80's extremely clean guitar tone on it (shortly thereafter he would return to distortion with Sylvian), and Ophelia, which is basically the same lineup but not quite as good. I'd heard both Prostitute and Desire as well but they didn't leave much of an impression aside from me hating her version of Echo Beach. But Sheep Farming, Blue Meaning, and Anthem are really great. I imagine like most things the returns decline as time goes on but there's nothing shameful about these albums.

― akm, Tuesday, 4 August 2020 16:24 (five years ago)

three weeks pass...

I also just discovered "Sheep Farming In Barnet" and "The Blue Meaning". Evokes Kate Bush's work from the same time, a fun, frenetic blend of prog and new wave.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Sunday, 30 August 2020 15:58 (five years ago)

two years pass...

Even by their standards this is gen x ala 'will smith is trying to eat soybeans in my bed'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0TR4tOLFaU

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Wednesday, 28 September 2022 18:03 (three years ago)

gen z, cough

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Wednesday, 28 September 2022 18:03 (three years ago)

I love that Chesney is essentially up for anything he's just like Jason Donovan (who unlike Chesney doesn't have a cracking tune attached but he is very likeable)

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Wednesday, 28 September 2022 18:13 (three years ago)

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