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Digger asked Toyah Willcox some questions.

 

   

Three recent images of Toyah by Dean Stockings

All other images courtesy of and © copyright www.rexfeatures.com
 

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Digger: Can you tell us who were and who are your musical influences and your dramatic influences?

Toyah: My main influence was David Bowie. His androgyny and beauty drew me in, then I started to really appreciate how brilliant he was at moving through cultural and musical influences as a survival tactic. Today I like Elbow, P.J. Harvey, Kate Bush, Lady Gaga. Well pretty much anyone who has originality.
 
Acting wise, I’ve worked with them all - Steven Rae, Laurence Olivier, Timothy Spall, Brenda Blethyn. People’s talent never ceases to amaze me, in the young and old, all through my career.  I’ve just seen the new Star Trek film and I could have wept tears of joy at how brilliant the cast was. In just the same way I could have wept tears of joy over Kate Winslet in The Reader. Sheer genius is a joy to behold.

Digger: How do you manage to balance the different disciplines of acting, writing, recording and performing?

Toyah: It's simple, I just love to work. Home life, ordinary life, down time are all my worst nightmare. I just cannot cope with normality.  So because of this I will seek work the way a drug addict seeks their particular vice. I’m work-dependant!

With acting and singing I need an audience, which is a challenge in itself, because a good idea is nothing without an audience. So sometimes I use one medium to attract attention to another career.  Acting always brings a new audience to my music.  But writing for me demands solitude. I will travel the world to find the peace and quiet I need to hatch an idea. What never ceases to amaze me is that as soon as I start a new writing project some member of the family, or press, will inadvertently cause a drama which halts the project. My father is very good at this. He has never done it deliberately but it is as if he senses I want to withdraw from his world in order to write. And the phone starts ringing and the tales of woe begin. But he is 89, so I listen more now than ever before!!!!!!!!!

Digger: What are your biggest achievements and what would you still like to accomplish?

Toyah: Achievements are subjective. Two weeks ago my band The Humans played in front of the president of Estonia - that was wonderful. But also was the fact that my husband Robert Fripp was supporting us, but instead decided to play with us. That was an achievement! My husband turns everyone from Eno to Bowie down.  For me the achievement is reached the moment I finish a song, or feel an idea is ready to be made into a song. Or the moment I’ve mastered a script and can feel the character.

As for accomplishment, every decade I am a different person and a different talent. So I expect to accomplish all the time. Past accomplishments belong to a person I no longer am! I still hanker to be a great actress and a great songwriter and a great performer. I never feel I’ve arrived at this destination.

 

 

Toyah with Hazel O'Connor and Kim Wilde

Toyah with Steve Strange

 

Digger: Would you have preferred to have been a punk, a hippy, a mod or a beatnik given the choice of living in the appropriate period?

Toyah:  I suppose a hippy, because they truly believed they changed things. The reality is in the belief, not in the fashion. And out of all the movements the hippies experienced the most pleasure, I’d say.  I was a punk, which was perfect for me, but it was driven by angst and self-destruction to a degree. Hippies just let go. I admire that!

Digger: What is the legacy of punk and the eighties?

Toyah: Well the 80's has influenced the catwalks around the world this year. The music is the longest-standing legacy, as it’s been in revival for the past 8 years and is going strong. But the legacy of both punk and the 80's is women are allowed more freedom. Freedom to dress how they choose, work how they choose and many other areas are open to them thanks to punk and 80's breaking taboos and outdated traditions.

Digger: What do you think of the reality TV culture and the fame-for-fame's-sake mentality?

Toyah: It’s inevitable. The majority of people have a very hard life. Earning little for intolerable hours. Of course reality TV is going to be a success because it allows everyone to dream it could be them.  I get bored of reading about stars and their perfect lives. We are constantly bombarded with impossible images of perfection. Reality TV allows people to vent their feelings and have a vote that counts.

 

 

Joan of Arc

 

Digger: What are your views on the recent MP expenses debacle?

Toyah: The question I ask is would I have done that myself? I like to think no! It’s disgusting! Too many people have been encouraged to spend and live on credit and are now in terrible debt because this government failed to warn them the credit crunch was coming and they have known for two years. Now MP's have profited from tax-payers money, it is unforgivable. How can we raise a new generation of children and expect them to have moral fibre when democratically-elected politicians are blatantly disrespectful of those who elected them? Greed isn’t the word. Gentlemen’s club is the phrase. Damn them. I don't believe they have one clue of how hard people’s lives have been this year.

Digger: Can you please tell us about your current projects and what you have planned for the future?

Toyah: I recently finished filming Three to Tango in which I had the lead. It is a very small, independent British film which will start its showings in small cinemas around September 2009.
http://www.powerofthreefilm.com
In September I start a four month tour of Vampires Rock. http://www.vampiresrock.com
And I am in Seattle most of the summer recording with The Humans.

Digger: Who would you invite to a dinner party of guests, living or dead, real or fictional?

Toyah: Arch Angel Gabriel. The Holy Ghost, God, Bill Rieflin (The Humans), Joan Of Arc, Pinocchio, E.T., and The Head Of The Atheist Society.

 

 

 

 

Digger: Are you nostalgic or do you tend to look forward, and what do you think about/how do you deal with getting older?

Toyah: Nostalgia has played a huge role in my life. Even though I’ve had many achievements independently of my 80's past, I cannot deny my 80's success has influenced my getting other jobs!  But I live in the present with a foot in the future. I’m always thinking about planning for the future and am very aware of my physical capabilities and that my body cannot be as athletic as it once was. That said, I am not slowing down, I’ve just dropped the dream to skydive. I’d break every bone in my body. Projects like The Humans is geared for my future, and for my age. It is gentle, very personal and with people I love above all other.

Digger: At 14, I once stood outside Brian Ferry's house in London with some friends and managed to see his fridge and called him and invited him to a party in Basildon! What is the daftest thing you have done as a fan and the daftest thing a fan has done to you?

Toyah: I once had a fan fall through the roof of the Oxford Apollo, when I was in concert in 1981. He had taken the slates off the roof and fell through onto the stage! He was okay, very emotional!  New year 1991 I gate-crashed Alan Bennett’s new year party at his home, because I wanted to work with him. He had no idea I wasn't invited and I helped him prepare food in his kitchen. He was lovely.

 

 

Digger: What makes you laugh, what makes you sad, what makes you angry and what makes you hopeful?

Toyah: Talent keeps me going. I love to see people’s talent. Sadness for me is missing someone.
Rudeness and insensitivity make me angry. Every time I write an idea down I am hopeful.
These are personal reflections; obviously the question can be answered about the outside world. Seeing someone not achieve their potential is saddening and infuriating. What makes me hopeful is when we all pull together.

 

 

Toyah with husband Robert Fripp