Bath Chronicle: Toyah Interview
A much expanded/reworked version of the recent ‘Frome Standard’ interview with Toyah, by Lisa Evans, was published yesterday by the Bath Chronicle.
After performing in Frome, former punk princess Toyah Willcox tells us why she loves Bath and why she owes her success to looking strange
Charismatic, outspoken and impossible to categorise, former punk princess Toyah Willcox is one of Britain’s iconic household names. When she visited Frome to perform at the Cheese and Grain this month, she told Lisa Evans why she adores Bath and why she owes her success to looking ‘strange’.
Toyah Willcox has always liked to surprise. She is, she admits, ‘a bit of an attention-seeker’ and was a rebellious extrovert who knew what she had to do to be noticed. During her 20s, with her shock of bright pink hair and unconventional outfits, she was the most outrageous and most successful punk rocker of her age, and she tells me that she thinks her alternative look was the reason she found success.
“I always wanted to be noticed,” says Toyah. “And, for me, dying my hair crazy colours and wearing different clothes from everyone else helped me to break free from the mould which women were put into at the time. I wanted to be different and not judged by the same book as everyone else was.
“And to be honest with you, if I hadn’t have looked a bit strange, I don’t think I would have been noticed in the first place. I owe my career to that colourful hair – I was a punk rocker at a time when no other woman was doing anything like that.”
• Continue reading at the Bath Chronicle.
