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Cover Of The Week – Graceful Toyah And Her Rhythm Slaves

Toyah and Robert Fripp do not need an introduction whatsoever anymore, if you ask me (also if you don’t ask me). Both had/have notable successful careers and both together have their Sunday lunch on YouTube, every week for more than two years now.

About 2 months ago the lovebirds picked Grace Jones‘s giant 1985 hit Slave to the Rhythm to entertain us with it on the laziest day of the week.

Recently T & R recorded their cover of that soulful pearl, fully orchestrated, as a new Toyah single, and shared an accompanying video so you can join sexy Toyah for a little dance to this sensuous interpretation with her seductive posh pop voice as the star in the middle and the trippy guitars of King Robert and Simon Darlow on the sides, left and right. They’re rhythm slaves to Toyah.

• Continue reading at Turn Up The Volume.

Toyah Willcox on refusing to be ‘controlled’ by age, and playing Glasgow with Billy Idol

The It’s a Mystery star has found a new audience with her YouTube videos.

Toyah Willcox continues to be audacious in her 60s and refuses to be “controlled by the number” of her age.

In the 80s her anthem I Want To Be Free and her vivid hair colours made her an icon of rebellious youth.

And the punk remains a beacon of individuality at 64, posing in revealing outfits for her Sunday Lunch YouTube sensation with guitarist husband Robert Fripp.

The videos have had 100million views since they started doing them during lockdown in 2020.

Toyah said: “I’m not being controlled by the number of my age. I have a great passion for what I do and I’m continuing it. Age should only be a number.

“I’ve been rocking in this world for 45 years as a career. You don’t just suddenly stop or stop that connection with music.”

• Continue reading at the Daily Record.

Toyah – Interview With Nigel Carr at Louder Than War

Toyah talks with Nigel Carr at Louder Than War about her Anthem 40th Anniversary tour, Playing Cropedy Festival this week with a surprise appearance by husband Robert Fripp (Thursday 11th August 2022), and supporting Billy Idol on his UK Arena tour alongside Television.

“I helped Franc Roddham out by putting John Lydon through the screentest for Quadrophenia. Lydon was absolutely astonishing. He’s a great actor waiting to be discovered”

Toyah was the face of 1981 with her startling looks, big hair and stadium slaying voice. After 5 years of juggling acting and singing, and after scoring an indie number one, she finally broke through into the mainstream with Four From Toyah, which included the hits, It’s a Mystery and I Want To Be Free. The ensuing album Anthem topped the charts around the world. Here, Nigel speaks with Toyah about her tough start in the music business, her impressive and award winning acting career and her return to the bigtime through the colossally popular Sunday Lunch show on YouTube, the 40th+1 anniversary of Anthem tour and supporting Billy Idol on his The Roadside Tour 2022.

• Continue reading at Louder Than War.

Toyah releases special edition of In The Court of the Crimson Queen

Toyah Willcox has recorded a cover of Grace Jones’ 1985 single ‘Slave to the Rhythm’ and added it to a new special ‘Rhythm Deluxe’ edition of her In The Court of the Crimson Queen album. ‘Slave to the Rhythm’ was written by Trevor Horn, Bruce Woolley, Simon Darlow and Stephen Lipson and to those unaware, Darlow has a very long writing/producing association with Toyah, so there’s some logic to the choose of recording, a version of which was first previewed on ‘Toyah and Robert’s Sunday Lunch’ back in July.

It seems curious to release yet another special edition of this album. It first came out in 2008, was reissued in 2013 and then remixed/reissued/expanded in 2019 (when SDE spoke to both Toyah and Simon), so this will be the fourth version! Toyah describes this new version as a “prequel” to 2021’s long-player Posh Pop and calls it the “definitive” version of the record. As well as ‘Slave to the Rhythm’ it also features three brand new remakes of the songs ‘Sensational’, ‘Heal Ourselves’ and ‘Latex Messiah’ featuring the ‘Posh Pop Three’ of Toyah, Simon Darlow and Robert Fripp.

• Continue reading at Super Deluxe Edition.

Toyah unveils studio cover of Grace Jones’ ‘Slave To The Rhythm’

Toyah has released a cover of Grace Jones’ classic hit Slave To The Rhythm.

Having performed the track with husband Robert Fripp and songwriter Simon Darlow as part of ‘Toyah and Robert’s Sunday Lunch’, the punk icon has recorded a studio version. In a blog post on her website, the hitmaker explained: “Fripp, Simon Darlow and I have been in the studio putting down the main parts of my June single release Slave To The Rhythm”.

• Continue reading at Retropop.

Photos: World-famous folk rock festival, Fairport’s Cropredy Convention, is BACK!

Music legend Trevor Horn headlines opening day

After a mini break due to the pandemic, the world-famous folk rock festival – Fairport’s Cropredy Convention – has returned.

Fairport opened with their acoustic set and the Trevor Horn band headlined. Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp joined him for one song mid-set.

Give Them Wings review – down but not out in Darlington

Daniel Watson and Toyah Willcox shine as a disabled man and his doughty mam

Give Them Wings is the biopic of Paul Hodgson, who seven months after he was born in 1965 was diagnosed with meningococcal meningitis. If that wasn’t bad enough, he survived his precarious childhood to become a devout fan of Durham’s hapless Darlington FC – it’s criminal that this low-budget British indie wasn’t titled Give Them Wingers.

An ex-civil servant and now a screenwriter and producer, Hodgson has spent his life confined to a wheelchair and hampered by a speech impediment. Directed by onetime Bond heavy Sean Cronin (who cast himself as a football thug), the film version of Hodgson’s 2021 memoir isn’t a world-beater, but it is a crowd-pleasing underdog with guts, grit and an admirable streak of unsentimental humour.

Set in the late 1980s, Hodgson’s story of striving unfolds in the drab Northern terrain familiar from early ‘60s realist films, the so-called British New Wave.

• Continue reading at The Arts Desk.

• Toyah At Home: Reaction to We Are – Watch… • Toyah & Robert’s Objects Of Desire – Watch… • Toyah & Robert’s Sunday Lunch – Are You Gonna Go My Way? – Watch…

Press for Toyah & Robert’s Sunday Lunch – This week covering Lenny Kravitz. (Image © Toyah Willcox)

• Guitar.Com: Robert Fripp and Toyah Willcox Take On Lenny Kravit’s Are You Gonna Go My Way: Serving flying tortilla shells and killer guitar for lunch – Continue…

• NME: Watch Robert Fripp and Toyah Willcox cover Lenny Kravitz’s ‘Are You Gonna Go My Way’: Another Sunday Lunch is served – Continue…

• Classic Rock/Louder: Meet Robert Fripp and Toyah and their magic disappearing pancakes: Oh no! Robert Fripp has a tortilla on his head! – Continue…

• Brooklyn Vegan: Watch Toyah & Robert cover Lenny Kravit’s “Are You Gonna Go My Way” – Continue…

• Metal Sucks: King Crimson’s Robert Fripp and Toyah Willcox Cover Lenny Kravitz’s “Are You Gonna Go My Way?” – Continue…

• Melody Maker Magazine: King Crimson’s Robert Fripp and Toyah Willcox Cover Lenny Kravitz’s “Are You Gonna Go My Way?” – Continue…

• Brave Words: Robert Fripp & Toyah Perform Lenny Kravitz Classic “Are You Gonna Go My Way” – Continue…

• DGM Live: Toyah & Robert’s Weekend – Continue…

Toyah heading for Ipswich with Let’s Rock at Trinity Park

A host of 80s stars will turn the clock back 40 years when a major music event comes to Trinity Park near Ipswich in September to round off the Festival of Suffolk.

Among the bill-toppers at “Let’s Rock – Ipswich” will be UK entertainment icon Toyah who is paying a return visit to an area she has played several times during her career.

She will share the stage with Adam Ant, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, ABC, and Ipswich’s own Nik Kershaw among other massive names from a great era in music.

Toyah spoke to us about her visit – and the importance of 80s music. She said: “It really is great, we all get along together very well and there is a real energy about that era that means we all have a great time.

“When I’m touring myself and doing a full set I do a lot of my new material – but with this I have about 20 minutes and I concentrate on the 80s stuff, that’s what people have come to hear.”

• Continue reading at the Ipswich Star. See further info on Let’s Rock Ipswich 2022 and ticket link at toyahwillcox.com.

Music icon Toyah Willcox to join rockstar Billy Idol on six-date UK tour this Autumn

It’s A Mystery and Thunder In The Mountains singer Toyah Willcox will join special guests Television for White Wedding and Rebel Yell star Billy Idol’s Roadside UK Tour

Thunder In the Mountains singer Toyah Willcox will join punk icon Billy Idol on his Roadside UK Tour this Autumn.

Actress and singer Toyah will open for Billy Idol on his six-date tour, which takes in cities including Manchester, Cardiff, London, Glasgow, Birmingham and Leeds from October 13-25, 2022.

That’s not all, as Toyah Willcox and Billy Idol will also be joined by special guests Television, who will be performing their album debut Marquee Moon in full.

• Continue reading at the Daily Star. NB. Billy Idol shared posts on Instagram and Twitter yesterday on Toyah & Robert’s Sunday Lunch cover of Rebel Yell.

Toyah to join Billy Idol on the road for October 2022 UK tour

Toyah will join Billy Idol later this year as he brings ‘The Roadside’ tour to the UK throughout October 2022.

The punk icon will join the rocker for a string of dates, which were rescheduled from earlier this year. “We’re looking forward to having Toyah join us in the UK,” says Billy. “This is the final piece in what is going to be an epic show!“

• Continue reading at Retropop.

Cherry Red steps up Toyah reissues with massive Anthem box set

1981 album gets the super deluxe treatment

Toyah’s 1981 album Anthem will be reissued in September across three physical formats, one of which is a large seven-disc super deluxe edition box set which comes with a signed print.

The album was the first to feature the new line-up of Toyah Willcox, Joel Bogen, Nigel Glockler, Phil Spalding and Adrian Lee. It reached number two in the UK album charts and contained a pair of top ten hits in ‘It’s A Mystery’ (which was issued in February ’81 as part of the ‘Four From Toyah’ EP) and ‘I Want To Be Free’ which was issued just before the album in May of that same year. Audio for the reissues has been remastered by Nick Watson (from the original master tapes) and approved by Joel Bogen.

• Continue reading at Super Deluxe Edition.

“July 9, 1982”: Adam Ant and Toyah are the subject of a little more exploitation by Polydor Records. A song that the pair did together four years ago for the “Jubilee” soundtrack has been dusted off and released as a single. After Adam’s lawyers caught wind of this impending single, they insisted that it not be packaged as “Adam Ant & Toyah” as they had intended, but instead as “The Maneaters,” the name that the song appeared originally under.

• Continue reading at Songs Smiths.

Press on this week’s announcement Toyah is supporting Billy Idol on his Roadside UK Arena Tour later this year.

• The Official Toyah Willcox Website: Toyah Joins Billy Idol Arena Tour As Special Guest: Billy Idol is delighted to announce that Toyah will be joining his UK live dates this October on The Roadside Tour 2022, alongside very special guests, Television – Continue…

• Vive Le Rock: Toyah Joins Idol Tour!: TOYAH has been added to the bill for Billy Idol’s Roadside Tour this Autumn. The post-punk hitmaker joins a line-up that also includes Television, who stepped up to replace The Go-Go’s who were unable to play the rescheduled dates. “We’re looking forward to having Toyah join us in the UK,” says the former Generation X frontman. “This is the final piece in what is going to be an epic show!” – Continue…

• More – See also XSNoise, York Calling, Planet Radio, Total Entertainment, Ramzine, Brave Words…

Toyah is interviewed in the new issue of Retropop magazine (August 2022) in a special eight-page feature. Retropop is on sale now. View the full feature here. NB: This interview was originally published on Retropop‘s website in 2021 around the time of the release of Posh Pop. (Thanks to Minna of The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive)

• Toyah At Home: Reaction to vintage Thunder In The Mountains – Watch… • Toyah & Robert’s Objects Of Desire – Watch… • Toyah & Robert’s Sunday Lunch – Keine Lust – Watch…

Press for Toyah & Robert’s Sunday Lunch – This week covering Rammstein. (Image © Toyah Willcox)

• Guitar.Com: Robert Fripp and Toyah Don A Lederhosen and Drindlj for Rammstein’s Keine Lust – Continue…

• NME: Watch Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp cover Rammstein’s ‘Keine Lust’ for ‘Sunday Lunch’: Complete with a lederhosen-clad Fripp and Willcox pouring water down her dirndl – Continue…

• Classic Rock/Louder: Gott im Himmel! Toyah and Robert Fripp give Rammstein the bierkeller treatment: Toyah and Robert go “slightly German” as Rammstein’s Keine Lust lights up Worcestershire’s most iconic kitchen – Continue…

• Brooklyn Vegan: Watch Toyah & Robert Fripp cover Rammstein’s “Keine Lust” – Continue…

• Consequence: Toyah Pours Water on Herself as She and Robert Fripp Cover Rammstein’s “Keine Lust”: The performance of the German band’s song comes ahead of the couple’s 2023 tour – Continue…

• Metal Sucks: King Crimson’s Robert Fripp and Toyah Willcox Cover Rammstein’s “Keine Lust” – Continue…

• Metal Injection: King Crimson’s Robert Fripp & Toyah Willcox Covered Rammstein’s “Keine Lust” – Continue…

• Brave Words: Watch Toyah & Robert’s Octoberfest Sunday Lunch Covering Rammstein – Continue…

• DGM Live: Toyah & Robert’s Weekend – Continue…

Press coverage for the reporting of Tuesday’s announcement that Toyah & Robert are taking Sunday Lunch on tour in 2023!

• Guitar.Com: Robert Fripp and Toyah Are Going On The Road With The Sunday Lunch Tour 2023: Venues and ticketing details will be revealed soon – Continue…

• NME: Robert Fripp and Toyah Willcox to take ‘Sunday Lunch’ series on the road for 2023 tour: The couple have been performing covers from their kitchen throughout lockdown – Continue…

• Brooklyn Vegan: Toyah & Robert Fripp announce “Sunday Lunch” tour – Continue…

• Metal Sucks: Finally: Fripp and Toyah Are Going on Tour – Continue…

• Consequence: Robert Fripp and Toyah Are Taking “Sunday Lunch” on the Road for a 2023 Tour: The married couple will be bringing their series of quirky cover songs to live stages next year – Continue…

• Yahoo! Entertainment: Robert Fripp and Toyah Are Taking “Sunday Lunch” on the Road for a 2023 Tour – Continue…

• Metal Injection: King Crimson’s Robert Fripp & Toyah Willcox Will Tour Together In 2023 – Continue…

• Ultimate Guitar: Robert Fripp and Toyah Willcox Announce ‘Sunday Lunch’ 2023 Tour: The couple won over the Internet with their weekly covers – Continue…

• DGM Live: Toyah & Robert, On Tour: Toyah & Robert Sunday Lunch – Live! is now in Go! mode following our Tuesday lunch-time business meeting with promoter and tour manager. We are looking at UK performances in the Autumn of 2023 – Continue…

• Toyah At Home: Anthem Announcement Special – Watch… • Toyah & Robert’s Objects Of Desire – Watch… • Toyah & Robert’s Sunday Lunch – All My Life – Watch…

Press for Toyah & Robert’s Sunday Lunch – This week covering Foo Fighters. (Image © Toyah Willcox)

• Spin: Watch Toyah And Robert Fripp Enthusiastically Cover Foo Fighters’ ‘All My Life’: All while Toyah squirts paint on her chest – Continue…

• Guitar.Com: King Crimson’s Robert Fripp and Toyah’s Sunday Lunch Cover Of Foo Fighter’s All My Life Is A Wild And Colourful Affair – Continue…

• NME: Watch Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp cover Foo Fighters’ ‘All My Life’: The Foos are gearing up to perform their first shows since the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins – Continue…

• Classic Rock/Louder: Toyah and Robert Fripp cover Foo Fighters classic aided by gold leaf and squirting paint: It’s a particularly lively Sunday Lunch in the Fripp-Willcox household – Continue…

• Brooklyn Vegan: Watch Toyah & Robert cover Foo Fighters’ “All My Life” – Continue…

• Metal Sucks: King Crimson’s Robert Fripp and Toyah Willcox Cover Foo Fighters’ “All My Life” – Continue…

• Consequence: Toyah Wears Only Gold Leaf and Paint as She and Robert Fripp Perform Foo Fighters’ “All My Life”: The couple’s latest “Sunday Lunch” performance is very colorful, to say the least – Continue…

• Yahoo! Entertainment: Toyah Wears Only Gold Leaf and Paint as She and Robert Fripp Perform Foo Fighters’ “All My Life” – Continue…

• Far Out: Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp cover Foo Fighters song ‘All My Life’ – Continue…

• DGM Live: Toyah & Robert’s Weekend – Continue…

Age won’t change Toyah Willcox: ‘We’ve never stopped being rockers, we are just rockers in a different time and place’

Toyah Willcox says she’s far more than a punk princess

Born out of a lockdown-powered creative burst, Toyah Willcox and musician husband Robert Fripp’s weekly online Sunday Lunch videos have quickly become regular news events.

Cheeky, audacious, entertaining, and even eye-watering, each episode has been attracting hundreds of thousands of views.

But if you think they’re big now, wait till you hear what’s next.

‘We are developing a stage show and a movie is in development as well,’ reveals Toyah, adding that the duo are even considering an album.

‘But once you get into a studio situation you’ve got to rethink everything, and how people will experience that in an album form.

‘It’s not a no, but it takes an awful lot of consideration.’

• Continue reading at the Metro.

• Toyah At Home: Good Morning Universe – Watch… • Toyah & Robert’s Objects Of Desire – Watch… • Toyah & Robert’s Sunday Lunch – Slave To The Rhythm – Watch…

Press for Toyah & Robert’s Sunday Lunch – This week covering Grace Jones and premiering Toyah’s upcoming new single, Slave To The Rhythm. (Image © Toyah Willcox)

• NME: Watch Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp cover Grace Jones’ ‘Slave To The Rhythm’: Are you a slave to the ‘Sunday Lunch’ rhythm? – Continue…

• Classic Rock/Louder: Toyah and Robert Fripp controversially resort to miming in this week’s video: Toyah lip-syncs her new single, a cover of Graces Jones’ classic Slave To The Rhythm, but Robert’s guitar part is classic Fripp – Continue…

• Guitar.Com: Toyah Previews Her New Single On This Week’s Sunday Lunch With Robert Fripp: Toyah’s take Slave to The Rhythm will be released as a single on 1 August – Continue…

• Far Out: Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp cover Grace Jones song ‘Slave To The Rhythm’ – Continue…

• Turn Up The Volume: Toyah and Robert are Slaves To The Rhythm – Continue…

• DGM Live: Toyah & Robert’s Weekend – Continue…

In the Spotlight: Toyah Willcox & Robert Fripp

In the Spotlight showcases a cross-section of an artist’s cover work. View past instalments, then post suggestions for future picks in the comments!

Hmmm–“In the Spotlight” could well be the giveaway, being exactly where at least half of this odd couple seems, more than anything else, to want to be. Odd couple? Well, back in the day, I daresay that the idea of Robert Fripp, the complex guitar wrangler of King Crimson fame, besuited and besitted always, having a lengthy and lasting marriage with Toyah Willcox, the punk-pop princess of Birmingham with the look-at-me dramatics, was not one of life’s great certainties.

I confess to being quite delighted by the couple’s first forays into Sunday Lunchtime COVID-19 entertainment, as much for the bizarre hoops Mrs. Fripp could put her permanently-bemused husband through, in the sake of raising the spirits of those who stumbled onto these little vignettes of, apparently, their life.

According to Willcox, the purpose of these weekly vids was primarily to lift Fripp out of the black dog that permeated him as lockdown locked down, depriving him of both an outlet for and an income for his art. So, on 5th April 2020, those idly browsing the net became party to the extraordinary image of the couple, dressed to the nines, having a bop to Bill Haley’s vintage hit, “Rock Around the Clock.” And looking to be having a whale of a time.

• Continue reading at Cover Me.