Dreamscape – Toyah Willcox Fansite

Toyah talked, her unique and experimental album, Prostitute, while guesting on Bob Fischer’s BBC Radio Tees show recently.

“I always have to walk away from the job I’ve just done. That’s creatively, idea wise. I just have to walk away. I feel trapped. Which is why my career is so varied. And I think “Prostitute” came after doing “Minx” and “Minx” was a signing to Portrait CBS where I was being told to be everyone but me. I was being told to be like Pat Benatar…

I’ve got nothing against that but I am me – I’m not trying to be another person. I’m not an imitator. So I remember I just got married and the only question I was being asked was when was I going to start a family? Which was never the reason I got married and certainly never the reason I’m here on this planet.

So it was an album that really came out of anger. And it’s a very expressive piece – it’s the most critically acclaimed album I’ve ever done. Billboard gave it five stars and then claimed it was an antidote to Madonna…”

• Read the full transcript at The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive.

The first “Album Of The Month” and it has to be ‘Prostitute’. Not only for being a great album but also for including the song that this new Toyah Newsletter takes its name from.

Released in 1988, I think this album shocked every Toyah fan at the time. It was the successor to ‘Desire’ and couldn’t have been more different but also that title. Tame by today’s standards maybe, but in 1988 it was still a word that Toyah couldn’t even say when she guested on TVAM.

‘Prostitute’ is definitely Toyah’s most experimental album to date, and her least commercial. Using all manner of samples and noises to create a weird, yet addictively interesting, soundscape. It’s minimalist and raw and has Toyah sounding quite like Kate Bush in parts, Laurie Anderson in others. There’s an abundance of spoken and whispered vocals and Toyah’s unmistakable laugh and in comparison to its two predecessors; ‘Desire’ and ‘Minx’ is almost a return to the brashness of Toyah’s early Safari albums. Go on, give ‘Prostitute’ another listen… View more here.