Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

The ‘Financial Times’ have reviewed Wednesday’s gig at The Scala;

The Humans, Scala, London
By Ludovic Hunter-Tilney

The Humans are an art-rock band featuring two bassists – one, confusingly, is REM’s drummer Bill Rieflin – and Fripp on guitar. Willcox, in a black PVC top, a memento of her 1970s punk roots, led the line with expressive vocals, twirling dances and stylised stage movements: Stevie Nicks meets Brechtian cabaret.

The twin bass players, occasionally complemented by programmed beats, played sinewy, rumbling rhythms, a kind of twisted funk, with Fripp contributing a range of guitar effects, from gnarly riffs and a pounding cover of Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” to delightfully subtle chimes.

On this basis the work of Mrs Robert Fripp and Mr Toyah Willcox, as Willcox introduced herself and her husband, deserves a far wider audience.

Read the full review at ‘FT.com/Arts’ here.

‘SwimathonPete’s Blog’ offers an interesting perspective of the Bishops Cleeve warm-up show in his Toyah Toyah Toyah post. Read that here. (Thanks to Paul Lomas)

‘The-Rocker/Zeitgeist’, “an idiosyncratic collection of music news and reviews”, recently gave the thumbs-up to both ‘We Are The Humans’ and ‘In The Court Of The Crimson Queen’;

The Humans – We Are The Humans
The Humans are an odd little cove. A project that was first put together to perform new songs at a series of concerts in Estonia, they comprise Chris Wong, Bill Rieflin and one Toyah Willcox.

After the shows were completed, they went into the studio to record the material, before heading back to Estonia to perform them again. Which is a curious, yet perversely intriguing way of doing things.

Most of the music comprises dense, electronic landscapes, with the clipped, robotic voice of Toyah acting as an additional instrument. It’s certainly interesting, and bears more than a passing resemblance to solo David Sylvain. Which is a good thing. ‘Twisted Soul’ is probably the closest thing to anything conventional, and acts as a good entry point. Me? I liked it.

Toyah – In The Court Of The Crimson Queen
Listening to The Humans album reminded me that I had quite forgotten how good the last Toyah album was, the wittily titled “In The Court Of The Crimson Queen”.

Toyah is one of those people who only really became interesting to me after the hits dried up, and this album is a bit of a secret joy. There’s half a dozen songs here that deserved to be huge with the likes of ‘Sensational’, the bluesy (!) ‘Latex Messiah’ and ‘Legacy’, utter delights. However, it would be a brave man who listened to ‘Come’ and ‘Bad Man’ more than once.

You really ought to buy this, just so Toyah doesn’t have to slum it on the Vampires Rock tour again.

There’s now a good online selection of reviews, fan opinions and comments on, and about, the mini-tour by The Humans. Go here for interesting overviews and reviews of Bishops Cleeve, and here for a great review by Merx of Wyre Piddle. ‘DGM Live’ visitor Colin Coates reviews the Cambridge concert here, and for numerous fan opinions on each of the gigs visit Toyah’s Official Facebook here.

There are further fan opinions at The Official Toyah MySpace and The Humans MySpace, and, as previously mentioned, The Assembly website, here, has a great selection of photos from the Leamington Spa gig.

Yet another glowing review for ‘We Are The Humans’. This one from ‘Tasty Fanzine’;

The Humans – ‘We Are The Humans’
If anyone ever asks me what my favourite King Crimson album is, I can answer without blinking that 1971’s ‘Islands’ is probably the group at the actual peak of their abilities. Robert Fripp is involved in ‘We Are The Humans’ at varying points. Toyah, for those of you born in the 80s, was a bit of a star around the beginning of that decade. If anyone asks me what my favourite Toyah song is, I might scratch and frown while comparing ‘I Want To Be Free’ and ‘Ieya’. ‘We Are The Humans’ is very much Toyah’s own album, and Bill Reeflin from REM plays bass and all sorts of other things. Toyah and Robert Fripp are married, and The Humans are inexplicably big in Estonia, where they can include the Estonian President and Justice Minister (these aren’t the same person) as committed fans (says the press blurb). Getting all of this?

Toyah, I am pleased to inform the Tasty readership has, after 25 years, still got it. In buckets. ‘We Are The Humans’ could’ve been released in 1983 to acclaim from her then legions of adoring fans, although it certainly sounds an altogether harder edged proposition than the girly synth punk Toyah was then known for. The combination of vocal aptitude and tunes that had me imagining a bluesier Scritti Politti make for an as ever challenging performance from the original diminutive ginger topped pop pixie, and I only want to ask, do the Humans perform ‘Good Morning Universe’ as an encore? I’m sure they could. [Review by JG]

• DSD, who reviewed ‘We Are The Humans’ at the end of last year, have also given a grudgingly positive-ish review to ‘These Boots Are Made For Walkin’. Read the review here.

The Humans; Warm-up gig, Bishops Cleeve, somewhere in the deep dark depths of Gloucestershire

Having been introduced to Toyah in 1980/81 by fashion designer Richard Sorger (www.richardsorger.com), who at the time I was at school with, I jumped at the chance to see her play live. I had owned vinyl copies of Anthem and The Changeling…. I still have a cassette tape of Warrior Rock in my attic.

Robert Fripp on the other hand, was a name that I had heard but I have to admit, his music, I had not. I own many CDs by Brian Eno, Harold Budd, Michael Brook etc but for some reason he had missed my radar. But not any longer! He has a new fan today.

The church at Bishop’s Cleeve was full. I believe there were about 300 seats.
Robert Fripp started proceedings with The Humans (Chris Wong, Bill Rieflin & Toyah Willcox) joining him after the opening track.

Ms Willcox started off unnecessarily nervous, or at least came across that way, but that seemed to lessen further in to the show. The audience was very receptive and appreciative.

The Humans are a three piece, four when Robert Fripp joins them as a special guest. The band has two bass players and no drummer.

The Humans played all of the tracks from their “we are the humans” along with a reprise of “We are the humans” at the end. This was followed by an encore comprising of excellent versions of “These Boots Were Made For Walking” and “Purple Haze”.

Chris Wong’s bass playing on “Is It Wrong” stood out for me. You can hear this track on Toyah’s MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/toyahofficial). It reminded me of Mick Karn (Japan / Dali’s Car / Rain Tree Crow) although Chris may not appreciate me saying that!

I personally liked it so much that I am hoping to be able to make it to the Cambridge gig on Tuesday.

Review by Symon Payne