Record Collector: 33.13rd | Toyah
Toyah is interviewed in the latest issue – #579, January 2026 – of Record Collector magazine.
Toyah Ann Willcox was born in Kings Heath, Birmingham and came to prominence as an actor starring in the 1978 film Jubilee. It was while filming 1979’s Quadrophenia that she and her band Toyah auditioned for Safari Records, and after signing her on the spot, they issued their debut single, Victims Of The Riddle, that same year. She’s since put out 16 studio albums – five with Toyah including 1981’s Anthem, which yielded the Top 10 singles It’s A Mystery and I Want To Be Free, and since 1985 as a solo artist, a further 11, the most recent being 2021’s Posh Pop. She has also made records with The Humans, an experimental trio with Bill Rieflin and Chris Wong, and with her husband Robert Fripp. This September sees the issue of Chameleon: The Very Best Of.
Tell me about Chameleon. The cover of you with your shock of orange hair is very striking.
It’s a very visual piece. The double album version is on gold vinyl and is a gatefold. Of course, if you’re covering 45 years of songwriting, and it doesn’t feel like 45 years – in fact the last 25 years feel like a weekend – then you’re looking to show the progression, and you’re looking at development and a career.
You got your first real attention not as a musician but as an actor starring as ‘Mad’ in Derek Jarman’s punk film Jubilee.
I was this girl from Birmingham and here I was in a room with Little Nell from The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Jenny Runacre, the award-winning actress and filmmaker, and Jordan and Adam Ant and Jayne County, and I went straight into the A-list party, as it were. It was unbelievable.
Was punk a good time for female musicians?
I would say there were many women within the punk movement, but we were grouped together as a whole body. Now I think women are treated respectfully as individuals with their individual sound, but it wasn’t really like that back then. It was, “Why isn’t this woman like this woman?” There was always comparison. But it just made us tougher people.
• Continue reading at recordcollectormag.com. (Photo © Toyah)
