The Star: She’s No Mystery…
Toyah Willcox is arguably the busiest she has ever been.
These days split very much between acting and singing, the ’80s legend who set the template for many modern musical maidens returns to Sheffield and Corporation on Saturday in a very different guise to her last visit – playing The Wicked Queen in panto at the Lyceum.
“Actress/singer,” she says when asked what goes on her passport these days. “Because you want to get into different countries you’re not going to put controversial person, troublemaker.”
She’s got a point. In her post-punk heyday Toyah was something of a mould-breaker. With costumes as outrageous as she was outspoken, pop hadn’t really come across someone like her before.
“I was being very successful at a time when it was a novelty for a woman to be successful. When you look at the 1980s the glass ceiling was being raised daily and I came into the music business as a strong woman who knew what I wanted with a strong identity. That sense of novelty continued for quite a while.
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