Entertainment Editor Gordon Barr chats to Toyah, who is at Legends in Newcastle on Friday

Three decades on, 80s pop princess Toyah still recalls 1983 as one of her favourite years. Little wonder then she is bringing her album release of that year back out on the road.

Love Is The Law was critically acclaimed at the time and Toyah will be performing about six tracks from it, as well as a host of her numerous other hits, when she takes to the stage of Legends in Newcastle on Friday.

“This is my favourite album, it has very happy memories for me,” she tells me. “It was released in 1983 and I made it at a time when I was also appearing as Trafford Tanzi in the West End and it had to be written and recorded at the same time.

“But it was just glorious. I don’t have one bad memory of that year at all.”

I always wanted to be a singer and an actress and I always wanted to do both separately. I never wanted to do them under the same production, under the same umbrella. I wanted to be totally free to explore both mediums. This was the most perfect year for that.

“I got Trafford Tanzi, which was just a joy from beginning to end – imagine a role where you are a woman playing a female wrestler who beats up her husband. It was just the most empoweering role and it was a massive critical success, and it kept the Mermaid theatre open another year, as it just sold out. It was a real buzz.

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