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Toyah Willcox

Would one of you Brits please explain her to me? I only knew of her from my cousins who lived in the UK at the time. I watched some of her early videos today and she kind of makes me cringe.

She wasn't punk, really. She was kind of New Wave, I guess. But she wasn't cool and seemed to lack street credibility. She seemed kind of dorky, but in a purposefully arty kind of way. She had a unique look, and her music was different. But it sort of defied labels.

I hate to call her a fake. But I don't think she was real rock and roll either.

by Anonymousreply 58July 23, 2020 6:12 PM

You're right. She has absolutely no credibility and is considered a joke as a punk. Good as a pop star for the time, but one of those naff things you look back on and laugh. Hasn't stood the test of time.

She's basically this posh stage school girl/actress who fell into it. She was in Jarman's Jubilee, though, I believe with a luscious Adam Ant. She moved into TV presenting from the 90s.

by Anonymousreply 1April 17, 2013 8:30 PM

Married to Robert Fripp too, apparently, which is weird. He has nothing but credibility.

Thanks, R1. I tried to like Toyah but it always seemed like she was playing at being a pop artist rather than actually being one. As if the character was created for a TV movie by middle-aged writers who thought they knew what an edgy rock singer was like.

by Anonymousreply 2April 17, 2013 8:43 PM

Lol, I did think it was Hazel O'Connor that the OP was talking about. Now, she was a right poseur.

by Anonymousreply 3April 17, 2013 8:49 PM

I was a megastar in Hungary!!

by Anonymousreply 4April 17, 2013 8:51 PM

Oh I forgot she was married to Robert Fripp. Definitely the coolest thing about her.

She was in Quadrophenia as well, that's what links Hazel O'Connor and her - Phil Daniels is in Quadrophenia and Breaking Glass.

I would definitely recommend Hazel btw. Breaking Glass and its rather excellent soundtrack is classic camp/kitsch as opposed to Toyah who just fails!

Wtf

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by Anonymousreply 5April 17, 2013 10:40 PM

She did the voiceover in the Teletubbies as well with her inimitable LISP.

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by Anonymousreply 6April 17, 2013 10:42 PM

She was a replacement Sally Bowles in the first London revival of CABARET.

by Anonymousreply 7April 17, 2013 10:45 PM

Oh dear

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by Anonymousreply 8April 17, 2013 10:46 PM

This is strange.Here you are all bithching about somebody who was popular 30 years ago. It`s not like she`s Lady Gaga or somebody like that.

by Anonymousreply 9April 17, 2013 10:51 PM

Is this datalounge.uk ?

by Anonymousreply 10April 17, 2013 10:54 PM

Thanks to this thread I've been watching Hazel O'Connor on YouTube as well. She's not bad. Better and less annoying than Toyah. There's more THERE there, if you know what I mean.

I like Hazel's "Decadent Days" but the TV performances of that song are annoying. All that jumping around.

It's almost as if Toyah, and to some extent Hazel were trying to be Kate Bush, Nina Hagen, Siouxsie Sioux, and Lene Lovich all rolled into one. Kate, Nina, Siouxsie, and Lene were each bizarre in their own way but they were authentic and real and made it work.

Or maybe they were trying to be female Bowies

Anyway, I guess Toyah was an omen of things to come. No one will be original in the future. Pop stars will be corporate-created, over-produced imitations of artists that came before them.

My English cousins were fans of Toyah and I understand why. But they never mention her now or even listen to her music as far as I know. If they listen to old music from those days it's Blondie, Clash, Bowie, etc. The stuff that stands up.

I'm thinking about Toyah Willcox WAY too much.

by Anonymousreply 11April 18, 2013 1:40 PM

Her "Minx" album from 1986 is good and has a lot of good pop songs. She was sexy in her rubber dress in the video for "Don't Fall in Love".

by Anonymousreply 12April 19, 2013 4:40 AM

It's a mythtery, OP.

by Anonymousreply 13April 21, 2013 6:58 AM

I kept me hair short when I was a kid because it stood on end when it grew out and I looked like her.

by Anonymousreply 14April 21, 2013 7:05 AM

Well this is just terribly sweet

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by Anonymousreply 15January 15, 2014 6:50 PM

Not a bad performer at all. Not that eclectic though. I listened to some of her stuff, she is not a bad singer-songwriter, however, she doesn't come close to some favorites like Lisa Dalbello and Kate Bush, speaking of creativity and control over the music itself. Her 1991 album "Ophelia's Shadow" is her best, I really like the direction change to a more progressive pop/rock atmosphere with some very good whispering vocals. As a person she seems a confident, happy-married woman, however, she is not one of those creative introvert female singer-songwriters I most adore.

by Anonymousreply 16July 7, 2014 5:50 PM

Toyah at a gay bar in 2011!!!!!

My FAVOURITE Toyah song!!!!!!!!!

"Yes, I know the window's dirty

And I've noticed that all the plants are dead

WHY don't you ever hear a single word I've said?

I've been TRYING to tell you: SHE'S ON HER WAY!!!!!"

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by Anonymousreply 17March 3, 2018 9:47 PM

"I'll forget you

I'll move on!!!!!!!!"

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by Anonymousreply 18March 3, 2018 9:50 PM

Tpyah's cover of "Echo Beach" should have been released in the USA in 1987 and given her a well-deserved hit!

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by Anonymousreply 19March 3, 2018 9:57 PM

Fucking awesome from 2011!!!!!!

"I must confess

I couldn't care less..."

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by Anonymousreply 20March 3, 2018 10:01 PM

I did not know she sang! I only knew her as an actress in those Derek Jarman films.

by Anonymousreply 21March 3, 2018 10:21 PM

I'm the Paradise Child!!!!!!!!!!!!

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by Anonymousreply 22March 3, 2018 10:22 PM

Toyah's trippiest, most insane song ever: NEON WOMB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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by Anonymousreply 23March 3, 2018 10:24 PM

IEYA!!!! I am SOLAR!!!!!!

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by Anonymousreply 24March 3, 2018 10:25 PM

1982 song about ACID:

Everything seems so very pointless....

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by Anonymousreply 25March 3, 2018 10:28 PM

SO ACID!!!!!!!!!!

"Someone must've designed this!

I feel as though it's all preplanned!"

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by Anonymousreply 26November 17, 2018 12:06 AM

"I knock the phone from the table

And the room starts PURRING!"

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by Anonymousreply 27November 17, 2018 12:09 AM

She was definitely talented but not quite at the level of some of the A listers who are still around 30+ years later, like Tracey Thorn, Alison Moyet and the like.

by Anonymousreply 28November 17, 2018 1:24 AM

Is that you Alison Moyet R28? You were never an A lister dear.

by Anonymousreply 29November 17, 2018 1:34 AM

R19 I don't want to piss on your fantasy, but that cover was absolute shit. Toyah's record producers saved her a hell of a lot of embarrassment by not releasing that in the US. The singing is stilted and almost spoken in parts, the cover is insanely derivative and what was up with trying to sex Toyah up. Just no. Was she having an identity crisis, wearing an old lady's bikini and jumping up and down so you can see her floppy tits awkwardly bounce then sag.

by Anonymousreply 30November 17, 2018 1:43 AM

R29 Oh, honey, she most certainly WAS.

by Anonymousreply 31November 17, 2018 1:49 AM

R30, Toyah sings more of the lyrics to "Echo Beach" than originator Martha Johnson, who mono-spoke the entire song.

I'm guessing you piss on just about everything.

I love "World In Action" from 1985's MINX!

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by Anonymousreply 32November 17, 2018 1:57 PM

"NEON WOMB!!!!!!!!!!"

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by Anonymousreply 33November 23, 2018 9:10 PM

"It's A Mystery" from 1981!

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by Anonymousreply 34June 9, 2019 1:46 PM

She sucks.

by Anonymousreply 35June 9, 2019 2:26 PM

"Soul Passing Through Soul" from 1985's MINX!

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by Anonymousreply 36June 9, 2019 2:34 PM

"Don't Fall In Love (I Said)" is also from 1985's MINX!

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by Anonymousreply 37June 9, 2019 2:38 PM

From 1982 "Be Loud Be Proud (Be Heard)"

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by Anonymousreply 38June 9, 2019 2:39 PM

"Can you hear it breaking through?!!!"

From 1981 "Thunder In The Mountains"!

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by Anonymousreply 39June 9, 2019 2:40 PM

I loved Toyah's post-Apocalyptic landscapes in her songs.

Or off on foreign planets or other dimensions.

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by Anonymousreply 40June 9, 2019 2:42 PM

"Like everyone

They said there'd be

So much more to 1984!"

"Rebel Run" from 1983

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by Anonymousreply 41June 9, 2019 2:46 PM

Derek Jarman must have seen something in her to cast her as Miranda in his version of THE TEMPEST. But she's godawful.

by Anonymousreply 42June 9, 2019 2:54 PM

On Toyah's recent tours, it looks like it's just gay men in the audiences.

Is this true, UK DataLoungers? Is Toyah a gay icon there?

The only people I know who have heard of her here in the USA are gay men.

"Liquid confusion

Hits

The

Deck."

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by Anonymousreply 43June 9, 2019 11:30 PM

From 32 years ago in the Summer of 1987, the Extended Surf Mix of Toyah's excellent cover of "Echo Beach"!

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by Anonymousreply 44June 9, 2019 11:36 PM

From 1981, Toyah's biggest UK hit, "I Want To Be Free"!

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by Anonymousreply 45June 10, 2019 6:36 PM

"The Vow" from 1983.

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by Anonymousreply 46June 10, 2019 10:36 PM

BRAVE NEW WORLD Bump for DL Fave, Toyah Willcox!

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by Anonymousreply 47July 23, 2020 5:08 PM

Oh no not the Toyah troll again!

by Anonymousreply 48July 23, 2020 5:10 PM

....

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by Anonymousreply 49July 23, 2020 5:14 PM

Toyah and her husband Robert Fripp with their fabulous 2009 cover of "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'"!

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by Anonymousreply 50July 23, 2020 5:15 PM

She's also responsible for Richard Madden.

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by Anonymousreply 51July 23, 2020 5:15 PM

That Tracey Ullman parody is spot-on and hilarious!!!

Here's Toyah herself on the same show in 1982.

R51, that fattie is Richard Madden???????

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by Anonymousreply 52July 23, 2020 5:17 PM

FANCIABLE

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by Anonymousreply 53July 23, 2020 5:24 PM

Her music was for drama club kids at school. You know those kids "practicing" their skill on the school lawn for everyone to watch during lunch? Attention seekers basically.

by Anonymousreply 54July 23, 2020 5:28 PM

She's still talent free.

And her PR must have paid a pretty penny to put her on the fanciable list.

Sorry, Toyah Troll. It ain't happening, then, now or ever.

by Anonymousreply 55July 23, 2020 5:34 PM

From Top Of The Pops 1981 - Good Morning, Universe!

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by Anonymousreply 56July 23, 2020 5:45 PM

Toyah in Y2K's 'Complicity' with future closeted heartthrob Richard Madden.

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by Anonymousreply 57July 23, 2020 5:57 PM

Richard has always said that Toyah was very encouraging, but unfortunately it was usually at the buffet table.

by Anonymousreply 58July 23, 2020 6:12 PM
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