and chased them off the high-security site. Still, the record is a good ‘un - with two of the original EP cuts, ‘Danced’ and Neon Womb’, destined to be live favourites throughout Toyah’s 30-plus years in the business - and in the year following its German issue, it became a full-length, 11-track studio album-proper, her first of 15 released between 1980 and 2008. 2. Acting Toyah’s singing career might have attracted more publicity in time, but it would not have got off the ground at all without her early success in musicalcrossover acting roles - notably, as the murderous ‘Mad’ in punk flick ‘Jubilee’, and as mod party-girl ‘Monkey’ in ‘Quadrophenia’ - that boosted her confidence sufficiently to try her luck more seriously with an eponymous band she had put together in 1977, on the back of her screen debut as a singer in BBC play ‘Glitter’. Her serious acting and music performances were to go hand in hand - with 40 stage shows and 10 films to feature the former student from Birmingham’s Old Rep Drama School. The aristocracy of the theatre world - notably, Katharine Hepburn and Laurence Olivier - adored her, too. 3. Singing After releasing her second LP of 1980, ‘The Blue Meaning’, Toyah severed musical ties with the punk/indie aesthetic - albeit without ditching the colourful… erm, ‘barnets’, which continued to alternate between electric blue, shocking pink and other bright hues - and moved from cult popularity to mainstream chart success. The following year was her ‘annus mirabilis’, with two EPs and two more singles all hitting the Top 20, the ‘Anthem’
And so to the present - and the ‘Toyah and Robert’s Sunday Lunch’ at-home videos, which, during Covid, have racked up millions of views
album going platinum, and a live collection - ‘Toyah! Toyah! Toyah!’ - generating yet more interest, both nationally and internationally, in a vocalist who ended 1981 cleaning up at a good few of the annual music awards ceremonies. A quarter of a century later, she was still performing sell-out concerts - including ‘80s tours - where, to her astonishment, the majority of the audience was under the age of 20. 4. Doing other stuff Toyah earned herself a shout-out in pub quizzes up and down the country by simultaneously presenting series - on BBC and ITV, respectively - of ‘Songs of Praise’ and ‘The Good Sex Guide Late’ in 1996. Either side of that year, she became every child’s favourite TV auntie by narrating ‘Brum’ and speaking as a Voice Trumpet on ‘Teletubbies’. A far cry from her earlier persona that crossed Helen of Troy with Vivienne Westwood for the 1980s kids, but their next-decade successors loved her just the same. 5. Entertaining in lockdown And so to the present - and the ‘Toyah and Robert’s Sunday Lunch’ at-home videos, which, during Covid, have racked up millions of views as our heroine and husband, King Crimson founder and guitarist Robert Fripp, have entertained the nation on a weekly basis. Whether they are performing Swan Lake, tap dancing in the kitchen (ahem… no jokes about falling in the sink!), or covering songs by Bowie, Britney, Guns N’ Roses, The Kinks, Metallica, Nirvana and The Sex Pistols, we, dear readers, are lucky to have them. Rebellious Jukebox Rating:… ‘Four from Toyah’ - and then ‘Four More…’! 19