Hospital Radio takes a trip down Toyah lane

I’m planning ahead and with that in mind I am off to see An Evening with Toyah: Songs and Stories at the Palace Avenue Theatre on March 27.

Obviously, you have to be of a certain age to remember the High Priestess of Punk who burst onto the scene in 1976 both as a musician and actress. 

It has been a successful career for her in the 50 years that have followed, she’s been a singer and actor, a TV host and author, a BRIT Award winner and a film star. I am thinking her stories will be interesting and I understand she still has the voice that was so distinctive.

Where to start that’s the dilemma and how do I fit it all in, well as they say, I’ll start at the beginning. Her break came when she got a part in   Glitter (1976), a play on the BBC that featured  Noel Edmonds and Phil Daniels. 

She had been recommended to the director because of her distinctive appearance and oddball character. 

Inspired by her role as a musician in Glitter, she fronted a new wave band called Toyah between 1977 and 1983. As the band got going, and 1979 came around she got a part in the movie Quadrophenia, based on the rock opera made famous by The Who. It is a cult film now and Wilcox played the part of Monkey, and is seen throughout the film  as one of the lively, rebellious Mods.

Her role in Quadrophenia made her a household name and soon after her songs were all over the charts.

Songs like It’s A Mystery, I Want To Be Free, and Thunder In The Mountains, saw her win a BRIT Award Best Female as well as a BRIT Nomination for British Breakthrough Act. 

Wilcox broke the band up in 1983, but soon signed a solo record deal. And in 1986 she married Robert Fripp, one of the founding members of prog rockers King Crimson. All this whilst still acting, she even starred opposite Sir Laurence Olivier and The Who’s Roger Daltrey in the 1984 Granada Television drama The Ebony Tower.

 What makes her special and worth taking note of? Well she has amassed 13 top 40 singles, recorded 25 albums, written two books, appeared in over 40 stage plays and acted in over 20 feature films along with presenting hundreds of television programmes. Surely that is reason enough.

For those who missed her meteoric rise in the 80’s, in 2016 saw her first musical as co-composer with the rock musical production of Dostoyevsky’s Crime & Punishment. In  2018 Paul McCartney awarded Toyah a LIPA Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts Companionship for Outstanding Achievement in music, drama, performance and media. And most recently, she was a contestant on the 2024 season of Strictly Come Dancing, partnered with professional dancer Neil Jones.

This 49 date tour with a book to follow, promises to be full of stories of her acting, presenting, and performing. She is quite unique and just reflecting on her  23 studio albums might be enough for some artists but she’ll be singing some of the favourites as well, so it’s a bit of everything. 

When I last looked there were a few seats still available, so why not pop along.

These types of events are becoming increasingly popular and they do give an insight into the lives of the artists we all love. They also give some of the stories we have heard some context and hearing it from the horse’s mouth is a little bit different. They are particularly popular with stars of the 80’s, so watch out for Midge Ure, Howard Jones, T’Pau’s Carol Decker or Nick Heyward as they may be playing near you soon.

In the meantime, I am off to check the Hospital Radio library to see which Toyah tracks I can give a spin on my next show.