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DECEMBER | NOVEMBER | OCTOBER | SEPTEMBER | AUGUST | JULY | JUNE | MAY | APRIL | MARCH | FEBRUARY | JANUARY HELLOooooooooo!
The hardest part will be honing it all down to 12 tracks, there's a lot of choice there. We record in August/ September and I cant wait! It has been a "small world" recently. Bill and Don Gunn (our co-producer) have been running around Seattle with Simon Phillips who drummed on The Changeling and on Warrior Rock. Then when we tried to book the recording studio in Seattle for the summer, we discovered Steve Lillywhite, the producer on The Changeling, was in there mixing! I love synchronicity! In the past week I've set about learning The Changeling and "setting" it in my head. I learn by repetition in this case, running over and over the material until I can recite it backwards. Funnily enough I have a very clear memory of the lyrics from 30 years ago but I want to set it to muscle memory so nothing can distract me when I am on stage. So I can be a storyteller as much as a singer because this album is about stories. When acting in a play, you are guaranteed a silent and attentive audience, with only the odd cough to distract you but when singing anything can grab your attention from someone trying to have a full on conversation with you from the front row to a streaker suddenly being at your side (believe me this has happened…..twice! On first re-listening to The Changeling I thought "my god this is pretentious twaddle!" then I remembered the circumstance it was written in. The Falklands War had just started and there was an atmosphere of disbelief and terror. It was a profoundly disturbing time. I remember my brother Kim being warned he could be put on stand by and my whole family were terrified for him. He was a Harrier fighter pilot in the early 1970's, luckily he never saw "action" in his time but because he was highly qualified there was a chance he might be called out of retirement. Thank god it never happened. So here I am today, 2012, listening to an album I haven't listened to at all in 30 years thinking how am I going to perform this and believe in it and slowly as I repeatedly go over the tracks it dawns on me that there is a hell of a lot of really nice detail in it. The scope in the lyrics is very different to anything I'd written before and the style vocally is completely different to Anthem.
OOOOhhh I cant wait to get on the road and stuff your ears and eyes full of sound n' vision! The mundane has taken over my life in the past 6 weeks and I am starting to rebel……big time. Not wishing to sound ungrateful, or disrespectful but it has taken 3 months to clear my mothers and fathers belongings AND I mean 3 SOLID MONTHS! How any one managed to store so much STUFF into their home I have no idea! It has taken 5 auctions, 59 box's of books, 20 trips in four cars to the charity shops, crammed with so much stuff (really lovely things) but some of the charity shops actually refused to take any more. This experience has left my whole immediate family determined not to ever let anyone have to do this after we have gone…………we are all clearing out our cupboards and box rooms! PLEASE GET ME ON THE ROAD AND OUTTA HERE! Right ………..back to learning! Back to eating carrots! Yes! Carrots! It's my pre tour diet! Gotta be fit, gotta be slim………..well slim-ish…….i am trying!.........failing miserably but trying! See you out there! Oh one last cautionary request……….please no spray-string! It has an oil base residue and can cause me to slip and fall on stage. Falling can be a problem for me. I don't want to spend the whole show terrified of slipping! THANK YOU! I CANNOT WAIT! IT IS GOING TO BE A SCREAM! BE PROUD, BE LOUD, BE HEARD!
HELLO THERE!
I am getting HUGELY excited about getting out on the road again. This tour will be very different for the band because we are looking at a new set and deeper, darker more deranged songs. THE CHANGELLING is a graphically mad and moody album mirroring how bonkers I felt in 1982. I'd just won THE ROCK N' POP AWARDS BEST FEMALE SINGER category (this was the begining of the BRITS) and there was the constant stress and strains of a year of touring and writing behind us and ahead of us. We were lucky enough to have the anchor of STEVE LILLYWHITE who was the album producer and SIMON DARLOW came in on keyboards for the recording. BOY OH BOY! The memories are intense. JOEL BOGEN was into writing more expansive songs and going into darker recesses of his own psyche and I could no longer walk down the street with out being mobbed…….so one could safely say the songs from this album reflected the straight jackets of our lives at the time. The Falklands war had just started and it was deeply depressing to think of all those young men being sent out to fight in a land far away, it was also deeply depressing to think war could ever happen again AND hey! Look at today! Where isn't there a war? So I believe the album in the end drew a picture of powerlessness leading to an inner battle. For example we all live in open air, yet we are contained on one planet. We all live within the boundaries of a country we can leave, but we persist in crossing other peoples boundaries if we feel like it……….so what would happen if we could leave the planet? We all dislike suffering yet it still happens and even if we stop one bout of suffering someone else, somewhere else, starts it off again. So where do you turn? Like animals in a zoo we internalise to rationalise the cage. We can't get in a space ship and leave so we battle in our own heads, thoughts contained by inner rage and outer silence, rattling away in the confines of our skulls…………THIS IS THE CHANGELING! THE PACKT hasn't been performed for about 30 years yet I think it has never been more relevant. CREEPY ROOM can now be associated to the growing number who surge towards the ugly world of celebrity and fame like refugees from banality being misled into another banality. CASTAWAYS looks like utopia for the battle weary!
God I can't wait. This tour is going to be electric! BILL RIEFLIN flies in on the 13th March. We start writing and recording HUMANS 3. Both Bill and I have been discussing the sound approach and it will be a natural progression form SUGAR RUSH. Metal meets vocal harmony. God I can't wait for that either! I've had a lot people ask me in the last month if my shiny new hip is metal on metal!!!!!!???????? No I am ceramic. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I heard I wasn't metal on metal. But still with ceramic you need to be cautious in case you shatter it with an unwise move! Over winter I was dealing with PIRIFORMIS SYNDROME (a right pain in the arse) so I worked on one crutch during panto whilst I was undergoing physio to retrain my walk. I came off the crutch a month ago and am able to control the symptoms now, but it has taken three months to get back to normal! Spring is so welcome. I need more hours in the day and spring supplies more daylight to work in! I am working on my first script, thanks to encouragement from my agent. A Horror Sci-fi. The writing process is really good for me and is instantly and positively influencing my songwriting.
I want to see you all in April. It is really going to rock! There's a great new t-shirt going to be available too! Tickets are selling well. :) You can buy tickets by clicking on the links on the GIGS page. We've been delving into the live archives and will be steaming some recent live recordings….. one exclusive song a month starting this month. These will be up for ONE month only on the gigs page so take a listen. Right! Back to writing! See you at the CHANGELING RESURRECTION! BE PROUD, BE LOUD, BE HEARD!
HELLO THERE! Oh Boy! I've had a fantastic start to 2012. Not only have I had my first proper holiday since 2001! It was also my second honeymoon! Sweetpea……….AKA Robert Fripp………AKA Mr. Willcox took me on honeymoon. In 1986 I took him on honeymoon, well it was 5 days dodging journalists and photographers in high speed car chases around the country lanes of Dorset and Cornwall. Our second honeymoon was a lot more joyous and exciting.
I'm telling you there are three people in this marriage. Sweetpea, Bill and ME! No actually there are four…….Sweetpea, Bill, Me AND BUNNY. But bunny couldn't come too. Before tongues wag Bill and Robert are inseparable…I tag along like the "just tolerated and besotted little sister, irritating the sh*t out of one and all". We had four days playing with Bill before he had to leave for Mexico to work with Peter Buck and Robyn Hitchcock. I am not a drinker but we ended up in a fabulous Japanese restaurant, which had a " Happy Hour" that started at 10 am and finished at 7pm. We were the only ones in there. This is where I discovered pear Vodka. Bill hates me having a drink! Robert loathes me having a drink! Because I become morbidly HAPPY! Bill still curses me for having a margarita after the New York HUMANS show in September, when I followed him around the venue laughing and being quite generally obscene. "GOD YOU'RE A F------ AWFUL DRUNK! YOU IDIOT." Quote. This is because when he stopped listening to me I started to speed dial him on his mobile all through the night laughing! Bill was not amused but at the time Wongy was hugely amused. Robert hates me drinking because he can no longer control me. SOOOOOOOOOOOO………….. I discovered Pear Vodka in a Japanese restaurant in Seattle with the two men I'd happily die for. I hasten to add I sat on my hands so I couldn't annoy them as much as I would have if my hands where free to wander and I buttoned my lip so as not to lose my two best friends and I sat in the corner laughing at everything they said blissfully unaware if either had actually said anything funny. We had four joyous days together. Robert and I stayed on a further two days and we walked Seattle from top to bottom. I did some great writing there and geared up to start writing HUMANS 3. Bill comes into the UK on the 14th March when we have our focused writing session before recording. After Seattle we flew to Las Vegas. I have never been to LV and have always wanted to go. Envying Robert every time he flew off there. Robert warned me you only need three days there, I couldn't comprehend why……..until……………. we got there…………………. THE NOISE, THE SMOKE, THE DULL ELECTRIC LIGHT, THE TINTED WINDOWS, THE AIR CONDITIONING, THE IQs, CYNICISM MASQUAERADING AS HAPPINESS, THE PORTION SIZES, THE MOUSTURELESS AIR………………shall I go on? We had six days there! We were prisoners of our own dreams and we had to make the most of it! The highlights were the shows. KA……..utterly mind blowing. From the purpose built theatre to the magnificent performers…astounding!
We were very lucky to get tickets to see Celine Dion. Robert's sister Patricia, lives in Las Vegas and she treated us to both "O" and Celine. Again Celine's show was staggering, beyond the "world class" we all expect from an arena show. Las Vegas venues are around 2000 to 4000 capacity so intimacy is still possible and Celine was magnificent. How anyone can sing in the air one gets in LV is a miracle, but she was singing for real and it was awesome! Patricia took us out on the Sunday to the mountains near her home and this was one of the best days we had. The magnificent scale and the colour of the rock, we walked with joy in our hearts to be out of maze of Vegas. I've had two offers to work in Vegas this year. I imagine to work there is very exciting and I certainly wont say "no"……..but I will go in for three days and out again! The main reason to protect my voice from the dry air. Dear Dave Lee passed away whilst we were away. I have done 3 pantomimes with Dave in Canterbury and numerous fund raisings for his Happy Holidays Charity. Dave, a very deserving MBE holder, had the most moving send off in Canterbury Cathedral. There were thousands there. The readings were inspirational and totally indifferent to the surroundings. Richard Digance started off with " What I love about the day Dave passed away is 49 Little Chefs closed down!" Dave was a larger than life man. Bobby Davro finished with……." Dave and I have worked together many times, I remember when he was sweating like a glass blowers anus……………' The cathedral roared with laughter and applause all the way through but the real tear jerker happened when the Dean carried Dave's Ghostbuster bench into the aisle and the choristers sang GhostBusters…………a Dave Lee panto staple! Dave raised thousands of pounds for under privileged children to have holidays with their families " Dave Lee's Happy Holidays". I am truly humbled by all he achieved. What a great man. Work wise there is so much happening. We are already gearing up for the tour in April. The songs are chosen, the set list discussed, the learning process started and the costume design in motion. But also I've had some really interesting offers. One is to participate in an animation series of Sonia Copland Blooms children's books which are topping the best seller list at the National History Museum. (Sonia is Orlando Bloom's mum.) I've walked myself happily into a corner by mentioning a short story I was writing to my acting agent who now wants it as a script by May……..heaven help us both……..deadlines are not my forte. AND a documentary is going to be made this year by Ali Carron one of the original ANGEL AND DEMONS, about 1983 and the "Angels and demons" who congregated outside the Mermaid theatre when I was appearing in Trafford Tanzi. So we will be posting an appeal soon for anyone there that year to get in touch with Ali if they are willing to be in the documentary. I already know where I will be for Christmas and the autumn is looking fully booked too…………ALREADY! Have a great month. Keep warm and………………….. BE PROUD, BE LOUD, BE HEARD! LOVE TOYAH XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL! I wasn’t expecting December to be fun but it has been one hell of a fun month! Accidentally, (really!), I bought a cast member a fart machine (Bob Golding) thinking he’d take it home to his children to play with and he then wreaked havoc with it……..on stage! I had to threaten to kill him (not really) before it was removed from behind the scenery of the dwarfs’ diamond mine where it had been used every time a dwarf moved!!
The panto has been close to sublime. I adore working with Paul Hendy’s scripts and his production company Evolution, run by Paul’s wife Emily Wood who I’ve known since she was about 8 and once when I was filming Songs Of Praise in Paris she came along as our interpreter. The cast have been great. A highlight has been working with a ten year old dwarf called Paddy, seeing the world through his eyes, his struggles with the tall world and his total inner confidence has been a spiritual experience!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BELIEVE ME! Paddy is a beautiful little soul, with so much natural talent, intelligence and a brilliant sense of comic timing. He stole all our hearts but above all he taught me so much about the bodies we live in and the way we choose to perceive ourselves. Here you have a boy, a small boy, living in a world made for giants and here you have me, a woman, who constantly worries about weight, size, work, my husband, my friends, paper work, lack of sleep and if I am liked ………….Paddy has none of these concerns, he is simply who and what he is………lesson learnt! Over the past year I have had an growing intolerance of carrying other people’s opinions and perceptions of me. Sometimes this has been very uncomfortable as I’ve become the most obstinate person I know but I now realise I’ve been shedding my wonderful mothers intense disapproval of my wayward and insular nature. On top of this clearly the decade of being in your 50s is about claiming yourself and shedding all guilt. I sensed something very strong on Christmas Day. And ever since I have felt totally transformed. My heart was warm with the presence of my mother, there was no sense of lose but an overwhelming sense of approval, this is something I could never have felt from her in the flesh, she was far too critical! Yet on Christmas day I felt her presence and I felt overwhelming approval from her. It was a totally rewarding and freeing experience. I am transformed. On Boxing Day morning I was able to place my fathers cravats, jumpers, hat and mums notes, cards and shopping lists that had all been on my office shelf, close to me eye line for two years, into a memory box lovingly placed at the entrance to my office, (a room I spend more time in than any other room in our house). Time is short, there is a lot to do even in the 80 odd years we are all entitled to live and I feel I have a heck of a lot to get on with. January is very special for me and I will let you know why in February! I’d like to thank everyone who has offered support to my friend Owen Reynolds and because of the interest taken in his story on Facebook a funding specialist has been in touch with him and is trying to have his medical funding reviewed so there is a glimmer of hope he will get the medicine that will improve his life quality.………..if this doesn’t work out I will let you know via twitter how we can help. I saw him on Christmas day and even though he isn’t at all well he is an incredible fighter and he thanked everyone personally for the support they have shown. THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN. Now I’m off to study THE CHANGELING……………never thought I’d be saying that! The thought of playing THE PACKT live again is both exhilarating and terrifying! More dates are to be announced along with autumn dates. The only thing holding the announcement back is everyone disappeared for Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR AND MAY 2012 BE WONDERFUL FOR US ALL.
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On the 4th jan we flew into Chicago, missed out connection and had a really fabulous night in the airport Hilton watching a soccer game with the locals sipping the most expensive margarita in the world…………30$!!!!!!! Robert can be very pessimistic if out of his comfort zone but even he had a smile on face after the margarita hit. 7am the next day we hitched a flight to Portland then got a boneshaker to Seattle where ……………..WE SAW BILL RIEFLIN! 
LA REVE….THE DREAM…….i never knew a theatre show could be done in a massive pool of water. The guts of the performers as they dropped from what must have been about 60 feet into a 30 foot width of water……WOW! And "O', again simply breath taking and truly worth being in Vegas for. One performer actually dived from about 90ft into a pool. I screamed out loud! I have always loved physical theatre and only in my fantasies have I envisaged life-defying performances and here in Vegas they are actually doing this twice a day. 
