Interview With A Vampire – Toyah Willcox
Nige Burton meets up with the legendary Toyah just before she bares her fangs for Vampires Rock
As I drove the short coastal journey from Brighton to Worthing, I contemplated with some relish the prospect of my mission; I was to interview Toyah Willcox prior to her evening performance in Steve Steinman’s cult show, Vampires Rock. I have the extra-ordinary privilege of chatting to many people in showbiz during the course of my work, but every now and then I get to meet someone whose career has made a genuine impact on me. We all have a soundtrack to our lives – those iconic tunes which take us immediately back to a time or a place, drowning us in a tidal wave of nostalgia – and this lady’s music represented just that to me, providing seminal moments in the ‘score’ of my teenage years in the eighties.
As I hurriedly abandoned my car alongside Steinman’s tour truck at the front of the theatre, I was met and ushered in by Dean Stockings, Toyah’s official photographer. Ms Willcox herself was waiting just inside, chatting through the night’s logistics with a couple of the stage crew. “I’m sorry,” I blurted as I dashed by, “I’ll need to go for a quick wee or I won’t be able to do the interview!” I knew I shouldn’t have had that pint mug of tea after lunch at my cousin’s before leaving Brighton.
When I emerged a few moments later, Toyah smiled sweetly and bade me follow her back stage. “Come on,” she said with a wave, “let’s find somewhere a bit warmer!”
And it was as we settled into her dressing room that I got my first good look at the lady. Wow, does she look fantastic! She makes no secret of the fact that she’s been under the surgeon’s knife – in fact, she’s taken part in a TV show about that very subject with Coleen Nolan, due to be screened later this year – but the results are staggering. The strong, iconic face framed gently by soft blonde locks, combined with a figure most women thirty years her junior would kill for, give today’s Toyah a refined presence which is incredibly powerful. The plastic surgery has been used simply and sparingly to enhance an already beautiful woman, presenting a quiet confidence which is a strange mix of matriarchal reassurance and heady sexuality, a mix which many heterosexual males find intoxicating.
With her twentieth album just under her belt, a successful acting career and prolific song-writing portfolio, it seems Toyah is possibly the busiest woman on the planet. Her career has been steady and assured, embracing the twists and turns a life in this industry can throw at you with aplomb, and yet she claims this, her thirty-second year in the business, has been one of her best.
“New doors just keep opening,” she told me with a wry smile, “especially with the music. Sensational is being considered by the BBC for the official Olympic coverage in 2012 and the album has generated immense interest throughout Europe, with newspapers bidding for it.
“Power of 3 shoots in April – I’ve already had my costume fittings for it – and we’re doing Secret Diary of a Call Girl April to May. I’m penciled in to play Paul McGann’s sister in a new film called Mason, with Kelly LeBrock, which will be shot in Bristol over the summer, and then it’s back into the 2009 tour of Vampires Rock. So quite an exciting year in store, hopefully!”
So three decades into a highly successful career, I wanted to know what the lady remembered of her beginnings.
“Gosh,” she told me, “In some ways it all seems so long ago, yet in others it seems like yesterday. The late seventies and early eighties was a crazy time, and things seemed to happen so fast.
“I remember being asked to meet Derek Jarman at his flat to discuss a part in his new punk epic Jubilee. As a timid, nineteen year old virgin, I was ushered into the lounge by his young boyfriend, the very beautiful Yves, who was completely naked. I then became aware of several other stunning young men parading around totally starkers – I didn’t know where to look!
“Derek just chucked the script over to me and said: ‘There dear – see who you want to play in that…’ – and that was pretty much it, casting session over. As I looked up, Yves was handing me a drink, and all I could see were his bollocks at eye-level. I remember staring at the pattern on the carpet as the colour rose in my cheeks!”
It was a break in acting that lead to much more work on stage and screen, including an appearance alongside Katherine Hepburn in the film The Corn is Green and the role of Monkey in the legendary Quadrophenia. A plethora of Shakespeare characters followed, including Miranda in Jarman’s edgy production of The Tempest, and even a skateboarding Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park. Toyah recalls these roles affectionately: “I love doing Shakespeare – it’s language at its best, and once you really understand it, there’s a powerful meaning which can be quite mind-blowing!”
For Toyah, the music has always been important too, and is still a cornerstone of her career. “It’s just that I do things on my terms now,” she said. “Some of today’s managers at the ‘top of their game’ wouldn’t entertain me – I just won’t be moulded into what they want, and they don’t like that. It’s doing things my way that preserves my sanity – if I had to conform and rush around like a fool, working a gig, travelling either end of it and then squeezing in interviews and PAs, I think I would absolutely hate it. I have a great work: life balance now which suits me perfectly.
“Don’t get me wrong, I still work very hard and have plenty of time for my fans, but I can make my own decisions.”
And the lady has no truck with ageism either. “I’ve turned fifty and I have no problem with that,” she affirmed, “If anyone else has, then fuck them! I’ll just go and write a song for somebody and earn my living that way.”
There’s a feistiness in her tone which is reassuring; you know you’re still dealing with the same Toyah, but also an incredibly sorted, grounded business woman too. I asked her how she’d enjoyed Vampires Rock.
“It’s been fantastic,” she told me with a look of real excitement. “I get to sing a great range of music, including some classic Jim Steinman tracks, and the boys and girls I’m working with are sensational – so professional. In fact, I forget that I’m old enough to be the 19 year old drummer’s grandmother! My flirty mind and good health make me forget – along with the PVC suit I wear for most of the show!
“I have great fun with them, but they’ve got such sensible heads on their young shoulders. They like a drink, but they don’t go silly and I really admire their innocence. At that age I was always being arrested and had a habit of borrowing cars that weren’t mine.”
With 2009 already full to the scuppers, I wanted to know what the longer term plans were for the femme totale.
“I think I deserve a career in the States,” she ventured, fixing that steely gaze on me. “I’ve worked hard, and my stuff goes down well there, but there’s only so much the PR machine can do without me actually having a physical presence, and just at the moment I have family commitments which are more important to me.”
So no Stateside Toyah just at the moment, then. But when the lady’s ready, I only hope America is too. They’re gonna love her!
Vampires Rock www.vampiresrock.com
Toyah Wilcox www.toyahwillcox.com
Images © and courtesy of Dean Stockings www.deanstockings.co.uk
Vampires Rock Tour Dates
ON SALE JUNE
Fri 11th Sept
Retford Majestic
01777 706 866
www.majestictheatre.co.uk
ON SALE NOW
Sat 12th Sept
Milton Keynes Stable
01908 280 800
www.stables.org
ON SALE NOW
Fri 18th Sept
Southend Cliffs Pavilion
01702 351 135
www.thecliffspavilion.co.uk
ON SALE NOW
Thu 24 Sept
Basingstoke The Anvil
01256 844244
www.anvilarts.org.uk
ON SALE NOW
Friday 25th Sept
Stafford Gatehouse
01785 254 653
www.staffordgatehousetheatre.co.uk
ON SALE NOW
Sat 26th Sept
Cambridge Corn Exchange
01223 357851
www.cornex.co.uk
SELLING FAST
Thurs 1st Oct
Inverness Eden Court
01463 234 234
www.eden-court.co.uk
ON SALE NOW
Fri 2nd Oct
Dunfermline Alhambra
01383 722554
www.alhambradunfermline.com
SELLING FAST
Sat 3rd Oct
Aberdeen Music Hall
01224 641 122
www.boxofficeaberdeen.com
ON SALE NOW
Mon 5th Oct
Edinburgh Playhouse
0844 847 1660
www.EdinburghPlayhouse.co.uk
ON SALE NOW
Tues 6th Oct
Blackpool Opera House
0844 856 1111
www.blackpoollive.com
ON SALE NOW
Thurs 8th Oct
Newark Palace
01636 655 755
www.palacenewark.com
ON SALE NOW
Fri 9th Oct
Newark Palace
01636 655 755
www.palacenewark.com
ON SALE NOW
Sun 11th Oct
Sunderland Empire
0844 847 2499
www.sunderlandempire.org.uk
SELLING FAST
Wed 14th Oct
Bournmouth Pavilion
0844 576 3000
www.bic.co.uk
ON SALE NOW
Fri 16th Oct
Mansfield Palace
01623 633 133
www.mansfield.gov.uk/palacetheatre
ON SALE NOW
Sat 17th Oct
Mansfield Palace
01623 633 133
www.mansfield.gov.uk/palacetheatre
ON SALE NOW
Thur 22nd Oct
York Grand Opera House
0844 847 2322
www.grandoperahouseyork.org.uk
ON SALE NOW
Fri 23rd Oct
Carlisle Sands Centre
01228 625222
www.thesandscentre.co.uk
SELLING FAST
Sun 25th Oct
Manchester Opera House
0844 847 2295
www.palaceandoperahouse.org.uk
ON SALE NOW
Wed 28th Oct
Grimsby Auditorium
0844 847 2426
New website coming soon!
SELLING FAST
Thurs 29th Oct
Nottingham Concert Hall
0115 989 5555
www.royalcentre-nottingham.co.uk
ON SALE JAN 09
ON SALE NOW
Fri 30th Oct
Northampton Derngate
01604 624 811
www.royalandderngate.co.uk
ON SALE NOW
Sat 31st Oct
Brighton Centre
0844 847 1515
www.brightoncentre.co.uk
ON SALE NOW
Sun 1st Nov
Chatham Central Theatre
01634 338 338
www.medway.gov.uk/theatres
SELLING FAST
Mon 2nd Nov
Norwich Theatre Royal
01603 630 000
www.theatreroyalnorwich.co.uk
SELLING FAST
Fri 6th Nov
Birmingham Alex
0844 847 2294
www.alexandratheatre.org.uk
SELLING FAST
Sat 7th Nov
Ipswich Regent
01473 433 100
www.ipswichregent.com
SELLING FAST
Sun 8th Nov
Kings Lynn Corn Exchange
01553 764 864
www.kingslynncornexchange.co.uk
ON SALE NOW
Tues 10th Nov
Llandudno Venue Cymru
01492 872000
www.venuecymru.co.uk
ON SALE NOW
Wed 11th Nov
Cardiff St David’s Hall
029 2087 8444
www.stdavidshallcardiff.co.uk
ON SALE NOW
Thurs 12th Nov
Cheltenham Town Hall
0844 576 2210
www.cheltenhamtownhall.org.uk
ON SALE NOW
Fri 13th Nov
Oxford New Theatre
0844 847 1585
www.newtheatreoxford.org.uk
ON SALE NOW
Sat 14th Nov
Bedworth Civic Hall
0247 637 6707
www.civichallinbeworth.co.uk
ON SALE NOW
Wed 18th Nov
Leamington Spa Royal Spa Centre
01926 334 418
www.royal-spa-centre.co.uk
ON SALE NOW
Thurs 19th Nov
Halifax Victoria Theatre
01422 351 158
www.victoriatheatre.co.uk
ON SALE NOW
Sun 22nd Nov
Torquay Princess Theatre
0844 847 2315
www.princesstheatre.org.uk
ON SALE NOW
Mon 23rd Nov
Truro Hall For Cornwall
01872 262466
www.hallforcornwall.co.uk
ON SALE NOW
Fri 27th Nov
Preston Guild Hall
0845 344 2012
www.prestonguildhall.com
ON SALE NOW
Sun 29th Nov
Southport Thearte
0870 4000 684
www.southporttheatre.org.uk
ON SALE NOW
Tues 1st Dec
Hull New Theatre
01482 226 655
www.hullcc.gov.uk/hullnewtheatre
ON SALE NOW
Wed 2nd Dec
Hull New Theatre
01482 226 655
www.hullcc.gov.uk/hullnewtheatre
ON SALE NOW
Thurs 3rd Dec
Buxton Opera House
0845 127 2190
www.buxtonoperahouse.org.uk
ON SALE NOW
Fri 4th Dec
Skegness Embassy
08456 740 505
www.embassytheatre.co.uk
ON SALE NOW
Sat 5th Dec
Salisbury City Hall
01722 434434
www.cityhallsalisbury.co.uk
ON SALE AUGUST
Thurs 21st Jan
Dunstable Grove Theatre
01582 60 20 80
www.grovetheatre.co.uk
ON SALE AUGUST
Fri 22nd Jan
Barnstaple Queen’s Theatre
01271 32 42 42
www.northdevontheatres.org.uk
ON SALE AUGUST
Sat 23rd Jan
Barnstaple Queen’s Theatre
01271 32 42 42
www.northdevontheatres.org.uk
ON SALE JULY
Sun 24th Jan
Southampton Mayflower
02380 711811
www.mayflower.org.uk
ON SALE JULY
Thurs 28th Jan
Perth Concert Hall
01738 621 031
www.horsecross.co.uk
ON SALE JULY
Fri 29th Jan
Darlington Civic Theatre
01325 486 555
www.darlingtonarts.co.uk
ON SALE JULY
Sat 30th Jan
Darlington Civic Theatre
01325 486 555
www.darlingtonarts.co.uk
ON SALE NOW
Sat 6th Feb
Belfast Waterfront
028 9033 4455
www.waterfront.co.uk
Thurs 11th Feb
Weston Super Mare Playhouse
01934 645 544
www.theplayhouse.co.uk
ON SALE SEPT
Friday 12th Feb
Yeovil Octagon Theatre
01935 422884
www.octagon-theatre.co.uk
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One Response to “Interview With A Vampire – Toyah Willcox”
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Toyah, PLEASE come do some shows in the USA (like New York!)