 TOYAH - The Lisping Ferret Call her the lisping ferret, because
that's what she looks and sounds like to some
people, or call her the most stylish female on
the scene at the moment. Either way you can't
ignore her. And she wouldn't want you to anyway.
She's worked hard to get everyone's attention.
"OBVIOUSLY I have an ego
that needs a lot to satisfy it," she says of
her never ending schedule of events. One minute
she's in the theatre, the next it's Top Of The
Pops.
|
| "Being 18 was the
most exciting time of my life," she says
looking back nearly five years. "That was
the year for firsts - first band, first TV
appearance, first film 'Jubilee'. Since then it's Toyah everywhere. She's
been in films like 'Quadrophenia', 'The Tempest'
and 'The Corn Is Green'.
For a long time
Toyah's recording career lagged behind her acting
ventures and more importanlty behind rival Hazel
O'Connor's activities. (They even seem to change
hair colours at the same time). But Toyah is
dramatically different. And of course, there's
the now famous lisp.
'Once a school
I was at attempted to 'cure' my lisp," she
recalls sadly. "What they do is put you in a
room full of recording equipment. They made you
listen to your own voice. But that didn't help me.
I hate the sound of my voice. I didn't lose my
lisp. I just ended up in tears. In the end I just
wrote a song about it."
|
Toyah looks like being a
good example for everyone who is less than
perfect - like namely all of us. She was held
back at school because of reading problems. The
result was that she was too mature for the kids
in her class and the kids her age treated her
like a fool. Her unhappy home life and drink
problems are not so unique anymore. Maybe Toyah
will be the spokesman for a lot of troubled kids
everywhere. "I couldn't write a
song about normal everday things. They always
come out doomy. But then as you say, maybe I'm
not the only one feeling doomy these days."
Snap Mag - 1981
|