Toyah Willcox shot to fame as a teenager...

Music is definitely a spiritual experience.

Even though I was a punk other punks didn’t really accept me, The New Romantics 
never accepted me... If one could hold up the basic review of your life from an 
art critic it is “This woman does not fit in."

When I was living in Birmingham there was no-one around like me, I felt very alone.

It was then that I realised that slowly I was a bit different from the others!

The lyrics I’d already pre-written 13 years earlier fitted... "I don't 
want to go to school, Don't want to be nobody's fool, I want to be free, 
I want to be me..."

The rebellion was more about me rebelling against my gender than anything else!

I could never a heart-to-heart with my mum, she wasn’t that type of mother.

In 1978 when I wrote 'Neon Womb' which is the first lyric I wrote 
having moved to London. I was in Victoria tube station and it was 
incredibly warm. I remember just sitting there thinking "Oh, this must 
be what a womb feels like!"

Click below to download Toyah performing ... (unavailable)

... 'Neon Womb' from Faith & Music.

I flicked through the script and saw which character had the 
most lines. I said "Can I play Mad?"

I said I’d like a chariot ...

I went to work, recorded 'It’s A Mystery', the next day 
my life completely changed

Click below to download Toyah performing ... (unavailable)

... 'It's A Mystery' from Faith & Music.

As I’m growing older and I’m a bit more confident in my body, 
than I certainly was in my 20’s, my costumes are quite outrageous.

Everything about my life ironically is about not showing 
who I am. I put up deliberate barriers.

Christmas Eve Live Whistle Test had become an annual tradition...

It is my spiritual home. It’s bang on the town, in the High Street 
but it’s not isolated in the country and I know it’s the house I 
will be in forever, come what may. 

Click below to download Toyah performing ... (unavailable)

... 'Obsolete' from Faith & Music.

'The Vow' for me is a very powerful song, so powerful I don’t do it live.

If we could see how vulnerable we are in within this universe 
and how unnecessary we are within this universe than 
perhaps we would learn how to behave and stop being so selfish.

We worked on all this imagery of how to sexualise an older 
woman and 'Little Tears Of Love' is about the maturity and 
confidence an older woman has in the sexual place.

I did not have surgery to be sexy, I had surgery to look well. 

Robert's always been adorable because he’s not a testosterone 
fuelled man, he’s like me, he likes to escape his gender. 

I felt I’d lost my identity. I felt that I could no longer work 
from intuition. 'Prostitute' came from that...

The whole thing about “Brave New World” is the feeling of 
being a changeling within another world...

Click below to download Toyah talking about ... (unavailable)

... 'Brave New World' from Faith & Music.

I do believe we all do have a purpose and we have something 
that we are here for. I’m optimistic that that’s still yet to come.

Thanks to Andi Westhorpe & Lärwi.