She has long counted Leslie Ash as a close confidante, so Toyah Willcox was well aware of the risks of cosmetic surgery.

But rather than being put off going under the knife by the sight of her friend's disastrous 'trout pout', she instead did her research and now advocates other women do the same.

'Getting a good surgeon took time because back then no one would talk openly about their surgery,' says the 50-year-old former punk singer who had a face-lift five years ago.

'I finally met a woman who showed me her surgery scars and recommended a French surgeon called Dr Oliver de Frahan who had worked on loads of stars.

'The reason I wrote my book, Diary Of A Facelift, is that no one would give me good advice and I didn't want other women to end up in the hands of a cowboy.'

Toyah, who braved the jungle in I'm A Celebrity... in 2003, is releasing a new album, The Court Of The Crimson Queen and also stars as Billie Piper's fresh-faced mother in Diary Of A Call Girl.

She says she is now much more content with her appearance

She adds: 'The great thing now is that you don't have to look old at 50, or even 60. Just look at Helen Mirren - she's 62, looks fantastic and shows that you can be sexy at any age.'

And while she also looks in amazing shape, she says there are limits to what she'll to in the name of vanity.

She told Reveal magazine: 'I'll never be Madonna. I'm not disciplined enough. I've tried being like her but I get too hungry.'

Toyah, who never wanted children, continues to live in England while her husband, musician Robert Fripp, 62, resides in the US.

She describes the relationship as 'unconventional', and reveals the pair spend around three months of the year together.

'But,' she insists, 'we've made it work.' 

NB: This is an abridged version of an interview that appears in this week's issue of REVEAL magazine. Two small photos of Toyah are on the cover of the magazine, with a two page feature inside.

Toyah guested to talk about the 'Mind Body & Soul Weekend 2008', at Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham. She will be perform the grand opening and host a workshop at the event (see Sunday 28th September News update below for more info on this). Click on the logo to listen again to the interview.

With tongue firmly in cheek, Steinman plays the evil Baron Von Rockula, owner of New York's Live And Let Die club. On the lookout for a bride, he uses his vampiric wiles to tempt lissom young singer Pandora (Emily Taylor) into his rock den, as his band, The Lost Boys, rattle through endlessly flogged anthems by the likes of Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler and Bon Jovi. Audience participation in the form of strictly non-ironic air guitar is pretty much guaranteed. 

Toyah Willcox has been gracing our screens and airwaves ever since she appeared in Derek Jarman's 1977 film Jubilee and 1979's Who album-inspired Quadrophenia.

But now, after achieving numerous chart-topping hits and an appearance on I'm A Celebrity, Toyah is back treading the boards in the musical Vampires Rock.

Here she plays the Devil Queen, the 2,000-year-old long suffering wife of Baron Von Rockula (played by Steve Steinman).

"He wants to get rid of me so the evening is spent trying to get rid of me and persuading a young, much more beautiful woman [to marry him]," said Toyah.

The new bride in question is an innocent, aspiring singer, Pandora (Emily Clark). Cue a host of classic rock, played live by the Baron’s hand picked band, The Lost Boys, and a hint of comedy, as the Baron and his sidekick, Stringfellow (Mike Taylor) attempt to convince Pandora to lose her soul to rock and roll.

The musical features many classic rock songs, some of which appear on Toyah's new album.

"The whole of Vampires Rock is about classic rock anthems. It’s hit after hit after hit and we let the anthems tell the story," said Toyah.

"It is dramatic, but it is also spinal tap with teeth and it is very, very funny. The audience are in for a good laugh and I think the reason why it is so funny is because we’re all relatively good at what we do and Steve’s a comedian at heart. It is dramatic and it is visually inspiring. There’s no corners cut whatsoever, you’ve got your pyrotechnics and stage set, fabulous costumes... so it’s quite an eye-opener."

It was written by Steve, who is well known for his abilities to rock-out as he appeared on Stars In Their Eyes as Meatloaf and he is working on a stage show based on his idol.

So as he stepped through the famous smoke-filled entrance, did he think, in years to come, that Meatloaf would still play a big part of his life?

"Did I ‘eck. When I did that I was actually running a hotel and restaurant, that was my business, I think I must have been 20, 21. And I did it, and I was a proper contestant and I had a business and three or four years later I started singing professionally," he said.

Pier showgirl
November 6th won't be the first time the pair have been to Weston. Steve used to ride motorbikes along the beach when he was younger while for Toyah, it could be said that without Weston, she would not exist.

"My mother was a dancer on the pier at Weston and my father saw her on stage there and pursued her around the country so my life, you could say, started in Weston and they visit Weston-super-Mare every month to have fish and chips."

So what do they think of the now fire-ravaged pier?

"It's awful isn't it. It's just the history in these piers. I was watching a programme about how many piers have burnt down across the country and really they need to be brought back," said Toyah.

"They’ve got to come back because culturally Britain does piers beautifully and they’re Edwardian / Victorian structures and I think it would be sad if all of them became ultra modern. I think there is something quintessentially family about the sea and seeing the pier."

Vampires Rock is on at Weston's Playhouse on 6 November.

Above is a newly revealed 'In The Court Of The Crimson Queen' picture of Toyah, and the MySpace profile image. Below is a screenshot of the new TOYAH EXCLUSIVE MySpace. Please click on either to visit said Space.

Insomnia has been the bane of my life since I was 14. Most nights I have just four hours' sleep, much of it broken, and I generally start my day at 4am. So if anyone was qualified to review this book, it would be me.

Although many people reach for sleeping pills, I absolutely loathe the things. My view is the only way to try to solve the problem is naturally. And this is exactly what physiotherapist and Pilates teacher Sammy Margo believes.

Margo offers lots of practical advice; if your mattress is more than eight years old, it will have deteriorated and will not support the spine as efficiently. A good point, as I don't think I've bought a new bed in 30 years!

Go to bed at regular times, have complete darkness and no TV or computer in the bedroom.

She also tells you to wear socks as many people lose sleep due to cold feet. This is so true. I am forever resting my freezing cold feet against my husband's very warm back. I suspect this book is best for the new insomniac, as, unfortunately, it did nothing for me.

So it's back, I'm afraid, to a world of 4am starts - although at least my feet are now warm. 

“Some women,” whispers the photographer discreetly, “just look better and better as they get older.”

Toyah Willcox, the once pink-tressed princess of punk, has turned 50.The pin-up anarchist – Helen of Troy meets Vivienne Westward - who sang of mystery and freedom does, indeed, look wonderful... grown up (wild hair-dyes now ditched along with extravagant make-up)… and beautiful - yes; but a beauty neither conventional (nothing is conventional about Toyah) nor vapid. As you might expect from the girl at the forefront of a movement whose safety-pin fashion jabbed at world complacency, even her youthful appearance is a challenge to hypocrisy. Her best-selling Diary Of A Facelift, published three years ago, is an overt Death-to-Wrinkles surgical extravaganza. There’s no mystery to her Peter Pan-smooth skin.

“I’ve been lied to so much; I can’t bear lying back,” she explains. “Women who look great - slim and young - are forever saying it’s all down to good genes. It simply isn’t true! You need to tell other women that, if you want to look good at 50, you starve yourself; you live by calorie restriction; you have surgery; you have Botox; you save money for it and don’t go on holiday.” (Though she does lay out buttery croissants for us in the sunny garden that leads down to the River Avon - and eats one herself.)

“The one problem I have with the acting industry - and that the industry has with me - is they all expect you to have Botox but they expect you to say you don’t. And I don’t like it.”

Forthright; true to herself. She once went to a read-through with George Cukor and Katharine Hepburn with hair dyed so red the American film director invited her to “take her hat off” before they began.

On paper, that forthrightness can be scary. She returns the pre-interview questions I submit with the seemingly-dismissive note, “I’m a bit tired of reading 'freakish' interviews after editors get their hands on them.”

But face to face, it’s different: not the kind of honesty that pushes you away, but draws you in. You fear you’re looking at uncompromising, uncaring truthfulness; and then you discover it’s disarming frankness instead.

If you want metaphors, it’s the same with her house, for first impressions are misleading here, too. I was half expecting a mansion hidden behind a Berlin Wall of trees, in Greta Garbo countryside, approached by a mile of distancing drive and moated by acres of defensive fields. Well, she has lived in places like that – she and her husband (the rock legend Robert Fripp of King Crimson) once owned Cecil Beaton’s old pad, Reddish House in Wiltshire, with nearly six acres of landscape and water garden. But for a couple who’ve had their fair share of weird stalkers and obsessive compliment-payers – and don’t forget that Toyah worked with Jill Dando on the Holiday programme - their current home is startlingly on view. It is Georgian-fronted and grand – but the front door opens straight onto the streets of the market town of Pershore.

You can read the rest of this article in the October issue of Cotswold Life. See our subscription offer on the home page.

The Rocky Horror Show, with music and lyrics by Richard O'Brien, was born at the Royal Court's tiny Theatre Upstairs on June 16, 1973, and went on to become an international stage smash hit and a major film. 

Richard O'Brien's Rocky Horror Tribute Show is a concert featuring the music from The Rocky Horror Show, and was recorded at the Royal Court, London, in May 2006, to an audience of faithful Rocky Horror fans. Richard O'Brien rewrote the narration for the show, and a cast of performers was put together, some from the original show, and others who have appeared in productions during its 33-year history. 

Richard O'Brien, Patricia Quinn, Little Nell and Rayner Bourton, members of the original stage cast, and are back together for the first time. They are joined by one of the best Frank-N-Furters ever, Anthony Head, as well as original Transylvanians from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Also featured are a host of famous names as singers and narrators, including Michael Ball, Adrian Edmondson, Sophie Lawrence,Toyah Willcox, Stephen Gately, Tony Slattery, Robin Cousins, Christopher Biggins and Jamie Theakston.

The Rocky Horror Show is a magical phenomenon unlike anything ever seen before on stage or screen. Borrowing largely from cinema's horror conventions, the story begins as an innocent young couple, Brad and Janet, are stranded at the castle of a mad scientist who is building the perfect man. The castle is filled with a most bizarre group of characters who worship their master, Dr. Frank-N-Furter, in leather jacket, pearls, fishnet stockings, and heavy makeup. Brad and Janet are forced to examine their own sexuality as the voluptuous doctor releases the hidden desires in each of them. The show features unforgettable song-and-dance numbers such as `Time Warp' and `Sweet Transvestite', which have come to represent the sexual liberation of the 1970s. 

Contributions from the sale of this DVD will go to Amnesty International.

This is a must-have DVD for all Rocky Horror fans!

STARRING: Richard O'Brien, Anthony Head, Michael Ball

SINGERS: Patricia Quinn, Adrian Edmondson, Sophie Lawrence, Kraig Thornber, Toyah Willcox, Amy Field, Anthony Head, Gary Amers, Ben Richards, Joanne Farrell, Stephen Gately, Julian Littman, Michael Ball, Little Nell

NARRATORS: Richard O'Brien, Tony Slattery, Robin Cousins, Rayner Bourton, Steve Pemberton, Christopher Biggins, Jamie Theakston

Music & Lyrics Richard O'Brien
Directed for the stage by Christopher Luscombe
Producer Simon Flind
Director: Robin Lough

The opening takes place on Saturday 11th October at 10am, followed by an Exclusive Talk/Workshop from Toyah.

A weekend devoted to total wellbeing through holistic healthcare, complementary medicine, and alternative spirituality... Recharge, rejuvinate and take control of your life.

Awareness for Beginners with Toyah. An informal talk followed by Q&A opportunity. 

Toyah is not an expert and has no qualifications in this field, but she firmly believes that by becoming aware of your dietary habits you can become
more conscious of your health – good or bad. Of course we are always being blamed for eating too much or too little, but stress effects the way we eat and what we eat. 

The phases of the Moon effect us all, and by becoming aware of this simple truth we can accept that outside influences are just that – external - and perhaps we can then make time to pause for thought before we conclude that the world is against us. 

Some foods just do not suit certain people and some phases of the Moon make people unhappy or completely overjoyed. It is worth observing how the seasons, the Moon and diet effect us, but not rule us, so we can then get on with being our real selves. 

Toyah offers no cures, instead simple insights with the intention that it is never too late to improve your diet, your awareness and your quality of life.

Entrance to the event is £5 (£3 concessions) on the door. 

The show runs for two days; Sat 11th / Sun 12th October, 10am to 5pm both days. Toyah will only be at this event on the Saturday.

Pittville Pump Room, 
East Approach Drive,
Cheltenham. GL52 3JE
www.naturalhealthshows.co.uk 

Contact Natural Living: 
Tel: 01933 652445

Featuring: Natalie Morse, Gene Bervoets, Toyah Willcox, Pete Postlethwaite, Christopher Eccleston, Michael Pas, Brenda Bertin, Annette Badland, Veronica Quilligan & Julie T. Wallace.

The author's memories run alongside contributions from among the thousands of readers of the website, as well as many 80s stars!

'An unashamed look at the best and the worst of the decade that brought us Madonna, Jive Bunny, Sinclair ZX computers, Margaret Thatcher, A Flock of Seagulls, Duran Duran, legwarmers, the Walkman, breakdancing, Fame, Brat Pack movies, the Rubik's cube and countless other icons that changed pop culture for ever'.

When Toyah Willcox bought her tiny flat in the leafy suburb of Chiswick, west London, she found it was the perfect place for entertaining famous friends. 

Toyah counts David Bowie, Marilyn Manson and Adam Ant among her mates. She says casually: "The drummer from REM stays here when he's in town. 

"It's a tiny flat," she adds. "We usually have drinks here, then eat out. Chiswick is perfect for that as there are so many great restaurants just a short walk away." 

The only problem is negotiating the perils of that striking spiral staircase after a drink or two. 

"It can be tricky after a night out. I've tumbled down a few times!" admits the singer and presenter. 

Still, it's a small price to pay for having such a great crash pad in the capital. 

Over the past 15 years, she's transformed the one-bed bolthole into her city sanctuary, although her main home is in Worcestershire, and she has a house in the south of France too. 

Despite the fact that the properties are owned by her and her husband, musician Robert Fripp, Toyah, 50, is the one who spends most time at the flat. 

The couple have an unconventional relationship and rarely spend more than 12 weeks a year living together. But the arrangement works for Toyah, who loves her own space. 

She's given the flat a lick of paint and picked up unique accessories on her travels to make the place her own. She also plans to create her own music studio, as she loves impromptu jamming sessions with her rocker friends. 

And the area is a celeb haven, with numerous famous faces living nearby. "It's a great community," Toyah says. "Phill Jupitus and Mark Lamarr live nearby, so I love coming home here." 

Now all she has to worry about is that pesky staircase! 

Toyah is currently touring the UK in the musical Vampires Rock. For more info, go to Vampiresrock.debzwebz.biz. 

1. SOFA “This is from Habitat, circa 1983 – it’s been in many different homes over the years, but is still in perfect nick.”

2. CHAIRS “These Indian chairs were gathering dust in an antiques shop in Worcester. I like the mother-of-pearl inlay – the craftsmanship is beautiful.”

3. MIRROR “I got this ornate mirror from a florist’s shop in Stoke-on-Trent. It was a bit of a bargain.”

4. CUSHIONS “I enjoy injecting colour into a room. These vivid cushions are from TKMaxx.”

TOYAH'S STYLE TIPS
• Live with things you enjoy looking at and using, not what you think you should have.
• Don’t let the existing layout limit you – think about building up, out or down. Staying put and renovating is easier than getting a new place, especially during a credit crunch.
• Bring back objects, accessories, even furniture from your travels abroad – you’ll build up a unique style of your own. 

Please click here to go directly to their TV/Media Interviews section.