The lady in the thigh-high boots and flaming basque-cum-breastplate is unmistakably Toyah Willcox – the stack-heeled wench with her back to camera requires a tad more explanation.

“Ah yes,” says Toyah, “that’s John Wayne!

“He’s actually a transvestite who owns a nightclub in Stoke-on-Trent – I met him because he’s a Toyah impersonator and now he’s my PA.

“He was there when we were making our video and the director said ‘right John, get your gear on, we’re filming you’.”

Toyah (the surname has been superfluous since It’s A Mystery provided her breakthrough hit in 1981) supplies the information in a matter-of-fact tone which confirms that the bizarre is perfectly normal in her world.

But she becomes far more animated, genuinely excited, when she gets down to details about the ‘we’ in question – The Humans, latest project in her long, multifaceted and highly successful career.

The band, who kick off a three-date UK tour at Leamington’s Assembly on Monday, features Bill Rieflin – better known as REM’s drummer – Chris Wong and, temporarily, Robert Fripp, founder of King Crimson and, since 1986, Mr Wilcox.

And, naturally enough, they were formed as a treat for the president of Estonia.

To précis a long story: “The Estonian embassy was trying to get hold of my husband but I got in touch with them and said ‘look I could be out there with two international musicians in a couple of weeks – we can write all the material in Estonia and play exclusively for the president. And that’s exactly what happened – it went down a storm and we ended up selling out their biggest rock venues.

“I totally blagged my way in, but then a lot of my life is about blagging. If you’re a woman you have to have that ability.”

Despite its improbably impromptu genesis, the band fulfils a longstanding ambition for Toyah.

“I wanted to put together a band that could travel very easily and very spontaneously,” she says. “That’s difficult these days because the equipment is so bulky – you need lots of personnel, loads of rehearsals. In the past 10 years I’ve been playing arenas on the ’80s tours with audiences up to 60,000 but I wanted something that was portable and immediate.

“And this is so exciting because it involves three people that I really admire and enjoy working with.”

Fripp’s involvement in the current phase of The Humans’ development is a major bonus for a couple whose career commitments mean that they spend long periods apart, but Toyah stresses that he is a ‘guest star’.

“The idea is that we’ll have a different one for every tour,” she says. “Somebody doing something that they’re not known for.

“For instance we’re hoping to get Steve Vai – everybody knows that he’s a great guitarist but he also plays the harp. His wife is a harpist and he does all her arrangements so that would be fascinating.”

Artists can sometimes get decidedly sniffy if interviewers attempt to pin down their sound, but Toyah, fortunately, warms to the suggestion that there is a Brechtian feel to The Humans’ music.

“That’s a nice comparison,” she says. “It’s not 100 per cent because there’s a lot of energy and we’ll be playing some new stuff which is very Seattle grunge, but it is a listening experience rather than the ‘come on everybody sing along’ when I’m out there as Toyah. And, yes, it is a bit dark and bleak – the Humans’ world is permanently in winter!”

That being the case, long-term fans expecting a quick chorus of Thunder In The Mountains or Brave New World will be disappointed.

“We will be doing some hits, but they’re not Toyah hits,” she says. “That’s not a possibility because we are so peculiar – it’s not a band set-up – it’s two bass players and a guitar and vocals.”

At a time when every week seems to produce a new feisty female chart-topper, one wonders if Toyah sees herself as a pioneer of rock emancipation.

“Not really,” she says. “Take Florence & The Machine – we’ve got the same performance genes, perhaps, and I can totally identify with the whole thing where the emotion leads the vocal, but I don’t think I’ve influenced her.

“I think if I’ve influenced anyone you’ve got to look at artists who are deliberately 80s retro like La Roux. There might be a little influence there but I really think that these kids have just discovered themselves at a time when 80s is suddenly so hip.

“When I started, women weren’t running the industry like they are now. It was a real breakthrough time, exciting but really challenging because every woman – myself, Hazel O’Connor, Kim Wilde – were always being compared with each other because of the novelty value of being a woman.

“I was strident and bombastic at a time when England was very conservative, especially about women, so I definitely feel that I helped push the boundaries. But there are so many women out there today that we don’t need to compare them with each other.

“They’re being taken seriously now, not just as performers but as women. And that’s massively important because women were once treated as objects. The prime example is Madonna – if she had been overweight with a hairy face, she wouldn’t have been as successful as she was.

“There are exceptions. If you’ve got a truly unique voice I don’t think it matters what you look like, whichever sex you are, but most of the time it really does help if you look good.

“It is about sexuality, but to be taken seriously on top of that is a remarkable step forward.”

Now 51, Toyah has been completely open about the surgical help she has employed to maintain her glamorous image.

“Sexual attraction is part of the act – I went into showbusiness knowing that was the case so it’s never been any other way. That’s my choice because I know the powerful effect it has on my income.

“I’ve had some surgery because it’s a well-developed science now, regulated and relatively safe in this country, and I think I would have had it done even if I hadn’t gone into showbusiness.

“What’s interesting is that I work very hard to stay in shape and those around me who don’t are quite threatened by it – particularly men.

“My fellow band members are quite perplexed by my willpower which is a very interesting situation – it seems to eat at their confidence.

“My husband is very open and honest and sometimes he says to me ‘I can’t compete with what you do’.

“Which is great, because I can’t play guitar!”

Coventry Telegraph
February 2010