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 importantly 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 everyday 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