HELLO THERE!
I am sitting in the splendour of GOODWOOD HOUSE. In about four hours’ time I play the REGENCY BALL, following in the footsteps of Debbie Harry and Sophie Ellis Bextor, who opened the ball in previous years.
As soon as we entered the drive the calm of the estate was palpable, having come from the relative chaos of the M27 and three days on the road travelling from Birmingham to Inverness to Ulverston to Chichester.
We have a beautiful meeting room as our dressing room, with a large circular table and it’s so quiet………THEN…..the Carousel starts up outside our window and there’s now an “air” of a Stephen King novel, so Rock n’ Roll, so IT.
For the festival shows in the past month we have borrowed Sophie Ellis Bextor’s brilliant sound man John Brownsword, he has mixed T&R’s out-front sound with a seriously invigorating rock edge.
Belladrum was well worth the 11 hours in the car to be working with the best PA I have ever experienced. The audience were heavily in too and Inverness was breathtakingly beautiful.
Funnily enough it was at Belladrum that I felt out of place for the first time in my career. Both Robert and I are feeling our age this year, it’s a turning point, I experienced my first realisation that the world may be for the young. It’s something I have always resisted, the cliche of age being a challenge, but I am feeling it.
I feel privileged in some odd way that I have made it to 66yrs without feeling a day over 25.
There are always solutions. Once my feet touch back down on the ground and I can get some thinking time I am going to study all the amazing women in history who turned the concept of age on its head……maybe I just need a makeover, a new look, guidance on how to see myself anew…I get like this when I am craving to write. I also get like this when I am overwhelmed by an upcoming challenge.
A couple of weeks ago our friend Richard Hudson Jr (Richard shot my video for Slave To The Rhythm) invited us to his father’s Birthday party at Sudeley Castle. We felt honoured to be at a family event. Very soon we realised we were in the company of some mind-blowing people.
The ex-head of A&R at Universal joined me on the sofa, with a warm and welcoming smile and started to tell me about his life, talking about the young Adele, who he mentored. He talked about how he persuaded Cher to record BELIEVE, Cher being unconvinced until she heard the end result.
He then surprised me when he said to me…”revert your name back to TOYAH, there is only one TOYAH and that is you”. I was blown away that he even knew who I was, he was so kind and supportive.
His wife Cherie was one of the dancers on Top Of The Pops….an icon of the show and I told her with pride that Dee Dee from Pan’s People gave me dancing lessons in 1981 just before the release of Thunder In The Mountains.
I SO WANTED TO TELL HER………………I AM ON STRICTLY!
AND I AM TERRIFIED!
The thought of doing Strictly is so appealing, the reality is HARD, HARD WORK with young energetic competent dancers that I don’t want to let down. I am getting ready for the spray tan, the sparkles, THE MAKE-OVER I FEEL I SO BADLY NEED and for my life to ramp up.
Over the last two months I have lied to friends who have asked me if I am doing the show, and I feel so bad about that. My family didn’t even know…..well they do now. I found out on my birthday……..WHAT A FABULOUS BIRTHDAY THAT WAS!
As you can imagine, running the live shows and prepping has been full on, lots of fitness training. AND I think this is why my confidence is slightly wavering BUT I think back to when I was a child when dancing was so freeing and full of self-expression and that’s what I hope to bring to the show…..the joy of dancing….whether good or bad.
In the meantime, there’s wonderful open air festivals to do:
- LET’S ROCK SCOTLAND PARTY AT THE PALACE
- DEVA FEST
- BEAUTIFUL DAYS
- TORCHLIGHT
- WARRINGTON PARR HALL
Then let the Glitterball roll!
BE PROUD, BE LOUD, BE HEARD ….AND LETS DANCE
LOTS OF LOVE
TOYAH
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PS thank you for making ROSES IN CHAINS top of the charts on The Legacy Chart.
PPS we are announcing LOVE IS THE LAW remastered editions on Saturday 31 August on TOYAH AT HOME