TOYAH’S BLOG: MARCH 2016

Mar 12, 2016

Photo Tom Pilston

HELLO THERE!!!!!

I am in BIG trouble in the FRIPP/COX household since I unintentionally scared the living day lights out of a workman in the house.

Robert was out for the day, my car was at the garage and the workman thought he was alone in the house because of the absence of cars…….I was in my office when I heard the back door open and I thought “ahhhhh Robert is home early…..I am going to GET HIM!”

This usually means hiding in the shower room in the dark until he comes in, or in his office under his desk and I reach out and grab his foot.

So I hid in the shadows upstairs and in a high unearthly voice I started to sigh “help me! Help me!”

Silence, not  a sound, no movement just wonderful trepidation and silence, the type of atmosphere Robert gives off when he knows he is being got.
Then a terrified voice down stairs trembles from the floor below me “who’s there….who’s there……who are you! OMG is someone there!”

Realising it wasn’t my husband, rather than apologetically owning up, I had to creep off and hide my fit of giggles, eventually turning up on the stairs to ask the poor man if he was alright.

He said yes but he heard a ghost.

And he told me the story when he was in our attic on his own one day, a man gave him orders from behind and when he turned around no one was there. The builder still doesn’t know it was me whimpering “help me! Help me!” He still thinks it was the ghost of someone else.

February was great. The shows at THE WATER RATS and THE ROYAL VAUXHALL TAVERN were rocking. ROCKING!

VINTAGE TV were slightly taken by surprise to discover the audience was as loud as the band, singing along to every song. I hope the atmosphere comes across on the TV SPECIAL broadcast Tuesday 22 March, because it was a remarkable evening. Our fans really turned out to support us. Then a week later at THE ROYAL VAUXHALL TAVERN new people were turning up to see us because word was out THE WATER RATS was impressive and the RVT rocked too…fabulous! We have added EVERY SCAR HAS A SILVER LINING to the set. It sends shivers down my spine….it is soooooooooo good.

 click thumbnails for gallery

At the beginning of February Robert, myself and my sister Nicola flew to Antigua. I had a photo shoot on the island and my sister was sailing the Atlantic back to the UK. In fact she wont hit our shores until the 15th March in Portsmouth…I will be there to meet her!

Bizarrely, our hotel, which was large, seven floors, we were the only guests! We had the restaurant and the beach entirely to ourselves! It was so restful. Twice a day booze cruises would moor up and drunk/happy Brits would walk the beach. We hid behind beach huts then emerged again when they had gone. It was deserted otherwise and I managed to get Robert in trunks and into the water….it’s only taken 30 years. We have now renamed him BEACH BUNNY BOB.

We were only there for four days and I landed back in the UK the morning of the QUADROPHENIA IMMERSIVE at the Hammersmith Apollo.

This was a great evening. Actors on stage were reliving the scenes on screen in real time to the film….a lovely actress was playing me…she looked just like me!

My favourite event was a stunt man jumping off the Apollo balcony as Jimmy dives into the audience in the club scene in the film.

It was during this evening’s events as we waited in the dressing room back stage that Phil Daniels, myself, Mark Wingett, Trevor Laird and a few others agreed to being signed up for an new film to be made in the summer, not related to Quad but about Mods…….more on this…in the summer.

Last week I saw EXTREMIS. My scene in the film is very short but very memorable because it is quite mad. Simon Darlow and I have a song at the end and it is perfect. It is a very harrowing story line and the actors are great in it. Steve Stone the writer/director has written me into his next film which should start shooting in September…he has given me more to do this time…..another very dark story!

Hound

with Chris Ward, writer/director of Hound

But before all this I shoot my scenes in HOUND. A script I fell in love with about 10 years ago written by Chris Ward who I first met through Derek Jarman.

It’s BUSY.

Bill Rieflin is taking 2016 off for a sabbatical. Which means, all being good, work on HUMANS 4 can resume in 2017. I am still writing in the mean time and I am spending my Birthday with Bill in Seattle in May.

Because Bill is neither with KING CRIMSON this year nor the HUMANS Robert is talking of re-releasing a live album of SUNDAY ALL OVER THE WORLD and a REMIXED version of KNEELING AT THE SHRINE because he will not record any new KC until Bill is back in action next year, this means SAOTW has his time and attention.

I doubt the release will happen this year…….but it has gone into production as far as planning is concerned.

So everything is good, very, very busy and lots of new things are going on and of course the project involving SIMON DARLOW and myself is still to be announced….any day now.

Kate Way isn’t able to be at the shows any more. Her condition has worsened and she now needs surgery in Germany. We are looking at doing a fund raising gig for her in the summer….so more on that later. But for now all my friends are trying to raise funds for her as she needs two op’s in all and they have to be private. Sadly her condition isn’t recognised as a disabling one therefore she doesn’t get any financial help off the state…….shocking isn’t it?

In the meantime I have 4 scripts to learn, songs to write and shows to perform.

I hope you can catch one of this month’s shows and…………..
BE PROUD, BE LOUD, BE HEARD
LOVE TOYAH

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