TOYAH’S BLOG: NOV 2016

Nov 1, 2016

scoop-more-londonHELLO THERE!

Today I pulled my gym kit out of the draw beneath my bed…WillyFred’s favourite snoozing ground, and my gym kit was covered in his lovely fluffy white fur.

So I trained whilst looking lovingly at what would have slightly irked me if he were still on this earthly plane. Small smudges of fluff. A beautiful memory of an utterly lovely creature.

I thought my year was about to settle down, get a little quieter and it just isn’t so.

I am a keen follower of Susan Miller…https://www.astrologyzone.com.

Making sure everyone in my circle reads her monthly predictions on the 1st of each month.

The reason I adore her is she writes astrological predictions for Hollywood agents, which I find hysterical…it’s another world!

At the beginning of October she advised that in the first week of the month Taureans must be pro-active in creating their futures. This set the Fripp/Cox household into a focussed frenzy of communications.

I set about writing to all the people I want to work with and by the end of the week I had landed 6 movies for 2017. Even my agent took the advice and we were all completely amazed it worked!

Then other, unexpected, work offers landed on our desks…..artwork requests, song requests, documentary requests, directing offers and script advisory positions.

NOW if you know me at all, you know I cannot say NO to work. I love working; it is constantly rewarding and exciting.

Three of the movies next year will only need me on set for a couple of days….but the other 3 movies will need me around for a month or so and they are big budget, mega story extravaganzas.

One of the productions is CRIME AND PUNISHMENT……this is going to take a lot of work. We are initially filming the stage performance as is, slotting myself as actress/singer into one of the characters/ writing 3 new songs / replacing the backing track score with the live TOYAH BAND and myself directing the camera work alongside Phil Willmott directing the actual show which will be filmed in a theatre in front of an invited audience.

(Unless I can find a suitable film director…, which would make my life a lot easier.)

The idea being the stage production exists for cinemas to stream and for the DVD buying public to be able to purchase the production.  Then, in a year or so, we move on to having a full-length feature film being proposed, with A-listers i.e.: Rocky Horror/ Phantom / Les Mis territory.

This week I am briefly working with John Godber on a film in Hull, THE LAST LAUGH.  John and I have tried, umpteen times, to work together over the decades.

In fact the day he sent me the script for The Laugh, I was looking through my script library and found a letter from him dated 1991, asking me to tour SALT OF THE EARTH with him.

John like myself is proactive in all that he does.  In fact I find him inspirational in his commitment, drive and vision. A giant of a guy.

The only time we could meet up, last month, before filming was at the Tribeca in Manchester. My dressing room was a mirror ball den in the basement with 5 beds in it. As John and his family entered I explained the beds where in my rider….he made no comment.

The TriBeCa by the way was a F—— FABULOUS gig……what a fun night.

Mind you all the gigs in October where “the cherry on top of the cake”…my goodness Bristol Fleece felt like God entered the room and boogied with us……it was sublime.

On many occasions this year I have experienced a presence on stage next to me, and on these occasions the show has turned into an event beyond the shows usual experience…….something charged the air into a frenzy.

This happened at Muni in Colne, the Devon Hall in Bideford and in Bristol Fleece. At the Muni I actually thought there was someone standing between Wong and myself on two occasions, making me turn and look at the space between us.  It has been such a weird year nothing would surprise me! 

This week I took part on two documentaries; one on Pete Burns ….who deserves to be remembered for his brilliant mind. And the other on Marc Bolan. For the Marc Bolan documentary I was asked to find my original vinyl albums.

So I crawled up into the attic space where my vinyl collection is stored and looked through the collection I started when I moved to London in 1976…..my god it is a brilliant collection. I sat in the attic and was in awe of what I have.

Roxy Music, Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Pere Ubu, Tubes, Devo, Human League, Alice Cooper, Bowie, Fripp and Eno, Velvet Underground, Neco, Lou Reed, everything that made me want to be a musician……I never thought I would hear myself saying something so retrospective…..but those were good old days!

As it is Halloween I am going to list the books I have read this past month…..they are goodies: 

THE SUPER NATURE: WHITELY STRIEBER/ JEFFREY J. KRIPAL
LIFE BETWEEN LIFE: DR. JOEL L. WHITTON/ JOE FISHER
AUTHORS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE: JEFFREY J. KRIPAL
CONFIRMATION: WHITELY STRIEBER
PRODUCER TO PRODUCER: MAUREEN A. RYAN

 All my favourite subject! Otherworldliness.

Not for the faint hearted…..as they challenge our belief of what is real and what is not.

Have a wonderful November!

BE PROUD, BE LOUD, BE HEARD!

LOVE TOYAH

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