Trafford Tanzi , Mermaid Theatre 1983
HELLO THERE!
LOVE IS THE LAW remastered/expanded is out on FRIDAY 8 NOVEMBER!
I adore this album, I adored 1983. It was a magnificent year, performing in Trafford Tanzi, filming Ebony Tower and writing and recording this fantastic album.
We recorded it at The Marquee Studios…..where I recorded Victims Of The Riddle for Sheep Farming In Barnet and recorded Space Walking for Blue Meaning.
The Marquee has always been a happy creative space for me and I return there at the end of this month to take part in a documentary celebrating its remarkable history.
Enjoy LOVE IS THE LAW…….MARTIAN COWBOY/ I EXPLODE/ well all of its brilliant songs…it is a lovely complete listen…as albums were intended to be at that time. The writing process brought Simon Darlow back into my life and he has never left since!
Me, Simon Darlow & Joel Bogen: Marquee Studios 1983
News just in!
I am appearing with the SAS BAND for a trio of concerts on the 4/5th Dec at The Brook in Southampton and on the 7th Dec at G-Live in Guildford. The 5th December date at The Brook and the 7th at G-Live are already sold out, but there are tickets still for the 4th. There will also be a livestream of the concert on the 7th Dec that you can register for at the SAS BAND website.
Last week Spike Edney text me asking me to call him, when he answered he told me about the desert sun in Palm Springs where he resides……I looked out at the darkening UK sky and felt envy! The SAS BAND is a wonderful collective of artists, as yet I am not sure of the full line up, it’s due to be revealed in the coming weeks. It’s always incredibly enjoyable and it will be a great way for me to warm up for the TOYAH AND ROBERT CHRISTMAS PARTY which starts one day after Strictly finishes, in Edinburgh…..Monday 16th Dec.
Then on to 2025!
I haven’t gone into a new year with such a fluctuating diary. For the last four years I have known the shape of each year well in advance. I know what I want to do in 2025…..new projects, new writing, new everything but very interesting and unusual offers keep arising!
It’s been such a thrill to reveal the Old Mill. I have kept it under wraps since May when my offer was accepted to buy it. How I came to buy it is a strange as owning it.
A friend and neighbour who is a production designer for movies and works on and off at Pinewood Studios was looking for film locations and realised one location he found on RightMove matched a story I told him about my childhood where my parents and I would volunteer to man a lock on the River Avon once a month, this lock was next to a 100 foot weir….which I would walk along to reach an old mill and play in the mill streams.
He sent me a WhatsApp of this Mill saying “Isn’t this where you played as a child?” and the rest is now history…..it WAS the Mill of my childhood. The next day I booked a viewing, which happened to be exactly one hour after discovering I had landed Strictly and within two hours…..I’d bought the Mill….give or take six weeks of my legal team working flat out but we did it.
From mid-May till the first week in October the pace of my life has been like no other year. Now I can be at the Old Mill where I can focus on creativity, writing/ painting/ devising new projects. If my parents were still here they would be thrilled, Every time we passed the Mill on our boat Mum would say how much she wished to live there.
My life is just about getting back to “normal” after leaving Strictly. I miss the team, the camaraderie, the pressure and the creatives all under one roof. AND I miss that feeling that hit my stomach at 5pm on a Saturday, realising that the show was in one hour and like it or not, ready or not……you had to dance! It was thrilling!
Three Men And a Horse
I return for the last show in December but I am not hanging about instead I am getting on with plans that were put on hold throughout this summer. The three book ideas are getting my full attention. I must say I don’t find books easy, holding an entire book in my head is overwhelming. It’s fabulous having time to focus on songwriting and developing future ideas for live shows.
In one sense Strictly has helped me get perspective on myself. With no children, nor grandchildren in my life, my age in my head and my self identity has kind of fixed at around my 30s, and once in the company of all the brilliant pro dancers on Strictly I soon realised I was to them….. an old women! In a way I am now adapting myself to exactly that.
It’s freeing, no one expects anything of me and what I do deliver is a bonus and a surprise…….the pressure is off from the outside world…..I just have my own expectations to deal with.
I have just googled “FAMOUS OLD WOMEN” expecting a list of notorious trouble makers and these names came up ( I am truly shocked): DIANE KEATON, SOPHIA LOREN, HALLE BERRY, HELEN MIRREN, MERYL STREEP, SALMA HAYEK, VIOLA DAVIS and SANDRA BULLOCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
These women are all timeless goddesses! AND some of them are still in their 50s….which is young! This is a rather fabulous wake up call…….I am now allowed to do “old people” things….like be eccentric and above all totally independent. It doesn’t take much to be notorious these days……i am making it an ambition for 2025. It’s a weird autonomy and I LIKE IT.
In 1988 I performed in a National Theatre production called THREE MEN ON A HORSE at The Vaudeville Theatre about a group of gamblers and a showgirl. I played the showgirl and lover to Ken Stott’s dandy. During the run I became very close to actor Des Barrett and have remained a life long friend with him, he went on to become a superstar of the RSC. Des was 80 two weeks ago and invited myself and Robert to Joe Allen’s for supper with all his friends…….when I walked in I was blown away. Nicholas Hytner, Dawn French, Alison Steadman to name just a few……the room was full of the golden age of theatre.
French & Saunders 1988
Dawn came over and sat with us and reminisced with Robert about the French and Saunders episode where I was making a video and Dawn and Jennifer were on a large hamster wheel….. I don’t think Robert has ever seen it even though we were married by the time I made that show.
I was quick to remind Dawn of the TV film THE TALE OF LITTLE PIG ROBINSON, where both Dawn and Jennifer played pigs alongside Timothy Spall and I playing the ship’s cats. I harbour the idea these will play on TV again, along with THE EBONY TOWER…….FABULOUS!
So many of the actors came up to me and congratulated me on Strictly saying I was fabulous and danced brilliantly and they were rooting for me. They were all extremely kind and genuine, it meant A LOT to me. Hopefully in the not too distant future I will get perspective on what I actually did on the show. It still remains a complete blur other than the actual process of prepping the dances.
Robert and I are now prepping for the TOYAH AND ROBERT CHRISTMAS PARTY!
Snowmen have been ordered, penguins by the dozen …..all inflatable of course. It will be a fabulous end to 2024 for us. It was another great year playing stunning festivals. The events where outstanding, Beautiful Days effected both of us very positively, we were so impressed with the audience care, the venue was magical and the owners obviously invested everything back into the audience experience.
SEE YOU AT A VENUE NEAR YOU VERY SOON!
BE PROUD, BE LOUD, BE HEARD!
LOVE TOYAH
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Me, Sir Laurence Olivier & Greta Scacchi The Ebony Tower 1983