For those unaware, the third instalment in Cherry Red’s deluxe re-issue series of Toyah’s Safari Records back catalogue is the 1980 live album Toyah! Toyah! Toyah!.

Now released as an expanded deluxe CD+DVD and a Limited Edition Color Vinyl LP (May 13th, 2022), the live album originally peaked at #22 in the UK Top 40 Album Chart in 1980 and also spent an entire year in the Independent Album Chart, earning a Silver sales certification.

The recorded gig took place on June 17th, 1980 at the legendary Club Lafayette, Wolverhampton where Sex Pistols, Led Zeppelin and Stevie Wonder all performed.

The gig was recorded on the Rolling Stones’ Mobile Recording Unit and has been remastered from the original master tapes by Nick Watson.

The CD features the entire original live album along with previously unreleased songs ‘She’, a reprise of ‘Danced’ and an unedited complete version of ‘Neon Womb’ [which originally faded early as the B-Side of live single ‘Danced’].

Disc One: Toyah! Toyah! Toyah!
1 Victims Of The Riddle
2 Indecision
3 Love Me
4 Vision
5 Bird In Flight
6 Tribal Look
7 Danced
8 Insects
9 Race Through Space
10 Ieya
11 Ghosts [Bonus Track]
12 Neon Womb (Unedited)* [Bonus Track]
13 She* [Bonus Track]
14 Danced (Encore Version)* [Bonus Track]

*Previously unreleased

Featuring the diminutive Toyah Wilcox (4ft 10in) when she was more Siouxsie Sioux and not so Kate Bush, Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! captures her full bloodied early eighties concert in Wolverhampton, England to absolute perfection.

An acquired taste for a lot of music listeners, given her tendency to scream with her God-given noticeable lisp in tow, combined with a severe personality for on stage, and most times, buoyantly colorful delivery, Toyah and her severely spikey orange (for the most part of her career, but just a floppy mop for this early tour!) hair were either going to sink or swim from the very off (luckily for us, she could swim with the big dogs at the time in the charts).

That said, Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! is most definitely for fans who crave a document of her scrappy early years. With only two albums under her belt at the time of this recording, the new wave diva sounds urgent, hungry, and just as sharp as her haircut while her band rocks with that jagged, amphetamine beat, occasionally slowing down for the dramatic sci-fi numbers like Insects.

A year later she would release the fantastical and heavy album Anthem and so began phase two of her career, so this is a kiss goodbye to the days of Derek Jarman and anti-establishment with some songs that wouldn’t be on future set lists.

Not that there is any other kind of Toyah fan, but this is strictly for the hardcore, especially now as the original album now has the four aforementioned bonus tracks: the propulsive Ghosts, the trippy Neon Womb, the hauntingly ethereal She, and the hyperactive (just watch the original video and try to keep up with the Toyah keep fit routine!) Danced.

Disc Two: Toyah - The ATV Documentary

With sleeve notes by Craig Astley, Toyah’s official archivist, who also compiled the package, the CD+DVD set finally restores the full concert set list and pairs the live album with a DVD of the 1980 television documentary Toyah, released on disc for the first time ever.

Directed by Graham Moore and originally broadcast by ATV (a regional ITV channel better known as Associated TeleVision) on November 17th, 1980, it followed Toyah for over half a year capturing band rehearsals, studio recording sessions, play rehearsals and in her then-home, the notorious Battersea warehouse Mayhem.

A pure and unadulterated slice of grainy heaven, the ATV Documentary is everything you could ever hope it to be in a flashback look at one of England’s most beloved alt-rockers.

With her freshly-washed, freshly-tinted bright orange hair free flowing, bouncing all around as she walks, talks, laughs and performs, Toyah (at just 22 years-old) is the epitome of someone enjoying every second of their chosen career.

During the interview portions, she reveals she would like to become a ... commercial cult figure, because I believe if you are a cult performer your following is so strong, and so religious, that they are fans of yours the whole of your working life.

It also now includes promo video-style footage of ‘Neon Womb’ and ‘Blue Meanings’ and concert footage of ‘Insects’, ‘Danced’ and ‘Ieya’.

The CD+DVD contains a fully illustrated 24-page booklet featuring an introductory note from Toyah alongside rare and unseen photography of Toyah and the band line-up which disbanded before this album’s original release.

Official 2CD Purchase Link

www.toyahwillcox.com