Page "Toyah Willcox" Paragraph 19

Willcox's performance in Glitter ( 1976 ), which some years later she remembered as embarrassing, provided nevertheless a crucial impulse to start musical career of her own.

" Inspired by the band, the equipment, the volume, the ambience ... my mind was set.

I had to put a band together myself, or get into one ...

quick!

", she said.

In 1977, while with the London's National Theatre playing Emma in Tales from the Vienna Woods, Willcox fronted a band called Toyah which featured Joel Bogen on guitar, Mark Henry on bass, Steve Bray on drums, Peter Bush on keyboards, and herself on vocals, cutting " a very striking visual image at this time with bright orange hair with pink tips ".

She never considered herself a musician.

" I was writing poetry.

Most of that poetry went onto an album called Anthem.

But I've never really been a musician.

I'm a lyricist primarily.

So back then I was writing poetry and learning what I loved about a song ", she later recalled.