when Toyah attacks...MADONNA!

[Bad Penny]

Aren't we being a tad harsh on Safari here? A fairly artist-friendly label who were behind all Toyah's major successes - which came at a fairly unprecedented level for an early independent. The Boys were very positive about all the label did for them.

[toyah]

no doubt, Safari made things happen, but they didn't seem interested in America,
even when "Thunder In The Mountains" wound up on MTV in 1982 as
a result of a fan getting it into light rotation, they did nothing to
follow up on it, such as getting her over here to be interviewed, do a few gigs,
etc..
.and when Miles Copeland tried to bring her to America via an A&M/IRS Records compliation(which is why
he included her in "Urgh A Music war") Safari foolishly resisted;
I think this is one of the reasons that she fled the Safari deal as
quickly as she could...

[Frank_Chickens]

Agreed, Safari were friendly towards artists but not many of them were having hits so money was tight and most probably didn´t have the financial clout to promote acts elsewhere. Unfortunately by the time Toyah escaped Safari, it could be argued that her time of having big hits was coming to an end.


--

"As chairman of the Cradle of Filth fanclub I'm the most insensitive man in Britain, but even I can see there's tension there"

[toyah]

this from the Toyah fansite "Netscape"

BBC Radio Nottingham - Click Of The Day - Toyah talks Crimson Queen
Thursday 18th September, 2008......................................................Radio
Another radio interview from Tuesday - from BBC Radio Nottingham. A part of which is currently available to listen to in their "Click Of The Day" feature.
Toyah Willcox is the latest big name to sign up for a tour with Bingham based production 'Vampires Rock.' Toyah and Steve Steinman, the show's creator, were guests with Alan Clifford on Drivetime, and Alan asked about Toyah's new album, 'In The Court of the Crimson Queen'.....

Toyah says that it was Simon Darlow who suggested calling the album 'In The Court Of The Crimson Queen', that Robert loves the album title ("at last my husband's done something for my career!!") , and that she is glad she used it, "It's been a bit of a blessing so far!"

Toyah also explains her comment about Madonna from last week's 'Telegraph' and as anyone would have guessed she was misquoted. She explained the interview was supposed to have been about Vampires Rock but the hack had a different agenda. She said: "He completely fabricated a hate relationship between me and Madonna. And apparently I'm a failure... I hope that journalist gets exposed for the dishonest human being he is."

Toyah even gives Simon Phillips a namecheck during this.

To listen to this please click on the image above and choose Tuesday's Click of the Day.

In The Court Of The Crimson Queen - iTunes
Thursday 18th September, 2008.......................................................Music
Another update on 'In The Court Of The Crimson Queen' at iTunes.
The album is currently at Number 22 on

[Bad Penny]

I note what you say about IRS/Miles Copeland - I didn't know that background. That's interesting because, of course, Safari had picked up Wayne County directly after he walked from Miles, on the basis that the lyrics were too hot to handle (I believe he specifically refused to release any version of '**** Off'). The other interesting thing about that being, when the latter did come out on Safari, it led them to true 'independence' by default - simply because Pye refused to have anything to do with distributing it.

I would still state though that, historically, UK chart placings don't necessarily serve as a prelude to similar American success, regardless of record company backing. Also, when she did sign an American contract, Toyah never got near to replicating her original success with Safari, and her hits in the UK also dwindled. Therefore hard to lay the blame for the lack of American profile solely with the indie that first launched her career.

[toyah]

what American contract?
NOTHING was released here until the late 80s, EG Records
releases "Prostitute" and a year or so later "Ophelia's Shadow", which were
decidely non Top 40 oriented...
by the way, word has it that Copeland DID want "Fuck Off" but wayne County's manager
at the time, Peter Crowley, steered Wayne to Safari(the former Purple Records,
Deep Purple's label) because of a big cash advance and the promise to
finance Wayne's transformation to Jayne(too bad the Internet wasn't around back then'
that would have been TMZ material for days!!!)

[SomebodySomewhere]

Speaking of Toyah's chart hits, is my taste just completely backwards from England's, or did she get REALLY good promotion in 1981? Because while I thought she had some decent songs that didn't do much, her top ten singles are painful to listen to. Especially "Thunder in the Mountains," which barely even qualifies as music to my ears.

And, no, she wouldn't have done anything in the States even if she had a major label deal. Not with that material.

[Frank_Chickens]

[quote][i]Originally posted by SomebodySomewhere[/i]
<br>Speaking of Toyah's chart hits, is my taste just completely backwards from England's, or did she get REALLY good promotion in 1981? Because while I thought she had some decent songs that didn't do much, her top ten singles are painful to listen to. Especially "Thunder in the Mountains," which barely even qualifies as music to my ears.

And, no, she wouldn't have done anything in the States even if she had a major label deal. Not with that material.
[/quote]

She certainly did in the UK as at the time you couldn't move with her appearances on TV and in magazines as well as a wide variety of merchandising.

However, whether this was self-promtion or that by Safari is another question, the answer to which is probably the former..


--

"As chairman of the Cradle of Filth fanclub I'm the most insensitive man in Britain, but even I can see there's tension there"

[toyah]

Speaking of Toyah's chart hits, is my taste just completely backwards from England's, or did she get REALLY good promotion in 1981? Because while I thought she had some decent songs that didn't do much, her top ten singles are painful to listen to. Especially "Thunder in the Mountains," which barely even qualifies as music to my ears.


you're entitled to your opinion;
MTV in the USA added "Thunder In The Mountains"(a GREAT single filled with youthful
energy)into 'light rotation' in 83 even without a US deal or any promotion for her
at all, cos they loved the song and the video;
several months later, they did the same with "Rebel Run",a golden opportunity
for Safari to license the tracks to a label in America; no effort was made on their part
to do so, and they seemed to dismiss MTV ,which was still new at the time;
who is your favorite female vocalist of that period? I'd be glad to render my'opinion on your
choice(probably some boring dentist office Annie Lennox records(yawn...)

[Frank_Chickens]

Also with Safari, the only other act to have a UK chart entry is Juluka (heard of them? Me neither) so Toyah was more or less bankrolling the label. Money must have been VERY tight as Safari were a tiny label in the first place and all Toyah did was delay the inevitable.

Shame, as any label which has English Evenings on them can't be all bad.


--

"As chairman of the Cradle of Filth fanclub I'm the most insensitive man in Britain, but even I can see there's tension there"

[zill]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Frank_Chickens[/i]
<br>Also with Safari, the only other act to have a UK chart entry is Juluka (heard of them? Me neither)
[/quote]

Juluka had a hit single in Canada with "Scatterlings of Africa", but I'd never heard of Toyah until joining this board in 2005.

[coop41]

[quote][i]Originally posted by zill[/i]
<br>[quote][i]Originally posted by Frank_Chickens[/i]
<br>Also with Safari, the only other act to have a UK chart entry is Juluka (heard of them? Me neither)
[/quote]

Juluka had a hit single in Canada with "Scatterlings of Africa", but I'd never heard of Toyah until joining this board in 2005.
[/quote]

I love that song. Never heard of Toyah until joining here also.

[WolverineSyr]

I was a major Toyah fan back in the day, no thanks to any kind of U.S. promotion. I bought a U.K. book called the Rock Yearbook or Year in Rock and Toyah was all through it. I was intrigued by that, and also the Anthem cover so I dug through our one import record store & found her first 3 albums. Absolutely loved them. I kept buying up until the Mayhem album.
I recall she was also featured in the Women in Rock book from about 81 or 82. I should dig them both out. I remember Cherry Vanilla was also featured in that one.

I agree on the inital comments about going to concert & not hearing any hits or anything recognizable. I saw Debbie Harry around '94 and the bulk of the show was slow stuff which I never heard before. This was around the time of the Debravasion cd & it could be she was just doing songs from that - gives you an impression how painful it was. I really love Deb more than any other artist, it was great to see her, but it wasn't the music that was memorable (she spit on me, THAT was what memories are made of!)

[SomebodySomewhere]

[quote][i]Originally posted by zill[/i]
<br>[quote][i]Originally posted by Frank_Chickens[/i]
<br>Also with Safari, the only other act to have a UK chart entry is Juluka (heard of them? Me neither)
[/quote]

Juluka had a hit single in Canada with "Scatterlings of Africa", but I'd never heard of Toyah until joining this board in 2005.[/quote]


Johnny Clegg is brilliant. Toyah is not. Case closed.

What else was on the Safari label, by the way? I know I have a few things on there, but the only band I can recall off the top of my head is Those French Girls. I'm pretty sure they went nowhere, but the "Sorry Sorry" single was a heckuva lot more memorable than any of Toyah's hits.

[toyah]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jayne_County
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=1-0c4lgvpb4