Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! - Toyah (1980)

It's verging on a crime to admit that you were a fan of Toyah these days, or at least once admitted it's expected that you'll have the common decency to look embarrassed and remove yourself from the room. However, I was a fan and saw the band in concert a few times. I do have a limit though and it was pretty much reached soon after the release of this album.

The bands early career from 1979 - 1980 is where they had me hook, line and sinker; 5 singles and three albums, all still sounding great to my ears. This was recorded to coincide with an ATV television documentary on Toyah, also shown in '80. This album's panned by many as crap, I always liked it and still do.

It's easy to forget, and dismiss, the impact the band had in their early days, they really did stand out from the crowd and were still grouped into the punk category, despite what she says in the documentary. Without the punk crowd, gigs would have be spartan and they might not have achieved the commercial success that was just over the horizon from this release.

In early '81 the band released "four from Toyah" which included the song "It's a Mystery" and that was it, so ended my mini love affair with Toyah.

I saw the band for the last time in '81 and felt totally out of place, as gone were most of the punks being replaced with screaming kids. I saw the exact same thing with Adam & the Ants a month or so later.

The ATV television documentary

Mediafire