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echo beach (gane) moonlight dancing (willcox/bogen/graham) revive the world (willcox/geballe) the view (willcox/lee) moon migration (willcox/wooley) love’s unkind (summer/moroder/bellotte) dear diary (willcox/darlow) deadly as a woman (willcox/graham) goodbye baby (willcox/graham/darlow) when a woman cries (willcox) desire (willcox/fripp) TENTERHOOKS Unavailable for many years since its original 1987 release, Desire has developed a reputation amongst collectors as Toyah’s “lost” album, with those coming to her music in more recent years having to turn to eBay to track it down, original CD copies changing hands for sums in excess of £50. Whilst a full-blown hard copy CD reissue waits in the wings of a parallel universe, the music at least is now obtainable in this reissue for the digital age. To fully understand the thrust and the themes of this, Toyah’s sixth studio album, it is important to get some idea of the background and the events leading up to it. The album preceding Desire was 1985’s Minx; the first album where a band was not visible. Moreover, the album was the first time the creative joint forces of Joel Bogen and Toyah Willcox were predominantly absent since 1977. Save for one album track and a song relegated to a B-Side, Minx’s original material was written without Bogen and he did not play guitar on any of the sessions. Minx was released in 1985 on Portrait/CBS and despite the strong imagery and high profile media coverage, there was no follow up on that label. As a result, on the surface 1986 appeared to be a quieter year for Toyah. It was a very different matter behind the scenes. Her acting career took a front seat as she appeared in the Film4 production The Disputation and two plays for BBC Radio 3, including Michael Wall’s subsequently banned and critically acclaimed Head Crash. EG, who had been managing Toyah since 1983, released a spoken word album The Lady or the Tiger on their Considered as an artistic work, it’s one with a split personality, a Editions EG label, a collaboration featuring Toyah reading the musical Janus standing at the crossroads of a career. famous short story by Frank R Stockton to the backing of ambient soundscapes from their debut signing, guitarist Robert Fripp, who A few of the tracks are reminiscent of the material on Minx and shortly afterwards became Toyah’s husband. earlier. Long term fans were surprised at the time to discover that Moonlight Dancing - which was subsequently released as the second Desire was not the full collaboration between the two of them that single - contains lyrics first heard way back in 1982 in the coda of a some might have expected – that was to come later with their re-recorded version of Dawn Chorus which was performed on BBC band Fripp Fripp, later renamed Sunday All Over The World. television programme 6.55 Special. Musically as well as lyrically Toyah and Robert had already written and recorded a couple of this track resonates with material of the later Safari catalogue. tracks together before starting work on Desire – Mothership and Freedom – but these were held back for later projects. Robert did Dear Diary on the other hand sounds more like something from still contribute to the album however, playing guitar on many of Minx; glossy Eighties bounce-pop complete with power chords. the tracks and even co-writing the title track and cornerstone of Goodbye Baby rounds off the trilogy of more nostalgic tracks, its the album, Desire. forceful rhythm mixing guitars and minor key synthesiser riffs in a manner somewhat redolent of The Changeling or Love is the Law Desire was recorded at the famous Abbey Road Studios in the eras. autumn and winter of 1986 and produced by Mike Hedges. Mike was already well known for his work with The Cure, Siouxsie and Lulled into a false sense of security by these more familiar themes, the Banshees and Marc Almond and in later years went on to most of the remainder of the album must have come as a surprise at work with, amongst others, The Beautiful South, Lush, Manic the time when a new and mature, avant garde Toyah made her first Street Preachers and U2. Haydn Bendall, who had worked on appearance on side one, stepping forth through the tightly woven Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love at Abbey Road the year before, multiple guitar patterns of Revive the World. The unfamiliarity of engineered the album that was recorded with a fairly solid line-up this new sound must have been like opening a door in a corner of a of musicians. Most notably Ronnie Wood from The Rolling Stones familiar house and discovering a whole new wing. popped in to guest on one track, Dear Diary. The driving tempo of Revive the World carries across into The View Listened to afresh after a gap of many years, Desire appears to taking the journey through more unfamiliar territory before arriving be not so much a “lost album” as a missing link, with musical and in the vast ambient echo chamber of Moon Migration. On side two lyrical echoes both backward to the past and forward to the future. another aspect of the new style is revealed as Deadly as a Woman and When a Woman Cries share a slow and sinister female melancholy before the album slides to a conclusion via its slinky title track, Desire, consolidating the disparate elements of the fresh material against the background of a casual but relentless strolling rhythm. Whilst it was still recognisably Toyah, this style opened up her oeuvre to different directions and set out a manifesto for the next stage in her musical career. The music was experimental, inventive and strange, the lyrics uncompromising stories told in a unique voice with a feminist point of view. This was music to be listened to, not played in the background. The collaborations with Tony Geballe were originally written when both he and Toyah attended Robert Fripp’s renowned ‘Guitar Craft’ workshops in America and in addition to the B-sides from this era, Plenty, Sun Up and Re-entry into Dance, all reflected the new style, clearly part of the album’s future-looking face. Unfortunately there was a third face, a rogue personality, lurking in the cracks of the album as evidenced by the opening tracks from each side of the album Echo Beach (released as a single) and Love’s Unkind. Not chosen by Toyah, these were forced upon her by the record company who only agreed to pay for the rest of the album if she agreed to add these to the track list, allegedly to give the album what they considered a more “rounded” feel. EG also financed a very glossy and self-consciously sophisticated video for Echo Beach which subsequently ended up being the last chart single Toyah had in the UK. Given its unsettled background and how busy Toyah’s acting career Toyah was unhappy about these additions (whilst Echo Beach was in 1987 (amongst other things she appeared on stage in two has now entered her live set, she still considers Love’s Unkind the West End hits, Cabaret and Three Men on a Horse) it is unsurprising nadir of her studio recordings) and about the way she was being that like its predecessor, Desire had no live tour associated with it. treated in general - once she had put down the vocal the project Although the aforementioned Echo Beach is performed frequently was effectively taken out of her hands. by Toyah nowadays, it was years before some of the songs were performed live. Revive The World’s intense guitar picking style would Back when Minx had been released some of the old school fans later be revisited in live form during concerts with the German- had voiced the opinion that the more commercial sound and the British-Australian King Crimson-inspired band Kiss of Reality inclusion of cover versions meant that Toyah’s creative output was whom Toyah would tour and record one album with in 1993. The beginning to suffer from major label meddling. Whilst this wasn’t title track would also be afforded an even rockier interpretation on in fact the case, it is ironic that the production of its follow up was a UK tour of rock clubs in 1993. The remainder have never been so blighted - especially given the fact that some of the audience performed to this day. had been expecting something “a hundred per cent heavier than Minx” (part of a message Toyah recorded for fans in autumn Despite its troubled history, in the final analysis Desire is a solid 1986). album with some very good songs on it and a fascinating study of just how much genuine talent can achieve even in the face of adversity. The label’s interference didn’t stop at an inappropriate choice As the birthplace of the next phase in Toyah’s music career it is of cover versions. To Toyah’s increasing frustration it became intriguing to listen to the nascent leitmotifs of what would become apparent that members of the record company team weren’t her stock in trade over the next few years. seeing her as an individual but more as a resource. A lot of this very probably came about as a result of an old fashioned chauvinistic attitude towards women; shockingly they would quite openly discuss her career with her husband rather than with her. CHRIS LIMB Toyah’s ultimate reaction to the blatant misogyny she encountered whilst recording Desire was a creative one as her follow up album, the experimental, uncompromising and quite brilliant album Prostitute, would demonstrate in 1988.

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