Singer/actress Toyah Willcox and her husband, King Crimson founder Robert Fripp, have been busy for quite a while now keeping fans entertained, releasing a number of eccentric covers of classic songs onto YouTube. Paying homage to artists such as Nirvana, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones and Alice Cooper, the couple post on Toyah’s YouTube channel every Sunday in their series, Toyah and Robert’s Sunday Lunch. Despite having a little break over the Christmas period, they’re back it at, returning last week with The Undertones’ “Teenage Kicks“.
Today they’ve continued with the punk theme, going for The Clash’s well known 1982 song “Should I Stay or Should I Go“. In the video, Toyah dons “a sheer lace body suit, black stockings, a police man’s hat and the same heart-shaped, black nipple covers from last week … [as she] sings and dances around the kitchen.“ Fripp, on the other hand, goes for the more conservative option; complimentary tie, shirt, waistcoat and Mohican-style hair trimmings.
Toyah wrote in the video’s description “They are back for another edition of Sunday Lunch. It’s always tease, tease, tease, you’re happy when I’m on my knees…. I don’t think we need to say anything else :-)”.
The couple started becoming more involved with social media over the lockdown, doing agony aunt talks and answering fan questions. The Sunday Lunch series began when Fripp felt the need to occupy her husband, with Toyah saying “Here I am in this house with this 74-year-old husband who I really don’t want to live without. He was withdrawing, so I thought: ‘I’m going to teach him to dance.’ And it became a challenge. I do the lighting, the filming, the conceptual side and the persuading Robert to take part”.
Another way the King Crimson star has been kept busy recently was by his wife’s latest album, Posh Pop, which was released last August. Made with songwriter and producer Simon Darlow, the album was her latest offering since 2008’s In the Court of the Crimson Queen.
On making the album, Willcox said “When COVID stopped everything last year, it allowed me to concentrate on writing and recording the next album …. ‘Posh Pop’ was a magical experience created out of the need and ability to make contact with our fans in a heartfelt way …. Working with Fripp in the studio, we just handed him the chord charts the day before and said: ‘We want you to come in and improvise and that’s what we’ll use’. It was spontaneous.“
If you want to see Toyah outside of her YouTube channel, she’ll be embarking on a tour to promote Posh Pop starting this February, taking her around the UK, with dates running up until September. If you’re interested in getting tickets, you can look here.
