Husband and wife duo Robert Fripp and Toyah Willcox are back again with their Sunday Lunch series, where they cover various artists each week with their typical eccentric performances. This time around they’ve dusted off an old Queens of the Stone Age classic, making their own special rendition of the song “No One Knows“.
The video shows Fripp with a yellow waistcoat and colourful tie, as Toyah dons a white dress and reflective sunglasses, singing the track’s tune and turning it into what NME describes as a “moody, haunting number“. According to the description, “Toyah has a new keep fit regime” as she jogs on the spot against Fripp’s strident guitar strums.
The couple started their Sunday Lunch series back in 2020 when Fripp was finding himself lost without being able to perform live. Toyah explained; “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”.
They’ve been covering classic songs from a whole host of different artists, ranging from David Bowie to Metallica and The Clash (their cover of the latter’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go“ can be read about here).
It’s not just music either. Some of the other social media tasks they’ve taken upon themselves since lockdown include Q&As with fans and agony aunt talks. If you want to see what it’s all about, you can subscribe to Toyah’s YouTube channel over here.
However, it’s not all been plain sailing for one of the duo. Fripp is involved in a lawsuit against Universal Music Group. It concerns royalties for a King Crimson sample in Kanye West’s song “Power“, believing his party to have been underpaid for their streaming royalties. Fripp’s been a notorious defender of King Crimson’s royalties and copyright over the last few years. You can read more about the lawsuit here.
Fripp said on Facebook that “There is a longer story to be told, and likely to astound innocents and decent, ordinary people who believe that one is paid equitably for their work, and on the appointed payday. This dispute has been dragging on for several years, unnecessarily IMO.”
As for Toyah, her album Posh Pop from last August was her first since 2008’s In the Court of the Crimson Queen, and she’s got a lot of tour dates coming up, tickets for which can be gotten here.
