She attended Edgbaston C of E College where she gained a GCE pass in music and trained as an actress at the Old Rep Drama School in her home town of Birmingham. Toyah's father ran successful joinery businesses.
She first became well-known during the punk rock era, her appearances in Derek Jarman's 1977 film Jubilee and 1979's Who album-inspired Quadrophenia launching her as a provocative and anti-establishment figure, an image she eventually abandoned.
Fronting a band known as Toyah, her singing career was slow to take off and the band released six singles in the UK before finally hitting the charts in 1981, with "It's A Mystery" and "I Want To Be Free". These singles were also successful on an international level. In 1982, she was voted Best Female Singer at the British Rock and Pop Awards — since restyled as The BRIT Awards, or "BRITs" — and in 1986 she married UK guitarist Robert Fripp. She was one of the first acts to score regularly in the UK Singles Chart with EPs. Also in 1986, Willcox sang lead on the Tony Banks track "Lion of Symmetry". In 1987 she made the top fifty with her version of "Echo Beach".
Since then, she has become a well-known (and more conventional) face on television and in the theatre. She has played straight roles, including in Quatermass (1979) and in Shakespeare plays, and appeared as a presenter of programmes such as Songs of Praise, Holiday (BBC), and Good Sex Guide Late. In 1999, she took the lead in the children's television series, Barmy Aunt Boomerang. She also provides the voiceover for the children's television programmes, the Teletubbies and Brum. More recently, she appeared in the reality television series I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! and I'm Famous and Frightened!.
Following her 2000 autobiography Living Out Loud, Toyah had a further autobiographical book published in 2005 documenting her experience of cosmetic surgery, Diary of a Facelift.
She has appeared on radio including the 2002 BBC Radio 4 series The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
She continues to perform with her band, releasing a live DVD in 2005, and has a busy schedule with theatre commitments, including appearing on stage in London's West End performing the title role of Calamity Jane at the Shaftesbury Theatre in 2003.
She is currently appearing in the musical 'Vampire's Rock' in theatres across the UK.
The View
Toyah Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
your house is a room I avoid Full
of junk and broken toys In
my house In...
my house Ideas
grow and levitate In
your house Is
I can touch the sky I
can feel freedom I
can taste purity I
cast off chains To
put them on again In.
your house Time
expands and touches on experience In
my house There
is a roof I reach through deceiptive means To
see the view And
I can touch the sky I
can feel freedom I
can taste purity I
cast off chains To
put them on again And.
I can touch the sky I
can feel freedom I
can taste purity I
cast off chains To
put them on again To
put them on again
The lyrics to Toyah's song The View seem to be about the contrast between two houses, one filled with junk and broken toys, and one where ideas grow and levitate. The singer seems to spend most of their time in the latter house, where they obey a voice and feel a sense of freedom and purity. In contrast, the former house seems to represent a state of confinement, with time expanding to touch on negative experiences. Despite this, the singer still reaches through deceptive means to see the view from that house, potentially indicating a sense of longing or regret.
The repetition of the lines "And I can touch the sky, I can feel freedom, I can taste purity, I cast off chains to put them on again" throughout the song creates a sense of cyclical movement, as though the singer is constantly moving between these two houses and experiencing both freedom and confinement. Overall, the lyrics seem to explore the complexities of human emotion and the ways in which we can simultaneously feel both liberated and trapped.
Line by Line Meaning
In your house is a room I avoid
There is a particular room in your house that I intentionally stay away from
Full of junk and broken toys In my house In...
The room in your house is cluttered with things that are no longer functional while in my house it is not the case
my house Ideas grow and levitate
In my house, thoughts and ideas take flight and expand
In your house Is a voice I obey
Your house contains a voice that I submit to
And I can touch the sky I can feel freedom I can taste purity I cast off chains To put them on again In your house
In your house, I am momentarily able to experience freedom, purity and liberation but eventually become constrained again
Time expands and touches on experience In my house
In my house, time seems to have a prolonging and an enhancing effect on experiences
There is a roof I reach through deceptive means To see the view
I resort to deceitful tactics to gain access to a roof and enjoy the scenery
And I can touch the sky I can feel freedom I can taste purity I cast off chains To put them on again
I am able to briefly experience freedom, purity and liberation but at the same time, I become restricted again
To put them on again
I intentionally subject myself to the same restrictions
Contributed by Julian L. Suggest a correction in the comments below.