Dag 1373: The Blue Meanies

Once upon a time on the evening of 2nd December 1979 I watched an episode of Shoestring. Hapless Eddie Shoestring was a DJ with Radio West and in this particular episode, entitled Find the Lady, he is asked, by the singer of a new wave band, to investigate the disappearence of an ex band member who was convinced the band's manager had murdered his girlfriend. The singer happened to be Toyah Willcox and during the show we saw her playing some songs live.

I thought these songs were fantastic and wanted to find out more. I fired up my Macbook Pro, but the internet hadn't been invented yet so it was some time before I was able to find out who she was and that it was actually her real band playing some of her real song in the episode. I remember buying her first album, Sheep farming in Barnet as soon as it cam out and it was my favourite record for ages. I even put newspaper clipping and picturtes of her up on my bedroom wall.

When her second LP came out (The Blue Meaning) I bought it on cassette and I still have that copy in my old cassette collection. Although I mostly liked it, I didn't think it was anywhere near as good as the first album and, unfotunatley, by the time the next studio album was released (Anthem) I felt she had sold out to the world of pop and my musical tastes had honed themselves in other directions, though I still liked her early stuff and always have done since.



This is the title track from her second album.

Later on I discovered she had recorded an album with members of King Crimson called Ophelia's Shadow. I bought it on the strength of the cover and musicians and thought it was great - not a myschtery in sight. I later found a cassette by Sunday all over the world and found that very similar and equally as good.

I have never seen Toyah live, which is a shame, but she has an album called "In the court of the Crimson Queen" due out next year, so there may still be a chance yet.



Let's heal ourselves.