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On this day, 10 June 1980, singer and actress Toyah played Cardiff’s Top Rank. She had just released her second album The Blue Meaning.
The album was recorded at the Parkgate Studios in Battle, East Sussex and mixed at the Marquee Studios in London. The album's title comes from blue being one of Toyah's favourite colours, which the singer finds deeply spiritual, with multiple cultural associations.
The album cover features a photo taken by Gered Mankowitz at night in front of a Gothic mansion Wykehurst Place, located in Bolney near Brighton. It pictures Toyah Willcox dressed in a maid outfit and wearing ballet shoes, tied to one of the entrance pillars. Other band members are pictured on the mansion's balconies
Between 1977 and 1983, Willcox fronted the eponymous band Toyah, before embarking on a solo career in the mid-1980s. At the 1982 Brit Awards, Willcox was nominated for British Breakthrough Act, and Best Female Solo Artist. She was nominated a further two times in this category in 1983, and in 1984. Her hit singles include "It's a Mystery", "Thunder in the Mountains" and "I Want to Be Free".
Relocating to London, Willcox lived in a place called "Mayhem", a converted British Rail warehouse serving as a studio.[citation needed] It was here the band Toyah recorded their first demos. For the lack of proper bed she slept for a while in a "second-hand" coffin, reportedly used by the French Red Cross to transport victims of fatal accidents.
Citing her role in Quadrophenia as a boost to her musical career, with growing audiences Toyah signed to Safari Records,[citation needed] releasing a debut single "Victims of the Riddle", which topped the UK Indie Chart. This was followed by the Sheep Farming in Barnet EP, produced by Steve James and Keith Hale. Initially released in Germany, in 1979 it was re-released as an LP, comprising the original six tracks, "Victims of the Riddle" A and B sides and three tracks that were previously unavailable on vinyl.
Her second album, The Blue Meaning, went to no. 40 in the UK Albums Chart in June 1980. By this time, she is reported as announcing she had severed all ties with punk aesthetics.
