Comments for Toyah, Live & More

This is a neat little compilation. Most of the best tracks from Warrior rock and a few from Toyah x3. The studio tracks are an interesting choice as well. Urban tribesman is nice to finally have on CD as is To the mountains high. It's about time that Mayhem was touched and with a great choice. Father Christmas even has a 1,2,3,4 intro which wasn't released on the LP. The sound quality and editing is A+. Most of the live tracks blend together seemlessly. You wouldn't even notice that they were on different spot on the original album or from different albums for that matter. Time to re-issue the rest of the back catalog, now isn't it! Scott Davies 6/24/98

It's good to see more of Toyah's back catalogue to be released on CD, although I can't figure out why they haven't released the original Warrior Rock album in its total length. The sad thing about this compilation is the absence of those breathtaking live versions of Castaways and Danced from Warrior Rock. The choice of the three studio recordings seems a little uninspired, I wonder if anyone ever notices that Laughing With The Fools is one of those forgotten jewels from Toyah's B-sides that has to be released on CD just like all those Safari albums. A friend of mine was told at the Virgin megastore that the Safari Albums had been released on CD by Clue Records, but aren't available anymore. I don't believe it for a second, as no-one else knows anything about it. Congratulations To Connoisseur Records however for another fine release.

Good versions of ''Neon Womb'',''Danced'' and ''Ieya''. The original band played these much better. I would have liked to see ''In The Fairground'' and ''Voodoo Doll'' included but maybe next time! I''ll just add that it is about time that the full Toyah albums are released on CD - especially ''The Changeling''. Original packaging please!

This is a budget CD subtitled "Live Favourites and Rarities". It consists of some live songs from Warrior Rock (marked with *) and Toyah ! Toyah ! Toyah ! (marked with **) It also includes some studio recordings for the first time on CD (marked ***). It`s a welcome release on CD. Hopefully someone will re-release the other Safari albums on CD soon. Please !!!!

The reason to buy this for me is to have the live stuff from Warrior Rock. Toyah's band for the Changeling tour of 1982 was the best line-up without doubt, mostly due to the matured talents of Bogen, Spalding and Hale. But it's the powerhouse that is Simon Phillips on drums that makes Warrior Rock such a must own album. So it's a great shame to discover that Neon Womb and Victims of the Riddle (both tracks that Phillips performed live on the tour) are here simply taken from the less impressive Toyah Toyah Toyah album. Worse still Castaways and the Packt, Two of the best performances on WR are excluded. Danced and Ieya are the lesser live versions from 1980 - which make for an uneven set when following the Phillips versions. Somebody really should look into releasing Warrior Rock and adding some of the other tracks that were recorded on 17th/18th July 1982. Neon Womb and Victims in particular were amazing. According the Simon Phillips, this is one of his finest live gigs and its astonishing that the only access to Warrior Rock on CD is through this mixed bag. It doesn't help that Toyah is now seen as 80's kitsch, now more famous as a TV presenter, making her music career seem of no interest to many, yet for musicians and fans of live recordings Warrior Rock is a landmark album. Buy this CD for a flawed overview of Toyah the performer, but wait(?) for Warrior Rock if you want a cohesive live performance of Toyah - the band.