I first heard this album by chance just a couple of weeks after it was released. I was 16 at the time and it was just one of a stack of records I'd borrowed from the local library. I'd never heard of Toyah, and in fact I'd only borrowed it because I really liked the cover, (to this day it still remains one of my all time favourite record sleeves).
Listening to it was an absolute revelation for me as I'd never heard music like it before. I'd been enjoying Prog music like Genesis and King Crimson for years and didn't really listen to anything else. I also never listened to music radio, read the music papers, or watched Top Of The Pops, so I had no idea of what was going on in the post-punk music world.
Thanks to this album I actively sought out new music to listen to, and soon I was enjoying bands like Magazine and Siouxsie And The Banshees, as well as all the old Prog stuff, which I'll always love. I even discovered a wonderful DJ called John Peel who played all kinds of weird and wonderful music on his late night Radio One show. It was a very exciting time for me, and it was all thanks to this one amazing album.
Right from the opening chords of "Victims Of The Riddle" you can tell there's a musical treat heading your way. The music is raw, but the quality of the recording is absolutely top notch, in fact it's one of the best live recordings I've ever heard. The band itself sound incredibly tight, and Toyah's voice has never been better. Apparently she was pretty exhausted around the time of this concert but you can't tell, if anything she sounds like she's having the time of her life, especially during the hyperactive version of" Tribal Look".
This new version of the album comes with eight extra tracks not included on the original release, four of which were recorded during the 1982 Changeling tour. To be honest these four extra "Changeling" tracks don't really do much for me. It's not because they're bad as such, it's just that they obviously belong on a re-release of Warrior Rock and not on this album. Toyah Toyah Toyah is such a unique snapshot of the band performing as they did in 1980 that even tracks from just two years later seem really out of place.
Anyway if you want to hear Toyah live and at their very pre-pop best get yourself a copy of this album right away. In fact get two, as you'll wear the first one out in about a week.