Robert Fripp and Toyah Willcox — often called Toyah & Robert — caught up with NME backstage at Glastonbury 2023 to inform about the way forward for their profitable Sunday Lunch sequence, plans to hit the street, and the way they deal with hateful feedback.
Since beginning off the sequence as a little bit of light-hearted reduction throughout the pandemic, nobody was extra shocked by the sudden momentum than the couple themselves. Now, over three-years since they started Sunday Lunch, the duo have ventured out of the kitchen taken the present to the stage.
The most recent of which included a debut slot at Glastonbury 2023 this weekend, the place they delivered their model of traditional rock covers on the Acoustic Stage. Shortly earlier than they took to the stage, they’d a fast catch-up with NME…
NME: Welcome to Glastonbury! Let’s begin by looking again to while you first began Sunday Lunch. Did the response catch you off guard? It appeared to get lots of momentum in a short time…
Toyah Willcox: “It did shock us. We had been going for about eight months and it was rising and rising and rising. It began with one quite simple put up: 28 seconds of us jiving. Inside 5 minutes it received about 100,000 replies from the world over. At that time, we realised that we’d posted one thing that mainly cheered individuals up who had been alone in lockdown.”
“NME nearly championed us in a method, and what we cherished about NME was they had been linking the songs we had been overlaying with the precise artists, and it had an outstanding impact. Judas Priest wrote to us and stated, ‘Thanks a lot’ and we’d given them the very best tour publicity they might have had once we coated ‘Breaking The Legislation’. They cherished it!
Did it resonate to a unique viewers to what you had been anticipating?
T.W: “It did begin purely to make individuals chuckle and to place two fingers as much as a virus. Then, we realised that if we did traditional rock [covers] it crossed extra divides in a extremely great way.”
“It crossed languages. It crossed nations. It crossed cultures. We had been reaching a wider viewers by purely utilizing traditional rock.”
Robert Fripp: “For me, there’s nothing previous about traditional rock. It’s alive within the second. So in case you are taking a look at The Beatles, for instance, the current second is 60 years to date… Metallica could also be 30 years. The purpose is traditional music is out there on this second and it’s alive if we want to take part and be within the second with it.”
What was it like embarking in your latest spoken phrase tour?
R.F: “It reached nearly nobody if we’re going by statistics!”
T.W: “However because of social media it’s reaching extra…”
R.F: “Nonetheless very, only a few certainly, pricey. If you’re taking a look at finest sellers and excessive statistics, not many in any respect. However that’s not a difficulty… the variety of individuals within the viewers has no relevance.”
“If we have a look at Toyah & Robert, now we have many, many, many extra views and feedback are very attention-grabbing. Two of my favorite ones got here from [our appearance at] the Isle of Wight pageant final Sunday. One [was about] being the eldest guitarist on stage and stated: ‘Is he embalmed?’ The opposite one was: ‘Is he alive?’
“Nicely, to that I might say ‘If the embalming was good, I might appear to be alive. So clearly if somebody thinks I’m not alive, then the embalming has failed.’”
T.W: “They had been becoming a member of within the humour!”
R.F: “Really the 2 quotes weren’t supplied within the spirit of goodwill or encouragement!”
How lengthy do you see Sunday Lunch working for?
T.W: “That’s such a very good query. We’ve truly been picked up by a world company and now we have determined that we’re going to present them a set quantity of years.”
R.F: “I determine I’ve received till I’m 84 to rock out…”
T.W: “I feel that’s sufficient time. I cannot permit my husband to hold baggage, carry tools previous 81.”
R.F: “Let me put it one other method. My spouse is hoping that I don’t die on stage. However from my standpoint, if I die on stage, in all probability the very best place to go!”
T.W: “In the intervening time our social media numbers are rising. So so long as these audiences are there and that sort of pull is there, we’ll hold going. However I cannot watch him do something that makes his well being undergo. In the intervening time although, he’s totally outstanding, his enjoying is outstanding.
R.F: “Sure, it’s true. I’m godlike once I step upon the stage.”
You’re set to take Sunday Lunch on the street for the primary time later this yr – what can we count on from the exhibits?
R.F: “Anticipate nothing!”
T.W: “The entire thought is individuals come they usually have a extremely memorable evening. It’s rock’n’roll, however it additionally has our vitality and our humour… Mainly, I’m holding my garments on and we’re doing implausible rock music.
“One other bit of reports that’s occurring is we’re being courted by TV for the time being. We’ve received about three concepts within the very embryonic type that we needs to be taking pictures subsequent yr.”
R.F: “It appears that evidently Toyah & Robert have gotten common, not purely musically…“
T.W: “Simply as previous codgers!”
Robert, how would you say that your time performing with Toyah is totally different in comparison with your time with King Crimson?
R.F: “Toyah & Robert is the primary time I’ve significantly engaged with the traditional rock repertoire. I’ve additionally been enjoying within the C Pentatonic tuning since 1985. Since King Crimson isn’t at present touring, I can concentrate on studying easy methods to play in E for the primary time in 35 years.”
T.W: “Having been married for 37 years and seeing the quantity of apply [he] wanted each day, I’m sort of blissful that Robert now has an opportunity to simply get pleasure from rocking out with out this unbelievable weight of the accountability of King Crimson music on his shoulders. He can simply have enjoyable on stage.”
Whereas we’re right here at Glastonbury and searching again at your earlier discography, now we have to debate one other artist who had a robust tie to the pageant: David Bowie. Are there any new artists that you simply suppose the Starman would have been into?
T.W: “That’s a implausible query. There’s a lot expertise round, and there’s at all times new expertise discovering Bowie for the primary time. I feel there’s some completely real expertise on the market, [for instance] Moist Leg, they’re fabulous they usually’re simply creating their very own style and their very own locations in music historical past.”
R.F: “David would know who was scorching and who was about to look earlier than anybody else. We dwell in Center England, so the dwell music that involves city tends to be an older technology… however Bowie would at all times know.”
Following their slot at Glastonbury 2023, Toyah & Robert have quite a few extra pageant appearances lined up. Their upcoming tour, ‘Toyah & Roberts Sunday Lunch Stay!’ kicks off later this autumn. Discover dates and remaining tickets right here.
Glastonbury 2023 concluded on Sunday (June 25) with performances from Elton John, Queens Of The Stone Age, Blondie, Phoenix, Thundercat and lots of extra.
Discover information, evaluations, pictures, interviews and extra from this yr’s Glastonbury right here.
