Do you know what? Every now and then something happens that changes your world for the better and it’s all the more pleasurable when it’s unexpected.

We were on our way home from shopping early this afternoon when I noticed a banner tied to a fence saying that Toyah was playing a gig in a cave near to where we live tonight. I said “shall we go” to which DM responded “I’ll bet it’s sold out”. We checked when we got home, it wasn’t sold out and a few minutes later we’d purchased two tickets that were being held in the box office for us.

I can’t describe what a treat it was. Back in the day I never really took to her, more because of her supreme confidence than because of her music. I do own a small fistful of her singles but I never even got as far as buying an album. Hence I thought we’d have a moderately good evening made better because of the circumstances of seeing a real 1980s icon in a cave. I was so wrong.

She’s quite simply amazing. She can really sing (no manufacturing of tunefulness needed here) and she’s bloody gorgeous at 57. She was describing the fact that she feels the need for role models in her life, even now, despite her own success and cited Shirley Bassey as one. Well, I can tell you that Toyah has gone from zero to hero in my eyes in one delicious evening of song and chat. Her charisma, wit and musicianship were exquisite and coupling that with a pair of killer (in the rock and roll sense) guitarists and the evening was sure to be a huge success.

The only thing about tonight that upsets me is that the venue was only half-full. By rights it should have been hanging from the rafters. I can’t believe how few people were there. It suggests that either the people of Cornwall are indifferent to good music (hmm see yesterday’s post) or that they just didn’t know it was happening. It’s a mystery to me…(boom, boom) Certainly for us, we spotted it by a lucky fluke at the last minute. I’d say it’ll be a very long time before I see an act this classy again. She described herself as “rebel with a lisp” which at the start of the evening I thought was strangely self-depricating, by the end of the evening I’d realised she’s so much more than I’d thought.