Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp have once again combined their considerable might to add to the sum of human happiness, but this week's performance comes backed by a serious message.
After taking The Cranberries' classic 1994 anti-war anthem Zombie and giving it a typical Fripp-Willcox makeover – with Willcox wrapped in tin foil – the former King Crimson man delivers a more sombre message than usual. "Hope and love to children in danger everywhere", he says, quietly, "from Toyah and Robert's Sunday lunch."
Zombie was originally written by Cranberries' singer Dolores O'Riordan after two children in the Cheshire town Warrington were killed by a bomb planted in a litter bin by the Provisional Irish Republican Army. The Cranberries were on tour in the UK at the time, and O’Riordan later wrote the song after the tour finished, back home in Limerick, Ireland.
Zombie went to reach the No.1 spot in several countries, and beat Michael Jackson, Seal, The Offspring and TLC to win Best Song at the MTV awards in 1995. They also performed the song at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in 1998, when SDLP leader David Trimble and Ulster Unionist leader John Hume were honoured “for their efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in Northern Ireland”.
Last week it was announced that Fripp's 1980 solo album God Save The Queen/Under Heavy Manners and the following year's Let The Power Fall are to be reissued in July.
The CD version of God Save The Queen/Under Heavy Manners will feature two extra tracks – God Save the King and Music on Hold – while Let The Power Fall will feature three extra tracks, all different mixes of 1984.
