Toyah and Robert Fripp play Billy Idol's Rebel Yell for Sunday Lunch

Over the last few months, former pop star Toyah Wilcox and King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp have delighted the nation with their Sunday Lunch performances, a series of ad-hoc cover versions that have given viewers an intriguing insight into life in the Wilcox/Fripp household.

It's all been ticking along quite nicely, but last weekend's performance, which saw the pair tackle Metallica's Enter Sandman with almost alarming gusto, has catapulted the frisky duo into the international limelight.

According to Google Trends, which tracks the popularity of search terms over time, searches for Toyah Fripp have increased worldwide over 1000% in the last few days, adding tens of thousands of followers to Wilcox's YouTube account. At the time of writing, the Enter Sandman video has been watched nearly three million times.

Google Trends graph — (Image credit: Google)

Now the playful couple have released a video to thank their fans.

"Last week you 'racked up' over 2.7m views," reads the on-screen text, as dramatic music plays. "And made the video trend worldwide! We are so very humbled... thank you!"

The spirited twosome then go on to perform Billy Idol's 1983 hit Rebel Yell, with Fripp making Steve Stevens' original guitar part sound remarkably King Crimson-esque. As for Toyah? She does what Toyah does. National treasures, the pair of them.

Artists

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.