Toyah and Robert Fripp cover System Of A Down's Chop Suey

Toyah and Robert Fripp and Sidney Jake in the Willcox-Fripp kitchen — (Image credit: Toyah/YouTube)

If you, like us, felt the world spin slightly off its axis this Sunday lunch, we think we've figured out what happened. For somewhere, perhaps in deepest rural Worcestershire, a musical event of such cataclysmic proportions occurred that the laws of actual physics may have been actually broken.

The reason for this sonic trauma? Of course, it's our old friends Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp, turning in an excited cover of System Of A Down's 2001 classic Chop Suey! as the latest episode of their ongoing web series, Christ, What On Earth Are They Up To Now?*

In the video, Fripp's torso is embellished with primitive marker pen scribblings, while Toyah - whose operatic voice suits the song more than one might predict - performs with her usual gusto, leaning in to the camera to reveal what well looked-after teeth she has. Seriously. It looks like she has no fillings at all. Mysterious guitarist Sidney Jake, meanwhile, remains resolutely mysterious.

The Willcox-Fripp's energetic rendering of Chop Suey! is merely the latest in a long line of unlikely cover versions to have befallen the original. Other translations include a bluegrass version of Chop Suey!, a version of Chop Suey! recorded by an orchestra, Chop Suey! recorded in the style of the Spice Girls, Chop Suey! recorded in the style of Ghost, an unlikely rendition of Chop Suey! performed by a bunch of animals, and the Chop Suey! Donald Trump variant.

Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp merchandise is available now from the Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp merchandise store.

*not its real name

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.