Watch a tattooed Robert Fripp play Black Sabbath in a prison cell while Toyah dances

Robert Fripp playing Paranoid in a prison cell
(Image credit: Toyah)

Imagine: you wake up from a coma in November 2020. You've been asleep since Christmas, so you're entirely unaware of the year's contents. You don't know about the virus, or the lockdowns, or that Liverpool are champions and that everything's been cancelled.

You grab your smartphone, and you log into Facebook to check out what's been happening in your absence. And the first thing you see is a video of a heavily tattooed Robert Fripp. The King Crimson mastermind is alone sitting in a prison cell, playing Black Sabbath's Paranoid on a Les Paul. In the background stands his wife of 34 years, the adventurous pop star Toyah Willcox. She dances, and at the point where Ozzy Osbourne would normally start singing, she sings.

Honestly: what would you think? 2020 has gradually crept towards this moment, getting more and more unfathomable with each passing month, so it almost feels like this scenario is normal. But it isn't. It really isn't. 

It's a heavily tattooed Robert Fripp. He's in a prison cell. He's playing Black Sabbath. And Toyah is dancing. How did we get here? How much more can we take? If this is early November, what will they be up to by late December? 

We cannot answer this question, and we're pretty sure that neither Fripp nor Willcox can either. We're pretty sure that they're as confused as the rest of us. And we're pretty sure we can't wait to see what they do next.

The talented pair have made a name for themselves during lockdown, releasing regular video updates that include them dancing, performing ballet and covering David Bowie's Heroes for VE Day. Most can be seen on Toyah's You Tube page.

Fraser Lewry

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 38 years in music industry, online for 25. 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.