Ieya


"Ieya" is the fourth UK single from the post-punk band Toyah, fronted by Toyah Willcox, and was released in 1980. It was later re-recorded and re-issued in 1982.
This track became an ever-present mainstay of Toyah's live sets, and to this day it is rare for Toyah to play a full set and not perform "Ieya". Its B-side, "Helium Song", was an extended version of the track "Spaced Walking", which, along with "Ieya", featured on the band's first full-length release, The Blue Meaning. Both tracks also featured on the 2005 compilation album .
The single was released in several formats, including three different 7-inch vinyl releases, and for the first time, a 12-inch single.

Background

"Ieya" started off as a jam, on stage. Some months before its release the band played in Bath. The show, according to Toyah, had gone phenomenally well, but the band had trouble with the National Front. Toyah explained:
"At the end of the concert the NF were so incensed that the police were called and had to get us out via the Gents window at the back and into a police van, because the NF were outside, kicking in cars, waiting for us at the stage door to kick our heads in. A full-blown riot was in progress", Toyah remembered.
"IEYA", according to the singer, "is about mankind believing in ourselves so much that we believe we are immortal and can become our own gods, therefore challenging God as the Devil, in the form of the Devil; man being the beast".

''Necronomicon'' reference

Necronomicon reference had to do with a paranormal experience of her own. In a 1980 interview Toyah related how nightmare images which were regularly visiting her when she was five all came back to her later in the paintings of H. R. Giger:

Track listing

7" Black Vinyl

Catalogue Number: SAFE 28

7" White Vinyl

Catalogue Number: SAFE 28

7" Picture Disc Vinyl

Catalogue Number: SAFE P28

12" Black Vinyl

Catalogue Number: SAFE L28
Produced by Steve James and Toyah.
Published by Sweet 'n' Sour Songs.
Both sides on all formats ran at 45RPM.

1982 Re-issue

The re-issue of "Ieya" was the eleventh UK single by the band Toyah, fronted by Toyah Willcox, and was released in the summer of 1982. It was available in a different picture sleeve to the original single release, which featured a close up image of part of the album cover of The Blue Meaning.
The single was a rerecording of the track from the 1980 album The Blue Meaning, but given a distinctly poppier reworking. It was again backed with "The Helium Song" - the extended version of "Spaced Walking" which was included on the original single two years previously.
A shorter edit of the re-recording appeared on promo singles sent to radio stations and used in jukeboxes. This edit originally featured commercially on the 1984 Toyah Toyah! Toyah! - All the Hits album and a K-Tel compilation, Chart Heat, which one got free with Chart Beat, or vice versa. None of the single releases included this edit.
The single edit of this song was included on the 1999 reissue of The Changeling, while the full length version made its CD debut on the 2005 compilation .

Track listing

7" Black Vinyl

Catalogue Number: SAFE 28

7" White Vinyl

Catalogue Number: SAFE 28
This was allegedly pressed because Safari ran out of black vinyl, however its worth noting that the original version of "Ieya" was also released in white and black vinyl variations.

7" Transparent Picture Disc Vinyl

Catalogue Number: SAFE P45
The original single version of "Ieya" was included on the picture disc.
Produced by Nick Tauber, except ◊ produced by Steve James & Toyah.
Published by Sweet 'n' Sour Songs Ltd.
Both sides of all releases ran at 45RPM.

Personnel

Except ◊: