Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp have added a new twist to their Sunday Lunch series, recruiting English singer and actor Chesney Hawkes for a cover of Hawkes’ own track ‘The One And Only’.
This week’s edition sees the couple donning a festive look, with Fripp in lederhosen and Toyah sporting a red maid uniform and baseball bat alongside a much more conventionally dressed Hawkes. In another first for the series, Fripp has passed the guitar duties to Hawkes for the cover, while adding more of his vocals to the mix.
As Fripp is currently on the road for his ‘That Awful Man & His Manager’ Q&A tour, the message on the couple’s kitchen cabinet proclaims that this edition is an ‘interlude’ – presumably to tide fans over until they can record fresh covers.
Watch Chesney Hawkes join Fripp and Toyah as Sunday Lunch‘s first-ever guest below.
The couple have been delivering Sunday Lunch episodes since 2020, when they began the series during the coronavirus pandemic, most recently delivering a cover of David Bowie‘s ‘Heroes’ in dedication to the late Queen Elizabeth II. Other covers that have been featured on the series include Pantera‘s ‘5 Minutes Alone’, Lenny Kravitz’s ‘Are You Gonna Go My Way’, Limp Bizkit’s ‘Nookie’ and Billy Idol‘s ‘Rebel Yell’ among many others.
Last month, Willcox and Fripp covered Grace Jones’ ‘Slave To The Rhythm’ alongside Simon Darlow, the former Buggles member who played on Willcox’s recent album ‘Posh Pop’, as the Posh Pop Three. Wilcox has a deep connection to the song, having sung the original demo before it was picked up as a single by Jones, and the cover serves as her first official single since her 2008 album ‘In The Court Of The Crimson Queen’.
Willcox explained last year that the Sunday Lunch series had been born from a desire to keep Fripp inspired and entertained during the coronavirus-enforced lockdowns. “Here I am in this house with this 74-year-old husband who I really don’t want to live without,” she told the Guardian. “He was withdrawing, so I thought: ‘I’m going to teach him to dance.’ And it became a challenge.”
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