Robert Fripp and Toyah Wilcox have delivered another sunny cover, this time they’ve tackled Soft Cell’s perennial post-punk hit ‘Tainted Love’ in celebration of Valentine’s Day.
In keeping with the tradition of their Sunday Lunch jams, the pair delivered their take on ‘Tainted Love’ against an elaborate backdrop. This instalment is all about love, Wilcox and Fripp swaggered through a mini-rendition of the track in front of a tableau of heart-shaped balloons, with Fripp covered in crimson lipstick kisses.
It’s the kind of uncompromising silliness that’ll warm the hearts of the staunchest Valentine’s cynics. Check it out below.
Watch Robert Fripp and Toyah Wilcox cover Soft Cell’s ‘Tainted Love’ for Valentine’s Day:
The love shared between Fripp and Wilcox is inspiring and super fucking cool. “When I’m not with Toyah I’m only half a person,” Fripp previously told ITV. “When I’m with her I’m a whole person. She makes me completely who I am.”
Over the course of the UK’s strict lockdowns, the dynamic duo have delivered a trove of covers by acts like Nirvana, David Bowie, Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Joan Jett, Jimi Hendrix and more.
The covers are all excellent in their own oddball way, they’ve seen Toyah don a cheerleader outfit, rock out with a pair of dumbells and perform on an exercise bike.
A particular jewel in the canon includes a cover of Black Sabbaths ‘Paranoid’, that saw Toyah perform a little song and dance behind bars.
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The wacky performance somehow made it into Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi’s consciousness, who told Consequence of Sound “I think they’ve gone mad, actually. I think this lockdown has drove them mental.”
In an interview with The Guardian, Willcox explained how the beloved series came about. “Here I am in this house with this 74-year-old husband who I really don’t want to live without,” she said. “He was withdrawing, so I thought: ‘I’m going to teach him to dance.’ And it became a challenge.”
