Format: 12″
Label: Safari (SAFE LS56)
Country: UK
Year: 1983
Price paid: $1
Purchased at: CNY Regional Market, Syracuse NY
Praying to the silent man
A new day dawns
‘Rebel Run’ was the first single released from Toyah’s fifth studio album, 1983’s ‘Love is the Law.’ It reached #24 on the UK charts but failed to register elsewhere. It is her seventh highest-charting single to date.
I give Toyah props for having the creativity to constantly reinvent herself. This post-apocalyptic skater look wasn’t one of her more memorable guises, however. The term ‘only in the eighties’ gets thrown around a lot these days, but seriously, only in the eighties could someone get away with such non-ironic post-punk neon kitsch without their head exploding in a cloud of bloody camp confetti-
The sleeve art is nearly identical to the 7″ version, with the inclusion of info on the 12″ bonus track ‘Baptised in Fire.’ The imagery is of Toyah wearing the outfit that appears in the video for the single. Simple, understated, Toyah.
New Wave and Beyond 