TOYAH Willcox is never less than effusive about her involvement in projects. On this particular day, her voice is typically bouncy at the end of the telephone – a retro way to interview nowadays, but then again it’s time to talk about the landline-tastic 1980s.

The 58-year-old is almost evangelical about Rewind, the 80s Festival, that will bathe Scone Castle and its grounds in a sea of Day-Glo clothing and lace accessories from July 22 to 24.

She is performing at Rewind Scotland and the event in Henley-on-Thames. It’s not a first appearance at either for her – last year her presentation skills were also called on to MC the Scone event.

“That was a great opportunity to see everyone that performed , and I was impressed,” she says. “I don’t know why I was so surprised. All the acts come from the era when you had to be able to perform live before a record company would even look at you.”

The concept of Rewind works – as many acts as possible across two days and sets that can only include chart hits. So even if you liked the second track on the B-side of ABC’s Beauty Stab, this isn’t the place to hear it. Every track is a hit, keeping the energy as charged as the end of the night at a secondary school disco.

“Rewind is about fun,” adds Toyah. “No-one is trying to sell anything here; it’s not about plugging records of breaking new acts. It’s like a big ensemble, all feeding into the same musical experience.”

Apart from Toyah, Rewind at Scone offers for your nostalgic delectation, Holly Johnson, Adam Ant, Rick Astley, ABC, Go West, China Crisis, Midge Ure, Average White Band, The Bluebells, Tony Hadley and more.

“Most of the acts do a 30-minute set with an hour for the headliners. The material is there. When I look back to the 1980s, I was expected to deliver two albums a year and four singles – minimum.”

With 60 approaching in the not too distant future, the work rate put in over the past decades doesn’t seem to be slowing down, and Toyah she puts that down to the apprenticeship.

“We had to do that, make videos, promote, tour and do endless photo sessions – the newspapers at the time were always asking for something new.

“I still do several shows a week most of the year round. It’s no bother to me. It’s just what I do. So doing a half-hour set at Rewind feels like a holiday.”

There’s a fair choice for her half hour, with 15 top 40 singles to choose from – they all charted so they count, but you can be sure it’ll be top 10 hits all the way.

The popularity of Rewind is reflected in the rise of magazines like Classic Pop and healthy viewing figures of Vintage TV, which not only shows videos but makes original programming with acts, including Toyah, doing acoustic sessions.

“It seems that Vintage is getting bigger viewing figures than MTV now, but that’s certainly lost its way a bit.

“Why should music disappear though? You have opera lovers and classical music lovers, so why should good songs be allowed to disappear just because they’re from a relatively recent decade.”

Toyah’s career has split over the years. In the aftermath of the 80s, there was no love lost with the decade of shoulder pads, Thatcher, and the Brat Pack. It was only the passage of time that allowed an unbiased revaluation and the ability for something like Rewind to flourish.

So she returned to acting, took up presenting, and added musical theatre to making albums under her own name and with The Humans. But now, after past four decades, but she can still get out the make-up to recreate the “high priestess of punk”.

“It’s meant to be colourful, it’s meant to be fun. One thing I can say is that the women coming through at the time that I did – people like Siouxsie – were trying to break the glass ceiling by having our own look rather than being as highly sexualised as the young women of today. Things have become rather homogenised. We just tended to shout more loudly to be heard.”

Of course Rewind is rooted in nostalgia, but it is a reminder that there was some excellent pure pop in the 1980s. Students are embracing it, as are the offspring of those who bought the 12-inch singles and the hair gel.

“I love how the audience expresses themselves by dressing up. It’s as much an event in the crowd as on the stage.

“Of course it’s not for everyone, but being honest, I’m past bothering myself about what people like and don’t like anymore. I live in the moment. If someone doesn’t like Rewind there are many more festivals they can go to, but this offers something special – for the audience and the artists.”

Backstage, the nostalgia can be pretty palpable too. These are people who will remember shared Top of the Pops appearances in the 1980s but probably didn’t keep in touch.

“There are slightly different line-ups at each Rewind, so if you do more than one you can catch up with so many old friends. It almost feels like a touring company and we all genuinely love the music.”

Rewind Scotland takes place at Scone Palace from Friday, July 22, to Sunday, July 24.

www.rewindfestival.com