Dreamscape – Toyah Willcox Fansite

A shiny new Toyah collage… Click to zoom! This is the final post for the time being. Regular updates will resume in a few week’s time.

There are a lot of “Fuck Yeah” blogs, dedicated to a plethora of bands, singers, actors etc, at tumblr… One of the best has to be Fuck Yeah Toyah. Bringing you an abundance of rare Toyah photos and memorabilia, as well as the odd bootleg recording…

A few Toyah bits and pieces from ‘Tellurian’, the Toyah Fan Club Newsletter which ran from 1986 until 2001: The Times: A Childhoood. View here. Toyah Willcox, interviewed by Deanish, plus a few ‘Ophelia’s Shadow’ related clippings. View here.

Over the last, almost, 13 years Dreamscape has been sent thousands of photos of Toyah from the numerous live gigs, tours and PA’s of the late 90′s, through the Noughties and into this decade (the Teenies?). Welcome to Fotofriends, an occasional feature focusing on the fans (and photographers) who took some of those photos.

Toyah fan Damon King has taken some great shots of Toyah over the last 25 years. Dreamscape has included many of them over the last 13 years, including some fantastic photos from the last two UK tours. That’s Damon below right with Toyah at the O2 Academy Islington in November 2011.  (Thanks Damon)

Photos from: 1: 25th Anniversary Gig, Mean Fiddler, London (October 2003), 2/4: From Sheep Farming To Anthem Tour, O2 Academy Islington, London (November 2011), 3/7: Take The Leap Tour, Borderline, London (October 1993), 5/9:  From Sheep Farming To Anthem Tour, Leicester Square Theatre, London (June 2011), 6/8: The Changeling Resurrection UK Tour, Bush Hall, London (April 2012).

The BBC have released the official synopsis for episode three of Love and Marriage.

To Have and to Hold (Episode 3 of 3)

The effects of the sexual revolution, the empowerment of women and the growth of a global consumer society based on individual choice were only fully played out in the last decades of the 20th century, when the divorce rate increased to an all-time high of one in three marriages.

This final episode explores how marriage has adapted to these pressures by looking at the ups and downs of five couples whose relationships personify modern marriage. It looks at the mixed-race marriage of Mo and Ann Chaudry and their rags-to-riches journey which resulted in a millionaire lifestyle and a happy family. Kate and Harry Benson had a glamorous Lady Di-style wedding but their marriage almost followed suit, nearly ending in divorce. They both became marriage guidance counsellors and Harry now heads up the new Marriage Foundation.

Rock stars Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp reveal their romantic love story, their ups and downs and how they have kept their 25-year marriage strong.

• Continue reading at bbc.co.uk.

Minder: ITV4: Wednesday 10th October: 6.00pm
Minder: ITV4: Thursday 11th October: 8.50am/12.50pm
All Mod Cons. Drama series about the shady dealings of a spiv and his reluctant sidekick. While Terry is trying to evict two squatters, Arthur decides to sell Terry’s flat without his permission. Meanwhile, Terry gets a job minding at a local club and ends up getting into more trouble than he had planned for when he realises the club’s manager is on the fiddle. Starring: George Cole, Dennis Waterman, Toyah Willcox, Simon Cadell, James Ottaway, and Tony Osaba. (Series 2, Episode 8, 1980). Also showing on ITV4 HD and ITV4 +1.

A new article on Toyah, from the Birmingham Mail.

Brummie punk singer Toyah Willcox fronts new walking campaign – after hip replacement surgery

Brummie chart star Toyah Willcox is stepping out to front a major walking festival – with her new hip.   Fifty-four year-old Toyah, who shot to fame in the eighties with hits including It’s A Mystery, is the ‘face’ of the National Trust’s Great British Walk this autumn.

• Continue reading at the Birmingham Mail and/or The Sunday Mercury.

Fuck Yeah Toyah continues to be updated with brilliant Toyah content, including rare photos (howabout this absolute rarity from around the time of the ‘Anthem Tour’, 1981?) and audio.

Celebrity Fantasy Homes: Home: Thursday 11th October: 12.00pm
Celebrity Fantasy Homes: Home +1: Thursday 11th October: 1.00pm
Celebrities hunt for a new home. Gaby Roslin helps punk-pop princess Toyah Willcox search for a second home, in Richmond upon Thames, with a budget of £650,000.

• A rare photo of the Toyah band, circa late 1979, has recently appeared on eBay. It looks like it was taken in a pub while the band were on tour. The listing says: “The shot is date stamped 29 Oct 1979 by the UK pop music newspaper that received it”. Great photo!

• All Toyah: Continues to grow!

• Pause, Rewind, Obsess: Quadrophenia: …has a cult following but, despite some terrific scenes and some memorable characters (like the gnomish, lovesick, little pre-punk girl played by Toyah Willcox), it feels even more narratively half-baked than Pete Townshend’s musical scenarios tend to be.

• Critical Mass: Improvisation and carving: This article includes a photo of the cast of The Ebony Tower.

• Canterbury People: Canterbury girls chance to be in Marlowe Theatre’s Sleeping Beauty: Budding young actresses have the chance to star in the Marlowe Theatre’s pantomime. Sleeping Beauty will be at the Marlowe Theatre from November 30 to January 20 and star singers Gareth Gates and Toyah Willcox.

Hard to believe but it’s now 10 years since Toyah was touring the UK playing the lead role in the musical Calamity Jane. Before a three-month residency at The Shaftesbury Theatre in London’s West End in 2003, the musical played at numerous theatres, and to thousands of people, during a nine-month UK tour that began in September 2002 at the Derngate Theatre, Northampton . It was an incredibly physical and demanding role for Toyah, making a year of shows all the more impressive. I was lucky enough to see Calamity Jane on a few occasions: In Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool and London and each time Toyah and the show were fantastic. Visit Dreamscape’s dedicated Calamity Jane website. (Thanks to Andi)

Another songwords! The stunning ‘Freedom’ from the, highly underrated, 1991 album ‘Kneeling At The Shrine’ by Sunday All Over The World. Please click below to zoom.

The full width photo of Toyah onstage at The Middlesbrough Theatre, on Wednesday, at the opening gig of ‘The Changeling Resurrection II’ Autumn UK Tour. Photos from this gig may be few and far between as the venue didn’t allow the use of cameras! This, a few other photos from the first gig and some other related tour bits & pieces have been added to the new dedicated TCR II Gallery. (Thanks again to Andrew Moore)

Tom Leon has uploaded another track to ‘house-mixes.com’ – This one is ‘Let Me Go (Here It Comes Again 2012 Remix)’, a song that was originally released in 1994 on Toyah’s Dreamchild album.

Toyah is one of Tom’s favourite singers. In 1995 he created ‘Awake’n Dreams: Alan Parsons Project vs Toyah Willcox’, two tracks that used samples from the 1981 song ‘Pop Star’. He also put both of these online earlier in 2012. More info on that in our news from April.

• Listen to ‘Let Me Go (Here It Comes Again 2012 Remix)’ by Tom Leon here.

Want to hear what Joel Bogen was doing immediately after his Toyah days?

Apparently ALL music on Exposure is by Joel, that’s 13 demo tracks by Southside Jimmy! Although I’m still working my way through them for the first time the guitar work is sounding very Joel circa Rebel Run. I really wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if his pal Phil Spalding was on bass too. Sure sounds like him to me!

Anyway this is the closest you’ll probably get to a Joel solo album and maybe a hint of what direction a future Willcox/Bogen album could have taken in 1984.

• Above by Mark Taylor – Listen to Joel, post-Toyah, at Soundcloud.

Another new interview with Toyah. This one from, Dorset based, Seeker News.

Although she’s never been one to hide her light, Toyah Willcox is more ready than ever for the public to see her.  She regularly plays to thousands in 1980s revival shows with the likes of Belinda Carlisle, Rick Astley and Banarama, but she also tours in her own right and is returning to some of the darkest material of her 35-year career in The Changeling Resurrection II tour which arrives in Bridport this month.

“The Changeling was a very difficult album for me, it was very difficult to write, I wasn’t very happy at the time – it was 1982 and I was so famous I couldn’t leave the building without being escorted and everyone wanted the Toyah they saw on Top of the Pops, nobody cared much about the Toyah that was the real me,” she says.

• Continue reading at Seeker News.

Love and Marriage: A 20th Century Romance: BBC4: Tuesday 2nd October: 9.00pm
Love and Marriage: A 20th Century Romance: BBC4: Wednesday 3rd October: 2.35am
Love and Marriage: A 20th Century Romance: BBC4: Sunday 7th October: 00.55am
To Have and to Hold. Three-part series which follows the ups and downs of marriage in Britain from the 1900s to the present day using the moving personal stories of couples – and their children – from all walks of life. The final part explores how marriage has survived, and for many got stronger, in the modern era from the 1980s onwards. Although the divorce rate increased, reaching an all time high in the mid 1990s, marriage has adapted to these pressures. The programme looks at the heartache – and joy – of five couples whose relationships personify modern marriage, and what it takes to make a happy marriage in today’s world. Punk rocker Toyah Willcox and her prog rocker husband Robert Fripp are amongst those who tell their stories.

An interesting new Toyah interview from Domestic City.

Toyah Willcox, 30 years on from ‘The Changeling’ and the beginning of the goth movement

Birmingham’s very own punk queen Toyah Willcox returns this month to perform a very special Halloween show at the Birmingham Ballroom.

The iconic pop star, actress and TV personality is reigniting her triumphant forth album ‘The Changeling’, to celebrate its 30th anniversary and the mark of the gothic era. After a sell-out touring stint earlier this year, and a well deserved star awarded at the ‘Kings Heath Walk of Fame’, it comes as no surprise that our local girl is in high demand.

“[The Walk of Fame] was a really emotional day for me”, says Toyah. “I just wish my parents were around to have known because they just would be so proud…”

• Continue reading at Domestic City.

I’ve been thinking of doing some more occasional Toyah songwords/lyrics pages (inspired, of course, by Smash Hits & No.1). A good one to restart with: The magnificent Pop Star from ‘Anthem’. Click below to zoom. More Songwords: The Changeling and Four More From Toyah.

Great photos of Toyah from last night’s first ‘Changeling Resurrection II’ gig at Middlesbrough Theatre. The set list was over 20 songs long and included ‘Castaways’, ‘Voodoo Doll’, ‘The Packt’ and ‘Neon Womb’.

As well as Middlesbrough setlist vote winners ‘Rebel Run’ and ‘Blue Meanings’.

The new headdress is still winging its way to Toyah so her first-gig-of-the-tour outfit was the same as TCR Spring Tour for the first set, then turqouise dress (worn at Blackpool Pride in June) and pink headdress for set two. Click below to zoom. (Thanks to Andrew Moore, pictured with Toyah, for the photos and all the info – More photos soon!)

Toyah is another 80s performer who is celebrating an anniversary of another album. She continues a twelve date tour in the UK today celebrating the 30th anniversary of The Changeling and Warrior Rock. This is part two of a sold-out tour which she began last April. By all accounts she really looks the part and has even resurrected some of her old costumes from her performing days in the 80s.

Toyah and her husband Robert Fripp will feature in a new documentary series called Love and Marriage on BBC4 on a date still to be confirmed in late September.

• Continue reading at All 80s Radio.