Toyah has been announced as part of The SAS Band All Star line-up on the 25 Riff Tour, at two of the anniversary gigs – playing at The Guild Hall, Portsmouth on Thursday 12th September and O2 Shepherds Bush Empire, London on Saturday 14th September.
Numerous other guests have also been announced for the tour dates, taking place between September and December this year.
The SAS Band tweeted: We are delighted to announce that Punk Princess, @toyahofficial is joining #SASBand25RiffTour for our @PortsmouthGhall show 12th Sept, & @o2sbe show in aid of @MPT 14th Sept.
• Further info on the tour and ticket links are available at sasband.com.
As some of you are probably aware, once Record Store Day is a week old stock is allowed to be sold online under current Record Store Day rules, even if you aren’t a ‘bricks and mortar’ store who was eligible in the first place.
With that in mind I’m pleased to announce that for the first time we’ve got some of the more desirable RSD stock available in the SDE shop, including David Bowie, Madonna, The Rolling Stones, John Lennon and more.
In The Court of the Crimson Queen
Limited Edition purple vinyl
Exclusive to Record Store Day 2019, Demon Records proudly present a re-imagining of Toyah’ s 2008 album release. Toyah and producer/co-writer Simon Darlow have remixed and added instrumentation to all the songs. These mixes appear for the first time on vinyl, and this release will also have completely new artwork. Pressed on Translucent Purple 180g Vinyl
Toyah guests on Bethan Elfyn’s show on BBC Radio Wales this evening – Curating her Artist Playlist.
The programme airs for 2 hours 30 minutes from 7.30pm
Bethan Elfyn: BBC Radio Wales:
Saturday 27th April: 7.30pm 27/04/2019. Toyah Willcox curates her Artist Playlist, and Don Leisure goes global with an intercontinental mix plus the usual mix of classic rock, bold new tunes, indie anthems and new Welsh acts.
Carol Decker’s 30 Rock Chicks!: NOW 80s: Sunday 28th April: 9pm
T’Pau’s Carol Decker brings a bit of Heart and Soul to a countdown of ’80s ladies who like to rock! With Joan Jett, Tina Turner, Stevie Nicks and Pat Benatar. (as well as Toyah via the Thunder In The Mountains video)
Toyah Willcox, and her producer and songwriting partner Simon Darlow, dropped by SDE last month to discuss Toyah’s new album In The Court of the Crimson Queen. Watch the 35-minute video interview, below.
In The Court Of The Crimson Queen is out now as a 2CD expanded deluxe set. Toyah is on tour right now and you can check out the dates on her website.
As previously posted, Toyah plays the Holt Festival 2019 on Friday 26th July – at the Theatre In The Woods.
An addition to the festival schedule that day is a screening of The Tempest, at the Britten Building.
New this year, we’re delighted to introduce Festival Extras – a series of events in addition to the main programme.
The Tempest: Friday 26 July, 4.00pm Britten Building
Tickets available on the door | Running time: 1h 35min
Derek Jarman’s magical 1979 film version of The Tempest starring Toyah Willcox. This screening will be introduced by the film’s producer Don Boyd and Toyah will make a guest appearance.
Each July the festival, whose media partners are the Eastern Daily Press and North Norfolk News, sets the Georgian country town alight with performers, musicians, art exhibitions and literary events. The early announcements include two music stars with many weeks in the charts between them.
Ieya at The Liquid Room – Thunder In The Highlands Tour – in Edinburgh last night. See/hear two minutes of Dance In The Hurricanehere. The tour plays Dundee tonight.
SDE has a bundle of Record Store Day releases from Demon Records to give away!
One winner will receive the Suede Head Music 3LP coloured vinyl set, The League of Gentlemen Live Again! 2LP, Heaven 17‘s Bigger Than America on coloured vinyl, Toyah‘s new album In The Court of the Crimson Queen on purple vinyl and the Marc Bolan/T. Rex bump ‘n’ grind set on blue vinyl.
One runner-up will win Suede, Marc Bolan/T. Rex and Heaven 17.
This competition, open to all, that will end at midnight BST on Sunday 28 April 2019. Good luck and enter below!
Her latest album’s just become her biggest in almost 25 years and Toyah’s in the mood to celebrate. The former punk marked 40 years in music with a series of anniversary shows last year and is back on the road this week just days after her revamped 15th solo album In The Court Of The Crimson Queen returned her to the charts.
Toyah, 60, admits she’s been pleasantly surprised by the success of the re-recorded set, which also includes a clutch of new songs. “It’s a good album but I don’t think anyone would’ve been as brave to imagine it’d do as well as it’s doing,” she says. “It’s been album of the week in many places so the reception’s just been fabulous.” Crimson Queen, which was originally released in 2009, has been substantially reworked by the It’s A Mystery hit-maker and her co-writer Simon Darlow. “Our record company Demon gave me an opportunity to make the album that I’d originally wanted it to be,” she explains.
“That allowed us to put in live drums and bass, and remaster and retexturize the whole album plus put new material in. We finished this at the end of January and as far as I’m concerned it’s a new release because the majority of the people buying it now never knew it existed in the first place.”
Yet more good chart news for In The Court Of The Crimson Queen. The album entered The Official Charts Top 100 Album Sales at number 22 on the 19th April.
Edinburgh’s The Liquid Room is ready for Toyah tonight, and vice versa… She tweeted: “So excited 2 b opening tour at Liquid Rooms Edinburgh 2nte. Let’s Rock“.
NB: UPDATE: 7th May – This has vanished from the TV listings!!!
Celebrity Money For Nothing: Quest Red: Tuesday 7th May: 7pm Celebrity Money For Nothing: Quest Red: Wednesday 8th May: 1pm Series 1, Episode 1. Sarah Moore and Jay Blades search the homes of celebrities to uncover unloved and unused gems for charity. Sarah and Jay look through the homes of 1980s pop stars Sinitta and Toyah Willcox in the hope of uncovering four pieces of junk to transform and sell on for a profit. Woodworking wizard Norman Wilkinson is tasked with taking on Toyah’s tired chairs, while robot-mad Mark Haig gives Sinitta’s broken fan a steampunk-inspired makeover. But will Sarah and Jay find new homes for their revamped items?
Toyah, along with In The Court Of The Crimson Queen co-creator Simon Darlow, is interviewed in the new issue of Classic Pop magazine (May 2019, Issue 52) in a four page feature entitled “Long Live The Queen”.
After more than 40 years in the music business, Toyah Willcox is as creatively hungry as she was in her teens. Classic Pop chats to the high priestess of punk and her long-time collaborator, Simon Darlow about their bold reimagining of 2008 album In The Court Of The Crimson Queen, and why the material deserves a second outing… Here’s a preview of the fab looking feature.
• Classic Pop, Issue 52 is on sale now – or very soon will be. (Thanks to Minna for the preview)
Ahead of her appearance at Church, Dundee on April 26, singing sensation Toyah Willcox shares some glimpses into her life
Q Which singers, alive or dead, inspire you?
A David Bowie, Jim Buckley, Antony Hegarty.
Q What was your plan B career-wise?
A I always wanted to be a sculptor.
Q Your house is on fire, what one item do you save?
A My husband. If it was an object, then one of my paintings by my friend Frankie Sundsten.
Q Theme song for your life?
A All Along the Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix. He was one of the ‘27 Club’, like Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain, who died aged 27 and the philosophy is that their work is done by then. That’s a tragic but also slightly romantic notion.
Q Last meal on earth?
A Superfood salad with fresh mango.
• Continue reading at The Courier. See the print version of this article. (Thanks to Sharon Dickson)
Toyah Willcox: “I was high in the charts yet had to punch sex pests to be left alone”
Eighties singer Toyah Willcox was groped and sexually harassed during her pop heyday and had to be chaperoned to protect her from sex pest club bosses. The star, who had hits with It’s A Mystery and I Want To Be Free, has revealed a string of shocking encounters at the beginning of her career.
At a club where she was performing, she was warned that the owner expected to sleep with her and was urged to have an escort to the toilets. In another encounter, a director asked her to remove her top during an audition, forcing her to walk out. Toyah also fended off sex pests by punching them and reveals that the pressure to be thin was so great that she was weighed by a dietitian before being on Top Of The Pops.v The singer, who has just released the album In The Court Of The Crimson Queen, welcomes the #MeToo movement because it gives “vulnerable women a voice”. Toyah, 60, who first took to the stage in 1977, aged just 19, says: “It was unbelievable being a woman very much in a man’s world. We mostly played working men’s clubs, I don’t want to put these places down as the audiences were fantastic but you were just groped. There are even photographs out there of me being groped.
“Some extreme things have happened to me. My band really looked after me, though. I remember going to a club in Leeds in 1979. I arrived and my lighting man said, ‘Do not stay here alone, the owner thinks he has the right to sleep with you. Don’t even think of going to the ladies without one of us escorting you’.
“It’s cool, that’s what my band did, they looked after me. As for the casting couch, there’s one I’m actually quite proud of.This director was legendary. I arrived and I was asked to take my top off. I put two and two together and I just walked. But that happened in those days, it did happen.”
• Thunder In The Highlands, Toyah’s four-date Scottish tour gets going on Thursday 25th April at Liquid Rooms, Edinburgh.
• There are also dates in Dundee (Church), Inverness (Ironworks) and Glasgow (Classic Grand) over subsequent nights from 26th – 28th April.
• This will include the first live performances of Dance In The Hurricane and features a set of Crimson Queen songs and classic hits and favourites from the last 40 years.
• The Glasgow venue has been upgraded to Classic Grand. Original tickets remain valid.
• A new 2019 Toyah T-shirt will be available alongside signed copies of a selection of recently discovered vintage Toyah vinyl.
• Buy your Thunder In The Highlands tickets here / Thanks to Breaking Through – The Official Toyah Mailing List.
Robert Fripp Recalls ‘Missed Opportunity’ With David Bowie
King Crimson leader Robert Fripp recalled the “missed opportunity” of working with David Bowie in 2002, and said his wife, singer Toyah Willcox, had never forgiven him for the incident.
Fripp appeared on Bowie’s celebrated albums Heroes and Scary Monsters during a period in which he had also worked with Peter Gabriel, Brian Eno and others. In 2002, Bowie curated the Meltdown festival in London, England, and invited Fripp to take part.
“[There] wasn’t enough time to do it properly, so I declined,” Fripp told Rolling Stone in a new interview. “My wife has never forgiven me. My wife is a very considerable Bowie fan. That’s an opportunity missed, but I don’t feel I could honorably have engaged with it.”
Toyah has been announced as part of The SAS Band All Star line-up on the 25 Riff Tour, at two of the anniversary gigs – playing at The Guild Hall, Portsmouth on Thursday 12th September and O2 Shepherds Bush Empire, London on Saturday 14th September.
Toyah, along with In The Court Of The Crimson Queen co-creator Simon Darlow, is interviewed in the new issue of 
