• Woman’s Own: Toyah is interviewed in the first issue of the new Woman’s Own magazine “Get Healthy”: In our first Get Healthy magazine we aim to help you feel your best. We share with you the stars’ go-to remedies for staying well. Toyah Willcox tells us what made her sleep after 40 years of insomnia.
• Primitive Screwheads: Friday Night Movies 415: Jubilee is a 1978 film by Derek Jarman… With its uninhibited punk petulance and sloganeering, Jubilee, brings together many cultural and musical icons of the time, including Jordan, Toyah Willcox, Little Nell, Wayne County, Adam Ant, and Brian Eno (with his first original film score), to create a genuinely unique, unforgettable vision.
• Retro Brit: Quadrophenia: Great Retro Brit Flick: I can remember the first time I saw the advert at the Bank Underground station in 1979… There was Sting from the band: The Police and Toyah Willcox who were all rock stars of that time.
• NI Scene: Calamity Jane: Ciara Mackey joins the ranks of Barbara Windsor, Toyah Willcox and the iconic Doris Day herself in playing the disaster-prone Calamity Jane.
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)
• Prosceneium: Calamity Jane: This set for Calamity Jane was originally built for the highly acclaimed professional tour starring Toyah Willcox.
• A new ‘Blackpool Pride 2012’ flyer has been released, with Toyah included. View it here.
• Time Out London: Time Out Says: Last year she celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of her most successful album ‘Anthem’ and tonight she’ll be celebrating 30 years since the release of her second best-selling LP, ‘The Changeling’. Wilcox will be performing prime cuts from the 1982 record, as well as other material.
• A random, but funny, reminiscence about the 12″ picture disc of ‘Thunder In The Mountains’ is included the latest blog by ‘Married To The Moz’. View here.
• Let’s Get Better Terms: It’s Jubilee Time Again: Jarman knows what he is doing visually, and enjoyed gardens (with or without plastic flowers), wastelands, and also had an eye for the beauty of people like Toyah, Jordan, Jack Birkett, Helen the dwarf and many others.
2012 marks 10 years since Toyah took on the lead role of Calamity Jane, the musical that toured the UK and also enjoyed a residency at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London’s West End.
The, highly successful, production ran for over a year and, ultimately, played to more than 200,000 people through the UK, receiving numerous positive reviews along the way.
Toyah was great in the musical, and really took on the role of ‘Calamity’, giving an incredibly physical performance, but there were also tender moments. The pivotal scene, and song, of the show was ‘Secret Love’. The song is legendary and forever associated, just like Calamity Jane, to Doris Day. As you’ll hear below Toyah sang the song beautifully and her voice soars.
NB: This is a low-quality audience recording I’m uploading for fans to listen to. It’s highly unlikely that the mooted ‘Cast Recording’ of Calamity Jane will ever be released. Visit Dreamscape’s Calamity Jane mini-site here. (Thanks to Alec Kelly)
