The BBC’s Punk Britannia season kicks off tomorrow, with the first of a new three-part documentary series, also called Punk Britannia, on BBC Four at 9pm.
Over the next three weeks ‘BBC Four’ and ‘BBC 6 Music’ will air numerous programmes celebrating the 35th anniversary of punk. This looks like being a great season. View more details, and an at-a-glance guide to the highlights, at BBC Blogs.
Punk Britannia marks 35 years since Punk’s heyday in 1977, which exploded across the country during the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. BBC Four will focus their content around an insightful three-part documentary series, which will be supported by additional programming and BBC Radio 6 Music will feature a range of curated shows from some of punk’s most iconic names, alongside a series of themed shows.
• A few more screencaps from Florence & The Machine’s new ‘Spectrum’ video. After watching the full clip, co-directed by David LaChapelle, it’s difficult not to consider that it is influened by Toyah (Ieya, Brave New World) and Kate Bush. View the video here and larger versions of the caps here.
• Toyah mentioned a couple of weeks ago she had been asked to participate in a new Doctor Who documentary for ‘BBC America’. She tweeted today to say she was now filming this and her thoughts were full of plots, facts, Daleks and Cybermen!
• According to the Mylor Sessions website Toyah’s concert on Saturday 23rd June, at Tremayne Hall, is now sold out (75% of the tickets were bought in the first 24 hours of going on sale).
• What’s on TV include a clip from the 1990 BAFTA Awards in their latest “What’s on You Tube” feature, with someone you may just recognise presenting the award…
Originally shown in April 2011. Top Of The Pops: The Story Of 1976 is airing again tomorrow night on BBC4.
Top Of The Pops: The Story of 1976: BBC4: Friday 1st June: 10.00pm
Documentary examining how the BBC’s flagship pop show reflected changes in British music and culture during 1976. As the popularity of glam rock faded, no dominant musical scene emerged to replace it, leading to chart success for bands including Abba, Showaddywaddy, the Brotherhood of Man and the Wurzels – while outside the mainstream, punk rock was rapidly growing in popularity. Featuring contributions by Tony Blackburn, Paul Morley, Toyah Willcox, David Hamilton and Dave Haslam.
Jubilee will show at The ICA next week, in their “Artists’ Film Club”, coinciding with the Diamond Jubilee…
Derek Jarman’s 1978 feature-length classic Jubilee is the focus of the special Artists’ Film Club. A 35mm print of Jubilee will be screened alongside a new transfer of the 8mm Jordan’s Dance (1977), a short which would later be incorporated, in part, in Jubilee. Coinciding with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the screening will also be accompanied by a panel discussion including actress Jenny Runacre (Jubilee’s Queen Elizabeth I and Bod), producer and long-time collaborator James Mackay and others.
Jubilee is a dystopian tale of time-travel and punk, set in 1970s London. Queen Elizabeth I (Jenny Runacre) travels forward in time to find Queen Elizabeth II dead and London in disarray; she encounters a cast of numerous characters including Amyl Nitrite (Jordan), Bod (Jenny Runacre), Chaos (Hermine Demoriane), Crabs (Nell Campbell), and Mad (Toyah Willcox).
Institute Of Contemporary Arts: Wed 6th June 2012, 8.30pm | £5/Free to ICA Members.
Adam Ant was interviewed by BBC News today…
Goddard also appeared alongside a then unknown Toyah Willcox in Derek Jarman’s 1978 punk film Jubilee – but said it had been “surreal” rather than an anti-royal statement. The apocalyptic fantasy focuses on the activities of a wild girl gang in 1977.
He added: “I think Jubilee was really a piece of film, a surreal kind of journey that just happened to land slap bang into the middle of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. I wasn’t doing it to make a statement about the Royal Family or anything like that. I left that to people like The Clash, certain bands that love to be political, which I’m not.”
• Continue reading at BBC News.
A couple of stills from Florence & The Machine’s video for their new single ‘Spectrum’. This debuted today… That hairstyle looks interestingly familiar!
A review, by ‘Music Mafia UK’, of Toyah’s ‘Decades Festival’ PA last Saturday.
Saturday night in Workington saw 80’s punk princess Toyah perform her first ever gig here and a very packed out Club Ice were the lucky devils to welcome her as part of the first ever Decades Weekend.
Toyah took to the stage clad in a metal dress and a vibrant feathered head-dress and went straight into “Echo Beach”. With Toyah’s distinctive vocals reverberating around the club, the crowd lapped up every note from this 80’s icon.
• Continue reading at Music Mafia UK.
• Tweeted, by Producers, earlier this afternoon. A photo of Trevor Horn with Toyah, Janice Long and Paul Sexton at today’s recording of The Janice Long Review Show for ‘Vintage TV’. Producers are the band that includes Trevor and Lol Creme as members. (Photo © Producers)
• As well as taking great photos of Toyah, and this evening adding a review of her PA to their website, Music Mafia UK will soon be publishing an interview with Toyah too.
• As we previously mentioned, Nottingham Contemporary are showing Jubilee next week, in celebration of, what would have been, Derek Jarman’s 70th birthday. Read a new, and interesting, article on Jarman, by John Leighton, at the Nottingham Contemporary website.
There’s a selection of great photos of Toyah, off and onstage, from last weekend’s ‘Decades Festival 2012’ in Cumbria at the Music Mafia UK website. They also have galleries at flickr and Facebook. (Photos © Music Mafia UK | Thanks to Thomas Lennon)
BBC Radio 2 DJ, Janice Long, welcomes a stellar guest list to review classic albums and hot new releases, nodding to masterful musicianship, recounting first experiences of musical milestones and entertaining with frank but friendly debates about what we all know and love: music. Filmed at Soho’s intimate Tin Pan Alley …
Toyah tweeted today that herself and Trevor Horn are reviewing ‘The Changeling’ for a forthcoming edition of The Janice Long Review Show which will air on ‘Vintage TV’. “Scary but fun“, Toyah said and also included this photo of a well worn vinyl copy of the album.
NB: The first edition, featuring Holly Johnson, airs on Sunday 24th June at 8.30pm: The Janice Long Review Show: Put four music lovers into one room and you’re sure to capture something special: stories of childhoods spent in record shops, first gigs in tiny venues and meeting idols. Not to mention when there are close connections to the albums at hand.
An image that was created for the 1982 ‘Be Proud Be Loud (Be Heard)’ single release. Not only did the song title become something of an enduring and iconic slogan through Toyah’s career, the image did too. Excellent photos by Robin Saidman. Click below to view larger versions and visit Dreamscape’s 1982 Gallery for more from this session.
Thousands of people were taken on a trip back through time at the first Decades Festival in Workington at the weekend.
The three-day music feast saw acts including Toyah Willcox, The Quireboys and David Van Day wow the crowds on a baking hot weekend. The atmosphere was electric around the town centre pubs where the festival was based.
Toyah Willcox was perhaps the most anticipated artist in the build-up to the festival and she didn’t disappoint. The 1980s punk princess played to a bumper crowd at Club Ice on Saturday night. The audience reacted wildly to her energetic stage presence, her flamboyant metal-studded dress and brightly-coloured headwear.
• Continue reading at the Times & Star.
• Toyah @ Twitter: Over the last few days Toyah has tweeted about writing for The Humans’ third album, a meeting with ‘Vintage TV’, the weather, Eurovision, and her visits to Cumbria and Minehead for gigs over the weekend. Visit Toyah’s Official Twitter page.
• A huge gallery of photos of Toyah at The Stroke Association Ball the weekend before last are now available to view/buy at the Ragsdale Photography website.
• Your Source Today: Win a pair of tickets to Audley End’s 80’s Night. Toyah, along with Rick Astley, Nik Kershaw, T’Pau and numerous others, play Audley on Saturday 4th August. (Closing date for entries: 23rd June 2012)
• Toyah at BBC iPlayer: The final episode of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, (Spring Cleaning Time Again), is now available to listen to at iPlayer. It will remain online until next Monday.
• Fupa Games: When we think of the 80s, we think of Spectrum and Atari. We think of Jet Pac, Combat, Big Country, Toyah Willcox, Kim Wilde and Crystal Palace FC, Top Deck Shandy, KP Outer Spacers and Smash Hits. But most of all we think of Pacman! (Thanks to Simon)
• Either… this is a leaked photo from Series 7 (or Season 33) of Doctor Who: Metal-clad Motrakeb has just torn off the head of the Glow King as she is approached by an Auton disguised as a British Policeman… or it’s a photo of Toyah in Cumbria on Saturday night where she played the ‘Decades’ festival… I’m opting for the former!!
A collection of sensational photos from Toyah’s ‘Changeling Resurrection’ gig at The Robin2, Bilston in Wolverhampton (28th April). All of these have been added to Dreamscape’s dedicated TCR gallery. (Thanks to Kevin McNamara for the photos)
Exactly 30 years ago today, 27th May 1982, Toyah’s ‘Brave New World’ visage graced the cover of the biggest music magazine of the 80s, ‘Smash Hits’. If it’s not the it’s certainly one of the greatest magazine covers, and 30 years later it still looks fantastic. Visit the Like Punk Never Happened: Smash Hits Archive to read the full issue online.
‘Smash Hits’ magazine gave Toyah memorable cover issues in November 1980 and September 1981, but little did we realise what May 1982 would bring…
There’s also a great image of Toyah at the Eden Bar website, promoting her forthcoming visit!
Toyah is now included at the official Manchester Pride 2012 website.
Women’s Stage: Sunday sees the stage filled with some amazing female bands, performers and comediennes.
The stage will run from approximately 4pm – 11pm on Sunday 26 Augsut 2012.
Music was very much on the backburner at the time so when Toyah appeared on the National Lottery’s Greatest Hits in 1999 it was an exciting moment. It was a great performance and Toyah even wore a classic Melissa Caplan outfit for the occasion. Show host Angela Griffin introduced Toyah by claiming ‘It’s A Mystery’ was a “number one hit”. Not quite but who cares it was just good to see Toyah singing on TV again. She also released the lottery balls and as she pressed the button exclaimed “may this finger make you rich“! Unfortunately it didn’t. View at You Tube, and see larger caps here. (Thanks to Paul Lomas)
… At Workington Festival
Music stars David Van Day, Toyah Willcox and Ed Tudor-Pole are among the acts performing at new Workington festival Decades this weekend.
The three-day festival of music, from the 1960s to the 1990s, kicks off tonight at 7pm and is based around the town’s popular pub ‘circuit’. Acts will perform at Club Ice, Red House, The Well, Circuit Bar, Dukes, Chasers, Vine Bar, The Royal British Legion, Curwen Arms and Yankees. Van Day will take the stage at Club Ice tonight, followed by local performer Tony Herald and folk musician Edwin Duke.
The club will tomorrow see performances from 80s star Toyah, The Kommitments and local band No Idea. Doors open from 7pm.
• Continue reading at the Times & Star.
Toyah playes ‘Birmingham Pride’ on Sunday 3rd June and she is included in the, just published, Birmingham Pride Guide. There’s a full-page ad on page 18 and a news clipping on 37.
