Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

It’s the final day of Toyah’s week-long Tracks Of My Years residency with Ken Bruce at BBC Radio Two. The full week of programmes are available at BBC iPlayer until the end of July.

Ken Bruce: BBC Radio Two: Friday 3rd July: 9.30am
Toyah Willcox picks the Tracks of My Years, with songs from Peter Gabriel and U2. Plus PopMaster, the daily Love Song and the Album and Record of the Week. Email ken.bruce@bbc.co.uk.

Things are hotting up – and yes speaking of heat, phew!, it has been ridiculously, over-the-top, warm in the UK this week, hasn’t it – for the forthcoming Aaaaaaaah! with no less than the legendary Variety reporting on the film – and including a great shot of Toyah too.

‘Aaaaaaaah!,’ ‘Scherzo Diabolico,’ ‘Curve’ Among Highlights at FrightFest

Toyah Willcox wields the pan in Steve Oram’s ‘Aaaaaaaah!’

MUNICH — Film4 FrightFest, the U.K.’s leading genre film festival, promises to be “bigger, bolder and bloodier” in its 16th year with its largest ever lineup. The gorefest, which runs Aug. 27-31, will present 76 films across five screens, plus a host of special events. There are 16 European premieres and 26 U.K. premieres.

Among the films from British and Irish talent receiving a showcase are David Keating’s “Cherry Tree”; the world premiere of Steve Oram’s hilarious and disturbing “Aaaaaaaah!,” starring Toyah Willcox; Dominic Brunt’s sharp-edged female revenge saga “Bait”; Ben and Chris Blaine’s sexually charged zom-rom-com “Nina Forever”; Mark Murphy’s tale of twisted minds “Awaiting”; Paul Hyett’s much-anticipated “Howl”; Adam Levins’ sinister family drama “Estranged”; Howard J. Ford’s child-abduction thriller “Never Let Go”; Corin Hardy’s Sundance sensation “The Hallow”; Ruth Platt’s morally challenging chiller “The Lesson”; Liam Regan’s gruesome revenge saga “Banjo”; Eugene McGing’s supernatural haunter “The Unfolding”; and “Afterdeath,” a hellish thriller by new directors Gez Medinger and Robin Schmidt.

• Continue reading at Variety. Browse all of Dreamscape’s Aaaaaaaah! news here.

The Official Toyah Willcox Website’s news on the premiere of Aaaaaaaah!

The much anticipated Steve Oram film AAAAAAAAH! will receive an official premiere on Friday 28 August 2015 at 18.35. There is a Q&A with some of the cast planned as part of the premiere.

The film with no dialogue stars Julian Barratt, Steve Oram, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Noel Fielding, Alice Lowe, Toyah Willcox, Sean Reynard, Tom Meeten, Holli Dempsey, Shelly Longworth and Tony Way. Written and directed by Steve Oram / Produced by Lincoln Studios. Featuring music by King Crimson ProjecKts.

FrightFest is the UK’s biggest, best and most renowned genre festival is now a globally recognised brand and its sixteenth year sees yet another enhancement of its core mission to bring the finest in home-grown and international fear to the dark heart of London’s West End at the Vue, Leicester Square, between 27-31 August.

• Continue reading at www.toyahwillcox.com. Visit the FrightFest 2015 website.

Like Punk Never Happened: Smash Hits Archive has been continuing to upload retro issues of ‘Smash Hits’ magazine 30 years to the day they were originally published in the UK.

Various “recent” issues have included Toyah – Minx and its related singles were being released around this time back in 1985.

• Smash Hits, June 19 – July 2, 1985: This issue includes a full-page advert for the single Soul Passing Through Soul. Toyah is also included in the feature – “Who Is Pop’s Mr Clever Trousers?” – Read the issue here…

• Smash Hits, June 5 – 18, 1985: Toyah is included in the feature – “Oh! You’re Not As Tall As You Are On The Telly!” – Read the issue here…

• Smash Hits, May 22 – June 4, 1985: This issue includes the feature – “Toyah: Personal File” – Toyah answers lots of slightly odd questions, such as “When was the last time you saw a spirit?“. This was Toyah’s second “Personal File” for ‘Smash Hits’, the other was in early 1983 –  Read the issue here…

• Smash Hits, May 8 – 21, 1985: This issue includes the songwords for the single Don’t Fall in Love (I Said) – Read the issue here…

• Smash Hits, April 24 – May 7, 1985: This issue includes a full-page advert for the single Don’t Fall in Love (I Said) – Read the issue here…

It’s Day Four (already!) of Toyah’s Tracks Of My Years on BBC Radio Two with Ken Bruce.

Ken Bruce: BBC Radio Two: Thu 2nd July: 9.30am
Toyah Willcox picks the Tracks of My Years, with songs from Lana Del Rey and Simon and Garfunkel. Plus PopMaster, daily Love Song and the Album & Record of the Week. Email ken.bruce@bbc.co.uk.

• BBC iPlayer: Listen to Monday’s show here, Tuesday’s here, yesterday’s here, and today’s, live at the BBC Radio Two website from 9.30am, here.

• Toyah @ Twitter: Toyah is working with Simon Darlow. She tweeted a photo, saying: “In the studio with Darlow. So incredibly excited” – Continue to Twitter…

• Catmachine: Five Years On: I can’t believe that it’s already five years since I wrote the first blog in the I Was A Teenage Toyah Fan series, a series which turned into a book self-published on kindle and paperback – Continue reading…

• Scottish Daily Mail: Radio Choice: Toyah Willcox, who’s been touring the UK with the three-piece band The Humans, joins Ken Bruce (Radio 2, 9.30am) this week to pick her Tracks Of My Years. Toyah begins with songs from T. Rex and Kate Bush.

• England Events: Aylesbury: Live in the Park – part of Parklife Weekend: August 29, 2015 at Vale Park. in Aylesbury – Vale Park will be filled with continuous live music performed on a large outdoor stage by 80’s pop star TOYAH and a number of fantastic local bands playing an array of musical styles and genres from rockabilly, punk and new wave to well-known pop and rock covers – Continue reading…

• The Oxonian Review: An Insubstantial Pageant: A Question of Perspective in The Tempest – The effectiveness of putting Shakespeare on film is a vexed question. There are certainly those who find that all those words hang heavy in such a visual medium as cinema. More plentiful, though, are those who think that adding pictures to the supple and ambiguous wordscapes of the plays is a violent reductiveness – Continue reading…

Ken Bruce: BBC Radio Two: Wednesday 1st July: 9.30am
Toyah Willcox picks the Tracks of My Years, with songs from David Bowie and Tasmin Archer. Plus PopMaster, daily Love Song and the Album & Record of the Week. Email ken.bruce@bbc.co.uk.

Ken Bruce: BBC Radio Two: Tuesday 30th June: 9.30am
Toyah Willcox picks the Tracks of My Years, with songs from Adele and the Moody Blues. Plus PopMaster, daily Love Song and the Album & Record of the Week. Email ken.bruce@bbc.co.uk.

Toyah’s week of choosing her “Tracks Of My Years”, on Ken Bruce’s BBC Radio Two show, begins this morning. The programme can be listened to online at the BBCR2 website and will be available, post-airing, at BBC iPlayer. Toyah will choose two songs each day until Friday.

Ken Bruce: BBC Radio Two: Monday 29th June: 9.30am
Toyah Willcox picks the Tracks of My Years, with songs from T.Rex and Kate Bush. Plus PopMaster, the daily Love Song and the Album and Record of the Week. Email ken.bruce@bbc.co.uk.

• Live 2015: Toyah is one of the special guests at tonight’s John Shuttleworth & Friends: A Knight At The Palladium charity concert – That’s The London Palladium no less! (Photo © Toyah Willcox)

• John Shuttleworth @ Twitter: “Y Reg tyres checked, glove compartment restocked with Werthers – I’m ready to hit London Town! Excuse me – which way to the Palladium?” – Visit Twitter…

• Chortle: Quick witted – Fast Fringe and the rest of the comedy week ahead: Sunday June 28 – Live in London: John Shuttleworth tonight stages a massive fundraiser at the London Palladium, no less. Chief attraction among his friends is Bill Bailey, heading a bill that the word ‘eclectic’ was surely made for, ranging from Toyah to Sooty And Sweep… not to mention a revival of the persona that first put Shuttleworth creator Graham Fellows into the spotlight, Jilted John – Continue reading…

• A Knight At The Palladium: John Shuttleworth and friends including Chas and Dave, Badly Drawn Boy, John Otway, Toyah, Leee John (Imagination), Martyn Ware (Heaven 17), Jon McClure (Reverend and the Makers), Gordon Giltrap, Lorraine Bowen, Bill Bailey and Sooty and Sweep (yes, really!) will perform for one night only at the London Palladium in ‘A Knight at the Palladium’ in aid of the MS Trust and an MS Centre in Sheffield.

• Time Out: John Shuttleworth – A Knight at the Palladium: Sheffield singer/songwriter and amateur philosopher John Shuttleworth (as portrayed by character comic Graham Fellows) hosts a night of music and chat to raise money for MS charities. His musical guests include rockney singalong duo Chas And Dave, new wave survivor Toyah, Heaven 17’s Martyn Ware and ‘Really Free’ rock strummer John Otway – Continue reading…

• Tickets: There may still be some seats – Check availability here…

• John Shuttleworth @ Dreamscape: Browse all of Dreamscape’s JS news here…

• John Shuttleworth Appreciation Society – Visit John’s official website by clicking below…

Festival fun for music fans from rock to folk and everything in between

Toyah Willcox joins the merry men and women invited to perform at this year’s Fairport’s Cropredy Convention. The punk princess has now won her place among the music luminaries selected by folk rock legends Fairport Convention at the Oxfordshire festival. She joins a line-up including Fish, the former lead singer of Marillion, The Proclaimers, Level 42, Dreadzone and a number of special surprise guests who simply ‘pop up’ in traditional Cropredy style. As host band, Fairport will open the festival which runs from Thursday, August 13 to Saturday, August 15. For more details visit www.fairportconvention.com/cropredy.php.

• Continue reading at the Swindon Advertiser. Browse Dreamscape’s news on Toyah playing at Fairport’s Cropredy Convention 2015 here.

Toyah’s recent Sounds Of The 80s special is currently featured at BBC Music.

Mindboggling – Toyah’s career began exactly 40 years ago.

There had been roles in amateur theatre productions and work as an “extra” but Toyah’s first actual professional job as an entertainer was filmed exactly 40 years ago – Glitter, a 30 minute drama, part of the BBC’s ‘Second City Firsts’ strand of programming. It also starred a young Phil Daniels in one of his first roles and appearances by Noel Edmonds, Doremy Vernon and the band Bilbo Baggins.

Toyah’s character in Glitter, Sue, also performs two songs with the band Bilbo Baggins, Floating Free and Heartbreaker (it’s unclear whether the songs were known by these titles in 1975 – Toyah wrote, at least some, of the lyrics to both). This was Toyah’s first major acting role, first lead vocal performances, first time as a singer with a band, first time on national TV. Many firsts!

Few watching when Glitter aired in late 1976 could imagine that the girl who played Sue would go on to be a music icon to millions of teenagers, release a discography of incredible albums, be known as one of the most visually creative “pop stars” of the modern music era, and work with the likes of Katharine Hepburn, Sir Laurence Olivier, Maximilian Schell, George Cukor, Diana Dors, Trevor Eve, Sir Christopher Lee, Derek Jarman, Christopher Eccleston and numerous others.

• Celebrate Toyah’s 40 years as a performer and artist: Musician, singer, songwriter, actress, writer… at her official website. View Dreamscape’s feature from 2005 on Glitter. (Top photo © The Official Toyah Willcox Website)

It’s A Mystery is one of Toyah Willcox’s most well known tracks but from her ‘Up Close and Personal’ performance at Lowdham Village Hall it was no mystery that her career has been such a success, spanning 30 years. The Warthog Promotions event, part of Lowdham’s Book Festival 2015, featured Wilcox talking about her life and selection of acoustic performances.

Supported by Chris Wong and Colin Hinds on guitar, Willcox belted out numbers from across her career: Good Morning Universe: Be Proud, Be Loud, Be Heard; Jungles Of Jupiter; Echo Beach; and, Bird In Flight which was number one in the first ever Indie record chart. Diminutive and self-effacing off-stage, once in the limelight, bedecked in bright pink dress and silver bangles, the ‘rebel’ commanded the arena.

• Continue reading at the Nottingham Post.

A performance from the ‘high priestess of punk’ Toyah at Blackpool’s North Pier is off.

A spokesman for the venue said ticket holders for the Sunday, July 12 show could get a refund from their point of sale.

On Facebook, Toyah said this and another cancellation were ‘due to technical issues with the respective councils’ staging the events.

• Continue reading at the Blackpool Gazette. Toyah’s Gig Diary is packed full of concerts for 2015. There’s sure to be a date near you… Browse all the dates at toyahwillcox.com.

Wishing a very Happy 60th Birthday to, punk icon and Jubilee legend, Jordan – aka Pamela Rooke.

A selection of screen caps from last night’s Sounds Of The 80s, which aired on BBC Radio Two and, visually, on the BBC Red Button, with Toyah guesting. Toyah chatted about her music career and imagery and there was a short montage (Brave New World, Echo Beach, Soul Passing Through Soul, It’s A Mystery from Top Of The Pops) and a full play of the I Want To Be Free video, with Toyah recalling how good it was to make. The programme is now available at BBC iPlayer. Click below to view larger versions of the screen caps.

Toyah guests on BBC Radio Two’s Sounds Of The 80s tonight. A specially filmed segment will also be available on BBC Red Button (as well as BBC Interactive 601 on Freeview) at 10.30pm – see here for repeat air days/times – Toyah talks about her career in the 80s and the Anthem album. Sounds Of The 80s will be online, for the next month, at BBC iPlayer post-airing tonight.

An interesting extra piece of info about tonight’s Red Button feature – The Toyah video clips being used have been given a new audio track, greatly improving the sound quality. This painstaking process was carried out by longtime Toyah fan David Anning.

The latest issue of Breaking Through, Toyah’s official newsletter, was emailed to subscribers earlier this week. It included a plethora of news and info, including these interesting nuggets that will no doubt be of interest to you.

• Look out for news at the site soon on three Toyah albums which have been unavailable for over a decade receiving digital releases. Details on those currently being finalised.

• Extensive research and planning continues behind the scenes in exploring possibilities for other catalogue reissues.

• Toyah has recorded an edition of Len Goodman’s series Holiday Of A Lifetime. No airdate is available yet but this will be shown on BBC1.

• A limited edition print of the New Mills Arts Theatre concert poster will be on sale soon.

• Subscribe: Sign up to ‘Breaking Through’, to receive regular newsletter updates, here.

Another chance to hear the episode of The Lee Mack Show with Toyah appearing as his music/sketch guest.

The Lee Mack Show: BBC Radio 4 Extra
Saturday 27th June: 11pm
Episode Six of Six. Toyah Willcox joins the sharp comedian for stand-up, sketches and music. Originally aired on BBC Radio Two in April 2005, Toyah also performs ‘Sweet Child O Mine’. Also starring: Angela McHale, Steve Brown

Big Country and Toyah Willcox are at the Pavilion Theatre, Worthing at 8.00 pm on Saturday June 20th.

Big Country and Toyah Willcox perform at the Kick Up The Eighties night at the Pavilion Theatre, performing all their hits from back in the day, along with DJs playing classic eighties tunes, a night not to be missed for any 80s music fan.

The colourful, dynamic and unique Toyah Willcox brings her full band to performing a lively and exhilarating set. Toyah delivers a dose of high energy in every gig, including the iconic hit singles It’s A Mystery, I Want To Be Freeand Thunder In The Mountains. A household name, pop icon, TV presenter and stage and screen actress (Calamity Jane, Cabaret, Jubilee,Quadophenia), Toyah has made twenty albums, scored 13 Top 40 hits and achieved gold, silver and platinum album sales in the 1980s. Catch Toyah singing the hits, classics and favourites she is known and loved for.

• Continue reading at the Worthing Daily.