Dreamscape – Toyah Willcox Fansite

The Four From Toyah EP, Toyah’s sixth UK single, was released this week in 1981. This was Toyah’s chart breakthrough release after almost three years of albums, singles and tours. Toyah can be seen performing the lead song, It’s A Mystery on Top Of The Pops on BBC Four tonight at 7.30pm and again at 11pm. It will also be available to watch online at BBC iPlayer after airing. Click below to view Dreamscape’s 30th Anniversary feature on the EP, from 2011.

Toyah’s iconic first Top Of The Pops performance aired on Thursday night on BBC4. Watch the full episode at BBC iPlayer. TOTP is repeated late Saturday night/early Sunday morning, at 1.45am.

Top Of The Pops: 1981: BBC Four: Thursday 4th February: 7.30pm/11.30pm
Top Of The Pops: 1981: BBC Four: Sunday 7th February: 1.45am
Mike Read presents. Duran Duran (Planet Earth), Talking Heads (Once In A Lifetime), Adam & The Ants (Kings Of The Wild Frontier), Toyah (It’s A Mystery), Shakin’ Stevens (This Ole House), Motorhead & Girlschool (Please Don’t Touch), Phil Collins (I Missed Again), Kool & The Gang (Jones Vs Jones), Teardrop Explodes (Reward), The Who (You Better You Bet), Joe Dolce (Shaddap Your Face). This originally aired on BBC1 on 5th March 1981. Toyah’s appearance is a repeat of their first studio performance which aired two weeks previously on 19th February 1981.

Top Of The Pops: 1981: BBC Four: Thursday 11th February: 7.30pm/11pm
Top Of The Pops: 1981: BBC Four: Sunday 14th February: 1.40am
Peter Powell presents. The Jacksons (Can You Feel It?), Sharron Redd (Can You Handle It?), Shakin’ Stevens (This Ole House), Dave Stewart & Colin Blunstone (What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted?), The Who (You Better You Bet), Stevie Wonder (Lately), Phil Collins (I Missed Again), Bucks Fizz (Making Your Mind Up), Visage (Mind Of A Toy), Duran Duran (Planet Earth), Toyah (It’s A Mystery), Roxy Music (Jealous Guy). This originally aired on BBC1 on 19th March 1981 and was Toyah’s second studio appearance/performance (pictured above).

Another retro Top Of The Pops appearance from 1981 for Toyah, airing 35 years later on BBC4 in February. There’s more info at the BBC website.

Top Of The Pops: 1981: BBC4:
Thursday 11th February: 7.30pm/11pm
Peter Powell introduces the pop programme, featuring Sharon Redd, Bucks Fizz, Colin Blunstone and Dave Stewart, Toyah, the Who, Phil Collins, Shakin Stevens, Visage, Roxy Music and Duran Duran, and a dance performance from Legs and Co.

• Look out for further retro Toyah on Top Of The Pops appearances this year on BBC4 – In 1981 Toyah guested in the Top Of The Pops studio six times, performing ‘It’s A Mystery’ (three times), ‘I Want To Be Free’, ‘Thunder In The Mountains’ and ‘Good Morning Universe’.

Toyah’s recent interview on Sky High Radio, plus acoustic performances of It’s A Mystery, Thunder In The Mountains and Sensational, have been uploaded to You Tube…

On Christmas Day 1981 Top Of The Pops included Toyah performing their biggest hit of the year, ‘It’s A Mystery’, with Toyah looking incredible, and incredibly similar to the sleeve of the, recently released, ‘Four More From Toyah’ EP. Only the night before the band had appeared on The Old Grey Whistle Test, live from the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London. The concert, and this Top Of The Pops appearance, marked the end of an amazingly successful year for Toyah. Definitely a year worth celebrating almost 35 years later!

Toyah recorded her appearance on BBC Radio 4’s Loose Ends, and an acoustic version of It’s A Mystery, earlier today at BBC Broadcasting House, London. Listen to the song, and other previews from tomorrow’s show, by clicking below. Loose Ends airs at 6.15pm on Saturday. (Photo © BBC)

• Angel and Me: Tears Of An Angel: A couple of lines of lyrics from Toyah’s iconic Angel and Me, from the 1982 album The Changeling, have been used in this Harry Potter fan story at fanfiction.net – See here…

• The Letters of Derek Philpott (and Wilf Turnbull): The Crowd Fund Kickstarter Campaign For The Book has succeeded!! The deadline to secure a copy is Sunday May 3rd at 3.40pm. I am only printing sufficient copies to provide for everyone that has pledged because I am one ordinary fellow who will be sending these out from where they are being delivered to .. my front room! The book will not be in the shops or available anywhere else – Continue reading…

• Get it On… With Bryan Burnett: It’s A Mystery, from The Safari Records Singles Collection Part 1: 1979 – 1981, was included in Bryan’s BBC Radio Scotland show playlist yesterday evening. I only mention it because I was listening at the time, and coincidentally I’ve also been playing both the Safari Collection CDs this week! #stillgetexcitedwhentoyahgetsplayedontheradio – Visit Bryan’s page…

• Kiss & Make Up – Carl Stanley: Yesterday I posted about Carl’s forthcoming book. Today I received an email from him saying thank you. A rare occurrence. Thanks Carl, wishing you every success with your book.

• FlexiPop! The Book: There’s still time to pledge and help get this fantastic book published – Further info here…

Hot on the heels of the Has God Ceased To Dream You EP, as part of the Official Toyah Christmas 2014 Advent, comes another… The Whisper The Elixir EP.

Tracklist: 1. It’s A Mystery (Whispered Elixir Mix), 2. It’s A Mystery (Distant Sirens Mix), 3. It’s A Mystery (Acoustic Poolside), 4. Waiting (Alternate Mix).

The Official Toyah Willcox Website say: The final release to mark the twentieth anniversary of the 1994 album Take The Leap is a free digital EP exclusive to toyahwillcox.com. Whisper The Elixir brings together a further four related tracks/versions from the Leap! period.

On the A-Side (in the old money) or tracks 1/2 are two previously unissued remixes of It’s A Mystery prepared at the same time as the tribal version aka Weybridge Mix. On the b-side/ the final two tracks are alternate versions of songs recorded in the main album sessions for Leap…

• Continue reading/Download the EP at toyahwillcox.com.

Toyah is included on the, just released, Smash Hits 80s Annual 3CD Set.

‘It’s A Mystery’ is track 14 on the second CD of the 66 song collection, released by Warner/Universal Music.

Other artists include: Wham!, Bananarama, Duran Duran, Adam & The Ants, Madness, Soft Cell, Kim Wilde, The Human League, Dexys Midnight Runners, The Specials, Belinda Carlisle, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Yazoo. Echo & The Bunnymen, Tears For Fears and many more.

• View the full tracklist here, and a larger version of the cover here. The CD is available to buy at Amazon.

• It’s A Mystery: Following on from the fantastic ‘Mystery’ (Soft Mix by The Sonic Healer) comes another two, unofficial, remixes of ‘It’s A Mystery’, both just made available online this week. These don’t stray too far from the original, simply just extending the classic song. Listen at Magnum’s 1980s Extended Edits & Remixes.

• Uncut: Robert Fripp steals the show in David Bowie documentary: I don’t know if you saw it, but BBC2’s David Bowie documentary, Five Years, screened at the weekend, was very entertaining.

• Louder Than War: Top 10 Punk Rock Films: Jubilee: Derek Jarman’s 1978 film is as utterly ridiculous and campily bizarre as one of the several strands of early punk itself, Jubilee is a fascinating and ageing curio of the times and the reflection of one of the UK’s most imaginative film directors.

• Jubilee Art: While on the subject of Jubilee, some digital art by Neveryan at deviantart.com.

• Tanzi Libre: The original production, Trafford Tanzi, premiered at Contact Theatre in Manchester in 1980 before playing at the Edinburgh Festival and touring. It played at West End’s Mermaid Theatre starring Toyah Willcox in the title role and then later, on Broadway, as Tuebrook Tanzi: The Venus Fly Trap, starring Debbie Harry with Andy Kaufman as the Referee.

• Night Fever: Meanwhile in the 90s, Toyah and Sam Kane perform ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’ in this, long forgotten, Channel 5 show presented by Suggs.

This is interesting, all 13 minutes of it…

‘Mystery’ (Soft Mix by The Sonic Healer): Mr Tones & Mr Burns featuring Toyah

Atmospheric & slow; kind of a remix of a remix, done at half tempo and using guitar as well as keys and samples. I think this was about 1998, and I used an early version of Cubase, a Yamaha A3000, and a Roland general midi keyboard. Also a soft synth of some kind that wouldn’t run without glitching. Oh yeah, there was that vocoder too – the one with the pink blobby pattern on the front panel. You know the one.

• Listen to ‘Mystery’ (Soft Mix by The Sonic Healer) at Soundcloud.

Another report on the Media Molecule story, this one also published yesterday by, the mighty, Digital Spy.

Media Molecule teases mystery new game announcement with Toyah video

Media Molecule is teasing a mystery new game announcement on its website. Under the games section of the Media Molecule site, the LittleBigPlanet developer has a page marked with a question mark. Clicking on the question mark launches a YouTube video of Toyah song ‘It’s a Mystery’.

With Sony expected to unveil the PlayStation 4 on February 20, Media Molecule’s mystery game could be a next-generation release.

• Continue reading at Digital Spy.

Who would have thought a few days ago that ‘It’s A Mystery’ would be being mentioned all over the internet this week? Media Molecule using Toyah’s, second, Top Of The Pops appearance from 1981 on their “teaser” page for a new, highly anticipated, game project has led to mention of the song, and Toyah going sorta “viral”. Here are a few more of the many websites reporting the story:

• Gamezone: The new project is listed as “?”, and the dedicated page contains a YouTube video of Toyah Willcox singing “It’s a Mystery.” Attempting to scour the source code for any hints, Media Molecule has cleverly teased the keywords: “what are we doing at the moment, exactly, mystery, new game, how awesome will it be?, who knows.”

• Gameranx: In place of further information about what the game entails (or whether it’s a game or not at all), right now all they’ve posted is a video of early 80s UK New Wave artist Toyah singing her song “It’s A Mystery” on a classic episode of Top Of The Pops.

• Video Gamer: Click through to the game and you are greeted with a YouTube embed of Toyah Wilcox hit ‘”It’s a Mystery”. It sure is.

• Playstation Universe: The developer behind the critically-acclaimed LittleBigPlanet series has seemingly posted up a teaser for a new project. Media Molecule’s official website notably includes a ‘?’ among its list of games, with the page linking to a clip from Toyah’s ‘It’s a Mystery.’ No further information is given.

• Warp Zoned: The list of games on the developer’s website includes their previous titles as well as a question mark. The question mark links to the music video for “It’s A Mystery,” a minor hit for the UK band Toyah in 1981. Sadly, the lyrics aren’t much help: It’s a mystery, oh, it’s a mystery, I’m still searching for a clue, It’s a mystery to me, A shot in the dark, The big question mark in history, Is it a mystery to you? (minor hit? It was huge Warped Zone ;))

LittleBigPlanet developer Media Molecule has a page labelled “?” in the Games section of its website, which plays Toyah’s ‘It’s A Mystery’ when accessed.

This is now being reported on games websites and forums all over the internet, including Game Informer: There’s A Media Molecule Mystery Afoot, Only SP: Media Molecule Teasing Unannounced Title, VG24/7: Media Molecule website teases secret new project.

• Visit the Media Molecule ‘Mystery’ page, and the LittleBigPlanet website.