SohoLIFF celebrates its 5th birthday in style with participants including Mark Rylance, Riz Ahmed, Toyah Willcox and Phil Davies
The Soho London Independent Film Festival (SohoLIFF) marks its 5th year in style in January 2025, celebrating five years of innovation in independent film with an electrifying line-up of screenings, events and special guests. Over four days, Soho’s iconic De Lane Lea/Warner Bros Building will host more than 50 films from around the globe, featuring celebrated talents like Mark Rylance, Riz Ahmed, Toyah Willcox and Phil Davies alongside the emerging stars of the future. This is a festival for filmmakers and film lovers alike.
SohoLIFF is an independent short film festival that supports filmmakers from around the world. This year’s festival sees submissions from over 25 countries; filmmakers will compete for 16 awards, culminating in a ceremony that brings everyone together to share their stories and love of the artform.
• Continue reading at Theatre Full Stop. Also visit The Soho London Independent Film Festival website.
Toyah is interviewed in the latest issue – #18 – of Blitzed magazine.
In the latest Blitzed we talk to Toyah where she summarises a very busy 2024 taking in multiple releases and re-releases together with her high-profile appearance in the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing programme. She discusses her ever popular YouTube channel and her gratitude for her fans.
• Pick up your copy of Blitzed magazine instore or order online.
Favourite Singers With Nick Heyward: NOW 80s: Monday 3rd February: 9am
Mr Favourite Shirts is back on NOW 80s – this time he selects his Favourite Singers! Including some who influenced him the most such as David Byrne & XTC’s Andy Partridge.
25 fabulous photos of The Weakest Link in Cirencester
These wonderful photos highlight the action at a star-studded charity edition of The Weakest Link in Cirencester.
The event – held at The Barn Theatre in Cirencester’s Beeches Road on Saturday, January 18 – saw celebrities including the Queen’s son and food writer Tom Parker Bowles, presenter Kay Burley and TV regular Stanley Johnson (father of Boris) subject themselves to ‘Queen of Mean’ and original show host Anne Robinson.
They were joined by singer and Strictly Come Dancing hopeful Toyah Willcox, Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning jockey Nico de Boinville, former BBC chair Michael Grade (who acted as compere) and aristocrat Nick Peto.
Celebrity Fantasy Homes: Really: Friday 31st January: 6am Toyah (Series 2, Episode 2). Celebrities hunt for a new home. Gaby Roslin helps the original punk-pop princess Toyah Willcox search for a second home, in Richmond upon Thames, with a budget of £650,000.
The 1981 POWER Hour!: NOW 80s: Thursday 16th January: 4pm
60 minutes of power pop & rock! Earplugs at the ready as we rewind to 1981 with Toyah, Genesis, Rick Springfield & Meat Loaf.
Anne Robinson to host star-studded Weakest Link in Cotswolds
Get ready for a battle of wits as Anne Robinson, the ‘Queen of Mean’, takes the helm for one last time in a star-studded charity edition of The Weakest Link in the Cotswolds.
Packed with celebrity contestants and Ms Robinson’s iconic sharp humour, this exclusive event at the Barn Theatre in Cirencester promises more than entertainment— a lifeline for the Hatherop Big Build campaign.
The event will see high-profile figures, including former BBC chair and House of Lords member Michael Grade CBE, news presenter Kay Burley, champion jockey Nico de Boinville, historian Simon Heffer, TV personality Stanley Johnson, food critic Tom Parker-Bowles, aristocrat Nick Peto, and singer Toyah Willcox, go head-to-head in a general knowledge showdown.
Celebrity Antiques Road Trip: BBC Two: Wednesday 22nd January: 7pm Leslie Ash v Phil Daniels. Series 13, episode 6. Actors, life-long friends and stars of the classic mods and rockers cult movie Quadrophenia, Leslie Ash and Phil Daniels are together again on Lincolnshire’s roads in a pink Cadillac. They are shopping with guidance from Phil Serrell and Serhat Ahmet.
The release of I Believe In Father Christmas on 10″ vinyl single in December gave Toyah yet another Official Charts entry – Following many of the reissued deluxe albums since 2020, Posh Pop giving Toyah her highest ever charting solo album (so far!), and the Rebel Run 10″ hitting No. 1 on the Official Vinyl Singles chart in late September 2024 – I Believe In Father Christmas entered the same chart at No. 9 on 13th December!
After four years of a series of charting and well-received album catalogue reissues in expanded and collectible form, Toyah and Cherry Red Records is delighted to announce there are further surprises in store for next year.
On 21 March 2025, Cherry Red Records will release two strictly limited edition picture discs of the 1980 Toyah albums Sheep Faming In Barnet and The Blue Meaning, marking each album’s 45th anniversary.
Both of the album picture discs feature rare and unseen imagery unearthed by Toyah’s archivist, and are pressed with the 2020 album remaster by Nick Watson, overseen by Joel Bogen. The vinyl records come protected in a PVC sleeve which is housed in a special die-cut outer jacket that carries a further unseen images to create a spectacular collector’s item celebrating the album’s original music and imagery.
Both albums can be pre-ordered ahead of their March 2025 release.
Toyah’s 1980 studio album, The Blue Meaning, will be released on limited edition picture disc on 21st March, marking the album’s 45th anniversary.
• 45th anniversary release of Toyah’s 1980 album ‘The Blue Meaning’.
• Limited-edition picture disc features four stunning colour photographs from the album photography shot at gothic mansion, Wykehurst Place in Sussex.
• In addition to the full colour picture disc, pressed with the 2021 album remaster by Nick Watson, the vinyl come protected in a PVC sleeve and is housed in a special die-cut outer jacket that carries a further rare and unseen images unearthed from the archives.
Produced by Steve James and ‘Toyah’ the band – Joel Bogen, Pete Bush, Toyah Willcox, Steve Bray and Charlie Francis, the album reached number 1 on the UK Independent Album Chart and charted in the main UK Top 40 album chart in June 1980.
The album includes the ultimate fan favourite ‘Ieya’ considered a signature song by the band, which was also released as a single. It also includes ‘Blue Meanings’, ‘Mummies’ and the psychedelic ‘Spaced Walking’ for which Toyah’s vocals were recorded after inhaling helium.
Toyah’s 1979 AP, which evolved into the 1980 album, Sheep Farming In Barnet, will be reissued on limited edition picture disc on 21st March, marking the album’s 45th anniversary.
• 45th anniversary release of Toyah’s 1980 album ‘Sheep Farming In Barnet’.
• Limited-edition picture disc featuring four stunning unseen colour photographs from the album photography shot at RAF Fylingdales in West Yorkshire. The photos picture Toyah in front of the iconic white “golf balls” that were part of the early warning system for ballistic missiles to the UK and US governments.
• Pressed with the 2020 album remaster by Nick Watson, the vinyl comes protected in a PVC sleeve and is housed in a special die-cut outer jacket that carries a further two unseen images unearthed from the archives.
• Produced by Steve James and Keith Hale, the album reached number 1 on the UK Independent Albums Chart in February 1980.
The six-track mini-album ‘Sheep Farming In Barnet’ contained three tracks per-side on a 33 1/3 playing 7” vinyl. This mini- album was then expanded to a full length 11-track album (originally for the German market only) in early 1980 by adding the ‘Victims’ 7” A-Side/B-Sides and some further tracks also recorded at Chappell Studios, London.
This album contains the fan favourites ‘Race Through Space’ ‘Neon Womb’ and ‘Danced’, all of which went on to become signature songs for the band.
Toyah Willcox reveals ‘main focus in life’ – and it isn’t husband Robert Fripp
Singer Toyah Willcox says she loved every moment of her recent appearance on Strictly. Now, she’s looking forward to joining Craig Revel Horwood’s 1980s musical and releasing a new album
Anyone who witnessed her spirited jive to Nutbush City Limits on the last series of Strictly Come Dancing would know that singer Toyah Willcox is not short on energy. And a quick glance at her schedule for 2025 would suggest she has no plans to slow down.
She will join the cast of NOW That’s What I Call A Musical next month, there’s a new album in the offing and if that wasn’t enough, she recently bought an old 1890s industrial water mill on the River Avon, which she is renovating and restoring back to its original structure.
“I love it,” she enthuses. “I spent all day yesterday removing trees that washed up in the floods; it’s a really physical project.
“I’ve always got something on the go. Anyone that sits still can’t bear being with me. I adore working and I always will. My main focus in life is my work. I think if I didn’t work, the boredom would eat me alive.”
This website is rollercoasting towards its 26th year online in March, and I’d like to wish all our visitors a very Happy New Year and all the best for 2025! This month – December 2024 – has been our busiest in over three years, since back in September 2021 when Posh Pop was released.
SohoLIFF celebrates its 5th birthday in style with participants including Mark Rylance, Riz Ahmed, Toyah Willcox and Phil Davies
The release of I Believe In Father Christmas on 10″ vinyl single in December gave Toyah yet another 
