A new article, by the Hereford Times, on Toyah recording Ramblings earlier today with Clare Balding. Looking at the photos, it may have been a windy walk!
Clare Balding and Toyah Willcox Enjoy A Stroll at Croome Park
TV presenter Clare Balding and pop icon Toyah Willcox shared their love of the countryside when they met up for a chat at Worcestershire beauty spot.
The pair met up at Croome, near Upton, when Ms Balding brought he popular Radio 4 programme ‘Ramblings’ to the National Trust property today. The chat with Ms Willcox, who is a regular visitor to Croome, will be broadcast at 3pm on Thursday, February 28 and repeated the following Saturday at 6am.
• Continue reading at the Hereford Times and Worcester News.
Ramblings: BBC Radio 4: Thursday 28th February: 3.00pm
Ramblings: BBC Radio 4: Saturday 2nd March: 6.00am
Toyah Willcox. Clare Balding joins notable and interesting people on a walk through the countryside. Episode 4 of 6.
Portraits… Fantasy… Changeling… Crimson… Iconic Imagery… Egyptology… Warrior… Screenshots… Artwork… Anthem… Something Willcox This Way Comes…
Toyah will guest on a future edition of the long-running BBC Radio 4 series Ramblings. The programme in which, the fantastic (yes I’m a fan ;)), Clare Balding joins notable and interesting people on a walk through the countryside.
Earlier today Clare tweeted: “Today I am walking with Toyah Wilcox for Ramblings. She has a bad ankle so it may be more of a shuffle“. Someone then replied telling her that “Wilcox” was “Willcox”, and there then followed a series of tweets which, if Twitter had existed, could have been posted anytime between 1987 and now: 
“It’s a Mystery“, “turning suburbia upside down“, “Mum deodorant“… Such fun! Clare’s tweet was also posted by Celeb Tweets (Not being a follower of Twitterers, I have to admit this is where I first spotted it).
Series 23 of Ramblings begins on BBC Radio 4 next Thursday (7th February) at 3pm. More details on when Toyah will guest when the information becomes available.
UPDATE: Toyah has also tweeted about Ramblings (including this great photo of herself and Clare): “Recording radio 4 Ramblings with claire balding, I’m very slow, still limping“. View the original photo here. (Photo © Toyah Willcox)
Katherine Lynch’s Wagon’s Den: RTÉ Two
Thursday 31st January: 10pm
Tongue-in-cheek comedy chat show, starring Katherine Lynch as Sheila Chic, who invites Brian Dowling and guests to give their take on the week’s celebrity news and gossip.
NB: I’m not 100% sure if this is the edition that Toyah guests in but it seems likely as she filmed her appearance at RTÉ in Dublin on Monday night. Toyah tweeted a photo of herself travelling to Dublin and also a message on Tuesday about her visit: “Thank u 2 all @ wagons den, rte dublin. Wild night! OMG charlotte -letitia crosby of Geordie shore…outrageous.”
We’re “Remembering ’83” etc… Another little something I threw together recently while playing ‘Love Is The Law’. I say this about all of Toyah’s albums (and images and everything else) but it truly is underrated. I’m also doing another “Opinion Wall”, along the lines of last year’s for The Changeling website. I’ve already had some great responses from fans at Facebook, and if you would also like your opinions/memories of this great album included send them to me. The “wall” will be added to Dreamscape nearer to the 30th anniversary of the album’s release.
Here is the print version of Toyah’s interview with the ‘Daily Express’ from last Tuesday. It is, of course, the same interview that was published on their website but this edition also includes a great photo of Toyah from 1980.
Singer and actress Toyah Willcox says a course of acupuncture ended 40 years of insomnia.
After struggling with insomnia since she was 14, Toyah Willcox is an expert at surviving on little sleep. The singer, 54, who found fame as an orange-haired punk in the Eighties, says: “I had just started revising for my GCEs and the anxiety I felt made me stop sleeping.
• Continue reading at The Express. Read Dreamscape’s news post from last week on this here. (Thanks to Richard Smith for the scan)
• Toyah, photographed at RTÉ in Dublin, last night guesting on Katherine Lynch’s Wagon’s Den. I think this airs this Thursday at 10.30pm on RTÉ 2, and will no doubt eventually appear on You Tube. There’s a little more info on Wagon’s Den in our previous post here. (Photo © Contact Music – View the full version at their website)
• Quadrophenia Live: It was announced yesterday that The Who will play the full Quadrophenia album on their forthcoming UK and Ireland arena tour. This was reported all over the internet and many of the articles included a namecheck for Toyah: Metro, NME, Contact Music.
• Toyah on TV: While on the subject of Quadrophenia, just a reminder that the film airs again tonight. Full details here.
• I Am Still Ashley Elsdon: Still Buying Vinyl: There are a handful of tracks that are on a list, the kind of list you know somehow you’ll never get to the end of. For me it’s a list of tracks I had once and now I’ve no idea where they are, so I have to get them again. This EP from Toyah is one. It has a track on it called Urban Tribesman, which I really loved, but it just doesn’t seem to be available on download or on a CD anywhere.
• In The Court Of The Crimson Queen: Every Home Should Have One! Just a little something I threw together while playing “the album of 2008” the other day. Please click to zoom. (All photos used © Dean Stockings/Toyah)
Two more rare-ish photos of Toyah from history! Both have been previously available but in far poorer quality. The first is from Toyah’s very first ‘Spotlight’ (the film, theatre and TV casting agency) profile in 1977. It was originally b&w rather than this colourised version. The second picture is from a Blue Meaning era photoshoot, photos from which were used in ‘Fab 208’ and ‘Jackie’ magazines in 1980. Please click on each to zoom. (Thanks to Craig Watkins (photo 1), Andi (photo 2) & Andrew York for colouring photo 1)
• The Toyah Top 50 (Unofficial): In 2008 Toyah’s Official Website published the Toyah Top 50 to mark Toyah’s 50th birthday (view those results here). Five years later, just for fun and completely unofficial, Larwi and James at Facebook are doing something similar. Click here for more info and to take part. (Thanks to James Armstrong & Lärwi)
• Texas Toyah Potatoes!: Toyah’s been unpacking and tweeted a great photo from her travels yesterday: “Finally unpacking from changeling tour & found this TOYAH POTATO sack from texas!!!!! Excellent!” (PS. How cute is WilyFred the rabbit?)
• 25th Anniversary Gig: 10 years ago Toyah played an amazing concert at the Mean Fiddler, London in celebration of 25 years of being a live performer. I’d thought no footage from this had ever been made available. Until yesterday when Damon posted this. No sound and only 21 seconds but still great to see even a teeny weeny bit of film from that fantastic night. (Thanks to Damon King)
• 25th Anniversary Gig: View tons of info on this, now legendary, gig at Dreamscape’s mini-site.
Dreamscape is ‘Remembering ’83′ all through 2013, with sporadic updates related to Toyah’s career in 1983, in the build-up to the ‘Love Is The Law & Greatest Hits’ tour in the Autumn. Here is a beautiful Japanese press advert for the ‘Love Is The Law’ album. This is is not fan created, it’s a genuine ad used in Japanese press. Click to zoom! (Thanks Andi)
• The Electricity Club: An Interview With Republica’s Saffron: A couple of mentions for Toyah in this new interview, including Saffron citing Toyah as an influence: Fronted by the vivacious Saffron, their rousing techno punk rock were like Toyah fronting New Order… Who were your own influences as a singer/performer? My main influences as a singer and performer range from Toyah Willcox, Siouxsie Sioux, Grace Jones to Stevie Nicks, Kate Bush and David Bowie. (Photo © Mark Evans)
• Grolsch Film Works: Top 10 | Punks on Film: 9. Jubilee (Derek Jarman, 1978): Perhaps the quintessential British punk film (Jarman must be one of its most credible “punk” directors), Jubilee features a host of punk stars of the period – from Toyah to Adam Ant, and an anarchic tone, which combined with the location shooting of urban decay and economic depression, captured the spirit of the times.
• Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis): Expanding The Frame: Tribute to Experimentation: The tribute to Derek Jarman kicks off with the area premiere of Isaac Julien’s touching documentary about the filmmaker, Derek, on Friday February 20, and includes several of the filmmaker’s most well-known films, including Jubilee (February 21), Caravaggio (February 21), Sebastiane (February 22), and a selection of the director’s music films (February 26).
• Bard Of Ely: Why dyeing your hair with crazy colour hair dyes is a fun thing to do: Singer, actress and TV personality Toyah Willcox, who came to fame with her hit songs back in the 1970s Punk and New Wave scene is another celebrity who has often dyed her hair in flamboyant colours.
An interview with Toyah, from last October by Glasgow’s Evening Times, which was previously only viewable to subscribers is now available to all.
Toyah’s performing her classic album, 30 years on
It’s her fans’ favourite record – but it’s taken 30 years for Toyah Willcox to face up to playing The Changeling album again.
The popular singer, actress and TV personality released the album in 1982, and it captured a dark, stressful time in her life. It’s only now that she feels she can perform it.
“The important thing about The Changeling and now is that I feel I can face it again,” she says ahead of her show at Classic Grand in Glasgow on Friday. “It was a pretty intense time making it, and being extremely famous is not a comfortable place to be, especially when you’re trying to write an album.
“I found the pressures of that one difficult, especially with the demands on time and the technology was very new as it was being made on digital.It brought back difficult memories revisiting it, as it was so intense at the time and I was just trying to remain true to myself. Being the most commercial female pop star at the time and wanting to write really dark material doesn’t go hand in hand.”
• Continue reading at the Evening Times.
It’s become a tradition over the years for Dreamscape to put together an “ad” for Toyah’s latest release… So, here’s one for ‘Sensational’. Available at iTunes, Amazon etc… Click here to view a larger version and below to watch the video at You Tube.
Rather than celebrating the fact that almost 40 years into her career Toyah is still making music, releasing videos and imagery, entertaining her fans (is there anybody else from the New Wave era that is still so busy and visible that a news website about them can be updated almost every day?) and much more, there seems to be even more negativity swirling around than usual, especially regarding the video for ‘Sensational’. Check out the video on You Tube for Toyah’s feelings on the matter!
Some people seemed quite excited yesterday that Pop Justice ran an article on Toyah and ‘Sensational’.
Toyah was a fairly big popstar in the early 1980s. It’s probably overstating things slightly to say that she was the Lady Gaga of her day because she didn’t really have the tunes, but you can’t argue with magazine covers like the one you see to your right. We reckon Toyah could probably have pulled off a fairly successful comeback on the back of this Weight Watchers ad appearance. You know the sort of thing – you find one or two up-and-coming acts who might be prepared to drop her name as an influence, Radio 2 play the single quite a bit, broadsheets do the usual ‘she was there at the dawn of the pop age now the original Gaga is back and she’s as colourful as ever’ pieces…
• Continue reading at Pop Justice.
• Dreamscape is “Remembering 1983” all this year. Yeah it’s in the past but what a great year it was… Just for fun – Wouldn’t a double A-Side single, ‘Time Is Ours’ and ‘Dreamscape’, have been a great release from the album? Lots of fans agree at Facebook. It didn’t happen but here is our “wishful thinking” artwork anyway. (please click to zoom)
• Love Is The Law at iTunes: Currently the only songs from the album that are available to download at ‘iTunes’ are the two tracks that were released as singles from the album; ‘Rebel Run’ and ‘The Vow’, both included on the mid-90s compilation Best of Toyah.
• The new video for Toyah’s Sensational has just been released. Here is another clip featuring the song, uploaded to You Tube a couple of years ago, featuring footage from The Sarah Jane Adventures. There’s also a SJA video set to It’s A Mystery, and a Doctor Who one too!
• Dangerous Minds: Punk Rock, Now More Than Ever: The Gospel According To Henry Rollins And Various Old Punks: I’m no Henry Rollins fan but when he’s good he can be very good, as he is in this short piece on punk rock, Is Punk Back From The Dead?, that was broadcast on British TV recently. The clip also includes some thoughts on punk from John Holmstrom, Tony James (Generation X), Mark Perry (Sniffin’ Glue) and Toyah Willcox. The consensus: punk now more than ever!
• Pun Based Name: Copy? Compliment? Coincidence?: For whatever reason, lots of album covers seem to pay tribute to lots of other ones… 15. Kate Bush – Never For Ever (EMI, 1980) & Toyah – Anthem (Safari, 1981): Anthem was probably Toyah’s best album; a nice mix of post-punk and new wave/synth pop influences.
• Leamington Courier: Family fun, theatre, comedy and music live in Leamington: Toyah Willcox will star in Hormonal Housewives, a comedy evening of sketches covering what makes women tick – or ticked off.
• In Concert 1981/Rebel Run Tour 1983: Low quality, but still really good, fan radio and concert recordings of War Boys, Neon Womb and I Explode at You Tube.
Yikes! Highly rare photos of Toyah taken at Mayhem in July 1979. A few from this session have been available for a few years (view them at Dreamscape’s 1978/79 Gallery). Please click below to view larger versions of these great photos. Thanks to Craig Watkins. (Photos © Philip Grey)
The curtain closed on Canterbury’s Sleeping Beauty pantomime for the final time at the weekend. And crowds still turned up to the show, despite widespread snowfall across the area. Since its first show on 30 November, nearly 84,00 people turned up to see the pantomime, which starred singers Gareth Gates and Toyah Willcox.
Marlowe Theatre director Mark Everett said: “More people saw Sleeping Beauty than any other Marlowe pantomime. I am absolutely delighted that they enjoyed such a wonderful show and my thanks go to the cast, company and all the theatre staff who worked so hard to make it such a success, especially over the last few, snowy, days.”
• Continue reading at Canterbury People.
British singer Toyah Willcox has credited acupuncture with ending her 40 years of insomnia.
The I Want to Be Free hitmaker began suffering disturbed sleep when she studied for exams as a teenager, and she continued to struggle after finding fame in the 1980s.
Willcox, 54, explored alternative therapies after suffering a bad reaction to medication, and since her first acupuncture session last June (12), she has finally been able to sleep through the night. She tells Britain’s Daily Express newspaper, “I’m teetotal and health conscious so I decided to look into more natural methods of curing my sleep problems. I drink Chamomile tea and use aromatherapy.
• Continue reading at Contact Music.
A new interview with Toyah, published today, by The Express.
Singer and actress Toyah Willcox says a course of acupuncture ended 40 years of insomnia.
After struggling with insomnia since she was 14, Toyah Willcox is an expert at surviving on little sleep. The singer, 54, who found fame as an orange-haired punk in the Eighties, says: “I had just started revising for my GCEs and the anxiety I felt made me stop sleeping.
“I would go to bed around 11 or 12 at night and be awake two hours later. It didn’t help me with my exams as my brain would feel foggy the next day but there was nothing anyone could do for me. No one would give a child a sleeping pill and from that point on I had chronic sleep problems.”
She comes from a family of insomniacs. “My mother never slept,” says Toyah, who was born in Birmingham, the youngest of three. “I remember her doing housework until four in the morning and then she would take me to school a few hours later.
• Continue reading at The Express.
