A third remix of a classic Toyah song, this time ‘Jungles of Jupiter’ from Anthem, has been made available by Tom Leon.
First it was “Awake’n Dreams: Alan Parsons Project vs Toyah Willcox” (using ‘Pop Star’), then “Let Me Go (Here It Comes Again 2012 Remix)”, and now TOM LEON brings us “Jungles Of Jupiter (Tom Leon and Toyah: Sad Android Extended Version)”.
Completely unofficial and, as with Tom’s previous mixes for “private and promotional use only”, it’s interesting to hear Toyah’s songs being experimented with. Not everyone will approve, as these are of course regarded as classics, but Tom doesn’t do anything too drastic with them!
The track is also included on the album ‘Quantam Sequences 2013’
• Listen to ‘Jungles Of Jupiter (Tom Leon and Toyah: Sad Android Extended Version)’ here. View more details about Tom’s album here.
• View info on the previous Toyah remixes by Tom Leon in our past news posts.
Toyah will be guesting on a future edition of In Conversation with Steve Allen, which airs on LBC (London’s Biggest Conversation), the 24/7 talk radio station.
The programmes air as two 30-minute double-bills each Sunday morning between 6 and 7am. LBC can be listed to live online (no “Listen Again” function but you can purchase podcasts of previous broadcasts for £2). Steve tweeted earlier this week: “Lovely Stephen mulhearn is doing heart brekky this week so he dropped in, such a nice guy, and toyah really good fun. Now giving blood, yuk“, so it appears that Toyah’s interview has now been recorded. No info on the airdate yet. (Thanks to Paul Johnson)
• Hull Daily Mail: How acupuncture has helped Toyah finally get a good night’s sleep: Toyah Willcox has tried everything from sleeping pills to herbal remedies to enjoy what many of us take for granted – a normal night’s sleep. “When I was young I just regarded not sleeping as a fantastic way to pack more into my days. I always reasoned that life’s so short, it seemed crazy to waste it sleeping,” she says.
• Weekend: Toyah tweeted a photo of the cutest rabbit in Britain on Monday… who just happens to be perusing Gloucestershire Echo’s ‘Weekend’ supplement from Saturday, with Toyah on the cover!
• Top 10 Toyah 2013: The recent song vote fan poll has now closed and the results are in… View the full Top 10 Toyah songs, as voted by Toyah fans at Facebook, at The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive. (Thanks again to James & Lärwi)
New to Dreamscape’s Gallery: The full collection of “Intergalactic Ranchhouse” and “Toyah Fan Club” photos, which originally accompanied the regular newsletters, mailed out to fan club subscribers between 1980 and ’86. There are also a few pre and post-fan club photos included too. (Thanks to Andi Westhorpe for the IRH/TFC collection. Thanks also to Paul Lomas)
The new Official Toyah Newsletter. Register here.
Join the official Toyah mailing list to receive receive Breaking Through, an e-mail newsletter and regular bulletins containing gig announcements, release news, links to buy Toyah products online and exciting exclusives direct from toyahwillcox.com.
A round-up of recently confirmed gigs means you can plan seeing Toyah live in concert and there will be news on any upcoming tour merchandise in the pipeline. Can you hear it……. breaking through.
• Sign up to the newsletter before 31st March and gain access to a previously unreleased exclusive track. There were 40 sign ups last night in the three minutes after the mailing list was announced on Toyah’s official webspaces!
Toyah is also interviewed by Worcester News. This was published yesterday.
‘I feel so much better, – I have more energy, my brain’s more alert’
“When I was young I just regarded not sleeping as a fantastic way to pack more into my days. I always reasoned that life’s so short, it seemed crazy to waste it sleeping,” she says.
But eventually it turned into a “nightmare”, raising her stress levels and making her vulnerable to worry.
She’s talking at her London home – she also has a home in Pershore – about the tricky path which has now led to a transformation in her sleep – and it’s thanks to acupuncture.
• Continue reading at Worcester News.
A new interview with Toyah, this one from the Manchester Evening News, published online on Sunday.
Sweet dreams at last for Toyah Willcox: ‘It’s a wonderful release from a life-long problem’
Singer, songwriter and actress Toyah Willcox battled chronic insomnia for years, but she tells Gabrielle Fagan how her life has been transformed
Toyah Willcox has tried everything from sleeping pills to herbal remedies to enjoy what many of us take for granted – a normal night’s sleep. From the age of 14, the 54-year-old has suffered from chronic insomnia, surviving on as little as four hours of sleep a night – a couple of hours after midnight and only two more between 7-9am.
• Continue reading at the Manchester Evening News.
In The Fairground, Andrew’s website, is now live: www.toyahart.co.uk – We hope you like it!
Fragments, a new blog series by Craig Astley, is sure to be an interesting read for Toyah fans over the coming months, as we head towards the 30th anniversary of the ‘Love Is The Law’ album and ‘Rebel Run’ UK Tour. Craig met Toyah for the first time during the tour back in 1983 (before he was even 5!!)
I Was A Child Toyah Fan…….
2013 marks something of a milestone for me. It is thirty years since an exciting thing happened to me as a child. A child who was a pop music lover and devoted fan of Toyah.
• Continue reading at Fragments: Toyah Tales From Now & Then.
• Saffron cites Toyah as an influence again in another new interview: Spark Sunderland: Republica: Back & Ready To Go: “Singers like Toyah and Siouxsie and the Banshees, they’re quite individual front women you know. They were like the first of their kind; their look the way they sang and the lyrics.”
• Wales Online: Hannah Jones: There’s nothing wrong with dyeing your hair: Once upon a time, I copied Toyah Willcox. I went about pretending to have a lisp – I don’t think Ebbw Vale was ready for a 10-year-old lumper prancing around in a home-made ra-ra skirt and answering “It’s A Mystery” whenever I was asked a question. The best thing about my Toyah years, though, was discovering the joys of back-combing and bleach.
• This is Gloucestershire: A new Toyah interview was included in the Gloucestershire Echo’s ‘Weekend’ magazine on Saturday: Singer and actress Toyah Willcox tells us how she finally managed to beat her insomnia. (Only available in the magazine)
• BBC America: Check out Toyah’s page in BBC America’s Doctor Who section.
The pre-launch publicity for In The Fairground is gathering pace… Seriously though, Andrew York’s new website, featuring fantastic art created from Toyah’s history of visual imagery, will be online soon. Thanks for all the great feedback so far. (Fun promo photos by Andrew)
A new syndicated Toyah article, published by numerous online news resources, including the Press Association and the Belfast Telegraph.
Toyah Willcox has revealed she suffered from chronic insomnia for 40 years, until she tried acupuncture.
The singer, songwriter and actress, who’s released more than 20 albums, took sleeping pills for a time in her twenties but disliked feeling sluggish and drowsy.
“I was trying to be creative and write and perform, which was impossible when I was on those. I gave them up very quickly,” she said.
Last year, Toyah, who will star in a three-month tour of the sketch show Hormonal Housewives, became anxious about the potential health risks arising from her insomnia and so tried acupuncture.
• Continue reading at the Belfast Telegraph.
Celebrity Fantasy Homes: Watch: Thursday 21st February: 1.00pm
Celebrity Fantasy Homes: Watch +1: Thursday 21st February: 2.00pm
Celebrities hunt for a new home. Gaby Roslin helps punk-pop princess Toyah Willcox search for a second home, in Richmond upon Thames, with a budget of £650,000.
Coming soon to the Information Superhighway (ooooh I haven’t heard anyone call the internet that for years – retrotastic!) a shiny new Toyah-related website: IN THE FAIRGROUND | Andrew York’s Arternative Universe… Can anyone hear me out there?
It’s the second instalment of Dreamscape’s new Keeping Up With The Hormonal Housewives. There are now just 18 days to go until the tour begins, with the first show at The Churchill Theatre, Bromley.
• Toyah tweeted this week: “Started Hormonal Housewives rehearsals! Very funny! Very rude! Absolutely no phone reception @ venue….heaven” and also “Down deep in the bowels of churchill theatre, bromley, rehearsing HH. world could end we wouldn’t know!!!!”
• The Hormonal Housewives have been tweeting and facebooking over the last couple of days too, keeping everyone updated. View their Twitter and check out their Facebook.
• Get your tickets for the first week’s performances: Churchill Theatre, Bromley (5th March), Regent Theatre, Ipswich (6th), Corn Exchange, Kings Lynn (7th), Gordon Craig Theatre, Stevenage (8th) and Leas Cliff Hall, Folkestone (9th March).
I’ve always wanted to see a Manga-esque version of Toyah, Here’s my attempt.
Pay a visit to Dreamscape’s shiny new Facebook page, and please give us a “like” while you are there. Over the last few days we’ve been posting lots of Toyah bits & pieces, as well as various “collections”, including The Blue Meaning, Thunder In The Mountains, Brave New World, The Ieya Tour 1980, Rock & Pop Awards 1982 and Melissa Caplan.
There’s a great page at Focus On The Family on the Radio Theatre production of Les Misérables. Toyah plays Fantine in the 2007 full-cast audio drama which is available to buy on CD or download.
A Radio Theatre Classic: It’s one of the world’s masterpieces of storytelling. Against the stirring background of the French Revolution, follow the tale of Jean Valjean as he encounters the savage injustice of the law — and then the gentleness and grace of God. It depicts events like the battle at the barricade and a heroic rescue through the underworld of Paris.
Toyah Willcox as Fantine: Toyah co-starred with Sir Laurence Olivier in the acclaimed British TV production Ebony Tower. Her film roles include Miranda in The Tempest, Jubilee,Quadrophenia and The Corn is Green with Katharine Hepburn.
• The Guardian: From Rock’s Backpages: Toyah is namechecked in a newly published retro article at ‘The Guardian’: Neil Tennant on the 1985 Brits – a classic feature from the vaults: The Brits are coming! We’re marking the annual bunfest by reliving Neil Tennant’s visit to the 1985 ceremony for Smash Hits, courtesy of Rock’s Backpages – the world’s leading archive of vintage music journalism… Photographers are in a frenzy in the foyer snapping anyone remotely famous, like Bob Geldof and Paula Yates, Howard and Jan Jones, Meat Loaf, Toyah …
• The Brit Awards: Check out Toyah in the “History” section of The Brits website.
• Media Molecule: On Tuesday evening Google News were listing that over 100 online articles were currently mentioning Toyah and ‘It’s A Mystery’ in relation to the Media Molecule teaser game page. Even the IMDb got in on the action.
• Birmingham Post: Star names of stage and screen pay tribute to 100-year-old Birmingham Rep – Another press report on the Birmingham Rep’s Centenary.
Kings Heath star reveals how acupuncture finally relieved sleeplessness torment
Birmingham singer Toyah Willcox is sleeping soundly for the first time in decades – after revealing her 40-year battle with insomnia.
The star, who was born in Kings Heath, said she had tried everything from sleeping pills to herbal remedies in a bid to overcome the condition. But she only saw an improvement after turning to acupuncture, she said.
“When I was young I just regarded not sleeping as a fantastic way to pack more into my days. I always reasoned that life’s so short, it seemed crazy to waste it sleeping,” Willcox said.
• Continue reading at the Birmingham Mail.
Welcome to Dreamscape’s new “Keeping Up with the Hormonal Housewives” strand: Regular posts in which we will endeavour to keep you updated on what those Hormonal Housewives are up to (I know the title is self-explanatory and didn’t need explaining but…). Here goes:
• Toyah tweeted on Sunday: “So much 2 do! Not packed yet! Start Hormonal Housewives tomorrow! Can’t wait :-)”
• Hormonal Housewives tweeted yesterday: “We are starting today with our rehearsals!!! Happy Monday to everyone! #laughingladies”
• Hormonal Housewives also linked to News Shopper‘s ticket competition yesterday, at Twitter and Facebook, and kindly gave Dreamscape a namecheck! (Thank you!)
• Visit the Official Hormonal Housewives website, and check out Dreamscape’s dedicated page.
