Dreamscape – Toyah Willcox Fansite

A new interview with Toyah, talking about her lifelong insomnia, in today’s Mirror, accompanied with some great photos.

‘For 40 years I’ve survived on three hours’ sleep a night’: Toyah Willcox on her battle with insomnia

Born with a twisted spine, a clubbed right foot and one leg shorter than the other, singer and actress Toyah Willcox has also suffered from chronic insomnia for 40 years.

Now the 54-year-old, who lives with her husband, musician Robert Fripp, 66, has finally found relief through having acupuncture.

I’ve suffered from ­chronic insomnia for 40 years. It started when I was a 14-year-old ­dyslexic schoolgirl revising for my exams in ­Birmingham. I experienced the typical ­teenage stress that the pressure of cramming for exams, and then sitting there for hours on end doing them brings.

During what felt like a solid month of exam papers, I just stopped sleeping. Once the pattern set in, it became a habit and I never really addressed it because back then no one really talked about insomnia. You’d just had a bad night’s sleep.

• Continue reading at the Mirror.

BBC Sport presenter Clare Balding and Pershore singer and actress Toyah Willcox were the special guests at Croome Court as they promoted its new walking book.

The historic National Trust mansion, situated near Pershore, was the host venue for an upcoming episode of BBC Radio 4 show ‘Ramblings’ on Thursday (January 31). Ramblings, which is presented by Ms Balding, features interviews with notable and interesting people during walks through the countryside.

Amy Forster, house and visitor services manager at Croome Court, said: “Toyah is a strong supporter of Croome and has been kind enough to promote our walking programme and walking events in the past. BBC Radio 4 interviewed Toyah because of the real need she has to walk in order to keep fit.”

• Continue reading at the Evesham Observer. Read all of our Ramblings news here.

Crackerjastic photos of Toyah and Joel at BBC Television Theatre (now the Shepherds Bush Empire), in late 1983, to film Crackerjack. They performed ‘The Vow’ (view the clip at You Tube), and appeared in the end-of-show line up, on the show which aired on 9th December 1983 on BBC1. Please click on the photos to zoom. (Thanks to Kev Tucker for these rare photos)

• Alloa Advertiser: Toyah & Co. take Central Scotland to the 80s: Get ready to backcomb your hair and go heavy on the eyeshadow as Falkirk is set to rock with an 80s extravaganza. (A short article featuring photos from Dreamscape, sent to the site by Ray Sears)

• Contact Music: Another photo of Toyah at RTÉ in Dublin last Monday, prior to guesting on Katherine Lynch’s Wagon’s Den, which aired last Thursday night.

• Acupuncture Awareness Week, which takes place from 25 February to 3 March 2013 aims to educate people about how traditional acupuncture can help improve sleep and aid relaxation. Supporting Acupuncture Awareness Week is actress and singer Toyah Willcox who, like many others, feels that acupuncture has made a huge impact to her life. View an article on this here.

• BBC Hereford & Worcester: Toyah Willcox talks about living in Pershore: The star of stage and screen talks passionately about her Worcestershire hometown. She says she’s flattered to see a sudden surge in the number of younger people coming to her gigs after Florence & The Machine and Marina & The Diamonds cited her as a major influence. This radio interview with Toyah, from September 2010, was added to the ‘BBC H&W News’ page yesterday.

• Valentine Entertainments: The Karnival of Kitsch!: Toyah is mentioned in Andi Fragg’s bio on this site’s festival line-up page. (they also use one of Andi’s banners that I designed :))

• 2-Toyah: The idea of a Toyah “tribute” act/band is possibly a good one, especially as there is so much great music and  imagery to pay homage to. I’m not sure advertising for auditionees on Gumtree is the best way to go about it. Who knows!

Photos of Toyah taken in 1979 during the soundcheck/rehearsal for the gig at Hammersmith Riverside Studios, West London, on 18th July. Thanks to Craig Watkins. (Photos © Philip Grey)

There’s now a King’s Heath Walk Of Fame website, with some great Toyah content.

The site has a couple of pages on Toyah. including videos from last year’s Hare & Hounds gig, which took place after Toyah was awarded her ‘Walk Of Fame’ star, plus a photo of Toyah receiving her star from Bev Bevan (in the “About Us” page).

There’s also updates on future recipients of stars and other related news.

• Visit the website. View all of Dreamscape’s ‘Walk Of Fame’ news here.

• Great to hear that Toyah, and toyahwillcox.com’s, Christmas gift to fans was a roaring success. Toyah’s Official Facebook updated today: Glad to see so many people enjoyed Twenty Four From Toyah which received 4391 plays in the 43 days it was live at Soundcloud, 12 Dec-24 Jan. All tracks “sold out” digitally too. Who knows what 2013 will bring…… :-)

• As the above says, ‘Twenty Four From Toyah’ is no longer available, but the artwork and booklet is currently still online at toyahwillcox.com (though this may change soon). View all of Dreamscape’s TFFT news here.

• “Set myself task of learning 17 pages a day of Hormonal Housewives script. This is fun :-)” tweeted Toyah today. Hormonal Housewives 2013 opens at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley on Tuesday 5th March and goes all over the country through March, April and May. View the complete dates at The Official Toyah Gigs page.

• The first of the BBC’s two-part Queens Of British Pop series airs again tonight on BBC Four at 11pm. Toyah was, inexplicably, left out of the television series when it first aired in March 2009. Dreamscape and other fans were suitably outraged at the time. However an online vote after the series aired placed her 7th in the BBC Queens Of British Pop poll: 1. Kate Bush, 2. Annie Lennox, 3. Kim Wilde, 4. Kylie Minogue, 5. Dusty Springfield, 6. Leona Lewis, 7. Toyah, 8. Geri Halliwell, 9. Siouxsie Sioux, 10. Kirsty MacColl. It’s an interesting programme all the same, featuring Siouxsie, Kate Bush,  Dusty Springfield and Marianne Faithfull, among others, in this first part, which will be available to watch at BBC iPlayer post broadcast.

• Twitter: Toyah tweeted yesterday that “”My guilty pleasure has arrived in the post…rabbiting on magazine….heaven”

• King’s Heath Walk Of Stars: Two new plaques will be joining Toyah on the King’s Heath Walk Of Fame later this year. The Birmingham Post reports that the organisers are “creating new plaques for Fuzzbox’s Jo Dunne and The Move guitarist Trevor Burton following on from the first last year for Kings Heath-born Toyah Willcox.”

• Total Bliss: Define Colour: It’s hard to imagine a world without hair color… This photo feature includes a great shot of “redhead” Toyah from Parkinson in 1981 – the one that was also used in a hairstyles article in Vogue last year.

• Worcestershire Life: 2012 Christmas Quiz Answers: A question about Toyah was included in this festive quiz and the answers have now been revealed… and may just surprise you! 46. Who is Worcestershire actress Toyah Willcox married to? a) Robert Plant.

• NME: Elton John’s Top 10 Batshit Crazy Concert Outfits: Toyah Willcox called – she wants her hair back.

The concert Toyah guested at with Weekend Guitar Trio at Kings Place, London in February 2011, is being released as a six-song live album.

WGT’s next release, a live album which also features Toyah Willcox and Jan Bang, is now in the last stages of production. It was recorded at a concert at Kings Place, London, in February 2011, as part of Eesti Fest – a festival celebrating Estonian music and culture. The album, which will feature 6 tracks, has been mastered by Markus Reuter and Lee Fletcher.

• View photos from the Eesti Fest concert here. (Photo © Madli)

More rare photos of Toyah, taken at Mayhem in Battersea in July 1979. See four more photos from this session in our recent post and click below to view larger versions of these. Thanks again to Craig Watkins. (Photos © Philip Grey)

• Portrait Records: A history of the label Toyah was signed to for around 18 months in the mid-1980s has just been updated at Wikipedia: In 1985, British singer Toyah released her album Minx on the Portrait label.

• Vents Magazine: Dutch pop-rockband Chabliz, who play adventurous alternative rock, popnoir and gothicjazz, cite Toyah as one of their musical influences in a new interview at ‘Vents Magazine’.

• The Changeling Resurrection: Lots of video footage of Toyah’s gig at The Tunnels Bristol last April has been added to You Tube over the last couple of days.

• Channel 4 News: Is Punk Back From The Dead? is now available to watch at You Tube. As a new book is published featuring the origins of punk music in the lower east side of New York, Katie Razzall looks at how Punk magazine changed life in Britain.

• FM: The epsiode of FM in which Toyah makes a, very, brief appearance, but is mentioned a lot, has recently been uploaded in full at You Tube. Series One, Episode Two – System Addict: The group try to stick to some new resolutions: Dom gives up booze, Jane gives up cigarettes, and Lindsay gives up giving up on girls. Featuring a performance by The Wombats, and guest appearance by Toyah Willcox.

• Back To The 80s: The Ultimate Megamix Of The Year: A 43-minute mix which includes ‘I Want To Be Free’ (or “Upside Down”) and ‘Thunder In The Mountains’ and numerous other great tunes from 1981.

• Absolute 80s Radio: ‘It’s A Mystery’ has just been played this afternoon on AR. Apparently the ‘I Want To Be Free’ video is also being shown a lot on Vintage TV at the moment. (Thanks Michael)

• The Visitors: No, not ABBA’s 1981 album… The hits to Dreamscape last night and this morning have went through the roof. Always great news when the site is busy, though this time a large chuck of the visitors have arrived after searching for “wagon’s den geordie shore charlotte” or similar!!