• 50 Years Of Rock And Roll Photography: The Work Of Gered Mankowitz: A new career spanning hardback book on Gered’s photography is to be published in September. He photographed Toyah a number of times in the early 80s, capturing some iconic images, so it will be interesting to see if any Toyah photos are included in the book. (Thanks to Mark Evans)
• Nottingham Playhouse: 50 Years at Wellington Circus: The Nineties: 1990 Pip Broughton becomes the Playhouse’s first female Artistic Director and directs Toyah Willcox as Thérèse Raquin; Ruth Mackenzie takes the new post of Executive Director.
• The Scotsman: Liam Rudden: Ticking off bucket list of songs: It got me thinking of the other songs I’ve been lucky enough to tick off my list; Ultravox’s The Voice, Andy Williams’ Music To Watch Girls By, Toyah’s Ieya and Blondie’s Fade Away And Radiate – all at the Playhouse.
• Toyah Live 2013: Toyah played her first full-band gig of 2013 the Saturday before last in Selsey, East Sussex. View ‘Echo Beach’ from the gig at You Tube.
• Just Relax: Review of Speak Deluxe by Marla Mase: Track 1 (and 14) ‘Scream’ is an interesting opening track lyrically and musically and reminds me in style of Toyah Willcox.
• Make Up & Hair I Love: Pinterest gallery that includes some classic Toyah images.
• Sea Spray: Toyah – Love is The Law & More Tour Brighton 2013: …Some of the Sea Spray Team will be attending this event.
A new, short but sweet, video clip of Toyah, sending best wishes for the fundraising year to the National Autistic Society UK, has just been added to You Tube. View by clicking below.
Rare footage of Toyah guesting, and presenting on the Nickelodeon Channel in 1994 has just been uploaded to You Tube: Clips from the first week of NickAlive – or is it RickAlive? Rick Adams and Toyah Wilcox host the afternoon, which includes a Take That concert at 6pm. Watch by clicking below. View larger screen caps here.
We’re counting down to the Love Is The Law & More Tour with sporadic LITL related bits and pieces… so here’s another one. View a larger version of this here. Visit Dreamscape’s year-long feature Remember 1983 for lots more LITL/1983 Toyahness.
The fourth episode of The Older Woman is now available to listen to at BBC iPlayer. It will remain online until early next Friday morning.
Episode Five airs next Thursday morning/afternoon and very early Friday morning.
The Older Woman: BBC Radio 4 Extra
Thu 20th June: 7am & 5.30pm/Fri 21st June: 5.30am
Episode 5 of 6. In a rare moment, Miss Callaghan apologises to her ex, lovestruck pupil Roy. Stars Zoe Wanamaker, Martin Clunes and Toyah Willcox. From February 1993.
Tales Of The Unexpected: Sky Arts 2: Thursday 27th June: 12.50pm
Tales Of The Unexpected: Sky Arts 2: Friday 28th June: 6.00am
Blue Marigold. Series 5, Episode 1. Dropped by her agency for her diva-like behaviour, supermodel Marigold’s mental health deteriorates. Years later, she plots a comeback. Director: Giles Foster. Starring: Toyah Willcox, Ralph Bates, Sharon Duce, Helen Fraser, Billy Hamon, Edward Jewesbury.
The Corn is Green: True Entertainment: Monday 24th June: 7.00pm
Academy Award winner Katharine Hepburn stars as a schoolteacher determined to help the people of a turn-of-the-century Welsh mining town. With Ian Saynor, Bill Fraser, Patricia Hayes, Anna Massey, Artro Morris, Dorothea Phillips, Toyah Willcox, Huw Richards, Bryn Fon, Dyfan Roberts and Robin John. Directed by: George Cukor (1979).
LOVE & MARRIAGE: A 20TH CENTURY ROMANCE: TO HAVE AND TO HOLD: SBS, 8.35pm
The final instalment of this striking documentary investigates marriage from the ’80s until today – so get set for some questionably frilly, bouffant dresses and some surprisingly touching moments. We may now live in “the age of divorce” but the recollections of married musicians Robert Fripp and Toyah Willcox are heartwarming (and likely to be nauseating to some). Married for 26 years, they are also frank about their struggles and secret concerns but, even now, Fripp fights back tears remembering their meeting, exclaiming that Toyah “stole my heart!” A series that neatly ties the knot.
[ News Source: Yahoo! Entertainment ]
Celebrity Fantasy Homes: Watch: Wednesday 26th June: 1.00pm
Celebrity Fantasy Homes: Watch +1: Wednesday 26th June: 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. (Also on Watch HD)
Welcome to the Toyah 80s Gallery. How good would it be if this was a real Toyah exhibition, showcasing her greatest imagery, music and video clips, information on the outfits, designers and photographers, etc? We can but (virtually) dream.
Toyah hits the road again this Autumn with the Love Is The Law & More UK Tour, marking the 30th anniversary of a great album, the final Toyah studio album released by Safari Records. It’s also 30 years since the associated ‘Rebel Run’ Tour.
The seven-date tour kicks off in Newcastle on Friday 18th October and takes in Manchester, Brighton, Wolverhampton, Bristol and Southampton with a tour finale in London at Islington’s O2 Academy. Full dates are as follows:
Friday 18th October: Legends, NEWCASTLE
Saturday 19th October: Academy, MANCHESTER
Thursday 24th October: Concorde 2, BRIGHTON
Friday 25th October: Robin 2, WOLVERHAMPTON
Thursday 31st October: Fleece, BRISTOL
Friday 1st November: The Brook, SOUTHAMPTON
Saturday 9th November: o2 Academy, LONDON ISLINGTON
• Tickets are on sale now. Visit EEETickets to get yours. Check out Flag Promotion’s Toyah on Tour 2013 page at Facebook by clicking below.
The edition of The Janice Long Review Show which featured a second guest appearance from Toyah, and a look back at the 1982 album ‘The Changeling’, is also being repeated later in June. This originally aired in August of last year.
The Janice Long Review Show: Vintage TV
Monday 24th June: 11.00pm
Toyah and Sex Pistols. Broadcaster Paul Sexton returns, alongside producer Trevor Horn and 80s starlet Toyah, to discuss her 1982 gothic release ‘The Changeling’ and Sex Pistols’ ground-breaking ‘Never Mind The Bollocks’.
Following two live shows in 2012, C2 are delighted to welcome back Toyah and Love Is The Law & More Tour! Toyah will be performing all her greatest hits, fan favourites and cult classics, so make sure you don’t miss out.
Cult figure, household name and music legend Toyah starred in the punk classic film Jubilee and The Who’s motion picture of Quadrophenia before dominating both the indie charts and top 40 through the late 1970s and 1980s.
To date Toyah has recorded twenty albums and is known for exuberant, energetic live shows filled with colour, drama and classic songs.
Toyah plays the Aberdeen Re:Union 2013 on Saturday 17th August. Watch their promo video for the event at You Tube. More details on all of Toyah’s upcoming gigs here.
• Deep Space Works: PJ Crook: Art galleries and private collections worldwide exhibit the paintings of PJ Crook. There is a series of work that has been used for the album covers for the band King Crimson and many from the music world namely Robert Fripp, Toyah Willcox, Peter Gabriel, Billy Joel, and Holly Johnson collect her work.
• Vintage TV: The music channel is helping support Toyah’s forthcoming ‘Love Is the Law & More’ Tour by including a report and the dates, along with a recent live photo, at their website.
• King’s Heath Walk of Fame: Laying Toyah’s Star: The video of the story of Toyah’s star has been reposted at ‘You Tube’. Watch here. (Thanks to Bob Prew)
• Fandor: Punk Films, Revisited: Famed British Derek Jarman found a muse in the music when he directed his second feature Jubilee, a denatured fantasy about Queen Elizabeth I being transported to an apocalyptic future.
• Quadrophenia: Not only are Toyah and Robert on Australian TV this week in Love & Marriage (see below) but Quadrophenia also aired “Down Under” last night on ABC. More info from Guide TV. (Thanks to Richard Featherstone)
• Live 2013: Toyah made her second live (music) appearance of the year on Saturday, a full band concert at the Bunn Leisure entertainment complex in Selsey, West Sussex. Toyah tweeted: “First gig of year with band 2nite. Can’t wait. It will b fun! And it will b very hot!”
• Yeah Synthpop!: A couple of posts for Toyah at the synthpop page.
Toyah’s June blog is now available to read at The Official Toyah Willcox Website.
The Smash Hits Archive collection at flickr has a new layout, making browsing each issue far easier than previously. The archive is currently at mid 1983, with tons of Toyah content including her three cover issues: View 27 November – 10 December 1980, September 3 – 16 1981 and May 27 – June 9 1982.
• More retro Toyah magazine articles: View Toyah articles from three issues of 80’s music magazine ZigZag. (Thanks to John Kidd)
The episode of the BBC series Love and Marriage in which Toyah and Robert Fripp featured is to air on Australian television on Friday (14th June).
The Sydney Morning Herald: Critic’s Choice: Love & Marriage: Friday, 8.35pm, SBS One
Subtitled A 20th Century Romance, this fascinating British documentary has traced the history of marriage over the past 100 years. In tonight’s concluding episode, it picks up the tale in the 1980s. As with the past two instalments, while a crisp narration provides important context, the real enlightenment comes from the frank, simple interviews with assorted spouses. I especially like the fact that everyone speaks as an individual, relating their own experiences. Not until the final frames do we see the people as couples – if indeed they still are. And we get that same wonderfully eclectic assortment of humanity. Fans of 1980s music may be particularly interested to see Robert Fripp and Toyah Willcox talk about their 25-year marriage – its ups and downs, and how they managed to keep it together.
• Continue reading at The Sydney Morning Herald.
Jelly have just released their debut album, the wonderfully titled ‘Troubadour, Wizard, The Queen And The Machine’. Jelly, of course, includes singer Stevie Bray in ther line-up, formerly the original drummer in Toyah.
Read a short review of the album at Soundtrack4Life: “Now, this is what you call a debut album! Eleven slices of superb rock and roll“.
Tracklist: 1. Say Hello, 2. Car Crash Movie, 3. Kill Me, Thrill Me, 4. The Note, 5. Something’s Killing Me, 6. Best Of Us Yet, 7. Maybe I’m Stupid, 8. Hush Now, 9. Alice In Paris, 10. Get Outta Jail, 11. Miss Behaviour.
The album is currently available by contacting the band via their Facebook page. As you can see the artwork for the album is also excellent.
Over the next few months Dreamscape will count down to Toyah’s Love Is The Law & More Tour by compiling “The Complete Love Is The Law Lyrics Collection”. Beginning with the fantastic Broken Diamonds and the equally brilliant I Explode. I’ll put together a page for the collection once a few more are ready. Please click below to view full versions of each.
The Janice Long Review Show, the first (of two), featuring Toyah as a guest is repeated later this month on ‘Vintage TV’. This originally aired last July.
The Janice Long Review Show: Vintage TV
Thursday 20th June: 11.00pm
Earth, Wind and Fire and Seal. Prolific producer Trevor Horn, punk princess Toyah Willcox and music journalist Paul Sexton head to Boogie Wonderland to chat disco classic ‘I Am’ and UK No 1 ‘Seal II’, home to hit ‘Kiss From A Rose’.
