Toyah, James Endeacott & Nadine Shah, guesting on Steve Lamacq’s Roundtable on ‘BBC 6Music’ yesterday. The show is available to listen to at BBC iPlayer for the next week. (Photos © Toyah/BBC 6Music)
• The Crack: We’re Here! We’re Queer! We’re Watching A Nice Bit Of Toyah!: Toyah! Amelia! Katrina! (From the Waves)! Someone pretending to be Steps! It can only mean that Newcastle Pride 2013 is nigh and about to shower you in excitement… And then there is Toyah. She scored huge success in the 80s with hits such as “It’s A Mystery”, “Thunder In The Mountains” and “I Want To Be Free” but here she’ll be showing off her experimental drone-noise (only kidding – she’ll be playing the hits).
• Bring The Noise: Film Feature: Top 5 Motorbike Movies: Quadrophenia: Perhaps more of a moped, rather than motorbike film but this 1979 film by Franc Roddam remains an iconic moment in British cinema. Starring Phil Daniels, Mark Wingett, Philip Davies, Lesley Ash, Toyah Willcox and, er… Sting…
• BBC Radio Solent: Read a full transcript of Toyah’s recent interview on Alex Dyke’s show at The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive.
• Tomorrow Calling: The 1993 short film Toyah starred in, Tomorrow Calling, played at the ‘Love Architecture Festival’ in Marget-On-Sea last Sunday: A short film adaptation of William Gibson’s The Gernsback Continuum. Bill is shooting architectural photographs of ‘futuristic’ buildings of the 1930s for a coffee table book, but as he frames up a deco bingo hall, a vast airship looms overhead… starring Colin Salmon, Don Henderson and Toyah Wilcox. 12 minutes duration, certificate 15.
• Midlands Today: A short interview with Toyah, on Midlands Today, at Melissa Mailer-Yates’ exhibition in 2008 just uploaded to ‘You Tube’.
A reminder that Toyah guests on Steve Lamacq’s Roundtable on BBC Radio 6Music this evening. The programme will be available at BBC iPlayer shortly after it airs.
Steve Lamacq’s Roundtable: BBC Radio 6Music
Thursday 4th July: 6.00pm
Nadine Shah, A&R man James Endeacott and Toyah join Steve to discuss some new releases.
As previously mentioned, Toyah’s Thunder In The Mountains image will be included in the forthcoming Victoria & Albert exhibition Club To Catwalk: London Fashion In The 80s, Toyah will also participate in a special accompanying event in November. Tickets will be available soon but Breaking Through has released further details:
CARYN FRANKLIN, TOYAH WILLCOX & BRIX START-SMITH: IN CONVERSATION
Friday 8 November / 18.30-19.30
Designed by women for women. Join Caryn, Toyah and Brix as they bring their thoughts, ideas, experiences and memories to a discussion on women who developed, fused and influenced fashion and music in 1980s London. An exclusive look at some of Toyah’s 80s performance costumes will also be part of the evening.
• Toyah also talks about the ‘Club To Catwalk’ exhibition and taking part in the ‘In Conversation’ event in her latest blog.
The third issue of Breaking Through, Toyah’s Official Newsletter, was mailed out to subscribers at the beginning of the week. It included exclusive news, a previously unseen photo, and a competition. There were also hints about the forthcoming LITL&M tour outfit and mention of “even more exciting plans afoot behind the scenes“.
News included details on the ‘Club to Catwalk’ exhibition, Love Is The Law being digitally released (including a preview of the digital booklet), info on Toyah’s full Safari catalogue also now being available digitally, Toyah’s Gig Diary for 2013, the competition to win signed CDs from Toyah, The Humans and Weekend Guitar Trio, plus other news on The Humans third album, Fallen and Ladies Love The Beatles.
• For full info on all of the above, and to receive future issues of the newsletter, sign up to ‘Breaking Through: The Official Toyah Mailing List’ here.
Singer and actress Toyah Willcox will be in South Yorkshire this Friday to compere Rotherham’s One Voice singing celebration.
Toyah will lead the choir – 1,800 Rotherham schoolchildren – at the New York football stadium.
Rotherham MBC: Toyah’s In Town: Singer and Actress Toyah Willcox is coming to Rotherham on Friday to compere Rotherham’s One Voice singing celebration.
Toyah Willcox will be in town on Friday July 5 to host and compere the Rotherham Children’s Festival singing celebration, “One Voice”. Toyah, who has had a career as a singer and actress for over 30 years’ is delighted to be part of such a magical event.
• Continue reading at The Star, and Rotherham MBC.
The 2011 single, Fallen, the song Toyah wrote with Yomanda (Paul Masterson) will shortly receive its hard copy CD debut when the Extended Mix appears on the compilation album GayFest 2013.
The album will be released by Rumour Records with an exact release date still to be confirmed. This is the 14th album in the Gayfest series of compilations.
The single, which made the higher reaches of the Electronic Chart at iTunes in September 2011, is available to download.
I Must Confess… This is a great pop song. Fusing together a brilliant production with Toyah’s unique and distinctive vocals.
• Visit the ‘Fallen’ page at toyahwillcox.com. Watch the video at You Tube. See Toyah perform the single at Wig Out back in 2011. News courtesy of Toyah’s Official Newsletter. Sign up to Breaking Through.
Toyah’s July blog is now available to read at The Official Toyah Willcox Website. Click below for a great read!
A variety of great Toyah news is included in the latest Breaking Through newsletter, just emailed out to subscribers this evening, including that Love Is The Law is to be released digitally on 15th July.
The track list includes the full 10-track album plus nine bonus tracks: To The Mountains High, Baptised In Fire, Haunted, Be Proud Be Loud (Be Heard), Laughing With The Fools, Urban Tribesman, The Furious Futures, Stand Proud, Ieya 1982 [Full Length Version].
A new digital booklet containing Toyah’s intro note, imagery and lyrics accompanies the new release. The cover has also been slightly revised. This also now means that Toyah’s complete Safari discography – every song – is available digitally. Fantastic news!
• Sign up to the ‘Breaking Through’ newsletter at toyahwillcox.com.
A fantastic retro, and quite lengthy, Toyah interview from Finnish magazine SOUNDI.
A huge thanks to Lärwi. of The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive, for the scans and translation.
Interview by Dougie Gordon, published in June 1981.
The door opens. A short, 145 cm tall figure stands in front of me. She’s wearing a blue and grey tunic which has gold embroidery on it. The fiery red hair looks a like a burning bush against the backdrop of the outfit. The figure moves forwards like a Samurai warrior poised for an attack but you can see a smile on her face which you can not resist. She’s Toyah Willcox, England’s Jeanne d’Arc of latter times.
Her moves are a part of her carefully calculated image. She’s has consciously made herself into a mystery which invites the audience to explore her world further. But you can’t fit all of the pieces together – it’s not easy to find the real person behind this made-up facade. Her aggression can turn into warmth in a second – and the other way round. Her mindset changes from a hearty laugh into the deepest despair. Her sentences are deep and meaningful half of the time, the other half you’re left wondering what on earth is she on about? Toyah is like dynamite made out of flesh, the slightest emotional spark will set her off.
She also has a soft sweeter side which the audience rarely gets to see. The aggression she hides behind when dealing with the mass media is of course there on purpose. The media in turn treats her with contempt and suspicion. For this reason she feels misunderstood and defends herself in a way even Lou Reed would be proud of.
• Continue reading at Dreamscape’s Press Archive. Read another rare Finnish interview with Toyah here.
Welcome to July, and to the “new look” Dreamscape.
I thought it was time for a revamp, though I’ve left a few elements from the previous version to, hopefully, retain an air of familiarity.
All the latest Toyah news is still right here on the main page and the links above, as always, take you to the other sections of the site. Happy Browsing!!
A reminder that the classic 1980 episode of Minder, “All Mod Cons”, starring Toyah as Kate airs again today on ITV4 (as well as very early tomorrow at 2am and 7.05am).
Minder: ITV4: Monday 1st July: 5.55pm
Minder: ITV4: Tuesday 2nd July: 2.00am/7.05am
All Mod Cons. Arthur decides to sell Terry’s flat without his permission. Meanwhile, Terry gets a job minding at a local club and ends up getting into more trouble than he had planned for when he realises the club’s manager is on the fiddle. Starring: George Cole, Dennis Waterman, Toyah Willcox, Simon Cadell, James Ottaway, and Tony Osaba. (Series 2, Episode 8, 1980). Also showing on ITV4 +1.
