Toyah’s Sack The Stylist?! Top 30: NOW 80s: Wednesday 20th May: 8pm
Pop legend Toyah brings 30 memorable videos featuring a cavalcade of clothing calamities from superstars including Bowie, Madonna, Adam Ant and many more in this crazy countdown!
Robert Fripp wishes Toyah a Happy Birthday.
It’s Toyah’s birthday. This website has been celebrating Toyah’s birthday for over 20 years now. Here are some of our previous virtual birthday card designs. Click to zoom.
Toyah, and many others, got into the retro groove last night for the big 80s Lockdown Fest which aired straight into living rooms. Although free-to-view, Let’s Rock were raising much needed funds on the night for Child Bereavement UK. Watch Let’s Rock 80s Lockdown Fest at You Tube.
Last night’s debut episode of the new BBC Radio 2 Jools Holland show, with Toyah as his first guest, is now available to listen to online.
A new series where Jools and a guest explore the Later… archive, picking out some favourite moments and discussing some of their favourite artists along the way. Kicking it off is singer, songwriter & actress Toyah, who picks the likes of Bryan Ferry, & Muse, as well as discussing her work and career.
• Listen to the show online at BBC Sounds. It’s available for the next four weeks. (Photo © BBC)
Happy 34th Anniversary, and a Happy Birthday to Robert. Click below for a song!
Shirley Manson of Garbage, and back in the mists of time, Goodbye Mr Mackenzie, speaks for us all. I would only add, never let the snobbery of music journalists dictate your tastes. I never did.
“I owe her an apology for not giving credit where credit is due.”
This is Toyah Willcox and this is a true story. I loved her growing up but I never admitted it publicly because I knew deep down that it wasn’t considered very cool by the serious music press to do so. The worst possible thing for me at that age was to be thought of as uncool. However truth was she fascinated me and I think it’s fair to say I studied her. By that I mean I obsessed over photographs of her in magazines and tried to emulate her fabulous, esoteric style, copy her make up, style my hair like she did.
Toyah wasn’t considered very culturally “important” like Siouxsie was. She was effervescent. She had a cute little lisp. She seemed a bit nerdy and she was considered pretty mainstream. I was 15 and pretty mainstream myself but as I said, needed more than anything to appear cool to my peers so I kept my tastes to myself.
I can’t remember who accompanied me to see her play when she came to The Edinburgh Playhouse in the summer of 1982. I am assuming it was my best friend Sara. We had been besties since nursery school but I can’t honestly remember. However I DO remember the undeniable, visceral thrill of seeing Toyah on stage. This was a time before pop stars were accessible and culturally omnipresent. The impact of seeing your idols on stage, in the flesh for the first time was something immense and extraordinarily overwhelming. It was the only time you ever really got to see them move through space. See them breathe and hear them speak. I just remember the lights and lusting after Toyah’s hair and being utterly transfixed.
I owe Toyah an apology. An apology for being a Judas. An apology for sucking at her teat and not having the strength of character to ever admit it. I owe her an apology for not giving credit where credit is due. I owe her an apology for, upon discovering she was a idiosyncratic firecracker and not ice cool, withholding my love. I apologize. And I want to thank her. For everything . For being a weirdo. For taking risks. For fucking trying and not being afraid. I love you Toyah Willcox. I wish I’d declared myself publicly sooner but it’s better late than never. “Don’t want to go to school. I want to be free. I want to be me”.
She has over 20 albums, 10 films and 40 plays under her belt, but Toyah’s biggest-ever tour has just been thwarted by the lockdown. How is she dealing with this setback, and what positive thoughts can she share with Julie Peasgood and the #notgoingoutclub?
Toyah talks being busy, not touring, the Sunday #lockdown videos, healthy eating and offers a few pearls of wisdom.
• Click below to watch the interview. See the SAGA UK preview clip of Toyah at Twitter.
Pop heroes of the 1980s unite for fundraising LockdownFest
Some of the biggest names in ’80s pop are coming together this weekend for a special online event in aid of charity.
80s LockdownFest will feature appearances by Tony Hadley, Wet Wet Wet, ABC, Howard Jones, Midge Ure, Jason Donovan, Toyah, Hue & Cry, Chesney Hawkes, Brother Beyond, Five Star, Then Jerico and many more on Saturday May 16.
The evening, part of the Let’s Rock season of festivals, will be hosted by Pat Sharp and Dave Benson Phillips. The fun kicks off at 7pm on YouTube and across all the Let’s Rock locations’ Facebook pages.The Let’s Rock season of retro festivals was due to start this weekend.
A spokesperson for Let’s Rock organisers UK Live said: “We would really like to thank both our audience and the artists for their amazing support and loyalty, and we really can’t wait to come back bigger and better next year. However, we couldn’t just leave it until then!
• Continue reading at The Falkirk Herald. See also The Hertfordshire Mercury.
A venue Toyah has played live at in the past, The Horn in St Albans, needs financial help to survive through the current global health crisis.
The Horn needs your help. In light of the current situation regarding Covid-19/Coronavirus and as instructed by the government, The Horn is closed until further notice.
As always, the safety and health of staff, customers, artists and all others is of the utmost importance, our focus now needs to be on protecting the future of the venue and doing our best to ensure staff welfare.
Like so many other small, independent businesses, we now face an unpredictable and potentially very grave future and we need your help.
Put simply: without support and action during these times, The Horn will not survive and its staff will be placed in a vulnerable financial position. We are taking advice from the government re financial help and will apply for a business loan when it goes live. But all of these measure will still fall short paying our existing outgoings and losses.
We have decided to launch this funding page to help support our staff and pay essential bills. All funds raised on this page will be used to support staff financially while trying to safeguard and protect the future of the venue.
• Visit The Horn St Albans’ crowdfunding page at Crowdfunder.
In the first of a new series, Jools Holland opens the vault of his TV series Later… to rummage through three decades-worth of classic archive performances.
Tonight he revisits the very first episode of the show to play the Neville Brothers and to tease out the history of New Orleans music.
Formed in 1977 in New Orleans, The Neville Brothers’ eponymous debut album was released just a year later on Capitol Records. Composed of brothers Aaron, Art, Charles, Cyril and Ivan Neville, the band became a key fixture in the New Orleans music scene, going on to win a Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Performance in 1990 for their song Healing Chant.
Also in this first episode Jools is joined by singer, actor and writer Toyah Willcox , who’ll be picking her own favourite Later… performances – including Muse, David Bowie and Bryan Ferry – and discussing her career with Jools. Willcox is a four-times Brit Award nominated singer-songwriter, actor and producer.
In a career spanning more than 40 years, she has released over 20 albums and achieved eight Top 40 singles, including I Want to Be Free and Thunder In The Mountains. In 2001 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Central England in recognition of her achievements in performing arts, media and broadcasting.
Ep 1/6 | Saturday 16 May | 8.00pm-9.00pm | BBC Radio 2: Presenter: Jools Holland | Producer: Mark Hagen for the BBC
Tales Of The Unexpected: Sky Arts: Friday 22nd May: 1pm
Tales Of The Unexpected: Sky Arts: Sunday 24th May: 9am
Tales Of The Unexpected: Sky Arts: Monday 25th May: 9am
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 King Crimson guitarist and his wife honour VE heroes with version of the David Bowie song
King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp and his wife Toyah have released a video of themselves performing a cover of David Bowie’s Heroes (a song Crimson themselves released back in 2017) to celebrate VE Day.
Fripp’s Uncle Bill, aka RAF Flight Sergeant Alfie Fripp, and Toyah’s own relative Beric Wilcox had both been in the armed services, Alfie Fripp even helped in the planning of The Great Escape. Radio 2 even played Bowie’s original version of Heroes in Fripp’s honour when he died, which of course featured his nephew on guitar.
Both Fripp and Toyah have been entertaining fans with humorous videos of themselves during lockdown, including the pair dancing and even performing ballet. Most can be seen on Toyah’s You Tube page.
• Continue reading at Louder. Visit Toyah’s You Tube channel.
The Serbian Council of Great Britain held an online fundraising concert on Sunday 3rd May 2020 as a call to action during the COVID Crisis. Toyah supported the cause by performing It’s A Mystery.
• Click on the screen shots below to see/hear Toyah’s full performance (begins 11m into the clip). Visit the crowdfunding page here.
A reminder that Toyah appears in Candy Wars: Britain’s Favourite Sweets 2020 this evening.
Candy Wars: Britain’s Favourite Sweets 2020:
Channel 5: Sunday 10th May: 6.15pm & 7.10pm
Confectionery-loving celebrities crunch and chew their way through the public’s chosen top 20 goodies, while reminiscing about sweet TV adverts from times gone by. One lucky competition winner heads to a factory to invent her own sweet, there’s a visit to the world’s oldest sweet shop and one of the UK’s top competitive eaters tries to break a marshmallow-eating world record.
Featuring Janet Ellis, Kim Woodburn, Angela Griffin, Basil Brush, Ninia Benjamin, Justin Moorhouse, Catherine Tyldesley, Rosemary Shrager, Toyah Willcox, Samantha Giles and Duncan James.
Toyah and Robert Fripp paying tribute, via a moving performance of David Bowie’s Heroes, on VE Day 75, to all those who gave so much.
Backing track: King Crimson Live In Berlin on September 12th. 2016.
Personnel: Gavin Harrison, Jeremy Stacey, Pat Mastelotto, Mel Collins, Tony Levin, Jakko Jakszyk & Robert Fripp. Fairy dustings provided by Bill Rieflin.
Recorded and mixed by Chris Porter. Produced by Chris Porter with Robert Fripp & David Singleton. Used by permission.
Vocal track & video: Toyah Willcox, at home in the kitchen, Middle England; May 5th. 2020 on iPhone. Vocal & backing track mix: Jakko Jakszyk.
The guitar used in the video is RF’s Les Paul serial no. 9-1986; used on all KC albums 1969-74; and on the Heroes session in Berlin with David Bowie, Tony Visconti & Brian Eno at the Hansa Studios, July 1977.
The two VE Day Heroes being celebrated within the Fripp and Willcox families:
Uncle Bill, aka RAF Flight Sergeant Alfie Fripp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfie_Fripp, who helped in planning The Great Escape.
Beric Willcox of the Royal Navy, based in Alexandria, who guarded convoys in the Mediterranean https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Mediterranean.
• Watch/Listen at You Tube. Continue reading at DGM Live.
Dreamscape’s Toyah news for February to April 2020 has now been archived. Interviews, press clips, official news, Toyah’s tweets, radio appearances, releases, television listings and much more. Click below to visit our News Archive, where you can plough through 240 months of Toyah news.
Something special premieres at Toyah’s You Tube channel at 07:00 BST, Friday 8th May 2020 for #VEDay #veday75 #veday2020 #toyahwillcox #robertfripp (Photos © Toyah Willcox)
After almost three weeks of work and hassle this website has been sorted and restored to the format which works best. The database was also saved, meaning the past eight years of Toyah news in this format are also restored. I quite liked the temporary version but this permanent format uses advanced functions to categorise and tag news posts, something Toyah’s eclectic and busy career needs. (Some photos from 2012 are still missing. I’m working on fixing this)
• Let’s Rock 80s Lockdown Fest: Toyah is taking part in the Let’s Rock 80s Lockdown Fest on Saturday 16th May, 7-10pm… Tune in from your home
• Official Toyah: Unicorn Bolero Sunday Lockdown Lunch #toyahwillcox #robertfripp #bolero #unicorn #lockdown – Continue watching…
• BBC Archive: #OnThisDay 1981: Toyah Willcox and Chris Phipps crowned the winner of The Poser competition on Look! Hear! – Take a trip back to the 80s…
• Big Issue North: In The Frame – Derek Jarman: Best known as a film-maker, Jarman was also a diarist and artist. From pop to politics, his work epitomises 1980s culture but remains vital today – Contnue reading…
• Hero Magazine: Jubilee, Mouth Music and Magnolia: In Jubilee, Derek Jarman tells the story of a time-travelling Queen Elizabeth who arrives in 1979 to find her kingdom destroyed by punks. It’s a gloriously unhinged celebration of chaos, where hierarchy is demolished and renegades are given free rein – Continue reading…
