Toyah performing the glorious Good Morning Universe, from the 1981 EP Four More From Toyah, on Sunday (6th February) on the Posh Pop Tour date at Sheffield Corporation. Filmed by Nigel George Limer.
Following the deluxe releases of Sheep Farming In Barnet in 2020, and The Blue Meaning in 2021, comes the third Cherry Red release from Toyah’s Safari albums discography, Toyah! Toyah! Toyah!, the live album with the glorious artwork by Dexter Brown.
Press Announcement from toyahwillcox.com and Cherry Red:
The third instalment in Cherry Red’s deluxe re-issue series of Toyah’s Safari Records back catalogue is the 1980 live album ‘Toyah! Toyah! Toyah!’, released on Friday 13 May 2022.
PRE-ORDER NOW FROM CHERRY RED WITH LIMITED EDITION SIGNED POSTCARDS WHILST STOCKS LAST…. One design for the LP Edition, one for the CD+DVD Edition
The album is released as an expanded deluxe CD+DVD and a Limited Edition Coloured Vinyl LP.
The live album originally peaked at #22 in the UK Top 40 Album Chart in 1980 and also spent an entire year in the Independent Album Chart, earning a Silver sales certification.
The recorded gig took place on 17 June 1980 at the legendary Club Lafayette, Wolverhampton where Sex Pistols, Led Zeppelin and Stevie Wonder all performed. The gig was recorded on the Rolling Stones’ Mobile Recording Unit and has been remastered from the original master tapes by Nick Watson.
With sleevenotes by Craig Astley, Toyah’s official archivist, who also compiled the package, the CD+DVD set finally restores the full concert set list and pairs the live album with a DVD of the 1980 television documentary Toyah, released on disc for the first time ever. Directed by Graham Moore and originally broadcast by the ATV (former name for ITV) network on 17 November 1980, it followed Toyah for over half a year capturing band rehearsals, studio recording sessions, play rehearsals and in her then-home, the notorious Battersea warehouse ‘Mayhem’.
The CD+DVD features the previously unreleased songs ‘She’, a reprise of ‘Danced’ and an unedited complete version of ‘Neon Womb’ which originally faded early as the B-Side of live single ‘Danced’.
The CD+DVD contains a fully illustrated 24-page booklet featuring an introductory note from Toyah alongside rare and unseen photography of Toyah and the band line-up which disbanded before this album’s original release.
The documentary features promo-style video footage for the songs ‘Blue Meanings’ and ‘Neon Womb’ alongside concert footage of ‘Danced’, ‘Insects’ and ‘Ieya’ as heard on the live album.
LP and CD: Toyah! Toyah! Toyah!
1 Victims Of The Riddle
2 Indecision
3 Love Me
4 Vision
5 Bird In Flight
6 Tribal Look
7 Danced
8 Insects
9 Race Through Space
10 Ieya
CD-only Bonus Tracks
11 Ghosts
12 Neon Womb (Unedited)*
13 She*
14 Danced (Encore Version)*
*Previously unreleased
DVD in CD+DVD Edition
Toyah: ATV Documentary
Including promo video-style footage of ‘Neon Womb’ and ‘Blue Meanings’ and concert footage of ‘Insects’, ‘Danced’ and ‘Ieya’.
• Pre-Order Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! on colour vinyl and CD at Cherry Red (The editions with signed postcards sold out almost immediately!). Read the press release at toyahwillcox.com. Watch Toyah announcing the release during this morning’s Toyah At Home.
Tipping Point – Lucky Stars: ITV2: Monday 14th February: 1pm
Series 7, Episode 7. Ben Shephard presents a celebrity edition of the quiz, with the Rev Richard Coles, Toyah Willcox and Sharron Davies answering questions to win turns on an arcade-style machine. Dropping tokens down a choice of four chutes, they hope to knock piles of them off a moving shelf – and the more they collect, the better their chances of collecting the £20,000 prize for their selected charity. (Photo © ITV)
The dedication and commitment of the super fan is something we never take for granted at Cherry Red. Their passion and energy for artists is the lifeblood of any musician’s career, and in our latest blog piece we celebrate that with a wonderful piece by writer and designer Chris Limb.
Chris has been a steadfast Toyah fan since the early 80s and wrote I Was A Teenage Toyah Fan; a fascinating example of loyalty and affection that serves as a window into the soul of any ardent music lover.
It is 1981. I am seeing Toyah play live. For the first time I am actually in the same room as her, albeit a very large room. There she is, over there. I can see her with my eyes.
It is 1991. I am putting together the latest issue of the Toyah Fan Club magazine Tellurian, a cut and paste concoction of photocopied articles as well as a handwritten letter to the fans from Toyah herself. I am typing up the lyrics for her new album Ophelia’s Shadow to include in it; once finished I’ll then take it to a print shop in Store Street WC1 to get a few hundred copies run off.
It is 2001. I am in a recording studio in Nuneaton where Toyah is recording guest vocals on a track by the band Chester with whom I currently play bass. The track will eventually be put out under the band name Family of Noise.
It is 2011. I am putting the finishing touches to the manuscript for my memoir I Was A Teenage Toyah Fan which grew out of a series of blog posts I’d written about my experiences some thirty years previously. I am about to self-publish this as both a paperback and an ebook.
It is 2021. I am writing this blog entry about Toyah and the impression she’s made on my life over the past 40 plus years.
• Continue reading at Cherry Red. Browse Dreamscape’s I Was A Teenage Toyah Fan news archive. There’s much more IWATTF content in our vast News Archive (scroll to around 2010 – 2012).
The Posh Pop Tour continues, with a Sold Out gig at Otley Courthouse tonight. See Toyah’s full live gigs schedule, including all the upcoming Posh Pop Tour dates, at toyahwillcox.com.
Read Toyah’s latest blog – for February 2022 – at toyahwillcox.com.
Tomorrow’s Toyah At Home, airing on Toyah’s official You Tube channel and Facebook page, sees Toyah explore the history of, the classic, Ieya. There’s rare archive footage and an unseen performance of probably Toyah’s most iconic song (give or take an It’s A Mystery or Thunder In The Mountains). There’s also an exclusive news announcement from Toyah about a forthcoming release. Toyah At Home airs at 11am (UK time) tomorrow!
No mystery why Princess of Punk gone all Posh Pop
Once known as the Punk Princess, Toyah has proved she has proved she is no one-trick pony.
She is an actor of note, featuring in films such as Jubilee, Quadrophenia and recent The Ghosts Of Borley Rectory, as well as TV shows such as Shoestring, Minder, Kavanagh QC and Maigret.
She has supplied her voice to animated Mr Bean series and Teletubbies and has “done” Shakespeare’s The Tempest, writes Martin Hutchinson.
But to most of us, she is a singer who took the charts by storm when she first erupted on the scene in 1980. After five releases that failed to interest the mainstream chart, despite going top ten in independent charts, Four From Toyah EP –that included the fantastic It’s A Mystery – reached number four in mainstream UK singles’ charts and was the first of four consecutive releases to top UK independent charts.
She followed her breakthrough with I Want To Be Free and another release Thunder In The Mountains, both of which were top ten hits, before follow-up EP Four More From Toyah.
Toyah has also had ten chart albums, including 1981’s Anthem, which got to number two in the charts.
• Continue reading at the The News. See all of Toyah’s upcoming Posh Pop Tour dates at toyahwillcox.com.
Toyah Willc
ox brings new show to Millom’s Beggar’s Theatre
Millom’s Beggar’s Theatre are set to welcome new wave icon Toyah Willcox this week for a live performance of old classics and new releases.
Toyah’s career has spanned over 40 years, where she has worked as a singer, actress and TV presenter.
She arrives in Cumbria on Thursday (February 3) to perform hits including ‘It’s A Mystery’, ‘Thunder in The Mountains’, ‘I Want To Be Free’ and ‘Good Morning Universe’ alongside numbers from her latest release, ‘Posh Pop’.
The singer and her husband, King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp, have recently been cheering up fans during lockdown with their ‘Sunday Lunch’ video series, where they upload live covers of rock classics online each week.
Some videos have reached over 10 million views.
• Continue reading at the News & Star. See also Yahoo News.
50 Wild Women Of The 80s!: NOW 80s: Saturday 5th February: 12pm
Brilliant songs, big voices, blazing hair & bags of attitude – the ladies of the 80s had the lot! From Toyah to Tina & Joan Jett to Janet Jackson.
• Classic Rock/Louder: Toyah and Robert Fripp continue to take everyone’s mind off everything else: The latest cover in Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp’s catalogue of chaos is the Ramones’ classic Blitzkrieg Bop – As sure as Tuesday follows Monday, Toyah Willcox and King Crimson leader Robert Fripp used Sunday as an opportunity to remind everyone that the world isn’t always the miserable place the headlines make it appear. So while North Korea launches its biggest missile test in five years, while tensions mount in Ukraine, while vaccine mandate protests block the streets of Ottawa, and while Jamie Oliver reveals he’s not a fan of Bake Off, the Fripp-Willcoxes are once again lightening humanity’s load. This week it’s a cover of the Ramones’ 1976 classic Blitzkrieg Bop that receives the Willcox-Fripp treatment. Robert fixes the lens with his steely glare and chops out the riff, Toyah leaps around the kitchen with the enthusiasm of an adrenalised puppy, and all is right with the world. Just like last week. And the week before. – Continue reading…
• Guitar.Com: Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp Continue Punk Streak with Cover of Ramones’ Blitzkrieg Bop: Robert Fripp and Toyah Wilcox have brought their Sunday Lunch covers sessions back to the world of punk, following their Clash cover with a cover of the Ramones’ Blitzkrieg Bop – Willcox wrote in the video’s description: “Hey Ho – Let’s go to the most famous kitchen on YouTube!!! The Frippcox household have really outdone themselves this week!!”. The performance features the typical exuberance we’ve come to expect from Wilcox, offset by the iron gaze of the King Crimson guitarist hammering away at his Les Paul – Continue reading…
• Ultimate Guitar: Watch: Here’s King Crimson Mastermind Robert Fripp Covering Ramones With Wife Toyah: The duo continues their traditional “Sunday Lunch” series – When this whole awful thing started in 2020, one of our favorite guitar masters, the almighty Robert Fripp, decided to try out something new. The artist who we all remember for his unique approach to music and guitar teamed up with his wife Toyah Willcox and began covering some of the greatest rock songs of all time. One thing led to another and we saw them covering some of the most unexpected songs, including “Enter Sandman,” “Chop Suey!,” and many others. And all this came with some of the most extravagant intricately choreographed videos, even causing some controversies along the way – Continue reading…
