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Paul Young, Kim Wilde, Toyah, Steve Harley and Chesney Hawkes back from the 80s for new show ‘That Was Then… This Is Now!’

Some of the biggest British popstars of the 80s will take part in a brand new online weekly series, featuring performances and interviews, with an innovative business model that helps touring artists affected by the current lack of live shows generate income.

That Was Then… This Is Now! will arrive next month in a pay per view format hosted online, allowing for artists to share equally in the revenue.

The series will be broadcast live at 7pm on Thursday evenings (a nod to the classic Top Of The Pops timeslot), and deliver a modern twist on the quintessential living room comfort watch of popular music television that has been missing from screens for generations.

• Continue reading at the Wakefield Express. See also msn.com/entertainment.

Online music TV show launched to help 1980s stars ‘ignored’ during pandemic

Pop songwriter Mike Stock has launched an online music TV show to give some of the biggest stars of the 1980s financial help during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 68-year-old, who penned many of the decade’s enduring hits as one third of Stock Aitken Waterman, said he hoped the series would help artists who had been “largely ignored” in recent years.

That Was Then… This Is Now! will feature live performances and interviews from touring artists who have lost their livelihoods due to current restrictions on performance and travel.

The five-part series was shot in 5k resolution at a studio in Worthing, West Sussex, and will air online weekly. The first series will feature artists including Paul Young, Kim and Marty Wilde, Toyah, Steve Harley, Chesney Hawkes, The Fizz and more.

• Continue reading at The Gazette. See also Yahoo News.

Bands from 1980s and 90s stream hits to make up for lost live earnings

Worthing, England (Reuters) – Pop acts from the 1980s and 1990s including Right Said Fred, Paul Young and Toyah, whose income from live performances has slumped during the coronavirus pandemic, are recording their hits for a new pay-per-view series being streamed online.

Chesney Hawkes, Kim Wilde and Steve Harley are also among those performing in five planned shows in the “That Was Then … This is Now!” series hosted by streaming service TicketCo TV.

• Continue reading at Reuters. See also the Daily Mail.

Tales Of The Unexpected: Sky Arts: Thursday 22nd October: 1pm
Tales Of The Unexpected: Sky Arts: Friday 23rd October: 4am/9am
Tales Of The Unexpected: Sky Arts: Sunday 25th October: 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.

BBC’s warning is a bit of a Brum do for pop star Toyah

Singer Toyah Willcox, who had a hit in the Eighties with It’s A Mystery, is baffled as to why the BBC slapped a warning on episodes of Brum, the harmless BBC children’s show she narrated.

A notice on iPlayer repeats told viewers the series may reflect out-of-date ‘language and attitudes of the Nineties’.

The flame-haired singer tells me: ‘I can’t think why they did that. Was it because of the Birmingham accent? Is it sexist in some way? I’m sure we never impersonated a black person.’ Toyah adds: ‘I always refused to do anything if it was offensive. Brum was written by Anne Wood who made Teletubbies and she was on top of all that sort of thing.’

The BBC says the notice was added in ‘error’ and has been removed from Brum episodes. Perhaps it is the BBC, with its determination to censor TV classics, that is out of touch with today’s audiences?

• Continue reading at the Daily Mail. (Photo © Clark Enwell/BackGrid)

Following last weekend’s Anthem listening party, there’s a possibility Sheep Farming In Barnet will follow sometime soon. See Toyah’s tweet regarding this by clicking below,

Toyah & Robert’s Sunday Lunch brings a song with a view….

More of your social, emotional and music tuning predicaments are addressed with care and attention by the deeply unqualified Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp.

Today is National Album Day 2020 and Toyah is one of this year’s Ambassadors, with the 2020 theme of the event being the 80’s!

In celebration, Toyah is hosting a Listening Party this afternoon for the iconic 1981 album Anthem.

There was also another episode of Toyah At Home this morning, as well as Toyah’s Album Escapes. Read Toyah’s HMV Record Collection interview, and win a Sheep Farming In Barnet reissue rarity.

Keep an eye on Toyah at Twitter for more National Album Day news and updates. Click below for the Anthem Listening Party venue, taking place from 3pm today.

Win a rare Sheep Farming In Barnet reissue rarity, courtesy of HMV…

It’s National Album Day on Saturday 10th October and to celebrate we will be running a new prize draw everyday with prizes from some of the National Album Day Ambassadors who are supporting this exciting day.

Happy National Album Day!! Today, we have a prize from Toyah Willcox where you could win a signed test pressing of remastered Sheep Farming vinyl!

• To enter, all you have to do is enter your details here or by clicking below. (The prize draw ends at 11:59pm Saturday 10th October. Entries received after this time will not be included.)

It’s the vicious circle... Episode 2 of Series 2 of French and Saunders, which originally aired on 11th March 1988, is currently available to watch online at BBC iPlayer. This episode features Toyah, performing a great version of Patti Smith’s Because The Night and participating in a French and Saunders sketch. Click below to watch (requires a UK TV Licence)

Quadrophenia: TCM Movies: Friday 16th October: 9pm
Quadrophenia: TCM Movies: Thursday 22nd October: 11.05pm
The Who wrote and produced this energetic story of a young man disillusioned with his life in 1960s London. Phil Daniels excels as the alienated anti-hero Jimmy Cooper. Director: Franc Roddam. Starring: Phil Daniels, Leslie Ash, Toyah Willcox, Philip Davis, Mark Wingett, Sting, and Ray Winstone. (Photo © Sky Arts)

Toyah Willcox: ‘You can’t copy me, I’ve trademarked my name’

Toyah Willcox, a National Album Day 80s ambassador, has copywritten her name to stop copycat artists from emerging

“I gave girls the right to believe in themselves. I was getting 10,000 letters a week, most of them starting with ‘I’ve just been expelled from school for dyeing my hair pink,’” reflects Toyah Willcox, the singer and actress whose electric hair and rebellious anthems lit up the charts in the 1980s.

A Top of the Pops fixture with hits like It’s A Mystery, I Want To Be Free and Thunder In The Mountains, accompanied by a video of Toyah thundering across a barren landscape on a chariot, the empowered image portrayed by the Birmingham-born singer directly inspired Shirley Manson and other singers who adapted her punk style.

The only pop star to have acted opposite Laurence Olivier and appeared in two films directed by arthouse auteur Derek Jarman, before going on to narrate the BBC’s Teletubbies, Toyah, 62, has now trademarked herself as a one-word “brand.”

• Continue reading at inews.co.uk.

National Album Day follows on Saturday, with an 80s theme of its own. Record stores will be stocked with limited editions of classics like ZZ Top’s Eliminator, Paul Simon’s Graceland, Cyndi Lauper’s She’s So Unusual, Prefab Sprout’s Steve McQueen and Duran Duran’s self-titled debut album.

On Twitter, Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess will hold an all-day session of his album listening parties, featuring Toyah Willcox (15:00 BST), Marillion (17:30 BST), Matthew Wilder (19:00 BST), Blossoms (20:00 BST) and La Roux (21:00 BST).

• Continue reading at BBC News. Toyah’s Anthem Listening Party will be held at 3pm on Saturday at Tim’s Twitter Listening Party.

Celebrity Catchphrase: ITV2: Sunday 18th October: 11.15am
Stephen Mulhern hosts a celebrity special of the classic game show, with Nicola Coughlan, Stephen Mangan and Toyah Willcox all trying to say what they see as they guess well-known phrases for the chance to win a £50,000 jackpot for their chosen charity.

Toyah says: “Tomorrow is World Mental Health Day as well as National Album Day, and given the incredibly difficult year we’ve all had music can be powerful in helping ease anxieties. I’ll be revealing the music that comforts me + My Album Escape at 9am on Sat 10 Oct”.

My Record Collection by Toyah Willcox
A National Album Day Special

In My Record Collection, we dig down to the bottom of musicians’ souls to find out what the most treasured parts of their record collection are. This week, we’re counting down to National Album Day.

This year, the organisers are taking us back to the 1980s, to a time when nu-romantics, big hair, arena rock and electronics ruled the chart. We’re celebrating all week on hmv.com with a selection of features from the day’s ambassadors, which this year include La Roux, Blossoms, Kim & Marty Wilde, Toyah Willcox and more! Each day this week, we’ll be showing off the record collections from an ambassador, as they count down their memories of the 1980s, as they lived it, or just as they wished they had.

We continue today with Toyah Willcox…

The record that made me want to make music was…
“For me, it’s David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. It is almost impossible to pinpoint one Bowie album that made me want to write music because they all did, but the unique thing Bowie achieved above all other artists was to have a burst of creativity that lasted a whole decade from the early ’70s into the ’80s.”

“Bowie surfed the Zeitgeist effortlessly like a Pied Piper and lead a generation into the brilliant unknown with each album release. Ziggy was my first discovery of Bowie’s genius and thereafter he awed me with everything he ever did.”

The record I played throughout the 1980s was…
“It was Roxy Music’s Avalon. I have loved Roxy Music since their first album. Their sound is utterly unique, but tricks you into thinking that it is familiar, it isn’t, they are one of the cleverest bands of all time, creating a whole movement of stylish cool and smooth dance-inducing music. Avalon is a super commercial album but it hasn’t sold out in any way. It is the definition of lounge cool.”

The record that takes me back to the 1980s was…
“It’s Tears For Fears and their album Songs From The Big Chair. There are easily three albums that define the 80’s Kate Bush’s Hounds Of Love, Peter Gabriel’s So and Songs From The Big Chair.”

“Songs From The Big Chair has a wealth of classics that have inspired so many who followed. ‘Shout’ is an all-time anthemic great and ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World’ must be one of the cleverest songs of the ’80s, a decade often associated with greed.”

• Continue reading at hmv.com. Browse our National Album Day 2020 news archive.

The next episode of Toyah At Home is coming this Saturday (10th October), which is also National Album Day 2020. Do you have any questions about Toyah’s albums..?

Sheep Farming In Barnet, The Blue Meaning, Toyah! Toyah! Toyah!, Anthem, The Changeling, Warrior Rock – Toyah On Tour, Love Is The Law, Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! All The Hits, Minx, Mayhem, The Lady Or The Tiger, Desire, Prostitute…

There are many to choose from, and that impressive list is just Toyah’s album releases of the 1980s!!

Submit your questions in the comments section at Toyah’s official Instagram and Twitter, about albums or anything else and tune in at 11am on Saturday at You Tube and Facebook. (Photo © Toyah Willcox)

Last Saturday’s episode of Toyah At Home featured two archive performances: The mighty Danced, from Sheep Farming In Barnet, and one of the best pop songs of the 1980s (or any other decade), Thunder In The Mountains.

Click below to watch/rewatch episode 16, in which Toyah reveals there are plans to release a trio of live Toyah/Toyah & The Humans concerts from Trading Boundaries, East Sussex, and O2 Islington in the not too distant future.

Get an amazing personal video message from Toyah! Order yours now by clicking below.

British Home Entertainment Wants the ’80s Back

“The ’80s called. They want their store back,” was a memorable line from RadioShack’s 2014 Super Bowl ad. Now, the British Association for Screen Entertainment is launching a marketing campaign pushing top movies and music albums from the 1980s onto coronavirus-rattled consumers in the 21st Century.

Retailers will showcase range of classic 80s titles on Blu-ray Disc, DVD and transactional VOD, including Big, Blade Runner, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Cocktail, Conan The Destroyer, Dirty Dancing, Dune, ET, Ghost, Ghostbusters, The Goonies, Labyrinth, The Lost Boys, Purple Rain, Robocop, Stand By Me, Top Gun and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, among others.

“Great music and cinematic stories have always gone hand in hand and the 80’s is a perfect example,” Toyah Willcox, British musician and National Album Day 2020 ambassador, said in a statement. “Cinema in the 80’s was revolutionary for bringing high octane action and rock music together and I am proud to have been a part of this era. Cinema in 80’s was also about bringing the audience thrills, thrills and even more thrills. Never has there been a more appropriate time to revisit this celluloid adventures.”

• Continue reading at Media Play News.