Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

Toyah, 40th Anniversary Scottish Tour ‘Thunder in the Highlands’ Ironworks, Inverness.

Following “sparkling reviews and glowing audience feedback from her autumn tour” punk pop icon Toyah Willcox is set to take the Ironworks by storm as part of her 40th anniversary Scottish tour ‘Thunder in the Highlands’.

2019 marks 40 years in music for the Birmingham born beauty Toyah, as she invites fans old and new to join her in a retrospective celebratory performance of chart hits and fan favourites spanning 40 years of her career.

Toyah celebrated her 60th birthday last year with the release of her new digital EP ‘Four From Toyah: Birthday Edition’ featuring four new songs from the age defying artist including Telepathic Lover.

• Continue reading at Inverness Gigs.

Look! Hear! and Toyah’s 1979 Record Mirror cover – 40th music – anniversary updates this week at the Official Toyah Instagram and Twitter…

Toyah’s second single, the Sheep Farming In Barnet (EP/AP), was released in July 1979. The traditional EP contained four songs, Safari Records wanted to differentiate from that format and decided to release SIX songs on one single (a mini album really). This was the first, and last, AP release. Tracks were: A. Neon Womb, Indecision, Waiting; B. Our Movie, Danced, Last Goodbye.

The band members were Pete Bush: Keyboards, Mark Henry: Bass, Joel Bogen: Guitar, Steve Bray: Drums, Toyah Willcox: Verbals. As with the debut single, this was a huge hit on the UK indie chart, and also increased the band’s, already growing, popularity in other parts of Europe. The, now iconic, cover shot for the single was taken at the RAF Fylingdales radar station near Whitby in Yorkshire. Unfortunately, the “golf balls” were demolished in the mid 1980′s.

Toyah guested on Bob Fischer’s show on BBC Radio Tees on Friday evening. The show is available to listen to at BBC Sounds.

Back on BBC Tees from 7pm tonight! And in the first hour of the show I have a fascinating chat with the ace Toyah… about Derek Jarman, Celebrity Mastermind, Elizabeth I, her incredible experimental album ‘Prostitute’… and her upcoming show at Stockton Arts Centre!

The 40th anniversary year of Toyah’s recording career has got off to a great start with news of new recordings!

Toyah has recorded a new song for the end credits of Kaleidoscope Man. In The Court Of The Crimson Queen is also currently being remixed by Toyah and Simon Darlow. (Photos © Toyah Willcox)

The BFI will release Jarman Volume Two: 1987-1994, its second Limited Edition collection of the iconoclastic filmmaker’s works, in a Deluxe 6-Disc Blu-ray Box Set on 25 February 2019.

Marking the 25th anniversary of Derek Jarman’s untimely passing, the box set brings together Jarman’s final six features – all now presented in High Definition for the very first time in the UK – made in the prolonged burst of creativity and political activism that followed his HIV diagnosis in 1987.

The collection also includes Jarman’s posthumously-released elegy to Super 8, Glitterbug (1994), along with an incredible 66 special features – both new and archival, plus trailers, image galleries of rare stills and promotional materials and a 100-page perfect bound book of essays, film credits and more.

The films included are:
· The Last of England (1987) with Tilda Swinton
· War Requiem (1989) with Nathaniel Parker, Tilda Swinton, Laurence Olivier
· The Garden (1990) with Tilda Swinton
· Edward II (1991) with Steven Waddington, Andrew Tierman, Tilda Swinton
· Wittgenstein (1993) with Karl Johnson, Michael Gough, Tilda Swinton
· Blue (1993): contributing musicians include Simon Fisher Turner, Coil, Scanner and Brian Eno
· Glitterbug (1994) with Adam Ant, Andrew Logan, Toyah Willcox, Marianne Faithfull, William S Burroughs, Genesis P-Orridge and Tilda Swinton

The box set includes a huge selection of Special Features.

• Continue reading at The Arts Shelf.

Toyah’s debut single Victims Of The Riddle was released in April 1979. A brave choice as the first release as it was hardly a commercial sounding, radio friendly, song. The single reached number one on the Indie Chart in the UK and spent many months of 1979 there.

The sleeve featured an intentionally disturbing image. At the time of release few knew the gruesome story behind the photo and assumed it was a doll. Victims Of The Riddle was also released later in Spain, with the far more appealing Sheep Farming In Barnet artwork. The beginning of an amazing music career and a brave choice to get started with.

The episode of Minder, “All Mod Cons”, which originally aired in October 1980 on ITV, with Toyah as Kate alongside Dennis Waterman and George Cole, airs again on ITV4 later this month.

Minder: ITV4: Tuesday 29th January: 3.40pm
Minder: ITV4: Wednesday 30th January: 9.10am
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 HD and ITV4 +1.

Tales Of The Unexpected: Sky Arts: Tuesday 29th January: 1pm
Tales Of The Unexpected: Sky Arts: Wednesday 30th January: 9am
Tales Of The Unexpected: Sky Arts: Saturday 2nd February: 10am
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.

Safari Records’ late 70s/early 80s timeline of Toyah dates the band signing to the label as January 1979, though their “Our History” implies it may have been late 1978:

In 1978 a Melody Maker postage stamp picture of Toyah together with a small but glowing review of one of the very few gigs that her band had ever played led us to a leaky rehearsal space under Waterloo Bridge, where we saw the band and they signed with Safari who then were pleasantly surprised to learn of Toyah Willcox, actress, her performances in The Corn is Green (starring Katherine Hepburn), Jubilee, Quadrophenia and her current casting as Miranda in Derek Jarman’s forthcoming The Tempest.

Trailblazers: Sky Arts: Monday 28th January: 5am
New Romantics. Toyah Willcox and Billy Bragg are among those examining the New Romantic movement, from The Human League and Adam Ant, to David Bowie and Ultravox. (Series 1, Episode 16)

The Chase: Celebrity Special: ITV: Saturday 26th January: 6pm
The Chase: Celebrity Special: ITV4: Tuesday 29th January: 6.55pm
Bradley Walsh hosts the quiz show as four celebrities take on the Chaser. Singer Toyah Willcox, ex-footballer John Barnes, writer Germaine Greer and heavyweight boxer Audley Harrison pit their wits against one of the country’s finest quiz brains in the hope of winning thousands of pounds for their chosen charities.

2019 is a very special anniversary year. It marks 40 years since Toyah’s first recordings – Victims Of The Riddle and the Sheep Farming in Barnet AP were both released by Safari Records in 1979.

The genesis of an astonishing, and ridiculously underrated, music career. Did Toyah record and release even one duff song during five years at Safari?

Even tracks that were given away free by Flexipop magazine – Sphinx, For You – were far superior to actual single releases by other bands at the time.

Post-Safari saw Toyah become really experimental and release albums and music that are now considered works of genius – Prostitute, Ophelia’s Shadow, In The Court Of The Crimson Queen – Toyah’s 40 year discography is one of the finest of any artist/musician/pop star, with incredible song after song after song. Soaring choruses, unforgettable melodies, wonderful lyrics – Each album is a completely different experience. For sure, the past 40 years of music would have been far less of an adventure without Toyah!

Stay tuned to Dreamscape for sporadic anniversary updates to mark Toyah’s 40 years of music.

The Golden Globe winner whose big break came from CBBC

Richard Madden winning a Golden Globe capped a stellar year for the actor.

He received glowing praise in the UK for his portrayal of Sergeant David Budd in BBC One’s Bodyguard, but winning a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Series – Drama showed just how respected the actor has become in Hollywood.

Barmy Aunt Boomerang
Like many actors, Richard’s first break came in Children’s TV, in a show produced in his native Scotland. Back in 1999, 13-year-old Richard starred in Barmy Aunt Boomerang as Sebastian, a boy whose life is thrown into chaos by the arrival of his ghostly aunt, played by Toyah Willcox. The role set Richard off on the path of full-time acting, a career which has seen him play a number of notable roles.

• Continue reading at BBC Scotland.

In less than two month’s time Dreamscape will enter it’s 20th year online.

I started working on creating this website as something to help me deal with my Mother’s death in the late 1990s. Unfortunately it didn’t manage that but it did keep me occupied in my spare time through much of 1999. I put the site online on 10th March 2000 after a previous attempt to launch it on the 1st January that year. My initial intention was that it would be a rolling news service, constantly updated with all the latest Toyah happenings. Some people said the idea would never work. 19 years, and thousands & thousands of posts, later, I like to think it did!

Perhaps if I’d known the hate that would be directed at me over the years I wouldn’t have bothered. In 2012 I almost closed Dreamscape when things got particularly unpleasant, and recently there has been an undercurrent of nastiness again. On a far more positive note, through this site I’ve made fantastic lifelong friends who I really treasure. There were some fake friends too but they, thankfully, fucked off. Grrr, I always have to end on a negative lol!!

Guest Announcement – Toyah Willcox!
Sports Connexion, Ryton, Coventry
Saturday 28th September 2019

Our next Quadrophenia guest is the amazing Toyah Willcox who played Monkey in the 1979 film. Toyah is also known for:

13 Top 40 singles (Her biggest hits include “It’s a Mystery”, “Thunder in the Mountains” and “I Want to Be Free”), 24 albums, Secret Diary of a Call Girl (2007) – Gail Baxter (Hannah’s mother), Teletubbies Narrator, Doctor Who: Thirty Years in the TARDIS and many, many more TV, film and theatre appearances!

Come and meet Toyah at Covcon! www.coventrycomiccon.uk

• Continue reading at Coventry Comic Con.

Toyah’s first blog of 2019 is available to read at toyahwillcox.com.

Toyah was included on Carol Decker’s Rock Chicks which aired on NOW Xmas on Boxing Day and a few other times over Christmas. Toyah was number 30 on the rundown, with the Thunder In The Mountains video being shown.

From our friends NOW 80s T’Pau’s Carol Decker brings a bit of heart and soul a countdown of 80s ladies who like to rock.

Trailblazers: Sky Arts: Sunday 13th January: 4am
Punk. Narrated by Noddy Holder, this eye-opening series turns its attention to the origins of punk music. With Toyah Willcox and DJ Annie Nightingale. (Episode, Series 1, Episode 5)

It’s the final day of our Christmas countdown. Thanks to everyone who visited every day of December.

Christmas 2010, Dreamscape compiled the Toyah Festive 50. A tinseltastic half hundred of Yuletide related Toyah facts, figures and trivia.

Revisit the full rundown here.

Why was Toyah Scarlett at Christmas? … Who would be her dream dining companion? … Just how many town’s lights did Toyah switch on at Christmas 2003?… What were Toyah and Tony Robinson doing at Christmas 1988? … Which other programmes were aired the Christmas Eve night that Toyah’s legendary Theatre Royal, Drury Lane concert was watched by millions on BBC2?

Discover the answer to these and much more in our Toyah @ Christmas information overload! Completely and utterly unecessary but a lot of festive fun nonetheless!

Another chance for viewers in Ireland to catch Toyah’s 2016 guest appearance on ITV’s The Chase, on the penultimate day of the year.

The Chase: Celebrity Special: Virgin Media One:
Sunday 30th December: 2pm
Bradley Walsh hosts the quiz show as four celebrities take on the Chaser. Singer Toyah Willcox, ex-footballer John Barnes, writer Germaine Greer and heavyweight boxer Audley Harrison pit their wits against one of the country’s finest quiz brains in the hope of winning thousands of pounds for their chosen charities.