Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

Over the past 40 years Toyah has provided the world with numerous “Iconic Images” (good name for a fanzine, that!) but has there ever been imagery as mesmerising as that which Toyah adopted for Thunder In The Mountains in 1981? The book ‘Pop Styles’ seemed to think so even back in 1984…

Pop Styles, by Ted Polhemus & Lynn Procter (1984) An A-Z Guide To The World Where Fashion Meets Rock’N’Roll

Crazy Colour: Perhaps the most important pendulum swing in the history of pop styles is that between nature and artifice. One of the best ways to join the against-nature school of thought is to dye your hair a bright colour or better still a whole collection of colours which nature never intended to appear on the head of a human being. Historical examples are few, however, as the technology has only been widely available a short time. Only impermanent vegetable dyes were available before the seventies and it was punks who first combined an anti-natural attitude with the new chemicals. Special credit therefore goes to Wee Willie Harris who caused a furore in the fifties when he dyed his hair so pink it dripped down his collar in the rain, Roy Wood who fronted Wizzard behind a mass of multicoloured locks and of course David Bowie. Ultimately, however, the first prize must go to post-punk Toyah Willcox who with dyes and hair spray has resculpted her head into a homage to artifice which even the most daring of science fiction films have failed to equal.

• Toyah’s Offical website/social media spaces will be counting down to Toyah’s Birthday with Forty From Toyah – 40 classic images spanning Toyah’s amazing career.

Toyah guested on BBC Radio Four’s In The Psychiatrist’s Chair in September 1992. A fascinating interview with Dr Anthony Clare. Certainly one of the most honest and interesting of the many Toyah has given over the last 40 years. This originally aired on 9th September 1992 and runs for approximately 40 minutes. Click below to listen or download.

Check out the Dreamscape Press Archive. Classic Toyah interviews, reviews, features, articles and clippings – A huge virtual library with press from 1979 through to 2014.

The trailer for How to Talk to Girls at Parties – Elle Fanning rocks out and Nicole Kidman channels Toyah Willcox in the first trailer for John Cameron Mitchell’s movie. (Source: The Skinny)

How to Talk to Girls at Parties also reunites Mitchell with Rabbit Hole star Kidman, who looks from the trailer to give a wild performance as a punk guru who’s part Toyah Willcox, part Vivienne Westwood. How to Talk to Girls at Parties is released 11 May by StudioCanal.

Toyah plays the Wychwood Festival, being held at Cheltenham Racecourse over three days, at the beginning of June.

She will be appearing on the Main Stage on day two of the festival, on Saturday 2nd June, for a live PA.

Wychwood Festival returns to Cheltenham racecourse for its 14th annual year from the 1st to the 3rd of June, 2018.

The UK’s favourite family festival takes place within the beautiful Gloucestershire countryside, with over 100 acts performing across four stages, plus music, dance and arts workshops, a circus school and a programme of talks, debates and comedy for all ages.

With optional idyllic camping and something to satisfy all appetites, there’s no wonder Wychwood has been nominated as ‘Best Family Festival’ each year at the UK Festival awards.

From punk princess to cult stage actress to high priestess of TV, Toyah Willcox is a uniquely gifted performer and an inextinguishable flame. Charismatic, outspoken and impossible to categorise, she is one of Britain’s iconic household names – an award-winning rock legend as well as a much-loved stage/screen actress and music composer.

In a career spanning over 40 years Toyah has amassed thirteen top 40 singles, recorded twenty-four albums, written two books, appeared in over forty stage plays, acted in twenty feature films and presented hundreds of television programmes.

2018 sees a major year of celebration for Toyah as she celebrates her 60th birthday and 40th anniversary of her music career. Her 1987 album Desire (featuring guest playing from Robert Fripp and Ronnie Wood) will be issued as a new limited edition translucent red vinyl LP on 21 April for Record Store Day 2018.

• Continue reading at the Wychwood Festival website. Further info at Toyah’s Gig Diary at toyahwillcox.com.

Midlands Spotlight – Derby Film Festival 2018

The Derby Film Festival is back for its fifth edition taking place from 4th – 13th May 2018 and local audiences can expect another successful array of previews, classic films from the archive and a weekend dedicated to genres beyond the mainstream.

DFF are scouring the globe to find the best in world cinema as well as bringing some special guests to talk about their experiences in the film industry. As ever they’ll be home to the Five Lamps 24 hour film challenge 24/5, the contest to make a 3 minute film in 24 hours.

Over the opening weekend of Derby Film Festival, they also launch Paracinema Weekend, a long weekend dedicated to films and genres outside the mainstream. Events at Paracinema include an on-stage conversation with actress Toyah Willcox and a screening of Nosferatu in the grand surroundings of Derby Cathedral.

• Continue reading at Midlands Movies. Further info on Derby Film Festival and the Paracinema Festival 2018 here.

I’ve voted for my Top 10 singles today in The Official Toyah Website’s Toyah60 Poll. The ultimate Toyah Chart will be revealed as part of Toyah’s 60th Birthday celebrations next month. Seriously difficult to choose 10 from so many great songs but my Top 10 is: 1. Bird In Flight, 2.Ghost Light, 3. Jungles Of Jupiter, 4. Run Wild, Run Free, 5. Elusive Stranger, 6. Brave New World, 7. Symbiotic, 8. Time Is Ours. 9. Moonlight Dancing, 10. Love Me – Vote for yours by clicking below.

• Bubbling Under: Waiting, For You, Snow Covers The Kiss, Computer, Falling To Earth, Tears For Elie, Dreamscape, Pop Star, Danced, Visions, Dawn Chorus, Freedom, When A Woman Cries, Don’t Fall in Love (I Said), Angel In You, Race Through Space… etc… etc.

VOTE for your Top 10 Toyah Songs in the Toyah60 Poll. The Official Toyah Website are creating the ultimate Toyah Chart to be revealed as part of Toyah’s 60th Birthday celebrations. Voting closes 23:59, Sunday 6th May 2018. Click below to visit the official website to cast your vote.

Happy Easter Sunday! Here’s a mini-gallery of great photos from Toyah’s gig in Northampton last night. Please click below to view larger versions. (Photos © Ian Davis)

Set-List: Good Morning Universe, We Are, Be Proud Be Loud (Be Heard), Neon Womb, Thunder In The Mountains, Race Through Space, Our Movie, Echo Beach, Obsolete, Jungles Of Jupiter, Rebel Run, The Packt, Brave New World, Rebel Yell, It’s A Mystery, Danced, Sensational, I Want To Be Free, Encore: Demolition Men, Ieya.

Toyah plays a full-band gig in Northampton tonight, at The Roadmender – with “tons of Toyah classics” on the set-list. There are still a few tickets left, click below to buy…

Following its limited cinema release you can soon watch Lies We Tell, in which Toyah has a small role, from the comfort of your own home. The film is available to buy on DVD and Blu-ray, as well as on Digital HD from 2nd April.

Here’s where:

iTunes
Amazon
Google Play
Microsoft
Sky Store
TalkTalk TV
BT
Vubiquity (EirCom)
Rakuten TV
Sony

• Browse all of Dreamscape’s previous Lies We Tell news here.

Blu-ray: Derek Jarman Collection, Vol One 1972-1986

Voyage through an alchemical universe: the magical realm of a flawed English genius

This BFI boxset of Derek Jarman films from the first phase of his career, brilliantly curated by William Fowler, is an exemplary package: a treasure trove of extras accompanies his first six features, here presented in re-mastered form, and a thorough, well-illustrated and thought-provoking 80-page booklet with extensive material about the films and a wealth of essays.

The collection makes it possible to follow the evolution of Jarman as a film-maker, always riding the wave of creative and mould-breaking adventure, from the mysteries of In the Shadow of the Sun (1981), a film that built on much of Jarman’s super-8mm footage from the 1970s, the controversial Sebastiane (1976), through to the explosive punk-inspired politics of Jubilee (1978), followed by The Tempest (1979), surely one of the best adaptations of Shakespeare on film, the avant-garde rigour and homo-erotic delirium of The Angelic Conversation (1985), and the assured and more straightforward account of the rebellious life of the painter Caravaggio.

• Continue reading at The Arts Desk. Read further info on this release here.

Toyah tweeted today: “Fabulous time making BBC Radio4 doc on hairdressing. Catching up with Keith at Smile“. (Photo © Toyah Willcox)

John Shuttleworth’s Lounge Music:
BBC Radio 4 Extra: Sunday 8th April: 11pm
Toyah Willcox. John Shuttleworth invites musical guests to his Sheffield home to sing one of his songs and one of their own, if they are lucky. Mary is not happy, as John has invited Toyah Willcox to the lounge and she is worried that Toyah will live up to her wild 80s image and wreak havoc in the house. (Episode 3, from July 2014)

Jubilee was on release in cinemas this week & month forty years ago in 1978 after premiering in London on 28 February. (Image © Official Toyah)

Trailblazers: Sky Arts: Wednesday 11th April: 4pm
Trailblazers: Sky Arts: Thursday 12th April: 11am
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)

On Monday 12 March we had the pleasure to interview one of our new patrons of The Old Rep Theatre, singer and actress Toyah Willcox. Toyah was born in Kings Heath, Birmingham back in 1958. She attended the Old Rep Drama School in the 1970’s which later helped shape her acting career. We wanted to find out a little more about her life at The Old Rep, late night chats with Sir Laurence Olivier and becoming a Brummie legend.

Your first experience of theatre was at The Old Rep. What was it like for you as a girl of just 17?

Actually I was 14. The head commissioner of BBC Pebble Mill said to my parents that he felt I would do better if I was at drama school. And he voted me in to The Old Rep theatre school at weekends. So I joined when I was 14, and it was a very, very exciting building to be in, and I think purely because it smelt like theatre. It was one of the very few buildings still remaining but actually had that very unique smell about it, and I think it’s something to do with dust and costumes, and old grease paint. But it had an incredible atmosphere.

Who also attended The Old Rep drama school at the same time?

Oh gosh… Dona Croll. Dona is a very well established Black actress, phenomenally successful, we went to the school at the same time. But that is the only actress I currently know who is still currently working. I had lots of friends obviously at that time, but they didn’t really stay in the business.

• Continue reading at The Old Rep Theatre.

Toyah, tributes and a legend this April at Artrix.

R&B legend Georgie Fame, pop icon Toyah Willcox and a great selection of tribute acts are amongst the highlights for music fans at Bromsgrove’s Artrix Arts Centre this April.

Saturday 28th April sees household name and pop icon Toyah Willcox come to Artrix with her Acoustic, Up Close & Personal Tour. This lively, entertaining and revealing show comes in the form of Toyah performing an unplugged set of her well-loved hits, alongside recalling stories from her colourful thirty-five year career.

• Continue reading at The Birmingham Press. Visit toyahwillcox.com for all confirmed 2018 dates and appearances in Toyah’s Official Gig Diary.

Over the May Bank Holiday weekend, QUAD launches the first edition of Paracinema, a festival dedicated to films and genres outside of the mainstream. Expect a steady diet of horror, sci-fi and fantasy but in addition to this Paracinema will be exploring other genres outside the mainstream with special guests, previews and talks on a whole range of unusual genres and subgenres.

Toyah Willcox In Conversation
Saturday 5th May at 5:00pm

It is hard to imagine a more perfect guest for the eclectic nature of Paracinema than Toyah Willcox. After gaining positive notices for her debut in the television play Glitter in 1976, Toyah then played the anarchic role of Mad in Derek Jarman’s seminal punk film Jubilee . From there she went on to appear alongside Katherine Hepburn in the TV movie The Corn Is Green, in the mod classic Quadrophenia as Monkey and reteamed with Jarman in his Shakespeare adaptation The Tempest. Genre fans should note her role in the John Mills starring Quatermass series, BBC TV Movie Dr Jeykll and Mr Hyde and Tales Of The Unexpected. Since that early-mid 80s boom, Toyah has gone to appear as Miss Scarlett in the Cluedo TV Series, as Billie Piper’s mum in The Secret Diary Of A Call Girl, and in children’s TV series The Ink Thief. Recently she appeared in the genre defying Aaaaaaaah! by director Steve Oram and alongside Gabriel Byrne and Harvey Keitel in Lies We Tell.

We are excited to welcome Toyah to Paracinema for an on-stage discussion of her screen career.

• Continue reading at Derby QUAD. Visit Toyah’s 2018 Gig Diary at toyahwillcox.com for all confirmed dates and appearances.

Celebrate as the Pride of Bury comes to town

The second Bury Pride takes place on Saturday 7 April and promises to be another fun-packed celebration of diversity.

Pop icon Toyah Willcox is the headline attraction on this colourful occasion which features music, food, entertainment and a walking rainbow through the town centre. Tickets for Bury Pride are free and are available at www.bury.gov.uk/BuryPride, where you can also download the Pride Programme with all the information about the sponsors and the activities during the day.

The main stage, outside Bury Town Hall: Headlining will be Toyah Willcox who will be performing with a full band. The outdoor stage will also host the Manchester Gay and Lesbian Chorus, Divas in Denial, Laura Jane Butler as Amy Winehouse and fire eaters Utopia UK, all compered by our host Miss Sal Ford.

• Continue reading at Bury Council – My News Desk. Visit Toyah’s 2018 Gig Diary at toyahwillcox.com for all confirmed dates and appearances.

Who’s Doing The Dishes?: ITV2: Wednesday 4th April: 7.10am
Brian McFadden presents the dining challenge. Will it remain a mystery that Toyah Willcox is the celebrity host when she throws a dinner party for four complete strangers?