Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

Toyah will be an interview guest on the “For One Night Only” anniversary edition of The Old Grey Whistle Test on Friday. Toyah appeared on the series performing Danced & Indecision, March 1980 and live in concert from Drury Lane Theatre Royal as the Whistle Test special on Christmas Eve 1981. This special is airing to mark 30 years since the legendary series was last broadcast.

The Old Grey Whistle Test Live: BBC Four: Friday 23rd February: 9pm
For One Night Only. Hosted by Bob Harris, this live studio show features music, special guests and rare archive footage to mark the 30 years since the legendary series was last broadcast. Featuring performances from Peter Frampton, Richard Thompson, Albert Lee and more. Bob also chats to Whistle Test alumni, including Dave Stewart, Joan Armatrading, Ian Anderson, Chris Difford and Kiki Dee, as well as fans Danny Baker and Al Murray.

The actress tells us the musical numbers she couldn’t live without

Toyah Willcox is best known for her career as a singer and has had eight top 40 singles from over 20 albums. Her biggest hits include “It’s a Mystery”, “Thunder in the Mountains” and “I Want to Be Free”.

Her stage credits include Calamity Jane, Amadeus and Three Men and a Horse. She is currently starring in the stage adaptation of Derek Jarman’s Jubilee – having featured in the original film – which runs at the Lyric Hammersmith until 10 March.

We caught up with Toyah and asked her: “If you were stranded on a desert island which five showtunes could you not live without?”

• Continue reading, and see Toyah’s Top 5 showtunes, at What’s On Stage.

Maigret: ITV Encore: Friday 2nd March: 12.05pm
Maigret and the Hotel Majestic. Crime series featuring Georges Simenon’s celebrated Parisian detective. Maigret is called to the scene when a beautiful woman is found dead in the basement of the Hotel Majestic with a gun in her handbag. The Chief Inspector’s investigations initially centre around the staff at the hotel – until he discovers that the woman’s husband booked a trip to Rome that he never made. Starring: Michael Gambon, Geoffrey Hutchings, Michael Shannon, Toyah Willcox (1993).

Toyah is interviewed in today’s print edition of the Metro.

The singer and actress loves walking from Regent’s Park to Kensington’s museums and wants to live by the BFI

Is there an area of London that you love?
The South Bank, because my first experience of London was the National Theatre in 1977. I was 18 when I joined the National, and Ian Charleson, who played Eric Liddell in Chariots Of Fire, introduced me to (film director) Derek Jarman who lived on Butler’s Wharf so lots of my formative years were spent in the area. In the late 1970s it was nothing like what it’s like now, it was derelict, there was no sign of any money going in. The National was ground-breaking for being built there at that time. Today, it’s still my favourite part of London. It’s vibrant, you have the arts on tap, it’s multicultural, it’s interesting and I love the architecture. If I could afford to I would live right next to the British Film Institute.

What are the most memorable London Stages you’ve performed on?
The Olivier (theatre) at the National Theatre is a sacred space to work in and I was one of the first people to perform on ‘the revolve’ (revolving stage) which was built in 1976, in the play Tales From The Vienna Woods. It was the first play to use the revolve, which was in its embryonic stages, and kept breaking down. When it broke it had to be operated manually by hand. The other stage is Wembley Arena, which I’ve done once. It was a dream come true. I love playing arenas and, as a performer, you have to have ticked off Wembley. It was big, it was loud, it was beautiful.

• Continue reading at Twitter. (Thanks to Talent 4 Media)

On This Day in 1980 Toyah’s double a-side single Bird In Flight/Tribal Look was released. The single was produced by Matt Dangerfield (The Boys) and recorded in Dec 1979 with Joel Bogen, Charlie Francis, Steve Bray & Pete Bush. Click below for a celebration collage from Official Toyah.

Queen Elizabeth I is now in residence at the Lyric Hammersmith, London – Jubilee previews began last night. The, already sold out, Press Performance takes place next Tuesday (20th February)…

• Lyric Hammersmith: First preview of Jubilee DONE! – Continue reading…

• Hammersmith London: Catch stage adaptation of Derek Jarman’s film #Jubilee at @LyricHammer until 10 March! https://lyric.co.uk/shows/jubilee . With @toyahofficial @travisalabanza – Continue reading…

• Toyah Willcox Instagram: Jubilee the stage adaptation of the iconic 1978 Derek Jarman film opens tonight Thu 15 Mar at Lyric Hammersmith, London | Whereas Toyah played Mad in the original film, she now takes the role of the time travelling Queen Elizabeth 1st. #Toyah60 – Continue reading… (Image © Official Toyah)

• Broadway World: Long Day’s Journey Into The Night Leads February’s Top 10 New London Shows: 3. Jubilee, Lyric Hammersmith – Derek Jarman’s seminal 1970s punk film – featuring a marauding girl gang, time-travelling Elizabeth I and anarchic culture wars – comes to stage in an intriguing new Chris Goode adaptation. Promising a soundtrack “to die (horribly) for”, it also has a cast led by original film cast member Toyah Willcox – Continue reading…

• Lyric Hammersmith: The Royal Box is occupied. The Queen hath arrived. Toyah is getting acquainted with our theatre during Jubilee tech – Continue reading… (Photo © Lyric Hammersmith)

• Toyah Willcox Twitter: “Lizzie wants you to be her valentine” – Continue reading…

• Playbill: Schedule of Upcoming London Shows: Derek Jarman’s iconic film captured punk at its giddy height: a riot of music, DIY fashion, and every kind of sex – with a little pyromania thrown in. Now, forty years on, this new stage adaptation of Jubilee remixes it for the social and political turmoil of 2017. Centred around a marauding girl gang on a killing spree and a time-travelling Queen Elizabeth I, it’s a story of what happens when creativity and nihilism collide – Continue reading…

• The Official Toyah Willcox Website: Stage Adaptation of Jubilee Opens in London 15 Feb: Derek Jarman’s anarchic punk film Jubilee has been adapted for the stage with a cast including Toyah Willcox – Continue reading…

• Toyah Willcox Twitter: “Hello Queenie my old friend, glad 2 b u again” – Continue reading…

• Jubilee @ the Lyric Hammersmith: 15th February – 10th March 2018 – Book Now

• Toyah Willcox Instagram: “First night” – Continue reading…

• Jubilee Playlist: “Turn it up loud and release that inner punk” – Listen @ Spotify… (account required)

• Jubilee (London) @ Dreamscape: Browse our news, so far, on Jubilee at the Lyric Hammersmith – Continue reading…

• Jubilee (Manchester) @ Dreamscape: Browse our news archive on Jubilee at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester – Continue reading…

Jubilee celebrates its 40th with a DVD & Blu-ray Anniversary Edition of Derek Jarman’s cult classic. The 2-disc set will be released on 18th June 2018.

The mythological past and bleak future converge on the sparse, grey streets of London in this cult classic of the punk era.

Queen Elizabeth 1 and her occult aide Dr John Dee (brilliantly played by Jenny Runacre and Richard O’Brien, respectively) travel into the future, encountering the megalomania of big business as well as gangs of violent, marauding killers.  Director Derek Jarman doesn’t spare the shocks while electrifying punk rock numbers are delivered by Jayne County and Adam Ant

Newly available as a Dual Format Edition for the very first time, the film is a 2K remaster from the original camera negatives, and comes bolstered by an extensive array of extras.

Special Features:
• Presented in High Definition and Standard Definition
• A Message from the Temple (1981, 5 mins)
• Toyah Willcox: Being Mad (2014, 8 mins): The singer and actress looks back on her role in Jubilee
• Jordan remembers Jubilee (2018): Punk icon Jordan looks back on her friendship with Derek Jarman and the making of Jubilee
• Lee Drysdale remembers Jubilee (2018): Derek Jarman’s friend and, later collaborator Lee Drysdale recalls his unconventional involvement in the making of Jubilee
• Jubilee image gallery
• Fully illustrated booklet with writing on the film by Will Fowler, an original review and full film credits

1978 | colour | 106 minutes | 1 x BD50, Region B | 1 x DVD9, Region 2 | Cert 18

• Further info/Pre-order at Amazon.

Toyah shares her memories of growing up as the “only punk in the village” and finally finding her people at a Sex Pistols gig. In this candid interview with Johnnie, Toyah reflects on the challenges she faced as a young teenager: born with a twisted spine, one leg longer than the other, a club foot and no hip sockets, she spent many years undergoing painful operations and countless physical therapies. This never dimmed her spirit however, and she recalls a host of almost-careers including time spent as a department store hair model and a missed chance to be an ice skating superstar. After defeating the bullies at school, she carved out a niche for herself as a punk – before the term had even been invented.

Listen to Toyah guesting, and talking to host Johnnie Walker, on BBC Radio 2’s Sounds Of The 70s at BBC iPlayer by clicking below.

What to see this week in the UK: Five of the best … theatre shows

Jubilee – Chris Goode’s stage version of Derek Jarman’s classic punk-era film stars Toyah Willcox, who played Mad in the original, as Elizabeth I. It is wildly entertaining, billing itself with a knowing leer as “an iconic film most of you have never heard of, adapted by an Oxbridge twat for a dying medium, spoiled by millennials, ruined by diversity, and constantly threatening to go interactive”. Not for the faint-hearted; definitely for the big of heart.

Lyric Hammersmith, W6, Thursday 15 February to 10 March

• Continue reading at The Guardian.

Derek Jarman’s punk-inflected “Jubilee” (1978), adapted by Chris Goode, opens at the Lyric Theater here on Thursday after earning rave reviews at the Royal Exchange in Manchester.

• Continue reading at The New York Times.

On Valentine’s Day 1981, the Four From Toyah EP entered the UK Top 40 singles chart. It would rise to a peak position of 4 and after many years of frequenting the Indie Charts would be the first of Toyah’s singles to cross into the mainstream. (Image © Official Toyah)

Click below to view Dreamscape’s 2011 30th Anniversary feature on the iconic EP,  and browse our sporadic Four From Toyah news posts – from 2012 onwards (go further back in time at our News Archive).

The year 2018 is one which includes several momentous milestones for Toyah. This includes her 60th birthday and the 40th anniversary of her music career as Toyah recorded her first studio demos with Joel Bogen in 1978. Stay tuned to Toyah’s official site, instagram, Twitter & Facebook for regular virtual slices of birthday cake!

Read Toyah’s Blog for February 2018 at toyahwillcox.com.

The BFI have announced details of a long-awaited collection of the films of Derek Jarman, to be released on Blu-Ray this spring. Jarman Volume One: 1972-1986 will be a limited-edition, five disc box set, available from 26th March 2018 – more info/pre-order at Amazon.

Derek Jarman Volume One: 1972-1986
5-disc Limited Edition Blu-ray box set

Jarman’s multi-faceted work is inspirational in its fearlessness, yet remains touchingly personal. The dynamism of these features evokes comparison with the bold romanticism of directors like Ken Russell (an early champion) and Michael Powell, as well as artists Paul Nash and John Piper. But Jarman was also a subversive force in film. Beginning with his psychedelic debut feature, In the Shadow of the Sun (1972-1974), then came the provocative Jubilee (1978), the evocative Shakespeare adaptation The Tempest (1979) and The Angelic Conversation (1985), in which he invoked Elizabethan occultist Dr John Dee and explored alchemical imagery, a subject in which he was well versed. In Sebastiane (1976) and Caravaggio (1986) he revived key gay and homo-erotic figures from the past with edgy and unmistakable style.

Derek Jarman’s first six feature films have all been newly scanned at 2K from original film elements and are presented in this lavish box set alongside an exciting array of new and archival extras drawn from Jarman’s archive of workbooks and papers held in BFI Special Collections. Newly interviewed exclusively for this box set are some of the people who worked on these films; punk legend Jordan, producer and filmmaker Don Boyd, production designer Christopher Hobbs and artist filmmaker John Scarlett-Davis.

Special Features

• All films presented in High Definition for the first time in the UK
• Sebastiane: A Work in Progress (c.1975): newly remastered from 16mm film elements held by the BFI National Archive, this sadly incomplete early black and white work-print of Sebastiane differs significantly from the finished film. This previously unseen alternate edit assembled in a different order, featuring a different soundtrack was never subtitled or released
• The Making of Sebastiane (Derek Jarman & Hugh Smith, 1975): previously unseen Super 8 footage shot on location in Sardiniai
• Jazz Calendar (1968): a rarely screened documentary record of the 1968 ballet by Frederick Ashton, performed by The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House, for which Jarman designed sets and costumes
• Message from the Temple (1981)
• TG: Psychic Rally in Heaven (1981)
• Pirate Tape (WS Burroughs Film) (1982)
• Toyah Willcox: Being Mad (2014); the singer and actress looks back on her role in Jubilee
• Jordan remembers Jubilee (2018): punk icon Jordan looks back on her friendship with Derek Jarman and the making of Jubilee
• Stormy Weather: The Magic Behind The Tempest (2016): Toyah Willcox and Stuart Hopps share their memories of working on Derek Jarman’s 1979 production of The Tempest
• Don Boyd remembers The Tempest (2018): Producer and filmmaker Don Boyd remembers the production, release and critical reception of The Tempest
• A Meeting of Minds: Christopher Hobbs on collaborating with Derek Jarman (2018): production designer Christopher Hobbs looks back on his long and fruitfully creative friendship with Derek Jarman
• Fully illustrated 80-page book with new writing on the film, contemporary reviews and full film credits
• …plus lots more

Trailblazers: Sky Arts: Monday 19th February: 5pm
Trailblazers: Sky Arts: Tuesday 20th February: 12pm
Trailblazers: Sky Arts: Tuesday 24th February: 12pm
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)

Grieve The Capital: Derek Jarman’s Jubilee Turns 40

Derek Jarman’s film of visionary alchemy and edgeland punks now tells of a time before the gentrification of the capital when occulture and subculture sat side-by-side, says Adam Scovell

Released in Elizabeth II’s silver jubilee year of 1978 as a provocation seemingly towards just about everyone, it’s little wonder Derek Jarman’s second feature film, Jubilee, caused such an uproar. The Queen herself is mugged and killed for her crown early on in a Deptford edgeland, the punk movement still then raging over London is unconsciously sent up by some of the very people who were part of it, and the raw mixture of violence, conservative nostalgia, swipes at Catholicism and copious nudity makes it as anarchic as anything the director made afterwards.

Amongst this incredibly heady concoction of both successful and failed attempts at creating a feasible narrative world, however, sits something far more essential; a time-capsule of a period in London’s history when subcultures grew overtly and naturally due to the city’s many affordable, derelict areas.

The film begins with Elizabeth I (Jenny Runacre) and her alchemist, Dr. John Dee (Richard O’Brien), who conjures forth Ariel (David Brandon), William Shakespeare’s magical being from The Tempest. Thanks to Ariel’s powers imbued into a crystal, the trio travel forward through the cascading years, from the sixteenth-century to a brutal, dystopian vision of 1970s London. The city is ravaged but alive, the streets housing violent groups of punk girl-gangs who fend off police harassment and cause mayhem. Prams are burning and people are killed whilst bands, including Adam And The Ants and Siouxsie And The Banshees, play endlessly on television. Ritual violence is spreading as is this new form of music, ready to be co-opted by financial maniacs to sell to a brainwashed youth; providing further wealth to buy up the newly empty Buckingham Palace and turn it into a recording studio. The film is perhaps more famous for its string of cameos: Adam Ant, The Slits smashing up a car, Toyah Willcox playing Mad and too many others to name. But it’s more than the sum of its pop-culture reference points.

• Continue reading at The Quietus.

Toyah Willcox and Islington Council commemorate Derek Jarman at his old flat in Liverpool Road

Much-loved artist, film director and LGBT activist Derek Jarman has been commemorated at his old flat in 60, Liverpool Road.

Mr Jarman, who died in 1994, was renowned for directing films such as Sebastiane (1976). He was also instrumental in the campaign to lower the age of consent for homosexuals, and esteemed for speaking so openly about being HIV-positive.

He lived at number 60 between 1967 and 1969 in a top floor studio. It was here where he worked on artwork and costumes for Sadler’s Wells Opera’s production of Don Giovanni in 1968.

Yesterday, Islington Council held a plaque ceremony commemorating his time there to coincide with the start of LGBT month. It was unveiled by actress and singer Toyah Willcox, a friend of Mr Jarman’s who worked with him on the film Jubilee (1978).

• Continue reading at the Islington Gazette.

Toyah unveils plaque to ‘Jubilee’ film director and LGBT activist Derek Jarman

A plaque has been unveiled marking the former residence of the artist, film director and activist Derek Jarman.

An outspoken campaigner for gay rights and HIV/Aids aware­ness, Jarman is renowned for directing films such as Sebastiane in 1976 and Jubilee in 1978, now adapted into a stage play.

Actress and singer Toyah Willcox, who made her screen debut in the original Jubilee film 40 years ago, was given the honours of unveiling the plaque yesterday (Thursday) at 60 Liverpool Road, where Jarman lived from 1967-69.

Toyah told the Tribune: “In the past 50 years gay politics has come along in leaps and bounds. It has developed into gender fluidity and trans fluidity which weren’t so defined or certainly weren’t public 40 years ago.

“All of us flourish in good, strong communities and one of the blessings of Derek’s life was he had a good community around him. But, it had to be a secret community because of the restrictions on being openly gay back then. What Jubilee addresses today is Derek’s collage of images, colours and ideas but the politics are brought up to date by young actors who are gender fluid and know what it’s like to live in a straight cis world.”

• Continue reading at the Islington Gazette.

Toyah Willcox on the stage version of Derek Jarman’s controversial film “Jubilee” and actress Daniella Isaacs on her show about our obsession with raw food – Listen at BBC iPlayer by clicking below. (Photo © BBC)

Top Of The Pops: 1981: BBC Four: Thursday 8th February: 0.50am
26.11.1981: Mike Read presents the pop chart show, first broadcast on 26 November 1981. Includes appearances by Kim Wilde, Jets, Toyah, Kool and the Gang, Earth Wind and Fire, Cliff Richard, Ultravox, and Queen and David Bowie.

Top Of The Pops: 1981: BBC Four: Tuesday 6th February: 1am
15/10/1981. David ‘Kid’ Jensen presents the TOTP hits of the week, first broadcast on 15 October 1981. Includes appearances from BA Robertson & Maggie Bell, Squeeze, Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin, This Year’s Blonde, Toyah, the Creatures and Bad Manners. Also includes a dance sequence by Legs & Co. (NB: Toyah’s appearance is via the TITM video)