Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

Toyah’s blog for October 2017 is available to read at toyahwillcox.com. Catch up on all of the monthly blogs, including September’s, by clicking here.

‘A couple tried to kidnap my sister… was it Brady and Hindley?’ Inside the head of… Toyah Willcox

Eighties punk singer and actress Toyah Willcox, 59, has eight top 40 singles to her name. She is married to King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp, 71.

What is your earliest memory?

My mother putting a thick nappy on me. I used to deliberately hold everything in until she had done it, then would let loose. I was very naughty, even as a baby.

What sort of child were you?

I was completely unconventional in everything, which my mother found very difficult. I was a huge tomboy.

What has been your biggest achievement?

In 2010 I had to learn to walk again when I had my legs made the same length, after living with one leg two inches longer than the other until the age of 51.

• Continue reading at the Daily Mail.

Toyah has had a very busy year of gigs and festivals so far, and this is set to continue for the remainder of 2017. Included in the many dates still to come is a PA at Shaw’s in Stoke-On-Trent next month. Click below for more details, or view Toyah’s full official Gig Diary.

Read Toyah’s Blog for August 2017 at toyahwillcox.com.

Toyah & Peter’s 9 Hours is available now. Click below for links to buy the single.

Toyah has recently been filming a new programme for Sky Arts, with Scott Millaney and Brian Grant, who produced some of her early 80’s promo videos. (Photo © Toyah Willcox)

Listen to a short interview with Toyah from BBC Radio Manchester at Rewind North 2017, by clicking below.

The Official Toyah newsletter – Breaking Through – recently revealed details of a new digital single release entitled 9 Hours which is astonishingly Toyah’s first ever real duet…. if we discount the Cabaret musical song Money, Money recorded with Nigel Planer in 1996.

The single is a collaboration with Peter Coyle of New Wave band The Lotus Eaters who also wrote the track. It will being released under the name Toyah & Peter (at Peter’s request) and will be released in early August 2017.

There is an exclusive preview now on Toyah’s Official Soundcloud.

Lonely Phil Collins desperately needs a man in her life. Could this be Phil’s lucky day?

Toyah Willcox acts in a new monologue, A Date with Phil Collins. Written by Carl Chetty. Videography by Colin Snoad.

Toyah played a mind-boggling FOUR gigs over the weekend – Wellowfest 2017, Let’s Rock London, Party in the Park Dunstable and Party in the Park Cookley – Below is a press report on Wellowfest and check out Toyah’s Twitter for direct updates from the incredibly busy lady herself!

Wellowfest: Big names and local acts mix for village festival

More than 40 bands and singers will perform over three days at the annual Wellowfest music festival this weekend. They include headliners Hazel O’Connor, Toyah Willcox and The Blockheads.

It takes place at Chapel Farm, Wellow, from tomorrow (Friday) until Sunday. The festival, launched in 2014, covers a wide range of genres, including pop, punk, country and 1980s classics.

The organisers said: “In its fourth year of running, Wellowfest maintains its roots as a family-friendly festival with a chilled out and relaxing vibe. Kick back and enjoy the best of the English countryside while listening to an eclectic mix of sounds.”

• Continue reading at the Newark Advertiser.

Punk princess Toyah lights up village music festival

Eighties punk star Toyah Willcox topped the bill at a village festival near Marlborough that attracted music lovers all the way from London.

Families picnicked, children played games and locals caught up with the gossip as laid-back MantonFest treated them to a day of music that featured an international tribute act Creedence Clearwater Revived and sets by bands like Josie and the Outlaw, The Clive Collective and local outfit Barrelhouse, who this week reached number 20 in the blues charts.

One of the organisers, Roger Grant, said he thought the event was the best yet. “All through the day there was just such a happy atmosphere. It was absolutely unbelievable.”

• Continue reading at the Gazette & Herald. (Photo © Gazette & Herald)

Read Toyah’s Blog for July 2017 at toyahwillcox.com.

Quadrophenia: Sky Select HD: Tuesday 25th July: 9.55am
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.

REVIEW: Toyah, King George’s Hall, Blackburn

It was a show billed as classics, hits and anthems and with a full band behind her the pint-sized punk princess Toyah delivered them all with aplomb.

Of late, many of Toyah’s live appearances have been acoustic evenings where stories from her career have shared the stage with re-worked versions of her songs.

Enjoyable they may be, but this was a night of 100 per cent full-on Toyah with swirling synths, pounding drums and howling guitar.

Somehow she’s 59, but looks amazing and her energy on a sweaty Saturday night in Blackburn never once faltered.

• Continue reading at the Lancashire Telegraph.

Jubilee: London Live: Monday 3rd July: 10pm
Queen Elizabeth I travels through time from 1578 to 1978, where she sees what has become of her once glorious kingdom: law and order have broken down and punks roam the streets. Director: Derek Jarman. Starring: Jenny Runacre,  Nell Campbell, Toyah Willcox, Hermine Demoriane, Ian Charleson, Karl Johnson.

Quadrophenia: Sky Greats HD: Friday 30th June: 3.20am
Quadrophenia: Sky Select HD: Sunday 2nd July: 7.05am
Quadrophenia: Sky Greats HD: Wednesday 5th July: 2.20pm
Quadrophenia: Sky Greats HD: Thursday 6th July: 1.30am
Quadrophenia: Sky Select HD: Friday 7th July: 2.05pm
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.

Toyah’s blog for June 2017 is available to read at toyahwillcox.com.

Jubilee: London Live: Monday 26th June: 1.05am
Queen Elizabeth I travels through time from 1578 to 1978, where she sees what has become of her once glorious kingdom: law and order have broken down and punks roam the streets. Director: Derek Jarman. Starring: Jenny Runacre,  Nell Campbell, Toyah Willcox, Hermine Demoriane, Ian Charleson, Karl Johnson.

NB: London Live is available on: Freeview 8, Sky 117, Virgin 159, YouView 8.

Derek Jarman’s punk classic Jubilee to be reignited on stage  

Toyah Willcox plays the time-travelling Elizabeth I in the Royal Exchange’s version of the film that caused outrage after 1977’s silver jubilee

Derek Jarman’s anarchic punk film Jubilee is to be adapted for the stage with a cast including Toyah Willcox who made her screen debut in the original version 40 years ago. Willcox played the cackling pyromaniac Mad, a member of a girl gang whose fights, orgies and random acts of cruelty are witnessed by Queen Elizabeth I when she is magically transported to the 1970s. The new stage version, which will open at Manchester’s Royal Exchange theatre this November, casts Willcox in the role of the time-travelling queen.

“At the time it was made, it was utterly outrageous,” says Willcox of the film, which she describes as the tale of “women who are trying to kind of kill everything that controls them or that has exploited them. It’s a very resonant story today. Nothing’s changed except the technology.” The stage version will be firmly set in the modern day, with the script updated throughout the show’s run to acknowledge current events.

“If there’s something noteworthy in the news at 1pm, hopefully you’ll be hearing a reference to it in the show in the evening,” says Chris Goode, the show’s director. Goode, who first saw Jarman’s film as a teenager and has been influenced by the DIY punk ethos throughout his theatre career, added: “We didn’t want our version to be an exercise in nostalgia. Part of the impulse was thinking about where punk is at now.”

• Continue reading at The Guardian.

Toyah Willcox in Jubilee and the return of Julie Hesmondhalgh among highlights of Royal Exchange Theatre’s new season of shows

Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre reveals an exciting mix of plays for its Autumn/Winter season

80s pop icon Toyah Willcox will play Queen Elizabeth I as she makes her Royal Exchange Theatre debut in Jubilee, part of the striking new programme of shows for the Autumn/Winter season announced by the Manchester venue.

Toyah will star in the theatre adaptation of Derek Jarman’s punk cult classic movie Jubilee, a film she originally starred in as the character Mad in 1978.

She will now take on the role of Queen Elizabeth I, who is transported into a shattered modern Britain in the story adapted by Chris Goode who makes his exchange debut as new associate artist.

• Continue reading at the Manchester Evening News.

Chris Goode is to adapt Derek Jarman’s cult film Jubilee for the stage at the Royal Exchange in Manchester.

The production will take place as the film marks its 40th anniversary, and will star original film cast member Toyah Willcox. Goode, who joins the Royal Exchange as an associate artist, will adapt and direct Jubilee. It premieres from November 2 to 18, with press night on November 7.

Goode described the project as “brilliantly daunting and irresistible”, adding: “Derek Jarman has been a hero to me for 25 years and the opportunity to stage a brand new adaptation of one of his most iconic films with one of the country’s most iconic theatres is mind-blowing and heart racing in equal measure.”

“Under Sarah Frankcom’s visionary leadership the Royal Exchange continues to consolidate its position as a boldly risk-taking and boundary-exploding venue where we get to come together and talk about the biggest questions of our age in the most exciting ways we can imagine. At a time when dialogue and dissidence feel more precious than ever, I want Jubilee to be a celebration of the energy of our anger and our hope.”

• Continue reading at The Stage.