Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

MAYHEM FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCE FIRST GUEST AND CLOSING FILM

Mayhem Film Festival are thrilled to announce Steve Oram’s Aaaaaaaah! and Karyn Kusama’s The Invitation as the first two films from this year’s line-up.

Taking place on 15-18 October, Mayhem Film Festival will close its 11th edition with Karyn Kusama’s The Invitation. Hailed as Kusama’s strongest work by Variety, The Invitation is a deeply disturbing, slow burn horror thriller from the director of Jennifer’s Body.

This year, the festival will also welcome back Steve Oram (Sightseers) with his directorial debut Aaaaaaaah! produced by Andrew Starke and executive produced by Ben Wheatley (Rook Films). The film, which contains no traditional dialogue, is an insane and hilarious collision of Romeo and Juliet and The Planet of the Apes in suburbia. Steve Oram will make the trip to present the film and take part in a post-screening Q&A.

• Continue reading at Broadway. Further info on Mayhem Film Festival 2015 is available by clicking below.

NEW IMAGES FROM STEVE ORAM’S ‘AAAAAAAAH!’ RELEASED

The peculiar British thriller will premiere at Frightfest this summer.

A range of images have been released for Aaaaaaaah! (2015), the filmmaking debut from British writer-director Steve Oram, best known for his role in Ben Wheatley’s sadistic comedy Sightseers (2012).

Starring Julian Barratt, Toyah Willcox, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Lucy Honigman, Tom Meeton, Sean Reynard and Oram himself, with supporting from Noel Fielding, Tony Way and Sightseers co-star Alice Lowe, the film tells the story of alpha male Smith and his Beta, Keith, who make a move to take over a local community. They hook up with a restless Female, Denise, which ignites a deadly feud in which emotions run high and deep-seated grudges resurface amongst the tribe.

• Continue reading at Film 3 Sixty.

Browse Dreamscape’s Aaaaaaaah! news archive by clicking below.

The excitement is mounting…. As we’ve mentioned previously, Aaaaaaaah!, the new film by Steve Oram, which features a bevy of TVO faces, will be getting its world premiere next month at Film 4 FrightFest at Leicester Square! But for those of you who can’t make it there, don’t despair – because the film may be coming to a screen near you!

Additional screenings of Aaaaaaaah! include:

Picture House Central in London’s West End on 4th September (+ cast Q&A); End of the Road Festival (Dorset), 4th-6th September; Mayhem in Nottingham, 15-18 October. Plus more dates to be announced soon.

• Continue reading at The Velvet Onion. Details of further screenings of Aaaaaaaah! will be available here.

Fantastic photo of Toyah and Chesney Hawkes at Rewind North today. (Photo © Chesney Hawkes)

“That Toyah is playing #NewMills is not only a coup for @NMFestival but a chance to see a music legend“. Visit New Mills Twitter. Browse further info and buy tickets at their website.

Following her appearance and hosting at Rewind Scotland a couple of weekends ago, Toyah is also hosting Rewind North today.

The three-day 80s music festival (7th – 9th August) is taking place at Capesthorne Hall, Cheshire and the line-up includes: The Human League, Kim Wilde and Belinda Carlisle (today) and OMD, Bananarama, ABC and The Selector (tomorrow). NB: Toyah isn’t performing at the festival, hosting only.

Toyah has a message for Jack Up The 80s. Click below to watch.

Toyah’s August blog is available at The Official Toyah Willcox Website. Toyah composed her latest missive while in Perth, my late Mum’s birthplace. Toyah talks all things Rewind Scotland, filming Doctors, recording with Simon Darlow and much more. Click below to read the blog and view a selection of great Toyah photos from the last month.

• Classic Hits: Genesis Keyboardist Tony Banks Says New Solo Box Set Features “a Lot of Good Music”: Banks worked with a variety of well-known musicians on his solo albums, including such singers as ex-Marillion frontman Fish, Nik Kershaw and Toyah Willcox, and acclaimed drummers like Steve Gadd, Vinnie Colaiuta and longtime Genesis touring member Chester Thompson – Continue reading…

• Nerdly: Frightfest 2015: First look at Steve Oram’s ‘Aaaaaaaah!’: The debut feature of actor Steve Oram (Sightseers, TV’s Glue), Aaaaaaaah! stars Julian Barratt, Toyah Willcox, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Steve Oram, Lucy Honigman, Tom Meeten and Sean Reynard. The supporting cast include Noel Fielding, Holli Dempsey, Shelley Longworth, Alice Lowe, Tony Way and Waen Shepherd. Aaaaaaaah!, written and directed by Steve Oram, produced by Andy Starke and executive produced by Ben Wheatley, will have it’s world premiere at FrightFest on August 28th with many of the cast and crew in attendance. A few tickets are still available www.frightfest.co.uk – Continue reading…

• Get Reading: Famous faces spotted at Rewind Festival over the years: Rewind South: The 80s Festival, which attracts 40,000 fans each year, will return to Temple Island Meadows on Friday, August 21, to Sunday, August 23… Toyah Willcox at Rewind 2011 – Continue reading…

• Eastbourne Herald: Eastbourne gets ready for Vulcan’s swan-song at Airbourne: at the Bandstand, evening concerts include Big Band Night on Thursday and the legendary pop-punk princess Toyah, on Friday. BBC South East Today also broadcast live from the show from 6.30pm on Friday, as their Festival Friday tour hits town – Continue reading…

• The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive: Read full transcripts of Toyah’s recent interviews on BBCR2’s Sounds Of The 80s and BBC Radio Derby – Go read…

A new interview with Toyah, published today, by UK Music Reviews.

Toyah Willcox, singer–songwriter chats with Kevin Cooper about her first appearance on Top Of The Pops, touring with The Humans, the release of her new film AHHHHH!, and performing at The Flashback Festival in Clumber Park.

Toyah Willcox is an English singer-songwriter and actress. In a career spanning more than thirty years, she has had fifteen Top 40 singles, released over 20 albums, written two books, appeared in over forty stage plays and ten feature films, and voiced and presented numerous television shows.

More recently she has formed a band called The Humans, which she fronts. She also tours with her own acoustic set and is heavily involved with The Flashback and Rewind Festivals. An incredibly busy lady, it was a privilege for Kevin Cooper to have the opportunity to catch up with her for a chat and this is what she had to say.

Hi Toyah how are you?
Hello Kevin I’m good thanks for asking.

So tell me, just how is life treating Toyah at this moment in time?
It’s very good Kevin, I am so busy that I am either spending twenty hours per day in my office or I am travelling to a show. Honestly, I have never been busier but don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining, I am incredibly grateful. It is fabulous and everything is so interesting. I don’t like doing just one thing, I like to have a lot of variety and at the moment I have got that. I am currently filming a drama for the BBC; I am promoting a new movie, and I have another movie being released over in Berlin in November, and so it is just very, very busy. And thankfully the shows are going wonderfully well too.

• Continue reading at UK Music Reviews.

Toyah has paid tribute to showbiz legend Cilla Black who died today: “Dearest Cilla, You taught me so much. Be strong, be kind, be proud and shine! shine! shine! with love + respect toyah“.

As tweeted by Toyah this week – the programme she filmed is the BBC’s daytime drama Doctors.

We have had the pleasure of being joined on set by the incredible Toyah Willcox. Toyah has returned to her midlands roots to film scenes for a fanatastic episode that will be aired in November. Keep your eyes on the website for an interview with the lady herself.

NB: Toyah has previously had a role in Doctors. She played “Marcy Preston” in an episode in April 2000.

• Smash Hits: July 31 – August 13: Uploaded yesterday to Like Punk Never Happened: Smash Hits Archive – The “latest” issue of Smash Hits, 30 years on from the original day it was published – Read the issue…

• Minx at 30: The issue of Smash Hits includes the full-page advert for Minx. Toyah’s first solo album entered the UK Album Chart this very week (03.08.1985) 30 years ago. Browse all of Dreamscape’s recent Minx related posts here…

• Toyah @ Twitter: Toyah is filming a daytime drama for the BBC: “Up at 5am today filming in Birmingham BBC. daytime drama, lots of dialogue…..great character” – Follow Toyah @ Twitter…

• Derbyshire Times: Flashback fun at Clumber Park: Clumber Park hosts the sixth annual Flashback Festival next month. Saturday sees the return of all things 80s, with a line-up that will take you back to the coolest decade in pop. Sheffield band The Human League are set to headline the festival playing 80s hits such as Don’t you want me, Human and Together in Electric Dreams. Joining The Human League will be Tainted Love singer Marc Almond, Jason Donovan, 5 Star, Toyah and Flashback’s favourite compere The Doctor of Doctor & The Medics – Continue reading…

• Eastbourne Herald: August in Eastbourne: Eastbourne’s iconic Bandstand reaches peak season in August with events taking place every day. Another highlight of Airbourne weekend, ‘Toyah in Concert’ on August 14 promises a dynamic concert from the punk princess, Toyah Willcox – Continue reading…

• Minx at 30: This very weekend in 1985 Minx first entered the UK Album Chart…

Toyah guested on Andy Potter’s BBC Radio Derby show this afternoon.

Toyah and hedgehog mapping: We hear from People’s Trust for Endangered Species which wants to map sightings of hedgehogs across the country.

Toyah’s interview ran for approximately six minutes and she chatted about playing at the forthcoming Flashback Festival in Worksop, Notts, as well as the difference in set list choices for such a concert and the diversity of her live audience in 2015. There was also some Teletubbies talk.

• Listen to Toyah’s interview via iPlayer at BBC Radio Derby. The full show is also available here.

The earnest 1979 TV series where Nigel Kneale’s Professor Bernard Quatermass bowed out

Urban streets are littered with bodies. Barricades constructed from cars are ablaze. The national broadcaster works behind security suitable for a prison camp, Fearful old people live communally in underground warrens. Gangs roam cities while in the countryside, the hippy like Planet People chant and wander, looking for sites from where they can ascend to salvation on another, mythical planet.

Professor Bernard Quatermass arrives in this chaos from his Scottish retirement retreat to take part in a TV show marking the moment when Russian and American space projects become one, linking with each other in orbit above the Earth. He sees the programme as a platform to help in the quest for his missing granddaughter, who he thinks has had her head turned by the Planet People. Over its four episodes, the 1979 TV series Quatermass portrayed a world gone to pot.

This important release, a two-disc set out on Blu-ray and DVD, collects the 1979 TV series and its spin-off film. Quatermass is played by a magnificently sideburned, yet often wooden, John Mills. As Quatermass‘s foil Kapp, Simon MacCorkindale overeggs the theatricals but is nonetheless robust. Watch out for Toyah Willcox amongst the Planet People.

• Continue reading at The Arts Desk. View further info on the recent Quatermass DVD/Blu-ray Box Set here.

Setting this year’s New Mills Festival off with an enormous bang, and following on from last year’s hugely successful fundraiser, this year sees the colourful, dynamic and unique Toyah Willcox and her band take to the stage at New Mills Art Theatre on Saturday 12 Sept 2015. Toyah will be belting out all her old hits including the iconic hit singles – It’s A Mystery, I Want To Be Free and Thunder In The Mountains, as well as newer material, in her famous high-energy style.

New Mills Art Theatre, Derbyshire
On Saturday 12 September 2015
Doors Open at 7:00pm | Starts at 8:00pm
Ticket Price: £15.00 – £90.00*

• Visit the New Mills Festival Website / Twitter / Facebook. Buy tickets here.

News on Aaaaaaaah!, from Ransom Note, which also includes some info on where you’ll be able to see the film, over the next couple of months, after it premieres at FrightFest 2015..

Aaaaaaaah! is Steve Oram’s directional debut starring Julian Barrett, Toyah Wilcox, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Steve Oram, Lucy Honigman, Tom Meeton, Noel Fielding and Sean Reynard. Aaaaaaaah! (think this is the right amount of A’s, I’m not entirely sure, my glasses aren’t quite the right prescription… Sorry…) is a story about two men, primal and caveman-ish, who plan on taking over a local community. They hook up with restless female, Denise, which brings boiling emotion in the sense of fueds and grudges to take the high ground. The film raises the question: are we men or beasts? The entire cast speaks not in prose but in grunts and jibberish – just because we have a language, does that mean we have discarded or ancestial traits? Well Aaaaaaaah! attempts to cross the barrier and make us think about human life and evolution all at the same time.

Aaaaaaaah! will be touring around the country, the world premiere is at FrightFest on the 28th of August, Picture House Central on 4th September where it will have a residency and the film will call on to End of the Road Festival from the 4th to the 6th of September and Mayhem, Nottingham from the 15th to the 18th of October. More dates will be announced soon.

• Continue reading at Ransom Note.

Household name, pop icon, TV presenter and actress Toyah is coming to the Engine Shop at Enginuity on Friday evening, 2 October. ‘Acoustic, Up Close & Personal with Toyah’ is a wonderful chance to experience the 1980s pop superstar up close and personal at a lively song and storytelling style gig.

Toyah will be entertaining the audience with a selection of her much loved hit singles. Supported by musicians Chris Wong and Colin Hinds, her performance will include It’s a Mystery, Thunder in the Mountains, I Want to be Free and Good Morning Universe.

Tickets to ‘Acoustic, Up Close & Personal with Toyah’, which are priced at £20 per person, are available in advance only. They can be purchased online or from the Ironbridge Visitor Information Centre and any of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum shops. Tickets include admission into Enginuity from 5pm, the auditorium opens at 7pm and the performance starts at 8pm.

• Continue reading at Telford Live.

There’s a chance to experience Toyah Willcox up close and personal at the Exchange Sturminster Newton in what promises to be a lively unplugged/storyteller’s style gig, which will include Toyah performing an acoustic set of her loved hit singles and classic songs, alongside recalling stories from her colourful, thirty-five year career.

Toyah will be at the Exchange on Thursday 15th October 7.30pm. Tickets: £18. Contact the box office 01258 475137.

Toyah’s Gig Diary for the remainder of 2015 is packed full of concerts, including a variety of Summer festivals; Fairport’s Cropredy Convention (15th August), Flashback Festival (22nd August), Cottingham Folk Festival (6th September). There’s also the Acoustic, Up Close & Personal UK Tour, numerous Proud, Loud & Electric gigs and a number of one off appearances.

Toyah makes her debut at Eastbourne Bandstand next month (14th August), and plays the New Mills Festival, Derbyshire (12th September). There’s also a return to Bristol for a Proud, Loud & Electric gig at The Fleece (5th November).

• Click on any of the promo images above for the full list of upcoming gigs, plus links to buy tickets, at The Official Toyah website. (Thanks to Andrew Payne for the Eastbourne photo)