Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

Dreamscape’s 2012 birthday updates centred around rare footage from Look! Hear! (1981) and Dear Heart (1982)…

35 years ago tonight Toyah kicked off a UK Tour at Derby in support of the album Anthem – Click below to view a larger version of the gig poster at The Official Toyah Facebook.

This week (and a bit of next) we are counting down to Toyah’s birthday by revisiting past birthday updates (as you do!).

May 2003 was an exciting month for Toyah fans. Not only did Toyah turn 45 but there was the not insignificant matter of the release of a brand new album. Toyah’s first all-new studio album in nine years and also of the new Millennium:

“Velvet Lined Shell (catalogue number VSR001) is released on Toyah’s own, newly formed, record label, Vertical Species. The CD artwork is dark and dramatic, similar to the actual music. Toyah has cited Mogwai, PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, Marilyn Manson and Elbow (among others) as her influences while recording these new songs.”

• Revisit May 2003 here. Further info on Velvet Lined Shell at The Official Toyah Discography.

Quadrophenia: Sky Select HD: Sunday 15th May: 10pm
Quadrophenia: Sky Greats HD: Saturday 21st May: 11.50pm
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. (Sky Greats HD movie channel is on Sky Channel 304 / Sky Greats HD is on Sky Channel 305)

Ten years ago there were a series of Gallery, Features, Downloads and Press Archive updates to Dreamscape, in celebration of Toyah’s birthday. Click below to take a trip back to May 2006.

It’s exactly one week until Toyah’s birthday. In years gone by Dreamscape has sporadically “counted down” to Toyah’s big day and, what the heck, we are doing it again… There will be a birthday related post right here every day until May 18th.

Today – Take a look back at how we marked Toyah’s birthday five years ago: There were previously unseen polaroids and rare photos, screen caps from long-ago TV roles, features (including an Anthem one that is finally being printed as I type!) and much more…

Top Of The Pops: 1981: BBC Four: Friday 20th May: 7.30pm
Top Of The Pops: 1981: BBC Four: Saturday 21st May: 0.00am
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)

Top Of The Pops: 1981: BBC Four: Thursday 19th May: 7.30pm
Top Of The Pops: 1981: BBC Four: Friday 20th May: 0.30am
01/10/81. Mike Read introduces the pop programme. Includes appearances from Godley & Creme (Under Your Thumb), Sheena Easton (Just Another Broken Heart), The Teardrop Explodes (Passionate Friend), The Creatures (Mad Eyed Screamer), Ottawan (Hands Up [Give Me Your Heart]), Toyah (Thunder In The Mountains), Bad Manners (Walking In The Sunshine), Altered Images (Happy Birthday), Dollar (Hand Held In Black & White), Adam & The Ants (Prince Charming).

Toyah appears in Trailblazers Of… Glam Rock on Sky Arts HD tonight. The programme re-airs a number of times over the next week.

Trailblazers Of…: Sky Arts HD: Friday 6th May: 9pm
Trailblazers Of…: Sky Arts HD: Sunday 8th May: 1am/8pm
Trailblazers Of…: Sky Arts HD: Tue 10th May: 3am/Thu 12 May: 0.00am
From the flamboyant clothes to the extravagant make up, Noddy Holder narrates this fascinating look at the evolution of glam rock.

There are a series of monologues of work written by Carl Chetty at You Tube. One Bad Apple, performed by Toyah has recently been uploaded. Twist-in-the-tale. This is the first time Coral Farley has told anyone that she is a victim of domestic violence.

Quadrophenia: Sky Select HD: Wednesday 11th May: 0.00am
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. (Sky Select HD is on Sky Channel 312)

Toyah fan Dan has compiled and uploaded a great video tribute to “Mayhem” at You Tube. The Battersea warehouse is no more, having been demolished late last year.

Directed by Steve Stone, the British film Extremis will be released in 2016 and the official film poster has now been revealed.

Toyah acts in a cameo scene and will also perform a new original song Our Hearts Still Beat (Willcox/Darlow) for the film’s end titles.

A powerful business executive returns home to his family and their lavish lake house for the weekend. Within hours of his return, a cataclysmic event takes place out there in the landscape. The world beyond their garden is now deserted, the skies above them threatening and toxic. But is it the child who is in need of salvation? What is this strange apocalypse? An ecological disaster or a terror attack?

• Continue reading/View a larger version of the Extremis poster at toyahwillcox.com.

Photos from Derek Ridgers’, soon to be published, book Punk London 1977. are included in one of three events on punk all currently taking place in London.

As previously mentioned, an unseen photo of Toyah is included in the book.

Punk was always more than a t-shirt or a piece of loud music: it’s an irrepressible attitude. Throughout 2016, London will host gigs, exhibitions and events to commemorate 40 years of punk’s ongoing influence through fashion, film, photography, design, literature and of course music.

• Browse further info on the events here. There’s also info and photos at UDiscover. Read an interview with Derek Ridgers at Infringe. Ridgers’ photos will also feature at a forthcoming Punk Weekender event, in June.

17. Aaaaaaaah!

Fans of the early John Waters and early Gregg Araki oeuvre may feel right at home with all the vulgarity and body fluids on display in Steve Oram’s Aaaaaaaah! This is adventurous and crude postmodern cinema, and the easily offended need not apply.

Oram displays a ruthless instinct with sadistic lapses into camp and caricature with Aaaaaaaah!, a film hell bent on upsetting the audience in this tale of society’s collapse. In the film the human stock has downgraded, and devolved into grunting, drooling, depraved, inarticulate primitives.

Robbed of the capacity to speak beyond gorilla-like elucidation, chest-beating, and genital-waving, I found the film to enact a Beckett-like scenario but at least half the audience I saw it with thought it was just shit. Their loss.

A winning cast of Brits including Oram, Julian Barrett, Noel Fielding, and Toyah Willcox add street cred to this one-of-a-kind mindfuck. Aaaaaaaah! is a strangely sublime picture, in turns delicate and disorienting, with a Buñuelian bite and a whiff of nasty nihilism, too. You’ll either love it or you’ll hate it but you won’t ever forget it.

• Continue reading at Taste Of Cinema. Browse our Aaaaaaaah! news archive…

How I’m Making an Epic Sci-Fi Movie That Will Change the World. And Why You Should Follow Your Dream Too!

In 2006, UK filmmaker Simon Cox announced to a group of friends that his new movie, Kaleidoscope Man, would be the biggest British indie sci-fi movie of all time – A sweeping statement? Or was it?

After years of trying to get his second movie funded through traditional film industry routes, it was at this moment that Simon made the decision to stop chasing carrots and do whatever needed to be done to achieve his dream; making an epic sci-fi movie that would move and inspire people in the same way the original Star Wars inspired him. But, he was in his 40’s with a young family, broke, feeling washed up and beginning to realise that perhaps Hollywood wasn’t about to come knocking.

Now in 2016, Simon has nearly finished the hugely ambitious Kaleidoscope Man. And its good. In fact, it’s very good. But the road to getting it made has certainly been rocky and full of challenges and the finance to do it has not fallen into his lap.

Come to our fascinating one day seminar and discover from Simon himself just how he and a team of friends have managed to pull off this incredible feat.

• How they convinced 700+ people to run from attacking alien ships in Central Birmingham.

• Built the international space station in a warehouse in Nuneaton (with materials from Wikes DIY store).

• How they convinced 80’s pop icon Toyah Willcox to star in the movie.

• Sent fleets of attacking alien ships flying over Central London.

• Turned Birmingham into a deserted battlefield.

• Got primetime TV coverage on BBC London Tonight.

• Discovered a young illustrator who went from creating images for Kaleidoscope Man to Godzilla, Star Wars the Force Awakes and now Star Wars Rouge One.

• Pulled together over 500+ people to help get the movie made.

You’ll hear amusing anecdotes, see fascinating behind the scenes videos and some exclusive clips from the movie – before anyone else sees them.

Alpha Star Productions
Saturday, June 25, 2016 from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM (BST)
Birmingham, United Kingdom

• Continue reading at Event Tribe. Chek out the Kaleidoscope Man website for updates and recent behind-the-scenes photos from the film shoots.

• Live 2016: More Toyah dates for this year, including at The Layton, Blackpool. Click below to browse Toyah’s official gig schedule. (Thanks to Tony Ames)

• Braintree & Witham Times: Summer Nights programme brings music to Chelmsford City Racecourse: Music is returning to Chelmsford City Racecourse this summer as part of a three day programme called Summer Nights. The events take place across the 21, 22 and 23 of July at Britain’s newest horse racing venue… Rick Astley, Paul Young and Toyah have teamed up to give people a blast from the past at the gig – Continue reading…

• Vintage TV: Toyah Live At The Water Rats: Available to watch online at the Vintage TV website…

• Twitter: Toyah with her watercolours & Nick Park’s Wallace Gromit all painted in aid of LINC – Visit Twitter…

• BFI: The Tempest: Is showing at the BFI this month. Derek Jarman brings his unique staging, symbolism and flair to Shakespeare’s tale – Continue reading…

Toyah’s blog for May 2016 is available to read at toyahwillcox.com.

PJ Crook, Nick Park and Toyah Willcox donate paintings for Gloucester exhibition in aid of LINC

A star-studded line up of exhibitors including Nick Park, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and Toyah Willcox feature in a pop-up exhibition this weekend in Gloucester. The event, at St Michael’s Tower, has been organised by Bishop’s Cleeve artist PJ Crook in aid of LINC.

Nick Park has donated a Wallace & Gromit painting which was created especially for the exhibition.

Toyah Willcox has contributed two watercolours and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, who is also a patron of LINC with PJ Crook, has donated a large Caryatid drawing framed in a magnificent gold frame.

The exhibition takes place on Sunday, May 1 and Bank Holiday Monday, from noon until 6pm each day with tea and cakes.

• Continue reading at the Gloucester Citizen.

Toyah was included alongside Blondie, Iggy Pop, Culture Club, Kate Bush, Simon & Garfunkel and a host of music icons in one of the Daily Mail’s daft, and badly photoshopped, photo features yesterday…

Phil Collins broke new ground when he re-released his back catalogue of albums earlier this month — complete with recreations of the classic covers using up-to-date photographs of his face. Collins, 65, seems to have weathered fairly well since he first stormed the charts as a solo artist 35 years ago, barring a few inevitable wrinkles.

So we wondered how some of our other music legends would fare if their albums were given the same treatment. Obviously, the music stands the test of time, but what about their faces…

It’s a mystery: Toyah Willcox, 57, just needs make-up to recapture her eighties look

• Continue reading at the Daily Mail.

Tony Hadley, The Stranglers, Lindisfarne and the SAS Band with Roger Taylor of Queen have been confirmed as headliners for this year’s Wickham Festival.

The Spandau Ballet frontman Tony tops the bill on the opening night on August 4, with The Stranglers and Bruce Foxton’s From The Jam as the main attractions the next day.

Spike’s All Stars Band with a line-up including Queen drummer Roger Taylor, Marillion lead singer Fish, Madeleine Bell and solo artist/actress Toyah Willcox will appear on Saturday. They will be supported by the Trevor Horn Band. Also on the bill are the Oysterband plus Chas & Dave.

Lindisfarne close the four-day event on Sunday with back-up from Steeleye Span, Hayseed Dixie and the Red Hot Chilli Pipers.

Festival organiser Peter Chegwyn said: “We are thrilled with this year’s line-up which has something for everyone. It reflects our rapidly-growing reputation locally, nationally and internationally with fans coming from the USA, Canada and Australia. We have a fantastic array of bands who will provide fantastic entertainment.”

• Continue reading at The Portsmouth News. Check out all of Toyah’s confirmed festival appearances for 2016, plus her other upcoming live dates, at toyahwillcox.com.