Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

Yesterday’s Holiday of My Lifetime, with Toyah revisiting a holiday she had in 1968, is now available to watch online at BBC iPlayer. Click below to go there.

Quadrophenia – The Immersive Experience took place last night at the Hammersmith Apollo, London. View a collection of photos from the event here, a short video clip here, and a couple of photos of the venue prepared for the return of the class of 1979 (or was it 1964?) here and here. Thanks to Matthew Stanford.

Holiday of My Lifetime with Len Goodman & Toyah Willcox in Shropshire

Shropshire Tourism recently assisted the BBC with the filming of an episode of the second series of Holiday of My Lifetime.

In the episode to be broadcast on BBC One on Friday 12th February at 3.45pm, Len Goodman, the Strictly Come Dancing judge takes singer, actress and presenter Toyah Willcox back to the Llangollen Canal to reminisce about a narrowboat holiday she enjoyed there in 1968. Filming also took place at the Mere in Ellesmere.

During the programme Toyah reveals how her time on the canal was very different to that spent in her home city of Birmingham, symbolising freedom and fun. She and Len tuck into a vintage picnic and visit an antiques shop like the ones Toyah’s father would have taken her to while away from home.

• Continue reading at Visit Shropshire Hotels.

Toyah, and a selection of some of the recent Top Of The Pops re-broadcasts from BBC Four, are featured at the BBC’s Back To The 80s page – Programmes showcasing and celebrating music from the decade. Click below to pay a visit.

Who’s Doing The Dishes?: ITVBe: Wednesday 24th February: 11am
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?

Toyah’s episode of Holiday Of My Lifetime airs this afternoon on BBC1. The programme will be available to watch online at BBC iPlayer after airing on TV. (Photos © Toyah Willcox/BBC)

Holiday of My Lifetime: BBC1: Friday 12th February: 3.45pm
Len Goodman takes celebrities back in time to recreate their childhood holidays. Len takes singer, actress and presenter Toyah Willcox back to the Llangollen Canal in North Wales to reminisce about a wonderful narrow boat holiday she had back in 1968.

With her brightly coloured hair and powerful singing style, it’s no wonder Toyah was dubbed the ‘high priestess of punk’.

Thirty years on from seeing the Sex Pistols and thinking she could do better, this prolific artist and actor, who enjoyed hits with ‘It’s a Mystery’, ‘Thunder in the Mountain’ and ‘I Want to be Free’, is relishing performing still. See her strut her stuff, as she takes to the stage at intimate and iconic London venue The Water Rats, on Tuesday, 23rd February. Don’t miss what promises to be an electrifying gig.

• Continue reading at Vintage TV.

With her brightly coloured hair and powerful singing style, it’s no wonder Toyah was dubbed the ‘high priestess of punk’. Thirty years on from seeing the Sex Pistols and thinking she could do better, this prolific artist and actor, who enjoyed hits with ‘It’s A Mystery’, ‘Thunder In The Mountains’ and ‘I Want To Be Free’, is relishing performing still.

See this pop princess strut her stuff, as Toyah takes to the stage at the intimate music venue The Water Rats in London on Tuesday, 23rd February. (NB: This is Sold Out!)

Two great photos of Toyah: 1. A highly rare photo from 1980 during The Blue Meaning era, which has just recently surfaced, and 2. A photo Toyah tweeted this evening as she prepared to attend Quadrophenia: The Immersive Experience 2016 at the Eventim Apollo – formerly the Hammersmith Odeon. (Thanks to Paul Lomas for photo 1 | Photo 2 © Toyah Willcox)

Grassington Festival organisers have just announced that Toyah Willcox will be supporting Marc Almond at this year’s Last Night Party on Saturday July 2. From punk princess to high priestess of TV, Toyah is a uniquely gifted performer. Charismatic, outspoken and impossible to categorise, she is one of Britain’s iconic household names – an award winning rock legend – who can forget, It’s a Mystery, I Want to be Free and Thunder in the Mountains? – as well as a much loved actress and composer.

Musically, Toyah has remained fresh, uncompromising and ground-breaking. With new book projects and music releases in the pipeline, and live concert dates scheduled for the year ahead, Toyah continues to drive her multi-faceted and vibrant career.

• Continue reading at The Yorkshire Times. To purchase tickets for Toyah or any of the other festival events please visit www.grassington-festival.org.uk.

Last Night Party: Marc Almond + Toyah + DJ
2nd July | 8pm – site opens at 6.30pm | £32.00
Venue: Festival in the Field Marquee

Our Last Night Party will end Grassington 2016 off with pop and a fizz as internationally acclaimed icon Marc Almond headlines – by arrangement with Satellite Agency. Almond has sold over 30 million records Worldwide with a solo career which sprang from his success with Soft Cell and the classic Tainted Love which broke all records and continues to be an iconic hit. Renowned for his high profile collaborations with artists such as Bronski Beat and Jools Holland, Almond also worked with Gene Pitney with a number one hit, Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart in 1989. We are delighted he will be helping us celebrate our last night. So get ready for a night to boogie and let your hair down.

The legendary Toyah is supporting Marc Almond. From punk princess to high priestess of TV, Toyah Willcox is a uniquely gifted performer. 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 actress and music composer.

• Continue reading at www.grassington-festival.org.uk.

The Four From Toyah EP, Toyah’s sixth UK single, was released this week in 1981. This was Toyah’s chart breakthrough release after almost three years of albums, singles and tours. Toyah can be seen performing the lead song, It’s A Mystery on Top Of The Pops on BBC Four tonight at 7.30pm and again at 11pm. It will also be available to watch online at BBC iPlayer after airing. Click below to view Dreamscape’s 30th Anniversary feature on the EP, from 2011.

Toyah will play the Grassington Festival in Yorkshire this Summer, an event she previously performed at in June 2008. This year’s festival takes place between the 17th June and 2nd July.

Punk princess Toyah Willcox joins this year’s Grassington Festival line-up

More acts have been announced for this year’s Grassington Festival, which runs from June 17 to July 2. Supporting the inimitable and iconic Marc Almond for the Last Night Party on July 2, will be 80s punk princess Toyah Willcox.

Toyah rose to fame in the late 1970s and early 1980s, quickly becoming a household name as a result of her distinctive style, and memorable top ten hits; It’s a Mystery, I Want to be Free and Thunder in the Mountains. The award-winning outdoor theatre company, Illyria, will return to Grassington Festival for the sixth consecutive year, with a magical outdoor performance at Bolton Abbey Priory on Friday, July 1.

• Continue reading at the Craven Herald & Pioneer. Visit the Grassington Festival website here.

Tons of new dates have been added to Toyah’s Official Gigs page, including a number of acoustic and electric concerts and a handful of festival appearances. Browse the list by clicking below.

Kavanagh Q.C.: ITV Encore: Tuesday 16th February: 12.55pm
A Family Affair (1995). Kavanagh finds himself caught up in a bitter family feud when he represents a frustrated father who has kidnapped his son in a desperate attempt to win custody. On the home front, Kavanagh’s daughter wants to let her boyfriend stay overnight. Directed by Renny Rye. With John Thaw, Holly Aird, Robert Ashby, Toyah Willcox and Lisa Harrow.

Toyah has been confirmed as a panel guest at the forthcoming Shakespeare 400 at The V&A: A One Day Festival, taking place on 22nd April 2016.

‘O brave new world!’ – The Tempest

Celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death with the stuff that dreams are made on. Hosted by the V&A and led by Shakespeare scholar John Pitcher (St John’s College, Oxford), we invite you to a festival of art, poetry, music and on-stage discussions devoted to his final, and most magical play, The Tempest. It will be a day, in the words of Caliban, of ‘sounds,’ ‘sweet airs’ and ‘a thousand twangling instruments’, as represented in the V&A’s collections.

Prospero’s art – the imaginative world of wizards, spells and demigods banned by the Elizabethan church but alive in people’s fears and fantasies – will be looked at alongside the physical realm of windmills, water power, and sailing ships. The poetry of the play, and the way it lives on stage and in film, will be discussed by poets Alice Oswald and Alicia Stallings, the novelist John Lanchester and the actress Harriet Walter. The many mental states The Tempest evokes and occupies – revery, stupor, frenzy, vengefulness, and wonder – will be explored and experienced by you, the participants.

• Further information/Book tickets at the V&A website. More details also at toyahwillcox.com.

Available Now! Listen to the People’s History Of Pop, presented by Toyah, online at BBC iPlayer.

Stories include a fan of the Beatles who as a teenager collected as much memorabilia as she could – only to lose it all in a house fire.

A Madonna superfan, who’s even turned her downstairs loo into a shrine of the queen of pop. We’ll hear about the brilliance of David Bowie, playing to just 2000 people at Birmingham’s Que Club. And hear how a Smiths fan from Solihull has come to own a piece of Morrissey’s shirt.

Quadrophenia – 1964 is back for February 2016 in London

Relive the sights and sounds of 1964 as British movie classic Quadrophenia‘s full on theatrical performance takes place at London’s Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith on 11 February 2016.

The cinematic presentation is sure to plunge mod fans young and old into the sights and sounds of the swinging sixties, capturing the spirit of an era that fuelled a cultural revolution.

Many of the original film’s key stars will be taking part in the event including the star of the film, 1960’s Mod teenager Jimmy Cooper (Phil Daniels). Joining Daniels will be other major names from the cast including Phil Davis (Chalky), Mark Wingett (Dave), Toyah Willcox (Monkey), Trevor Laird (Ferdy), Garry Cooper (Peter) and Daniel Peacock (Danny).

Director Franc Roddam and cast are set to share their memories in a special one off Q&A to start off the night.

• Continue reading at The Mod Journalist. Win tickets for Quadrophenia: The Immersive Experience 2016 at clashmusic.com (entry closes 9th February).

Out Now: Quadrophenia – A Way Of Life by Simon Wells for Kindle with bonus downloads

What does a couple of quid get you these days? Not a lot. But it does get you Quadrophenia – A Way Of Life by Simon Wells for the Amazon Kindle, which also comes with a few bonus extras.

It’s the same book we flagged up back in May 2014, which is when the print version landed. That is still available if you prefer print. But if you don’t and have a Kindle, you can opt for this version.

It’s just the same in terms of the book, a look at the making of the cult mod movie and its subsequent influence on popular culture. There are interviews with principal cast members, director Franc Roddam, scriptwriter Martin Stellman and other involved in the creation of the film, coming together as a good overview of the movie and the background to it.

It doesn’t say so on the listing, but according to author Simon Wells, the e-book contains a link to download 49 continuity Polaroids from the making of the film. That’s got to be worth the modest price tag alone. £2.10 is that price and the Kindle book is available now.

• Continue reading at Modculture.

Thanks to Angus (pictured below with Toyah – and also featuring a cameo from Mr Robert Fripp!) for these great photos from Toyah’s first Acoustic, Up Close & Personal date of 2016, which took place at Camberley Theatre, Camberley, Surrey on Friday night. Please click on each photo to view larger versions. (Photos © Angus Turner)

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