Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

• Official Toyah: Recent Photos – Chris Wong and Colin Hinds at John Shuttleworth & Friends’ Palladium concert; and Toyah (making music) with Simon Darlow – View these and more at Toyah’s official Website, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. (Photos © Toyah Willcox)

• Mearns Leader: What’s On Where: September: 18-19 Toyah that vivacious singer from the 80s is out on tour and every bit as good as before and looking fantastic. Exclusive to Stonehaven Town Hall for two nights only (only dates north of Edinburgh in 2015), support from our very own Leighann Esslemont and Band. Tickets £25 will be on sale at Ma Simpson’s or online – Continue reading…

• The Irish News: Time for the Bill as Limboland comes to Ireland: An interview with Bill Bailey, including a mention for Toyah – both played at London Palladium last week with John Shuttleworth – Continue reading…

• Bloody Disgusting: Aaaaaaaah!: Toyah, with that frying pan! – Continue…

• The Lee Mack Show: Toyah guests in 2005. It’s available to listen to at BBC iPlayer for the next three weeks.

• A View From The Centre: Nostalgia: Pictured is the first copy of the Vegetarian Society’s bi-monthly membership magazine. Featured within was an article on the then recently launched Ark Trust environmental organisation containing an interview with and photograph of Toyah Willcox; also a photo of Chrissie Hynde, Kevin Godley and others – Continue reading…

Minder: ITV4: Friday 17th July: 6.45am
All Mod Cons. Arthur decides to sell Terry’s flat without his permission. Meanwhile, Terry gets a job minding at a local club and ends up getting into more trouble than he had planned for when he realises the club’s manager is on the fiddle. Starring: George Cole, Dennis Waterman, Toyah Willcox, Simon Cadell, James Ottaway, and Tony Osaba. (Series 2, Episode 8, 1980). Also showing on ITV4 HD and ITV4 +1.

Toyah’s July blog is available at The Official Toyah Willcox Website. Including news on Aaaaaaaah!, performing at the London Palladium and more. Click below to read the blog and view photos from the last month.

Released today (2nd July) in 1982: Nine To Five

Shameless cash-in of the month for July comes courtesy of this 1982 single from EG records. Nine To Five was recorded in 1977 for the soundtrack album of the following year’s Derek Jarman movie ‘Jubilee’, which featured among its cast members a number of British punk rock artists. The track itself was credited to Maneaters, but was performed by Adam Ant and Toyah Willcox, both of whom had yet to have a hit at the time. Then, after years of trying, they both had their breakthrough hits within months of each other: Adam & The Ants had their first Top 10 hit at the end of 1980 and Toyah had theirs in March 1981, and both acts had several more in the twelve months that followed. Two of Adam’s former labels had already plundered his catalogue recordings for reissues, and now it was EG’s turn.

For the single, EG billed the song as being by ‘Adam and Toyah’ and advertised it as being available in a “special picture bag”. Both artists objected to the release and the way in which it was marketed.

• Continue reading at If You Were There.

Hot – yup it is exceedingly hot at the moment etc. ;) – on the heels of last month’s Breaking Through newsletter, comes another! With juicy Toyah updates on Aaaaaaaah! and more… including:

• Toyah will host a screening of, the Derek Jarman inspired, The Raft of the Medusa at Barbican, London on Thursday 16th July – Further details/tickets here…

• Toyah will appear at the Celebrity Autograph Convention event at Viva Blackpool on 24 October along with other cast members from Quadrophenia – Further details/tickets here…

• A trio of classic Toyah albums – Desire, Prostitute and Ophelia’s Shadow – will be available digitally in August. Full details to follow.

• Subscribe: Sign up to ‘Breaking Through’, to receive regular newsletter updates, here.

It’s the final day of Toyah’s week-long Tracks Of My Years residency with Ken Bruce at BBC Radio Two. The full week of programmes are available at BBC iPlayer until the end of July.

Ken Bruce: BBC Radio Two: Friday 3rd July: 9.30am
Toyah Willcox picks the Tracks of My Years, with songs from Peter Gabriel and U2. Plus PopMaster, the daily Love Song and the Album and Record of the Week. Email ken.bruce@bbc.co.uk.

Things are hotting up – and yes speaking of heat, phew!, it has been ridiculously, over-the-top, warm in the UK this week, hasn’t it – for the forthcoming Aaaaaaaah! with no less than the legendary Variety reporting on the film – and including a great shot of Toyah too.

‘Aaaaaaaah!,’ ‘Scherzo Diabolico,’ ‘Curve’ Among Highlights at FrightFest

Toyah Willcox wields the pan in Steve Oram’s ‘Aaaaaaaah!’

MUNICH — Film4 FrightFest, the U.K.’s leading genre film festival, promises to be “bigger, bolder and bloodier” in its 16th year with its largest ever lineup. The gorefest, which runs Aug. 27-31, will present 76 films across five screens, plus a host of special events. There are 16 European premieres and 26 U.K. premieres.

Among the films from British and Irish talent receiving a showcase are David Keating’s “Cherry Tree”; the world premiere of Steve Oram’s hilarious and disturbing “Aaaaaaaah!,” starring Toyah Willcox; Dominic Brunt’s sharp-edged female revenge saga “Bait”; Ben and Chris Blaine’s sexually charged zom-rom-com “Nina Forever”; Mark Murphy’s tale of twisted minds “Awaiting”; Paul Hyett’s much-anticipated “Howl”; Adam Levins’ sinister family drama “Estranged”; Howard J. Ford’s child-abduction thriller “Never Let Go”; Corin Hardy’s Sundance sensation “The Hallow”; Ruth Platt’s morally challenging chiller “The Lesson”; Liam Regan’s gruesome revenge saga “Banjo”; Eugene McGing’s supernatural haunter “The Unfolding”; and “Afterdeath,” a hellish thriller by new directors Gez Medinger and Robin Schmidt.

• Continue reading at Variety. Browse all of Dreamscape’s Aaaaaaaah! news here.

The Official Toyah Willcox Website’s news on the premiere of Aaaaaaaah!

The much anticipated Steve Oram film AAAAAAAAH! will receive an official premiere on Friday 28 August 2015 at 18.35. There is a Q&A with some of the cast planned as part of the premiere.

The film with no dialogue stars Julian Barratt, Steve Oram, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Noel Fielding, Alice Lowe, Toyah Willcox, Sean Reynard, Tom Meeten, Holli Dempsey, Shelly Longworth and Tony Way. Written and directed by Steve Oram / Produced by Lincoln Studios. Featuring music by King Crimson ProjecKts.

FrightFest is the UK’s biggest, best and most renowned genre festival is now a globally recognised brand and its sixteenth year sees yet another enhancement of its core mission to bring the finest in home-grown and international fear to the dark heart of London’s West End at the Vue, Leicester Square, between 27-31 August.

• Continue reading at www.toyahwillcox.com. Visit the FrightFest 2015 website.

Like Punk Never Happened: Smash Hits Archive has been continuing to upload retro issues of ‘Smash Hits’ magazine 30 years to the day they were originally published in the UK.

Various “recent” issues have included Toyah – Minx and its related singles were being released around this time back in 1985.

• Smash Hits, June 19 – July 2, 1985: This issue includes a full-page advert for the single Soul Passing Through Soul. Toyah is also included in the feature – “Who Is Pop’s Mr Clever Trousers?” – Read the issue here…

• Smash Hits, June 5 – 18, 1985: Toyah is included in the feature – “Oh! You’re Not As Tall As You Are On The Telly!” – Read the issue here…

• Smash Hits, May 22 – June 4, 1985: This issue includes the feature – “Toyah: Personal File” – Toyah answers lots of slightly odd questions, such as “When was the last time you saw a spirit?“. This was Toyah’s second “Personal File” for ‘Smash Hits’, the other was in early 1983 –  Read the issue here…

• Smash Hits, May 8 – 21, 1985: This issue includes the songwords for the single Don’t Fall in Love (I Said) – Read the issue here…

• Smash Hits, April 24 – May 7, 1985: This issue includes a full-page advert for the single Don’t Fall in Love (I Said) – Read the issue here…

It’s Day Four (already!) of Toyah’s Tracks Of My Years on BBC Radio Two with Ken Bruce.

Ken Bruce: BBC Radio Two: Thu 2nd July: 9.30am
Toyah Willcox picks the Tracks of My Years, with songs from Lana Del Rey and Simon and Garfunkel. Plus PopMaster, daily Love Song and the Album & Record of the Week. Email ken.bruce@bbc.co.uk.

• BBC iPlayer: Listen to Monday’s show here, Tuesday’s here, yesterday’s here, and today’s, live at the BBC Radio Two website from 9.30am, here.

• Toyah @ Twitter: Toyah is working with Simon Darlow. She tweeted a photo, saying: “In the studio with Darlow. So incredibly excited” – Continue to Twitter…

• Catmachine: Five Years On: I can’t believe that it’s already five years since I wrote the first blog in the I Was A Teenage Toyah Fan series, a series which turned into a book self-published on kindle and paperback – Continue reading…

• Scottish Daily Mail: Radio Choice: Toyah Willcox, who’s been touring the UK with the three-piece band The Humans, joins Ken Bruce (Radio 2, 9.30am) this week to pick her Tracks Of My Years. Toyah begins with songs from T. Rex and Kate Bush.

• England Events: Aylesbury: Live in the Park – part of Parklife Weekend: August 29, 2015 at Vale Park. in Aylesbury – Vale Park will be filled with continuous live music performed on a large outdoor stage by 80’s pop star TOYAH and a number of fantastic local bands playing an array of musical styles and genres from rockabilly, punk and new wave to well-known pop and rock covers – Continue reading…

• The Oxonian Review: An Insubstantial Pageant: A Question of Perspective in The Tempest – The effectiveness of putting Shakespeare on film is a vexed question. There are certainly those who find that all those words hang heavy in such a visual medium as cinema. More plentiful, though, are those who think that adding pictures to the supple and ambiguous wordscapes of the plays is a violent reductiveness – Continue reading…

Ken Bruce: BBC Radio Two: Wednesday 1st July: 9.30am
Toyah Willcox picks the Tracks of My Years, with songs from David Bowie and Tasmin Archer. Plus PopMaster, daily Love Song and the Album & Record of the Week. Email ken.bruce@bbc.co.uk.

Ken Bruce: BBC Radio Two: Tuesday 30th June: 9.30am
Toyah Willcox picks the Tracks of My Years, with songs from Adele and the Moody Blues. Plus PopMaster, daily Love Song and the Album & Record of the Week. Email ken.bruce@bbc.co.uk.

Toyah’s week of choosing her “Tracks Of My Years”, on Ken Bruce’s BBC Radio Two show, begins this morning. The programme can be listened to online at the BBCR2 website and will be available, post-airing, at BBC iPlayer. Toyah will choose two songs each day until Friday.

Ken Bruce: BBC Radio Two: Monday 29th June: 9.30am
Toyah Willcox picks the Tracks of My Years, with songs from T.Rex and Kate Bush. Plus PopMaster, the daily Love Song and the Album and Record of the Week. Email ken.bruce@bbc.co.uk.

• Live 2015: Toyah is one of the special guests at tonight’s John Shuttleworth & Friends: A Knight At The Palladium charity concert – That’s The London Palladium no less! (Photo © Toyah Willcox)

• John Shuttleworth @ Twitter: “Y Reg tyres checked, glove compartment restocked with Werthers – I’m ready to hit London Town! Excuse me – which way to the Palladium?” – Visit Twitter…

• Chortle: Quick witted – Fast Fringe and the rest of the comedy week ahead: Sunday June 28 – Live in London: John Shuttleworth tonight stages a massive fundraiser at the London Palladium, no less. Chief attraction among his friends is Bill Bailey, heading a bill that the word ‘eclectic’ was surely made for, ranging from Toyah to Sooty And Sweep… not to mention a revival of the persona that first put Shuttleworth creator Graham Fellows into the spotlight, Jilted John – Continue reading…

• A Knight At The Palladium: John Shuttleworth and friends including Chas and Dave, Badly Drawn Boy, John Otway, Toyah, Leee John (Imagination), Martyn Ware (Heaven 17), Jon McClure (Reverend and the Makers), Gordon Giltrap, Lorraine Bowen, Bill Bailey and Sooty and Sweep (yes, really!) will perform for one night only at the London Palladium in ‘A Knight at the Palladium’ in aid of the MS Trust and an MS Centre in Sheffield.

• Time Out: John Shuttleworth – A Knight at the Palladium: Sheffield singer/songwriter and amateur philosopher John Shuttleworth (as portrayed by character comic Graham Fellows) hosts a night of music and chat to raise money for MS charities. His musical guests include rockney singalong duo Chas And Dave, new wave survivor Toyah, Heaven 17’s Martyn Ware and ‘Really Free’ rock strummer John Otway – Continue reading…

• Tickets: There may still be some seats – Check availability here…

• John Shuttleworth @ Dreamscape: Browse all of Dreamscape’s JS news here…

• John Shuttleworth Appreciation Society – Visit John’s official website by clicking below…

Festival fun for music fans from rock to folk and everything in between

Toyah Willcox joins the merry men and women invited to perform at this year’s Fairport’s Cropredy Convention. The punk princess has now won her place among the music luminaries selected by folk rock legends Fairport Convention at the Oxfordshire festival. She joins a line-up including Fish, the former lead singer of Marillion, The Proclaimers, Level 42, Dreadzone and a number of special surprise guests who simply ‘pop up’ in traditional Cropredy style. As host band, Fairport will open the festival which runs from Thursday, August 13 to Saturday, August 15. For more details visit www.fairportconvention.com/cropredy.php.

• Continue reading at the Swindon Advertiser. Browse Dreamscape’s news on Toyah playing at Fairport’s Cropredy Convention 2015 here.

Toyah’s recent Sounds Of The 80s special is currently featured at BBC Music.

Mindboggling – Toyah’s career began exactly 40 years ago.

There had been roles in amateur theatre productions and work as an “extra” but Toyah’s first actual professional job as an entertainer was filmed exactly 40 years ago – Glitter, a 30 minute drama, part of the BBC’s ‘Second City Firsts’ strand of programming. It also starred a young Phil Daniels in one of his first roles and appearances by Noel Edmonds, Doremy Vernon and the band Bilbo Baggins.

Toyah’s character in Glitter, Sue, also performs two songs with the band Bilbo Baggins, Floating Free and Heartbreaker (it’s unclear whether the songs were known by these titles in 1975 – Toyah wrote, at least some, of the lyrics to both). This was Toyah’s first major acting role, first lead vocal performances, first time as a singer with a band, first time on national TV. Many firsts!

Few watching when Glitter aired in late 1976 could imagine that the girl who played Sue would go on to be a music icon to millions of teenagers, release a discography of incredible albums, be known as one of the most visually creative “pop stars” of the modern music era, and work with the likes of Katharine Hepburn, Sir Laurence Olivier, Maximilian Schell, George Cukor, Diana Dors, Trevor Eve, Sir Christopher Lee, Derek Jarman, Christopher Eccleston and numerous others.

• Celebrate Toyah’s 40 years as a performer and artist: Musician, singer, songwriter, actress, writer… at her official website. View Dreamscape’s feature from 2005 on Glitter. (Top photo © The Official Toyah Willcox Website)

It’s A Mystery is one of Toyah Willcox’s most well known tracks but from her ‘Up Close and Personal’ performance at Lowdham Village Hall it was no mystery that her career has been such a success, spanning 30 years. The Warthog Promotions event, part of Lowdham’s Book Festival 2015, featured Wilcox talking about her life and selection of acoustic performances.

Supported by Chris Wong and Colin Hinds on guitar, Willcox belted out numbers from across her career: Good Morning Universe: Be Proud, Be Loud, Be Heard; Jungles Of Jupiter; Echo Beach; and, Bird In Flight which was number one in the first ever Indie record chart. Diminutive and self-effacing off-stage, once in the limelight, bedecked in bright pink dress and silver bangles, the ‘rebel’ commanded the arena.

• Continue reading at the Nottingham Post.

A performance from the ‘high priestess of punk’ Toyah at Blackpool’s North Pier is off.

A spokesman for the venue said ticket holders for the Sunday, July 12 show could get a refund from their point of sale.

On Facebook, Toyah said this and another cancellation were ‘due to technical issues with the respective councils’ staging the events.

• Continue reading at the Blackpool Gazette. Toyah’s Gig Diary is packed full of concerts for 2015. There’s sure to be a date near you… Browse all the dates at toyahwillcox.com.

Wishing a very Happy 60th Birthday to, punk icon and Jubilee legend, Jordan – aka Pamela Rooke.