Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

There’s a new “Fan Of The Month” over at Sugar Rush: The Humans fansite.

The latest Breaking Through, Toyah’s Official newsletter, was emailed to subscribers earlier this week.

It contains lots of news as always, including details on gigs, Ask Toyah, ToyahTV, Drury Lane on BBC Radio 6 Music, Who’s Doing The Dishes?, The Power Of Three DVD, The Humans and much more.

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

Eighties punk star Toyah Willcox comes to Stroud for the first time next week for a gig at the Sub Rooms.

The 56-year-old singer, actress and reality TV star – who hit the charts in 1981 with It’s A Mystery and I Want To Be Free and appeared in The Who-inspired 1979 film Quadrophenia – will be at the central Stroud venue on September 5, to give an unplugged storyteller’s style gig.

Toyah will perform an acoustic set of her hit singles, alongside recalling stories from her colourful, thirty-five year career. She told the SNJ: “My shows aren’t self-indulgent, I want to share them with the audience, so it will be very up-beat.”

• Continue reading at the Stroud News & Journal.

Photos from Tuesday evening’s Acoustic, Up Close & Personal concert at Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich. Please click below to view the full versions at Dreamscape’s Gallery. Browse all of Dreamscape’s Acoustic, Up Close & Personal news… (Photos © Layne Patterson)

There’s a new ToyahTV clip at toyahwillcox.com, as well as more webisodes at Vimeo from Toyah. Fans can also submit their questions for “Ask Toyah” at the official site too. Post your question in the comments section on the news post.

Toyah is filming short videos for a new series of webisodes for ToyahTV which you can be viewed at vimeo.com/toyahofficial.

Catch up with Toyah rehearsing for gigs, looking through costumes, getting haircut, sharing recipies and talking to Robert on Skype.Lots more webisodes to come….

A selection of fantastic Quadrophenia related photos taken by Damon King on a recent visit to Brighton. Please click below to view larger versions of the photos. (Thanks to Damon)

Your chance to get up close and personal with punk icon Toyah

Punk rock icon Toyah Willcox is set for a stunning return to the stage with an intimate Totnes concert featuring all her smash hits on Saturday night. Expect to hear songs such as It’s A Mystery, Echo Beach, Thunder In The Mountains, and I Want To Be Free.

The South Devon Arts Centre gig is a unique chance to see Toyah up close and personal with her full band.

This intimate show will include all her much-loved hit singles and classic songs, alongside recalling stories from her colourful 35-year career.

• Continue reading at the Torquay Herald Express. See also: Gloucester Citizen: Don’t miss events of the weekend: Moreton show, Toyah Willcox and Gloucester History Festival – Continue reading…

Video: Was Toyah’s the very first ever Ice Bucket Challenge?

Punk rock icon Toyah Willcox, who plays an intimate Totnes concert featuring all her smash hits on Saturday night, may have been the original Ice Bucket Challenge celebrity. This clip from 30 years ago shows Toyah taking part in the Bucket of Water Supporters Club challenge as part of the popular TV programme Tiswas.

• Continue reading/watch the clip at the Torquay Herald Express.

Punk Princess, TV presenter and actress Toyah Willcox will be performing and sharing tales of her 35 year career at Stroud’s Subscription Rooms on Friday.

Her show, Toyah, Acoustic, Up Close and Personal, sees her perform with a full band, and share stories with her audience.

Fresh from her diving on the latest series of ITV’s Splash, pop icon and actress Toyah presents this lively unplugged gig.

The show will include all her much loved hit singles and classic songs, alongside recalling stories from her colourful career.

• Continue reading at Stroud Life.

Holly Johnson, Rick Astley, Marc Almond, Toyah, Jimmy Somerville – the line-up at the Rewind North music festival was like a big bag of pic n’ mix from the 80s sweetie shop, with everything from sugary sweet pop to edgy rock. Staged successfully in Scotland and the south of England for several years, it was the time the nostalgic franchise had been brought to the region.

• Continue reading at The Sentinel. (Photo © The Sentinel/Simon J. Newbury)

Singer Toyah Willcox: “I’m no sociopath” as she chats ahead of a gig in Stroud

Conducting an interview can often feel like an odd form of psychotherapy in which you sit your subject down and probe at their personal life, hoping all the while that they’ll bare their soul and somehow thank you for the privilege.

Invariably in an increasingly media savvy, PR-managed and image conscious world, it doesn’t quite work out like that.

Now and again, however, there comes a breath of fresh air who doesn’t want to engage in a banal cat-and-mouse duel. Instead, in the case of singer and actress Toyah Willcox, they’ll be happy to speak their mind.

• Continue reading at the Gloucestershire Echo and/or the Gloucester Citizen.

• STV Shows: Who’s Doing The Dishes: “I also really liked Toyah Willcox’s house. She really liked an old tearoom, which she used to visit as a four-year-old. When she got older, she bought it and turned it into a house. But it’s got all the old seating from the tearoom still. It is amazing.” – (Thanks to Richard Smith for the screenshot) Continue reading…

• Hardly Baked: Female Shriekers: The ongoing Kate Bush mass hysteria got me thinking about other female singers with shrill, soaring voices — operatic or histrionic or she-warrior whooping… And then the warrior-chieftainess of suburban postpunk – Toyah Willcox, whose band – Toyah – were originally a sort of distaff Adam and the Antz – Continue reading…

• ToyahTV Webisode #4: Robert’s Skype: Toyah Willcox interviews Robert Fripp about King Crimson rehearsals & Kate Bush! – Watch at Vimeo…

• Gloucestershire Echo/Weekend: Clean living Toyah Willcox set for Stroud gig: By her own admission, Toyah Willcox is a free spirit – always has been, always will be. She also leads a very strict lifestyle which even extends to protecting her ears and voice whenever she isn’t on stage. “It’s all part of how I function as a singer,” she says – Continue reading…

• London Evening Standard: Toyah Willcox: The veteran Birmingham-born singer and actress performs her punk, new wave and rock with her backing band.

To celebrate the special offers happening in hmv stores across the country over the next few weeks, each week we’ll be picking our top 10 films from each decade. Today we’re picking our faves from the 1970s…

7. Quadrophenia (1979)

Anybody taking a day trip to Brighton in recent years may have encountered the strange sight of tourists taking photographs of an empty alleyway in the city’s Lanes area, but for anyone familiar with that scene from Franc Roddam’s 1979 film that should come as no surprise. One of the most iconic British films of the whole decade, Quadrophenia’s legacy can still be seen around the streets of Brighton today. Featuring a cast that includes Phil ‘Parklife’ Daniels, Leslie Ash, Philip Davis and Ray Winstone, not to mention some brilliant cameos from Sting and Toyah Willcox, the film’s tale of counter culture and the frustrations of modern life are epitomised in its climactic final scene at Beachy Head. The scene may have changed, but the film’s message is as relevant as ever.

• Continue reading at hmv.com.

6 Music Live Hour: BBC 6 Music Thursday 11th September: 2.30am Chris Hawkins presents recordings from the BBC’s archive of live music, including Toyah at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London in 1981 plus The Moondogs in session. (Available at BBC iPlayer after airing)

Now is your chance to interview Toyah! Sort of!!

Got a question you’d like to ask Toyah? Post your question in the comments section at The Official Toyah Facebook page.

Toyah will answer a selection on video for a new webisode of ToyahTV which will accompany her September blog at www.toyahwillcox.com.

Thinking caps on!

Toyah gets ‘Up Close & Personal’ with an acoustic gig at Stroud Subscription Rooms

There is a unique chance to experience musical legend Toyah up close and personal at Subscription Rooms, Stroud, next week.

Fresh from her diving on the latest series of ITV1’s Splash, pop icon, TV presenter and stage/screen actress Toyah presents this lively unplugged/storytellers-style gig with her full band.

• Continue reading at the Gazette.

Who’s Doing The Dishes: ITV: Wednesday 10th September: 4pm
On today’s programme, will it remain a mystery that Toyah Willcox is their celebrity host when she throws a dinner party for four strangers? Join Brian McFadden to find out!

Toyah discusses Kate Bush on today’s World at One. Click below to listen.

Tune into World at One today at 1:40pm, on BBC Radio 4, to hear Toyah on a feature which looks forward to Kate Bush’s opening night of ‘Before The Dawn’ tonight at Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith.

World at One: BBC Radio 4: Tuesday 26th Aug: 1pm
National and international news with Edward Stourton. Listeners can share their views via email: wato@bbc.co.UK or on twitter: #wato.

It has now been confirmed that songs from Minx will be included in the Songs From The Intergalactic Ranch House Autumn tour, the first time anything from the 1985 album has ever been performed live by Toyah (though for some reason I thought that ‘Don’t Fall In Love’ had been played live at some point at a PA, I’m obviously mistaken or mis-remembering). Click below for the full tour dates schedule and links to buy tickets.

Saturday’s Pointless Celebrities is available to watch at BBC iPlayer for the next few days.

• Toyah is mentioned in a couple of Pointless-related news articles, published today: Express & Star: Slade star Dave wins Pointless: The musical pair competed against 80s star Toyah Willcox and Level 42 musician Mark King – Continue reading… Shropshire Star: Shropshire singing star Carol Decker put to the test on celebrity Pointless: The other star pairs playing were punk singer Toyah Willcox and Mark King, singer and bass player in Level 42 – Continue reading…