Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

Legendary singer Toyah, will be bringing her rollicking Love Is The Law & More Tour to the Concorde 2, Brighton on Thursday, October 24 at 7pm.

The singer, who has recorded 20 albums and famously starred in the Brighton mods and rockers film Quadrophenia, will be performing all her greatest hits, including It’s a Mystery and I Want To Be Free, alongside fan favourites and cult classics. Known for her exuberant, energetic live shows, Love Is The Law & More promises to be a night filled with colour, drama, fantastic wigs and explosive songs.

• Continue reading at GScene.

• Toyah’s Vintage Christmas 2013: A great selection of photos from the filming of Toyah’s festive programme for Vintage TV, Christmas 2013, have recently been added to Photoshot. It looks like the programme is going to include lots of guests – View here… (Thanks to Andy)

• Quadrophenia Reunited: A selection of photos from this event are available at HiBrow: The Arts Online’s Facebook page – View here… For those without FB, a photo was also tweeted – View here…

• Rebel Run: I forgot to mention that the songwords to Toyah’s brilliant 1983 single are also included in the 29th September – 12th October issue of ‘Smash Hits’ (directly after her interview spread – a crafty way of getting fans who compiled scrapbooks to buy two copies of the magazine ;)) uploaded at the weekend to the SH Archive – View here…

• Toyah Ulster Hall 1981: The televised gig from April 1981 has just been uploaded again to ‘You Tube’. This is an excellent concert which took place between two major tours – The “College” and “Anthem” – that year. What an incredibly busy year that was for Toyah – View the concert here… (Thanks to Lärwi)

• At The Rainbow: More goodies from 1981 – Lärwi has also converted the classic “Rainbow” concert to mp3, available indivdually or as part one and part two.

• Dark Night of the Soul with Julie: Toyah was included in Julie’s WFMU radio show playlist on 3rd October – ‘Tiger! Tiger’ from The Blue Meaning was played – Full playlist, and listen to the show here…

Toyah is included in the line-up for next Summer’s Let’s Rock Bristol festival, taking place 6th – 8th June. Others playing include: Bananarama, Kim Wilde, ABC, Level 42, Go West, T’Pau, Nik Kershaw, Captain Sensible, Heaven 17 and numerous others. Click below to visit the festival’s website.

A vaguely rare photo of Toyah from the ‘Love Is The Law’ album shoot. This is a lesser-used variation of a couple of similar colour photographs that were taken to promote the album. I think it was used in one, maybe two, music paper & magazine articles. Click below to view a larger version.

• Love Is The Law & More: It’s now just two weeks until Toyah’s UK Tour begins, at Legends in Newcastle. Full tour dates and links to buy tickets available at The Official Toyah Willcox Website.

As previously mentioned, Toyah is one of the Guest Presenters in the latest series of BBC Radio 4’s, highly popular, Ramblings.

Ramblings: BBC Radio 4: Thu 17th Oct: 3pm
Ramblings: BBC Radio 4: Sat 19th Oct: 6.07am
5: The Same Walk 365 Times. Walking series. Guest presenter Toyah Willcox joins listener Cathy Dreyer as she completes yet another circuit of a short local route in Oxfordshire that she has chosen to walk 365 times.

The programme can be listed to online as it airs at the Ramblings website and will also be available, post-broadcast, at BBC iPlayer.

HiBROW: The Arts Online are currently airing a mini Quadrophenia documentary at their website, with footage from last month’s Time Out Live Quadrophenia Reunion and excerpts from interviews. They will be making the full Toyah interview available soon.

It’s 35 years since director Franc Roddam shot ‘Quadrophenia’ on the streets of London and Brighton – and along the way created a classic of British cinema adored by music and film fans alike. Inspired by the 1973 The Who album of the same name, the film tells of Jimmy (Phil Daniels), a troubled west London mod in 1965 who’s struggling in life and love and joins his mates for a dust-up with rockers one Bank Holiday weekend down in Brighton. Last month, HiBROW with Time Out and the London Film School brought Roddam and some of his key collaborators together …

• Watch at HiBROW. View larger versions of the screen caps here.

• Safari Records: Lots of Toyah at the website’s Home Page at the moment… Including the recently digitally released ‘Love Is The Law’ – Visit the site… (Thanks to Jimi LaLumia)

• Toyah @ Instagram: Toyah recently shared a photo: “Sean chapman & dean stockings have taken over my home! We r shooting Rebel Run bedroom poster and tour t-shirt concept” – View photo…

• We Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday: Toyah tweeted: “Recording Vintage Christmas with brummie pal roy wood of wizard” yesterday – View the photo…

• Express: ‘I came back from the brink’ says China in Your Hand singer Carol Decker: A mention for Toyah in this article published today – Continue reading…

• Dabbler: The Last Set Of Brief Lives For The Time Being: Willcox, Toyah (British popstrel, b. 1958). Mindful of her status as a cultural icon, Toyah Wilcox maintains a separate property solely for the storage of her archive, including press cuttings and VHS recordings of all her appearances on Top Of The Pops. – Continue reading…

The rare Japanese vinyl release of ‘Love Is The Law’. It includes the same 10 song tracklist, white label with English lyric insert and Japanese bio info insert. Plus pink, blue and white obi-strip (Cat: VIL-6093). Click below to view a larger version.

A short rare interview with Toyah during the ‘Rebel Run’ UK Tour. This aired on the 5th December 1983 on BBC1’s Sixty Minutes, the replacement news programme for Nationwide. It had only launched in October and went on to be quite short lived as it was “axed” in July 1984. Toyah talks about touring, new single ‘The Vow’ and there’s also some brief soundcheck footage. Click below to view the clip at Dreamscape’s You Tube Channel and view larger versions of the screen caps here. (Thanks to Andy for the clip)

Toyah is mentioned in The Telegraph‘s review of the, recently published, Derek Jarman’s Sketchbooks.

Derek Jarman’s Sketchbooks, ed. Stephen Farthing and Ed Webb-Ingall, review

Tim Robey is absorbed by the creative mind of film-maker and artist Derek Jarman, as revealed through his extraordinary sketchbooks

The nicest touch is that each chapter gets a separate commentary, too, by someone involved in a working relationship with Jarman at that time. Toyah Willcox, who starred in Jubilee, talks about the excitement of being an 18-year-old virgin from an all-girls school when she first arrived at Jarman’s Edwardian flat to find naked men cavorting around.

• Continue reading at The Telegraph.

Welcome to October, there are only a couple of weeks until Toyah’s latest anniversary tour begins and here at Dreamscape it’s Love Is The Law Month. Over the next few weeks we’ll be bringing you regular updates connected to Toyah’s amazing 1983 album. Starting off with this great photo of Toyah, performing ‘Rebel Run’ on ITV’s Hold Tight. Click below to view a larger version. (Thanks to Andy)

Are you ready to share the ‘Love’? – Starting tomorrow Dreamscape is celebrating Toyah’s 1983 album ‘Love Is The Law’ (one of the songs on it inspired this website so it would be wrong not to). Every day throughout the month we will be bringing you at least one LITL-related post – So please do Come to the Dreamscape…

Dreamscape’s Love Is The Law Month doesn’t begin until Tuesday but I thought I’d add this today rather than wait, especially as it went on sale exactly 30 years ago. Toyah: Return Of The Rebel, there were more smaller articles, such as “Personal File” and the like over the next few years but this was Toyah’s final big double-page interview feature for ‘Smash Hits’. Click below to read at Dreamscape’s Press Archive.

• The full 29 September – 12 October 1983 issue has also just been uploaded to The Smash Hits Archive.

Not strictly Toyah news but she is mentioned in the article, as is fellow Human Bill Rieflin.

King Crimson unveil new-line up and 2014 tour plans

Robert Fripp has unveiled a new incarnation of King Crimson.

Speaking to Uncut, Fripp said: “King Crimson is returning to active service. We are on-call to be ready for a live performance on September 1, 2014. Seven members. Four English, three American. Three drummers. It’s a different configuration of King Crimson than before. Some are familiar names, maybe more than others.”

This line-up – the 8th in the band’s history – will be Fripp, Gavin Harrison, Bill Rieflin, Tony Levin, Pat Mastelotto, Mel Collins and Jakko Jakszyk.

• Continue reading at Uncut.

Been meaning to do so for a number of years, and finally I’ve transferred this from VHS tape to digital. A 30-minute interview with Toyah from the series It’s Your Funeral, hosted by Kaye Adams, which aired on Channel Five in 2001. It’s an interesting interview and, despite the title, not particularly morbid. Click below to watch

• More footage coming in October to Dreamscape’s You Tube Channel – A selection of Love Is The Law clips.

Toyah has recorded an episode of BBC Radio 4’s Ramblings as a Guest Presenter. The programme, usually presented by Clare Balding, will air on the station on Thursday 17th October.

Toyah was a guest on Ramblings earlier this year when Clare interviewed her at Croome Park in Worcestershire. The programme is still available to listen to at BBC iPlayer. It’s also downloadable as a podcast at iTunes. That edition is also included in Ramblings – Clare’s top 30, pretty special as there have been 25 series of the programme.

• Browse all of Dreamscape’s Ramblings news here. Visit the Ramblings website. There’s also a full transcript of the episode at The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive.

Just rediscovered in my collection, and uploaded to Dreamscape, an interview with Toyah from ‘BBC Radio London’ 10 years ago. This aired just before Toyah appeared on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! She discusses that, religion, ‘Velvet Lined Shell’ and much more. Click below to listen.

• The Big Fat Quiz Of The 80s: A few screen caps from Sunday night’s programme. It’s available to watch online at 4 on Demand, and is repeated a few times this coming weekend (days/times here). Click here or on the caps to view larger versions.

• Instagram #1: Last night Toyah shared a photo of Phil Davis, herself and Mark Wingett at the Quadrophenia screening/Q&A in London – View the photo…

• Behind The Sofa: The Doctor Who book from last year, which Toyah contributed to, has been revised and expanded with over 30 new entries: Over 150 celebrity memories of DOCTOR WHO, on behalf of Alzheimer’s Research UK, with a new foreword by Sir Terry Pratchett – View more info…

• Instagram #2: On Sunday Toyah shared a photo of a “Toyah Wilcox” Birmingham Rep Bar beer mat – View here…

• Head Crash: The 1986 radio drama, which was banned and didn’t air until July 1993 on ‘BBC Radio 3’, which included Toyah in the cast is currently available to listen to in full at ‘Soundcloud’ – Listen here…

• Talk The Talk: Recently uploaded to ‘You Tube’, a short clip of Toyah, talking about languages, on the ‘BBC Learning Zone’ from the early 2000s – View here…

• Ulster Hall 1981: Photos of Toyah from this gig, which was also televised, have been added recently to Buck Defect’s Facebook – View here… (Thanks to Seán)

A short, but fantastic, clip of one of Toyah’s appearances on TISWAS in 1981. Performing “I’m A Misery” with the band and various presenters, and then flanned by the Phantom Flan Flinger. A classic clip. Click on the caps to watch, and visit Dreamscape’s You Tube Channel.

Even our Chief Rebel Runner is looking forward to “Love Is The Law Month” at Dreamscape :) Huh? Oh, okay it’s stills of Toyah promoting the album in 1983. Stay tuned for an abundance of LITL-related updates… Even as I type some Martian Cowboys are having Broadband installed to make sure they don’t miss out!

We are now into the third part of September and the end of the month is almost here so it’s not too early to announce that October is “Love Is The Law Month” at Dreamscape. We will be bringing you lots of content related to the magnificent 1983 album in the build up/countdown to Toyah’s Love Is The Law & More Tour kicking off. The horns of elfin land really will be calling you to come to the Dreamscape :) In the meantime, click below for details on the tour, including dates and links to buy tickets for each venue.

• Toyah is getting ready for the tour. She tweeted on Wednesday: “Just learning Dreamscape….perfect opener for the tour set…..into Rebel Run perhaps?“