Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

Exploring the joys of being a woman

Women of a certain age, with a handful of men in tow, turned out in force for Hormonal Housewives at the Palace Theatre, Newark, on Saturday and had a belly full of laughs.

The show, written by John McIsaac and Julie Coombe, saw her, Toyah Willcox and Sarah Jane Buckley, dress in pink outfits to talk about what makes them tick and what annoys them in life.

All three women, including Toyah on a pair of pink crutches, were hilarious from start to finish and did not mind poking fun at themselves as well as each other.

• Continue reading at the Newark Advertiser.

These Safari Records photos were recently on sale at ebay. The photos aren’t rare these days but as Safari promos they are quite unique. This was possibly the only time Safari released photos that promoted Toyah as an actress (in The Corn Is Green).

Incidentally, The Corn Is Green airs very early tomorrow (and also in June) on True Movies.

The Corn is Green: True Movies 2: Friday 24th May: 1.00am
The Corn is Green: True Movies 1: Thursday 6th June: 1.00am
Academy Award winner Katharine Hepburn stars as a schoolteacher determined to help the people of a turn-of-the-century Welsh mining town. With Ian Saynor, Bill Fraser, Patricia Hayes, Anna Massey, Artro Morris, Dorothea Phillips, Toyah Willcox, Huw Richards, Bryn Fon, Dyfan Roberts and Robin John. Directed by: George Cukor (1979).

A reminder that the first episode of, the 1993 radio comedy/drama, The Older Woman airs tomorrow at 7am and 5.30pm on BBC Radio 4 Extra.

You can listen to the 30-minute programme live online or at BBC iPlayer post broadcast.

Just as the series was about to air in 1993 Toyah told ‘Radio Times’: “I don’t regard the different things I do as seperate careers. I’ve always combined music with acting. All my work makes different demands on me, and that keeps me interested.”

Toyah tweeted earlier this week: “I’m thrilled BBC RADIO 4 EXTRA is repeating comedy series THE OLDER WOMEN with myself, Zoe Wannamaker, Martin Clunes details at my homepage“.

The Older Woman: BBC Radio 4 Extra: Thursday 23rd May: 7am/5.30pm
The Older Woman: BBC Radio 4 Extra: Friday 24th May: 5.30am
Episode 1 of 6. Local hack journalist Roy Hitchcock tries to win the heart of his former teacher. Stars Zoë Wanamaker, Martin Clunes and Toyah Willcox, with David Troughton and Nicky Henson. (A BBC Radio 4 Extra debut). The Older Woman is written by Tony Bagley.

• Here are a couple of Radio Times clippings from when The Older Woman originally aired in January 1993. (Thanks to Anthony Lewis)

• Daily Mail: David Bowie’s biggest fans reveal all: Five unique people, five remarkable encounters with Ziggy Stardust are revealed for the first time in a new TV film: Robert Fripp 1977. (Click below to view a larger scan – Thanks to Lärwi)

• Dangerous Minds: Cute Couple Alert: Robert Fripp & Toyah Willcox on ‘All Star Mr & Mrs’: They’d only just met a second time in 1985, but within a week, Robert Fripp asked singer/actress Toyah Willcox to marry him. They did so on Robert’s 40th birthday in 1986, when the pint-sized “force of nature,” to hear him describe his wife, was 28. That they are still very happily wed decades later…

• BBC Radio Bristol: Read a full transcript of Toyah’s recent interview on Laura Rawlings’ show at The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive.

• Song Of The Day (Facebook): Happy birthday to singer Toyah Willcox (The Humans, Toyah, Sunday All Over the World), born today in 1958, in Kings Heath, Birmingham, England.

• Leamington Courier: Toyah returns to tackle the mayhem of housewife life on Leamington stage: After a successful year of causing mayhem and mania at theatres across the UK, the Hormonal Housewives are back and stopping in Leamington this weekend.

• Lancashire Evening Post: Blame it on the hormones: Popstar turned TV presenter and actress Toyah Willcox is coming to Lancaster with smash hit girlie show, Hormonal Housewives. Plus a round up of the region’s theatre shows, performances and events.

• Learn to Paint with Dermot Cavanagh, Teaching Toyah Willcox at Glen Carr Lake, Sligo: Just re-uploaded to ‘You Tube’, this originally aired on BBC2 in September 2001 as Awash With Colour. It features incredible scenery.

Toyah’s appearance at the Isle of Wight’s Jack Up The 80s two day festival has now been officially confirmed. She will play on Sunday 11th August.

• Further info on this festival at the ‘Jack Up The 80s’ website. Visit the Official Toyah Gigs page for details on all confirmed upcoming live dates.

Toyah also guested on Mark Punter’s show on ‘BBC Radio Essex’ yesterday afternoon. The interview is available to listen to at BBC iPlayer until next Monday afternoon.

Toyah talks about Hormonal Housewives, goes into detail about the show and says it’s “one of the most enjoyable jobs” she’s ever had. She also speaks briefly about her early acting career, still singing, the origins of her name, appearing on Have I Been Here Before? and Minder.

• The interview begins at approximately 1hr 5minutes into the show and runs for around nine and a half minutes. Listen here.

Just uploaded half a dozen short clips of Toyah from various TV shows, mostly from the very early 2000s: FBI, Through The Sunroof, You Dancin? I’m Askin!, Scotland Today… and more. These include a very brief clip of Toyah in rehearsals for Picasso’s Women at the Edinburgh Festival in 2000 and Issey Miyake speaking about the outfit Toyah wore on the cover of her single ‘Don’t Fall in Love’. View these at Dreamscape’s You Tube channel.

Toyah guested on Vic Minett’s show on ‘BBC Radio Coventry & Warwickshire’ yesterday afternoon. The interview is available to listen to at BBC iPlayer until next Monday afternoon.

Toyah talks about the Hormonal Housewives (and mentions her brother came to see the show and loved it), Willyfred and her love of rabbits, her past career, as well as current events.

• The interview begins at approximately 1hr 38minutes into the show and runs for around seven minutes. Listen here.

A few screen caps of Toyah looking utterly amazing when she guested on Russell Harty’s BBC2 show in March 1983. Other guests were Willie Rushton and Janet Street-Porter in a programme looking back at celebrities’ school days. Toyah’s former teacher also made an appearance. View a clip from the programme by clicking on the caps. (Thanks to Andi)

As always, thanks for the music, memories and mayhem. Best Wishes… X

• Cake: A birthday cake for Toyah from John and Carl of Burslem Cake Fairy & Tea Rooms.

• Runcorn & Widnes Weekly News: 1980s stars to join Tatton Picnic Concert line-up: Three special guests have been announced for this year’s Tatton Park Picnic Concerts 2013. The event will see 80s superstars Howard Jones and Toyah Willcox joining the Saturday’s headliners The Human League.

• All Star Mr & Mrs: The full appearance has now been uploaded to ‘You Tube’.

• Southern Daily Echo: Show of the Week – Toyah Willcox in Hormonal Housewives: It’s the show for women everywhere, starring 80s pop superstar Toyah Willcox.

• Bucks Free Press: It’s No Mystery: Toyah was included on the cover of BFP last Friday.

• The Quietus: Changeling: Alison Moyet Interviewed: Another example of your career is that you haven’t opted to go on any 80s package tours, stuck between Bucks Fizz and Toyah. (You have to love Alison, she won’t be manipulated into slagging off other artists no matter how much a journalist tries!!)

• Scotsman: On This Day: Birthdays: Toyah Willcox, singer and actress, 55.

• The Astrologer: The Astrologer Daily: May 18th, 2013: And finally happy birthday to Tina Fey, Toyah Willcox and Chow Yun-Fat.

The classic single sleeve from ‘Thunder In The Mountains’ will feature in the forthcoming Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition Club To Catwalk which opens on 10th July. The exhibition traces the theatricality and experimentation of early 80s club fashions and includes the work of Melissa Kaplan amongst many others. (News Source: Official Toyah Facebook)

The six-part radio drama, The Older Woman, in which Toyah plays Elsa airs again from next week for the first time in many years on BBC Radio. Originally broadcast by ‘BBC Radio 4’ in January and February 1993 it also stars Zoë Wanamaker and Martin Clunes as Jane and Roy. It’s being repeated by BBC Radio 4 Extra. Toyah also sings the theme tune – Listen here.

The Older Woman: BBC Radio 4 Extra: Thursday 23rd May: 7am/5.30pm
The Older Woman: BBC Radio 4 Extra: Friday 24th May: 5.30am
Episode 1 of 6. Local hack journalist Roy Hitchcock tries to win the heart of his former teacher. Stars Zoë Wanamaker, Martin Clunes and Toyah Willcox, with David Troughton and Nicky Henson. (A BBC Radio 4 Extra debut). The Older Woman is written by Tony Bagley.

Toyah’s classic 1982 appearance was included in last night’s The Best Of Kenny Everett’s Television Shows on BBC4. Toyah’s hair changes colour numerous times, Kenny plays Toyah, Toyah plays Kenny, plus both perform their own versions of ‘I Want To Be Free’. Brilliant stuff!

Toyah guested on Jo Davies’ show on ‘BBC Radio Nottingham’ on Sunday afternoon. The short interview is available to listen to, for the next four days, at BBC iPlayer.

Toyah talks Hormonal Housewives and her career. There’s also a blast of ‘It’s A Mystery’

• The interview begins at approximately 13 minutes into the show and runs for around five minutes. Listen here.

Wishing Toyah and Robert a Happy Anniversary, their 27th!, and Happy Birthday too to Mr Fripp. Here is that great photo, one of the first of Toyah and Robert together, taken the year they married, 1986, and also released their first collaboration; ‘The Lady Or The Tiger’.

The Corn is Green: True Movies 1: Friday 17th May: 3.00am
The Corn is Green: True Movies 1: Monday 20th May: 5.00pm
The Corn is Green: True Movies 2: Friday 24th May: 1.00am
Academy Award winner Katharine Hepburn stars as a schoolteacher determined to help the people of a turn-of-the-century Welsh mining town. With Ian Saynor, Bill Fraser, Patricia Hayes, Anna Massey, Artro Morris, Dorothea Phillips, Toyah Willcox, Huw Richards, Bryn Fon, Dyfan Roberts and Robin John. Directed by: George Cukor (1979).

Monday’s Hormonal Housewives show at the Bristol Hippodrome has been reviewed by The Post.

REVIEW: Hormonal Housewives,
Bristol Hippodrome, 9/10

The new Hormonal Housewives show has played at the Bristol Hippodrome following on from successful tours in the past two years.

Toyah Willcox, Julie Coombe and Sarah Jane Buckley star in the show written by husband and wife team Julie Coombe and John MacIsaac.

The girls strode onto the stage to Queen’s hit, I Want To Break Free and definitely spent the next hour or two doing just that.

• Continue reading at The Post/This is Bristol.

Late Summer 1983, Toyah filmed The Ebony Tower in the Dordogne area of France with Sir Laurence Olivier, Greta Scacchi and Roger Rees. The 90-minute drama eventually aired on ITV in December 1984, with a TV Times cover accompanying it. 30 years later it’s still one of Toyah’s best remembered acting roles. View a larger version of the Dreamscape advert for the 2011 DVD release here, and the original trailer here. (Thanks to Andi)

Toyah guested on Laura Rawlings’ show on ‘BBC Radio Bristol’ last Thursday. The interview is still available to listen to at BBC iPlayer for the next couple of days.

Toyah talks Hormonal Housewives, thinking positively, celebrity culture, not becoming a politician, and her parents meeting in Weston-Super-Mare.

• The interview begins at approximately 12 minutes into the show and runs for around 14 minutes (which includes a play of ‘Mrs Robinson by Simon & Garfunkel). Listen here.

• Tatton Park Picnic Concerts 2013: Toyah at Tatton Park on Saturday 20th July, playing on the same bill as The Human League and Howard Jones, has been officially confirmed. Details and links to buy tickets here. (Thanks to The Official Toyah Facebook)

• Independent Woman: This Week’s Birthdays: Toyah Willcox, singer and TV presenter, is 55.

• All Star Mr & Mrs: Robert and Toyah’s VT from last week’s programme has been uploaded to You Tube. (Thanks to Jack Cooper)

• Sky Live 1998: I’ve also just uploaded a clip of Toyah from Sky Live. A very short interview and an acoustic performance of ‘It’s A Mystery’. Apologies for the poor picture quality but Toyah is sounding in fantastic voice here.

• Elu24: Weekend Guitar Trio – Live At Kings Place: A review of the new live album. Read the original here or a translation here.

• The Changeling: Alison Moyet mentions Toyah in an interview with ‘Gay Times’ (June 2013 issue) when talking about considering names for her new album: Moyet revealed other considered titles: “Changeling” (“but Toyah had an album called Changeling”).

• David Bowie: Five Years: An intimate portrait of five key years in David Bowie’s career: I’m not sure if he directly contributes to this new documentary but Robert Fripp is mentioned during it. Airing on Saturday 25th May on BBC2. Time tbc, more info here.

• Sign Here: Toyah autographs a Hormonal Housewives crew member’s leg: “Crew member wants my name tattooed on his leg. How could I refuse!“. View the photo at Instagram.

• Hemel Today: Hormonal housewives vent anger at the Arena: An extended sketch show, Hormonal Housewives calls on the same elements that proved such a draw in The Vagina Monologues and Hot Flush.

• Artrocker: Focus Wales 2013: Saturday 27th April, Wrexham County Borough Museum – Golden Fable is Rebecca Palin and Tim McIver, a synth/acoustic duo who produce a magical, hypnotic sort of pop. Palin is all glimmer suit and headdress something akin to Toyah Willcox in her prime.