Toyah Willcox can’t remember a time when she wasn’t going through some emotional crisis, which makes her the perfect star for Hormonal Housewives, coming to the Alban Arena
Few could ever describe Toyah Willcox as a shrinking violet. The former princess of pop punk has always been a rebel – as a teen she hung out with the local Hells Angels chapter, dyed her hair “every colour of the rainbow“ and often skipped her classes at her private school.
Could it have been the hormones? “As far as I can remember I have always been hormonal, and I can remember being hormonal in my pram,“ says Toyah, 54, who is coming to St Albans as the star of Hormonal Housewives.
‘Mystery’ (Soft Mix by The Sonic Healer): Mr Tones & Mr Burns featuring Toyah
Atmospheric & slow; kind of a remix of a remix, done at half tempo and using guitar as well as keys and samples. I think this was about 1998, and I used an early version of Cubase, a Yamaha A3000, and a Roland general midi keyboard. Also a soft synth of some kind that wouldn’t run without glitching. Oh yeah, there was that vocoder too – the one with the pink blobby pattern on the front panel. You know the one.
• Listen to ‘Mystery’ (Soft Mix by The Sonic Healer) at Soundcloud.
A few screen caps of Toyah, Robert and WillyFred from Wednesday’s airing of All Star Mr & Mrs. Please click on these to view larger versions. UK folks don’t forget that the programme is being repeated again this afternoon on ITV, in every region, at 12.30pm.
Wednesday night’s All Star Mr & Mrs on ITV achieved an overnight audience of 4.02m viewers, an 18.6% share of the total TV audience. 107k (0.4%) tuned in on ITV +1.
This is an increase on last week’s first show of the series and will no doubt be higher when the final figures are released next week. (BARB ratings data by Attentional)
Howard Jones, Toyah Willcox & more added to Tatton Park Picnic Concerts line up
Today sees the announcement that 3 more acts are joining the line up for this year’s Tatton Park Picnic Concerts 2013. Howard Jones 80’s superstars and Toyah Willcox will be joining Saturday’s headliners The Human League. Classical four-some Amore will be joining Katherine Jenkins and the National Symphony Orchestra on Sunday 21 July. Tickets are available now for both these outstanding evenings. Tatton Park Picnic Concerts 2013 take place at Tatton Park, Knutsford, Cheshire, between Sat 20th to Sun 21st July 2013.
• As always, before booking tickets specifically to see Toyah please double check she is playing and also refer to the Official Gigs page at toyahwillcox.com for all confirmed dates.
Toyah guested on Paula White’s show on ‘BBC Radio Stoke’ yesterday afternoon. The interview is available to listen to at BBC iPlayer and will remain online until next Thursday.
Toyah talks Hormonal Housewives and her early career. There’s also a blast of ‘It’s A Mystery’.
• The interview begins at approximately 2hrs 5ms into the show and runs for around seven minutes. Listen here.
The CD, ‘Live at Kings Place’, a Weekend Guitar Trio and Toyah collaboration, is launched via two concerts in Estonia this month.
The live CD is the 8th album by WGT, celebrating their 20th birthday this year. It contains the second set of the concert, plus “Boredom Is A Killer” from the first set. The 2-track live recording was restored and mastered by Markus Reuter & Lee Fletcher (Unsung Productions).
The album will be presented in Tallinn (9th of May) and Tartu (15th of May). At these concerts, WGT will be joined on stage by the Estonian poet/singer/rapper/producer Jarek Kasar.
• Further information on the genesis of this collaboration, the new live album and launch gigs at Weekend Guitar Trio’s website.
British singer Toyah Willcox has taken aim at the Hollywood stars who donned punk-inspired outfits for this year’s (13) Costume Institute Gala in New York on Monday (06 May 13), calling their faux rocker outfits “too manufactured”.
Anne Hathaway, Miley Cyrus and Sienna Miller were among the glamorous A-listers who tackled the evening’s punk theme in studded garments and dramatic make-up at fashion’s biggest night, also known as the Met Ball.
But Willcox, who found fame just as the punk movement took off in the 1970s, is adamant their designer gowns missed the mark since punk style was all about do-it-yourself creations made with little to no money.
In a column for Britain’s The Sun, she writes, “As the Met Ball celebrated and adorned itself with super-rich guests dressed in mandatory punk theme, A-listers arrived in their saccharin designer versions of punk chic. The A-listers at the ball… were all too manufactured. But here in the U.K. the punk movement has a far more working class power – a power for me that could never be mimicked by designer labels…”
Toyah has written an article due to be published in ‘The Sun’ today.
The piece is in response to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York exhibition Punk: Chaos to Couture, running from today to 14th August. This will possibly only be available in the print edition of the paper.
• Jubilee: A rare-ish photo of Jordan and Toyah was recently listed on Ebay.
• Stamford Advocate: The Original Punks: Circa 1980: British actress and pop singer Toyah Willcox, lead singer of the punk band Toyah.
• Chester Chronicle: Toyah Willcox stars in Hormonal Housewives at Crewe’s Lyceum Theatre: There was the feisty, whip-cracking heroine of Calamity Jane, then a femme fatale devil in high-heeled boots in Vampire’s Rock. Now Toyah Willcox is one of a trio of ‘hormonal housewives’ in the show of the same name which visits Crewe’s Lyceum Theatre next week.
• The Mirror: Trending Today: Toyah Willcox · Robert Fripp · Richard Hammond · Harry Potter · Rod Stewart.
• Twitter: Toyah tweeted earlier today that the Autumn tour dates will be announced very, very soon – London, Manchester, Bristol, Newcastle, Wolverhampton, Brighton and more.
• This is Lincolnshire: Housewives get personal about all things female: The Hormonal Housewives are back on stage and in discussion, getting up close and humorously personal about all things female, with their spring national tour.
• Daily Track: Toyah was the “daily track” for four days running this week … ‘It’s A Mystery’, ‘Thunder In The Mountains’, ‘Danced’, and ending with ‘I Want To Be Free’ on Tuesday.
• Worcester News: Win a pair of tickets to see Hormonal Housewives at Chelmsford Civic Theatre!
• As everyone knows Toyah and Robert guested on tonight’s All Star Mr & Mrs on ITV. It’s now available to watch online (for UK residents only) at ITV Player for the next 28 days. It’s also available at UTV Player.
• The programme will also be repeated on ITV this coming Saturday at 12.30pm.
• STV Player are using a great photo of Toyah in their index of episodes of the series. View here.
• All Star Mr & Mrs Facebook: Backstage with singer Toyah Willcox & husband, guitarist Robert Fripp! – Congrats to Toyah & Robert, they won £5,000 for St. Richard’s Hospice, Worcester.
• Overnight viewing figures for tonight’s edition will be announced tomorrow. Last week’s programme was watched by almost four million people, though that will probably be over 5m when the final figures are released.
• Those Twitter folks were agog, tweeting: “Toyah Willcox & hubby are just so adorable!!“, “Awwww.. How sweet are Toyah Wilcox and her hubby Robert Fripp” and someone who doesn’t know that Toyah is only 54!!, “I want to be like Robert and Toyah when I’m old“… etc.
• The power of a prime time TV appearance. In the couple of hours after All Star Mr & Mrs aired tonight Dreamscape has had FIVE times as many visitors as it usually does.
• The last fortnight has been quite entertaining. Every time I’ve searched for Toyah news online there have been Fripp/King Crimson fans aghast at this programme lol!
Famed for her ever-changing hair colour, dramatic make-up and outlandish outfits, singer, songwriter and actress Toyah Willcox scored several chart hits in the 70s and 80s, and starred in Jubilee, one of the most influential punk-inspired movies.
Toyah announced info about the upcoming tour in her May blog yesterday: The autumn tour is shaping up and we should be announcing the dates any day now. London, Manchester and Bristol are solid, we are now awaiting confirmation on a few other dates before we announce. We have decided to keep it selective and to main venues as I have a TV series to shoot in the autumn, but there will be enough venues for everyone to reach and to follow us around the country. The tour set will include songs from LOVE IS THE LAW, CRIMSON QUEEN, ANTHEM, CHANGELING and SHEEP FARMING, in that order of priority.
Toyah also mentions the possibility of a tour in 2014: Next year I might tour CRIMSON QUEEN, in it’s own right, especially if I can pin SIMON DARLOW down to record the follow up and to come and do some dates too. CQ is a fantastic album and it has had such a great response in the industry I’d like to give it the time it deserves. But this isn’t my priority just yet.
• View a larger version of Dreamscape’s LITL Tour teaser here or by clicking on the image.
One of Toyah’s greatest ballads, and a standout song on the Love Is The Law album… Martian Cowboy… Will it be included in the set list of the Autumn anniversary tour? View a larger version of Dreamscape’s MC image here. (Thanks to Andi for the HQ photo)
Toyah’s May blog is now available to read at The Official Toyah Willcox Website. There are also some new photos from the recording of All Star Mr & Mrs in a news update.
Vote for your top albums of 1983 in the fourth Slicing Up Eyeballs poll. ‘Love Is The Law’, celebrating its 30th anniversary, is included as an option. Voting closes on 24th May and the results will be announced at the beginning of June. Click below to participate in the poll.
Toyah and Robert’s edition of All Star Mr & Mrs airs tomorrow night on ITV. There’s another opportunity to catch the programme, it’s repeated on Saturday afternoon on ITV. It will also be available on ITV Player after tomorrow night. Click below to browse all our Mr & Mrs news.
All Star Mr & Mrs: ITV: Wednesday 8th May: 8.00pm All Star Mr & Mrs: ITV: Saturday 11th May: 12.30pm
Phillip Schofield presents a new series of the classic game show as three celebrity couples battle it out to win £30,000 for their chosen charity. Who knows the most about their other half? The couples hoping to win big this time are TV presenter Gabby Logan and husband Kenny Logan, singer Toyah Willcox and husband, guitarist Robert Fripp, and EastEnders actor Jake Wood and wife Alison Wood. (Also airing on ITV +1)
Dreamscape is Remembering 1983 all this year! Toyah guested on ITV’s The Saturday Show (the successor to TISWAS) that year, co-hosting the programme with Isla St Clair. Click below for larger versions of the screen caps. (Thanks to Andi for this great Toyah footage)
• Mayhem: The 2013 reprint of the 2005 CD reissue of Toyah’s 1985 Safari album ‘Mayhem’ is included in the latest Burning Shed newsletter: This fascinating album gives an insight into late 70s/early 80s works in progress by Toyah and comprises finished songs not included on EPs and albums.
• TCM Turner Classic Movies: A Jarman double-bill aired on TCM over the weekend, including another showing of The Tempest, with Toyah as Miranda.
• This is Local London: Scarlett Fever: Rockabilly band launch debut album with free gig at New Wimbledon Studios: Kent trio Scarlett Rae and the Cherry Reds play original tracks from their album Crash Landing and a selection of cover songs at the gig. The band, formed in 2011, is made up of lead vocalist and double bassist Andee Price, drummer Chris Wong and guitarist Ben Green. Wong is also the musical director for 1980s star Toyah Willcox…
• WFMU: Dark Night of the Soul with Julie: Playlist from May 2, 2013: An emotional trainwreck in fluffy bunny slippers… ‘Out Of The Blue’ from Dreamchild was included on Julie’s show playlist on Thursday night.
• WFMU: Toyah Special: Julie’s A Celebration of the Crimson Queen from May 2011 is still available to listen to online. A transcript of the Toyah Special is available here.
A new interview with Toyah, published on Wednesday, by the St Albans & Harpenden Review.
• Jubilee: A rare-ish photo of Jordan and Toyah was recently listed on Ebay.
