• Dreamscape is “Remembering 1983” all this year. Yeah it’s in the past but what a great year it was… Just for fun – Wouldn’t a double A-Side single, ‘Time Is Ours’ and ‘Dreamscape’, have been a great release from the album? Lots of fans agree at Facebook. It didn’t happen but here is our “wishful thinking” artwork anyway. (please click to zoom)
• Love Is The Law at iTunes: Currently the only songs from the album that are available to download at ‘iTunes’ are the two tracks that were released as singles from the album; ‘Rebel Run’ and ‘The Vow’, both included on the mid-90s compilation Best of Toyah.
• The new video for Toyah’s Sensational has just been released. Here is another clip featuring the song, uploaded to You Tube a couple of years ago, featuring footage from The Sarah Jane Adventures. There’s also a SJA video set to It’s A Mystery, and a Doctor Who one too!
• Dangerous Minds: Punk Rock, Now More Than Ever: The Gospel According To Henry Rollins And Various Old Punks: I’m no Henry Rollins fan but when he’s good he can be very good, as he is in this short piece on punk rock, Is Punk Back From The Dead?, that was broadcast on British TV recently. The clip also includes some thoughts on punk from John Holmstrom, Tony James (Generation X), Mark Perry (Sniffin’ Glue) and Toyah Willcox. The consensus: punk now more than ever!
• Pun Based Name: Copy? Compliment? Coincidence?: For whatever reason, lots of album covers seem to pay tribute to lots of other ones… 15. Kate Bush – Never For Ever (EMI, 1980) & Toyah – Anthem (Safari, 1981): Anthem was probably Toyah’s best album; a nice mix of post-punk and new wave/synth pop influences.
• Leamington Courier: Family fun, theatre, comedy and music live in Leamington: Toyah Willcox will star in Hormonal Housewives, a comedy evening of sketches covering what makes women tick – or ticked off.
• In Concert 1981/Rebel Run Tour 1983: Low quality, but still really good, fan radio and concert recordings of War Boys, Neon Womb and I Explode at You Tube.
The curtain closed on Canterbury’s Sleeping Beauty pantomime for the final time at the weekend. And crowds still turned up to the show, despite widespread snowfall across the area. Since its first show on 30 November, nearly 84,00 people turned up to see the pantomime, which starred singers Gareth Gates and Toyah Willcox.
Marlowe Theatre director Mark Everett said: “More people saw Sleeping Beauty than any other Marlowe pantomime. I am absolutely delighted that they enjoyed such a wonderful show and my thanks go to the cast, company and all the theatre staff who worked so hard to make it such a success, especially over the last few, snowy, days.”
British singer Toyah Willcox has credited acupuncture with ending her 40 years of insomnia.
The I Want to Be Free hitmaker began suffering disturbed sleep when she studied for exams as a teenager, and she continued to struggle after finding fame in the 1980s.
Willcox, 54, explored alternative therapies after suffering a bad reaction to medication, and since her first acupuncture session last June (12), she has finally been able to sleep through the night. She tells Britain’s Daily Express newspaper, “I’m teetotal and health conscious so I decided to look into more natural methods of curing my sleep problems. I drink Chamomile tea and use aromatherapy.
A new interview with Toyah, published today, by The Express.
Singer and actress Toyah Willcox says a course of acupuncture ended 40 years of insomnia.
After struggling with insomnia since she was 14, Toyah Willcox is an expert at surviving on little sleep. The singer, 54, who found fame as an orange-haired punk in the Eighties, says: “I had just started revising for my GCEs and the anxiety I felt made me stop sleeping.
“I would go to bed around 11 or 12 at night and be awake two hours later. It didn’t help me with my exams as my brain would feel foggy the next day but there was nothing anyone could do for me. No one would give a child a sleeping pill and from that point on I had chronic sleep problems.”
She comes from a family of insomniacs. “My mother never slept,” says Toyah, who was born in Birmingham, the youngest of three. “I remember her doing housework until four in the morning and then she would take me to school a few hours later.
A very rare, and fantastic, photo of Toyah from around the time of the release of ‘Sheep Farming In Barnet’ (AP, not album) in 1979, along with a mini-poster by Dreamscape. Please click to zoom on that. (Thanks to Andi for the original photo)
Classic Toyah @ Dreamscape: Celebrating Toyah’s unique, colourful and exciting past while reporting the bang up-to-date Toyah news and views too. The Best Of Both! ;))
Quadrophenia, which airs this week and next on ITV4, was filmed 35 years ago! It’s as popular now as it ever has been. Here’s a rare promo photo of Toyah. Click to view the original and a couple of “A Way Of Life!” inspired tributes. (Thanks to Andi for the photo)
Return to Dreamscape soon for more rare-ish photos of Toyah from 1979 and ’80, including publicity shots for Quadrophenia and The Tempest. (Thanks to Andi)
In the meantime do take a look at some of our recent Rare Toyah Photos updates.
Urgh! A Music War, which includes an incredible live performance of ‘Danced’, has been playing at Nitehawk Cinema, Brooklyn the past couple of nights.
Take a trip back to early 1980s with this compilation of twenty-six powerful live performances by the eras best Punk, New Wave, and Post-Punk bands.
Pre-party for Urgh! in Nitehawk’s street level bar at 10pm on both nights…Nitehawk teams up with Network Awesome for a very special screening of WOMEN IN PUNK at 10pm on Friday and Saturday. Free entry and Free Mike’s Hard Lemonade
Nitehawk Cinema is New York’s original cinema eatery; an Independent movie house bringing a selective approach to film, food, and drinks.
Dreamscape is ‘Remembering ’83’ all through 2013, with sporadic updates related to Toyah’s career in 1983, in the build-up to the ‘Love Is The Law & Greatest Hits’ tour in the Autumn.
Toyah talks ‘Love Is The Law’ in 1983: “For the first time I’ve written real love songs, a field I’ve never ventured into before. The songs are all inter related. There’s a loose story behind it but I’m not telling anyone that. There’s a very emotional feeling to the whole thing.”
Toyah talks the ‘Love Is The Law’ and ‘Rebel Run’ imagery in 1987: “This is the Rebel Run look. I was into armour. A friend, Simon, made a bronze headdress based on the skeletal structure of American football players. What I wanted to put acros was The New Woman. I believe we’ve got into a new kind of feminism. Women’s bodies are becoming more muscular, more streamlined. They’re not based on having babies. I won’t be having babies. By now I’d changed from a girl into a woman. Everything is based on becoming the Ultimate Woman.” (Thanks to Andrew York)
Yes, this is a word in your ear… Just uploaded to You Tube. Excellent quality footage of Toyah performing ‘We Are’, on German music programme RockPop, in 1981. Amazing! (Why didn’t British music shows emblazon huge photos of Toyah as backdrops?)
Exciting news! A newly edited, previously unseen, video for ‘Sensational’, from ‘In The Court Of The Crimson Queen’, is coming your way soon! Tune into Toyah’s official online channels first thing Monday morning. Here are some screen caps from the excellent 2007 video.
Check out Dreamscape’s 2009 feature on Toyah’s most recent studio album, In The Court Of The Crimson Queen. Charting the build up to the album’s release, official updates, reviews, fan opinions, photo sessions and much more. It’s sensational! ;)
There’s also Dreamscape’s ‘In The Court Of The Crimson Queen’ News Archive. Three years of news, info and updates all related to the album…
• How You Feel: Learning To Love British Film: Jubilee: Derek Jarman doesn’t usually pull too many miseryguts Brit flick clichés, and in his punk outing Jubilee – actually one of the only films about punk made in the brief time punk wasn’t dead – he should be even more innovative and outrageous than usual.
• Arran Art: An (Odd) Day in the Dark: The Tempest will be screened at Arran’s free mini-film festival next month (Saturday 2nd February). 3.15-4.45pm – The Tempest: Derek Jarman’s 1979 idiosyncratic adaptation of Shakespeare’s Tempest with Toyah Willcox as Miranda. Forget any notions of worthiness – this film challenges the idea of ‘faithful’ literary adaptation and celebrates the visual magic of cinema as thoroughly as the magical arts of Prospero.
• T-Shirts: Fancy a Toyah-related t-shirt? ‘WeAdmire.net’ have Jubilee and Quadrophenia apparel for sale.
• Steve Lamacq’s Roundtable: The edition of Roundtable from ‘BBC 6Music’ in which Toyah was a guest is available to listen to/download via ‘Castroller’. This originally aired in November 2012.
• Folkestone People: Hormonal Housewives come to Leas Cliff Hall: Eighties pop star Toyah Willcox is to appear in sketch show Hormonal Housewives, showing at Leas Cliff Hall later this year.
• Morning Star: Culture: Heathcote Williams – The Queen of Diamonds: Toyah’s co-star in The Tempest.
• A full transcript of Bev Meets… Toyah Willcox, which aired a couple of times over Christmas on ‘BBC WM’, is now available at the really great ‘Toyah Willcox Interview Archive’.
• Love Me: One of my favourite Toyah songs. From the magnificent ‘The Blue Meaning’. I never thought I’d hear someone covering it but littletroll has done just that. Listen at Soundcloud.
A few screen caps of Toyah from last night’s Channel 4 News. Please click on them to view larger versions. Read all of Dreamscape’s news related to this appearance here.
There’s now just one week left to collect all the songs from Twenty Four From Toyah: Live Archive Selections 1993-2102.
The page at Soundcloud, where all the tracks can still be listened to, will expire on the 24th January. Get your cover/artwork for the album, plus a digital booklet with photos and info here. The complete Twenty Four From Toyah can be downloaded at Media Fire in two zip files.
Twenty-Four From Toyah – Side 1 | Twenty-Four From Toyah – Side 2 (These are officially provided links).
• Toyah’s appearance on last night’s Channel 4 News saw an increase in visitors to Dreamscape, certainly our busiest day for a while. Unfortunately a high-profile appearance also brings out the keypad warriors of Twitter, questioning whether Toyah was “punk”. There’s something slightly hilarious about people associated with punk nitpicking about who was more punk! Wasn’t that the sort of petty, elitist, judgemental way of thinking punk was fighting against?
• You Tube: Fart For Your Rights: Toyah tweeted on Monday: “Take note, my hubby’s response to no royalty payments“.
BBC Breakfast Time went on air 30 years ago this morning. The original programme logo and memorable theme tune still remind me of getting ready for school.
Toyah has guested on the programme numerous times over the years: In 1983, talking about ‘Love Is The Law’ and The Ebony Tower; in 1985, around ‘Minx’ time, talking about a tour that didn’t happen (see below); in 1987, talking about ‘Desire’ and Cabaret; in 2007, talking about panto in Reading and in 2008, talking about Vampires Rock.
BBC Breakfast is celebrating 30 years of broadcasting with a trip down memory lane
Considered a “huge risk” when it launched on 17 January 1983, Breakfast Time was the UK’s first regular national breakfast show. Famous for its magazine-style approach, it combined news and lighter features. The 30th anniversary show will feature appearances from some of the original team.
Introduced two weeks before rival broadcaster ITV’s TV-am with David Frost, Breakfast Time hoped to lure audiences away from radio with a combination of news, travel information and lifestyle segments. Although breakfast TV had been the staple diet in the US for three decades, the British public was wary of the innovation in 1983.
• Continue reading at BBC News. View Toyah’s 1985 Breakfast Time appearance below.
• Toyah’s appearance on last night’s Channel 4 News saw an increase in visitors to Dreamscape, certainly our busiest day for a while. Unfortunately a high-profile appearance also brings out the keypad warriors of Twitter, questioning whether Toyah was “punk”. There’s something slightly hilarious about people associated with punk nitpicking about who was more punk! Wasn’t that the sort of petty, elitist, judgemental way of thinking punk was fighting against?
BBC Breakfast Time went on air 30 years ago this morning. The original programme logo and memorable theme tune still remind me of getting ready for school.
