• The Toyah Top 50 (Unofficial): In 2008 Toyah’s Official Website published the Toyah Top 50 to mark Toyah’s 50th birthday (view those results here). Five years later, just for fun and completely unofficial, Larwi and James at Facebook are doing something similar. Click here for more info and to take part. (Thanks to James Armstrong & Lärwi)
• Texas Toyah Potatoes!: Toyah’s been unpacking and tweeted a great photo from her travels yesterday: “Finally unpacking from changeling tour & found this TOYAH POTATO sack from texas!!!!! Excellent!” (PS. How cute is WilyFred the rabbit?)
• 25th Anniversary Gig: 10 years ago Toyah played an amazing concert at the Mean Fiddler, London in celebration of 25 years of being a live performer. I’d thought no footage from this had ever been made available. Until yesterday when Damon posted this. No sound and only 21 seconds but still great to see even a teeny weeny bit of film from that fantastic night. (Thanks to Damon King)
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. Here is a beautiful Japanese press advert for the ‘Love Is The Law’ album. This is is not fan created, it’s a genuine ad used in Japanese press. Click to zoom! (Thanks Andi)
• Grolsch Film Works: Top 10 | Punks on Film: 9. Jubilee (Derek Jarman, 1978): Perhaps the quintessential British punk film (Jarman must be one of its most credible “punk” directors), Jubilee features a host of punk stars of the period – from Toyah to Adam Ant, and an anarchic tone, which combined with the location shooting of urban decay and economic depression, captured the spirit of the times.
• Walker Art Centre (Minneapolis): Expanding The Frame: Tribute to Experimentation: The tribute to Derek Jarman kicks off with the area premiere of Isaac Julien’s touching documentary about the filmmaker, Derek, on Friday February 20, and includes several of the filmmaker’s most well-known films, including Jubilee (February 21), Caravaggio (February 21), Sebastiane (February 22), and a selection of the director’s music films (February 26).
• Bard Of Ely: Why dyeing your hair with crazy colour hair dyes is a fun thing to do: Singer, actress and TV personality Toyah Willcox, who came to fame with her hit songs back in the 1970s Punk and New Wave scene is another celebrity who has often dyed her hair in flamboyant colours.
An interview with Toyah, from last October by Glasgow’s Evening Times, which was previously only viewable to subscribers is now available to all.
Toyah’s performing her classic album, 30 years on
It’s her fans’ favourite record – but it’s taken 30 years for Toyah Willcox to face up to playing The Changeling album again.
The popular singer, actress and TV personality released the album in 1982, and it captured a dark, stressful time in her life. It’s only now that she feels she can perform it.
“The important thing about The Changeling and now is that I feel I can face it again,” she says ahead of her show at Classic Grand in Glasgow on Friday. “It was a pretty intense time making it, and being extremely famous is not a comfortable place to be, especially when you’re trying to write an album.
“I found the pressures of that one difficult, especially with the demands on time and the technology was very new as it was being made on digital.It brought back difficult memories revisiting it, as it was so intense at the time and I was just trying to remain true to myself. Being the most commercial female pop star at the time and wanting to write really dark material doesn’t go hand in hand.”
It’s become a tradition over the years for Dreamscape to put together an “ad” for Toyah’s latest release… So, here’s one for ‘Sensational’. Available at iTunes, Amazon etc… Click here to view a larger version and below to watch the video at You Tube.
Rather than celebrating the fact that almost 40 years into her career Toyah is still making music, releasing videos and imagery, entertaining her fans (is there anybody else from the New Wave era that is still so busy and visible that a news website about them can be updated almost every day?) and much more, there seems to be even more negativity swirling around than usual, especially regarding the video for ‘Sensational’. Check out the video on You Tube for Toyah’s feelings on the matter!
Some people seemed quite excited yesterday that Pop Justice ran an article on Toyah and ‘Sensational’.
Toyah was a fairly big popstar in the early 1980s. It’s probably overstating things slightly to say that she was the Lady Gaga of her day because she didn’t really have the tunes, but you can’t argue with magazine covers like the one you see to your right. We reckon Toyah could probably have pulled off a fairly successful comeback on the back of this Weight Watchers ad appearance. You know the sort of thing – you find one or two up-and-coming acts who might be prepared to drop her name as an influence, Radio 2 play the single quite a bit, broadsheets do the usual ‘she was there at the dawn of the pop age now the original Gaga is back and she’s as colourful as ever’ pieces…
• 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…
