The Tempest was released on Region A/1 Blu-ray yesterday. View a comprehensive article on the film and Blu-ray remastered edition at DVD Talk.
How do you follow up an apocalyptic punk-rock satire that seemed to offend even more people than A Clockwork Orange, up to and including the purist punks whose energy it was inspired by and meant as a tribute to? If you were celebrated British underground auteur Derek Jarman in 1979, having just shocked and rocked the world with your prior year’s film, the scorched-earth, anti-royalist comic nightmare Jubilee, why, of course, your next step would (un)naturally be to take on Shakespeare!
…Prospero’s daughter, Miranda (Jubilee’s sinisterly lisping girl-woman Toyah Willcox, here sporting a no less punkish ‘do of straggly dreadlocks, along with a stripped skeleton of a period dress that looks like something out of vintage Vivienne Westwood).
• Continue reading at DVD Talk.
• Sound + Vision: New Blu-rays for August 7, 2012: The Tempest (1979) is Jarman’s campy adaptation of William Shakespeare’s theatrical masterpiece which includes a full-scale Hollywood production number of Elisabeth Welch singing “Stormy Weather”…
• Indiewire: Playlist: DVDs You Should Know About Including ‘Jaws,’ ‘Quadrophenia,’ and A Pair of Derek Jarman Films.
• Coming Soon to BBC4: Love & Marriage: A new three-part BBC series on the story of love and marriage in Britain from the 1930s up to the present day, based on the personal memories of those who have the strongest tales to tell. This will include Toyah & Robert (no transmission date available yet).
• Lytham Proms 2012: More than 25,000 people attended the three Lytham Proms concerts to see Olly Murs, Alfie Boe and the “Here and Now” stars of the 1980s. The three-day extravaganza was hailed by Fylde Council’s tourism chief as a “great success” in attracting crowds – and tourism cash – to the area. (News Source: Fylde Borough Council)
• The Acoustic Pineapple: The Concert: In 1980, I become aware of a diminutive, flame-haired singer called Toyah Willcox. Imaginative lyrics, containing elements of mysticism and science-fiction, were often backed by thumping, tribal rhythms. From the outset I am intrigued by Toyah.
Excellent photos of Toyah and, my good friend, Brian backstage at the ‘Here and Now’ concert at Glasgow Green on Saturday 21st July. These photos and more have also been added to Dreamscape’s Gallery. (Thanks to Brian Green)
A selection of screen caps from Sunday night’s The Janice Long Review Show on ‘Vintage TV’. Please click on these to view larger versions. This is repeated again this Thursday.
The Janice Long Review Show: Vintage TV: Thursday 9th August: 11.00pm
Toyah and Sex Pistols. Broadcaster Paul Sexton returns, alongside producer Trevor Horn and 80s starlet Toyah, to discuss her 1982 gothic release ‘The Changeling’ and Sex Pistols’ ground-breaking ‘Never Mind The Bollocks’.
It looks like our recent report on the new BBC America Doctor Who documentaries, and Toyah’s involvement, was correct. Toyah is one of the guests in this weekend’s special, The Women Of Doctor Who.
Featured Characters & Guests & Monsters: Toyah Willcox: Toyah Willcox is an actress and singer who fronted the new wave band Toyah and appeared as “Monkey” in the film version of the Who’s “Quadrophenia” (1979). Since then, she has appeared in over forty stage plays, ten feature films, and numerous television shows, including the 1993 documentary “Thirty Years in the TARDIS”.
• View further info on the documentaries at BBC America. (Photos © BBC America)
The Women Of Doctor Who: BBC America
Saturday 11th August: 9.00pm
Behind every great time lord there’s a great woman. Whether they’re busting Daleks or the Doctor’s ego, the women of ‘Doctor Who’ prove that you don’t need testosterone to save the universe.
Top Of The Pops: The Story of 1976: BBC4
Fri 10th Aug: 11.20pm/Sat 11th Aug: 3.10am/Mon 13th Aug: 1.25am
Documentary examining how the BBC’s flagship pop show reflected changes in British music and culture during 1976. As the popularity of glam rock faded, no dominant musical scene emerged to replace it, leading to chart success for bands including Abba, Showaddywaddy, the Brotherhood of Man and the Wurzels – while outside the mainstream, punk rock was rapidly growing in popularity. Featuring contributions by Tony Blackburn, Paul Morley, Toyah Willcox, David Hamilton and Dave Haslam.
• ‘Rewind 2012’ takes place in Henley in less than a fortnight. Toyah has been a regular at the festival over the last few years. She isn’t playing this year but a related item of memorabilia, signed by Toyah and many others, is up for auction – supporting a good cause. Kim Wilde’s pink guitar!!! View more info on this at Kim’s official website and The Henley Youth Centre website.
• Lytham Proms 2012: Toyah played the festival on Friday night, along with many others. View the full day in 30 seconds at You Tube.
• Mancunian Matters: ‘Louder, prouder and more ‘out’ than ever before’: Your definitive guide to Manchester Pride Festival 2012: The Big Weekend – Friday August 24 – Sunday August 26: Some of Britain’s best female performers including Toyah, Never the Bridge, Kath & the Kicks and Rosie Wilby are set to perform.
• Diva Of The Day – Toyah! An hours un-interrupted mix of classic Toyah. Tuesday 7th august at 2pm. Re-run every 3 hours at Brighton Gay Radio.
• Mark Satchwill: A Photo A Day: Check out Mark’s amazing art and photography, including some Toyah.
• Katrina Bryan, one of Toyah’s Sleeping Beauty 2012 panto co-stars, who also appears in the recent “Fanny” Irn Bru advert, was interviewed by the Daily Record/Sunday Mail yesterday: “They phoned me up and asked if I would be interested in doing panto with Gareth Gates and Toyah Willcox. I was over the moon“.
The sixth monthly online live track has been added to Toyah’s official website. It’s ‘Masai Boy’, recorded live at The Regal, Oxford in July 2011, on the ‘From Sheep Farming To Anthem’ tour.
Toyah’s official website will be offering visitors exclusive live tracks each month as Toyah’s summer festival/concert dates and The Changeling Resurrection II approach. At the beginning of each month an exclusive live track recorded from Toyah’s extensive 2011 tour dates will feature on the Gigs page.
The live tracks will be available to listen to for a limited time only with a new track replacing it each month. These live tracks are a taster for a special live album release planned for digital release in autumn/winter of 2012.
• Listen to ‘Masai Boy’, live at The Regal, Oxford, here | View news on the previous live tracks here (these are no longer available).
Toyah played at the three-day ‘Audley End Concerts 2012’ festival on Saturday night. She opened the evening of live music and her mini-set was It’s A Mystery, Thunder In The Mountains, I Want To Be Free.
• Watch Toyah performing It’s A Mystery (clip), Thunder In The Mountains and I Want To Be Free.
• Read an overview of Saturday’s ‘The Greatest 80′s Party…Ever!’ concert, and some great onstage photos of Toyah, at Lisa’s Life.
• Read all of our Audley End Concerts 2012 news. Click below to view larger.
Toyah recently mentioned that she was filming a Doctor Who documentary, “talking plots, facts, Daleks and Cybermen“, for American television. It’s possibly these? BBC America are to broadcast four new special documentaries in the lead-up to their premiere of the next series of Doctor Who. Forming part of their ‘Supernatural Saturday’ themed evenings, the first documentary will be broadcast on Saturday 4th August. (Yikes! That was yesterday!!)
The Science Of Doctor Who: BBC America: Saturday 4th August: 9.00pm
Explore the real-life science behind the biggest concepts and most iconic ideas in the incredible Doctor Who universe.
The following weeks will see documentaries on The Women of Doctor Who (11th August), The Timey-Wimey of Doctor Who (18th August), and The Destinations of Doctor Who (25th August). [Thanks to Doctor Who News & BBC America]
• The 1980 BBC version of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde has now been released on DVD in Sweden. This release has a slightly different cover to the UK version (released in 2007). The cast includes David Hemmings, Diana Dors and Toyah. View a larger version of the Swedish cover here.
• Derek Jarman’s 1979 version of The Tempest is just about to be released on Blu-ray (Region A/1) for the first time. There’s a new review of the film at the Criterion Cast website: A less easy choice however came in the casting of Miranda, which went to punk rock mega-star (and also star of Criterion-approved Jubilee also from Jarman and the soon to be released Quadrophenia) Toyah Willcox. Always seen as a virginal young woman, Willcox’s punk rock persona far from fit the character, but her performance was really quite entertaining, and the relationship between she and Williams’ Prospero is vital and engaging.
• A larger version of The Tempest Blu-ray cover is also now available. View here.
• Qudrophenia Region A/1 Blu-ray: Read more details on this forthcoming release at Modculture: As they say “You can get a UK Blu-ray already, but the Quadrophenia Criterion Collection Blu-ray release is a considerable step up from that.”
• Also at Modculture: View a limited edition Quadrophenia poster by Piper Gates Design, and read a new article on the movie by Eddie Piller.
A recent interview with Toyah, from Birmingham Review.
BReview: “Congratulations on your star in the Kings Heath ‘Walk of Fame’. How does it feel to be awarded this accolade?”
Toyah: “It’s wonderful. It’s such an honour, and so good for people to remember me in this way. I lived in Birmingham for 18 years, until I left for London and got my career going. I was born and conceived here. I used to shop on the high street everyday with my mother.
It’s very kind of the business people of Kings Heath, to include me in the names of those associated with the suburb. Amazing people have played here, like Led Zeppelin and Jerry lee Lewis (at the Ritz Ballroom, now Cash Convertors, on York Rd). I think I am the only other woman apart from Helen Shapiro; it’s an absolute honour.”
• Continue reading at Birmingham Review.
After a day of all things Toyah Willcox (star receiving Toyah, interview giving Toyah, buffet lunch eating Toyah), I was finally going to see her in, arguably, her most natural habitat – on stage.
The Hare and Hounds provided the venue for Toyah Wilcox’s one off homecoming gig.
And, although this lady’s musical, stage and acting career has spanned some thirty plus years, I was still surprised to see Venue 2 packed out with die-hard Toyah fans; many having donned their Toyah memorabilia t-shirts and raided wardrobes for their best Goth-like attire.
• Continue reading at Birmingham Review.
After her rainy day ramble down nostalgia lane to receive her Kings Heath Walk Of Fame badge of honour earlier today at The Hare, Toyah Willcox got down to the serious business of reminding us just how and why her Princess of Post-Punk/Goth-lite song-writing and stage theatrics undoubtedly caught the 80s zeitgeist.
• Continue reading at Gig Junkies. (Photo © Ian Dunn/Principle Photography)
Evolution Pantomimes have updated their website with details and images for all of their 2012/13 festive season productions, including Toyah’s Sleeping Beauty.
Sleeping Beauty at The Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury
Cast: Gareth Gates, Toyah Willcox, Katrina Bryan, Ben Roddy, Lloyd Hollett, Faye Brooks, Ieuan Rhys. Director: Paul Hendy; MD: Chris Wong; Choreographer: Paul Tracy.
• Toyah guested on The Janice Long Review Show last Sunday (repeated Thursday), along with Trevor Horn and Paul Sexton. View the preview clip for this at You Tube.
• Toyah guests again on The Janice Long Review Show this evening (Vintage TV @ 8.30pm). The programme includes a discussion on Toyah’s 1982 album ‘The Changeling’ by Toyah, Janice, Trevor Horn and Paul Sexton. Let’s hope Janice’s opinion of the album has ‘mellowed’ over the last 30 years :)
• Footage of Toyah performing at a private party in Kings Lynn in June can be viewed in, “the ultimate party band”, Madhen’s ‘June Video Diary (Part One)’ at You Tube.
• Financial Times: The Day The Music Died: A very rare interview with Robert Fripp.
• It’s A Mystery: A Tribute To Toyah: Listen to a preview at iTunes of the cover by Ameritz. Maybe some songs just shouldn’t be covered? (Thanks to Michael)
• Toyah on TV (in Sweden): Toyah’s edition of Celebrity Fantasy Homes airs again on BBC Lifestyle, Friday 10th August at 12.05pm, and on Saturday 11th August at Midnight.
More photos from Toyah’s ‘Walk Of Fame’ day in King’s Heath last month. A great shot of Toyah with her framed star and pictures from the Hare & Hounds gig later in the evening. All have now been added to Dreamscape’s Gallery. (Thanks to Paul at PAC Photography for these)
The ‘Vintage TV’ August Newsletter confirms that later this year Toyah will be presenting a new music series on the channel.
Celebrating two years of Vintage TV … It’s going to be a busy summer at Vintage TV HQ!
Our Second Birthday! September marks our 2nd birthday, and boy do we have a lot to celebrate! It has been a prolific year for us in terms of our very own productions, with the conception and broadcasting of several new series, including The Janice Long Review Show, My Vintage, and Pat Sharp’s Top Ten @ Ten. As we speak, even more new content is getting ready for production – in our third year, look out for Pat Sharp’s Time Warp, Mike Hurst’s Moments in Music, and a new series fronted by Toyah Willcox… Watch this space!
NB: Toyah has also confirmed this in her latest blog: “It looks like being a 12 part series“.
Toyah’s August blog is available to read at toyahwillcox.com: Toyah talks the ‘Walk Of Fame’ day, the forthcoming BBC4 Love & Marriage documentary, The Humans, Vintage TV, the Olympics, ‘The Changeling Resurrection II’ and more. Click below to read.
With spandex, crimped hair, mullets, neon and leg warmers – the 80s were back with a bang at Lytham Proms.
A stellar line-up brought an impressive crowd of more than 8,000 to the Green, but this was a night for nostalgia, reliving one’s youth and revelling in the chance to wear infamous clothing from yesteryear,
DJ Pat Sharp, famous for his recent I’m a Celebrity exploits, kicked things off with a well worn set, spinning classic tunes of the era as a warm-up for the main event. Early acts on stage included Toyah and T’Pau.
• Continue reading at the Blackpool Gazette. (Photo © Blackpool Gazette)
