Jubilee inspires at least one new article a week. The latest is by ‘Ikono’.
Numerous punk icons appear in the film including Jordan (a Malcolm McLaren protégé), Toyah Willcox, Nell Campbell, Adam Ant (born, Stuart Leslie Goddard), Demoriane and Wayne County. It features performances by Wayne County and Adam and the Ants. There are also cameo appearances by The Slits and Siouxsie and the Banshees. The film was scored by Brian Eno.
Mark Satchwill’s amazing painting inspired by Toyah’s ‘The Changeling’ is now available to buy as an 8×10 print from Etsy.
As well as a print, small poster or postcard from Red Bubble. A great gift for any Toyah fan.
One of the pioneers of fashion make-up artists… from Biba, London in the seventies, to an international career in the 1980s and 90s, Régis Huet was one of the first make-up artists to use make-up as art and some of his creations are extraordinary, and extraordinarily beautiful.
In 1985 Régis worked with Toyah on the promotional imagery for the ‘Don’t Fall In Love (I Said)’ single and the album ‘Minx’.
The look was striking but subtle and, ironically, far removed from his more outlandish and experimental earlier work. Imagery that certainly inspired some of Toyah’s most adventurous early 80s visuals.
Régis eventually made Sydney, Australia his base where he worked on the first issue of ‘Australia Vogue’ among many magazines.
Toyah’s seventh song choice from My Vintage, ‘Running Up That Hill’.
“I feel really lucky to be able to say to you I want to put this next artist into My Vintage because she is a friend.
She’s the most delightful woman, and she is a total inspiration and a great role model. I have loved her work since I first heard ‘Wuthering Heights’ when I was 19, listening to the radio and I stopped in a stunned silence as I listened to her voice. It was breathtaking and she has continued to be breathtaking every decade ever since…”
• Read the full transcript of Toyah talking about Kate here.
Last August Toyah was interviewed about her meteorite collection for BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live in their ‘Secret Life’ series. This was repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra’s The 4 O’Clock Show last October.
That edition of The 4 O’Clock Show is currently available to listen to again, here. Be quick as it will only be online for one more day. The seven minute clip also includes brief bursts of The Humans’ ‘This Belongs To You’ and Toyah’s ‘It’s A Mystery’.
More than a dozen pubs, clubs, bars and live venues will be celebrating Bishop’s Stortford’s vibrant music scene as part of next month’s week-long Stortfest Crawl.
In common with its bigger brothers like Glastonbury, the annual Stortford Music Festival – usually held in the grounds of St Mary’s Catholic School – is taking a break for the first time in its 14-year history.
Headlining the event will be 80s punk-pop icon Toyah Willcox, who will mark the 30th anniversary of her album The Changeling with a greatest hits set at Rhodes on May 5.
Best known for 1981 breakthrough single It’s A Mystery and accompanying album Anthem, Toyah has also enjoyed a successful acting career, with roles in films like cult Mod hit Quadrophenia. More recently, she was a guest star on ITV’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!
The Glasgow date of ‘The Changeling Resurrection’ tour has been changed.
The original date of 20th April has been rescheduled for 12th October.
Toyah tweeted today that further details regarding this are to be announced officially tomorrow.
DJ Phil Marriott announced today that he will be interviewing Toyah later this week.
There’s no confirmation as yet where or when the interview will air but it will possibly be on Phil’s ‘Gaydar Radio’ show.
The show airs from 6-10pm each weeknight on the station and can be listened to, at their website, here.
The latest painting of Toyah by artist Mark Satchwill.
Based on ‘The Changeling’ imagery and the song lyrics on the album, it’s a beautiful tribute in this 30th anniversary year.
It’s a digital work, painted in ArtRage and would be around 16 x 20 inches on canvas.
Mark has previously created ‘Four From Toyah’ and ‘The Blue Meaning’ Toyah art.
Please click on the photo to view a larger version and thanks to Mark for this. (Painting © Mark Satchwill)
• Visit ‘Mark Satchwill Art’, to view more of Mark’s work, here.
The first “Album Of The Month” and it has to be ‘Prostitute’. Not only for being a great album but also for including the song that this new Toyah Newsletter takes its name from.
Released in 1988, I think this album shocked every Toyah fan at the time. It was the successor to ‘Desire’ and couldn’t have been more different but also that title. Tame by today’s standards maybe, but in 1988 it was still a word that Toyah couldn’t even say when she guested on TVAM.
‘Prostitute’ is definitely Toyah’s most experimental album to date, and her least commercial. Using all manner of samples and noises to create a weird, yet addictively interesting, soundscape. It’s minimalist and raw and has Toyah sounding quite like Kate Bush in parts, Laurie Anderson in others. There’s an abundance of spoken and whispered vocals and Toyah’s unmistakable laugh and in comparison to its two predecessors; ‘Desire’ and ‘Minx’ is almost a return to the brashness of Toyah’s early Safari albums. Go on, give ‘Prostitute’ another listen… View more here.
One of Toyah’s most famous theatre plays, Trafford Tanzi by Claire Luckham, is back… At the Empire Theatre, Blackburn at the end of this month in a production by Blackburn College Performing Arts Department and they even mention Toyah in their promotion for their play.
“You are invited to cheer and boo the characters as though you were present at an actual wrestling match.
Toyah Willcox was famous for her fantastic characterisation of Tanzi. This is a superb play you would be crazy to miss.”
The 18-31 March 1982 issue of ‘Smash Hits’ has just been added to the excellent ‘Like Punk Never Happened – Smash Hits Archive‘.
This issue features a plethora of various Toyah content, including:
Free huge poster (Toyah on one side, The Human League on the other), photo from the ‘Rock & Pop Awards 1982’, a full-page advert for the VHS release of Urgh! A Music War, and Toyah as a toddler on a donkey in the ‘From The Cots’ photo feature.
View scans of the full issue, and every previous issue of ‘Smash Hits’, here.
Toyah has been tweeting, over the last few days, about The Humans.
Bill Rieflin has recently arrived in the UK, and inbetween writing songs for The Humans’ third album (referred to as Humans 3 by Toyah) a number of practical jokes have been played on Bill. Most consisting of various objects being placed on his bed.
So far the tally is: A whole pineapple, followed by a hoover, then it was Willyfred the rabbit and a roll of gaffer tape. Bill also had two tangerines and a banana put in his shoes :)
Toyah also tweeted on 16th March: “Humans wrote 5 great song ideas y”day. We are on a roll.” and today: “The Humans have written 17 ideas in three days! Just going over them with fine tooth comb.”
From ‘Sugar Rush: The Humans Fan Page’: Bill Rieflin has co-produced the single “Crush Vaccine” by Atomic Bride, a band from Seattle, with a new album out 23rd May called “Dead Air”.
• Visit ‘The Humans Official’ here, and the ‘Sugar Rush’ fansite here.
The ‘Fade2Grey’ website has just added a mini-feature on the band Blood Donor, focusing on their single releases.
There is, of course, mention of Toyah. Blood Donor were also on Safari Records and the band’s keyboard player Keith Hale wrote ‘It’s A Mystery’.
The ‘Cult Queens’ blog, “Psychotronic Eye Candy!”, featured Toyah, in Devil Queen mode, this week. Quite right.
There’s a brief Q&A with Norwegian musician Haakon Rian Ueland at ‘Fandalism’. He mentions Toyah..
Who was your biggest musical influence growing up?
Toyah. What an amazing artist!
A variety of publications, including the ‘Times & Star’, report on Toyah headlining the Workington ‘Decades’ Festival.
80s PUNK STAR TOYAH WILLCOX WILL HEADLINE WORKINGTON FESTIVAL
Singing star Toyah Wilcox will headline Workington’s Decades town centre music festival later this year.
The 1980s self-styled punk princess, best known for chart hit It’s A Mystery, will perform at the event between May 25 and 27.
Toyah’s career spans 30 years and she has had 13 top 40 singles, recorded 20 albums, presented TV programmes and appeared on ITV’s I’m A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out Of Here! She recently starred in the West End rock show Vampires Rock.
The Decades festival will be based around 12 pubs and clubs on the town centre “circuit” and will celebrate music from the 1960s to the 1990s. Set up by Paul McGee, landlord of the Red House, and run by Maryport Festivals Limited, it promises a weekend of musical nostalgia.
• Read the full report, at the ‘Times & Star’ website, here.
The seriously good ‘Gods & Alcoves’ blog recently added a link to the 1980 magazine ‘Punk’s Not Dead!’. It features a Toyah pin-up from the (in)famous 1979 Simon Fowler photo shoot.
Punk’s Not Dead! magazine – edition one available online
Following hot on the heels of all 11 editions of “Punk! Lives” being available online, I found another punk magazine – Punk’s Not Dead! – (1980) available online via Scribd. Obviously the exclamation mark is critical in the naming of any Punk! publication.
Although it is focussed on Punk (duh) it has interviews/photos of Killing Joke, Theatre of Hate and Toyah – worth a look! According to one blog…
View the ‘Gods & Alcoves’ post here. View the scanned ‘Punk’s Not Dead!’ magazine here.
It’s now less than a month until the first ‘Changeling Resurrection’ gig takes place. The opening night is at Brighton’s Concorde 2 on Saturday 14th April. Further details on the tour are available at ‘The Official Toyah Gigs’ page here.
An aftershow party is also being arranged in Brighton. View more info on this at its Facebook Events page here.
The full dates are:
Saturday 14th April: Concorde 2, Brighton
Wednesday 18th April: The Tunnels, Bristol
Friday 20th April: Classic Grand, Glasgow
Sunday 22nd April: Bush Hall, London
Saturday 28th April: Robin 2, Wolverhampton
Monday 30th April: Ruby Lounge, Manchester
Saturday 5th May: Arts Complex, Bishop’s Stortford
Toyah fan, and friend of Dreamscape (and now Falling To Earth:)) Sharon Dickson, was featured in an article in the ‘Dundee Evening Telegraph’ on Tuesday 13th March.
Sharon Is The Spitting Image Of Pop Singer
From punk princess to accomplished actress, Toyah Willcox has become one of Britain’s top icons.
But fans have been forced to look twice when they’ve clocked eyes on Toyah’s double in and around Dundee.
Debenhams worker Sharon Dickson (41) is the spitting image of the popular entertainer. Sharon is more than happy being the star’s doppleganger… as she’s a massive Toyah fan.
“I’m a huge Toyah fan. I go to watch her perform every year and I’m excited about seeing her in Glasgow next month when she plays at Classic Grand.”
Sharon decided to send the Tele her photograph after her mum saw our story on Coronation Street star Sophie Webster’s lookalike. Sharon, who works in Debenhams’ perfume department, said: “My mum saw the paper and suggested I get in contact for a laugh. I’ve never intentionally tried to look like Toyah.”
• Click on the scan to view a larger version of the article. (Thanks to Sharon)
The full 12-song soundtrack to Toyah’s My Vintage. The programme is currently airing on ‘Vintage TV’.
Click on each of the songs below to read in detail what Toyah said about each of her song choices. More soon!
Love Is The Drug – Roxy Music
The Jean Genie – David Bowie
The Killing Moon – Echo & The Bunnymen
Tiny Dancer – Elton John
The Passenger – Iggy Pop
All Along The Watchtower – Jimi Hendrix
Running Up That Hill – Kate Bush
Walk On The Wild Side – Lou Reed
Stay – Shakespears Sister
Mad World – Tears For Fears
Even Better Than The Real Thing – U2
The Lovecats – The Cure
