Birmingham Review: Preview: Toyah Willcox – Walk Of Fame
PREVIEW: Toyah Willcox – Walk of Fame presentation & concert @ Hare & Hounds, July 16th
Musician, songwriter, actress and author, Toyah Willcox is one of Birmingham’s best known contemporaries.
And on Monday July 16th, Toyah will be the first person celebrated on King Heath’s Walk of Fame, with her memorial star being presented on York Road – before a one off concert at the Hare & Hounds.
Born in Kings Heath, growing up in the family house on Grove Road, Toyah Willcox is a self confessed enemy of convention. Reportedly suffering bullying at school, due to her limp (from a spine defect at birth) and lisp, Toyah turned the tables one day, when she ‘got into class, picked up chair and threw it at the main bully.’
After school, Toyah worked to pay her way through drama school; where a chance referral saw her as ‘Sue’ – in Tony Bicat’s short play ‘Glitter’. From there Toyah was picked for a place at the National Theatre, where she met Derek Jarman – first appearing as ‘Mad’ in his seminal punk film, ‘Jubilee’.
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