Dreamscape – Toyah Willcox Fansite

Another great stocking filler courtesy of toyahwillcox.com – Download the booklet for the digital issue of Toyah’s 1987 album, Desire – Gorgeous!!!

As has been posted about a fair bit recently… Toyah’s three quite different and, more than quite, brilliant albums: Desire – originally released in 1987, Prostitute – originally released in 1988, and Ophelia’s Shadow – originally released in 1991, were made available digitally, for the first time, earlier this month. There’s been a lot of related promotion…

Desire: Read Toyah’s Letter, first published in Tellurian One (Spring 1987); View info on Tenterhooks, Echo Beach (Acoustic) and Desirable; Visit the album page at toyahwillcox.com; Read a full transcript of Chris Limb’s 1987 interview with Toyah; Listen to the album at Spotify; Buy at Amazon or iTunes; Browse Dreamscape’s Desire news…

Prostitute: Read Toyah’s Letter (Summer 1988); Visit the album page at toyahwillcox.com; Read a reflection by Craig Astley; Listen to the album at Spotify; Buy at Amazon or iTunes; Browse Dreamscape’s Prostitute news…

Ophelia’s Shadow: Read Toyah’s Letter (Summer 1990); Visit the album page at toyahwillcox.com; Listen to the album at Spotify; Buy at Amazon or iTunes; Browse Dreamscape’s Ophelia’s Shadow news… 

Explore Toyah’s Instagram for rarities related to all three albums (Thanks to Breaking Through).

Desire, Toyah’s second solo album, originally released in 1987 was issued digitally at the beginning of October.

As well as a new digital booklet to accompany the release a plethora of Desire-related extras have been made available by toyahwillcox.com to complement the album.

TENTERHOOKS | AN AUDIO SLEEVENOTE To accompany the recent digital release of Toyah’s 1987 album Desire comes an exclusive audio sleevenote. (Concept: Craig Astley | Execution: Chris Limb | Based on an original Toyah interview conducted and recorded by Chris Limb in London, 1987).

ECHO BEACH [ACOUSTIC] A previously unreleased and unavailable acoustic take on Echo Beach. Recorded live in 2014.

DESIRABLE EP compiling Echo Beach & Moonlight Dancing B-Sides in new sonically refreshed transfers. Tracklist: 1. Echo Beach (Surf Mix); 2. Plenty; 3. Sun Up; 4. Re-Entry Into Dance.

• Click on each of the covers below to download/stream the Desire goodies. (Thanks to Breaking Through)

Desire | Prostitute | Ophelia’s Shadow | Digital releases available now.

Great news! Desire was placing at number 59 on the iTunes Rock Chart today. The album was released digitally on Friday, along with Prostitute and Ophelia’s Shadow.

These three albums are currently Toyah’s biggest sellers at iTunes. See the news posts below for further info on the releases, plus links to iTunes and more details at toyahwillcox.com.

**Update** Desire has also charted at Amazon.

Now available digitally, with great new booklets accompanying them (with album downloads via iTunes and Amazon), Desire, Prostitute and Ophelia’s Shadow.

In just a few hours Toyah’s trio – but not a trilogy – of late 80s/early 90s albums: Desire, Prostitute and Ophelia’s Shadow are released digitally for the first time. It really is fantastic that these will now be available for future generations to discover and enjoy.

I’ve always thought that these were, and are, three great albums. All completely different, and all showcasing Toyah’s true talent as a musician, songwriter and vocalist. She truly always has been a fascinating artist.

Desire includes some of Toyah’s best lyrics and emotive vocals. Prostitute still fascinates and disturbs listeners as much now as it did in 1988. Ophelia’s Shadow is to Toyah what The Dreaming is to Kate Bush…

So to mark the release(s), here are links to a few bits and pieces from over the years related to the trio:

Visit Dreamscape’s feature on Desire from 2012 – Marking the 25th Anniversary of its release… There’s also a mini-feature on Prostitute.. Read an interview with Toyah from around the time of Ophelia’s Shadow release, plus some related clippings (scanned from Tellurian Newsletter)…

Ophelia’s Shadow: Happy 21st – A short tribute… Prostitute was our first, and only, album of the month in 2012… View the results of a “just for fun” Desire poll from 2013… and some Desire fan art by Dreamscape from a few years ago… There was also, of course, an imaginary advert…

View a selection of Desire-era photos… and Toyah appearing on Neno in 1987… An unimaginary Desire press advert… And finally – The Curious Tale of The Moonlight Chorus :)

Browse further info on all three albums at The Official Toyah Discography. Read details about the digital releases and listen to the “new” Toyah EP Desirable.

Browse related photos and info on Desire, Prostitute and Ophelia’s Shadow at Toyah’s Official Instagram. All three albums are released digitally tomorrow. “This album was an exorcism for me, an exercise in self-worth” Toyah on Prostitute.

Long deleted and never available on any digital platforms, toyahwillcox.com is delighted to announce an October digital release of the catalogue albums Desire, Prostitute and Ophelia’s Shadow. Whilst the latter two have been deleted for over a decade, Desire has been unavailable since the early 1990s. The three catalogue titles are released digitally on Friday 2 October 2015.

1987’s Desire was produced by Mike Hedges and engineered by Haydn Bendall at Abbey Road Studios where Bendall (at the time) had recently engineered Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love… 1988’s acclaimed album Prostitute is an uncompromising work which was composed by Toyah and drummer Steve Sidelnyk who would later to play on Madonna’s Ray of Light album… 1991’s Ophelia’s Shadow is the album which Toyah feels most represents her personally. Recorded in 1990 it utilises the same band line-up of the Toyah/Fripp-helmed band Sunday All Over The World…

On iTunes, all three albums come with a meticulously presented digital booklet to expand the experience of listening to the album. Compiling sleevenotes, production credits and full lyrics they also bring together almost all associated imagery created for each album. Prostitute and Ophelia’s Shadow are foregrounded by an introductory note from Toyah; Desire contains a new reflection on the album by Chris Limb.

All three albums will be available digitally to buy or stream from Friday 2 October including iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Apple Music. Some digital vendors may follow on from the 2 October date and may appear at different times. The digital booklets will only be available when purchasing the entire album from iTunes. They will however be made available from The Official Toyah Website for all fans to enjoy.

Look out for some other related surprises too, courtesy of toyahwillcox.com!

• Continue reading at The Official Toyah Willcox website.

To mark the digital release of Desire, Prostitute and Ophelia’s Shadow a selection of “Bonus Features” – retro letters, interviews and performances, see the latest Breaking Through newsletter for full details – have been made available by Toyah’s official website. This includes a “new” EP, Desirable, compiling all other previously released Desire-era songs not included on the album.

Four songs from the Desire sessions, from Echo Beach and Moonlight Dancing b-sides, are on this free digital EP, with great new cover art, nicely referencing the original Desire album.

• Download or stream Desirable at The Official Toyah Discography. The full tracklist for the EP is as follows:

1. Echo Beach [Surf Mix] (Gane) | Originates from the 12″ single of Echo Beach
2. Plenty (Willcox) | Originates from the 7″/12″ single of Echo Beach
3. Sun Up (Willcox) | Originates from the 7″/12″ single of Moonlight Dancing
4. Re-Entry Into Dance (Willcox/Geballe) | Originates from the 7″/12″ single of Moonlight Dancing

Tenter hooks so gentle so sharp | Be on tenter hooks for not much longer. Digital reissue details coming soon…. #desire #pro #ophelia

Vote for your top albums of 1987 in Slicing Up Eyeballs poll. Toyah’s album ‘Desire’ is included as an option. Voting closes on 27th September and the results will be announced at the beginning of October. Click below to participate in the poll. (Thanks to Paul Johnson)

• View Dreamscape’s ‘Desire’ feature here.

Over the last couple of days we’ve been running a “Favourite Songs” from the ’Love Is The Law’ and ‘Desire’ albums poll at Dreamscape’s Facebook Group. A bit of fun and hardly definitive but an interesting current gauge of what some fans think of the songs on these great albums. Some chose two songs and others opted for related songs not on the albums, I’ve included these in the totals.

LOVE IS THE LAW: Broken Diamonds – 8, I Explode – 10, Rebel Of Love – 2, Rebel Run – 1, Martian Cowboy – 6 , Dreamscape – 5, Time Is Ours – 8, Love Is The Law – 4, Remember – 2, The Vow – 2, (To The Mountains High – 1, Haunted – 1, Be Proud Be Loud (Be Heard) – 1)

DESIRE: Echo Beach – 1, Moonlight Dancing – 5, Revive The World – 4, The View – 4, Moon Migration – 2, Love’s Unkind – 2, Dear Diary – 0, Deadly As A Woman – 3, Goodbye Baby – 1. When A Woman Cries – 5, Desire – 3, (Re-Entry Into Dance – 5, Sun-Up – 2, Plenty – 1)

I know everyone is probably thoroughly bored with my mock Toyah adverts and Photoshopping of various other classic Toyah photos… but here’s another two anyway :)

Seven years apart and very, very different music and imagery, but both “classic” Toyah – The iconic ‘Danced’, the live version from ‘Toyah! Toyah! Toyah!’ released as a single in late 1980, and ‘Desire’ the album released in Summer 1987 that includes some of Toyah’s best lyrics, showcasing what a fine songwriter she is. Please click on each to zoom.

The ‘Desire’ photo is actually from a 1986 shoot but image/time wise it’s close enough to be associated to the 1987 album! (Thanks to Andrew York for working his magic on the photo)

• Something to look forward to: It looks likely that Toyah’s 1987 album ‘Desire’ will be reissued, on download, later this year. Toyah’s Official Facebook said on Sunday: “There are no plans for a CD reissue of Desire. Plans for a digital release later in 2012 however.”

• Thanks for the feedback on Stevie Bray’s interview, and to everyone who has visited the feature so far.

• ‘I Was A Teenage Toyah Fan’ has now been available for over six months. The Kindle version, from Amazon, can be bought for the very bargainesque 80p. You don’t even need a Kindle to read it! View all of our IWATTF news here.

• Stylish Elegance: Toyah Willcox is 54 today…

2012 is a significant anniversary year for two of Toyah’s albums: It is, of course, the 30th since the release of ‘The Changeling’ (1982) and also the 25th since ‘Desire’ (1987).

Aside from this vague connection there’s a more explicit link for the two albums, the songs ‘Dawn Chorus’ and ‘Moonlight Dancing’. In 1982 Toyah performed the former on BBC1’s 6.55 Special (think The One Show with the added bonus of Sally James) and towards the close of the song added new lyrics that weren’t included on the album version. This “alternative” version of ‘Dawn Chorus’ was never performed again, and it wasn’t until the release of ‘Desire’ five years later that ‘Moonlight Dancing’, which the new lyrics were an excerpt from, was heard again.

‘Moonlight Dancing’ probably didn’t even exist as a fully formed song at this point in time, though both were written by Toyah and Joel Bogen. It’s interesting, though, that these few extra lines from 1982 went on to become part of one of Toyah’s finest singles and forged an ever lasting link between two very different Toyah albums…

With the very recent discovery of two rare, and fantastic, ‘Desire’ photos now seems as good a time as any to take a look back at some of the imagery from this era. In a 10 year career this was probably the first time Toyah had looked “conventional”. The ‘Desire’ album and related image seems to be more appreciated retrospectively than at the time of release… dive in!

• View the 25th anniversary ‘Desire’ feature at Dreamscape here. (Photography by Carrie Branovan)

Let me run riot of colour, over you…

You wait 25 years and then, not one but, two very rare photos of Toyah from 1987 (a year I prefer to refer to as “the ‘Desire’ era”) surface.

This one is from an official EG print, and, as with all of the fantastic ‘Desire’ promotional photography, is likely to have been taken by Carrie Branovan.

If I was wealthy I would definitely publish a Toyah Photo Book: ‘Visions’. Full sessions, rare photos, outtakes… Every coffee table would want one! Toyah’s amazing visual imagery, both past and present, really should be captured for posterity. Anyway, back to reality! (Thanks to Michael for this great photo)

This incredibly rare shot of Toyah, from the 1987 ‘Desire’ era photo shoot, has recently been listed on eBay.

The seller is a photographer who has taken photos of numerous pop stars and says of this one: From my own collection… A posed and gorgeous, stunning, different and rare, promo 35mm slide, a great posed close up. One of the best we ever had. Cool pic!

Great that an unseen photo should surface in the 25th anniversary year of ‘Desire’.