Dreamscape – Toyah Willcox Fansite

Love Is The Law in the 21st Century… An update to In The Fairground.

There’s a certain anticipation in the air… Love Is The Law, a wonderful album by Toyah, is about to be celebrated in style. The horns of elfin land are calling you…

Toyah announced info about the upcoming tour in her May blog yesterday: The autumn tour is shaping up and we should be announcing the dates any day now. London, Manchester and Bristol are solid, we are now awaiting confirmation on a few other dates before we announce. We have decided to keep it selective and to main venues as I have a TV series to shoot in the autumn, but there will be enough venues for everyone to reach and to follow us around the country. The tour set will include songs from LOVE IS THE LAW, CRIMSON QUEEN, ANTHEM, CHANGELING and SHEEP FARMING, in that order of priority.

Toyah also mentions the possibility of a tour in 2014: Next year I might tour CRIMSON QUEEN, in it’s own right, especially if I can pin SIMON DARLOW down to record the follow up and to come and do some dates too. CQ is a fantastic album and it has had such a great response in the industry I’d like to give it the time it deserves. But this isn’t my priority just yet.

• View a larger version of Dreamscape’s LITL Tour teaser here or by clicking on the image.

One of Toyah’s greatest ballads, and a standout song on the Love Is The Law album… Martian Cowboy… Will it be included in the set list of the Autumn anniversary tour? View a larger version of Dreamscape’s MC image here. (Thanks to Andi for the HQ photo)

Vote for your top albums of 1983 in the fourth Slicing Up Eyeballs poll. ‘Love Is The Law’, celebrating its 30th anniversary, is included as an option. Voting closes on 24th May and the results will be announced at the beginning of June. Click below to participate in the poll.

Praying to the silent man…

‘Rebel Run’, released in September 1983, was Toyah’s 13th single in the UK. It’s fitting that the song is celebrating it’s 30th anniversary in 2013.

This was one of only two singles to be released by Toyah in 1983 and was the debut from the album ‘Love Is The Law’. It was written by Toyah and Simon Darlow and reached number 24 in the UK Top 40.

Toyah made a memorable video for the single and promoted it with numerous appearances and interviews on shows including TVAM’s Summer Run, Hold Tight, The Saturday Show, Saturday Superstore, and German TV show Jugendabend. The video was also played on Top Of The Pops.

Toyah said of the imagery: “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.”

• Download ‘Rebel Run’ at iTunes, view the promo video, and the airing on Top Of The Pops. Watch Toyah perform the single on Hold Tight and Saturday Superstore. Listen to the song live at Hammersmith Odeon on the ‘Rebel Run’ Tour in December 1983. Andromeda Rising covered the song in 2005. Listen to their version here.

• Heaven Is An Incubator: Found Vinyl: Toyah – Love Is The Law: Up first is the 1983 album “Love Is the Law,” from English performer Toyah.  Look at that album cover.  Seriously, look at it.  It’s got a bunch of fencers and a girl that looks like an extra from the 80’s movie “Solarbabies.”

• Weston, Worle & Somerset Mercury 24: Toyah Willcox causes mayhem in Hormonal Housewives: Toyah Willcox and Julie Coombe are back on stage causing mayhem as the irrepressible Hormonal Housewives.

• Justin Moorhouse: Toyah’s recent interview, which aired on BBC Radio Manchester, is now available to listen to at Audio Boo.

• Staffs Live: Hormonal Housewives returning to Lichfield: The Hormonal Housewives are returning to the Lichfield Garrick. Their new show, starring Toyah Willcox alongside Julie Coombe, will take a look at what really makes the modern housewife tick.

Happy Easter! It’s the end of March, and by this time in 1983 Trafford Tanzi was in residence at The Mermaid Theatre in London with Toyah in the lead role. She was also just about to start recording the album ‘Love Is The Law’. Dreamscape is Remembering 1983 all this year… here is the full set of LITL imaginary singles. Please click below to zoom.

There will be a series of live dates this autumn to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the album Love Is The Law. Last year there was a voting element to the autumn tour. For the moment whilst the tour is in planning stages toyahwillcox.com wonder which songs you are most wanting to hear on this autumn tour from the period in question. There’s a rare wild card bonus track too. Take part in the survey and select the two songs you want to hear the most. After that it’s up to Toyah and the band to see what works best. Vote online by clicking below.

• View a larger version of the Dreamscape LITL creation above here.

Another two “new” Tom Leon Toyah tracks/mixes were uploaded to house-mixes.com over the weekend: Pop Star – A Dream Within A Dream (Tom Leon Full Vocal Ultra Long Version 2013), and mARTian cowBOY (Tom Leon Extended Version 2013).

As with Tom’s other mixes, these are unofficial and for “private and promotional use only”.  Great use of Andrew’s Toyah art too ;)

• View all of our news posts on Tom Leon and his Toyah remixes here (I’ve updated the links and all are now working again). Visit Tom’s Official Website.

Fragments, a new blog series by Craig Astley, is sure to be an interesting read for Toyah fans over the coming months, as we head towards the 30th anniversary of the ‘Love Is The Law’ album and ‘Rebel Run’ UK Tour. Craig met Toyah for the first time during the tour back in 1983 (before he was even 5!!)

I Was A Child Toyah Fan…….

2013 marks something of a milestone for me. It is thirty years since an exciting thing happened to me as a child. A child who was a pop music lover and devoted fan of Toyah.

• Continue reading at Fragments: Toyah Tales From Now & Then.

We’re “Remembering ’83” etc… Another little something I threw together recently while playing ‘Love Is The Law’. I say this about all of Toyah’s albums (and images and everything else) but it truly is underrated. I’m also doing another “Opinion Wall”, along the lines of last year’s for The Changeling website. I’ve already had some great responses from fans at Facebook, and if you would also like your opinions/memories of this great album included send them to me. The “wall” will be added to Dreamscape nearer to the 30th anniversary of the album’s release.

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)

• 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.

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)

Written by Toyah and Joel Bogen, the opening song on ‘Love Is The Law’, the wonderful Broken Diamonds. Strange to consider that this album marked the end of the Willcox/Bogen songwriting partnership after six years of creating incredible music together!

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)

Welcome to our final update of 2012! Happy New Year’s Eve/Hogmanay to each and every person who takes the time to visit this website. Wishing you a happy, successful and Toyah-filled 2013. It’s the 30th anniversary of Toyah’s glorious ‘Love Is The Law’ album! Can’t wait…

“Next year we are going to tour ‘Love is the Law’, the album which came after ‘The Changeling’, but we are not going to do two tours of that, just one extended tour“…

(Info Source: Toyah Interview @ Penny Black Music)

Pure speculation, but…

Something that Toyah said in the This is Derbyshire interview (see post below):

Next year I have accepted one of the biggest tours of my career. We are doing 30 dates in the spring and 30 in the autumn.

Could this 60-date tour be marking what will be the 30th anniversary of the fantastic ‘Love Is The Law’ album and the ‘Rebel Run’ UK tour?

I guess we will just have to wait to find out, but interesting all the same.

‘Love Is The Law’ is an album, and Toyah era, that truly deserves to be properly celebrated!

The fourth monthly online live track has been added to Toyah’s official website. It’s ‘Rebel Run’, recorded live at The Oxford Regal soundcheck 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 Changeling Tour and summer festival/concert dates 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 ‘Rebel Run’, live at The Oxford Regal, here.