A digital deluxe version of Toyah & The Humans debut album, We Are The Humans, was also released today. See download/listen links here or click below for direct link to Amazon.
Toyah unwraps the first ever vinyl pressings of We Are The Humans (translucent orange vinyl) and Sugar Rush (translucent olive vinyl). Both of these are released tomorrow. Click below for links to all Toyah & The Humans new releases. (Screenshots from videos that are © Toyah Willcox)
Get ready for Noise In Your Head. Toyah & The Humans new retrospective five-disc box set – three studio albums, live concert CD, live concert DVD + 40-page booklet – is released this Friday. Pictured below is the regular box set (without signed print) which is still available to order here. Watch Toyah unbox the set by clicking here.
Info from Saturday’s second Toyah At Home, which aired at Toyah’s official You Tube channel.
• Good Morning Universe: was the song of the morning, with Toyah explaining how it got its title. Joel Bogen wrote the music and as soon as Toyah heard the joyous track she wanted to call it Good Morning Universe.
• Good Morning Universe: Toyah performed a live version of the title song from Toyah’s third EP, and ninth single, released in November 1981. I’ve always loved this song, and all the others on the Four More From Toyah EP.
• Shirley Manson: Toyah mentioned the Garbage lead singer’s recent comments about Toyah being one of her early influences.
• Early Influences: Toyah talked about her own early influences, Dusty Springfield and Sandie Shaw in the 1960s, as well as Curved Air, Grace Slick, Roxy Music, Alice Cooper, Lou Reed and David Bowie in the 70s.
• Movies: To Be Someone will hopefully be showing later this year, with press and publicity happening soon. Toyah also mentioned Give Them Wings.
• Take The Leap!: Jolyon Dixon, the guitarist from Friday Forever and Toyah’s Take The Leap! band asked Toyah if she would be interested in a Leap! anniversary tour.
• Steve Strange: Toyah talked about the Visage frontman back in the days of her Mayhem warehouse and the Blitz Club and the last time she met him, at the V&A Club To Catwalk exhibition in 2013.
• Favourite Venues/Tours: Toyah reminisced about playing (the legendary) Glasgow Apollo. Her favourite venue is Wembley Arena, and she loves playing in churches because of their great acoustics. Toyah loved all of The Humans tours, and also the recent Thunder In The Highlands tour.
• Computer: Will this ever be played live? There are plans for some of the Safari album songs to be played live during Toyah At Home to coincide with the Cherry Red release of Toyah’s Safari back catalogue.
• Ophelia’s Shadow: Some of the songs are too studio layered to perform live but Lords Of The Never Known and Brilliant Day will be (Toyah mentioned the late Keith Tippett).
• Prostitute: Toyah talked about the possibility of the album being performed live as an art project with visuals. She also talked about performing the album during the FrippFripp tour in 1988, and about the legacy of the album and its meanings now as the world changes and evolves.
• Toyah also chatted about which song took the longest to write (Slow Descent by The Humans was mentioned), and the show ended with live footage of She’s Fast by The Humans from Trading Boundaries in East Sussex.
Re-uploaded to this website’s You Tube channel recently, Sky Trax – The 1985 Toyah Special; a great Minx-era interview; and BBC Breakfast Time, a much shorter but still interesting Desire-era interview. These uploads have both been edited to remove all music from them, which was the reason they were originally made unavailable by You Tube.
Lots of other quirky clips and footage have also been added to our channel: Toyah, Superhits, Monster Munch 80s adverts, and more! Click below to visit and/or subscribe!
On June 6, 1980 Toyah released The Blue Meaning, an album that would top the UK Indie charts. Fronted by the multi-color haired Toyah Willcox, who played Monkey in 1979’s The Who album-inspired Quadrophenia and acted beside Kate Hepburn, the band had already scored a UK#1 Indie single with “Victims Of The Riddle”and expectations were big.
The album, now considered a cult classic by some, peaked at UK#40 on the mainstream album charts. The band would soon break up.
The articles I’ve read about Toyah Willcox from that time don’t reveal much, but in 2017, she was interviewed by BBC Radio for their Inheritance Tracks segment and we learned she had strict parents who, when she was very young, made sure she was in bed by 6:30 at night, not to be seen again until 7 AM the next day. Her mother picked out her clothes. She was dyslexic, number-blind and club-footed, and she determined to be seen and heard:
• Continue reading at 40 year Itch.
Rounding off The Blue Meaning‘s 40th with… this! Play loud and celebrate!!
Happy 40th Anniversary to one of the great landmarks of Toyah’s music career – The Blue Meaning. The second long-player (as they were once called) and first full studio album, was released exactly 40 years ago today, in June 1980.
An amazing album and Toyah era, The Blue Meaning is significant for a number of reasons: It was the first Toyah release to enter the Official UK Chart (though earlier singles and the first album had all scaled the peak of the Indie Chart).
It also boasted incredible imagery, artwork and high design standard which would become synonymous with Toyah’s music career and future releases. The album also includes Toyah’s most legendary song, the perennial fan-favourite, Ieya! No Toyah gig is complete without it.
Over the past four decades the album has increased in significance, becoming a crucial part of Toyah’s discography. Everyone loves Anthem (who couldn’t?), The Changeling is a favourite of many fans, Love Is The Law saw Toyah’s vocals soar, Minx still divides opinion, Prostitute mindboggled us all, Ophelia’s Shadow as beautiful, intricate and unique as any album by Kate Bush or Tori Amos, In The Court Of The Crimson Queen introduced Toyah to a new audience while also delighting longtime fans, and yet The Blue Meaning came before all of the aforementioned and 40 years later still intrigues and entertains with each and every listen. Click below for our feature.
Tomorrow – 06.06.2020 – is the 40th anniversary of the release of an iconic album from Toyah’s music career, The Blue Meaning. Incredibly ahead of its time, both musically and in its artwork/design/imagery. Check back tomorrow for our feature – which is an amalgamation of four of Dreamscape’s previous Blue Meaning articles reworked to create a comprehensive feature.
On this day… 39 years ago – 22nd May 1981 – the studio album Anthem was released. It still sounds as good today as it did then, and no doubt always will. Timeless! (Thanks to andy)
Great news! The Signed Box Set version of Toyah & The Humans’ Noise In Your Head – An Amazon Exclusive – is available again to order. This will no doubt be very temporary so get yours while you can! **Update – It’s Sold Out again**
The Limited Edition Amazon Exclusive edition of Toyah & The Humans’ Noise In Your Head box set sold out in just a few hours of being available to order yesterday. This included a signed print “from one human to another” by Toyah. The edition of the box set which doesn’t include the print is still available to order online.
NOISE IN YOUR HEAD is a 4 CD + DVD box set released 3 July 2020 that brings together the complete works of Toyah & The Humans.
The box set contains four albums (‘We Are The Humans’, ‘Sugar Rush’, ‘Strange Tales’, ‘Live At Scala London’) and six bonus tracks, including home demos and the previously unreleased track, 21st Century Schizoid Man. It also includes a DVD featuring a previously unreleased 90 minute concert, and four promo videos.
A strictly limited edition exclusive Amazon version includes a postcard print signed “from one human to another” by Toyah Willcox.
PRE-ORDER AMAZON EXCLUSIVE SIGNED EDITION
PRE-ORDER THE BOX SET
The Humans were Toyah, her musical director Chris Wong and multi-instrumentalist, the late Bill Rieflin (drummer for King Crimson and latter-day REM, as well as Ministry, the Revolting Cocks, Lard, KMFDM, Pigface, Swans, Chris Connelly, and Nine Inch Nails).
Toyah put the ensemble together in 2007 for the birthday celebrations of Toomas Hendrik Ilves, president of Estonia, a country already dear to Toyah.
As Toyah explains in her note in the 40-page booklet, “I was very keen to work on an idea where mid-range frequencies didn’t cancel out the natural space of the voice. Always having been in love with the bass I wanted to create a trio of just my voice and two basses, allowing power, prose and top line melody to dominate the audio spectrum. The Humans were to be music stripped bare.”
WE ARE THE HUMANS, released in 2009, features “Noise In Your Head”, “Quicksilver” and “Is It Wrong”. The CD now includes four bonus tracks: a cover of “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’” featuring Robert Fripp, and three of Toyah’s original home demos, demonstrating her original concept for the ensemble.
SUGAR RUSH (2011) features “Sea Of Size” and “Small Town Psychopath” and Guest Human throughout, Robert Fripp. The bonus track is a version of “Small Town Psychopath”.
STRANGE TALES (2014) album features “Get In Your Car” and now closes with a previously unreleased 7 minute version of the King Crimson classic, “21st Century Schizoid Man”.
LIVE AT SCALA LONDON is the first full 16-track release of an entire 2010 concert at London Kings Cross’ Scala venue, including the encores of “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’” and “Purple Haze”. Guest Human Robert Fripp features throughout.
On the DVD, LIVE AT TRADING BOUNDARIES is a previously unreleased 90-minute, 21-song concert filmed in April 2015. Also included are four promo videos, issued on DVD for the first time.
All discs feature faithful artwork on facsimile wallers and a lavishly-illustrated 40 page booklet featuring annotation written by Toyah herself. Also featured is an essay on the period covered by the box by Toyah’s official archivist and compiler of this box set, Craig Astley.
The box set is dedicated to Bill Rieflin, who sadly passed away on 24th March 2020. Recorded in summer 2019, “21st Century Schizoid Man” was only recently mixed and is one of Bill’s last completed recordings.
Sarcastically and affectionately, Bill referred to this anthology as The Humans’ Greatest Hits. Bill exchanged with Toyah this March, as included in her online tribute to him, that “We made good things together. Some of my best work ever.”
These look gorgeous! Following the fantastic solo Toyah vinyls earlier this year, come four Toyah & The Humans vinyls. All four vinyls are also released on July 3rd 2020. Click below for order links.
The three studio albums by Toyah & The Humans – We Are The Humans, Sugar Rush, Strange Tales – make their vinyl debut on 180g heavyweight coloured translucent vinyl. Strange Tales now closes with the previously unreleased 7-minute 21st Century Schizoid Man, the last track Toyah and Bill Rieflin recorded together.
The full 2010 concert album Live At Scala is released for the first time in its entirety, featuring a cover of Purple Haze alongside songs that later appeared on Sugar Rush but were not yet recorded at the time of the gig.
Fast approaching the 40th – yes 40th – Anniversary of the release of The Blue Meaning.
Short, but great, interview with Toyah from STV in 1985. This is Scotland Today when it went all soft furnishings and sofas in the mid-80s! Toyah talks Minx, the Soul Passing Through Soul video, America For Beginners, School’s Out and more, with Paul Coia and Haig Gordon.
Updated! Toyah Releases 2020 – Just added information and images for the latest new Toyah release, the forthcoming Desire white vinyl album, released on 24th April. Click below to visit the Toyah Releases 2020 page. See also our Releases news archive.
The new compilation: Rare, Remixed and Revisited, released as part of the Toyah Solo box set, is now available as a digital download and to stream via Spotify.
The album includes previously unreleased songs, a number of demos, remixes and re-recordings (Revisited) and features 16 tracks:
1. Tears For Ellie (Demo), 2. God Ceases To Dream (Remix), 3. Poland (One Day On Earth) (Demo), 4. Now I’m Running (Remix), 5. It’s a Mystery (Whispered Elixir Mix), 6. Lust For Love (Demo), 7. Angel (Demo), 8. Rebel Run (Revisited), 9. Good Morning Universe (Revisited), 10. Be Proud, Be Loud (Be Heard) (Revisited), 11. Desire (Revisited), 12. Obsolete (Revisited), 13. Danced (Revisited), 14. We Are (Revisited), 15. Angel & Me (Revisited), 16. Believe In You (Demo)
As previously posted, Desire, Take The Leap! and Velvet Lined Shell are also now available in standalone digital Deluxe Editions – all featuring bonus songs. These albums are also available to stream via Spotify (click the links above for official links to streaming and more).
Following the release of five of Toyah’s solo albums on amazing colour/clear vinyl on Friday, is the news that the classic 1987 album Desire is to be released/reissued on 180 gram white vinyl next month (24th April 2020).
The album is released by Demon Records.
Featuring the original artwork, along with an inner sleeve (as with the Record Store Day Red Vinyl release of Desire in 2018) which will include the album’s lyrics and Toyah photographs. Click below for more info or to pre-order.
“Desire” was Toyah’s first album for the EG label, and features her hit single cover version of “Echo Beach” as well as a cover of Donna Summer’s “Love’s Unkind”.
Produced by Mike Hedges, the album features Robert Fripp (who co-wrote the title track) and Ronnie Wood. The LP is pressed on 180 gram white vinyl and the inner sleeve features the lyrics.
Velvet Lined Shell is released tomorrow for the first time on vinyl, and as if that isn’t enough of a treat already, the album isn’t on regular black vinyl, it’s on 10″ purple vinyl!
Click here and here to read how Dreamscape covered the original release – back in April and May 2003 – of the first new studio album from Toyah in almost a decade. Those were exciting times.
At the time of the album’s release Toyah was participating in the second series of ITV’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! in Australia and there was no social media so info and promotion of Velvet Lined Shell was very much word of mouth and via fan sites like this one, along with details from toyahwillcox.com. Back to basics, punky and a whole lot of fun!
Great memories and still a great album – Little Tears Of Love sounds as incredible today as it did when first released in 2002.
Just a couple of days until Minx, Prostitute, Ophelia’s Shadow, Take The Leap! and Velvet Lined Shell are released on colour/clear vinyl, and HMV have a great “Toyah LP Bundle” deal available at their website. Add all five of the albums to your basket and pay £79.99. A saving of over £20 compared to other online stores! Click below for HMV.
