Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

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.

I’ve had a few great comments about the “imaginary” single cover for Snow Covers The Kiss (a wonderful song from 1985) so I thought I’d share the “ad” for it too. Please click to zoom.

Photos of Toyah taken in 1979 during the soundcheck/rehearsal for the gig at Hammersmith Riverside Studios, West London, on 18th July. Thanks to Craig Watkins. (Photos © Philip Grey)

More rare photos of Toyah, taken at Mayhem in Battersea in July 1979. See four more photos from this session in our recent post and click below to view larger versions of these. Thanks again to Craig Watkins. (Photos © Philip Grey)

• Portrait Records: A history of the label Toyah was signed to for around 18 months in the mid-1980s has just been updated at Wikipedia: In 1985, British singer Toyah released her album Minx on the Portrait label.

• Vents Magazine: Dutch pop-rockband Chabliz, who play adventurous alternative rock, popnoir and gothicjazz, cite Toyah as one of their musical influences in a new interview at ‘Vents Magazine’.

• The Changeling Resurrection: Lots of video footage of Toyah’s gig at The Tunnels Bristol last April has been added to You Tube over the last couple of days.

• Channel 4 News: Is Punk Back From The Dead? is now available to watch at You Tube. As a new book is published featuring the origins of punk music in the lower east side of New York, Katie Razzall looks at how Punk magazine changed life in Britain.

• FM: The epsiode of FM in which Toyah makes a, very, brief appearance, but is mentioned a lot, has recently been uploaded in full at You Tube. Series One, Episode Two – System Addict: The group try to stick to some new resolutions: Dom gives up booze, Jane gives up cigarettes, and Lindsay gives up giving up on girls. Featuring a performance by The Wombats, and guest appearance by Toyah Willcox.

• Back To The 80s: The Ultimate Megamix Of The Year: A 43-minute mix which includes ‘I Want To Be Free’ (or “Upside Down”) and ‘Thunder In The Mountains’ and numerous other great tunes from 1981.

• Absolute 80s Radio: ‘It’s A Mystery’ has just been played this afternoon on AR. Apparently the ‘I Want To Be Free’ video is also being shown a lot on Vintage TV at the moment. (Thanks Michael)

• The Visitors: No, not ABBA’s 1981 album… The hits to Dreamscape last night and this morning have went through the roof. Always great news when the site is busy, though this time a large chuck of the visitors have arrived after searching for “wagon’s den geordie shore charlotte” or similar!!

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.

• Toyah, photographed at RTÉ in Dublin, last night guesting on Katherine Lynch’s Wagon’s Den. I think this airs this Thursday at 10.30pm on RTÉ 2, and will no doubt eventually appear on You Tube. There’s a little more info on Wagon’s Den in our previous post here. (Photo © Contact Music – View the full version at their website)

• Quadrophenia Live: It was announced yesterday that The Who will play the full Quadrophenia album on their forthcoming UK and Ireland arena tour. This was reported all over the internet and many of the articles included a namecheck for Toyah: Metro, NME, Contact Music.

• Toyah on TV: While on the subject of Quadrophenia, just a reminder that the film airs again tonight. Full details here.

• I Am Still Ashley Elsdon: Still Buying Vinyl: There are a handful of tracks that are on a list, the kind of list you know somehow you’ll never get to the end of. For me it’s a list of tracks I had once and now I’ve no idea where they are, so I have to get them again. This EP from Toyah is one. It has a track on it called Urban Tribesman, which I really loved, but it just doesn’t seem to be available on download or on a CD anywhere.

• In The Court Of The Crimson Queen: Every Home Should Have One! Just a little something I threw together while playing “the album of 2008” the other day. Please click to zoom. (All photos used © Dean Stockings/Toyah)

Two more rare-ish photos of Toyah from history! Both have been previously available but in far poorer quality. The first is from Toyah’s very first ‘Spotlight’ (the film, theatre and TV casting agency) profile in 1977. It was originally b&w rather than this colourised version. The second picture is from a Blue Meaning era photoshoot, photos from which were used in ‘Fab 208’ and ‘Jackie’ magazines in 1980. Please click on each to zoom. (Thanks to Craig Watkins (photo 1), Andi (photo 2) & Andrew York for colouring photo 1)

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)

It’s become a tradition over the years for Dreamscape to put together an “ad” for Toyah’s latest release… So, here’s one for ‘Sensational’. Available at iTunes, Amazon etc… Click here to view a larger version and below to watch the video at You Tube.

Rather than celebrating the fact that almost 40 years into her career Toyah is still making music, releasing videos and imagery, entertaining her fans (is there anybody else from the New Wave era that is still so busy and visible that a news website about them can be updated almost every day?) and much more, there seems to be even more negativity swirling around than usual, especially regarding the video for ‘Sensational’. Check out the video on You Tube for Toyah’s feelings on the matter!

Some people seemed quite excited yesterday that Pop Justice ran an article on Toyah and ‘Sensational’.

Toyah was a fairly big popstar in the early 1980s. It’s probably overstating things slightly to say that she was the Lady Gaga of her day because she didn’t really have the tunes, but you can’t argue with magazine covers like the one you see to your right. We reckon Toyah could probably have pulled off a fairly successful comeback on the back of this Weight Watchers ad appearance. You know the sort of thing – you find one or two up-and-coming acts who might be prepared to drop her name as an influence, Radio 2 play the single quite a bit, broadsheets do the usual ‘she was there at the dawn of the pop age now the original Gaga is back and she’s as colourful as ever’ pieces…

• Continue reading at Pop Justice.

• 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.

Yikes! Highly rare photos of Toyah taken at Mayhem in July 1979. A few from this session have been available for a few years (view them at Dreamscape’s 1978/79 Gallery). Please click below to view larger versions of these great photos. Thanks to Craig Watkins. (Photos © Philip Grey)

The full length video for Sensational was released this morning. Uplifting song, great visuals!

A very rare, and fantastic, photo of Toyah from around the time of the release of ‘Sheep Farming In Barnet’ (AP, not album) in 1979, along with a mini-poster by Dreamscape. Please click to zoom on that. (Thanks to Andi for the original photo)

Classic Toyah @ Dreamscape: Celebrating Toyah’s unique, colourful and exciting past while reporting the bang up-to-date Toyah news and views too. The Best Of Both!  ;))

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)

Yes, this is a word in your ear… Just uploaded to You Tube. Excellent quality footage of Toyah performing ‘We Are’, on German music programme RockPop, in 1981. Amazing! (Why didn’t British music shows emblazon huge photos of Toyah as backdrops?)

Exciting news! A newly edited, previously unseen, video for ‘Sensational’, from ‘In The Court Of The Crimson Queen’, is coming your way soon! Tune into Toyah’s official online channels first thing Monday morning. Here are some screen caps from the excellent 2007 video.

Check out Dreamscape’s 2009 feature on Toyah’s most recent studio album, In The Court Of The Crimson Queen. Charting the build up to the album’s release, official updates, reviews, fan opinions, photo sessions and much more. It’s sensational! ;)

There’s also Dreamscape’s ‘In The Court Of The Crimson Queen’ News Archive. Three years of news, info and updates all related to the album…

BBC Breakfast Time went on air 30 years ago this morning. The original programme logo and memorable theme tune still remind me of getting ready for school.

Toyah has guested on the programme numerous times over the years: In 1983, talking about ‘Love Is The Law’ and The Ebony Tower; in 1985, around ‘Minx’ time, talking about a tour that didn’t happen (see below); in 1987, talking about ‘Desire’ and Cabaret; in 2007, talking about panto in Reading and in 2008, talking about Vampires Rock.

BBC Breakfast is celebrating 30 years of broadcasting with a trip down memory lane

Considered a “huge risk” when it launched on 17 January 1983, Breakfast Time was the UK’s first regular national breakfast show. Famous for its magazine-style approach, it combined news and lighter features. The 30th anniversary show will feature appearances from some of the original team.

Introduced two weeks before rival broadcaster ITV’s TV-am with David Frost, Breakfast Time hoped to lure audiences away from radio with a combination of news, travel information and lifestyle segments. Although breakfast TV had been the staple diet in the US for three decades, the British public was wary of the innovation in 1983.

• Continue reading at BBC News. View Toyah’s 1985 Breakfast Time appearance below.

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!