Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

I have a couple of anniversary posts for tonight, but I thought I’d start with this one, which is of no real relevance to anyone but me. Sorry!

Tonight, Toyah is playing down the road (10 minutes walk) in Bishops Stortford. The occasion is ‘The Changeling The Resurrection 2012 – Celebrating The 30th Anniversary of The Changeling and Warrior Rock (Toyah On Tour)’

This made me smile, seeing Toyah was one of my first gigs. Brighton Centre 29th June 1982. This was the original Changeling tour.

I loved ‘Anthem’ at the time, but even moreso the more punky ‘Sheep Farming In Barnet’, but this was my first opportunity to see the band. I was 13 and a bit wee!

• Continue reading at Aural Sculptors (The Stranglers Live Archive).

The third monthly online live track has been added to Toyah’s official website. It’s the incredible ‘Castaways’, recorded live at Bush Hall, London on 22nd April 2012

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 ‘Castaways’, live at Bush Hall, London, here.

Time Flies! On this day, 27th April 1985 (yup), 27 years ago Toyah’s 15th single, and first ‘solo’ release, ‘Don’t Fall In Love (I Said)’ entered the UK singles chart. In retrospect, it’s a great pop song, written by Toyah and Simon Darlow, with an incredible b-side, ‘Snow Covers The Kiss’ (written by Toyah, Joel Bogen & Christopher Neil). Then there’s the unforgettable video. Personally, I can’t wait to hear it live on the ‘Minx: Trash & Tease 2015’ tour ;-))

‘BBC Hereford & Worcester’ have rejigged a recent Toyah BBC radio interview, mixed in lashings of great Toyah songs as the soundtrack, and added it to their “BBC Introducing…” page last night. Toyah talks ‘The Changeling’, the tour, the supernatural, punk and more.

Songs played: Be Proud Be Loud (Be Heard), Brave New World, Don’t Fall In Love (I Said), I Want To Be Free, Rebel Run. Running Time: 7m 38s.

Reissue! Repackage! (Hello to any fans of The Smiths who visit here. Still my favourite band after 30 years)

I’ve received some emails asking if I’d make this available again. So, for those who missed it on Saturday… for a limited time only (humour me, please)…

Marking the beginning of ‘The Changeling Resurrection 2012’ UK tour: ‘CASTAWAYS: Four (live) from Toyah’ EP.

1. Dawn Chorus/Moonlight Dancing (6.55 Special)
2. Brave New World (Get Set For Summer)
3. Street Creature (Get Set For Summer)
4. Castaways (Get Set For Summer)

Click on the artwork to view the “EP” at ‘Soundcloud’.

These tracks are all already available online, in video, at ‘You Tube’. As the new tour opens I thought creating an “EP” from them, showcasing four great live performances from ‘The Changeling’ era, would be a fitting way to celebrate this great occasion. Click here for a larger version of the artwork.

NB: Three of these songs were included in the set list of last Saturday’s gig in Brighton.

The ultimate celebration of, the mighty, ‘The Changeling’! Are you sitting comfortably?

Toyah was interviewed in 1998 by Richard Evans. This included Toyah discussing the forthcoming CD reissues of ‘Anthem’ and ‘The Changeling’.

HOW DOES IT MAKE YOU FEEL TO KNOW THAT ‘ANTHEM’ AND ‘THE CHANGELING’ ARE COMING OUT AGAIN ON CD AFTER ALL THESE YEARS?

I’m relieved they’ve come out because for years people have been asking me to put them out and nothing’s been done about it, so I’m hugely relieved that they’ve been put out because there’s a demand. There’s a massive demand in the commercial world to use songs such as ‘It’s A Mystery’ and ‘Thunder In The Mountains’ on films and adverts which from a writers point of view I would really like to see happen as it gives the music a new audience.

What’s even better for me is that it’s ‘The Changeling’, which has been the most positively received… when we first released ‘The Changeling’ it was such a huge departure from ‘Anthem’ that it actually got slated in the press, it sold well, but not as well as ‘Anthem’ and it’s actually a better album. I mean it’s now getting better star-ratings in the reviews and that’s bloody brilliant, I’m really chuffed about that!

• Continue reading this great interview at ‘This Is Not Retro’ here.

Screen caps from the 1982 interview. Click on these to view larger versions.

This rare television interview is from that amazing Summer of 1982, the fantastic era of ‘The Changeling’. I’m not sure what the programme was called (possibly… It’ll Be A Laugh, Let’s Get The Office Junior To Do The Interviews This Week… just kidding, we love him really!). Toyah looks incredible here (how absolutely vibrant did Toyah look throughout 1982?) and talks ‘Brave New World’, making the video, ‘The Changeling’ tour dates and more.

This is an interesting interview from around the time of ‘The Changeling’ album and the UK tour. Toyah and Joel talk the music, the imagery, the fans, the songwriting, sex appeal and much more. Toyah also explains the origins of the “breast bared” photo(s) and why it was taken.

“I’d like to have Bo Derek’s body and someone else’s brain…”

It wasn’t until my third interview in nine weeks with Toyah that I felt confident enough to broach the subject of sex. As casually as I possibly could, I suggested to her that compared to other female artists ranging from Kim Wilde to Kate Bush to Souxsie, her image contains virtually no sex appeal, despite being a young, vivacious, attractive girl.

“I think, supposedly onstage, there’s much more sex appeal than in the photos” she counters. ” But I couldn’t do an Annabella (Lwin of Bow Wow Wow), I couldn’t show parts of my body…”

WHAAAT!! There’s that infamous pic of you with one breast bared and daubed with painted circles which has appeared almost everywhere from Sounds and Punk’s Not Dead to The Sun!

“Oh the ‘boob photo’ that’s the only one that exists, and no one knows why that was done” she offers matter of factly.

• Continue reading at the ‘Dreamscape Press Archive’ here.

Marking tonight’s premiere concert of ‘The Changeling Resurrection 2012’ UK tour: Available for one day only, ‘CASTAWAYS: Four (live) from Toyah’ EP.

1. Dawn Chorus/Moonlight Dancing (6.55 Special)
2. Brave New World (Get Set For Summer)
3. Street Creature (Get Set For Summer)
4. Castaways (Get Set For Summer)

Click on the artwork to view the EP at ‘Soundcloud’ or listen via the player below.

These tracks are all already available online, in video, at ‘You Tube’. As the new tour opens I thought creating an EP from them, showcasing four great live performances from ‘The Changeling’ era, would be a fitting way to celebrate this great occasion. Click here for a larger version of the artwork. (UPDATE: This is no longer available)

Yet another exciting Changeling tweet from Toyah yesterday: “6 songs from The Changeling gone into new set for Resurrection tour. Can’t wait. Love toyah“.

There’s now just one, yes one, day to go until the first gig of ‘The Changeling Resurrection 2012’ tour.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of ‘The Changeling’, artist Mark Satchwill created this amazing Toyah art.

Mark said: “It’s 30 years since Toyah released The Changeling, and as she is touring the album I thought I would do a painting to mark the occasion. The painting is inspired by Toyah’s amazing and colourful image and the songs lyrics of the album. It was painted digitally in ArtRage 3.5 Pro.”

A fantastic, lasting tribute to the album, it’s lyrics, themes and imagery. Visit Mark’s official website, and his blog.

There are now just two days to go until ‘The Changeling Resurrection 2012’ is finally unleashed. What will be included in the set list? Which songs from the album have made it into the 30th anniversary celebratory tour? What will Toyah look like? What will she be wearing?

It really is fantastic that Toyah is taking the time to, yet again, indulge her fans in this way. I’m sure everyone who is heading to Brighton for Saturday’s gig must be getting ridiculously excited.

The imagery created for ‘The Changeling’ album is not only some of the finest of Toyah’s many different looks and guises but also probably the best of any pop star’s visuals. Especially when you consider that they were achieved without digital trickery, airbrushing and photoshop. Astounding creativity and ideas. The two below are particularly beautiful and timeless.

Just three days to go…

A short excerpt from Toyah’s autobiography, published in August 2000, ‘Living Out Loud’.

Toyah talks about ‘The Changeling’, and some of the events of 1982: Winning ‘Best Female Singer’ at The British Rock & Pop Awards, sacking her manager, feeling that her images and hairstyles were becoming outdated etc.

Toyah also mentions the reasons why herself and Joel decided to record an album with much darker themes after the huge success of ‘Anthem’ the year before.

• Listen to ‘The Changeling’ set of Toyah interviews and audio, at ‘Soundcloud’, here.

• A Tale Of Two Anthems: The ‘what’s new’ section of Spotify keeps displaying an album called Anthem by somebody called Desolation Angels, with a strangely familiar cover. It reminded me of something… View this interesting article at ‘Skuds’ Sister’s Brother’ blog.

• View a short article on Brum at the, quite brilliant, ‘Retro Rambling’ blog, “A joyride through our slightly ridiculous though memorable past”

• ‘The Telegraph’ included ‘Let’s Rock The Moor 2012’ in its “Top 100 Music Festivals: April – September 2012” on Monday: Not so much rockin’ the moor as inundating it with hits of the mid-Eighties. View here.

• Toyah is included in the ‘Heart’ Who’s On Heart: “Wrong Guesses – Women Pt 2” gallery. View here.

Toyah’s ‘Pop Star’, Alan Parsons’ ‘The Raven’ and Orson Welles? This shouldn’t work, but it does!

Tom Leon has uploaded to ‘house mixes.com’ two mash-ups he created in the mid-90’s:

1995: Long before mashups or bootlegs are gone to mainstream, I created a special mix….. really handmade with discs and effect-recording:

One of my first bootleg-mixes and I like it to this day! It is a fusion between Alan Parsons The Raven and the voice of Toyah Willcox. Hope U like it?

Listen to ‘Awake’n Dreams (On A Lost City Of Mars) [Shortplay Fusion Mix]’ here, and ‘Awake’n Dreams (On A Lost City Of Mars) [Smooth House Version]’, here.

The full Sky Trax Toyah Special. This aired in 1985 around the time of the release of ‘Don’t Fall In Love (I Said)’. It’s a great programme, hosted by one of Toyah’s biggest supporters in the 80s, Peter Powell. This was a one-hour show with Toyah talking about her career, including Glitter, Jubilee, Katharine Hepburn, Quadrophenia, the early live gigs, 1981 and a lot more. Sky Trax was a music show, with a variety of hosts including Radio 1 DJs, covering music from all over Europe. It aired on ‘Sky Channel’, Europe’s very first satellite channel (which began as a cable channel in 1982) and was renamed ‘Sky One’ in 1989. View larger caps here.

Yikes! Just four short days to go until the first concert of ‘The Changeling Resurrection 2012’.

‘The Changeling’ has been my, and many other Toyah fans’, favourite Toyah album for almost 30 years. When you consider Toyah’s best album releases: ‘Sheep Farming In Barnet’, ‘The Blue Meaning’, ‘Anthem’, ‘Love Is The Law’, ‘Desire’, ‘Prostitute’, ‘Ophelia’s Shadow’, ‘In The Court Of The Crimson Queen’… ‘The Changeling’ can only be described as “the best of the best”. Impressive!

Back in early 2007 I started building a feature for Dreamscape on ‘The Changeling’. I didn’t initially realise the feature would end up taking months to complete and would become one of the Toyah creations I’m most proud of. I’ve always felt Toyah’s 1982 studio album deserves to be celebrated, which is why I did so throughout Dreamscape’s 12 years and continue to on FTE. Rather than “pretentious twaddle” (who said that? :)) it’s a brilliant, and brilliantly dark ,’concept’ album that has grown in stature and reputation over the last 30 years!

On this week’s UK Indie album chart,

5. Stations Of The Crass – Crass
4. Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! – Toyah
3. Closer – Joy Division
2. Dirk Wears White Sox – Adam and the Ants
1. He Who Dares Wins – Theatre Of Hate

What an amazing top five. Every one of those albums still sound good in 2012. View the full and original ATV documentary TOYAH that includes music from ‘Toyah! Toyah! Toyah!’.

• Info Source: ‘The River 103.7’. View here.