A new taster of the remastered Toyah Live At Drury Lane is out now… the mighty “We Are”!
• Stream/download now by clicking below. Pre-order LADL on CD+DVD or 2LP vinyl at Cherry Red.
A vintage television clip of the song “Jungles Of Jupiter” live at Drury Lane, filmed in 1981. This track is from the forthcoming live 2LP and CD+DVD “Live At Drury Lane”, released on 12 May by Cherry Red.
There’s new songs every Saturday morning uploaded to the Toyah channel in the 11am Toyah At Home slot. Remember to catch a new monthly Toyah At Home special at 11am on the first Saturday of each month.
Toyah’s debut album Sheep Farming In Barnet is now available to pre-order on black vinyl in its 2020 remaster, out 16 June. Pre-order from from Cherry Red by clicking below.
Released digitally this Friday (14 April), the first taster of the newly remastered Live At Drury Lane live album. Catch Jungles Of Jupiter on streaming and digital download, ahead of the 12 May release of the full legendary Christmas Eve ‘81 concert.
Meanwhile pre-order the live album on CD+DVD or 2LP vinyl at Cherry Red by clicking below.
A vintage television clip of the song “Danced”, filmed in 1979., from the album Sheep Farming In Barnet.
There’s new songs every Saturday morning uploaded to the Toyah channel in the 11am ‘Toyah At Home’ slot. Remember to catch a new monthly Toyah At Home special at 11am on the first Saturday of each month.
Toyah’s album In The Court Of The Crimson Queen | Rhythm Deluxe Edition is out now to stream, download or buy on CD or translucent 2LP red vinyl. Order here.
Toyah celebrated the song Dance In The Hurricane in Toyah & Robert’s Sunday Lunch, which premiered yesterday at You Tube and Facebook. (Photos © Toyah Willcox)
Toyah’s message – and unboxing – for the Rhythm Deluxe Edition of the Crimson Queen album, out Friday 10th February on Demon Music on 2LP red vinyl and CD and featuring Robert Fripp on 4 tracks including Slave To The Rhythm. Pre-order the album. Click below to watch Toyah’s CQ message.
Latex Messiah (Posh Redux) featuring Robert Fripp was released today digitally. Taken from the upcoming Deluxe Edition of In The Court Of The Crimson Queen, which is released – on CD and translucent red double vinyl – on 10th February.
Toyah introduces the new version on Toyah At Home tomorrow at 11am. Latex Messiah gets some utterly eyepopping new Latex visuals courtesy of Toyah & Robert in this week’s Sunday Lunch! Airing at midday on Sunday (15th January).
• Stream or download Latex Messiah by clicking below.
Phil Marriott spoke with Saxon drummer Nigel Glockler about his time with Toyah in 1981, a hugely successful time for Toyah and her band, during which they released the No.2 album Anthem and hits such as ‘It’s A Mystery’ and ‘Thunder In The Mountains’.
Coming this Friday! Toyah’s new digital single Sensational (Posh Redux) featuring Robert Fripp.
Produced by Simon Darlow, the single is a follow-up to Slave To The Rhythm and previews the forthcoming Rhythm Deluxe Edition of In The Court Of The Crimson Queen.
Following Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! (May 2022, #72) and Anthem (September 2022, #33), Toyah secures a third Top 100 album in 2022 on The Official Charts today, with Live At The Rainbow entering at #100. Not only that, though, Live At The Rainbow places very well in various other Official Chart album countdowns today.
Album Chart #100
Independent Chart #7
Sales Chart #24
Physical Chart #22
Scottish Chart #34
Live At The Rainbow also charted at #36 in the Official Chart Album Update (aka Midweeks) earlier this week.
• Chart Stats: Toyah has now had seven albums on the Official Charts in the past four consecutive years: In The Court Of The Crimson Queen (2019) #74, Sheep Farming In Barnet (2020) #99, The Blue Meaning (2021) #59, Posh Pop (2021) #22, Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! (2022) #72, Anthem (2022) #33, Live At The Rainbow (2022) #100.
NB. As well as those album stats, the two box sets, Toyah Solo (March 2020), and The Humans: Noise In Your Head (July 2020), both entered a number of the Official Charts, including Sales and Independent.
• More Toyah Chart News: Browse Dreamscape’s Official Charts archive… Download/Stream or buy the vinyl or CD/DVD of Live At The Rainbow.
Four More From Toyah is reissued on Special Neon Violet Vinyl by Cherry Red Records on Friday 9th December 2022.
Limited quantity of limited edition postcard available from Cherry Red Records whilst stocks last. (NB. These sold out almost immediately)
The release expands the 1981 EP ‘Four More From Toyah’ into an eight- track mini-LP, compiled by Craig Astley and newly remastered from the original master tapes.
Originally released in late November 1981 and lead by the track ‘Good Morning Universe’, the EP was the fourth top 20 charting single for the band in that year, following the ‘Four From Toyah’ EP (lead by ‘It’s A Mystery’), ‘I Want To Be Free’ and ‘Thunder In The Mountains’.
The EP was the first material to be studio-recorded since the departure of drummer Nigel Glockler who was replaced by Simon Phillips. This EP contains eight tracks recorded by the line- up of Toyah Willcox (vocals), Joel Bogen (guitarist, co-writer and co-founder of the Toyah band), Adrian Lee (keyboards), Phil Spalding (bass) and the newly recruited Simon Phillips (drums).
Side A contains all four of the tracks from the original EP.
Side B opens with the previously unreleased, studio recorded tour intro track ‘Go Berserk’, including new vocals and snatches of lyrics from ‘Neon Womb’ and ‘Urban Tribesmen’ plus new dialogue that leads to a chilling crescendo. ‘Go Berserk’ was played before the band walked on stage on the European Tour of winter 1981. It is swiftly followed by the newly remastered ‘Stand Proud’ which often featured as the first song played live (directly after Go Berserk had finished). The track originally appeared on a flexi-disc with initial copies of the ‘Four More From Toyah’ EP.
The third track is ‘Clapham Junction’, an out-take that began in the session for the single ‘Thunder In The Mountains’, was finished with new drum parts from Simon Phillips and vocals/ lyrics from Toyah.
The final track is the last session recorded by this line-up and hails from February 1982. This previously unreleased re-recording of the hit single ‘I Want To Be Free’ was produced by Steve Lillywhite in the Roundhouse Studios and went on to be used as the basis of the band’s television performance on the British Rock & Pop Awards when Toyah was awarded Best Female Singer in early 1982. This track has not previously been released.
All eight tracks are remastered by Nick Watson at Fluid Mastering and approved by Joel Bogen. The sleeve contains an out-take of the EP photography from the Safari archives plus full lyrics on a newly designed inner bag. Initial quantities come with an exclusive postcard.
• Pre-Order Four More From Toyah on Neon Violet Vinyl at Cherry Red (The limited edition with postcard sold out almost immediately!). Read the press release – and see the full tracklist, which includes two previously unreleases tracks – at toyahwillcox.com.
Following last year’s Brave New World bauble, here’s new Anthem and Thunder In The Mountains inspired baubles for Christmas 2022.
LIVE REVIEW: TOYAH + VANITY FAIRY AT THE FLEECE, BRISTOL
Here’s a review I’ve long dreamed of writing; namely my favourite live artist, in my favourite live music venue, in my favourite city. If that isn’t enough to make it an interesting night out, my wife is also joining me – her first live gig for forty years. Here, it has to be categorically stated that my wife has no musical passions for Toyah but, as I discovered the Birmingham singer/actress back in 1980 and my wife as recently as 1988, she’s always been (mostly) very patient and contented herself with eye-rolling while I relive my teenage years of enthusiastic pogo dancing. An added element here is that both my wife and I are disabled – this being a key issue for her not attending gigs for so long – so it would naturally be interesting to see how the venue catered for us less-mobile types. Here, knowing The Fleece well was a distinct advantage. To me, it’s the perfect music location, consisting of a single, long room with not a trace of evil staircases. However, we contacted The Fleece well in advance to ask about specific details concerning disabled patrons. The venue did not disappoint us, being courteous and helpful through every stage of the booking process. So, before we get to Toyah, a shout out to Holly Angus and the team in Bristol for their support.
• Continue reading at Joyzine.
SDEtv examines the three physical editions of Cherry Red’s reissue of Toyah’s Anthem, including the super deluxe edition box set. Click below to watch.
Read Toyah’s latest blog at toyahwillcox.com. Including Toyah on Anthem, the Anthem Tour, Weightless and more!
Toyah – Anthem
Deluxe Reissue (Cherry Red)
This is, of all the Toyah reissues this far, also recommended to the casual fan. It contains just as much challenging ‘meat’ as the previous albums, but with the familiar hooks which will help less seasoned travellers navigate the truly fascinating outposts. Unreservedly recommended.
With this 2CD/DVD set, the deluxe Toyah reissue campaign from Cherry Red reaches 1981 – with an amazing four releases having spanned the previous two years from 1979. Anthem, the third studio album, was both the mainstream breakthrough and simultaneously an album which almost didn’t get made. Following the previous year’s live album Toyah! Toyah! Toyah!, the band (which we must remind ourselves, was itself named ‘Toyah’, in much the same way as ‘Alice Cooper’ was originally the band name as well as the frontman) fell apart, leaving just Toyah herself and creative lynchpin guitarist Joel Bogen. A short-lived band was assembled but quickly fell apart again after not really working out, and it seemed as if Toyah, the band, might be done. Toyah herself almost became the full-time vocalist with the band Blood Donor, who had the original version of It’s A Mystery in their repertoire, but after a few demo recordings that didn’t come to fruition. Nick Tauber, recruited as producer again after his work on the live album, pulled together a new crew along with Bogen, comprising bassist Phil Spalding, keyboardist Adrian Lee and future Saxon drummer Nigel Glockler. The new line-up recorded and released the four-track EP Four From Toyah early in 1981, with It’s A Mystery as its lead track, and the record’s unexpected massive success ensured they would not look back from that point on.
• Continue reading at Velvet Thunder. See more reviews of Anthem and other releases here.
Toyah, on the Anthem Tour 2022, at Bristol Fleece on Thursday 29th September. The set list included the following songs from Anthem: We Are, Pop Star, Jungles Of Jupiter, Obsolete, It’s A Mystery, Demolition Men, Marionette, I Want To Be Free. Click on the photos below for larger versions. (Thanks to Ian | Photos © Ian Davis)
Toyah, on the Anthem Tour 2022, at Leeds Brudenell on Saturday 24th September. Thanks to Sharon for these great photos. Click on them for larger versions. (Photos © Sharon Dickson)
A montage from the Anthem Tour 2022 at Epic Studios Norwich (16th September). See/hear a full version of Pop Star from the same gig here. (Thanks to Julie and Tony)
Join Toyah for a deep dive into the music and stories and your questions answered in the third of three new specials dedicated to Anthem. As the classic Gold-certified selling album receives its long-awaited remastered, expanded and deluxe release, this special celebrates the songs, the images and history in style. Enjoy much-loved songs, rarely seen footage plus and an extended selection of your questions answered by Toyah as she goes behind the music.
• Toyah At Home – The Anthem Specials: Part 3 premieres on Saturday 24th September, 11am at Toyah’s Official You Tube channel & Facebook. (Image © Toyah Willcox)
