Toyah presents two new limited edition official t-shirts that are available to order now. Featuring illustrations that celebrate Toyah’s Minx and Blue Meaning eras. Watch Toyah “modelling” both t-shirts at Facebook and Instagram.
• Click below to order the t-shirts. (Images from a video that is © Toyah Willcox)
Toyah unboxes two new picture discs. Both are released on 21st March. Watch at Facebook or Instagram.
• Pre-order the new Sheep Farming In Barnet and The Blue Meaning limited edition Picture Disc vinyl LPs at Cherry Red Records. (Image from a video that is © Toyah Willcox)
Two brand new Official Toyah T-shirts are available as part of a new 2025 Limited Edition Collection. Throughout the year toyahwillcox.com will launch four sets of t-shirts – plus a special design for Christmas.
Up first to order is Set One, featuring illustrations that celebrate the Minx and Blue Meaning eras. Available only until 30 April 2025.
• Further info, and pre-order the first two-set of t-shirts, here.
It’s the first Toyah At Home of the new year, and Toyah is gearing up for an exciting year ahead.
There’s news of forthcoming Picture Discs of the classic albums Sheep Farming and The Blue Meaning, out on 21 March plus some rare footage.
After four years of a series of charting and well-received album catalogue reissues in expanded and collectible form, Toyah and Cherry Red Records is delighted to announce there are further surprises in store for next year.
On 21 March 2025, Cherry Red Records will release two strictly limited edition picture discs of the 1980 Toyah albums Sheep Faming In Barnet and The Blue Meaning, marking each album’s 45th anniversary.
Both of the album picture discs feature rare and unseen imagery unearthed by Toyah’s archivist, and are pressed with the 2020 album remaster by Nick Watson, overseen by Joel Bogen. The vinyl records come protected in a PVC sleeve which is housed in a special die-cut outer jacket that carries a further unseen images to create a spectacular collector’s item celebrating the album’s original music and imagery.
Both albums can be pre-ordered ahead of their March 2025 release.
• Continue reading at toyahwillcox.com. Pre-order both vinyls at Cherry Red Records.
Toyah’s 1980 studio album, The Blue Meaning, will be released on limited edition picture disc on 21st March, marking the album’s 45th anniversary.
• 45th anniversary release of Toyah’s 1980 album ‘The Blue Meaning’.
• Limited-edition picture disc features four stunning colour photographs from the album photography shot at gothic mansion, Wykehurst Place in Sussex.
• In addition to the full colour picture disc, pressed with the 2021 album remaster by Nick Watson, the vinyl come protected in a PVC sleeve and is housed in a special die-cut outer jacket that carries a further rare and unseen images unearthed from the archives.
Produced by Steve James and ‘Toyah’ the band – Joel Bogen, Pete Bush, Toyah Willcox, Steve Bray and Charlie Francis, the album reached number 1 on the UK Independent Album Chart and charted in the main UK Top 40 album chart in June 1980.
The album includes the ultimate fan favourite ‘Ieya’ considered a signature song by the band, which was also released as a single. It also includes ‘Blue Meanings’, ‘Mummies’ and the psychedelic ‘Spaced Walking’ for which Toyah’s vocals were recorded after inhaling helium.
• See further details/tracklist and artwork at toyahwillcox.com. Pre-order the release at Cherry Red Records.
Christmas 2024, and The Official Toyah Willcox website and related social media announced two exciting new releases for March 2025, beautiful picture discs of Toyah’s first two albums: Sheep Farming In Barnet and The Blue Meaning.
Official Toyah also revealed: In 2025, an exciting series of releases will mark Toyah’s over 45 years in music with a celebration of albums, singles and images.
A special edit of vintage performance clips of the song Blue Meanings from the album The Blue Meaning, released on LP vinyl and 2CD+DVD 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.
A 140g black vinyl LP of the remastered version of Toyah’s 1980 album The Blue Meaning is released on 15th July 2022.
The second disc in a re-issue programme of Toyah’s entire Safari Records catalogue following the limited edition neon pink coloured vinyl LP version released by Cherry Red in May 2021 which immediately sold out.
Produced by Steve James and ‘Toyah’ the band – Joel Bogen, Pete Bush, Toyah Willcox, Steve Bray and Charlie Francis, the album reached #1 on the UK Independent Album Chart and charted in the main UK Top 40 album chart in June 1980.
Includes the ultimate fan favourite ‘Ieya’, considered a signature song by the band, which was also released as a single, plus ‘Blue Meanings’, ‘Mummies’ and the psychedelic ‘Spaced Walking’ for which Toyah’s vocals were recorded after inhaling helium.
A Punk/New Wave classic featuring a brand new inner bag with rare and unseen imagery of Toyah, plus official lyrics for the album.
• Click below to pre-order the vinyl at Cherry Red Records.
Available to stream and download now… Track by Track Commentary Editions of the classic Toyah albums Sheep Farming In Barnet and The Blue Meaning. Listen to Toyah go behind the music and listen to the remastered album too.
The remastered and expanded deluxe editions of Toyah’s first two albums Sheep Farming In Barnet and The Blue Meaning can now be downloaded or streamed in 24-bit sound from supported platforms. Click on either, or both, album title for links.
More Official Chart placings for The Blue Meaning.
Album chart #59
Rock chart #1
Independent chart #4
Sales chart #12
Physical chart #12
Vinyl chart #14
Scottish chart #16
Toyah tweeted and Instagrammed about the great news over the weekend, saying:
“Wonderful news that The Blue Meaning has charted in the UK @officialcharts yesterday & topped the Rock & Metal Chart. Thank you!! Toyah xx”
Great news, the reissued The Blue Meaning has entered the Official Rock & Metal Album Chart at number 1. The album also entered the Official Charts Top 100 Albums chart at number 59.
“I was very reliable” Toyah tells SDE
Toyah Willcox, the new queen of ‘Sunday Lunch’ lockdown videos talks to SDE about the reissue of Toyah’s 1980s album The Blue Meaning. This is the second major release in Cherry Red’s reissue campaign, since the label acquired Safari Records in early 2020.
SDE: You’ve been keeping busy during lockdown – I’ve seen the videos – but you must have missed playing live, since you used to do it so much?
Toyah Willcox: Yes, that’s true, but I managed to build a pretty phenomenal… brand name in lockdown. So we’re going to continue with it. It’s been a phenomenon we never expected, and it’s still growing. In a couple of years we’ll have our own TV channel, doing our own TV broadcasts. What seems to have struck home is the very basic truth and simplicity of what we do. We’re not in hi-tech studios or anything like that, but we’ll actually be broadening the whole of that.
• Continue reading at Super Deluxe Edition. Browse Dreamscape’s SDE news archive.
The fantastic deluxe, and remastered, reissue of The Blue Meaning has this week been charting on iTunes, Amazon and, most significantly, on The Official Charts’ Album Midweeks – at an amazing No. 22!!
Stream The Blue Meaning on Spotify to see a new animation for each of the album tracks and hear 27 bonus tracks. Or order the stunning pink vinyl or 2CD+DVD.
• Browse Dreamscape’s Toyah on the Official Charts news archive here.
Buy the gorgeous pink vinyl edition of The Blue Meaning. It is sold out at Cherry Red but is still available, in all of it’s pink glory, at Amazon UK.
Toyah – The Blue Meaning (Expanded Deluxe Edition): Album Review
Dark, intense and disturbingly graphic – an early masterpiece by Toyah revisited
Release Date: 28th May 2021
Label: Cherry Red Records
Formats: 2CD + 1DVD, Limited Edition Coloured Vinyl
Cherry Red Records have done it yet again! This week’s lucky recipient of their deluxe reissue treatment is Toyah and the band’s second album, 1980’s The Blue Meaning. In fact, Cherry Red are working their way through Toyah’s Safari Records catalogue – the band’s debut album, Sheep Farming In Barnet, has already received the deluxe repackaging and the rest of the bunch, Anthem (1981) The Changeling (1982) and Love Is The Law (1983) will be along soon – a veritable treasure trove from the happiest, most productive and most creative period of Toyah’s career. Oh – and for clarity – at this stage in the career of Toyah Willcox, Toyah was the collective name for the band in which she featured – Joel Bogen on guitar, Charlie Francis on bass, Steve Bray on drums, Peter Bush on keyboards and Toyah herself on vocals (or verbals and unusual sounds, as the album’s excellent sleeve notes put it.)
• Continue reading at At The Barrier.
Toyah – The Blue Meaning
Expanded Edition (Cherry Red)
With the context of the passing of time, this is all brilliantly boundary-pushing music, and The Blue Meaning is an album which could astound the unprepared. Pure gold
The Cherry Red Toyah reissue programme continues with the second album, 1980’s The Blue Meaning, following on from the excellent reissue of the Sheep Farming In Barnet debut. As with its predecessor, The Blue Meaning is a very different proposition to the impression casual listeners tend to have of the pop-punk singer with the wild hair taking It’s A Mystery and I Want To Be Free to the upper reaches of the singles charts. In truth, that image was always a false one when the albums were listened to in their entirety, but even more in the case of these earliest records. In fact, the next studio album following this would be Anthem, the first big hit album which contained those two singles, but you would never guess that from the music contained here, which is dark, edgy and often brilliantly experimental. The Sheep Farming In Barnet album had contained a great mix of post-punk attitude with a sort of ‘difficult prog’ edge to it, but on this follow-up things got even more serious and uncompromising, both in terms of lyrical matter and musical content, and this three-disc reissue rounds it up with some tremendous extra material from the time to produce a definitive edition if ever there was one.
• Continue reading at Velvet Thunder.
Toyah unboxes the new 2CD+DVD edition of The Blue Meaning, released by Cherry Red Records this Friday, 28th May 2021. Pre-order this or the neon pink vinyl LP edition at Cherry Red.
Today’s Toyah At Home was a one-hour special dedicated to The Blue Meaning, which is reissued in deluxe CD/DVD format and colour vinyl next week! Watch at You Tube by clicking below.
A review of The Blue Meaning by We Are Cult.
Toyah: ‘The Blue Meaning’
“Cherry Red’s second re-release of Toyah’s early output, The Blue Meaning is full of lyrics that reflect her interest in sci fi, occultism and Nostradamus… Self-admittedly pretentious in a good way, Toyah’s lyrics and singing style often also seem to be influenced by Broken English-era Marianne Faithful and Patti Smith.”
1980 was a busy year for Toyah. Working as both an actress and a musician she was only 22 but had already appeared in films such as Quadrophenia, Derek Jarman’s Jubilee and The Tempest and George Cukor’s remake of The Corn Is Green with Katherine Hepburn and Patricia Hayes. As well as television work in Shoestring, Second City Firsts and the TV remake of Quatermass, Toyah had also already acted in productions at the National Theatre.
In this short one-year period Toyah starred in a Royal Court production of the controversial Nigel Williams play Sugar and Spice, filmed over the course of three months for an hour-long ATV documentary, appeared in the TV series A Question of Guilt and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and guest-hosted the talk show Friday Night, Saturday Morning in which she interviewed (and played Space Invaders with!) Steve Strange, Derek Jarman and Vivian Stanshall. The year was also the prelude to her chart success of 1981, which occasioned hit singles It’s A Mystery, I Want To Be Free and Thunder in the mountains and numerous Smash Hits and Look-In covers.
• Continue reading at We Are Cult.
