Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

• Saturday Song: The Vow – Watch… • Toyah & Robert’s Sunday Lunch – The 2025 Bloopers – Watch… See also Happy Christmas From Toyah & Robert and Fripp & Eno – Watch… Image © Toyah)

Toyah, Robert, Fripp & Eno wished everyone a Happy Christmas on 25th December with a very festive video. Click below to watch at YouTube (Image © Toyah)

It’s Christmas Eve! Wishing everyone who has taken the time to visit Dreamscape this year a very Merry Christmas and a Happy 2026 – This year has been yet another incredibly busy one for Toyah, and for me, attempting to keep up with her again on this news page these past 12 months.

I hope you’ve enjoyed our countdown to Christmas, a month packed full of Toyah nostalgia and a few new baubles of info along the way. December always goes by really fast, or at least seems to. I wish it would last longer as it’s such a magical month and the lead up to Christmas is always my favourite time of the year, but I’ve enjoyed updating every day again this month, alongside doing some fun things in my everyday life too.

For the first time in 26 years, I have, not one but, two website Christmas cards for Dreamscape’s Christmas Eve post, and I couldn’t decide which one to post so I’m including both. Well, it is Christmas!

Okay, it’s time to get rocking (and eating) around that Christmas tree – Have a good one! Merry Christmas to you and yours x

The night of Christmas Eve 1981… will always be one of my most cherished Toyah memories, not only because it’s a legendary night from Toyah’s career at the culmination of a year we all remember so fondly, but it also has a very poignant significance to me. This night was the final time I ever saw my Gran before she died, and I will always remember that she actually commented positively on Toyah and the concert before she left on Christmas Eve. I love that the last words I ever heard my dear Gran say were about another woman who has meant so much to me through my life! So, yes, a very personal Christmas memory that I’ve never shared before.

Christmas 1981, Following an incredible year of huge hit singles, gold-selling album, tours, a multitude of images, hundreds of press interviews and numerous television appearances, Toyah closed her/their sensational 1981 by playing the final date of the Good Morning Universe European Tour, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London on Christmas Eve.

This was Toyah’s third, and final, tour of the year, following the College Tour at the beginning of 1981 and the Anthem Tour in the middle of the year. The gig was broadcast live on BBC2  – and simultaneously in stereo on BBC Radio 1 – on The Old Grey Whistle Test – introduced by Radio 1/TOGWT legend, Annie Nightingale – as their annual Christmas Eve concert for 1981, in a schedule that also included everything from a festive All Creatures Great & Small, to an episode of Russell Harty At Home.

The band were: Toyah Willcox (Vocals|), Joel Bogen (Guitar), Adrian Lee (Keyboards), Phil Spalding (Bass Guitar, Vocals), Simon Phillips (Drums). The concert was released on regular VHS (and Limited Edition hardback cover VHS with an Introduction note by Toyah) by BBC Video in 1982.

As part of Cherry Red Record’s reissue schedule of Toyah’s complete Safari Records discography, Toyah Live At Drury Lane was released on double vinyl album and CD+DVD for the first time in May 2023, a fitting full-circle for this legendary and memorable concert.

Toyah was among a small number who received this not inconsiderable accolade during the 1970s/80s golden era of music. Others bands/artists who were gifted The Old Grey Whistle Test festive concert over the years included Elton John (1974), Queen (1975), Rod Stewart (1976), The Kinks (1977), 10CC (1978), Ian Dury & The Blockheads (1980), Elton John (1982), Paul Young (1983).

Toyah would later recall: “I spent one Christmas in complete euphoria after doing the Drury Lane Whistle Test. I can remember driving home to Birmingham that night and it was snowing. Everything was just wonderful and I remained on a high after doing that show for about ten days.“

Toyah’s Theatre Royal, Drury Lane/The Old Grey Whistle Test concert has become an intrinsic and memorable part of Christmas. A legendary event that thousands attended and many millions watched, and remember as such a special moment in Toyah’s career as well as everyone’s Christmas – past, present and, no doubt, future! 

Here’s a fab Christmas Eve treat, courtesy of my pal, and fellow Toyah fan, Brian.

An AI video for Toyah’s legendary Anthem album track Jungles Of Jupiter. This is a completely non profit project and created as a fan tribute to Toyah’s inspirational imagery and music. Watch below or at Dreamscape’s YouTube channel.

Toyah has been an incredible inspiration to us, for almost our entire lives. So many friendships that wouldn’t have happened, so much joy and happiness, so much music and creative visuals…

Christmas 1996, Toyah contributed a thoughtful festive recollection of Christmas Times past to the charity publication Once Upon A Christmas (Memories and Recipes From Your Favourite Celebrities). This book is now long out of print and unavailable.

In this delightful Christmas book, a host of our most popular and well-known celebrities from all walks of life have contributed stories, memories, recipes and thoughts about Christmas to make this the most irresistible festive anthology there is… Once Upon A Christmas will help to put – and keep – you in the Christmas spirit.

Toyah Willcox: Broadcaster and Singer

Childhood Christmasses were the most magical. It was the appearance of the Christmas tree that cued two weeks of sheer all-encompassing joy. I’m talking about being four years old. Just able to talk but unable to comprehend the hidden meanings of the words of wisdom from the giants, the adults…

• Continue reading Toyah’s Once Upon A Christmas contribution at Dreamscape’s Press Archive.

• Christmas Song: I Believe In Father Christmas (Enhanced) – Watch… • Toyah & Robert: UpBeat Moments – Watch… • Toyah & Robert’s Sunday Lunch – Wishing You A Merry Christmas – Watch… (Image © Toyah Willcox)

It’s Christmas Eve Eve – always been my favourite day of the year… So from me to everyone who reads this, and each and every one of you who has visited Dreamscape in 2025, wishing you a very Merry Christmas Eve Eve and all the best for 2026!

I took another trip up to The Highlands last week for, yes, another festive day out. We had breakfast, and later dinner, at The Great Glen in Fort William and had a Christmassy day in and around the town. Delightful, and of course we took some photos…

• See all our 2025 “tour dates” :) here! (Photos © David Fleming)

Christmas 2012, Toyah guested on Steve Lamacq’s Rock College on BBC Radio 2 as ‘Guest Lecturer’, discussing how absolutely life-changing first discovering David Bowie was for her when growing up in Birmingham in the early 1970s.

Toyah talks about the legendary album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, and of first glimpsing, and hearing, Bowie performing Starman on the music programme Lift Off With Ayshea.

“This was a moment that changed my life forever…”

This was such a great audio clip/opinion piece by Toyah it would’ve been a real shame to just let it disappear after its week on iPlayer back in 2012… so here it is! Click below to listen.

Christmas 2016, Toyah guested on Pop Quiz, which had been retitled Pop Quiz: The Comeback for its, very short-lived, revival.

Pop Quiz, was of course, huge in the early to mid 1980s, a Saturday evening staple, presented by Radio 1 DJ Mike Read, and a must-watch for every music fan. Toyah guested a number of times between 1981 and ’84.

It was the Saturday night smash hit music quiz show that ran for four years between 1981 and 1984. Over 30 years later it’s back, with the original presenter Mike Read hosting the first of two special celebration shows where the biggest pop stars from the 1980s go head to head in a test of their 80s music knowledge. Guests include Toyah Willcox, Tom Bailey (Thompson Twins), Andy McCluskey (OMD), Steve Norman (Spandau Ballet), Mari Wilson and Leee John (Imagination).

The Telegraph said: A blissfully self-indulgent chance to reminisce for pop-pickers of a certain vintage

Who got a lifetime ban from a Manchester hotel for swinging from a chandelier and stealing a zebra? Ginger diva Toyah Willcox. Who bought an Austin A40 convertible so she could poke her beehive hair out of the roof? Jazz chanteuse Mari Wilson. What did this pair have in common? They were both on Pop Quiz: The Comeback (BBC Four), a revival of the retro gameshow which pitted two teams of Eighties pop stars against each other for no apparent reason other than festive fun.

Pop Quiz: The Comeback, episode one with Toyah guesting, aired on BBC Four on Wednesday 28th December 2016.

Toyah talks Christmas… to Greatest Hits Radio! Click below to watch.

Christmas 1984, and Toyah had released no new music during the year for the first time since very early 1979, although the compilation album – on vinyl, cassette and video – Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! (unofficially, and latterly officially sub-titled “All The Hits”, and not to be confused, and never really has been aside from a few chart compilers, with the live 1980 album with the same title) was released in February of this year. This is significant as it was the first ever Toyah hits compilation.

Despite no new music this year, Toyah still appeared in many of the music magazines in 1984, including this Christmas feature from Smash Hits special issue… Smash Hits Christmas Party – featuring Frankie Goes To Hollywood on the cover – published in association with Woolworth – in December: Will You Be Watching The Queen’s Speech? When you jump up after the Christmas Top Of The Pops, is it to stand to attention for Her Majesty or a mad dash to switch off the TV? We asked a selection of pop stars if they’d be tuning in to that speech?

You can read Toyah’s response below, but more interestingly, in retrospect, Toyah appears to be incredibly prescient about the Royal Family…

Christmas 2025, and Official Toyah recalls Christmas 1980…

Broadcast 45 years ago tonight…. The documentary ‘Toyah’ on ATV

ATV decided to profile Toyah in a documentary, directed by filmmaker Graham Moore. This was a significant
coup for Toyah, securing an hour of prime-time TV as an ‘up and coming’ recording artist. It was produced by ATV, the Midlands franchise of ITV but networked across the ITV regions on 18 December 1980.

The documentary meant cameras followed Toyah’s weekly activity for several months. This included photo shoots, in-store record signings, television appearances including Straight Talk, rehearsals for Nigel Williams’ controversial play Sugar And Spice and band rehearsals at Toyah’s live-in Battersea warehouse ‘Mayhem’.

• Continue reading here… Buy Toyah! Toyah! Toyah!

Toyah says… “Santa outfits at the ready… It’s Christmas“.

Christmas 2012, BBC Radio 4 aired Neil Tennant’s Smash Hits Christmas on 20th December – a real festive pop treat for everyone who grew up in the 1980s. The programme was an interesting look back at the golden years of the UK’s biggest music magazine of the eighties. Neil recalls the golden days of, the iconic, Smash Hits magazine, when he worked as a writer in their Carnaby Street office.

There were also contributions and memories from founder and legendary magazine maker Nick Logan, editors David Hepworth and Mark Ellen, writers Miranda Sawyer and Sylvia Patterson, and from regular Smash Hits cover girl, Toyah., talking about Smash Hits in general and her Brave New World cover from the Summer of 1982.

Neil Tennant had a life as a journalist before he became famous as a Pet Shop Boy. In fact, it was on a Smash Hits trip to New York that he had his big breakthrough with the record producer Bobby O. Also included is a rare recording from the 1982 Christmas Flexidisc (a message from the stars) and probably Neil Tennant’s first recording – the music for a trailer advertising Smash Hits stickers. (Producer: Susan Marling. A Just Radio Ltd. production for BBC Radio 4). Click on any of the images in this post to listen to Neil Tennant’s Smash Hits Christmas at You Tube.

Christmas 2024, and I wished all the visitors to Dreamscape a Merry Christmas with a giant Toyah Christmas card.

I’ve been posting self posts – almost always Toyah related – on here for a couple of years now, and most people seem to like them, so it may continue in 2026.

Working on Dreamscape has been a part of my life for almost half the time I’ve been alive now, so sharing some personal content on these pages just seemed to organically happen over time. Of course the main focus will always be Toyah. I still love reporting on Toyah’s legendary career. It’s fun, always interesting and an enjoyable hobby, and here’s to a very Merry Christmas to everyone reading this in 2025, and a Happy 2026 – Please pay us a visit sometime next year!

Christmas 1983, Toyah was promoting The Vow, the final physical single released on Safari Records; the Love Is The Law album; and travelling the UK on the Rebel Run Tour.

Toyah, Joel and the band, appeared on numerous television shows in the UK and Europe through November and December, being interviewed as well as performing The Vow and Rebel Run.

During this amazing era Toyah’s image was radically different from anything that had come before, which is another reason this time in late 1983 is particularly memorable and magical!

In every waking hour I miss you, In my dreams I never kiss you, And in the shadows creatures want to hurt you, but in love and war I’ll never desert you…

The Vow is such an important, and poignant, part of Toyah’s discography for a number of reasons. It was a goodbye to five years of working with Safari Records; the performances mentioned above are Toyah and Joel Bogen’s final ever appearances together, performing as music collaborators/partners; and the final Safari-era band performances on television…

The TV shows included; Pebble Mill, Did You See?, Pop Watch, Saturday Superstore, Breakfast Time, Razzmatazz, The Saturday Show, Harty, Crackerjack and Judgendbund. Other shows included in ‘The Vow’ promotion were; TVAM: Good Morning Britain and 60 Minutes.

We had a fantastic festive Saturday night out in Glasgow at the weekend, starting with a lovely meal, and lots of chat, at China Sea on Renfield Street, then a great time at The Polo Lounge with Christmas cocktails, including a fab Margarita – and we ended a brilliantly Christmassy night at Speakeasy!

• See all our 2025 “tour dates” :) here! (Photos © David Fleming)

Christmas 2023, Toyah and Robert were at Millennium Point in, Toyah’s home city of, Birmingham to switch on their Christmas lights, which included their utterly massive Christmas tree.

That year Toyah included photos from the switch-on event in her official blog.

Millennium Point said: Thank you to everyone who joined us for our Christmas Lights Switch On yesterday! It was wonderful to welcome icon Toyah Willcox to switch on our Christmas lights, alongside her husband – fellow music legend, Robert Fripp. Plus, the Birmingham Community Gospel Choir’s performance was incredible. Our fabulous 39ft Christmas tree will be lighting up Millennium Point throughout the festive season for you to enjoy. (Photo © Millennium Point)

Toyah & Robert: UpBeat Moments – Watch… • Toyah & Robert’s Sunday Lunch – The Festive One! (Christmas Singalong) – Watch… (Image © Toyah Willcox)