Dreamscape – Toyah Willcox Fansite

30 years ago this very week Toyah’s 10th single ‘Brave New World’ was released. It entered the UK charts the following week (on 22nd May 1982), ultimately reaching number 21 and spending eight weeks on the chart. The song is held in high regard by many of Toyah’s fans and the unique accompanying imagery, created without the use of digital trickery or airbrushing, on the single sleeve and in the fantastic promo video has, thirty years later, never been surpassed by any other artist. Happy Birthday ‘Brave New World’!

Good old Photoshop. A great way to pass the time… The famous Dexter Brown Triptych painting of Toyah, used on ‘Toyah! Toyah! Toyah!’ and sold as a fan club poster in 1981. I turned a third of it into “TOYAH 1980” :) Plus some basic artwork for my short Toyah/Doctor Who “crossover” story ‘Elusive Strangers’. Please click on each to view a larger version.

Two photos of Toyah from the late 70s. The first is a very rare shot taken on the stairs outside Mayhem in Battersea, and the second is a fuller length version of a shot I previously added to Dreamscape. Amazing photos! Click on each for larger versions. (Thanks to Andi)

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 ;-))

Yes ‘It’s A Mystery’ has possibly been uploaded to ‘You Tube’ more times than is necessary but this addition today is quite cool. The video clip looks great thanks to a clever montage of photos and clips from one of the Top Of The Pops appearances. Click below to view.

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.

Toyah guested on Parkinson on BBC1 in October 1981. This was at a time when Michael Parkinson’s chat show was still considered the best of the “talk shows”. Toyah appeared alongside legendary comedian Dave Allen. She talks about her childhood and upbringing, time at The National Theatre, her imagery and hairstyles, music career and more.

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.

30 years ago this month the episode of Tales Of The Unexpected starring Toyah, ‘Blue Marigold’, aired on ITV. Here is a rare Channel Islands issue of ‘TV Times’ magazine, published the week the drama was broadcast, featuring Toyah on the cover and an interview inside.

• View a larger version of the cover by clicking above. Scans of the other pages and interview are here, here and here. (Many thanks to Paul Lomas for the scans)

Focusing on the much-loved Barry Plummer 1981 photo shoot for this “Classic Toyah” post. This session featured significantly in the book ‘Toyah’ by Mike West, The ‘Official Toyah Annual’ from 1982 and various European and Japanese press articles. Click below to view larger versions, and view more from this photo session at Dreamscape’s 1981 gallery page.

A couple of rare-ish Japanese magazine Toyah photo articles from 1981, featuring great photos by Barry Plummer and Fin Costello. View the full sessions of each at the Dreamscape 1980 and 1981 gallery pages. Click on each of the below to view larger versions.

I’ve periodically thought about a Toyah photo book for many years. If anyone is worthy or entitled to a photographic celebration of their imagery it surely is, the visual genius, Toyah? Sadly, I doubt it will ever happen. The copyright issues, sourcing high quality versions of photos, finding the owners/photographers, the cost involved… etc, but I still like to dream…

Salvaged from eBay for your viewing/reading pleasure. An article from 1983 by ‘Disco 45’. Hardly mind blowing journalism but I thought I’d add it as it’s admirably positive.

Contrary to what a lot of people expected, Toyah Willcox has returned strongly to the charts after an absence from recording of nearly a whole year.

Yes, it’s been that long since ‘Be Proud Be Loud (Be Heard)’ was released and became Toyah’s seventh hit single, while around the same time her most recent album, ‘Warrior Rock (Toyah On Tour)’, also came out, and not unexpectedly hit the Top 20 on the day of release. That was her fifth consecutive hit LP, and at the end of last year things were looking very good for the Birmingham girl with the big voice and the huge fan following. At the start of this year she was voted Top Female Singer in both a national newspaper and one of our own music rags, and we all expected a new record to be released to capitalize on that acclaim. But busy Toyah had other ideas, because as every Toyah fan knows, she is highly talented at more than just singing in front of a rock band.

Read more…

With the very recent discovery of two rare, and fantastic, ‘Desire’ photos now seems as good a time as any to take a look back at some of the imagery from this era. In a 10 year career this was probably the first time Toyah had looked “conventional”. The ‘Desire’ album and related image seems to be more appreciated retrospectively than at the time of release… dive in!

• View the 25th anniversary ‘Desire’ feature at Dreamscape here. (Photography by Carrie Branovan)

The aforementioned Formel Eins appearance. ‘Don’t Fall in Love (I Said)’ in all its glory!

Summer 1985, Toyah performed ‘Don’t Fall in Love (I Said)’ on German music show Formel Eins. This was the only time Toyah ever wore the black rubber dress during a performance. Click below for larger caps.

Possibly one of Toyah’s best photo shoots? Certainly one of the most colourful.

These great photos were used in European magazine ‘Pop Rocky’ and the UK’s ‘Jackie’ in the Summer of 1982, at the height of the glorious ‘Changeling’ era.

Gorgeous Toyah wears various Melissa Caplan designed outfits that were rarely seen anywhere else.

This will possibly be a regular feature on ‘Falling To Earth’. Collecting together key images from a specific Toyah “era”. Starting us off… Various Toyah photos from the ‘Sheep Farming in Barnet’ days.