We had a, much needed, fun day out in Glasgow on Friday. Beginning with a big breakfast at The Crystal Palace, then onto the amazing Tutankhamun: The Immersive Experience at the SECC, a walk around the city centre, lunch and then a visit to King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, where Toyah played in 1993 & ’94.
• See all our 2025 “tour dates” :) here! (Photos © David Fleming)
We had a colourful time celebrating Glasgow Pride last weekend in, yup, Glasgow! Starting at the city’s legendary Barrowland Ballroom and then visiting The Crystal Palace, The Underground, Delmonica’s, The Corset Club, Merchant Pride, The Social Hub to name just a few places! Interesting Fact #1: Toyah has never played Glasgow Barrowland, though she has gigged – as part of a band as a solo artist – at numerous other venues in the city, including many which have now gone, such as Glasgow Apollo, Tiffany’s and Bourbon Street!
On Sunday we visited the incredible, 1000-year old, Paisley Abbey in my hometown. Interesting fact #2: Toyah’s two-series BBC show Barmy Aunt Boomerang from the late 90s/early 00s was filmed on location in Glasgow & Paisley.
• See all our 2025 “tour dates” :) here! (Photos © David Fleming)
My Mum – Isobel – was born on Friday 13th June 1941 and she died on Friday 13th June 1997, exactly 56 years later. Sometimes fact is stranger than fiction! So this Friday 13th June was a very special “Dreamscape On Tour” date for me, spending the day in the city my Mum was born in, Perth, on what would have been her 84th birthday. It was a happy day and I felt close to my Mum. Thanks to Sharon for sharing the day with me.
• See all our 2025 “tour dates” :) here! (Photos © David Fleming)
Another “Dreamscape On Tour” date… We spent the day in Caol, Corpach and Fort William, back in The Highlands of Scotland, along the West Highland Way, and Great Glen Way. There’s so much to see in that part of the country, and absolutely breathtaking panoramic views.
• See all our 2025 “tour dates” :) here! (Photos © David Fleming) NB. I booked a very special “tour date” yesterday, for next year’s Songs And Stories Toyah tour in Edinburgh. A year to wait but looking forward to it.
Giant deckchairs, a historic castle and amazing sunshine! If you’re ever in Broughty Ferry, on the East Coast of Scotland, be sure to pay a visit to their wonderful castle. We had a fab afternoon there, as well as at the beach and in the town centre. A fun afternoon on a lovely sunny day.
• See all our 2025 “tour dates” :) here! (Photos © David Fleming)
Another week, another Dreamscape “date”! This time, Brian and I spent the day in, our amazing capital, Edinburgh. Starting with a great breakfast at The Standing Order, then a walk up the Royal Mile to Edinburgh Castle, before spending a couple of hours at, the incredible, Camera Obscura. That was so much fun. For lunch/afternoon tea we had reserved a table at The Dome, an absolutely stunning building/venue on George Street. We rounded off the afternoon with some sight-seeing. Edinburgh has to be one of the finest cities on the planet. Yet another brilliant day!
• See all our 2025 “tour dates” :) here! (Photos © David Fleming)
Fab time yesterday in my home city of Glasgow, and a day out with my long time pal, Alec. We went to an episode recording of Mrs Brown’s Boys – this was a lot of fun, my face was sore from laughing! – at BBC Scotland on Pacific Quay, and then into the city for a fab meal at China Sea on Renfield Street. A brilliant day!
• See all our 2025 “tour dates” :) here! (Photo © David Fleming)
It’s the third date of Dreamscape On Tour 2025, and this week it was a trip to Dundee. Absolutely fabulous city, with so much to see, do, explore… Sharon and I packed a week’s worth of activities, fun and laughter into around eight hours. A brilliant day.
• See all our 2025 “tour dates” :) here! (Photo © David Fleming)
Three Toyah fans – that’s myself, Sharon and Brian – had a colourful and very fun day out in Glasgow last week. We all wore our Toyah t-shirts, sharing Toyahness around my wonderful home city. This photo is from the Transport Museum at Glasgow Harbour, just one of many places where our choice of tops initiated a conversation. A great day out! (Photo © David Fleming)
This isn’t actual Toyah news, but seeing as Spring is finally here – in the UK anyway – after what felt like a very long Winter, I thought I’d post a sun-is-shining shot of myself and my pal Brian spreading the Toyah love in Fort William last week. We found ourselves talking to so many people about Toyah that day. It was a lot of fun, and The Highlands has such stunning landscapes and scenery. Just beautiful! (Photo © David Fleming)
Last year I designed an oversized Toyah card for Christmas, and as I’m known to repeat myself, here’s one for this year too…
We had an amazing holiday in New York…
Dancing the Cha-cha-cha… Sharon and myself just want to send a massive ROCK IT!!! and all the best to Toyah and Neil for this Saturday’s Strictly Come Dancing. Tune in at 7pm, BBC One…
Stir it up! Mix it up! Shake it up! Myself and Sharon – both longtime Toyah fans – took the leap to Edinburgh last week for a day of Warrior Rocking. We met up in Scotland’s capital to celebrate the reissue of the magnificent Warrior Rock album and also to mark Toyah’s birthday. It was a brilliant day, a lot of fun, walking, eating and talking Toyah! Toyah! and more Toyah! Watch this space for our next day out!
Introducing my giant Dreamscape Christmas card… To wish everyone a great run up to Christmas, I thought I’d feature one of Toyah’s inspirational, beautiful images from 1981, in huge Christmas card form as a way of starting things off.
In a 45+ year career of ground breaking, outstanding, pioneering visual creativity this is up there with the best of Toyah’s iconic images.
Christmas is a great season, but the run up is the really special time for many, so please enjoy the next two weeks. It always feels like there is something magical in the air while heading towards Christmas Eve and the 25th. So, here is to the next two weeks of wonderment, fun, surprises and joy… Merry Christmas Run Up!
Something I’d thought about doing for years, and had a spare weekend so I went ahead with “The Toyah In Glasgow Gig History Tour Of Toyah Tours”. A snappy title. See the full set at Instagram. Coincidentally, one of the venues I forgot to include: The Pavilion Theatre is mentioned in this radio clip from BBC Stereo Underground.
Dreamscape goes into its 24th year online in March and I’m currently working on revamping the website. Right now the idea is to completely change the look/format, which I find slightly scary/daunting, but I think it really is time for a radical change as I’ve been using this layout since 2012. During the 12 years before that I altered the format every couple of years.
This is, obviously, going to take a while as we have a huge archive that needs to be reformatted, or at least included in the new website in some form, as I’ve always considered the archives to be a really important aspect of any website. I’m also thinking of a way to incorporate the fanzine in some way.
So, the changes aren’t going to happen immediately but just a heads up that the changes will be happening…
This past weekend Toyah revisited her 1985 album, Minx, by exploring the second single released from it, Soul Passing Through Soul, in Toyah At Home. Here’s a bit of SPTS fan art I put together a few years ago… (While on the subject of Minx – Space Between The Sounds is still one of my favourite Toyah songs. Yup, it’s over-the-top but bloody brilliant!!)
This website flew (almost like a Bird in Flight!) into it’s 23rd year online last month. I started creating Dreamscape in the late 1990s, while I was also, slowly, teaching myself how to build a website with basic html. So I like to think of this website as existing in two millennia… even though it didn’t actually go live until March 2000, after a failed launch in late 1999!
I’ve thought about changing the website – It’s not one of those flashy “with bells on” sites but it does the job it’s supposed to do well I think, and I worry changing it to one of those websites would spoil it. Who knows…
I always said – as certain people like to remind me – I’d stop running a fansite (or a fanzine!) at 50, but I’m now the ripe young age of 54 with no plans, anytime soon, of stopping!!! (NB: I’m hoping to bring the News Archive up to date, at some point this year, by adding links to each of the past 18 months of news that hasn’t been “”archived” yet!)
The dedication and commitment of the super fan is something we never take for granted at Cherry Red. Their passion and energy for artists is the lifeblood of any musician’s career, and in our latest blog piece we celebrate that with a wonderful piece by writer and designer Chris Limb.
Chris has been a steadfast Toyah fan since the early 80s and wrote I Was A Teenage Toyah Fan; a fascinating example of loyalty and affection that serves as a window into the soul of any ardent music lover.
It is 1981. I am seeing Toyah play live. For the first time I am actually in the same room as her, albeit a very large room. There she is, over there. I can see her with my eyes.
It is 1991. I am putting together the latest issue of the Toyah Fan Club magazine Tellurian, a cut and paste concoction of photocopied articles as well as a handwritten letter to the fans from Toyah herself. I am typing up the lyrics for her new album Ophelia’s Shadow to include in it; once finished I’ll then take it to a print shop in Store Street WC1 to get a few hundred copies run off.
It is 2001. I am in a recording studio in Nuneaton where Toyah is recording guest vocals on a track by the band Chester with whom I currently play bass. The track will eventually be put out under the band name Family of Noise.
It is 2011. I am putting the finishing touches to the manuscript for my memoir I Was A Teenage Toyah Fan which grew out of a series of blog posts I’d written about my experiences some thirty years previously. I am about to self-publish this as both a paperback and an ebook.
It is 2021. I am writing this blog entry about Toyah and the impression she’s made on my life over the past 40 plus years.
• Continue reading at Cherry Red. Browse Dreamscape’s I Was A Teenage Toyah Fan news archive. There’s much more IWATTF content in our vast News Archive (scroll to around 2010 – 2012).
The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive has had a substantial update recently. Lots of new radio and TV interviews have been transcribed with accompanying visuals.
These include ITV Unscripted, Evelyn Glennie Podcast, Tammy Gooding, BBC Hereford & Worcester, RTE Arena, BBC Radio Two Steve Wright In The Afternoon and more. There’s also the latest Toyah interview from Classic Pop magazine.
• Click to visit the archive. Find links to all of the new, and previous, transcripts on the right hand sidebar of the blog/website.
