Dreamscape – Toyah Willcox Fansite

Toyah Willcox in Jubilee and the return of Julie Hesmondhalgh among highlights of Royal Exchange Theatre’s new season of shows

Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre reveals an exciting mix of plays for its Autumn/Winter season

80s pop icon Toyah Willcox will play Queen Elizabeth I as she makes her Royal Exchange Theatre debut in Jubilee, part of the striking new programme of shows for the Autumn/Winter season announced by the Manchester venue.

Toyah will star in the theatre adaptation of Derek Jarman’s punk cult classic movie Jubilee, a film she originally starred in as the character Mad in 1978.

She will now take on the role of Queen Elizabeth I, who is transported into a shattered modern Britain in the story adapted by Chris Goode who makes his exchange debut as new associate artist.

• Continue reading at the Manchester Evening News.

Chris Goode is to adapt Derek Jarman’s cult film Jubilee for the stage at the Royal Exchange in Manchester.

The production will take place as the film marks its 40th anniversary, and will star original film cast member Toyah Willcox. Goode, who joins the Royal Exchange as an associate artist, will adapt and direct Jubilee. It premieres from November 2 to 18, with press night on November 7.

Goode described the project as “brilliantly daunting and irresistible”, adding: “Derek Jarman has been a hero to me for 25 years and the opportunity to stage a brand new adaptation of one of his most iconic films with one of the country’s most iconic theatres is mind-blowing and heart racing in equal measure.”

“Under Sarah Frankcom’s visionary leadership the Royal Exchange continues to consolidate its position as a boldly risk-taking and boundary-exploding venue where we get to come together and talk about the biggest questions of our age in the most exciting ways we can imagine. At a time when dialogue and dissidence feel more precious than ever, I want Jubilee to be a celebration of the energy of our anger and our hope.”

• Continue reading at The Stage.

Manchester Royal Exchange announces autumn 2017 season  

The season includes an adaptation of the film Jubilee and two plays by Bruntwood Prize winners

From 2 to 18 November, the theatre will stage the world premiere of Jubilee, Chris Goode’s stage adaptation of Derek Jarman’s 1978 film. Original cast member from the film Toyah Willcox will front the production, which is updated for the political and social scene of 2017.

• Continue reading at What’s On Stage.

“I cannot wait to start JUBILEE at the TRE Manchester…it will be wild, groundbreaking and compelling xxx” – Toyah Willcox

Interview: Jordan Mooney : the iconic face of punk on then and now and Star Trek

Certainly personifying and symbolizing the face of “Punk” from a female point of view, “Jordan” caused a sophisticated anarchy that revolutionized equality in music for women at a time when it pretended to be a male profession. Beyond that she was, and still is a, heroine who dares to evoke the threat of imagination. Jordan defied sensibility and at the same time defined it.

Celebrated for her audacious fashion sense, her musical abilities, and her courageous and tantalizing artistic view, Jordan was privy to the most sacred Punk bands to ever emerge, including a close relationship with “The Sex Pistols”. She was also the very first manager of “Adam and the Ants”. She had a supreme role in Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren’s SEX boutique, and starred as the lead in one of the most impacting films of the time, Derek Jarman’s ” Jubilee”.

• Continue reading at Louder Than War. View details on Jordan in Conversation, with John Robb, taking place at Home Cinema, Manchester on Saturday 21st January, here.

The Electric Palace in Hastings, East Sussex is holding a Jubilee evening in March, with a screening of the film and a Q&A with Amyl Nitrite herself, Pamela Rooke, aka Jordan.

Fri 24 Mar – 7.30pm JUBILEE (18)

Derek Jarman, 1978, 100mins, UK. Plus Q&A hosted by Ted Polhemus with Jordan aka Pamela Rooke.

Queen Elizabeth I is transported through time from 1578 to 1978, where she sees what has become of her once glorious kingdom: law and order have broken down, punks roam the streets, decay eats away at the fabric of society. With a cast featuring Adam Ant and Toyah Willcox in a vivid postapocalyptic urban landscape, this is the ultimate punk movie. Bar serving special seasonal drinks after the screening. All tickets £10.

• Visit the Electric Palace website. See a list of forthcoming screenings/events via their downloadable brochure.

Blackburn Film Club presents Jubilee on Tuesday 21st February 2017. At the Bureau Centre for the Arts.

Jubilee is a 1978 cult film directed by Derek Jarman. It stars Jenny Runacre, Ian Charleson and a host of punk rockers, including Adam Ant and Toyah. The title refers to the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II in 1977.

The film is heavily influenced by the 1970s punk aesthetic in its style and presentation. Shot in grainy colour, it is largely plotless and episodic. Location filming took advantage of London neighbourhoods that were economically depressed and/or still contained large amounts of rubble from the London Blitz.

• More info on this event at Visit Blackburn.

Great article, by Liam Rudden, in yesterday’s Edinburgh Evening News (see above), which also solved the longtime “mystery” of this photo – “No stranger to Edinburgh, one of Toyah’s earliest visits was in May 1978, when she caught up with Colin Chisholm of Bilbo Baggins (pictured) for the premiere of Jubilee.” – Thanks Liam

• Quadrophenia: Zavvi recently announced an exclusive slipcase Steelbook release of, iconic, classic, legendary etc, Quadrophenia for October 2016. A fantastic collectable limited to just 2000 copies. With a couple of months until it is available Zavvi is saying it has already sold out, but steelbookbluray.com say “Pre-orders aren’t live yet, so ignore the ‘sold out’ button for now”.

• Crime and Punishment: Rock music is the perfect medium with which to express the energy, rebellion, and passion of its youthful characters, particularly the restless fury and alienation of the books ant-hero, Raskolnikov. Accordingly this new musical adaptation will feature specially written songs and favourite tracks by British rock legend, Toyah Willcox and her song writing partner Simon Darlow – Continue reading…

• Screen Relish: Screen Relish’s Saturday Screamer: AAAAAAAAH!: Aah, the precarious position of the alpha male. Oh should I say AAAAAAAAH!? Because that is the delightfully appropriate title of Steve Oram’s feature directorial debut – Continue reading…

• Fashion Scout: Typical Freaks: Typical Freaks is a bold, colourful and cenceptual fashion brand from London… Their most recent collection, shown as part of Fashion Scout’s ‘Ones to Watch’, took inspiration from British seasides Derek Jarman’s ‘Jubilee’ and Nigerian basket sellers – Continue reading…

• Evensi: Each month Future Film picks out a number of films that will excite, stimulate and inspire you!: In August, Future Film recommends one of the punk classics Derek Jarman’s apocalyptic fantasy JUBILEE to coincide with BFI Southbank’s celebration of all things punk – Continue reading…

From U.K.-to-L.A. scene rockumentaries to riot-grrl portraits and the Ramones’ fictional alma mater, our favorite portrayals of punk on screen

10. ‘Jubilee’ (1978)

It’s been called “the first punk film,” but Derek Jarman’s 1978 feature turns the subculture’s oppositional stance back on itself: It’s like a guerrilla Shakespeare production staged in a mosh pit. While the Sex Pistols sneered at Queen Elizabeth II, Jarman cast his lot with the original Her Majesty E., who travels through time to a dystopian Britain ruled by roving gangs. Appearances by Adam Ant, the Slits and Siouxsie and the Banshees, along with U.S. trans icon Jayne County, ground it in the moment, but Jarman’s suggestion that even the most vocal nihilists would sell out their ideals — if given enough encouragement, naturally — provided a glimpse of the future. SA

• Continue reading at Rolling Stone. Earlier this year Jubilee also featured in Dazed‘s “The Best Feminist Punk Films Of The Last 50 years”.

A rare interview with Jordan, punk’s enigmatic frontwoman

Working with Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McClaren, performing with the Sex Pistols and acting for Derek Jarman – Jordan Mooney reflects on a life of iconoclasm

With her legacy being celebrated in new tome Fashion + Music (out now, by Laurence King Publishing), punk legend Jordan discusses some of her most significant moments with the book’s author, Katie Baron.

Still one of punk’s most-fetishised poster women, Jordan Mooney’s pivotal role at the nexus of Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren’s riotous (Sex and Seditionaries-era) world was vital to the looks of bands like the Sex Pistols and Adam and the Ants. She’s often immortalised in grainy black-and-white photography, as a severe vision of bleach-blonde-beehived, Cleopatra-eyed, latex-sheathed, fuck-you defiance, yet, there is far more to her influence than straightforward anarchic provocation. Rebellion was actually something of a by-product. Art (“I often described myself as a living work of art”), personal expression and a militant desire to champion the outlier were all at the real crux of her infectious perspective. As punk celebrates turning 40 this year, Jordan revisits her iconoclastic life.

At 14 you changed your name – why?

Jordan Mooney: I truly felt like I’d been labelled the wrong thing, like a kind of name dysmorphia.

You were suspended from school for your haircut, and famously given your own spot in a first-class carriage on the train to avoid your outfits provoking outrage in fellow commuters – do you think dressing the way you did was an act of bravery?

Jordan Mooney: People often refer to the name and the things that I wore as demonstrating bravery and shaking things up, but while I showed off to the best of my ability it wasn’t about bravery because I didn’t care what people thought. I’ve always been extremely comfortable in my own skin. It’s like being in an art movement – someone has to start it.

• Continue reading at Dazed.

Furious front women, terrifying girl gangs and a film that pissed off Dame Vivienne – these are the riotous movie classics you need to see

Punk was never a gender-bound movement. Propelled by a riotous sense of freedom and rebellion, it offered women the chance to break free from the constraints of conformity; and marked a major cultural moment for oppressed outsiders everywhere. Now, to celebrate its 40-year anniversary, one of punk’s principal spearheads Don Letts has announced an excellent programme of films centred on the movement. In anticipation of its premiere at the British Film Institute this summer, we round up some of the season’s biggest female-focused features.

JUBILEE (1978, DIR. DEREK JARMAN)

Derek Jarman’s twisted post-apocalyptic nightmare sees fashion, sex and satire clash in a dystopian London, the streets of which are ruled by an army of terrifying girl gangs. A bizarre narrative in which the Queen is transported 400 years into the future to view what the country will become lets Jarman channel fury and mayhem through his female protagonists. It’s a glorious and gorgeously shot piece of punk history, with a joyous list of cameos including Adam Ant, Toyah Willcox and Brian Eno (with his first film score). Its release garnered mixed reactions (Vivienne Westwood notoriously printed an open letter to Jarman on a t-shirt stating how much she despised the film), but the director remained unperturbed, relishing the tribal-like fierceness of his women at a time when chaos ruled.

• Continue reading at Dazed.

This August BFI Southbank will host Don Letts Presents: Punk on Film, a season of films curated by film director, DJ and musician Don Letts. The season will bring together a broad range of documentary, archive footage and feature films that draw attention to the diversity of the punk movement, how it has been depicted on film, and its huge influence on filmmakers past and present.

Films being screened during the season will include Don Letts’ Grammy award-winning doc The Clash: Westway to the World (2000), Jubilee (Derek Jarman, 1978) and Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer (Mike Lerner, Maxim Pozdorovkin 2013). The season will include a World Punk Day on Sunday 7 August, featuring screenings of Afro Punk (2003) which follows black punks in the USA, Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam (2009) about the birth of the Muslim punk scene, and Punk in Africa (2012) which explores the spread of punk across that continent.

Don Letts Presents: Punk on Film is part of Punk.London a year-long festival that celebrates punk, a counter-cultural movement that has had a profound and lasting impact on the face of music, film, culture, art and fashion.

• Further info on this and “Punk.London” at the BFI website and the Press Releases:  August 2016 at BFI Southbank and Don Letts Presents: Punk on Film at BFI Southbank.

Jubilee will play at the BFI London On Film 2015 season next month. “London’s stories brought to life through a century of extraordinary filmmaking.”

Jubilee (UK, 1978) + Punk Can Take It (UK, 1979)
Queen Elizabeth I and her occult aide Dr John Dee time travel to a dystopian London in Derek Jarman’s homage to punk.

Monday 28 September: 20:30 – NFT2 | Tuesday 29 September: 18:00 – NFT3 | Thursday 01 October: 18:15 – NFT2

Directed by Derek Jarman. With Jenny Runacre, Nell Campbell, Toyah Willcox (106 min, Digital). Jarman re-imagines London’s punk years as a future dystopia where big business rules and marauding killers dominate the streets. Queen Elizabeth I and her occult aide Dr John Dee, who time-travel using esoteric magic, give witness to the shocking depravity, while abrasive punk rock numbers are delivered by Jayne County and Adam Ant alongside a Brian Eno score.

• Continue reading/further info at the BFI website.

Released today (2nd July) in 1982: Nine To Five

Shameless cash-in of the month for July comes courtesy of this 1982 single from EG records. Nine To Five was recorded in 1977 for the soundtrack album of the following year’s Derek Jarman movie ‘Jubilee’, which featured among its cast members a number of British punk rock artists. The track itself was credited to Maneaters, but was performed by Adam Ant and Toyah Willcox, both of whom had yet to have a hit at the time. Then, after years of trying, they both had their breakthrough hits within months of each other: Adam & The Ants had their first Top 10 hit at the end of 1980 and Toyah had theirs in March 1981, and both acts had several more in the twelve months that followed. Two of Adam’s former labels had already plundered his catalogue recordings for reissues, and now it was EG’s turn.

For the single, EG billed the song as being by ‘Adam and Toyah’ and advertised it as being available in a “special picture bag”. Both artists objected to the release and the way in which it was marketed.

• Continue reading at If You Were There.

PUNK ROCK GRRRLZ: 5 Great Films That’ll Put The “Riot” In Your Grrrl

3. Jubilee (1978)

Okay, you might want to brace yourselves for this one.

Queen Elizabeth I time travels to 1970s England where nihilism and anarchy rule and witnesses the collapse of civilization. She also joins a punk band.

Weird? Absolutely. But where else will you see a bunch of iconic punk people like Jordan, Toyah Willcox, Nell Campbell, Adam Ant, Demoriane, Wayne County, The Slits and Siouxsie and the Banshees?

Nowhere.

• Continue reading at Forces of Geek.

Day 14 of the countdown to Toyah’s IRH Tour saw a new Jubilee page/section added to toyahwillcox.com – Open door 14 by clicking below.

• ToyahTV: More webisodes have been uploaded over the last week: Soundchecks, birthdays, cake, Toyah vinyl and much more – View them all at The Official Toyah Vimeo page…

• Cinema Sojourns: God Stave The Queen: One of the few films to emerge from Britain’s punk rock movement of the mid-seventies that succinctly expressed the anger and anarchic spirit of the times, Jubilee (1978) – Continue reading…

• Open Culture: Derek Jarman’s Jubilee: “It’s the Best Film about Punk” (1978): Derek Jarman was too old and too accomplished to be a punk. By 1977, the openly gay filmmaker and artist was already 36 and had an impressive CV – Continue reading…

• Vintage TV: It’s Personal: Keeping it up close and personal for us this month is another fabulous four on My Vintage. You can relax as Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s Holly Johnson (19th October, 5.00pm) singles out the songs that speak to him, and tells us why, in his show debut. Also on our eclectic guest list is singer Shirlie Kemp (5th October, 5.00pm), of 80s duo Pepsi and Shirlie, punk princess Toyah Willcox with her legendary guitarist husband Robert Fripp of King Crimson fame (13th October, 10.30pm), and the beehived chanteuse Mari Wilson (20th October, 10.30pm) – Visit the website here…

• Bent: BAMcinématek To Screen Complete Retrospective of Derek Jarman’s Films!: Get ready Brooklyn: BAMcinématek has announced they will be presenting the most comprehensive NYC Derek Jarman retrospective in nearly two decades. “Queer Pagan Punk: The Films of Derek Jarman” will screen October 30-November 11, featuring all of his feature films – Continue reading…

• Ultimate Classic Rock: 35 Years Ago: The Who’s ‘Quadrophenia’ Film Adaptation Becomes a Cult Classic – Continue reading…

• Fred Perry: Quadrophenia: A Way of Life (Inside the Making of Britain’s Greatest Youth Film): It’s 35 years since Quadrophenia, the iconic Mod cult film, hit the world’s cinema screens – Continue reading…

• British Council: Derek Jarman retrospective: This took place at the Fakel Cinema in Russia, between 15th and 25th September – Further info here…

Jubilee, The Tempest and Glitterbug are all showing at BAM, (Brooklyn Academy of Music), New York, as part of BAMcinématek: Following a retrospective at the BFI this spring, BAMcinématek presents the work of iconoclastic British filmmaker and crusading gay rights activist Derek Jarman, who not only redefined queer cinema, but reimagined moviemaking as a means for limitless personal expression. Marrying sound and image in radical new ways, his poetic, passionate, and visually ravishing films are visionary works of art that, 20 years after his death, are still being unraveled – Click below for further info.

This decade-spanning film series, presented in partnership with Ikon Gallery on their 50th anniversary, moves on to the 1970s and Derek Jarman’s punk poem. Preceded by a video interview with Toyah Willcox and a short talk by Chris Phipps.

• Visit the Live Brum website.

Flatpack Film Festival: Jubilee: The 1978 film is showing at the Library of Birmingham Studio Theatre, Saturday 14th June at 7.30pm – Further info here… (<< Dreamscape’s previous news post related to this)

Three films in which Toyah has prominent roles/appearances are showing in Canada in June and July, as part of the Queer Pagan Punk: The Films of Derek Jarman Season (June 12-July 5) at The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Glitterbug is screened on Friday 13th June, Jubilee on Saturday 14th June and The Tempest on Saturday 5th July. Further info by clicking below.