Dreamscape – Toyah Willcox Fansite

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.

Exclusive interview with Simon Cox, director of Kaleidoscope Man

You’ve just returned from the cinema and what an experience: the music, the action, the story, the special effects and those edge-of-your-seat moments! If you’re an independent filmmaker or film fan you might dream one day of making such a film. So you’ve decided to make to make a feature film, not only that, but fund it independently, gather a wonderful team and five hundred supporters from around the world. Simon Cox, director of sci-fi feature film Kaleidoscope Man, has done just that. I was intrigued to find out more , so I caught up with him.

JT: What was the moment you decided to embark on making a sci-fi feature film ?

SC: I’ve wanted to make an epic sci-fi movie since I first saw the original Star Wars when I was 13. I came up with the initial idea for Kaleidoscope Man back in 1999 after I’d finished my first feature Written in Blood (1998). I had no idea it would take me nearly 20 years to make!

JT: How did you go about getting the team together to make K – Man?

SC: Having worked in TV and film over the years, a lot of the people I’ve brought in were people I’d met along the way. I also found a few local people who have since joined the team. Our cameraman, Gordon Hickie, shot my first feature film (Written in Blood) and he now shoots Holby City, Casualty and The Inspector Lyndley Mysteries.

I found the cast via acting agencies apart from Toyah Willcox who I met at a film meeting a few years ago.

• Continue reading the interview at D&C Film. Browse Dreamscape’s Kaleidoscope Man news archive. (Photo © kaleidoscopeman.com)

Great photo of Toyah and Gary Shail on the set of Hound: “Toyah Willcox has started filming historic drama HOUND. Corsets, pin curls and poetry!”. (Photo courtesy of DAA Management)

Quadrophenia: Sky Select HD: Monday 4th July: 0.10am
Quadrophenia: Sky Select HD: Saturday 9th July: 2.30am
Quadrophenia: Sky Select HD: Thursday 14th July: 2.25am
The Who wrote and produced this energetic story of a young man disillusioned with his life in 1960s London. Phil Daniels excels as the alienated anti-hero Jimmy Cooper. Director: Franc Roddam. Starring: Phil Daniels, Leslie Ash, Toyah Willcox, Philip Davis, Mark Wingett, Sting, and Ray Winstone. (Sky Select HD is on Sky Channel 312)

Derek Jarman’s The Tempest is showing at Athens Open Air Film Festival, taking place between 1st and 31st July 2016. The Tempest is screened on Wednesday 13th July at Peiraios 260, Garden D, and admission is free. See further information on the festival by clicking below.

Toyah and Gary Shail in period costume, hair and make-up for Hound. They play Alice and Wilfred Meynell. Hazel O’Connor will also appear in the film, as Lady Poverty. See more photos and updates at the Official Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. (Photos © Toyah Willcox)

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.

• Arab Times Online: Humor, gore in Oram’s ‘Aaaaaaaah!’: Though it’s at once too subtle and too extreme to attract a broad audience, those who get something out of gross-out humor, silent film and British comedy will treasure “Aaaaaaaah!” as a rare cult gem – Continue Reading…

• Wet Paint Theatre/Films: Hound: Lots of info on this new film, currently in production, here…

• New York Times: In London, A Celebration Of All Things Punk: Corbin’s “Visible Girls” series is part of a digital presentation during the gallery’s “Punk Weekender”: a three-day event incorporating exhibitions, a screening of Derek Jarman’s film “Jubilee” and a performance by the postpunk all-female band the Raincoats – Continue Reading…

• Warrington Guardian: Eighties Night: Win a VIP Package and a Pair of Tickets to the Eighties Night with Rick Astley, Toyah and Paul Young on the 22nd July – Continue Reading…

• Essex Chronicle: Chelmsford City Racecourse hosts second annual Ladies’ Day extravaganza: Tickets are still on sale for Simply Red’s performance on July 1, while Katherine Jenkins, Paul Young, Rick Astley and Toyah will all take to the stage next month – Continue Reading…

• Radio New Zealand: The World’s Greatest Guitar Solos!: Robert Fripp with Brian Eno: ‘Baby’s on Fire’ from Eno’s Here Come The Warm Jets features an off the wall solo, triple-tracked by Robert Fripp, originally a founding member of King Crimson. Eno and Fripp have collaborated a lot over the years on all manner of records including ‘No Pussyfooting’ and contributions to David Bowies single ‘Heroes’. Robert Fripp is a most unusual man who is married to singer Toyah Willcox – he’s had an amazing creative career – Continue Reading…

Quadrophenia: Sky Select HD: Tuesday 28th June: 2.45am
The Who wrote and produced this energetic story of a young man disillusioned with his life in 1960s London. Phil Daniels excels as the alienated anti-hero Jimmy Cooper. Director: Franc Roddam. Starring: Phil Daniels, Leslie Ash, Toyah Willcox, Philip Davis, Mark Wingett, Sting, and Ray Winstone. (Sky Select HD is on Sky Channel 312)

The official promotional images/posters for three forthcoming films Toyah has roles in have recently been made available: #SwipeRight, Extremis, Lies We Tell. As well as these Toyah will also feature in Kaleidoscope Man, Hound and To Be Someone.

• #SwipeRight is a psychological thriller film based on a internet dating app. Do you really know who you let into your life when you swipe right? Toyah will have a cameo in this new British horror film directed by Jane Sanger and produced by Lumino Films.

• Toyah acts in a cameo in the British thriller Extremis, written and directed by Steve Stone. The film poster for this was released for this recently whilst a release date is to be confirmed. Toyah also performs the new, original song Our Hearts Still Beat (Willcox / Darlow) for the film’s end titles.

• Toyah appears as the wife of Harvey Keitel in the forthcoming 2016 film release Lies We Tell, directed by Mitu Misra. The film poster has just also been released for the Bradford Film Associates International production which stars Gabriel Byrne and Emily Atack.

News/Info Source: Official Toyah / Breaking Through – Official Newsletter.

Quadrophenia: Sky Select HD: Thursday 23rd June: 10pm
The Who wrote and produced this energetic story of a young man disillusioned with his life in 1960s London. Phil Daniels excels as the alienated anti-hero Jimmy Cooper. Director: Franc Roddam. Starring: Phil Daniels, Leslie Ash, Toyah Willcox, Philip Davis, Mark Wingett, Sting, and Ray Winstone. (Sky Select HD is on Sky Channel 312)

As well as what’s already posted below there has been a lot of online press reports about the “Quadrophenia Sequel”. Here are links to a few: (Photo © TSIPhotography.co.uk)

SPIN: The Forthcoming ‘Quadrophenia’ Sequel Sounds Like a Wild Ride – Read …
What Culture: Attention Mods: Quadrophenia Is Getting A Belated Sequel – Read …
Vulture: Dust Off Your Finest Scooter, Because a Quadrophenia Sequel Is Coming – Read …
Hot Press: The Who’s Quadrophenia To Get Sequel – Read …
Access All Areas: Toyah Willcox and Phil Daniels on board for Quadrophenia sequel – Read …
Film Junk: Quadrophenia Sequel in the Works – Read …

Steve Oram’s deeply British feature debut is the kind of mesmerizing cult oddity whose fan base will be limited but passionate.

It may be filmed in the Academy ratio, but Steve Oram’s low-budget feature debut “Aaaaaaaah!” could hardly be considered a nod to classic Hollywood. Rather, the 4:3 frame indicates something more primal, evoking the so-called “video nasties” (a wave of mostly cheap horror films banned on VHS in the U.K. in the 1980s, following a wave of moral panic over the perceived degeneration in values these films would cause when made available for home viewing). “Aaaaaaaah!” is set in exactly the kind of world Mary Whitehouse feared, and functions as a kind of loving Swiftian satire on the more brutish aspects of modern life. Though it’s at once too subtle and too extreme to attract a broad audience, those who get something out of gross-out humor, silent film and British comedy will treasure “Aaaaaaaah!” as a rare cult gem.

• Continue reading at Variety.

Quadrophenia sequel to shoot this summer – 37 years after the original was released

Phil Daniels and Toyah Willcox will return for the sequel

A sequel to iconic British movie Quadrophenia is being made, 37 years after the original was released.

The sequel to the cult film, which was released in 1979, is expected to see the return of original cast members Phil Daniels and singer Toyah Willcox – and will shoot this summer.

The iconic 1979 adaptation of The Who’s eponymous album focused on the infamous violent clashes between Mods and Rockers on Brighton Beach in the 1960’s, and it’s expected that the sequel will catch up with the characters at a later stage in their lives.

• Continue reading at the NME.

The modern mods: Cast of Quadrophenia reunite for a NEW film 37 years on that will pick up where the classic original left off, with Jimmy riding his scooter off a cliff

• Quadrophenia, made in 1979, was based on real events in Brighton in 1964
• Phil Daniels played Jimmy, a mod, caught up in tribal violence with rockers
• The film ends with Jimmy apparently riding a Vespa off a clifftop
• But Peter Meadows’ book To Be Someone picks up the action later
• Jimmy has survived and the novel follows him through to the 1990s
• Toyah Willcox says her character, Monkey, has become a swinging cougar

Phil Daniels, Toyah Willcox and several other actors who appeared in the cult film Quadrophenia are due to reprise their roles in a sequel 37 years later, based on the book To Be Someone. Daniels, now 57, Willcox, 58, and two of the other members of the original cast, Mark Wingett, 55, and Trevor Laird, 58, are said to be keen to take part in the film, which will be directed by Ray Burdis, who directed gangster film The Wee Man.

• Continue reading at the Daily Mail.

Production to Begin on Sequel to the Who’s ‘Quadrophenia’ Film

This summer, production will begin on To Be Someone, a sequel to the 1979 film adaptation of the Who‘s rock opera Quadrophenia. The movie, which will be directed by Ray Burdis, is expected to be released next year.

NME reports that the plot is based on a 2011 novel of the same name by Peter Meadows that was inspired by the characters in the movie. Phil Daniels and Toyah Willcox are reprising their roles as Jimmy and Monkey, and sees where they are at in their lives decades removed from the mods vs. rockers battles of the mid-’60s.

• Continue reading at Ultimate Classic Rock.

Toyah’s Official Instagram revealed another photo of the Quadrophenia “sequel” cast today – The cat’s out the bag! There will be a film following up the lives of characters from the seminal Quadrophenia – Click below for the full photo.

Quadrophenia: Sky Select HD: Tuesday 7th June: 11.05pm
The Who wrote and produced this energetic story of a young man disillusioned with his life in 1960s London. Phil Daniels excels as the alienated anti-hero Jimmy Cooper. Director: Franc Roddam. Starring: Phil Daniels, Leslie Ash, Toyah Willcox, Philip Davis, Mark Wingett, Sting, and Ray Winstone. (Sky Select HD is on Sky Channel 312)

British mod movie Quadrophenia sequel is being made – 37 years after the original

A sequel to the iconic British mod movie Quadrophenia is being made – 37 years after the original.

The new film will star many of the same cast members as the 1979 cult hit – singer Toyah Willcox, 58, Mark Wingett, 55, Phil Daniels, 57 and Trevor Laird, 58, and will start filming in London this summer.

The era-defining 1979 film adaptation of The Who’s rock opera, which also starred Leslie Ash, 56, Sting, 64, and Ray Winstone, 59, documented the infamous clashes between rival gangs of mods on their scooters and rockers on motorbikes terrorising seaside resort Brighton with violent fighting.

The follow-up is set in the present-day and based on the book To Be Someone, by Peter Meadows, which was inspired by the original movie – and will be directed by Ray Burdis, who made The Wee Man and The Krays, with his company Archangel productions.

• Continue reading at The Mirror.

A couple of recent great photos from Toyah’s Official Twitter which I managed to miss due to being ridiculously busy. Photo one is Toyah (looking amazing) with her Hound co-star Gary Shail. Browse Toyah’s Twitter by clicking below. (Photos © Toyah Willcox)

Quadrophenia star Toyah Willcox says her character has become a ‘sexual predator’

The 80s singer said: “The natural journey for my character, nearly 40 years on, has seen her become a sexual predator, working in the sex industry”

A sequel to the iconic British mod movie Quadrophenia is being made – 37 years after the original.

The new film will star many of the same cast members as the 1979 cult hit – singer Toyah Willcox, 58, Mark Wingett, 55, Phil Daniels, 57 and Trevor Laird, 58, and will start filming in London this summer.

80s popstar Toyah will revisit her role as Monkey – who has grown into a swinging cougar. She said: “Quadrophenia was really zeitgeist and it’s never really gone away, as every new generation connects with it.

“No-one expected that to happen – it grabbed teenage angst by the balls and never let go. None of us realised the impact it would have at the time – we were all just desperate to out do each other. The natural journey for my character, nearly 40 years on, has seen her become a sexual predator, working in the sex industry as a madam. She’s married to one of the other main characters and they’re swingers.”

• Continue reading at The Mirror. (Photos © TSIPhotography.co.uk)