Dreamscape – Toyah Willcox Fansite

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)

The Tempest continues to be included in various events and festivals marking the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. Next month it is being screened as part of Shakespeare Lives at the Irish Film Institute.

#Season: IFI presents Shakespeare Lives, a season of Shakespearean film adaptations this June

The season continues with Derek Jarman’s interpretation of Shakespeare’s final play, The Tempest (June 19th), an evocative depiction of colonialism, revenge, retribution and reconciliation. Starring Heathcote Williams as Prospero, the former Duke of Milan, and Toyah Willcox as his daughter Miranda, Jarman brings a punk sensibility to this production, with wild visuals and rich designs which conceal the film’s modest budget.

Tickets are available now at www.ifi.ie/shakespeare or at the IFI Box Office on 01 679 3477.

• Continue reading at scannain.com. The Tempest is also part of the BFI presents Shakespeare on Film programme, being screened on 19th June.

Four of the original cast of Quadrophenia were recently pictured together in London; Toyah, Mark Wingett, Phil Daniels, Trevor Laird, with the Official Toyah Facebook asking: “Wonder what for?” and yesterday Toyah tweeted: “Last week Seattle. This week….. outside the site of the cafe in Quadrophenia” – These may not actually be linked but all very intriguing and Mod/Quad- tastic!! See another photo by clicking below. (Photo © Gotcha Images)

PS. Quadrophenia is on UK television tonight too – Details here.

Quadrophenia reunion 37 years after cult film was released – and the stars have changed quite a bit

Looks like these Quadrophenia stars are still talking about their generation…

Toyah Willcox, Mark Wingett, Phil Daniels and Trevor Laird met up for a reunion 37 years after the hit mods and rockers movie was released.

And while there was not a scooter or parka in sight, the group looked delighted to see each other. Singer Toyah, 58, played Monkey. Mark, 55, (Dave in the 1979 film) became Jim Carver in The Bill and 57-year-old Phil had the lead role as Jimmy.

• Continue reading at The Mirror.

Quadrophenia: Sky Select HD: Saturday 28th May: 0.05am
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 being screened next month at Watershed, Bristol as part of the BFI presents Shakespeare on Film programme.

Brooding and darkly laden with symbolic imagery, Derek Jarman’s terrific, homoerotic adaptation of Shakespeare’s final play is considered by some to be the most evocative Shakespeare adaptation ever to reach the screen.

A tale of colonialism, revenge, retribution and reconciliation, it focuses on an ageing magician named Prospero (Heathcote Williams) – who is imprisoned on an island with his beautiful daughter Miranda (Toyah Willcox) and a beast called Caliban (Jack Birkett) – and his plans to seek vengeance on his brother by conjuring up a wild tempest to shipwreck his ship. This is Jarman at his most playful and original – enjoy!

Shakespeare on Film: The Tempest
Sun 19 June 12:00 | Director: Derek Jarman
Cast: Heathcote Williams, Toyah Willcox, Karl Johnson
135 mins, 1979, UK

• Further info at the Watershed website. There’s also a short article on the screening at bristol247.com. Browse further details on BFI presents Shakespeare on Film here.

Quadrophenia: Sky Select HD: Sunday 15th May: 10pm
Quadrophenia: Sky Greats HD: Saturday 21st May: 11.50pm
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 Greats HD movie channel is on Sky Channel 304 / Sky Greats HD is on Sky Channel 305)

Quadrophenia: Sky Select HD: Wednesday 11th May: 0.00am
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)

Directed by Steve Stone, the British film Extremis will be released in 2016 and the official film poster has now been revealed.

Toyah acts in a cameo scene and will also perform a new original song Our Hearts Still Beat (Willcox/Darlow) for the film’s end titles.

A powerful business executive returns home to his family and their lavish lake house for the weekend. Within hours of his return, a cataclysmic event takes place out there in the landscape. The world beyond their garden is now deserted, the skies above them threatening and toxic. But is it the child who is in need of salvation? What is this strange apocalypse? An ecological disaster or a terror attack?

• Continue reading/View a larger version of the Extremis poster at toyahwillcox.com.

17. Aaaaaaaah!

Fans of the early John Waters and early Gregg Araki oeuvre may feel right at home with all the vulgarity and body fluids on display in Steve Oram’s Aaaaaaaah! This is adventurous and crude postmodern cinema, and the easily offended need not apply.

Oram displays a ruthless instinct with sadistic lapses into camp and caricature with Aaaaaaaah!, a film hell bent on upsetting the audience in this tale of society’s collapse. In the film the human stock has downgraded, and devolved into grunting, drooling, depraved, inarticulate primitives.

Robbed of the capacity to speak beyond gorilla-like elucidation, chest-beating, and genital-waving, I found the film to enact a Beckett-like scenario but at least half the audience I saw it with thought it was just shit. Their loss.

A winning cast of Brits including Oram, Julian Barrett, Noel Fielding, and Toyah Willcox add street cred to this one-of-a-kind mindfuck. Aaaaaaaah! is a strangely sublime picture, in turns delicate and disorienting, with a Buñuelian bite and a whiff of nasty nihilism, too. You’ll either love it or you’ll hate it but you won’t ever forget it.

• Continue reading at Taste Of Cinema. Browse our Aaaaaaaah! news archive…

How I’m Making an Epic Sci-Fi Movie That Will Change the World. And Why You Should Follow Your Dream Too!

In 2006, UK filmmaker Simon Cox announced to a group of friends that his new movie, Kaleidoscope Man, would be the biggest British indie sci-fi movie of all time – A sweeping statement? Or was it?

After years of trying to get his second movie funded through traditional film industry routes, it was at this moment that Simon made the decision to stop chasing carrots and do whatever needed to be done to achieve his dream; making an epic sci-fi movie that would move and inspire people in the same way the original Star Wars inspired him. But, he was in his 40’s with a young family, broke, feeling washed up and beginning to realise that perhaps Hollywood wasn’t about to come knocking.

Now in 2016, Simon has nearly finished the hugely ambitious Kaleidoscope Man. And its good. In fact, it’s very good. But the road to getting it made has certainly been rocky and full of challenges and the finance to do it has not fallen into his lap.

Come to our fascinating one day seminar and discover from Simon himself just how he and a team of friends have managed to pull off this incredible feat.

• How they convinced 700+ people to run from attacking alien ships in Central Birmingham.

• Built the international space station in a warehouse in Nuneaton (with materials from Wikes DIY store).

• How they convinced 80’s pop icon Toyah Willcox to star in the movie.

• Sent fleets of attacking alien ships flying over Central London.

• Turned Birmingham into a deserted battlefield.

• Got primetime TV coverage on BBC London Tonight.

• Discovered a young illustrator who went from creating images for Kaleidoscope Man to Godzilla, Star Wars the Force Awakes and now Star Wars Rouge One.

• Pulled together over 500+ people to help get the movie made.

You’ll hear amusing anecdotes, see fascinating behind the scenes videos and some exclusive clips from the movie – before anyone else sees them.

Alpha Star Productions
Saturday, June 25, 2016 from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM (BST)
Birmingham, United Kingdom

• Continue reading at Event Tribe. Chek out the Kaleidoscope Man website for updates and recent behind-the-scenes photos from the film shoots.

More airings for Quadrophenia, with two of Sky Movies channels ahowing the classic 1979 film over the coming fortnight.

Quadrophenia: Sky Greats HD: Sunday 1st May: 10pm
Quadrophenia: Sky Select HD: Thursday 5th May: 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 Greats HD movie channel is on Sky Channel 304 / Sky Select HD is on Sky Channel 312)

• Southern Daily Echo: All Star Line-Up Confirmed For Wickham Festival: Spike’s All Stars Band with a line-up which will include Queen drummer Roger Taylor, Marillion lead singer Fish, Madeleine Bell and solo artist/actress Toyah Willcox with a chance of other top names also making a guest appearance – Continue reading…

• Virgin Media: Shakespeare in pop: It’s 400 years since Shakespeare died! Yes, a rum anniversary (23 April 1616), but one which allows us to celebrate his input towards music culture… The Tempest: You would think with something like The Tempest, that the goths would be all over that, but no: only the Deftones and not-that-spooky-just-a-bit-darkish Pendulum have co-opted it for a title. One of Toyah’s pre-pop jobs was a role as Miranda in Derek Jarman’s interesting film version from 1979 – Continue reading…

• Vodzilla: Shakespeare 400: BFI brings the Bard’s films to VOD: With Saturday 23rd April marking the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, the UK is going into overdrive celebrating the Bard, and the British Film Institute is no exception. This month, the BFI presents Shakespeare on Film, a UK-wide series of 300 special screenings and events celebrating the enormous impact the playwright’s life, work and legacy has had on cinema – Continue reading…

• Flickering Myth: Aaaaaaaah! Still: Toyah Willcox as Barbara – Continue reading…

• Lou Reviews: Shakespeare 400 in images: Heathcote Williams as Prospero and Toyah as Miranda in the 1979 film of ‘The Tempest’ – Continue reading…

Toyah and Sophie Anderson in a scene from forthcoming film Kaleidoscope Man. Artist Angie Cox recently tweeted the photo, saying: “My painting will be in Kaleidoscope Man. Toyah Willcox and Sophie Anderson talking about my painting in this scene“.

Director/creator of Kaleidoscope Man, Simon Cox, also updated the blog on the film’s official website at the end of last month.

Quadrophenia: Sky Greats HD: Sunday 1st May: 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 Greats HD movie channel is on Sky Channel 304)

Only two days until Aaaaaaaah! is screened at LOCO 2016, with Steve Oram and Toyah in attendance and participating in a Q&A.

• Shakespeare 400: Celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death with the stuff that dreams are made on. Hosted by the V&A and led by Shakespeare scholar John Pitcher (St John’s College, Oxford), we invite you to a festival of art, poetry, music and on-stage discussions devoted to his final, and most magical play, The Tempest – Continue reading…

• Penguin: A Guide To Shakespeare: The Tempest, directed by Derek Jarman (1979) – A wonderfully high camp, punk take on Shakespeare’s last play, Jarman’s adaptation stars the poet Heathcote Williams as Prospero and a young Toyah Willcox as Miranda. The music is extraordinary, perfectly encapsulating Caliban’s famous, ‘Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises / Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not’ and the film is a visual feast. Watch this if you like… epics, beautiful cinematography – Continue reading…

• My Favourite Things: British punk singer, Toyah Willcox as Miranda in Derek Jarman’s 1979 film version of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest – Continue reading…

• Toyah At The V&A: Toyah is a panel guest at the forthcoming Shakespeare 400 at The V&A: A One Day Festival, taking place on 22nd April 2016. Further information/Book tickets at the V&A website. More details also at toyahwillcox.com.

As well as Aaaaaaaah! being screened at the LOCO Film Festival 2016 on Saturday 23rd April, Steve Orman and Toyah will also be in attendance for a post screening Q&A at the BFI National Film Theatre 1, South Bank, London.

Will Brand manage a 20-mile-a-day hike from the Humber Bridge to Liverpool? Does it matter who pulled the trigger if your father is gunned down? And would you trust Neil Morrissey with your life?

Plus: the Who’s rock opera Quadrophenia.

Quadrophenia (Franc Roddam, 1979), 12.15am, ITV4
Roddam’s screen version of the Who’s rock opera is an excellent recreation of a seedy, sultry, angry time – the mods v rockers seaside clashes of 1964. Phil Daniels leads the way as Jimmy, a pill-popping rebel on a scooter, and there are vigorous performances from Ray Winstone, Leslie Ash, Sting and Toyah Willcox. Plus, of course, Pete Townshend’s explosive music.

• Continue reading at The Guardian.

Aaaaaaaah! will be screened at the LOCO Film Festival 2016, the UK’s only international comedy film festival. It takes place between Wednesday 20th April and Sunday 1st May at BFI Southbank, London and other selected cinemas. Toyah will attend the Aaaaaaaah! screening on Saturday 23rd April. More info by clicking below.

Aaaaaaaah! is being screened at the Indie-Lincs International Film Festival 2016 this Friday.

What strikes you most upon viewing Aaaaaaaah! for the first time, is that as a viewer, you become very accepting, very quickly of the crazed way in which the story plays out. Perhaps writer/director/actor Steve Oram forces this acceptance; the film in many ways is a wild and frenzied ambush upon its audience, which is by no means a bad thing.

The script — translated into grunts and shouts — tells a tale of monkey-like humans enacting their elemental thoughts and desires upon one another. With performances from a frankly spectacular cast, it’s difficult to not enjoy this seemingly mind-boggling viewpoint on an alternative modern day life.

Aaaaaaaah! will be screened at Indie-Lincs 2016 on Friday 11 March; between 19.00 and 21.30 in a screening with Jake Hovell’s I Could Eat a Horse, Cristian Sulser’s Scrabble and Mark Brocking’s The Barber’s Cut.

• Continue reading at Eyes on Screen. Visit the Indie-Lincs Film Festival website.