For 45 years Toyah has taken to the stage like no other. She has won numerous awards and nominations from singing to writing to acting. In 2001 Toyah was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Central England in Birmingham. This showreel includes extracts from her filmography…
Info from Saturday’s third instalment of Toyah At Home, which aired at Toyah’s official You Tube channel.
• It’s A Mystery: from Toyah’s second EP was the song of the morning. She talked about her reaction when first hearing the song, written by Keith Hale of Blood Donor, and how it ultimately changed her life.
• The Humans: “It’s Humans day!!” said Toyah, and a very quick look at all of the Toyah & The Humans releases – Four vinyls and a great box set. Toyah mentioned Bill Rieflin wanted to call it “The Humans’ Greatest Hits”.
• Derek Jarman: Toyah talked about her experiences working with the late writer/director on the films from her early career; Jubilee and The Tempest.
• The Tempest: Detailed discussion on working on this film. Lots of memories from Toyah, including two wonderful keepsakes Derek Jarman gave her at the end of filming, and playing Miranda as a wild child. Toyah said: “The Tempest for me was one of the most important films of my career“, and her introduction to Shakespeare.
• Making Movies in Los Angeles: Toyah talked about relocating, or more to the point not relocating, to the USA for acting work, and whether her younger self would have done so now if she had the opportunity.
• Glastonbury: The experience of playing the legendary festival (in 2016) but never attending it as a festival-goer!
• Most Haunted: Toyah chatted about the various haunted homes she has stayed in, and the activity generated within them.
• In The Fairground: Interesting chat about the song from the 1981 EP Four More From Toyah; its origins, what the lyric is about, and how it relates to today.
• In The Fairground: Toyah said: “I listened to that and thought, wow this track, it’s really nice. I could probably sing it a lot better now than I did back then. Back then we were on tour, we had to deliver for Christmas. It was 1981 and was pretty much made in between live shows, and I think I could develop that now much better for the acoustic show“.
• New Studio Album: by the Toyah band of now? There are a number of obstacles, including geography, finances, the ongoing pandemic, but “It’s a possibility” Toyah said.
• Telepathic Lover: Live archive footage of this great song from Four From Toyah: Birthday Edition EP and 2019’s In The Court Of The Crimson Queen album. Toyah said: “One of my favourite songs live. I just love the groove and when we’re on stage, this is the Toyah band at their best. It’s absolutely fabulous“.
• Ask Toyah: Toyah said “Please keep those questions rolling in. It’s really good to do this. I love, I love It, I love it! They are wonderful!“.
• Toyah at Home: This week’s show was promoted on Toyah’s official Instagram with a rare Four From Toyah era photo (directly above).
• See you next week for Toyah At Home #4.
As recently posted, and following this year’s Quadrophenia screening/Q&A + Gig, Toyah will return to Square Chapel Arts Centre in early 2020 for a Jubilee screening/Q&A and a new full-band electric concert.
As well as this, Square Chapel Arts Centre are also screening The Tempest, along with a Q&A with Christopher Biggins.
All of these events are taking place in February 2020 as part of LGBT History Month – We are delighted to be celebrating LGBT History Month with a series of live events and special film screenings.
• Browse details of the Jubilee and The Tempest screening events, as well as the full diary for LGBT History Month, at the Square Chapel Arts Centre website.
English woes – Derek Jarman’s apocalyptic visions of England are as relevant as ever
In The Last of England, a collection of autobiographical sketches, diary entries and script notes published in 1987, Derek Jarman offered a ferocious state of the nation address:
Young bigots flaunting an excess of ignorance. Little England. Criminal behaviour in the police force. Little England. Jingoism at Westminster. Little England. Small town folk gutted by ring roads. Little England. Distressed housing estates cosmeticised in historicism. Little England. The greedy destruction of the countryside. Little England.
It’s a passage that encapsulates many of Jarman’s most persistent concerns: national identity, reactionary politics, the representation of the past, architecture, landscape and ecology.
… Jarman’s shoots were renowned for their sense of camaraderie. Toyah Willcox, who starred in Jubilee, said, ‘the whole thing about Derek was that he allowed everyone to learn. He was the most fantastic teacher. There was no elitism, there were no closed doors.’ The emphasis placed on collaboration, thrift and imagination was partly a matter of necessity. For the majority of his career, his films had tiny budgets, though public money from the BFI and Channel 4 was forthcoming from his fourth feature onwards. Jarman’s cinematic ambitions were, however, constantly hindered by battles with producers and funding bodies. ‘The money required to make a film, let alone a consistent cinematic career, can evaporate like snow in June,’ he noted.
• Continue reading at Apollo Magazine.
This New York City Playwright’s Music Video Puts a Fantastical Spin on the Tutu
When New York artist Leah Hennessey starts describing some of the influences of her band’s first official video, “Sleeping Beauty,” you can tell straight away that she’s a pop culture fanatic.
She references comic books like Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles, old fairy tales like Sleeping Beauty—unsurprising, given the song’s title—and deeper cuts like cult director Derek Jarman’s 1979 film The Tempest.
…The ballet look, on the other hand, was loosely based on Toyah Willcox’s costumes in Jarman’s The Tempest. “I was going for a feral balletic ethereality to evoke the fairy-tale aspect of the song,” she describes. Plus, she never before had an excuse to wear a tutu.
• Continue reading at Vogue.com. Browse our archive dedicated to The Tempest.
As previously posted, Toyah plays the Holt Festival 2019 on Friday 26th July – at the Theatre In The Woods.
An addition to the festival schedule that day is a screening of The Tempest, at the Britten Building.
New this year, we’re delighted to introduce Festival Extras – a series of events in addition to the main programme.
The Tempest: Friday 26 July, 4.00pm Britten Building
Tickets available on the door | Running time: 1h 35min
Derek Jarman’s magical 1979 film version of The Tempest starring Toyah Willcox. This screening will be introduced by the film’s producer Don Boyd and Toyah will make a guest appearance.
Each July the festival, whose media partners are the Eastern Daily Press and North Norfolk News, sets the Georgian country town alight with performers, musicians, art exhibitions and literary events. The early announcements include two music stars with many weeks in the charts between them.
• Visit the Holt Festival website. Browse all of our Holt Festival news.
Yesterday was the 25th Anniversary of the death of Derek Jarman. Numerous events were held to mark the occasion including a memorial at The Tate and an unveiling of a new blue plaque in London.
A blue plaque marking the site of the studio where artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman lived and worked in the 1970s has been unveiled at Butler’s Wharf.
Once Butler’s Wharf ceased to be used as a warehouse in the early 1970s, it was rented out to artists and others at low rents. Speaking at the unveiling on Tuesday, English Heritage trustee David Olusoga said: “Jarman’s connection with this building lasted between 1973 and 1979.
“The building suffered a series of fires but it survived. It was converted to apartments, offices and a restaurant in the 1980s.” He added: “Today’s unveiling to Jarman marks 25 years since his death, and February also marks LGBT History Month.
“To me as a filmmaker, Jarman was a pioneer … you felt clever because you watched his films and pretended you fully understood them.”
• Continue reading at London SE1. Browse Dreamscape’s Derek Jarman News Archive.
Jarman brings sumptuous visual style and a measure of the punk spirit that informed Jubilee to this cinematic version of the Shakespeare text. Festival guest Toyah Willcox plays Miranda, who has been banished to a desolate island with her father Prospero (Heathcote Williams) by Alonso, King of Naples (Peter Bull). Prospero’s plans for revenge are complicated when Miranda falls in love with the king’s son Ferdinand (David Meyer). If you discount the very loose sci-fi adaptation Forbidden Planet this was the big screen’s first version of the play.
Screening as part of Derby Film Festival. Passes are available which allow entry to all events across the full ten days of the festival for just £80.
• Continue reading at Derby QUAD. View the full programme at the Derby Film Festival website. Full info on/Book tickets for Toyah Willcox in Conversation taking place on Saturday 5th May at DFF.
Following the news that Toyah will be a guest at the Derby Film Festival 2018 on Saturday 5th May – talking about her career in film and on screen – as part of Paracinema, the full programme of films and events has been announced, with Jubilee and The Tempest showing a number of times during the 10 day film fest.
Jubilee (15): UK, 1978: 106m. Dir: Derek Jarman
Saturday 5th May: 7pm, Tuesday 8th May: 12.10pm/8.35pm, Wednesday 9th May: 2.15pm/8.45pm
When Queen Elizabeth I (Jenny Runacre) asks her court alchemist John Dee (Richard O’Brien) to show her the future of England she is transported forward 400 years to 1978. She arrives to discover a post-apocalyptic society on the brink of collapse where girl gangs rove the streets indulging in casual murder, the police are 
openly fascistic, and public opinion is manipulated by all-powerful media moguls. Forty years on from its first release Derek Jarman’s Jubilee remains the quintessential punk film, a daring and unique vision, featuring many icons of the punk era including festival guest Toyah Willcox, Little Nell, Wayne Country, Jordan, Adam Ant and many more.
The Tempest (15): UK, 1979: 91m. Dir: Derek Jarman
Wednesday 9th May: 12pm/6pm, Thursday 10th May: 1.30pm/8.45pm
Jarman brings sumptuous visual style and a measure of the punk spirit that informed Jubilee to this cinematic version of the Shakespeare text. Festival guest Toyah Willcox plays Miranda, who has been banished to a desolate island with her father Prospero (Heathcote Williams) by Alonso, King of Naples (Peter Bull). Prospero’s plans for revenge are complicated when Miranda falls in love with the king’s son Ferdinand (David Meyer). If you discount the very loose sci-fi adaptation Forbidden Planet this was the big screen’s first version of the play.
• View the full programme at the Derby Film Festival website. Full info on/Book tickets for Toyah Willcox in Conversation.
The BFI have announced details of a long-awaited collection of the films of Derek Jarman, to be released on Blu-Ray this spring. Jarman Volume One: 1972-1986 will be a limited-edition, five disc box set, available from 26th March 2018 – more info/pre-order at Amazon.
Derek Jarman Volume One: 1972-1986
5-disc Limited Edition Blu-ray box set
Jarman’s multi-faceted work is inspirational in its fearlessness, yet remains touchingly personal. The dynamism of these features evokes comparison with the bold romanticism of directors like Ken Russell (an early champion) and Michael Powell, as well as artists Paul Nash and John Piper. But Jarman was also a subversive force in film. Beginning with his psychedelic debut feature, In the Shadow of the Sun (1972-1974), then came the provocative Jubilee (1978), the evocative Shakespeare adaptation The Tempest (1979) and The Angelic Conversation (1985), in which he invoked Elizabethan occultist Dr John Dee and explored alchemical imagery, a subject in which he was well versed. In Sebastiane (1976) and Caravaggio (1986) he revived key gay and homo-erotic figures from the past with edgy and unmistakable style.
Derek Jarman’s first six feature films have all been newly scanned at 2K from original film elements and are presented in this lavish box set alongside an exciting array of new and archival extras drawn from Jarman’s archive of workbooks and papers held in BFI Special Collections. Newly interviewed exclusively for this box set are some of the people who worked on these films; punk legend Jordan, producer and filmmaker Don Boyd, production designer Christopher Hobbs and artist filmmaker John Scarlett-Davis.
Special Features
• All films presented in High Definition for the first time in the UK
• Sebastiane: A Work in Progress (c.1975): newly remastered from 16mm film elements held by the BFI National Archive, this sadly incomplete early black and white work-print of Sebastiane differs significantly from the finished film. This previously unseen alternate edit assembled in a different order, featuring a different soundtrack was never subtitled or released
• The Making of Sebastiane (Derek Jarman & Hugh Smith, 1975): previously unseen Super 8 footage shot on location in Sardiniai
• Jazz Calendar (1968): a rarely screened documentary record of the 1968 ballet by Frederick Ashton, performed by The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House, for which Jarman designed sets and costumes
• Message from the Temple (1981)
• TG: Psychic Rally in Heaven (1981)
• Pirate Tape (WS Burroughs Film) (1982)
• Toyah Willcox: Being Mad (2014); the singer and actress looks back on her role in Jubilee
• Jordan remembers Jubilee (2018): punk icon Jordan looks back on her friendship with Derek Jarman and the making of Jubilee
• Stormy Weather: The Magic Behind The Tempest (2016): Toyah Willcox and Stuart Hopps share their memories of working on Derek Jarman’s 1979 production of The Tempest
• Don Boyd remembers The Tempest (2018): Producer and filmmaker Don Boyd remembers the production, release and critical reception of The Tempest
• A Meeting of Minds: Christopher Hobbs on collaborating with Derek Jarman (2018): production designer Christopher Hobbs looks back on his long and fruitfully creative friendship with Derek Jarman
• Fully illustrated 80-page book with new writing on the film, contemporary reviews and full film credits
• …plus lots more
“She was Miranda in Derek Jarman’s 1979 film of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Today, Toyah is Queen Elizabeth I in a stage version of Jarman’s Jubilee. (She was also in the original 1978 film)”
Yet another special screening of Derek Jarman’s The Tempest in 2016. This time debuting in India, at the “Shakespeare on Film Collection”.
Screening of Shakespeare’s The Tempest
By British Council India
Wed, 21 Sep 2016: 6:30PM
As part of the Shakespeare on Film Collection, the British Film Institute and British Council present Derek Jarman’s “The Tempest” for the first time to audiences in New Delhi.
Starring Elizabeth Welch & Heathcote Williams, this depiction of Shakespeare’s play is a true representation of colonialism, revenge, retribution and reconciliation.
• Continue reading at Events High.
Derek Jarman’s The Tempest will be screened at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) later this year, as part of their “Breaking Bard: Shakespeare on Film” festival.
MoMA Slates Fall Bardfest With 21 Shakespeare-Related Films
New York’s Museum of Modern Art will screen an eclectic assortment of films based on or inspired by William Shakespeare next month in “Breaking Bard: Shakespeare on Film, October 12–24 at the Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters.
The British-heavy, 21-film slate is certain to inspire debate over what’s in — a mix of classic performances including Olivier’s Hamlet and Paul Scofield’s King Lear, along with such Shakespeare riffs as Fred M. Wilcox’s 1956 sci-fi Tempest reboot Forbidden Planet and Tom Stoppard’s 1990 adaptation of his early Hamlet rumination, Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead — and what’s mmissing: No Chimes At Midnight (1965) from Orson Welles, for example, or Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle’s star-packed 1935 A Midsummer Night’s Dream (though Julie Taymor’s more recent version, a wonder, is included).
• Continue reading/See a full list of the films showing at Deadline. This is the fourth major film/Shakespeare event The Tempest has been screened at this year. It’s also been included at Athens Open Air Film Festival 2016, Irish Film Institute presents Shakespeare Lives, and the BFI presents Shakespeare on Film.
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.
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.
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.
• 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…
• 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.
Toyah has been confirmed as a panel guest at the forthcoming Shakespeare 400 at The V&A: A One Day Festival, taking place on 22nd April 2016.
‘O brave new world!’ – The Tempest
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. It will be a day, in the words of Caliban, of ‘sounds,’ ‘sweet airs’ and ‘a thousand twangling instruments’, as represented in the V&A’s collections.
Prospero’s art – the imaginative world of wizards, spells and demigods banned by the Elizabethan church but alive in people’s fears and fantasies – will be looked at alongside the physical realm of windmills, water power, and sailing ships. The poetry of the play, and the way it lives on stage and in film, will be discussed by poets Alice Oswald and Alicia Stallings, the novelist John Lanchester and the actress Harriet Walter. The many mental states The Tempest evokes and occupies – revery, stupor, frenzy, vengefulness, and wonder – will be explored and experienced by you, the participants.
• Further information/Book tickets at the V&A website. More details also at toyahwillcox.com.
• Toyah @ Twitter: Toyah is working with Simon Darlow. She tweeted a photo, saying: “In the studio with Darlow. So incredibly excited” – Continue to Twitter…
• Catmachine: Five Years On: I can’t believe that it’s already five years since I wrote the first blog in the I Was A Teenage Toyah Fan series, a series which turned into a book self-published on kindle and paperback – Continue reading…
• Scottish Daily Mail: Radio Choice: Toyah Willcox, who’s been touring the UK with the three-piece band The Humans, joins Ken Bruce (Radio 2, 9.30am) this week to pick her Tracks Of My Years. Toyah begins with songs from T. Rex and Kate Bush.
• England Events: Aylesbury: Live in the Park – part of Parklife Weekend: August 29, 2015 at Vale Park. in Aylesbury – Vale Park will be filled with continuous live music performed on a large outdoor stage by 80’s pop star TOYAH and a number of fantastic local bands playing an array of musical styles and genres from rockabilly, punk and new wave to well-known pop and rock covers – Continue reading…
• The Oxonian Review: An Insubstantial Pageant: A Question of Perspective in The Tempest – The effectiveness of putting Shakespeare on film is a vexed question. There are certainly those who find that all those words hang heavy in such a visual medium as cinema. More plentiful, though, are those who think that adding pictures to the supple and ambiguous wordscapes of the plays is a violent reductiveness – Continue reading…
• BBC Who’s in Today?: Check out Toyah Willcox in for Sounds of the 80s on BBC Radio 2 with Sara Cox – we’re celebrating #TBT in her honour! – Visit the Who’s in Today? Facebook…
• BBC Who’s in Today?: Visit the Who’s in Today? project website…
• Tony Banks: A Chord Too Far: More info on the forthcoming boxset which includes Toyah’s Lion Of Symmetry – Continue reading…
• Brave New World: Some of us never tire of Toyah’s iconic/unforgettable/still relevant 1982 image – Check out what Mark Wallis Design has done with the single sleeve…
• Celluloid Wickerman: Alchemical Magic in Derek Jarman’s The Tempest (1979): Forever a cinematic alchemist – a sage that conjured and devoured celluloid before the eventual ritualistic sacrifice- Derek Jarman is the perfect suitor to Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1979); a play whose heart is bathed in the tragedy and power of magic – Continue reading…
