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.
• The Advertiser: Crimson queen ready to reign with set of her greatest hits: A news article on Toyah’s recent Crimson Queen gig in Blyth, and forthcoming Acoustic, Up Close & Personal date at The Duchess, York – Continue reading…
• Cat On The Wall Music & Culture Webzine: Whitby Goth Weekend – Day One – Friday 25th April 2014: Toyah Willcox: Her vocals were perfectly placed, her communication with the audience was excellent, the music itself was replicated to a tee (complete with plenty of synth, of course) and, ultimately, she’s about as practised live as a 
musician can get. She knows how to perform and uses the experience well without becoming the slightest bit robotic. I’ve never seen an audience so adoring before. It’s actually quite an incredible sight – Continue reading…
• 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…
• Crimson Queen/Greatest Hits…Live!: Tickets are now on sale for Toyah’s gig at West Cliff Theatre, Clacton-On-Sea – Buy/View info here…
• Toyah Live 2014: Browse Toyah’s full diary of upcoming Crimson Queen/Greatest Hits, Acoustic, Up Close & Personal, festival and PA dates. There are numerous gigs listed at The Official Gigs Page…
• Toyah on Twitter: “Breakfast in Seattle overlooking Puget Sound… Planning 2015! xxx” – Follow Toyah at Twitter…
• The Watchers Film Show Blog: Shakespeare On Film: The Tempest: This is my favourite of Shakespeare’s plays. There are two particularly interesting film version of this lyrical, beautiful and poignant play. Derek Jarman’s 1979 version, starring Heathcote Williams as Prospero and Toyah Willcox as Miranda (above), is full of the usual striking and out-there imagery you would expect for a Jarman film – Continue reading…
Toyah, at the BFI’s Derek Jarman Retrospective last month, discusses working with Jarman on The Tempest, in which she plays Miranda, and considers the director’s legacy. Click below to watch the video at the BFI website.
Toyah was also interviewed at the BFI about Jarman’s Jubilee. More info on that here.
Toyah is a special guest this evening at the British Film Institute (BFI Southbank), as part of their two-month Derek Jarman retrospective season, marking the 20th anniversary of the Director/Writer’s death. Toyah will discuss Jarman’s 1979 adaptation of The Tempest, in which she starred as Miranda and was subsequently nominated for Best Newcomer at the 1980 Evening Standard Awards for her performance in the role. The film has become another landmark in Toyah’s long and varied career. Click below for further info at www.toyahwillcox.com.
Yesterday Toyah visited the Derek Jarman: Pandemonium exhibition by King’s College London, currently taking place at Somerset House, saying it was: Insightful, inspiring & like visiting a well loved friend x (Photo © Toyah Willcox Ltd)
Derek Jarman: Pandemonium is an immersive exhibition that celebrates the life and work of this truly innovative and multi-faceted artist. A student of humanities at King’s from 1960 to 1963, Jarman went on to become one of the most important creative practitioners of his generation and a crucial voice in gay politics in Britain. Painter, filmmaker, set designer, diarist, poet, gardener, activist – Jarman’s work across many areas and media was distinguished for its continual innovation and sense of daring. This exhibition, marking the 20th anniversary of his death from an HIV-related illnesses in February 1994, captures the unruly spirit of his work and his artistic times.
Derek Jarman: Pandemonium
Thursday 23 January – Sunday 9 March 2014
Inigo Rooms, Somerset House East Wing
Strand Campus, London WC2R 2LS
Open daily, 12.00 – 18.00 (until 20.00 on Thursdays)
Free Admission
• The Tempest @ BFI: Tickets now on sale for this event, which includes a live Q&A by Toyah at the BFI Southbank Cinema on Wednesday 12th February 2014 : Derek Jarman’s terrific third feature is brooding and darkly laden with heavily symbolic imagery – More info here…
• Digital Spy: Splash!: Toyah Willcox makes her way to the board – View here…
• The Fashionatress: My first ladies of Punk!: One of alternative fashions true style chameleons, You just didn’t know what Toyah would be wearing next! Bold and brash she did her own thing with her wardrobe. ‘Outlandish’ was the word Toyah Willcox and her style statement making costumes – View here…
• Classic Rock: Blockheads ask fans for chart help: Last year the band ran a successful crowd-funding campaign to cover the cost of making three videos for Same Horse Different Jockey. They used the money to create a series of spoof soap opera episodes called Dun Punkin, featuring old friends Toyah Willcox and Topper Headon – Continue reading…
• Liverpool Sound & Vision: Hue And Cry, Big Country And Toyah Willcox Amongst The Highlights Of New Season Of Music At Eric’s – Continue reading…
• The Garstang Courier: Some Grand Nights Out: Toyah brings her band to the Grand for the first time on Easter Saturday, April 19 – Continue reading…
• Chilfest 2014: Tickets for this Hertfordshire festival are now on sale. Toyah plays a full-band gig on July 5th – More info here… (Thanks to Kev Tucker)
Various articles have started to appear online on the forthcoming Derek Jarman season at the BFI in 2014. Jubilee and The Tempest play a number of times during the season, and Toyah will participate in Introducing The Tempest.
• The Quietus: BFI Announce Derek Jarman Season: The Quietus are excited to be media partners with the BFI’s major film retrospective of the groundbreaking filmmaker’s work, taking place in February and March 2014: The BFI have announced that they are hosting a major film retrospective of the work of filmmaker Derek Jarman. Titled Queer Pagan Punk, it will take place across February and March 2014, marking the 20th anniversary of his death. The season will draw together key films from his career alongside rarer work, as well as talks and discussions with special guests – Continue reading…
• After Nyne: BFI Announces Two-Month Derek Jarman Retrospective: The BFI is pleased to announce Queer Pagan Punk: Derek Jarman a major two month film retrospective at BFI Southbank (February/March 2014). This will be the largest retrospective of Jarman’s films ever mounted in the UK, celebrating the prolific, iconoclastic and hugely influential film-maker and marking the 20th anniversary of his death… Toyah Willcox, John Maybury, Jenny Runacre, Dexter Fletcher, Isaac Julien, Tariq Ali, James McKay, Keith Collins and Don Boyd and are among the invited guest speakers – Continue reading…
• BFI: A full list of related events, including the showings of Jubilee and The Tempest, can be viewed by clicking here and searching for “Jarman”.
• The Humans Live 2014: Two of the US dates have now been confirmed as taking place at The Triple Door Club, Seattle on 14th/15th April – Visit the Official Gigs page…
• Toyah Live 2014: More tickets now on sale, a new ‘Crimson Queen’ gig in Clitheroe, and another ‘Acoustic’ show being announced soon – Visit the Official Gigs page…
• Introducing The Tempest: Toyah will be introducing The Tempest, in which she played Miranda in 1979, at this event at the BFI Southbank, London on 12th February next year.
• The List: Interview: Gavin Mitchell on Bowie, sandwiches and sleeping in the library: First concert you ever attended Toyah at the Apollo – Read the full Q&A here…
• RBKC Libraries Blog: From Club to Catwalk: 80′s fashion talk at the V&A: An article on the recent V&A event which Toyah participated in (and also mentions in her latest blog) – View here…
• Elves Bells!:A Caboodle of Cool Christmas Songs: Toyah – I Believe In Father Christmas – It took 30 years, but this 1982 television performance was released as a single last year. If you are a Toyah fan, her Winter In Wonderland just became available – View here…
• Santas Working Overtime: Spend the Holidays with Toyah, VTO, Hi-5, Chris Ward, Not Literally, John Rossall – View here…
Rare photos from The Tempest. Toyah played Miranda in the 1979 film and her performance won her a nomination as Best Newcomer at the 1980 Evening Standard Awards. Click below to view these photos, and more, at Dreamscape’s Gallery. (A huge thanks to Andi for these)
Return to Dreamscape soon for more rare-ish photos of Toyah from 1979 and ’80, including publicity shots for Quadrophenia and The Tempest. (Thanks to Andi)
In the meantime do take a look at some of our recent Rare Toyah Photos updates.
• How You Feel: Learning To Love British Film: Jubilee: Derek Jarman doesn’t usually pull too many miseryguts Brit flick clichés, and in his punk outing Jubilee – actually one of the only films about punk made in the brief time punk wasn’t dead – he should be even more innovative and outrageous than usual.
• Arran Art: An (Odd) Day in the Dark: The Tempest will be screened at Arran’s free mini-film festival next month (Saturday 2nd February). 3.15-4.45pm – The Tempest: Derek Jarman’s 1979 idiosyncratic adaptation of Shakespeare’s Tempest with Toyah Willcox as Miranda. Forget any notions of worthiness – this film challenges the idea of ‘faithful’ literary adaptation and celebrates the visual magic of cinema as thoroughly as the magical arts of Prospero.
• T-Shirts: Fancy a Toyah-related t-shirt? ‘WeAdmire.net’ have Jubilee and Quadrophenia apparel for sale.
• Steve Lamacq’s Roundtable: The edition of Roundtable from ‘BBC 6Music’ in which Toyah was a guest is available to listen to/download via ‘Castroller’. This originally aired in November 2012.
• Folkestone People: Hormonal Housewives come to Leas Cliff Hall: Eighties pop star Toyah Willcox is to appear in sketch show Hormonal Housewives, showing at Leas Cliff Hall later this year.
• Morning Star: Culture: Heathcote Williams – The Queen of Diamonds: Toyah’s co-star in The Tempest.
• A full transcript of Bev Meets… Toyah Willcox, which aired a couple of times over Christmas on ‘BBC WM’, is now available at the really great ‘Toyah Willcox Interview Archive’.
• Love Me: One of my favourite Toyah songs. From the magnificent ‘The Blue Meaning’. I never thought I’d hear someone covering it but littletroll has done just that. Listen at Soundcloud.
• Toyah is currently featured on the front page of the Vintage TV website, advertising the forthcoming Toyah’s Christmas At The Zoo. There are now three showings of the new festive special in the schedules. See the air dates & times here.
• TCM Turner Classic Movies: Tempest, The (1979) — (Movie Ciip) The Goddess On Whom These Airs Attend.
• The Tempest is showing on TCM tonight at 11.15pm – The film reimagines The Tempest as a homoerotic romp with punk overtones (primarily courtesy Toyah Willcox, here cast as Miranda).
• Toyah’s short interview on Radio Verulam which aired at the end of October is now available as a transcript at The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive. Click below to view/read. There’s also a great Changeling Resurrection 2012 Tour Archive. View that here.
TCM are airing a new documentary on Derek Jarman later this month, and have a new article on The Tempest in their “Weird World Of Late Night Cinema” strand.
“O brave new world, to have such people in it.” — Miranda, The Tempest
Pioneering director Derek Jarman introduced a brave new world to filmgoers with this unconventional adaptation of William Shakespeare’s last solo dramatic effort. Prior to this 1979 release, no film director had attempted to put on screen the kind of experimental, deconstructed vision of the Bard that was starting to turn up in more experimental theatres around the globe.
• Continue reading at TCM Underground.
• The third series of Pointless Celebrities began airing last night on BBC1. There will be nine episodes in the series and Toyah will guest on one of them, having recorded her appearance in early February with Cheryl Baker.
• Kent News: The Marlowe’s Sleeping Beauty panto to be dedicated to late comic Dave Lee: He may no longer be with us, but much-loved comic Dave Lee will be playing as big a part as ever in this year’s Marlowe Theatre pantomime. In fact, the whole production of Sleeping Beauty, which stars Pop Idol singer Gareth Gates and eighties legend Toyah Willcox, will be dedicated to Dave, who died of pancreatic cancer in January aged 64.
• Friends Reunited: Toyah Willcox, 1985: A portrait of actress and singer Toyah Willcox.
• Nigel James Digital: Toyah Willcox plays Sheffield Corporation club: 80′s diva performs to a packed room!
• Turner Classic Movies: The Tempest – Derek Jarman’s Acclaimed 1979 Adaptation of the William Shakespeare Play.
Three more new reviews of The Tempest on Blu-ray.
• Ioncinema: The Tempest | Blu-ray Review: Difficult as ever, Jarman’s take on Shakespeare’s final lone play is definitely a product of his own imagining. Laced with homoeroticisms, cabaret iconography, extravagant but dirty set design, and overall unsettling imagery… Like the original story, the film centers around the magician and ex-Duke of Milan, Prospero (Heathecote Williams), along with his beautiful daughter Miranda (Toyah Willcox) and their downright scary servant, Caliban (Jack Birkett), all of which now live alone in a decrepit mansion on an island.
• Blu-ray.com: The Tempest Blu-ray Review: Stormy weather ends in sunshine: Where Jarman’s The Tempest really differentiates itself is in its unsettling oddities, its ghostly atmosphere and decayed visual style… Karl Johnson makes for a hypnotic Ariel—weird and effete, dressed all in white—and Toyah Willcox is far from the usual, virginal Miranda. Here she’s sensual and erratic, a life-sized wind-up toy doll.
• Cultural Mente Incorrecto: “The Tempest” by Derek Jarman: A different and almost subversive Shakespeare classic: “The Tempest” by Derek Jarman is a different and almost subversive Shakespeare classic. Visually stunning, with that touch of indie with hints of neorealism but a literary question fabulesca, this is a historically important film in the film, required viewing for film fans Jarman, protesters and intellectuals.
• View links to numerous other reviews of The Tempest on Blu-ray here.
The Tempest has just been released for the first time on Blu-ray. Here is the Time Out cover feature/interview from 1980 published the week that the film was originally released. View the magazine cover here.
Toyah reflects… stage actress, rock singer, icon of the New Wave, star of ‘Quadrophenia’ and now Derek Jarman’s ‘The Tempest’, Toyah Willcox on creating her own image. Next Thursday Derek Jarman’s film of ‘The Tempest’ opens. Toyah Willcox, late of ‘Jubilee’ and ‘Quadrophenia’ plays Miranda. Chris Auty went in search of Ms Willcox…
Click here to read at Dreamscape’s Press Archive. View all of our recent retro Classic Toyah press articles & interviews here. (Thanks to Andi)
A few more reviews of The Tempest, released for the first time on Blu-ray (Region A/1) earlier this week.
• TCM: Movie News: The Tempest – Derek Jarman’s Acclaimed 1979 Adaptation of the William Shakespeare Play: The jump to Blu-Ray for The Tempest is a substantial improvement here, given that transfer technology has improved considerably in the several years since its last telecine pass and the obvious benefits of 1080p.
• DVD Direct: The Tempest: Like most of Derek Jarman’s work, The Tempest is strange and difficult to access, but remains one of my favorite Shakespeare adaptations in all of film.
• DVD Beaver: The Tempest (Blu-ray): Jarman’s The Tempest is certainly interesting as a unique take on The Bard’s work and still recognizable to the play on many fronts but there are notable omissions. I suspect that this Blu-ray can only find an audience for those who appreciate Jarman.
The Tempest was released on Region A/1 Blu-ray yesterday. View a comprehensive article on the film and Blu-ray remastered edition at DVD Talk.
How do you follow up an apocalyptic punk-rock satire that seemed to offend even more people than A Clockwork Orange, up to and including the purist punks whose energy it was inspired by and meant as a tribute to? If you were celebrated British underground auteur Derek Jarman in 1979, having just shocked and rocked the world with your prior year’s film, the scorched-earth, anti-royalist comic nightmare Jubilee, why, of course, your next step would (un)naturally be to take on Shakespeare!
…Prospero’s daughter, Miranda (Jubilee’s sinisterly lisping girl-woman Toyah Willcox, here sporting a no less punkish ‘do of straggly dreadlocks, along with a stripped skeleton of a period dress that looks like something out of vintage Vivienne Westwood).
• Continue reading at DVD Talk.
• Sound + Vision: New Blu-rays for August 7, 2012: The Tempest (1979) is Jarman’s campy adaptation of William Shakespeare’s theatrical masterpiece which includes a full-scale Hollywood production number of Elisabeth Welch singing “Stormy Weather”…
• Indiewire: Playlist: DVDs You Should Know About Including ‘Jaws,’ ‘Quadrophenia,’ and A Pair of Derek Jarman Films.
• Coming Soon to BBC4: Love & Marriage: A new three-part BBC series on the story of love and marriage in Britain from the 1930s up to the present day, based on the personal memories of those who have the strongest tales to tell. This will include Toyah & Robert (no transmission date available yet).
• Lytham Proms 2012: More than 25,000 people attended the three Lytham Proms concerts to see Olly Murs, Alfie Boe and the “Here and Now” stars of the 1980s. The three-day extravaganza was hailed by Fylde Council’s tourism chief as a “great success” in attracting crowds – and tourism cash – to the area. (News Source: Fylde Borough Council)
• The Acoustic Pineapple: The Concert: In 1980, I become aware of a diminutive, flame-haired singer called Toyah Willcox. Imaginative lyrics, containing elements of mysticism and science-fiction, were often backed by thumping, tribal rhythms. From the outset I am intrigued by Toyah.
• The 1980 BBC version of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde has now been released on DVD in Sweden. This release has a slightly different cover to the UK version (released in 2007). The cast includes David Hemmings, Diana Dors and Toyah. View a larger version of the Swedish cover here.
• Derek Jarman’s 1979 version of The Tempest is just about to be released on Blu-ray (Region A/1) for the first time. There’s a new review of the film at the Criterion Cast website: A less easy choice however came in the casting of Miranda, which went to punk rock mega-star (and also star of Criterion-approved Jubilee also from Jarman and the soon to be released Quadrophenia) Toyah Willcox. Always seen as a virginal young woman, Willcox’s punk rock persona far from fit the character, but her performance was really quite entertaining, and the relationship between she and Williams’ Prospero is vital and engaging.
• A larger version of The Tempest Blu-ray cover is also now available. View here.
• Qudrophenia Region A/1 Blu-ray: Read more details on this forthcoming release at Modculture: As they say “You can get a UK Blu-ray already, but the Quadrophenia Criterion Collection Blu-ray release is a considerable step up from that.”
• Also at Modculture: View a limited edition Quadrophenia poster by Piper Gates Design, and read a new article on the movie by Eddie Piller.
The cover for the forthcoming Region A/1 Blu-ray release of Derek Jarman’s The Tempest has been made available. The Blu-ray edition, remastered by Kino International, will be released on 7th August.
The photo used, of Toyah as Miranda, is the same iconic shot used on the Region 1 DVD release from the early 2000s. A different photo is used on the Region 2 release. There’s no word on when, or if, there will be a European Blu-ray release of The Tempest.
SYNOPSIS: Shot on location at the ancient and ghostly Stoneleigh Abbey, The Tempest tells the story of Prospero the magician, who lives with his nubile daughter on an enchanted island and punishes his enemies when they are shipwrecked there. It’s a study of sexual and political power in the guise of a fairy tale. Jarman presents Shakespeare’s intricate comedy of magic and revenge in a form that is at once faithful to the spirit of the play and an original and dazzling spectacle mixing Hollywood pastiche, high camp, and gothic horror. His film recalls the innocent homoeroticism of Pasolini’s versions of classics, while its lush sense of decor and color is worthy of Minnelli. Remastered in HD and available for the first time on Blu-ray!
BONUS FEATURES: Three short films by Derek Jarman: ”A Journey To Avebury”, ”Garden Of Luxor” and ”Art Of Mirrors”, trailers and more.
“Full of magic and surprises…the most truly spectacular British film in years.” – The London Times
