Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

Strictly star Toyah Willcox reveals why she was strip-searched in Sweden

We catch up with singer, actress and TV presenter Toyah Willcox on her top holiday spots and why she was regularly strip-searched on arrival at certain destinations during her early years touring.

Earliest holiday memory?
Playing on the estuary between Rock and Padstow in Cornwall, aged two or three. My siblings and I spent all day in an out of the water and I snacked on everything from candyfloss to cockles.

First trip abroad?
Jersey when I was seven. I fell in love with the island. Among the highlights was visiting Devil’s Hole, a 200ft deep crater, but I was disappointed that we didn’t get to meet the Devil.

Earliest touring memory?
My frustration as a vegetarian on learning that everything food-wise in Germany arrived with bacon, even the cabbage.

How’s touring changed?
On my first UK tour in 1977 I travelled to gigs on a motorbike; now I drive in my car or have a driver.

• Continue reading at the Daily Mail. Browse our Daily Mail archive of Toyah content here.

An excerpt from a new interview with Toyah, from Blitzed Magazine, talking playing live, her back-catalogue reissues and Strictly.

From princess of punk to accomplished stage actress, Toyah Willcox is a uniquely gifted, well-loved and respected performer. Charismatic, outspoken and very passionate, she is one of Britain’s most beloved household names of stage, screen and radio. The hit singles ‘It’s A Mystery’, ‘I Want to Be Free’, ‘Brave New World’ and platinum-selling albums Anthem and The Changeling confirmed her status as one of the most significant talents of the 1980s. In 1982 she won the Best Female Singer at the British Rock & Pop Awards (which later became The Brits).

In recent years, Toyah has seen her career take on even more challenges with TV, live festivals, re-releases of classic albums, as well as awards and new material too. For issue 18 of Blitzed, we spoke to Toyah about her legacy and kicked off by asking her how she would summarise 2024 in terms of the highs and lows?

The year has been very rewarding, and it’s satisfying to be seen and regarded as an artist of influence in the music industry. I will remember 2024 for the rewards after decades of work. Glastonbury will always be a high point in my life. It is a magical festival that takes place on a very powerful piece of land and the audience add to that. No other experience matches it, it is a truly loving caring community where music is the very heart and soul of everything. The lows, there aren’t really any other than seeing my brilliant 78-year-old husband move into a more fragile time in his life but that is inevitable.

• Continue reading at Blitzed Magazine. Read the full interview with Toyah in issue 18 of Blitzed Magazine.

Toyah Willcox reveals ‘main focus in life’ – and it isn’t husband Robert Fripp

Singer Toyah Willcox says she loved every moment of her recent appearance on Strictly. Now, she’s looking forward to joining Craig Revel Horwood’s 1980s musical and releasing a new album

Anyone who witnessed her spirited jive to Nutbush City Limits on the last series of Strictly Come Dancing would know that singer Toyah Willcox is not short on energy. And a quick glance at her schedule for 2025 would suggest she has no plans to slow down.

She will join the cast of NOW That’s What I Call A Musical next month, there’s a new album in the offing and if that wasn’t enough, she recently bought an old 1890s industrial water mill on the River Avon, which she is renovating and restoring back to its original structure.

“I love it,” she enthuses. “I spent all day yesterday removing trees that washed up in the floods; it’s a really physical project.

“I’ve always got something on the go. Anyone that sits still can’t bear being with me. I adore working and I always will. My main focus in life is my work. I think if I didn’t work, the boredom would eat me alive.”

• Continue reading at The Express.

BBC Strictly 2024 star Toyah Willcox makes ‘very shy’ admission

Toyah Willcox has revealed that she had to confront her “vulnerability” by showing off her legs on ‘Strictly Come Dancing’. The 66 year old ‘I Want to Be Free’ singer, who is no stranger to performing in front of a global audience, admitted to having some reservations about stepping onto the BBC show’s dance floor with professional partner Neil Jones.

Speaking to Metro, she confessed: “I am very shy about my legs. My legs have never been great, but they are strong, brilliant, and work for me. I had to expose that vulnerability. ”

She also mentioned her discomfort with the footwear, saying: “The shoes didn’t suit me greatly. I don’t tend to wear strappy shoes. I was having to do things that I would never normally do, and this is why I went into ‘Strictly.'”

• Continue reading this Metro article at www.msn.com.

Christmas 2016, and Toyah was the cover star of Birmingham Living magazine – issue dated January 2017 but published in December 2016 – with a three-page interview feature accompanied by some great shots of Toyah.

Toyah Willcox’s colourful career has taken her from Punk Princess to Splash, Teletubbies and I’m a Celebrity. She never ceases to surprise…

There is something very endearing about Toyah Willcox. She is one in a long tradition of creative, sometimes downright cussed, free spirits who mellow into a kind of national treasure with the passing years. Say what you like about Toyah, you could never pigeon-hole her.

The original wild-child punk princess is credited with starting the Goth movement, has voiced the Teletubbies, champions the National Trust and survived the Celebrity Jungle. And this multi-talented ball of energy has now been officially honoured by her home city with a star on Birmingham’s Walk of Stars.

Being Toyah, she challenges the word mellow. “I don’t think I’m mellowing,” she says, “though I do find things that freaked me out in the past don’t bother me anymore. And I’m working harder than ever.” No kidding! This is a one-woman phenomenon with a record company, six movies on the go and a touring band. A typical day starts at 6am, involves driving across the country, gigging, presenting and writing before final getting into bed at 4. Not that she’d change a thing.

• The magazine is still available online. Continue to Birmingham Living at Issuu.com to read the full interview.

Following their interview with Toyah in 2021, and talking Toyah in September, Toyah & Robert guested on Word In Your Ear‘s latest Podcast – How Toyah & Robert’s kitchen show became an Xmas rock’n’roll ding-dong.

• Watch/Listen at You Tube or at Apple Podcasts.

Toyah and Robert guested on yesterday’s Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh on ITV. A great interview with Toyah included clips from Top Of The Pops, The Corn Is Green and The Isle Of Wight Festival. Toyah talked Strictly, working with Katharine Hepburn and George Cukor and much more. Robert then joined the conversation to chat about David Bowie, touring, and more.

The show is repeated next Saturday morning on ITV.

Love Your Weekend: ITV: Saturday 23rd November: 7.30am
Series 6. Episode 30. Joining Alan at Manor Farm are entrepreneur James Middleton, singer Toyah Willcox and composer Debbie Wiseman. Garden designer Chris Hull has advice on hedging and there is a masterclass on what wine goes with what for Sunday roasts.

A great retro interview with Toyah – from The Lady in 2014- has recently been republished online…

Toyah Willcox … is an English singer. She has had 13 Top 40 singles, including It’s A Mystery and I Want To Be Free, and has released 20 albums. She is also an actress and has written a number of books. Toyah and her husband divide their time between London and Worcestershire.

What are you working on at the moment?
I am on tour all year with my band, Toyah. I am also touring an acoustic show with my American band, The Humans. I have three movies to shoot this year – in the first there’s no dialogue as we all ‘speak’ like apes… it will make sense in the end.

When were you at your happiest?
Why ‘were’? I am happy now. Happiness is an art form. I find it challenging at times but the past is gone. My motto is never look back – but my 40s were fantastic.

What is your greatest fear?
In the last five years I have lost my parents and the pain is overbearing. My great fear is losing my husband and our friends. I can’t imagine being happy without my hubby.

What is your earliest memory?
My mother putting a towelling nappy on me and the super size of the safety pin she used to secure it.

What do you most dislike about yourself?
I have less patience and sympathy for difficult people. I am on stage most nights and my audiences are wonderful, but there may be one person who has had too much to drink and disrupts the show.

• Continue reading at The Lady.

EdFringe | Trafford Tanzi starring Toyah Willcox! The play that changed my life – Kevin Maguire

Having given Andrew Pierce the opportunity to share the story of the musical that changed his life – it was Mamma Mia! you may recall – it seemed only fair to offer Kevin Maguire the same courtesy, especially as the pair’s Edinburgh Fringe show, Andrew Pierce vs Kevin Maguire (Assembly Rooms, 8-10 August), pits them against each other. So, in the interest of maintaining an even playing field, here, Maguire shares the piece of theatre that ‘changed his life’… Toyah Willcox in Trafford Tanzi.

‘Time erased exactly why I went to see punk princess Toyah Willcox hitting a wrestling ring’s canvass during 10 rounds over three hours, yet the exhilaration – mine, not hers, just to be clear – is as fresh today as that evening 41 years ago and counting. You never forget the magical impact of your first play, the memory sticking like first day at school, first day at work, first football game, first kiss.
I was a late debutant to the theatre, growing up in a Tyneside working class home where money was tight and the stage a social world away from our life. There’s no need to get out an unfeasibly small violin. Childhood is recalled happily even if now I recognise it could’ve been enriched culturally.

Never going to the York Theatre Royal during three years at the city’s university is explained blushingly by hanging with a group, at least one of whom subsequently came to see Willcox in her cartoonish outfit, who, like me, preferred football, playing the fool and doing nothing.

• Continue reading at Must See Theatre.

Born with club feet, a twisted spine and a lisp, all too often Toyah Willcox found herself the butt of the joke. But having exploited this outsider status to find fame as an actress and singer, she had the last laugh. And she’s still chuckling…

In a remarkably eclectic career spanning almost 50 years, peroxide princess Toyah Willcox has topped the pop charts, illuminated the silver screen with movie legend Katharine Hepburn and even dressed up as a giant vegetable with members of the Royal Family. And today, as she celebrates her newfound status as an unexpected social media sensation, with more than 120 million views of her YouTube channel, the 66-year-old is in a characteristically defiant mood.

“My rebellion has always been that I just don’t fit into the norm,” she says from the once-haunted Dorset home she shares with her online partner in crime, King Crimson guitarist and husband of 38 years, Robert Fripp. “And I never will. I don’t think like other people. I don’t move like other people. I’m unique.”

And for Toyah, who first came to public attention in 1979 as the party-loving Monkey in the iconic British mod film Quadrophenia, before launching a hugely successful pop career in the early 1980s, the roots of her distinctive, often-confrontational creativity lie firmly in her challenging childhood.

“Growing up in Birmingham I was disabled and I was treated as disabled, even though I was physically very, very strong,” she explains. “I had a twisted spine, my legs were twisted, I had club feet, and my family referred to me as ‘Hopalong’. I also had a very bad lisp and dyslexia, but even though people would laugh at me, I had grand ambitions and grand ideas from day one.”

Toyah recalls always being the butt of the joke to the people around her. “And that made me grow into a monster – and that monster grew daily,” she states with the ghost of a smile. “My ambitions grew daily because I was being set up for failure from the moment I could speak, but people didn’t see the person I knew.

• The full interview is available to read online here.

Toyah Willcox: ‘I had tea with Princess Margaret – she wanted to see what a punk rocker looked like’

The singer, actress and presenter talks royal encounters, Judi Dench playing pranks, and an £80,000 bank forgery

Best and worst is a regular interview in which a celebrity reflects on the highs and lows of their life

Born in Birmingham in 1958, Toyah Willcox’s breakthrough role was in Quadrophenia in 1979. From there, she juggled acting with a pop career, selling millions of records. She has continued to sing and act throughout her career with roles in Casualty and Secret Diary of a Call Girl, and she also narrated the children’s TV series Teletubbies. She lives in Dorset with her husband, the King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp, with whom she presents the popular YouTube show Sunday Lunch…

• Continue reading at The Telegraph. (Registration required)

On the eve of her 44th single being released… Toyah will be joining Jackie Brambles on Greatest Hits Radio tonight for a Great Conversation from 8pm, ahead of her & Robert Fripp’s performance at the legendary Isle of Wight Festival this weekend. There may be a surprise too. Post-airing listen to the show here…

A new interview with Toyah, from the Yorkshire Times, ahead of the Sounds Of The 80s gigs later this month.

BBC Radio 2 presenter Gary Davies has announced a nationwide 2024 tour for the live version of his show Sounds of the 80s, which will include an appearance from Toyah.

Ahead of the tour, Toyah spoke to the Yorkshire Times.

What can people expect when they come to the Sounds of the 80s show?

Anyone who attends one of the evenings will find an atmosphere where the audience can be themselves dancing and singing to their favourite tracks from a classic period in pop music. There was such a broad spectrum of music at the time from artists like Bananarama, Prince, and T’Pau, among others, including myself.

I think what will work beautifully is that the stage will be constantly active. Gary will be on there plus the dancers, and a stage set that is Gary’s Radio 2 studio and there will also be live performances from myself and other artists such as Carol Decker from T’Pau and Denise Pearson from 5 Star.

Why do you think the 1980s were such a golden period for popular music?

It was all very hedonistic, none of us thought beyond the 80s. It was difficult in the 90s to sell music from the previous decade, but that all changed with the Millennium. People wanted to hear all those iconic songs again. Part of the success of those tracks is the narrative of the songs; we really were traditional song writers then, writing about people’s attitudes and what they needed in their lives.

So, Toyah, tell us about your best 80s memories.

There were many good memories appearing on Top of the Pops. One of the happiest memories is the magnitude of what we did. For instance, on Christmas Eve in 1981, I played the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, which went out live on television, bringing in twelve million viewers, which at the time was phenomenal.

• Continue reading at the Yorkshire Times. Further information and ticket links available at toyahwillcox.com.

Exclusive: Toyah Willcox reveals key to 38-year marriage and why she’s happy being child-free

Punk singer and actress Toyah Willcox has shared they key to her near four decade long marriage to rock musician Robert Fripp and their decision to not have children

Toyah Willcox has given a rare insight into her marriage of 38 years with rock guitarist Robert Fripp.

The punk singer, 65, married Robert, who has worked with the likes of David Bowie and Brian Eno, in 1986. They have gone on to work together as well as creating their viral Sunday Lunch series, which they now tour. Toyah and Robert, 77, film themselves every week performing covers of huge hits including Slipknot’s Psychosocial, Billy Idol’s Rebel Yell and Foo Fighters’ All My Life.

In an exclusive chat with The Mirror, Robert and Toyah have shared the secret to their successful marriage of almost four decades. Sharing what it is like touring together, Toyah said: “It’s exactly the same as being married for 38 years, it’s good. We both come from very different genres.” Robert added: “But we complement each other well, I have a wonderful time being out working with my wife, may I say, even having greater fun than when we were at home together.”

• Continue reading at The Mirror. See also Gold Radio.

Exclusive: Toyah Willcox’s baby shock as child conceived at her show and parents’ surprising gesture

Punk singer Toyah Willcox has shared her shock after finding out a couple conceived at one of her gigs as the parents made a surprising gesture nine months later

Toyah Willcox was shocked to find out a baby was conceived at her show

Toyah Willcox has revealed a baby was conceived at her gig – and she found out nine months later after the couple made a surprise gesture.

The legendary punk rocker is one of the biggest stars from the 1980s, with huge hits including It’s A Mystery and I Want to Be Free. She went on to have 30 albums, 25 feature films and countless theatre and TV presenting roles. In an exclusive chat with The Mirror alongisde husband Robert Fripp, Toyah shared her most memorable moment from her impressive singing career.

She said: “We both experienced very strange but legendary things. When I played Hammersmith Apollo in 1982, which we recorded live for an album called Warrior Rock, a child was conceived on the back row. Nine months later there was another Toyah in the world. She was actually named Toyah.”

• Continue reading at The Mirror.

Christmas 2012, Toyah guested on Steve Lamacq’s Rock College on BBC Radio 2 as ‘Guest Lecturer’, discussing how absolutely life-changing first discovering David Bowie was for her when growing up in Birmingham in the early 1970s.

Toyah talks about the legendary album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, and of first glimpsing, and hearing, Bowie performing Starman on the music programme Lift Off With Ayshea.

“This was a moment that changed my life forever…”

This was such a great audio clip/opinion piece by Toyah it would’ve been a real shame to just let it disappear after its week on iPlayer back in 2012… so here it is! Click below to listen.

Toyah & Robert guested on BBC Radio Wales last week.

Engaged after just a week! Musicians Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp have been married for 37 years and it was a whirlwind at the start…

They spoke to Carol Vorderman and revealed their Welsh connections too.

• Watch at BBC Radio Wales/Facebook.

Toyah’s full “If I Ruled The World” Reader’s Digest Q&A is now available online…

If you want to eat meat you should have to raise and respectfully take the lives of your own animals
I am very passionate that animals have souls, and most religions say that they don’t. Animals experience empathy, joy and pain. We do not have a right to kill them en masse.

I have never met an animal that does not have empathy. As you get older I think it’s a lot better for you to have a very dominantly vegetarian diet.

There will be a National Concert Day
I used to live in Menton in France and they would have a national concert day, but I don’t think that’s what it was called. Every school would take the school orchestra out into the square. They would play music and the dance classes would do dance. It was a very beautiful spectacle. I’ve seen it in Israel as well. On one day per week in Israel, most communities will go and dance in the square, with live musicians playing.

• Continue reading at Reader’s Digest.

Toyah is interviewed in the October 2023 issue of Reader’s Digest magazine. Here is a preview.

If I Ruled The World – Toyah Willcox

Toyah Willcox is a singer, actor and TV presenter with a career spanning 40 years and eight top 40 singles. Toyah and Robert Fripp tour the UK together in October

Young people would have repercussion predictors

If you make a move in anger, revenge or envy, you need to know the consequences of your actions. I think AI would help young people so much—if they could just have a level of repercussion prediction, they might think twice rather than taint their entire life with a bad action. Within social media, a repercussion predictor would be really useful.

Work-life balance would be a law

The majority of us forget to put life balance first. We are very lucky in the UK that we have two days off a week. I often work in America and I’m so shocked at how hard Americans are expected to work. Life isn’t all about work, email, bureaucracy and accounting. In my working world, I would insist that were two days a week where there is no communication with work.

• Reader’s Digest is on sale now from newsagents, selected stores, and online.

At Home In The Cotswolds with Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp

Fancy a delicious treat? Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp are taking their stonkingly popular Sunday Lunch rock video-performances on tour. Katie Jarvis asks all the important questions, including which of them does the washing up

It’s the first week of lockdown: a Sunday in April 2020. Six-am and a warm sun is rising.

In the outside world (whatever that might mean in April 2020), everyone is feeling unnerved; scared, even. The pandemic has started; people are prisoners in their own homes; time on their hands but – in a possible first – no one has the slightest idea what to do with it.

Oh – except for Toyah Willcox, that is.

Out in the garden of her Pershore home, she’s doing what she feels to be The Obvious. ‘If we’re stuck in this house for weeks,’ she thinks, ‘I’m going to put a ball gown on.’

Which she does. Pearlescent, fishtail, clingy, strappy, sheer; one of those inspired charity-shop buys.

• Continue reading at Great British Life.

“WE ARE PRESENTING THE SHOW WITH WHAT WE REGARD AS CLASSIC MUSIC NOW” TOYAH TALKS SUNDAY LUNCH

Toyah is an 80s culteral icon. From punk princess to film and stage actor, presenter, author, and torch carrier for those who relish being an outsider. Aside from her 80s hits including ‘It’s A Mystery’ and ‘Thunder in The Mountains, Toyah and her husband Robert Fripp have transcended generation gaps and brought us great music and performances with their legendary Sunday Lunch shows on social media.

We caught up with Toyah at Rewind South

PHOTOGROUPIE
How does it feel to be back at Rewind?

TOYAH
I love it. I do 20 minutes. Every other night I’m doing two and a half hours, so this is really lovely. It’s fun. I can give it 150% and not worry about act two.

PHOTOGROUPIE
Now I know you’re on the road with Robert tell us about that.

TOYAH
I’m on the road now. I’ve been on the road since March. The Sunday lunch official tour starts at the end of September through October.

• Continue reading at Photogroupie.