Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

Taking a trip through the Dreamscape Archives… a rare interview uploaded to You Tube in 2011 (by sph476) with Toyah, looking utterly Minxtastic, from 1985.

The one lesson I’ve learned from life: Toyah Willcox on how you can have the same waist at 60 as you did when you were 23!

Toyah Willcox, 59, shot to fame in the Seventies as a punk singer and actress / She revealed how she spent the past three months overhauling her lifestyle / She says a tailored diet helped her lose weight and improved her energy levels

This year I turn 60, which seems astonishing to me. Yet I’ve never been much of a conformist and I see no reason to become a little old lady. I’ve realised each decade has its own purpose and, in anticipation of my seventh, I’ve spent the past three months overhauling my lifestyle.

Today I have the same waist measurement I had at 23. My energy levels are through the roof, which is good because I’m still playing festivals and I’m known for the energy of my performance. This time last year I felt very different. I was physically and mentally sluggish. I was neither as bright nor as quick as I used to be and I was unhappy with my body shape. But I don’t think it’s inevitable everything should thicken and sag, and I wasn’t willing to watch it happen.

So my husband and I decided to take control of the way we were ageing. We went to the Wildmoor Spa in Stratford to see a Harley Street specialist in DNA. We had ours closely analysed for dietary intolerances and genetic traits that influence the way we process food. Results in, we were given tailored diets to follow. It’s been a major commitment of both money and willpower. I’ve cut out wheat, dairy and all processed foods, but my husband has different rules, so though we cook together, we have different meals. At first, I lost weight because I couldn’t find much to eat, especially on restaurant menus. And I missed cake.

• Continue reading at the Daily Mail. (Photo © Clark Enwell/BackGrid)

The actress tells us the musical numbers she couldn’t live without

Toyah Willcox is best known for her career as a singer and has had eight top 40 singles from over 20 albums. Her biggest hits include “It’s a Mystery”, “Thunder in the Mountains” and “I Want to Be Free”.

Her stage credits include Calamity Jane, Amadeus and Three Men and a Horse. She is currently starring in the stage adaptation of Derek Jarman’s Jubilee – having featured in the original film – which runs at the Lyric Hammersmith until 10 March.

We caught up with Toyah and asked her: “If you were stranded on a desert island which five showtunes could you not live without?”

• Continue reading, and see Toyah’s Top 5 showtunes, at What’s On Stage.

Toyah is interviewed in today’s print edition of the Metro.

The singer and actress loves walking from Regent’s Park to Kensington’s museums and wants to live by the BFI

Is there an area of London that you love?
The South Bank, because my first experience of London was the National Theatre in 1977. I was 18 when I joined the National, and Ian Charleson, who played Eric Liddell in Chariots Of Fire, introduced me to (film director) Derek Jarman who lived on Butler’s Wharf so lots of my formative years were spent in the area. In the late 1970s it was nothing like what it’s like now, it was derelict, there was no sign of any money going in. The National was ground-breaking for being built there at that time. Today, it’s still my favourite part of London. It’s vibrant, you have the arts on tap, it’s multicultural, it’s interesting and I love the architecture. If I could afford to I would live right next to the British Film Institute.

What are the most memorable London Stages you’ve performed on?
The Olivier (theatre) at the National Theatre is a sacred space to work in and I was one of the first people to perform on ‘the revolve’ (revolving stage) which was built in 1976, in the play Tales From The Vienna Woods. It was the first play to use the revolve, which was in its embryonic stages, and kept breaking down. When it broke it had to be operated manually by hand. The other stage is Wembley Arena, which I’ve done once. It was a dream come true. I love playing arenas and, as a performer, you have to have ticked off Wembley. It was big, it was loud, it was beautiful.

• Continue reading at Twitter. (Thanks to Talent 4 Media)

Toyah shares her memories of growing up as the “only punk in the village” and finally finding her people at a Sex Pistols gig. In this candid interview with Johnnie, Toyah reflects on the challenges she faced as a young teenager: born with a twisted spine, one leg longer than the other, a club foot and no hip sockets, she spent many years undergoing painful operations and countless physical therapies. This never dimmed her spirit however, and she recalls a host of almost-careers including time spent as a department store hair model and a missed chance to be an ice skating superstar. After defeating the bullies at school, she carved out a niche for herself as a punk – before the term had even been invented.

Listen to Toyah guesting, and talking to host Johnnie Walker, on BBC Radio 2’s Sounds Of The 70s at BBC iPlayer by clicking below.

Toyah guested on BBC Radio 4’s PM programme on Thursday afternoon, discussing Jubilee at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester (and Teletubbies) with Colin Paterson.

• The interview begins at around 46 minutes into the show and runs for approximately five minutes, including a very short play of It’s A Mystery. Listen at BBC iPlayer Radio.

Toyah Willcox: ‘I’d rather have been a 70s punk than be young today’

After playing a member of the anarchic and murderous girl gang in the 1978 punk film Jubilee, actress and singer Toyah Willcox is revisiting the story in its first stage version. Is she still punk, 40 years on?

“I can’t live in a world of dullards,” Toyah says. “So I think on that level, I’m definitely punk.”

Toyah, who forged an acting career while also making her name as a pop star, is still rebelling against the expectations of society – in her own way. “For me, it’s non-conformist,” she says. “I’m just not interested in the norm. The only example I can give you is I can’t go to a hairdresser and talk about holidays. I just don’t live in that world. It’s not me.”

Being punk means something different in 2017 compared with 1977. But the world’s a different place now, and Toyah is almost 60.

• Continue reading at BBC News.

Chris Goode: Everything I know about theatre, I learned first from Derek Jarman

Almost everything I think I know about theatre, I learned from someplace else. Sometimes it’s just easier to spot the clues about theatre that are encoded in some other kind of event or relationship. You glancingly recognise something and immediately know you want to take it into your next rehearsal room.

Something about the obliqueness of the angle matches the radical hospitality of theatre. The understanding that the wholly new and unexpected is ready to rush in and surround us, if only we can remember that we come to theatre not to make things, but to make spaces for things to happen in.

Several years ago, I wrote a blog post ridiculously entitled “The young anarchosyndicalist’s guide to theatre space”…

• Continue reading at The Stage.

At the World Premiere of Lies We Tell it was all about the truth as Premiere Scene interviews actors Emily Atack, Toyah Willcox, Jan Uddin, Sibylla Deen, Reece Ritchie, Danica Johnson, Hamish Rush, director Mitu Misra, producer Andy McDermott and composer Zbigniew Preisner.

‘A couple tried to kidnap my sister… was it Brady and Hindley?’ Inside the head of… Toyah Willcox

Eighties punk singer and actress Toyah Willcox, 59, has eight top 40 singles to her name. She is married to King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp, 71.

What is your earliest memory?

My mother putting a thick nappy on me. I used to deliberately hold everything in until she had done it, then would let loose. I was very naughty, even as a baby.

What sort of child were you?

I was completely unconventional in everything, which my mother found very difficult. I was a huge tomboy.

What has been your biggest achievement?

In 2010 I had to learn to walk again when I had my legs made the same length, after living with one leg two inches longer than the other until the age of 51.

• Continue reading at the Daily Mail.

Listen to a short interview with Toyah from BBC Radio Manchester at Rewind North 2017, by clicking below.

Toyah Willcox, Paul Young, Martika and China Crisis kick off the 80’s Invasion Tour tonight.

This month our Content Editor, Charlie O’Neill had the chance to catch up with Toyah Willcox ahead of the ‘80’s Invasion Tour’.

Firstly, Happy New Year. Did you have a nice Christmas? What did you get up to over the festive period?

TOYAH: Thank you and the same to you! I had the best Christmas ever, it was absolutely lovely. We were both home from a year of touring. And, we just had family time and for me that’s what Christmas always will be. It was very gentle and perfect. It’s the only time of year, where no matter what happens, whatever distractions, and you always make room for family. Its catch up time.

Do you have any New Years resolutions set or any goals you are aiming to achieve this year?

TOYAH: My New Years resolutions usually go into about 3 pages of dialogue with myself! Basically, I just want to keep developing and moving forward. I don’t want to just rest on my laurels. So, my new years resolutions are always linked to creative writing, painting, developing ideas and examining ideas, brining them into fruition. My New Years resolutions are always boringly predictable, but they are for me, nagging myself to hit my goals.

• Continue reading the interview at Cornfield Publishing.

Interview: Jordan Mooney : the iconic face of punk on then and now and Star Trek

Certainly personifying and symbolizing the face of “Punk” from a female point of view, “Jordan” caused a sophisticated anarchy that revolutionized equality in music for women at a time when it pretended to be a male profession. Beyond that she was, and still is a, heroine who dares to evoke the threat of imagination. Jordan defied sensibility and at the same time defined it.

Celebrated for her audacious fashion sense, her musical abilities, and her courageous and tantalizing artistic view, Jordan was privy to the most sacred Punk bands to ever emerge, including a close relationship with “The Sex Pistols”. She was also the very first manager of “Adam and the Ants”. She had a supreme role in Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren’s SEX boutique, and starred as the lead in one of the most impacting films of the time, Derek Jarman’s ” Jubilee”.

• Continue reading at Louder Than War. View details on Jordan in Conversation, with John Robb, taking place at Home Cinema, Manchester on Saturday 21st January, here.

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.

• Continue reading at Birmingham Living.

As mentioned, Toyah guested on BBC Hereford & Worcester yesterday, chatting to Tammy Gooding on her radio show.

Toyah appears at approximately 1hr 16m into the programme for the first part of the chat, discussing her age, “bucket list” – which includes visiting various countries, making pottery, and cutting a diamond – and her future…

The second part of the interview begins around 1hr 35m in – With Toyah paying tribute to Greg Lake, and talking about the Walk of Stars event, her punk days, new films, the 80s Invasion Tour and more.

• Listen to the show/interview at BBC iPlayer.

“There is a mindset when it comes to competitive combat and I think I might have that.”

Toyah Willcox will always be associated with early 80s pop, punk and new romanticism – and that’s no bad thing. With her flaming sunset hair, rebellious lyrics and tribal synths, she is unforgettable. But what isn’t always remembered is that this versatile all-rounder has acted opposite greats like Sir Laurence Olivier and Katharine Hepburn, worked for directors like George Cukor and Derek Jarman, and had success in children’s TV as Barmy Aunt Boomerang and as a narrator of Teletubbies.

Nevertheless, the call of the 80s is hard to resist and so, next Spring, Toyah will join Paul Young, Martika and China Crisis for the 80s Invasion tour. It’s a tempting proposition. But I wonder if Toyah’s boundless energy is still in good supply.

“That enthusiasm is just a natural part of who I am,” she says. “I don’t believe in working on anything half-heartedly. If people are good enough to work with you, you have to give them 150 per cent in return. You can’t become an actress and have limitations or boundaries, that just feels contradictory to me. Diversity is a very rewarding thing because you see different aspects of human life and come into contact with things that you would never have otherwise discovered. As a writer, that’s vital for me because we all tend to live in a bit of a bubble. With Teletubbies I was doing a favour for a friend who never thought it would ever see the light of day. Of course she couldn’t have been more wrong as it became one of the BBC‘s most successful programmes.”

• Continue reading at Northern Soul.

Toyah guested on Wynne Evan’s show on BBC Radio Wales yesterday.

Toyah on Over-50’s Bucket Lists & Wynne has the Icing on the Cake: Adrenaline thrills and age-defying adventures – actress & singer Toyah Willcox on bucket-lists for the over 50s Plus How to make a Christmas cake.

• Listen to the show at BBC iPlayer (Available for the next month).

Toyah talks to ITV Central ahead of being presented with a star on Birmingham’s Walk of Stars.

Toyah Willcox gets emotional talking about being honoured with a Broad Street star… Toyah is being recognised for her work in music, film and television.

‘I hardly see him!’ Toyah Willcox reveals the secret to her thirty year marriage is separate houses… but insists she and her husband are still ‘very naughty in the bedroom’

She’s been happily married for three decades.

And Toyah Willcox has a pretty unorthodox way of keeping the spark alive, admitting on Thursday’s Loose Women that she and her husband have separate houses.

The 58-year-old, who wed Robert Fripp back in 1986, commented: ‘The secret is – please don’t quote me – I hardly see him!’

Speaking to the Loose Women, Toyah revealed that she and Robert have two houses, so although they spend much of their time together, there is somewhere to escape to.

• Continue reading at the Daily Mail.

Take on the purple trend in a midi dress like Toyah

Nineties rocker, Toyah Willcox, looked a far cry from her former punk self earlier today when she made an appearance on Loose Women wearing a demure midi dress!

Wearing a jersey wrap dress by Pure (click right to buy it now), Toyah accessorised her look with a statement coin necklace and a chunky arm cuff. With its wrap-around style, thigh-slit, side-ruching and jersey fabric, Toyah’s dress is perfect balance of classy and comfy! Make like Toyah and utilise the plunging neckline by stacking up with statement jewels.

• Continue reading at the Daily Mail. (Photo © ITV.com)