Somewhere in the Distance, and uploaded to Dreamscape… a really interesting interview with Toyah from BBC Radio London around 15 years ago. This aired just before Toyah appeared on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! She discusses that, religion, Velvet Lined Shell and much more. Click below to listen.
What do movies mean to you?
For me movies are vital escapism and deep expressionism. They also question everything in life. When you look at Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake, in comparison to John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place, the passion and belief behind these two extraordinary films runs equally deep. Film can be about truth as much as about speculation and metaphor.
What are three of your favourite films and why?
Oh boy! Where do I start? I have to relate to my most immediate experiences. A Quiet Place has recently blown me away. Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool has magnificent acting. Phantom Thread is my favourite Daniel Day-Lewis film, but I am a horror lover and I always return to Alien when I am relaxing! I can recite the script word for word!
• Continue reading at The Pitch.
‘It shouldn’t be a big deal – but it is’: what a female Doctor Who really means to women Whovians
More than eight million people tuned in Sunday night’s episode of Doctor Who – the show’s largest launch in a decade – to see Jodie Whittaker make her debut as the first female Doctor in the show’s decades-long history. But did she pull it off?
Among those glued to their sofas were the comedians Bridget Christie and Susan Calman, authors Juno Dawson and Jenny Colgan, and the pop star Toyah Willcox – a Who fan who was once mooted for the title role herself. The Telegraph asked each of them what the arrival of a female Doctor means to them, and what they thought of Sunday’s episode.
• Continue reading at The Telegraph. (Subscription Required)
Issue 44 of Classic Pop magazine, which includes a six-page Toyah feature, is on sale now. See below for a (non readable) preview of this.
Get your copy in-store for just £5.99. Alternatively, you can buy a digital issue at the Classic Pop website. Available in-store from WH Smith, Tesco, Tesco Ireland, independent newsagents, Eason and selected McColls.
In the latest issue we speak to Soft Cell‘s Marc Almond and Dave Ball as they prepare for their farewell gig at the O2 in London and release a career-spanning boxset, Keychains & Snowstorms. We also take a look at their Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret LP in our Classic Album feature.
Elsewhere, we have an exclusive interview with the world’s biggest record producer, Mark Ronson, catch up with The Proclaimers who return with their politicised new album Angry Cyclist and talk to Level 42‘s Mark King about his life in pop’s funkiest band.
This month, we look back on the glory days of house music and Toyah tells us how she brought the punk aesthetic to the pop world.
• Visit the Classic Pop website or Twitter. (Thanks to Minna for the magazine scans)
Look out for the next issue (44, September 2018) of Classic Pop magazine. It includes a six-page interview feature on/with Toyah. The magazine is published in around a week’s time, so not long to wait. In the meantime click below to browse our previous updates on Toyah in Classic Pop.
Toyah guests on BBC Radio WM’s The Other Side Of… tomorrow at Midday, discussing her career, early years, the music of Kate Bush and more. The programme has a running time of 60 minutes.
Listen to a short excerpt from the show – “I was not scared of being disliked by men” says Toyah.
The Other Side Of…: BBC Radio WM: Sunday 5th August: 12pm
Celebrating 40 years in show business in her 60th year. She talks about growing up in Kings Heath, how Top Of The Pops helped her stay alive and the power of Kate Bush’s music.
• Listen to the interview live while it airs or post airing at BBC iPlayer Radio. (Photo © BBC)
Toyah brings acoustic show to Diss
Charismatic, outspoken and impossible to categorise, Toyah Willcox is both a boundary-smashing musical survivor from the punk era, much-loved actress and presenter of programmes as diverse as The Good Sex Guide and Songs of Praise.
In a career spanning 30 years, during which she has had 13 top 40 singles, recorded 20 albums, written books, 
appeared in over 40 stage plays, made 10 feature films and been a fixture on television, she has managed to balance a deeply rebellious streak with becoming something of national treasure.
Next month she will be visiting Diss as part of her Up Close & Personal tour that will include a chance to hear her perform an intimate acoustic set. A talented duo of guitarists, Chris Wong and Colin Hinds, will accompany Toyah on unplugged versions of the hits It’s A Mystery, Thunder In The Mountains, I Want To Be Free and Good Morning Universe.
“I love performing the songs acoustically,” she said. “They sound fresh and contemporary. The lyrics have more meaning and clarity in the sonic space of the two acoustic guitars.”
• Continue reading at the Eastern Daily Press.
There’s only a few weeks until Toyah plays the Jack Up The 80s Festival and the Isle Of Wight County Press have made her the cover star of their Weekender supplement (Friday July 20, 2018 issue), with a one page interview feature inside.
In the court of the crimson queen
Eighties music remains popular because it tells relevant and grounded stories everyone can associate with.
That’s according to Toyah, one of the decade’s most iconic stars, who is returning to Jack Up The 80s this Summer.
The 80s revival started in around 2000 and has kept a lot os artists busy ever since, such is the appeal of the 80s sound, which arks back to a time before grunge, rave and grime.
Toyah does four shows a week, all year round, and this will be the second time she has been at the island’s most fluorescent summer event. “Jack Up The 80s has grown since I was last there and I’m looking forward to coming back,” she told the County Press.
• Continue reading here. Many thanks to Official Jack Up The 80s. Browse our Jack Up The 80s news. Visit the festival’s Official Website.
Toyah is interviewed in the latest issue of Woman’s Weekly magazine (Issue dated 5th June 2018).
The article reveals Toyah and Robert Fripp are being filmed for a documentary.
What biscuit would you like to dunk?
I’m non-wheat, non-dairy, so the only biscuits I eat are Nairn’s oatcakes. They do a low sugar, dark chocolate variety.
Do you think there’s pressure to look a certain way in the industry?
It’s incredibly important to look and be fit. There is pressure, yes. I think if I didn’t look the way I look, it would affect what I do and how I choose my work, but I go wholeheartedly with that. My shows are very energetic, and even the acoustic show’s a bit like a marathon because of how much I sing. I have a strict, 1,800-calorie-a-day rule, but that’s all you need. I never feel hungry, I never feel deprived and I fully respect my body is a machine.
• Woman’s Weekly is out now.
We’re back!
For this first episode in the new season, Chris talks with showbiz legend Toyah Willcox about her remarkable stage career.
Please feel free to respond: podcast@chrisgoodeonline.com or you can comment and rate us at iTunes. Thanks for listening & we’ll be back next Wednesday.
• Continue reading/Listen to the podcast here.
It’s Toyah’s 60th Birthday week… Listen to some retro Toyah interviews from throughout her 40 year career at Dreamscape’s Downloads section…
There’s just over a week until Toyah’s 60th Birthday – Dreamscape is counting up to the day with some retro content – Here’s a great Q&A with Toyah from Scotland On Sunday, June 2007. Click below to zoom and read.
About Toyah… Possibly! And only up to 1985!! Here’s a retro Toyah interview from the mid-80s, from The Beat magazine – Please click on it to read. We’re counting down to Toyah’s 60th…
We’re marking the release of Desire for RSD2018 with some content this week from that great Toyah era. Here’s a short interview with Toyah from BBC Breakfast Time on the very day Echo Beach was released as a single in 1987. Click on the screen caps below to watch the interview at You Tube and view larger versions of the screen caps here.
Toyah guested on BBC Radio Four’s In The Psychiatrist’s Chair in September 1992. A fascinating interview with Dr Anthony Clare. Certainly one of the most honest and interesting of the many Toyah has given over the last 40 years. This originally aired on 9th September 1992 and runs for approximately 40 minutes. Click below to listen or download.
On Monday 12 March we had the pleasure to interview one of our new patrons of The Old Rep Theatre, singer and actress Toyah Willcox. Toyah was born in Kings Heath, Birmingham back in 1958. She attended the Old Rep Drama School in the 1970’s which later helped shape her acting career. We wanted to find out a little more about her life at The Old Rep, late night chats with Sir Laurence Olivier and becoming a Brummie legend.
Your first experience of theatre was at The Old Rep. What was it like for you as a girl of just 17?
Actually I was 14. The head commissioner of BBC Pebble Mill said to my parents that he felt I would do better if I was at drama school. And he voted me in to The Old Rep theatre school at weekends. So I joined when I was 14, and it was a very, very exciting building to be in, and I think purely because it smelt like theatre. It was one of the very few buildings still remaining but actually had that very unique smell about it, and I think it’s something to do with dust and costumes, and old grease paint. But it had an incredible atmosphere.
Who also attended The Old Rep drama school at the same time?
Oh gosh… Dona Croll. Dona is a very well established Black actress, phenomenally successful, we went to the school at the same time. But that is the only actress I currently know who is still currently working. I had lots of friends obviously at that time, but they didn’t really stay in the business.
• Continue reading at The Old Rep Theatre.
Four rare radio interviews with Toyah; 1979 – 1982. Click below for the Downloads section.
1. Capital Radio: Mummy’s Weekly (1979): Fighting talk from Toyah! She also chats about being discovered, ‘Victims Of The Riddle’ and more. 2. Radio One: Rock On (1980): Toyah talks Shoestring, Glitter, the band’s influences, mayhem, ’Sheep Farming In Barnet’, ‘Neon Womb’, and future plans. 3. Radio Trent: (January 1981): Toyah, interviewed just before the release of the ‘Four From Toyah’ EP. Great interview with lots of interesting pre-mainstream fame chat. 4. Radio One: Rock On (May 1982): Toyah talks to, former ‘Smash Hits’ writer and eternal cynic, Mark Ellen about ‘The Changeling’, aliens, fairies, her ‘Brave New World’ image and much more.
• Thanks to Giddy Gavin (aka Logan 5) and Sean.
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)
