Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

A new Toyah interview and photo/fashion feature published today by the Daily Mail.

How Toyah can make a style Splash! Proof you CAN find a swimsuit to flatter every figure

As a 55-year-old woman with short legs, scars across my stomach from childhood surgery and a bosom so generous it can make me look dumpy, I never dreamed that one day I’d be parading around in a swimming costume on national television.

Yet as a contestant on ITV’s reality diving show Splash!, I’m doing just that – and couldn’t be more terrified. Ever since I agreed to be in the show, I’ve been petrified at the thought of exposing my physique in a swimming costume.

Yes, I try to keep fit and I’m a size ten, but I’m only 5ft 1in, and my body confidence is so low that I never go on beach holidays. The thought of walking down the sands showing off so much skin makes me feel ill with nerves. I haven’t worn a bikini since I was a teen – and even the swimming costume I wear to the local pool has a skirt attached to cover my legs up…

• Continue reading at the Daily Mail.

Interviews With Heat 2 Celebrities: Toyah Willcox

Q: What inspired you to participate in this year’s Splash!?

A: Since I was a teenager, I have fantasised about high diving. It’s always been a dream of mine. I was very lucky that at school I learned how to dive, but I haven’t done it since. The only problem is that I have probably left it about 40 years too late! Diving at the age of 55 is a radically different experience. But I will be hurling myself off a three metre board on live television because I want to prove that just because you hit 50, it doesn’t mean you should slow down. All in all, working on this show has been exhilarating.

Q: How have you found it working with Tom Daley?

A: He is a consummate gentleman. He is a wonderful teacher. He’s amazingly patient – he sees nobody’s age or gender or ability. He’s very easy on the eye, and he has none of that usual teenage angst. He’s very calm, and I think that may come from the inherent danger of what he does. You can’t do it if you’ve just had a night on the tiles. If you are feeling distracted when you dive, you’ll simply hurt yourself. Tom is a fantastic role model and a superb asset for the show.

Q: Which board have you dived off already?

A: I’ve gone off the three metre board twice. It was an incredible experience. Beforehand, you don’t realise just how fast you travel into the water. Afterwards I was elated. It felt like a massive step forward and a huge achievement.

Q: Did Tom help you prepare for it?

A: Yes, he was brilliant. He told us to take it slowly. You have to prepare yourself mentally and physically – you don’t just climb the ladder and dive in. You need to take a moment beforehand to get your mind and body exactly right. Diving is the art of falling forward and entering the water correctly. So preparation is vital. It’s very easy to be off the mark. That’s why we’re doing so much training, so we won’t be distracted by the cameras and the huge audience when it comes to the live shows.

Q: What do you think about doing the live shows?

A: I’m feeling, “Oh my God!” I’ve got a large hurdle because I’ve never been seen in public in a bikini before, and I feel rather disturbed about the prospect. I don’t do beach holidays , and I’m not confident in a bikini. It’s cruel that Linda Barker set the bar so high last year in the way she looked! Even as a teenager, I never looked as good as Linda! But I just have to get on with it. After all, this isn’t a bikini competition.

Q: Does your background as a performer help?

A: Yes. With my band I’m on stage three times a week – I do more than 100 shows a year. When you’re on stage, you learn to get on with it; you just work through any distractions or worries. If you have a costume malfunction, you don’t stop the show. So in a strange way, I’m looking forward to the live shows in Splash!

View the full ITV Press Pack for Splash! Heat 2 here.

Splash! star Toyah Willcox has revealed she’s more terrified of parading in a swimsuit than plunging off a high board.

In fact, the 55-year-old pop star initially turned down ITV bosses for just that reason before changing her mind, “When they asked me, my first thought was that I never wanted to be seen in public by millions of people in a swimming costume, ” Toyah told The Sunday Post. “I’ve never had a career where I’m judged on my body.

“I’m far happier diving off a high board than I am doing that run in front of the audience in my swimming costume. That’s what I’m having nightmares about…”

• Continue reading and view the full scan here. (Thanks to Sharon Dickson)

Toyah Willcox, 55, shows off her stunning figure in hot pink swimsuit for Splash!

Curvaceous and toned, she looks confident in her hot pink swimsuit.

But Toyah Willcox has confessed she feels anything but and the thought of flashing her flesh in a bathing costume or bikini terrifies her more than completing her dive from the three metre board this Saturday.

For unlike many of the celebrity contestants who appear on reality ITV programme Splash! Miss Willcox, 55, has diving experience – what she appears never to have done before is wear a swimsuit in public – and it is giving her nightmares.

Describing her thoughts on her figure, the actress and singer, who underwent a facelift around ten years ago, and said she does not ‘do beach holidays’ said: ‘I’m very short, naturally muscular and I’m 55. The only thing that’s going to make me look like Cher is the amount of surgery she’s had and I’m not going to do that’

• Continue reading at the Daily Mail.

Toyah’s full interview, from September’s Time Out Live Quadrophenia Reunion is now available to watch at HiBROW: The Arts Online website.

Toyah discusses how she got the part of Monkey in Quadrophenia, the audition process, working with Director Franc Roddam, screen testing with John Lydon, kissing Phil Daniels, filming the huge riot scenes in Brighton, and her memories of the period the film was set in. She also talks about the other films she made during the late 1970s, in particular The Corn Is Green.

• Watch the full interview at HiBROW.

A new interview with Toyah, published today, by The Telegraph.

Toyah Willcox, the singer and actress, has fond memories of Estonia and the remotest regions of Belize, but hates to travel with Ryanair

Your earliest memory of travelling?

As a young child, my family holidays were always in Rock, Cornwall, with my parents, older brother Kim and sister Nicola. We hired a bungalow on the grounds of a hotel, but there were only two bedrooms. Mum and Dad stayed in one while Kim and Nicola shared the other. They used to put me to sleep in the living room by pushing two armchairs together. We lived in Birmingham at the time, so it took what seemed like 10 hours to get there, pootling along the single-track roads and country lanes.

• Continue reading at The Telegraph – Travel.

Issue 22 (October 2013) of Respect Magazine has just been published and included is a great four-page interview with Toyah. The magazine is available online in digital format and Toyah’s interview is on pages 48-51. She talks Love Is The Law, who she would like to collaborate with, her dream party guest list and much more. Click below to read at Issuu.

A new interview with Toyah, ahead of Friday’s first Love Is The Law & More gig, from Chronicle Live, published today.

Love is still the Law for 80s singer Toyah: We chat to Toyah ahead of her gig at Legends

Entertainment Editor Gordon Barr chats to Toyah, who is at Legends in Newcastle on Friday

Three decades on, 80s pop princess Toyah still recalls 1983 as one of her favourite years. Little wonder then she is bringing her album release of that year back out on the road.

Love Is The Law was critically acclaimed at the time and Toyah will be performing about six tracks from it, as well as a host of her numerous other hits, when she takes to the stage of Legends in Newcastle on Friday.

“This is my favourite album, it has very happy memories for me,” she tells me. “It was released in 1983 and I made it at a time when I was also appearing as Trafford Tanzi in the West End and it had to be written and recorded at the same time.

“But it was just glorious. I don’t have one bad memory of that year at all…”

• Continue reading at Chronicle Live.

Just rediscovered in my collection, and uploaded to Dreamscape, an interview with Toyah from ‘BBC Radio London’ 10 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.

1. TAROT CARDS Every morning I pull just one card from my deck of tarot cards to help shape my day. I am rather impetuous so I use my daily card to curb my natural impulses.

Some people believe tarot cards are a form of black magic or senseless new age mysticism but for me they are a practical way of talking directly to the universe.

I am currently using a beautiful deck of cards called Kat Black’s Golden Tarot which Robert bought me. It depicts female saints using Renaissance art work. The cards don’t just guide me they are beautiful too.

2. BEST FRIENDS For 10 years I was completely absorbed with looking after my ailing parents and losing them both left a huge void in my life.

My dad Beric died in 2009 and my mum Barbara passed away two years later. Since then I have been busily reconnecting with my best friends. Robert and I don’t have children so our closest friends are very important to us.

• Continue reading at The Express.

A fantastic retro, and quite lengthy, Toyah interview from Finnish magazine SOUNDI.

A huge thanks to Lärwi. of The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive, for the scans and translation.

Interview by Dougie Gordon, published in June 1981.

The door opens. A short, 145 cm tall figure stands in front of me. She’s wearing a blue and grey tunic which has gold embroidery on it. The fiery red hair looks a like a burning bush against the backdrop of the outfit. The figure moves forwards like a Samurai warrior poised for an attack but you can see a smile on her face which you can not resist. She’s Toyah Willcox, England’s Jeanne d’Arc of latter times.

Her moves are a part of her carefully calculated image. She’s has consciously made herself into a mystery which invites the audience to explore her world further. But you can’t fit all of the pieces together – it’s not easy to find the real person behind this made-up facade. Her aggression can turn into warmth in a second – and the other way round. Her mindset changes from a hearty laugh into the deepest despair. Her sentences are deep and meaningful half of the time, the other half you’re left wondering what on earth is she on about? Toyah is like dynamite made out of flesh, the slightest emotional spark will set her off.

She also has a soft sweeter side which the audience rarely gets to see. The aggression she hides behind when dealing with the mass media is of course there on purpose. The media in turn treats her with contempt and suspicion. For this reason she feels misunderstood and defends herself in a way even Lou Reed would be proud of.

• Continue reading at Dreamscape’s Press Archive. Read another rare Finnish interview with Toyah here.

A new interview with Toyah, by the Buckinghamshire Examiner, published on Friday.

If you were asked to name a housewife, Toyah Willcox would probably not be the first person on your list.

More of a pop princess or actress than a woman plagued by chores she may seem a strange choice to star in Julie Coombe’s hit show, Hormonal Housewives, but it’s a role she is cherishing nevertheless.

Now coming to the end of the tour Toyah says it’s been ‘emotional,’ the Wycombe Swan is the last stop on May 26. “I’ll be sad to say goodbye to it,” she said. “Wycombe is our last show so it’ll be emotional for me. I’ve really enjoyed it. Comedy isn’t something I tend to do, though I’ve done Shakespearean comedy and American comedy. It’s addictive though. I’m used to applause in stadiums, but it’s something quite different when you tell a joke and people applaud and laugh. I think I’ll have terrible withdrawal.”

• Continue reading at the Buckinghamshire Examiner. The three month Hormonal Housewives tour comes to an end tonight. View all of Dreamscape’s related news on the show here.

A celebration of women is how singing and stage star Toyah Willcox describes Hormonal Housewives, which is proving a smash-hit in UK theatres.

The show is written by husband and wife team Julie Coombe and John McIsaac and the Spring tour sees them cover 67 theatres with the Wycombe Swan as the last stop.

The pop icon stars in the comedy alongside writer Julie, and former Hollyoaks actress Sarah Jane Buckley. Toyah said: “We play ourselves and it is a celebration of women and we talk to the audience. It is naughty comedy and Chaucerian.”

• Continue reading at the Maidenhead Advertiser.

A new interview with Toyah, published on Wednesday, by the St Albans & Harpenden Review.

Toyah Willcox can’t remember a time when she wasn’t going through some emotional crisis, which makes her the perfect star for Hormonal Housewives, coming to the Alban Arena

Few could ever describe Toyah Willcox as a shrinking violet. The former princess of pop punk has always been a rebel – as a teen she hung out with the local Hells Angels chapter, dyed her hair “every colour of the rainbow“ and often skipped her classes at her private school.

Could it have been the hormones? “As far as I can remember I have always been hormonal, and I can remember being hormonal in my pram,“ says Toyah, 54, who is coming to St Albans as the star of Hormonal Housewives.

• Continue reading at the St Albans & Harpenden Review.

A new interview with Toyah, published by the Hereford Times on Friday.

A great night out in prospect at The Courtyard as Toyah Willcox stars in Hormonal Housewives

Think of Toyah Willcox and “housewife” isn’t a word that immediately springs to mind – punk princess, yes, award-winning actress, certainly – but she’s currently relishing the role as she plays one of the eponymous Hormonal Housewives of Julie Coombe and John McIsaac’s hugely successful show, which arrives at The Courtyard in Hereford on Wednesday, May 15.

“I took the part because it’s a very funny script and I adore doing comedy,” she says. “Before this the only comedy I’d done was Shakespeare and Arthur Smith, which is very different.

It’s a genre I really love, and this show delivers a laugh at least every five lines. It’s one of the most outrageous pieces of theatre, very very naughty, but with a big smile on its face.”

• Continue reading at the Hereford Times.

A rather prickly new Toyah interview, published yesterday by the Oxford Mail.

Katherine MaCalister talks to punk priestess Toyah Willcox about her latest incarnation as an hormonal housewife

Toyah Willcox has made a career out of being prickly, so I was prepared for the punk priestess and her lashing tongue, ready even, willing. But on the morning in question, she was particularly abrasive.

So where to start? “Let’s just talk about the play,” she says. Right, the play, I think rifling through my legions of notes on her legendary career…

• Continue reading at the Oxford Mail.

… when she comes to Swindon

Punk princess of the 1980s Toyah Willcox is now trying her hand at stand-up comedy. This spring she is on the road with Hormonal Housewives, a sketch show covering all things woman.

Toyah and her stage cohorts, Julie Coombes and Sarah-Jane Buckley, stop off in Swindon as part of the UK tour next Tuesday.

The singer says she is having a good giggle every night, not just with her mates on stage, but with a whole room full of women on a girls’ night out. “It is like nothing I have done before,” she said. “It is an observational piece, little scenes where women recognise themselves when they are moaning about their men or boasting about their kids. We cover book groups, erotic literature and a gym scene, which is all girlie bad, and the audience love it.”

• Continue reading at the Swindon Advertiser.

Another new interview, this one from the Derby Telegraph.

Learning how to be a housewife proves ‘big eye-opener’ for Toyah Willcox

After years of living the touring life as a musician, actress or TV presenter, all-round performer Toyah Willcox has now been forced to learn about the type of life she didn’t choose – that of picking the children up from school and doing the housework.

“It has been quite an eye-opener to take on this role,” says Toyah, who stars in the sketch show Hormonal Housewives alongside Julie Coombe, who also wrote the script. “It was interesting to find out more about the things which are just commonplace to most women and mums such as chatting at the school gates, competitive parents and going to book groups.”

• Continue reading at the Derby Telegraph.

IN2 talks to rock legend TOYAH WILLCOX about her starring role in Hormonal Housewives, which comes to Chelmsford in May…

“In rehearsals I thought it was going to be really scary, because this is something I’ve never done before,” says Toyah of working on a comedy. “But the laughter really lifts you and as soon as I stepped out on stage for the first time I knew I was going to enjoy it. When you’re touring with a band and you’re the lead singer, there’s a lot of weight on your shoulders, but being a three hander, it’s like an equal ride.”

Indeed, joined on stage by writer Julie Coombe and former Hollyoaks actress Sarah Jane Buckley, the show features sketches covering everything that makes today’s women tick.

• Continue reading at The Enquirer.

A new Toyah interview from South London Press, published yesterday.

When Toyah Willcox burst on to the pop scene in the 1980s with her multicoloured punky hair and her songs I Want to To Be Free and It’s A Mystery, she embodied fun, excitement and energy.

In the 30 plus years since then, the pop icon has notched up 13 Top 40 hit singles, released more than 20 albums, written two books, appeared in more than 40 stage plays and 10 films, been on ITV’s I’m A Celebrity and presented TV programmes as diverse as The Good Sex Guide Late, Watchdog and Songs Of Praise.

Charismatic and often outspoken, she has become a household name with an energy which is still like a force of nature and that shows no signs of diminishing.

• Continue reading at South London Press.

Another new interview with Toyah, this one from the North East’s Chronicle Live, published on Friday.

Interview: Toyah Willcox who is in Hormonal Housewives at the Tyne Theatre

Singer-actress Toyah Willcox is gearing up for two performances in Newcastle. On Sunday it will be in her acting capacity as she stars in Hormonal Housewives at the Mill Volvo Tyne Theatre. Then, on July 20, she is back in Newcastle to headline Northern Pride at Leazes Park.

• Continue reading at Chronicle Live.