Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

Ep 15: Rebelling with Toyah Willcox

Season 1, Episode 15: This week we’re joined by teenage rebel, Toyah Willcox. The ever-regenerating actress and musician has topped YouTube charts for her Sunday Lunch series with husband Robert, and Kaye & Karen talk to Toyah about her upbringing, finding humour in everything she does, and much more.

You can join Kaye and Karen at the Edinburgh Fringe on 23rd & 24th August at the Gilded Balloon, with lots of special guests. Get your tickets here.

• Listen to Toyah’s interview, on How To be 60 – With Kaye Adams podcast, here.

Toyah Willcox on sex In later life, hysterectomies and checking your body

Season 1, Episode. 3: Singer, actor and YouTube sensation Toyah Willcox doesn’t just want to keep living, she wants to feel as full of life as she can for as long as possible.

In this episode, Toyah speaks openly about keeping intimacy alive in later life, and how communication and understanding can help women flourish when it comes to sex, relationships and living life to its full potential.

• Listen to Toyah’s interview, on the Women’s Health – Breaking The Taboos podcast, here.

Toyah is interviewed in the new issue of Retropop magazine (August 2022) in a special eight-page feature. Retropop is on sale now. View the full feature here. NB: This interview was originally published on Retropop‘s website in 2021 around the time of the release of Posh Pop. (Thanks to Minna of The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive)

Age won’t change Toyah Willcox: ‘We’ve never stopped being rockers, we are just rockers in a different time and place’

Toyah Willcox says she’s far more than a punk princess

Born out of a lockdown-powered creative burst, Toyah Willcox and musician husband Robert Fripp’s weekly online Sunday Lunch videos have quickly become regular news events.

Cheeky, audacious, entertaining, and even eye-watering, each episode has been attracting hundreds of thousands of views.

But if you think they’re big now, wait till you hear what’s next.

‘We are developing a stage show and a movie is in development as well,’ reveals Toyah, adding that the duo are even considering an album.

‘But once you get into a studio situation you’ve got to rethink everything, and how people will experience that in an album form.

‘It’s not a no, but it takes an awful lot of consideration.’

• Continue reading at the Metro.

Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp look back: ‘He came from the 60s, having multiple girlfriends at once’

The musicians recreate a photo from their wedding – a day of panic, pasta and paparazzi

Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp are a rock star couple turned lockdown YouTubers. Actor and musician Willcox, 64, rocketed to fame during the punk rock era, appearing in cult movies such as Quadrophenia, before releasing 80s hits such as It’s a Mystery.

Meanwhile, Fripp, 76, is a founding member of King Crimson, and has collaborated with artists including David Bowie and Brian Eno.

Both prolific musicians, they launched the successful Sunday Lunch video series in 2020, in which they cover classic songs in their home in Pershore, Worcestershire.

Toyah: This photograph was taken on our wedding day in 1986, which started off really dull and rainy, but as soon as we got to the church the sun came out. Robert was terrified. I was enjoying it, but very nervous: I had to keep the ceremony secret so photos weren’t leaked to the press. Sadly, the papers got wind and we were chased by paparazzi for two days afterwards. They were banging on the car door, shouting and saying that if we didn’t let them get a picture they were going to print a bad story about us. It wasn’t fun.

• Continue reading at The Guardian.

Toyah Willcox | On Record | In Conversation
Season 1, Episode 7

Broadcaster Satnam Rana and Journalist Adrian Goldberg present twenty-two conversations with Birmingham musicians, promoters, managers, venue owners and entrepreneurs who have all contributed to local, national, and international music culture. Join us and our special guests for conversations about their lives in music, their connections to the city, and how Birmingham has inspired or influenced them, personally and musically.

Selected dates also feature free live performances from the artists appearing On Record. The first of its kind, On Record is a multi-artist, multi-genre concept album forming a sonic love letter to the city of Birmingham. Produced as part of the Birmingham 2022 Festival, the eleven-track album will be available on a limited vinyl release and across all streaming platforms.

From her early days as a Birmingham punk to the recent internet phenomenon of Toyah and Robert’s Sunday Lunch, Toyah Willcox has become an award-winning rock legend as well as a much-loved actress, and music composer. In this episode Satnam Rana digs deep into Toyah’s enduring career, what influences and drives her. And what a career!

Toyah has amassed thirteen top 40 singles, recorded twenty-five albums, written two books, appeared in over forty stage plays, acted in over twenty feature films, including Derek Jarman’s seminal punk epic, Jubilee, and presented hundreds of TV programmes in her own charismatic, outspoken, and impossible to categorise way. She released Posh Pop, her first solo studio album since 2008, in August 2021.

Listen to Toyah Willcox: On Record | In Conversation.

Musician Toyah Willcox, who turns 64 this month, shares her excitement for a summer of festivals, including Let’s Rock where she is set to star…

Hello! Given the past two years, do you think 2022 could be the most joyous ever?
“2022 will be joyous – the artists have missed the audience and the audience have missed the artists. It’s going to be one big party. Let’s Rock is very special because not only are there back-to-back acts all day who are brilliant and iconic, but also the atmosphere is so friendly and family-orientated. You can look out over an audience and sometimes see three generations of the same family. They are a joyous community with one thing in common – they all love the 1980s! I love performing with the Let’s Rock band (sensationally good musicians). We also get to see the friends we’ve been performing with for decades… for 40 years.”

Q. Are there any other performers you’re looking forward to seeing?
“I always end up on the same plane and same hotel as Chesney Hawkes, all over the world… Somehow fate brings us together and we have a scream. Chesney lives in the States, I live in the UK, but we walk into the same room in the oddest places and say ‘What are you doing here?!”’

• Continue reading at Round & About.

Toyah was interviewed this week by the Birmingham Post, in a joint feature with other 80s musicians. Here are a few quotes from the article.

Toyah is part of an all-star Let’s Rock cast of 80s pop artists. Martin Fry and Mark White of ABC. Pauline Black of The Selector. Electro pop pioneers OMD and Level 42’s Mark King.

Flame haired singer Toyah Willcox was a Top Of The Pops regular through the 1980s

“Top Of The Pops was an event, every time,” she says. “It’s a show I used to watch with my family and to actually be on it was an honour.”

“I worked and I worked and I worked and I worked – there was no time for celebration.”

“A hit meant more work and more work; the management kept us going 24/7. The excitement knowing I was at number four in the charts with Four From Toyah/It’s A Mystery was immense. That alone was a celebration. I’d toured five years solidly for that success so, when it came I kept working.”

Justham Family Room & Jane How Room
On Record: In Conversation with Toyah Willcox
Thursday 05 May 2022 | 7.30pm

About On Record: In Conversation with Toyah Willcox
Steel Pulse bassist Amlak Tafari and broadcaster Satnam Rana present twenty-two conversations with Birmingham musicians, promoters, managers, venue owners and entrepreneurs who have all contributed to local, national, and international music culture. Join us and our special guests for conversations about their lives in music, their connections to the city, and how Birmingham has inspired or influenced them, personally and musically.

Selected dates also feature free live performances from the artists appearing On Record. The first of its kind, On Record is a multi-artist, multi-genre concept album forming a sonic love letter to the city of Birmingham. Produced as part of the Birmingham 2022 Festival, the eleven-track album will be available on a limited vinyl release and across all streaming platforms.

From her early days as a Birmingham punk to the recent internet phenomenon of Toyah and Robert’s Sunday Lunch, Toyah Wilcox has become an award-winning rock legend as well as a much-loved actress, and music composer. In this conversation we’ll dig deep into Toyah’s enduring career, what influences and drives her.

And what a career! Toyah has amassed thirteen top 40 singles, recorded twenty-five albums, written two books, appeared in over forty stage plays, acted in over twenty feature films, including Derek Jarman’s seminal punk epic, Jubilee, and presented hundreds of TV programmes in her own charismatic, outspoken, and impossible to categorise way. She released Posh Pop, her first solo studio album since 2008, in August 2021.

Produced in partnership with B:Music

• Continue reading, and details on booking free tickets for In Conversation with Toyah Willcox, at B:Music. See further info and more events taking place here.

Toyah Willcox should really need no introduction to you all – she’s a prodigiously talented singer, composer, writer and actress, as well as the co-creator and host of the hugely entertaining Sunday Lunch videos and Agony Aunts podcast with her husband, Robert Fripp. You can read more about her here.

Tell us 4 important facts about yourself:
I am still a charting recording artist today at 63 years old
I’ve been vegetarian since lockdown and have no regrets
I work hard to be able to afford solitude, ironically considering the last couple of years, and I only write music in silence.
I’m aiming to be a conceptual artist within the next two years.

What is your favourite age that you’ve been so far in life, and why?
I live in the now – the past becomes the barometer of how we expect the present. I don’t reflect on any age; life is a constant journey forwards.

Who is your favourite fictional character or famous person over 60?
Gandalf from Lord of the Rings and Will Ferrell the actor (Autumn Voices think he is in his 50s, but he’s a great choice!)

• Continue reading at Autumn Voices.

Toyah is interviewed in the latest issue of Best magazine (15th February 2022, Issue 07).

Toyah’s Potty-Mouthed Ghost!

Singer Toyah Willcox talks sweary spirits, sage and loving being scared, as she appears on Celebrity Help! My House Is Haunted…

Fans of creepy TV shows will be loving the return of Help! My House Is Haunted – its spin-off show hunts down unwanted spirits haunting the stunning homes of UK celebrities. Ordained exorcist Ian Lawman, ghost-hunter/investigator Barri Ghai and paranormal researcher and historian Jayne Harris return to tackle their most notable cases to date and exorcise the haunted properties of some famous faces – as they enter the homes of among others, Alex Best, reality star Charlotte Crosby and musician Toyah Willcox. Here, the 63-year-old singer from King’s Heath, Birmingham – famed for hits like It’s A Mystery and Thunder In The Mountains – tells us about life in her haunted Midlands home with her musician hubby, Robert Fripp.

“Our last house was so haunted we had to leave”

Toyah, what made you want to do this? It’s as far from making music as you could imagine…
My house is very old and one of the most extraordinary things about it is that my husband and I only went to view it to be nosy – but as we walked through the door, I burst into tears, We both knew immediately it was meant to be our home. It was as if the house had invited us to live there. I’ve always experienced haunted properties because I’ve constantly lived in old places – but this house, for me, has just been glorious.

What surprised you the most about this experience?
I’m very proud that my house has friendly feeling. My guests see something all the time! I always say, ‘It’s friendly, don’t worry, it’s just proof of life after death.’ But when the team told me there was something here meaning harm, that threw me. It was as if it only wanted me in this house, not outsiders. I’ve never felt compromised in any way in this house, but the team started getting attacked!

What happened?
Barry, one of the crew, got strangled by one of the spirits – and they think it’s because I wasn’t there! That made the hair on my arms stand up. But I’m afraid I loved every minute. I kind of enjoyed the team being scared too, because it was really reaffirming for experiences we’ve had elsewhere. Our last house was so haunted that we had to move – it shows you’re not alone in this.

Has all this made you want to explore paranormal activity more?
It’s made me very aware of history. I live in an abbey town, where parts of the Battle Of Worcester were fought during the English Civil War. So over the river where I live, people died in battle. Out of respect, I would want to know more about it. A deserter spirit came forward in my home, who was running away from that battle. If you tuned in and know the history of a place, you have a sympathetic leaning towards whatever spirit may still be there.

Have you always believed in the supernatural?
Yes, I think I have. And I firmly believe that we lead such busy lives we only see the obvious, you know? I think there’s a lot that goes on around us that we would never notice, because it’s so subtle.

• Continue reading in the latest issue of Best magazine, on sale now!

Toyah is the latest guest on the My Time Capsule podcast.

Ep. 158 – Toyah Willcox

Toyah Willcox or “Toyah” is a musician, actor, and presenter. In a career spanning more than 40 years, Toyah has had 8 top 40 singles, released over 20 albums, written two books, appeared in over 40 stage plays and 10 feature films, and voiced and presented numerous television shows.

Toyah Willcox is guest number 158 on My Time Capsule and chats to Michael Fenton Stevens about the five things she’d like to put in a time capsule; four she’d like to preserve and one she’d like to bury and never have to think about again.

• Listen at My Time Capsule.

Toyah Willcox needs little introduction; musician, actress, author and presenter….and latterly in lockdowns – internet sensation.

In a pop career spanning more than 40 years, Toyah has released circa 20 albums and scored 13 Top 40 hits, including the 1980s anthems “It’s a Mystery” and “I Want To Be Free”.

Toyah secured her place in the UK’s acting pantheon in the 1970s, starring in at least 40 plays and 10 feature films – perhaps most notably in Derek Jarman’s cult punk movie “Jubilee” (1978) and the iconic mods‘n’rockers film “Quadrophenia” (1979), while at the same time demonstrating her diverse talent by playing Miranda in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”.

Legends… Since then, Toyah’s acting credits have seen her billed alongside the likes of Katherine Hepburn, Sir Laurence Olivier, Greta Scaachi and Harvey Keitel…and even seen her enter the world of children’s TV presenting.

• Continue reading at Music Republic Magazine.

How I Spend It: Toyah Willcox on rocks, hag stones and meteorites

The musician reveals what lies behind her lifelong fascination with crystals

I collect crystals, and I’m not talking about crystals you keep in your pocket. These are museum-quality collectors’ pieces. My fascination is that these are timeless things. They have been there since the Big Bang. All around the house we have crystals, along the skirting boards, in cupboards, in the cutlery drawers. My computer sits on a piece of rose quartz that is at least 10kg in weight. It’s the size of a Bible you’d see in a church.

Meteorites are full of potential. They’re what’s put us here

I remember clearly the first stone that meant something to me. I was about seven years old. I was on a sandbank on the River Avon and picked up a pebble with a hole in it. My father said it was a “hag stone”, one with a naturally formed hole in it. I could not put it down. I was instantly in love with it, the smoothness of it, the history of it, what it’s been through, what it’s survived, that it’s outlived all of us and will outlive all of us. I’ve had this particular hag stone since I was seven – I’m now 63, and it’s been a point of conversation with virtually everyone I’ve known. A lot of musicians feel the same way about stones; we collect pebbles and send them to each other.

• Continue reading at ft.com. (Thanks to Kelly and Michael)

Toyah is interviewed in this week’s OK! magazine (Issue 1315, 22nd November 2021). Talking about Proud Cabaret, her career, the Sunday Lunch/You Tube videos and more.

• Read the interview at The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive. (Thanks to Minna and Kelly)

From Punk Princess To Cabaret Queen, Toyah Willcox On Joining Proud Embankment | This Morning

She first burst onto the music scene in the 80s. But forty years on, Toyah Willcox is going from punk princess to cabaret queen as she joins the impressive line-up at Proud Embankment. Following in the footsteps of Julian Clary, Bill Bailey and Denise Van Outen, Toyah will be treating fans to a spectacular evening of music, burlesque artists, and award-winning acrobatics. Toyah also discusses becoming a viral lockdown sensation.

Toyah was interviewed in Tuesday’s Metro, in their “Sixty Seconds” feature, talking about Posh Pop, Proud Cabaret, Sunday Lunch, Robert Fripp, Billie Piper and more.

• Read the full interview at The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive. (Thanks to Minna)

A reminder Toyah is guesting on Rylan On Saturday on BBC Radio 2 this afternoon. The show begins at 3pm.

Toyah said this week: “Hear me chatting to the wonderful Rylan on BBC Radio 2 on Sat 23 Oct. I’ll be talking all things Posh Pop and Proud Cabaret from the middle of the Atlantic in a storm!”

Rylan On Saturday: BBC Radio 2: Saturday 23rd October: 3pm
Pop Prince Craig David, Pop Icon Toyah plus Shelia the Wookie. Craig David discusses his new single with MNEK plus national treasure Toyah chats to Rylan. Email rylan@bbc.co.uk if you want to play along to the film & TV Quiz Couch Potatoes quiz or suggest a song on the White Isle of Rybiza. Plus mummy Linda is back to share her dinner ideas.

The Dyspraxic Help 4U Podcast had the honour of interviewing Toyah to celebrate Dyspraxia Awareness Week 2021.

The legendary entertainer has Dyspraxia and took the time to speak with us in the hope of inspiring others to follow in her footsteps.

Dyspraxic Help 4U is delighted to have teamed up with Dyspraxic Alliance and Dyspraxia Magazine for Dyspraxia Awareness Week 2021.

For album and tour details please visit www.toyahwillcox.com – Special thanks to Mike Nelson.

• Click below to listen at You Tube. The podcast can also be downloaded at Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts. Spotify and Anchor FM.

Toyah will guest on Rylan’s Saturday afternoon BBC Radio 2 show in a fortnight’s time – Saturday 23rd October.

Rylan on Saturday
Pop legends Craig David and Toyah chat to Rylan
Pop legends Craig David and Toyah chat to Rylan about their new music.

Email rylan@bbc.co.uk if you want to play along to the film & TV Quiz Couch Potatoes quiz or play a song on the White Isle of Rybiza. Plus mummy Linda is back to share her dinner ideas.

• Listen live or on Catch Up at BBC Sounds after the show airs.

A preview of the amazing six-page Toyah interview feature from the new issue of Record Collector magazine. This is a must have as it’s such a substantial feature. In this great interview, Toyah talks Posh Pop, her discography, punk, childhood, early career years, meeting Robert, lockdown, Sunday Lunch and much more. RC523/October 2021 is on sale now! (Thanks to Minna of The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive)