Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

Toyah is interviewed in the print edition of today’s Daily Express. Here is some of the interview.

I suffered ageism in my 30s but at 62 I’m treated like a Goddess

“I’ve never had any maternal instinct and it’s always baffled me why I was expected to have children,” she confesses. “I believe you’re born knowing if you want to have kids and I knew that would not be happening.

“The only time I’ve ever experienced ageism was in my 30s, which was a very, very difficult decade. Back then if you were 30 and a woman, you were expected to have babies. But I had a successful career and never intended to have children and I couldn’t get anyone to hear that. People would say to me ‘Well, why are you married?’ and I would say, ‘er, because I love my husband!’

“I was too much of a bohemian to have children and anything that ties me down into one place is a challenge for me. But now I’m treated like a 62-year old goddess. I can say to women, ‘it does get better’ because people see you as having a wisdom they can tap into”.

Toyah is interviewed, about creativity in lockdown, in the third digital issue of Burnt Frowner – The Chris Wade and Dodson & Fogg magazine. Read it here.

Toyah is someone I’ve always admired. She’s a proper artist in the truest sense, a wild creative spirit who has always stuck two fingers up to the face of convention. She’s a singer, artist, actress, producer, writer, TV personality – but just using those words doesn’t really do her justice. Yes she fits these descriptions, but she’s unique. She’s a pop icon, has been so for almost forty years, and she’s still selling tons of albums and playing sold out venues all over the world… well, when they’re open that is.

Despite years of fame, she still comes across as a creative spirit on the edge, an experimenter, a fearless individual defying expectations. She’s been in classic films like Jubilee and Quadrophenia, acted alongside the likes of Laurence Olivier on TV (in The Ebony Tower), scored hit singles across the world, achieved legendary status in the music business, influenced multiple generations of men and women alike, packed out venues all over the world, has maintained a high profile on TV for decades and been a mentor and role model for countless people.

• Continue reading at Burnt Frowner.

Conversations With… Mark Curry, featuring Toyah, is now available to watch at Acting For Others‘ You Tube channel. Mark speaks to a mix of guests including performers, presenters, and directors. Each conversation, taking place via zoom, is an in-depth look into the guests lives and careers, as well as finding out their thoughts and tips on getting through lockdown.

Hayley Palmer interviews Toyah on Memory Lane 80s. The programme first aired on Spotlight TV on Saturday night. Please note some music videos removed due to YouTube restrictions.

Memory Lane 80s: Spotlight TV: Saturday 25th July: 9pm
Hayley Palmer interviews Toyah on Memory Lane 80s this weekend. The show broadcasts Saturday 25th July on the Spotlight TV channel (Sky 376, Freeset 516, Freeview Play 264). Click below to see a preview trailer for the interview.

Toyah chats to Helen of Loving 80s Music about lockdown, Rewind drive-ins, next year’s tour… and much more!

An archive Toyah interview has been re-published today by The Guardian.

Toyah Willcox, the thinking man’s punkette – archive, 1980

3 July 1980: “No one can rip me off. I’m too much of a bitch,” the self-confessed megalomaniac tells Robin Denselow

Four years ago, Toyah Willcox left a “very boring all-girls public school” in Birmingham with only one O level, in music, and a whole heap of bad reports. At 14 she’d been banned from art, her favourite subject because her paintings were too erotic. She got into fights, confused the teachers by making her own clothes and “by wearing a Dr Spock haircut with the back of my head shaved. I was a very paranoid kid and I hated every minute of it.”

Today, at 22, Toyah is being hailed as a sort of Thinking Man’s Punk, and is certainly the most impressive female all-rounder to have emerged in the latter days of the new wave. Earlier this year she won considerable acclaim for her part as Miranda in Derek Jarman’s exquisite film version of The Tempest. Her acting career had already included everything from Jarman’s punk celebration Jubilee, to Quatermass, and Quadrophenia.

• Continue reading at The Guardian.

New Guests Added To Conversations With… Mark Curry In Aid Of Acting For Others

Further guests are today announced for Mark Curry’s Conversations With… series in aid of Acting For Others. Each conversation, taking place via zoom, is an in-depth look into the guests lives and careers, as well as finding out their thoughts and tips on getting through lockdown, Mark speaks to a mix of interviewee’s including performers, presenters, and directors. Joining the previously announced guests are Vicki Michelle, Millicent Martin, Sally Hughes, Robin Herford, Toyah Willcox and Annabel Croft.

… Interviews will be released via Acting for Others’ YouTube weekly. They are free and available to all, with the opportunity for viewers to donate in support of the charity: justgiving.com/campaign/actingforothers

• Continue reading at Broadway World. NB: Airdate to be confirmed for In conversation with Toyah Willcox about being an ’80’s singing legend, her acting career and how she’s kept the success going through the years.

Pete Prodge has tweeted that his new interview with Toyah airs this Saturday at Tiswas Online.

Been chatting with Toyah about The Goodies, Kenny Everett, Laurel And Hardy, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and some Saturday morning show called Tiswas. The interview airs this Saturday.

• Watch online at Tiswas Online this Saturday morning at 10.30am (yes, the same time that the show used to air in the 1980s on ITV every Saturday! – Not sure if the Phantom Flan Flinger will make an appearance, but you never know!)

Andrew Eborn is joined by Toyah with special insight into her amazing life and career. Also including an exclusive announcement! Watch below.

Clare Balding is currently recalling her favourite walks from her long-running BBC Radio 4 series Ramblings. Episode Four of the retrospective collection airs next Thursday, 4th June and includes Toyah, who guested on Ramblings back in February 2013.

Ramblings With Clare Balding: BBC Radio 4
Thursday 4th June: 3pm/Saturday 6th June: 6.07am
Joyful Highlights Part 4: Singers & Writers. Clare Balding recalls her favourite walks with a colourful variety of writers and singers including Bill Bryson, Toyah Willcox, folk duo Ninebarrow, and the choral group Werca’s Folk.

Clare has been walking on air since 1999, and for this lockdown series of highlights has been digging into the archives to retrieve some of her most memorable moments: Today she gets dressed with Bill Bryson, takes a lift across a small puddle with Toyah, discovers that Dorothy Wordsworth avoided marriage so she could continue walking, and hears from author Emma Mitchell about exactly why our mood is lifted when we spend time in nature.

Marking 20 years as presenter of the programme, Clare Balding digs into archives of Ramblings to share the best moments from her favourite walks. Producer: Karen Gregor.

• Listen to Ramblings – Joyful Highlights online at the BBC Radio 4 website. Click below to browse our Ramblings News Archive. (Photo © Toyah Willcox)

A new, 30 minute, audio interview. Toyah chats about the frustration of currently not playing live, looking forward to a decadent 2020s and a busy 2021, having a diverse career, how the entertainment industry has changed over the past four decades, fighting against ageism, and much more.

Cat interviews Toyah Willcox
May 2020: My guest today really needs no introduction.

She’s appeared in the 1978 film Jubilee, and Quadrophenia the following year. Her early hit singles included It’s A Mystery and I Want To Be Free, and by 1982 she had made two platinum-selling albums. And, after more than 40 years in the music business, she is as creatively hungry as she was in her teens.

She is a singer, an actress, a writer, a punk, rebel, and an icon…but most importantly, she’s an independent, strong woman who doesn’t take any prisoners.

• Listen to the interview at Audio Boom.

Last night’s debut episode of the new BBC Radio 2 Jools Holland show, with Toyah as his first guest, is now available to listen to online.

A new series where Jools and a guest explore the Later… archive, picking out some favourite moments and discussing some of their favourite artists along the way. Kicking it off is singer, songwriter & actress Toyah, who picks the likes of Bryan Ferry, & Muse, as well as discussing her work and career.

• Listen to the show online at BBC Sounds. It’s available for the next four weeks. (Photo © BBC)

She has over 20 albums, 10 films and 40 plays under her belt, but Toyah’s biggest-ever tour has just been thwarted by the lockdown. How is she dealing with this setback, and what positive thoughts can she share with Julie Peasgood and the #notgoingoutclub?

Toyah talks being busy, not touring, the Sunday #lockdown videos, healthy eating and offers a few pearls of wisdom.

• Click below to watch the interview. See the SAGA UK preview clip of Toyah at Twitter.

Short, but great, interview with Toyah from STV in 1985. This is Scotland Today when it went all soft furnishings and sofas in the mid-80s! Toyah talks Minx, the Soul Passing Through Soul video, America For Beginners, School’s Out and more, with Paul Coia and Haig Gordon.

Toyah Willcox, the high priestess of punk, on her 40-year career

Toyah Willcox has forged a reputation as a talented actress, singer/songwriter, producer, storyteller, television presenter and author during a career that spans four decades.

Toyah has teamed up with Hazel O’Connor for a new show due in Yorkshire later this year.

Arguably one of the most prolific artists of her generation, her creativity remains undimmed. And now, in homage to post-punk and new wave music, the star has teamed up with Hazel O’Connor for a new show, aptly named Electric Ladies Of the Eighties, due in Yorkshire later this year, all things being well by then.

So where did the idea for the show come from? “This is something Hazel and I have been planning for 40 years. Ironically, we’d both been too busy doing other things so this is the first time we’ve ever actually toured together in this way, so we’re both very excited,” says Willcox.

“Hazel will be performing Breaking Glass and I’ll do Quadrophenia so there’s a lot of material that the audience will be very familiar with. We’ll be inviting everyone to join in and sing along with their favourite songs. It’s going to be one of those shows that is warm, welcoming with lots of great music and a real feel good factor.”

• Continue reading at The Yorkshire Post. See the full Electric Ladies Of The 80s tour dates.

Toyah was interviewed on Bernie Keith’s BBC Radio Northampton show yesterday. Talking the Toyah Solo box set, the new colour vinyl albums, Hazel O’Connor, her music collection, the Electric Ladies tour and much more.

• Toyah’s interview begins around 2hr 37m into the show and is available for the next four weeks at BBC Sounds. Read a full transcript of this interview here. (Thanks Min)

Toyah guested on Tammy Gooding’s show on BBC Radio Hereford & Worcester on Tuesday afternoon.

Chatting about Hazel O’Connor, touring, Electric Ladies, future releases for 2020, making movies (including, soon to released, To Be Someone which has many of the Quadrophenia cast in but is “not Quadrophenia Two“), Kate Bush and more.

“We smuggled Kate Bush in to Pershore!”
Pershore’s punk rock legend Toyah Willcox catches up with our Tammy Gooding, talking the joys of living a secret life in Worcestershire and the moments that made her music what it is.

• Toyah’s interview has been made available as a seperate clip at the BBC website. Listen here.

In my spare time I’m slowly regenerating this website. The Features section has recently been updated (with more to follow) and currently the Press Archive is having a much needed overhaul. It’s taking a while as there are tons of past Toyah press interviews and articles in there.

Toyah guested on Alex Dyke’s Wall of Sound on BBC Radio Solent yesterday, talking about the Electric Ladies Of The 80s Tour, Toyah Solo, career longevity and more. It’s A Mystery and Thunder In The Mountains were also played at either end of the chat.

Toyah Willcox: Alex chats to Toyah about her upcoming show in Wimborne

• Toyah’s interview begins around 39m into the show and is available for the next four weeks at BBC Sounds.

Toyah guested on Adam Tomlinson and Anna Wallace’s BBC Radio York show late last month (22nd January), talking about her career, punk, autism, playing an Acoustic, Up Close & Personal gig at Selby Town Hall (21st February, Sold Out), making movies, being ridiculously busy all year and much more.

Special guest Toyah (22/01/2020) Toyah talks to Adam ahead of her performance at Selby Town Hall.

• Toyah’s interview begins around 2hr 14m into the show and is divided into a couple of segments. The show is available for just the next 7 days at BBC Sounds.