Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

Christmas 1984, and Toyah had released no new music during the year for the first time since very early 1979, although the compilation album – on vinyl, cassette and video – Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! (unofficially, and latterly officially sub-titled “All The Hits”, and not to be confused, and never really has been aside from a few chart compilers, with the live 1980 album with the same title) was released in February of this year. This is significant as it was the first ever Toyah hits compilation.

Despite no new music this year, Toyah still appeared in many of the music magazines in 1984, including this Christmas feature from Smash Hits special issue… Smash Hits Christmas Party – featuring Frankie Goes To Hollywood on the cover – published in association with Woolworth – in December: Will You Be Watching The Queen’s Speech? When you jump up after the Christmas Top Of The Pops, is it to stand to attention for Her Majesty or a mad dash to switch off the TV? We asked a selection of pop stars if they’d be tuning in to that speech?

You can read Toyah’s response below, but more interestingly, in retrospect, Toyah appears to be incredibly prescient about the Royal Family…

Christmas 2012, BBC Radio 4 aired Neil Tennant’s Smash Hits Christmas on 20th December – a real festive pop treat for everyone who grew up in the 1980s. The programme was an interesting look back at the golden years of the UK’s biggest music magazine of the eighties. Neil recalls the golden days of, the iconic, Smash Hits magazine, when he worked as a writer in their Carnaby Street office.

There were also contributions and memories from founder and legendary magazine maker Nick Logan, editors David Hepworth and Mark Ellen, writers Miranda Sawyer and Sylvia Patterson, and from regular Smash Hits cover girl, Toyah., talking about Smash Hits in general and her Brave New World cover from the Summer of 1982.

Neil Tennant had a life as a journalist before he became famous as a Pet Shop Boy. In fact, it was on a Smash Hits trip to New York that he had his big breakthrough with the record producer Bobby O. Also included is a rare recording from the 1982 Christmas Flexidisc (a message from the stars) and probably Neil Tennant’s first recording – the music for a trailer advertising Smash Hits stickers. (Producer: Susan Marling. A Just Radio Ltd. production for BBC Radio 4). Click on any of the images in this post to listen to Neil Tennant’s Smash Hits Christmas at You Tube.

Toyah Announces Christmas Party Concerts

The singer and her band will delight fans with a mix of her biggest hits and festive favourites

Toyah Willcox announces 2026 Christmas Party concerts. With dates in Liverpool, Sunderland, London and Birmingham, Toyah and her band will delight fans with a mix of her biggest hits, plus a sprinkling of festive favourites in this seasonal show.

On the tour, Toyah says: “I’m absolutely thrilled to be bringing my Christmas Party Shows back on the road for 2026. These shows are all about joy, celebration and coming together, and I can’t wait to share an unforgettable festive night with everyone. See you there!”

• Continue reading at Classic Pop. Book tickets for Toyah’s Christmas Party 2026 here.

A new interview with Toyah, from The Sunday Post. This was also included in P.S. magazine, with Toyah on the cover.

Toyah Willcox on the 50 years of hard graft that have kept her at the top of her game

It’s Wednesday lunchtime and I am telling Toyah Willcox my own favourite Toyah story.

I remember going to see you as part of a 1980s revival night in Glasgow, alongside Belinda Carlisle, Go West and various members of Spandau Ballet, I say. This must have been back in the late 1990s, early 2000s. I’m a bit hazy on the date, I admit.

But Toyah’s not. “2002,” she interrupts emphatically.

Ah, right. Anyway, you came bounding on to the stage and exclaimed: “Glasgow, I’ve come for your men!” And a woman in the crowd shouted back: “Take them! Take them!”

“I remember it happening!” Toyah tells me gleefully over Zoom.

Speak to the singer, actor and presenter and it’s quickly clear that she remembers everything. Dates, chart positions, people. Her memory is a Google search engine containing the records of nearly 50 years in showbiz. And there’s a lot to remember.

• Continue reading at The Sunday Post.

Toyah announces two special October shows

Toyah Willcox has announced two special October shows in London and Coventry

Celebrating ‘The Best of Toyah’ will see the singer perform hits from across her career, treating audiences to her signature powerhouse vocals, infectious energy and commanding presence.

The shows at London Union Chapel (28 October) and Coventry Warwick Arts Centre (30 October), will support an exciting celebratory release coming in late summer 2025, with details to follow soon.

On the upcoming shows, Toyah says: “I’m so excited to be heading out on the road this October for two celebratory shows. I can’t wait to be back on stage, performing the hits from over 40 years of music. Expect to hear It’s A Mystery, I Want To Be Free, Echo Beach, Good Morning Universe – and many, many more! See you there!”

• Continue reading at Classic Pop. Tickets are on sale here.

Toyah is interviewed in the latest issue – #18 – of Blitzed magazine.

In the latest Blitzed we talk to Toyah where she summarises a very busy 2024 taking in multiple releases and re-releases together with her high-profile appearance in the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing programme. She discusses her ever popular YouTube channel and her gratitude for her fans.

• Pick up your copy of Blitzed magazine instore or order online.

Christmas 2012, BBC Radio 4 aired Neil Tennant’s Smash Hits Christmas on 20th December – a real festive pop treat for everyone who grew up in the 1980s. The programme was an interesting look back at the golden years of the UK’s biggest music magazine of the eighties. Neil recalls the golden days of, the iconic, Smash Hits magazine, when he worked as a writer in their Carnaby Street office.

There were also contributions and memories from founder and legendary magazine maker Nick Logan, editors David Hepworth and Mark Ellen, writers Miranda Sawyer and Sylvia Patterson, and from regular Smash Hits cover girl, Toyah., talking about Smash Hits in general and her Brave New World cover from the Summer of 1982.

Neil Tennant had a life as a journalist before he became famous as a Pet Shop Boy. In fact, it was on a Smash Hits trip to New York that he had his big breakthrough with the record producer Bobby O. Also included is a rare recording from the 1982 Christmas Flexidisc (a message from the stars) and probably Neil Tennant’s first recording – the music for a trailer advertising Smash Hits stickers. (Producer: Susan Marling. A Just Radio Ltd. production for BBC Radio 4). Click on any of the images in this post to listen to Neil Tennant’s Smash Hits Christmas at You Tube.

Christmas 2016, and Toyah was the cover star of Birmingham Living magazine – issue dated January 2017 but published in December 2016 – with a three-page interview feature accompanied by some great shots of Toyah.

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.

• The magazine is still available online. Continue to Birmingham Living at Issuu.com to read the full interview.

The great Radio Times cover – 2 of 4 editions – announcing the return of Strictly!

It’s Strictly mania – there’s news about it everywhere -probably the most anticipated series yet, for various reasons, but for Toyah fans there is just one reason to watch… All the best Toyah!

Toyah, alongside Sarah Hadland and Nick Knowles, is the cover star of today’s Weekend magazine, by the Daily Mail.

A short Toyah press clip from Yours magazine, issue dated 9th July 2024.

If asked who you’d consider to be the ‘original punk rocker’ it’s unlikely that Princess Margaret would spring to mind. But after meeting Her Royal Highness and the Queen Mother at St James’ Palace many years ago, singer Toyah Willcox believes she was just that.

“We talked about the philosophy of punk rock and how it was opening doors for women and she was fascinated,” says Toyah. “I met her many times after that and she was a wicked and very sharp woman. I realised later that Princess Margaret was probably the original punk rocker as she just rebelled and rebelled and rebelled.”

• Yours magazine is on sale now. (Photo taken from Yours magazine).

Doctor Who Magazine Yearbook 2024 is on sale from today, with the special issue looking back on the 60th anniversary of the show last year, and much more.

Children Of The Circus, the audio drama based on Doctor Who’s The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, gets a write-up in the ‘Sounds’ section of the magazine, with a few photos and a couple of quotes from an interview the writer did with Barnaby Eaton Jones, who produced and directed the production.

Also included in the special issue:

A year in the life of the stars of Doctor Who.
A look back at the 2023 Specials.
The producer of Tales of the TARDIS discusses this nostalgic series.
A summary of various instalments of the Doom’s Day multi-media event!
Wrarth Warrior actor Robert Strange speaks to the magazine about his role in The Star Beast.
A special feature on Goblin celebrity Janis!
A report from the Doctor Who at 60 musical celebration at Cardiff’s Millennium Centre.

• Further info and buy the magazine here. Browse our Children Of The Circus news archive.

Toyah is interviewed in the latest issue – #130 – of Love Sewing magazine.

Behind the seams with Toyah Willcox – read about her experience on The Great British Sewing Bee Celebrity Special

• The Great British Sewing Bee – See hugely popular Facebook posts related to the Christmas Special – here, here and here. (Photo © BBC)

Christmas 2012, BBC Radio 4 aired Neil Tennant’s Smash Hits Christmas on 20th December – a real festive pop treat for everyone who grew up in the 1980s. The programme was an interesting look back at the golden years of the UK’s biggest music magazine of the eighties. Neil recalls the golden days of, the iconic, Smash Hits magazine, when he worked as a writer in their Carnaby Street office.

There were also contributions and memories from founder and legendary magazine maker Nick Logan, editors David Hepworth and Mark Ellen, writers Miranda Sawyer and Sylvia Patterson, and from regular Smash Hits cover girl, Toyah., talking about Smash Hits in general and her Brave New World cover from the Summer of 1982.

Neil Tennant had a life as a journalist before he became famous as a Pet Shop Boy. In fact, it was on a Smash Hits trip to New York that he had his big breakthrough with the record producer Bobby O. Also included is a rare recording from the 1982 Christmas Flexidisc (a message from the stars) and probably Neil Tennant’s first recording – the music for a trailer advertising Smash Hits stickers. (Producer: Susan Marling. A Just Radio Ltd. production for BBC Radio 4). Click on any of the images in this post to listen to Neil Tennant’s Smash Hits Christmas at You Tube.

Toyah & Robert are referenced a couple of times in the latest issue of Classic Pop magazine, in articles on Trevor Horn and his recently released album, Echoes: Ancient & Modern. Toyah & Robert cover, the Frankie Goes To Hollywood 1983 super hit, Relax, on the album. It’s a radically different version of the song too.

Review: The overriding mood on Echoes is stately and graceful. If that means Horn appears to be trolling adherents of the filth and mayhem of the original Relax by getting Toyah to happily croon over a new just-so glide, think of it instead as a fresh remix. That’ll be Mr Toyah, Robert Fripp, doing its precise guitar. Him and Horn know what they’re doing.

Feature: Then Trevor happened to catch Toyah and Robert Fripp covering Slave To The Rhythm on one of their online lockdown shows, and the deck was duly shuffled.

“I’ve always liked Toyah – I’ve bumped into her loads of times, she’s like a ball of energy. I like her vibe. So they did it. And I think it came out pretty well, even though I was afraid of messing around with it too much. I restrained myself. Robert’s solo is definitely one of my favourite guitar solos I’ve recorded.”

• The latest issue of Classic Pop is available to buy instore and online. (Thanks to Minna of The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive for the scans)

Toyah’s full “If I Ruled The World” Reader’s Digest Q&A is now available online…

If you want to eat meat you should have to raise and respectfully take the lives of your own animals
I am very passionate that animals have souls, and most religions say that they don’t. Animals experience empathy, joy and pain. We do not have a right to kill them en masse.

I have never met an animal that does not have empathy. As you get older I think it’s a lot better for you to have a very dominantly vegetarian diet.

There will be a National Concert Day
I used to live in Menton in France and they would have a national concert day, but I don’t think that’s what it was called. Every school would take the school orchestra out into the square. They would play music and the dance classes would do dance. It was a very beautiful spectacle. I’ve seen it in Israel as well. On one day per week in Israel, most communities will go and dance in the square, with live musicians playing.

• Continue reading at Reader’s Digest.

Toyah is interviewed in the October 2023 issue of Reader’s Digest magazine. Here is a preview.

If I Ruled The World – Toyah Willcox

Toyah Willcox is a singer, actor and TV presenter with a career spanning 40 years and eight top 40 singles. Toyah and Robert Fripp tour the UK together in October

Young people would have repercussion predictors

If you make a move in anger, revenge or envy, you need to know the consequences of your actions. I think AI would help young people so much—if they could just have a level of repercussion prediction, they might think twice rather than taint their entire life with a bad action. Within social media, a repercussion predictor would be really useful.

Work-life balance would be a law

The majority of us forget to put life balance first. We are very lucky in the UK that we have two days off a week. I often work in America and I’m so shocked at how hard Americans are expected to work. Life isn’t all about work, email, bureaucracy and accounting. In my working world, I would insist that were two days a week where there is no communication with work.

• Reader’s Digest is on sale now from newsagents, selected stores, and online.

Toyah, and Toyah & Robert, are included in the latest issue (#81, May/June 2023) of Classic Pop magazine.

There’s a great, four star, review of the forthcoming Live At Drury Lane CD/DVD and 2LP release, and a mini Sunday Lunch Live – 2023 Rock Party Tour feature. As well as numerous festival appearances this Summer, Sunday Lunch is touring in September and October.

• The latest issue of Classic Pop magazine is available to buy instore and online now. (Thanks to Minna of The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive – sending you a big hug Min, I know it’s been a tough couple of weeks for you!)

A snapshot of Toyah & Robert’s interview feature – Relative Values – as it appeared in print in The Sunday Times – available for one day only, Sunday 15th January 2023 – magazine.

Christmas 1982, Happy Christmas From The Stars, a “Free Christmas Record (12 Minutes of Festive Fun)”, was attached to the December 9-22, 1982 issue of Smash Hits magazine.

The Christmas flexi was originally an idea by Neil Tennant – who worked as a journalist at Smash Hits before global pop stardom as a Pet Shop Boy. It was produced in association with Levis, released by Lyntone Records, produced by Trevor Dann and recorded by Mark Ellen.

The festive flexi-disc featured numerous pop stars – Abba, ABC, Adam Ant, Bananarama, Bucks Fizz, Captain Sensible, Culture Club, Duran Duran, Funboy Three, Haircut 100, Imagination, The Jam, Madness, Mari Wilson, Musical Youth, The Piranahs, The Police, Steve Strange, Toyah, Ultravox – sending readers Christmas greetings, messages and Yuletide tunes.

Click below to listen – Toyah arrives at the Christmas 1982 Pop Star Party at 4.46, in-between Martin Fry of ABC and Steve Strange of Visage. Too-de-loo!!

NB. I’d like to dedicate this post to Terry Hall, not only of The Specials and Funboy Three, but two other great bands, The Colour Field, and Terry Blair & Anouchka. He truly was the voice of a generation! Rest in Peace.

Christmas 2012, BBC Radio 4 aired Neil Tennant’s Smash Hits Christmas on 20th December.

A fascinating look back at the golden years of the UK’s biggest pop magazine of the Eighties. A publication Toyah featured in a lot between 1980 and 1985, and also graced a trio of covers in 1980, ’81 and ’82.

The programme included contributions from Tennant, various Smash Hits editors and writers, and Toyah, talking about Smash Hits in general and her Brave New World cover from the Summer of 1982.

Neil Tennant had a life as a journalist before he became famous as a Pet Shop Boy, interviewing many of the pop stars and bands of the era, including a very early interview with Madonna. In fact, it was on a Smash Hits trip to New York that he had his big breakthrough with the record producer Bobby O.

Neil Tennant’s Smash Hits Christmas, a 30-minute radio docu, hasn’t been available at BBC iPlayer/BBC Sounds since Christmas 2012, but you can click below to listen to a recording of the programme at You Tube, or download direct from Dreamscape, here.