Dreamscape – Toyah Willcox Fansite

Who Won Wot? 1980 – 1989: NOW 80s: Monday 9th August: 9am
From Smash Hits “Most Unwanted Person of 1980” to the Brits “Best Group” of 1989 – Mark Goodier’s 10 hour marathon of 80s award winners lasts nearly as long as the Oscars. (The first artist played from 1981 is Toyah, with the Thunder In The Mountains video. Mark said: “We begin 1981 with a 4ft 11 pop star who had the biggest hair of the entire decade, here’s the Most Fanciable (as voted by Smash Hits magazine readers) Toyah Willcox with Thunder In The Mountains“).

A couple of incredibly rare early 80s European Toyah magazine covers were posted at Facebook recently. Tip, a German magazine, featured Toyah on their cover in January 1980 and December 1981. (Thanks to whoever unearthed these rarities!)

A new, Sheep Farming In Barnet/Early Years, interview with Toyah, from Cherry Red’s My Favourite Flavour magazine. A classic SFIB era photo of Toyah is also included on the cover!

According to the sleevenotes of the lavish re-issue of Toyah’s debut album ‘Sheep Farming In Barnet’ her progress to punk icon, then pop star, really began back in 1975…

“Back then I just wanted to get out of school, get out of Birmingham. I definitely wanted to act and sing, but there was no way I was equipped for that. I think I was lucky to have been born at the right time and been around for the punk movement, that allowed every shape, size, sound and form into the fold. If you had something to express or to say back then, punk accepted it. That was the saving grace for me.

“I’d left home and got a job at the National Theatre in London, school hadn’t really prepared me for life, I had to land on my feet and learn to adapt to the outside world and somehow mould myself into what I wanted to be.

“At the National, an actor called Ian Charleson introduced me to Derek Jarman who was about to start work on his film Jubilee and around the same time I got into a punk band and started writing with Joel Bogen. We started playing the pub circuit and I was embraced by that whole community, they were amazing times.”

• Continue reading here. (Thanks to Sharon Dickson for the scans)

Who Won Wot? 1980 – 1989: NOW 80s: Sunday 25th October: 9am
From Smash Hits “Most Unwanted Person of 1980” to the Brits “Best Group” of 1989 – Mark Goodier’s 10 hour marathon of 80s award winners lasts nearly as long as the Oscars. (The first artist played from 1981 is Toyah, with the Thunder In The Mountains video. Mark said: “We begin 1981 with a 4ft 11 pop star who had the biggest hair of the entire decade, here’s the Most Fanciable (as voted by Smash Hits magazine readers) Toyah Willcox with Thunder In The Mountains“). Click on the screen caps to zoom.

Toyah is interviewed in the latest issue of Music Week magazine, in their regular feature, The Aftershow.

The new issue of Music Week is out now as we welcome the Kanneh-Masons to our cover.

Elsewhere, we speak to Blue Raincoat Music’s Jeremy Lascelles and Robin Millar about their bold relaunch of Chrysalis Records as a frontline label. With a little help from Laura Marling, the duo take us inside their big plans for the future…

Plus, we speak to Senbla CEO Ollie Rosenblatt about some big festival news and National Album Day organiser Megan Page reveals the exclusive releases heading our way for the annual celebration of the LP.

Elite songwriter Sarah Hudson recalls the making of Dua Lipa’s smash single Physical in Hitmakers, while National Album Day ambassador Toyah Willcox reflects on her life and times in the music business in The Aftershow…

• Visit Music Week’s website for ordering info.

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.

Toyah is featured in the new issue of Prog magazine.

Toyah – These days she’s better know as Mrs Robert Fripp, but in the 80s Toyah Willcox blazed a unique musical trail. Her recent work with The Humans is squarely in the art rock field, so it begs the question: how prog is Toyah?

• Continue reading at Prog Magazine/Louder Sound.

NOW 80s’ mammoth 10-hour Who Won Wot? 1980 – 1989 aired yesterday, hosted by Mark Goodier. The first artist played from 1981 was Toyah, with the Thunder In The Mountains video. Mark said: “We begin 1981 with a 4ft 11 pop star who had the biggest hair of the entire decade, here’s the Most Fanciable (as voted by Smash Hits magazine readers) Toyah Willcox with Thunder In The Mountains“. Click on the screen caps to zoom.

Toyah and Hazel O’Connor are interviewed in the latest issue of The Beat magazine, ahead of their upcoming joint Electric Ladies Of The 80s UK Tour.

Moving On From The Era: Toyah and Hazel – electric ladies of the 80s

On the eve of their first UK tour together for many years, we caught up with two true survivors of the punk era – Toyah Willcox and Hazel O’Connor.

• The Beat is available in selected newsagents or by suscription at their website. (Thanks to Min)

As well as giving Toyah Solo a four star review, the latest issue (No. 62) of Classic Pop magazine also reviews Toyah’s gig at the Slade Rooms, Wolverhampton in January.

Before her co-headlining tour with Hazel O’Connor kicks off, Toyah runs through a brisk set that maps her career from punk icon to Crimson Queen.

Toyah Willcox is not an easy figure to pin down. From her early days as ‘Punk Princess’, she morphed into a multi-coloured pop star, before enjoying later success with presenting, musical theatre and, perhaps most unexpectedly, children’s television. Hard to imagine for those who recall her in Derek Jarman’s Jubilee or leaping about on TOTP, but there’s a generation of 20-somethings out there who only know Toyah from Teletubbies, Brum and as the lead character in Barmy Aunt Boomerang.

• Issue 62 of Classic Pop magazine is on sale now. (Thanks to Minna of The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive for the scan)

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). The half-hour programme is no longer available at BBC iPlayer and has also been removed from You Tube. Maybe the BBC will, in their wisdom, one day repeat it.

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 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!! Part One is available here.

Christmas 2011, Toyah was featured in the Winter 2011/Issue 10 of The Magical Times magazine. With a wonderfully festive cover image and an exclusive “fairytale” interview with Toyah inside! – Toyah Willcox speaks about fairies!

The pages of issue 10 are set to shine a splash of colour and a magical sparkle to your winter season…!

Inside this edition we present an exclusive interview with 80’s punk princess Toyah Willcox, who shares with us her spiritual experiences and why she believes that fairies do exist!

Kyle Gray writes about Angels and Ascension, Kit Berry speaks about her journey to Stonewylde and Laura Daligan explains to us how we can welcome the goddess Aphrodite’s loving energies into our everyday life.

Toyah is interviewed in the latest issue of Classic Pop Presents… The New Romantics – Special Edition. The 132-page magazine, which is available in four cover variants with Spandau Ballet, Steve Strange, Duran Duran and Boy George covers, was published last week. Click here or below to order online. Here’s a preview of the two-page Toyah Q+A feature. (Thanks to Minna)

Catching up… Toyah is the cover star of the August issue of Let’s Talk magazine, with a great three-page interview feature inside.

Age is just a concept to Toyah as she celebrates 40 years in music

As Toyah Willcox celebrates more than 40 years as a top music draw with a performance at Holt Festival, she tells Rachel Banham about her show, why she belives that age is just a concept and how a Norfolk beach is one of her favourite places in the world.

“I’ve had a new album out this year called In The Court Of The Crimson Queen which has has national radio play, so we’re featuring the new material, but we also do the hits as well so the hits like It’s A Mystery, Good Morning Universe. I Want To Be Free, Thunder In The Mountains.. there are quite a few,” she says.

“I could actually just do the whole set of singles! It’s very high. So everyone is welcome.”

NB: Let’s Talk is a lifestyle magazine covering East Anglia, from North Essex to the “bump” that is the north Norfolk coast.

• Let’s Talk magazine is on sale now, in the aforementioned areas above, as well as online.

Toyah, along with In The Court Of The Crimson Queen co-creator Simon Darlow, is interviewed in the new issue of Classic Pop magazine (May 2019, Issue 52) in a four page feature entitled “Long Live The Queen”.

After more than 40 years in the music business, Toyah Willcox is as creatively hungry as she was in her teens. Classic Pop chats to the high priestess of punk and her long-time collaborator, Simon Darlow about their bold reimagining of 2008 album In The Court Of The Crimson Queen, and why the material deserves a second outing… Here’s a preview of the fab looking feature.

• Classic Pop, Issue 52 is on sale now – or very soon will be. (Thanks to Minna for the preview)

Another new In The Court Of The Crimson Queen cover for Toyah – Your Weekend, the Press & Journal supplement, published in Northern and Highland Scotland, including Aberdeen, Inverness and Moray. The print feature included in Your Weekend is previewed below.

• The Press & Journal: Return Of The Crimson Queen – It’s no mystery as to why Toyah Willcox, who recently celebrated her 60th birthday, looks and sounds amazing. “I don’t drink, I don’t overeat, I drink lots of water and en route to shows I travel alone so I don’t have to speak to anyone,” said Toyah — This feature was previously published online earlier this week. See here.

Toyah was also interviewed in Friday’s Express, which only appears to have been available in the newspaper’s print edition as it hasn’t been published online, so far.

• The Express: Music: My Six Best Albums – Toyah Willcox, 60, is a pop star and actress whose eight Top 40 hits include It’s A Mystery and I Want To Be Free. Her latest album, a new version of In The Court Of The Crimson Queen, is released today…

Hurricane Toyah makes the cover of The Guide in today’s Edinburgh Evening News. (Thanks to Liam Rudden/Toyah)

Toyah is the cover star of Issue 47/April 7th 2019, digital magazine Scene Alba, with a one-page interview inside + another new In The Court Of The Crimson Queen photo.

Toyah’s album In The Court Of The Crimson Queen is out 12 April. She plays gigs at Edinburgh Liquid Room (25 April), Dundee Church (26 April), Inverness Ironworks (27 April) & Glasgow Classic Grand (28 April).

We did a quick fire Q&A with her where she had to give us the answer that first came into her head.

What got you into music?
The Sound Of Music. The Movie.

First song you heard that really moved you?
Fly Away Peter Fly Away Paul… Cliff Richard… I was 7 yrs old.

Last lie you told?
My lies usually start with: “That’s really interesting… Thank you”.

• Continue reading Toyah’s interview with Scene Alba online here.

In The Court Of The Crimson Queen is reviewed in the latest issue of Classic Pop magazine (Issue 51, April 2019)

Issue 51 of Classic Pop is on sale now!

Available from WHSmith, Tesco, independent newsagents, Tesco Ireland and Easons, the new issue of Classic Pop is on sale now!

This month, we have an exclusive interview with Bananarama‘s Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward as they return with their first new studio album in a decade. We also meet iconic duo Hall & Oates before their UK arena tour and talk to Gary Numan as part of our look into the superfan phenomenon.

Our packed new album reviews section includes Bananarama, Edwyn Collins, Toyah, Andy Bell and The Chemical Brothers. On the reissues front, we revisit New Order‘s debut Movement plus re-releases from Prince, Kate Bush, R.E.M, David Bowie and more.

Look! Hear! and Toyah’s 1979 Record Mirror cover – 40th music – anniversary updates this week at the Official Toyah Instagram and Twitter…