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 4.46, in-between Martin Fry of ABC and Steve Strange of Visage. Too-de-loo!! Part One is available here.
Toyah’s recent interview with Classic Pop magazine is now available to read in full online at the mag’s website – Don’t miss our interview with the fascinating Toyah who tells us all about the new wave of success she’s enjoying…
Toyah is referenced in a make-up photo feature in the October 2018 issue of the Malaysian edition of Marie Claire magazine.
Blush it out like a crimson queen a la Toyah Willcox with this eye-popping colour on your cheeks. Spread the colour evenly over the apple of your cheeks for s flushed healthy look that is youthful and earm. Finish with a red tinted lip-balm on the lips.
Toyah is included in Classic Pop magazine’s Poparazzi feature in their latest issue – No. 46 with Spandau Ballet on the cover.
READERS SHARE THEIR FAVOURITE PHOTOS AS THEY GET UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL WITH SOME OF THE BIGGEST NAMES IN PLANET POP
Toyah Willcox with Zak Jenkinson
“This photo of Toyah and myself was taken when my old band The Silent Age supported her at Corporation in Sheffield, in September 2012, on the Changeling Resurrection Tour.
“My first ever gig was seeing Toyah at Sheffield City Hall on the same album tour back in 1982 and I’ve been a massive fan ever since, so it was a dream come true to be supporting her 30 years later.
“She was so lovely to us all and came to chat with the band in our dressing room before the show, signed lots of vinyl and talked about how excited she was at the third album by The Humans that she was in the middle of writing, and then wished us good luck for the gig. It was such a fantastic night – I think this photo captures it perfectly.”
• Classic Pop magazine, Issue 46 is out now. See Dreamscape’s original post on The Silent Age supporting Toyah, back in 2012, here. (Thanks to Zak Jenkinson)
Issue 44 of Classic Pop magazine, which includes a six-page Toyah feature, is on sale now. See below for a (non readable) preview of this.
Get your copy in-store for just £5.99. Alternatively, you can buy a digital issue at the Classic Pop website. Available in-store from WH Smith, Tesco, Tesco Ireland, independent newsagents, Eason and selected McColls.
In the latest issue we speak to Soft Cell‘s Marc Almond and Dave Ball as they prepare for their farewell gig at the O2 in London and release a career-spanning boxset, Keychains & Snowstorms. We also take a look at their Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret LP in our Classic Album feature.
Elsewhere, we have an exclusive interview with the world’s biggest record producer, Mark Ronson, catch up with The Proclaimers who return with their politicised new album Angry Cyclist and talk to Level 42‘s Mark King about his life in pop’s funkiest band.
This month, we look back on the glory days of house music and Toyah tells us how she brought the punk aesthetic to the pop world.
Look out for the next issue (44, September 2018) of Classic Pop magazine. It includes a six-page interview feature on/with Toyah. The magazine is published in around a week’s time, so not long to wait. In the meantime click below to browse our previous updates on Toyah in Classic Pop.
There’s only a few weeks until Toyah plays the Jack Up The 80s Festival and the Isle Of Wight County Press have made her the cover star of their Weekender supplement (Friday July 20, 2018 issue), with a one page interview feature inside.
In the court of the crimson queen
Eighties music remains popular because it tells relevant and grounded stories everyone can associate with.
That’s according to Toyah, one of the decade’s most iconic stars, who is returning to Jack Up The 80s this Summer.
The 80s revival started in around 2000 and has kept a lot os artists busy ever since, such is the appeal of the 80s sound, which arks back to a time before grunge, rave and grime.
Toyah does four shows a week, all year round, and this will be the second time she has been at the island’s most fluorescent summer event. “Jack Up The 80s has grown since I was last there and I’m looking forward to coming back,” she told the County Press.
Toyah is interviewed in the latest issue of Woman’s Weekly magazine (Issue dated 5th June 2018).
The article reveals Toyah and Robert Fripp are being filmed for a documentary.
What biscuit would you like to dunk?
I’m non-wheat, non-dairy, so the only biscuits I eat are Nairn’s oatcakes. They do a low sugar, dark chocolate variety.
Do you think there’s pressure to look a certain way in the industry?
It’s incredibly important to look and be fit. There is pressure, yes. I think if I didn’t look the way I look, it would affect what I do and how I choose my work, but I go wholeheartedly with that. My shows are very energetic, and even the acoustic show’s a bit like a marathon because of how much I sing. I have a strict, 1,800-calorie-a-day rule, but that’s all you need. I never feel hungry, I never feel deprived and I fully respect my body is a machine.
Airing on BBC radio for the first time since it was originally broadcast in December 2012, Neil Tennant’s Smash Hits Christmas includes an interview with Toyah during this fascinating 30 minute special, discussing ‘Smash Hits’ in the early 1980s and also the memorable and iconic ‘Brave New World’ cover issue.
Neil Tennant’s Smash Hits Christmas:
BBC Radio 4 Extra: Sat 23rd Dec: 7.30am/5.30pm | Xmas Eve: 5.30am
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.
Here, 30 years after his first stint on pop’s most successful and inventive magazine, Neil recalls the golden days of Smash Hits. We hear 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.
We also sample 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.
Check out a new collection of scans of Toyah in Smash Hits – “the 80s Pop Bible” – All of the magazine’s Toyah features, songwords and clippings published between 1979 and 1985 – brought together by The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive.
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.
Toyah is the cover star of the January 2017 issue of Birmingham Living magazine, with a three-page interview feature inside. Read the feature by clicking below, and the full magazine here.
Neil Tennant’s Smash Hits Christmas aired on ‘BBC Radio 2′ in December 2012. An interesting look back at the golden years of the magazine, including contributions from Toyah, talking about ‘Smash Hits’ in general as well as her iconic Brave New World cover from 1982. The programme isn’t currently available at BBC iPlayer and isn’t being repeated any time soon. Click below to listen to a recording of the programme at You Tube.
Toyah is the cover star of the August 2016 issue of Henley Life magazine, with an 80s Icons/Rewind feature inside.
HENLEY LIFE – August 2016
WHAT’S HOT THIS MONTH – REWIND!
• Experiences: A Night at the Zoo
• We Interview: 80’s Icons & DIY presenter Nick Knowles
• My Henley Life: Olympian Will Satch
REGULARS:
• Diary Highlights – ‘What’s On’ and where.
• Food & Drink : Cornwall Delights.
• Beauty : Summer Haircare.
• Fashion : Summer Holiday Packing
• The Directory: Find local goods and services
• Further info here. The digital issue of the magazine is available to read online here.
The latest issue (#360, June 2016) of Scootering magazine was published yesterday and this special edition comes with a full, and free, reprint of the issue which had Toyah on the cover – originally published back in February 1994.
Toyah: From Quadrophenia to Peter Pan – Exclusive Interview
FREE reprint of the entire 1994 TOYAH edition bagged with every copy.
Jam-packed edition out on the newsstands Thursday 26th May!
Preview a digital edition now (cut down version of #360) at issuu.com here.
Toyah is the cover star of the latest issue (#3, March/April 2016) of Discover Cardiff, which also includes a three-page feature on her inside – Punk Princess To High Priestess Of TV – based on the bio from toyahwillcox.com.
Toyah Willcox is a uniquely gifted performer. Charismatic, outspoken and impossible to categorise, she is one of Britain’s iconic household names – an award-winning rock legend as well as a much-loved actress and music composer.
Toyah is one of our most versatile and popular personalities whose vibrance and energy has won over many audiences in a career spanning thirty-nine years.
The Acoustic, Up Close & Personal tour, now in its third successful year of delighting audiences up and down, and indeed in and around the UK, plays the Acapela Studio in Cardiff on Friday 3rd June.
• Read the full feature here. More info on/book tickets for the Cardiff Acoustic date here. Keep an eye on Toyah’s Official Gigs page – You just never know where the tour will stop off at next!
Toyah didn’t release any new music in 1984 but ‘Smash Hits’ still included her in their special extra issue –The Smash Hits Christmas Party, published in association with Woolworth – in December 1984: 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… Click below to view a larger version – Read the full issue here.
Toyah is the cover star of the new issue of Boyz Magazine (10th September 2015). There is also an interview with her inside – Read it online by clicking below.
This month’s Total Film magazine includes a small photo of Toyah (yes, the now almost legendary shot of her with that frying pan) and article on Aaaaaaaah! on their “agenda” page feature on FrightFest 2015 – the film festival which began today in London.
FrightFest 2015 offers 75 horror movies in five days! Here are a few that are making Agenda’s spine tingle…
We know Steve Oram can do weird, wild and wonderful – with Alice Lowe, he wrote and starred in Ben Wheatley’s Sightseers – but his directorial debut is a different kettle of fish altogether. Or make that barrel of monkeys, because the cast (Noel Fiedling, Toyah Willcox, Oram, Lowe…) communicate only with ape-noises in this bizarre talke of the battle to take over a community. Proof that human beings really are animals.
Like Punk Never Happened: Smash Hits Archive has been continuing to upload retro issues of ‘Smash Hits’ magazine 30 years to the day they were originally published in the UK.
Various “recent” issues have included Toyah – Minx and its related singles were being released around this time back in 1985.
• Smash Hits, June 19 – July 2, 1985: This issue includes a full-page advert for the single Soul Passing Through Soul. Toyah is also included in the feature – “Who Is Pop’s Mr Clever Trousers?” – Read the issue here…
• Smash Hits, June 5 – 18, 1985: Toyah is included in the feature – “Oh! You’re Not As Tall As You Are On The Telly!” – Read the issue here…
• Smash Hits, May 22 – June 4, 1985: This issue includes the feature – “Toyah: Personal File” – Toyah answers lots of slightly odd questions, such as “When was the last time you saw a spirit?“. This was Toyah’s second “Personal File” for ‘Smash Hits’, the other was in early 1983 – Read the issue here…
• Smash Hits, May 8 – 21, 1985: This issue includes the songwords for the single Don’t Fall in Love (I Said) – Read the issue here…
• Smash Hits, April 24 – May 7, 1985: This issue includes a full-page advert for the single Don’t Fall in Love (I Said) – Read the issue here…
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. 
Toyah is referenced in a make-up photo feature in the October 2018 issue of the Malaysian edition of Marie Claire magazine.
Toyah is included in Classic Pop magazine’s Poparazzi feature in their latest issue – No. 46 with Spandau Ballet on the cover.
Toyah is interviewed in the latest issue of Woman’s Weekly magazine (Issue dated 5th June 2018).
