A fantastic retro, and quite lengthy, Toyah interview from Finnish magazine SOUNDI.
A huge thanks to Lärwi. of The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive, for the scans and translation.
Interview by Dougie Gordon, published in June 1981.
The door opens. A short, 145 cm tall figure stands in front of me. She’s wearing a blue and grey tunic which has gold embroidery on it. The fiery red hair looks a like a burning bush against the backdrop of the outfit. The figure moves forwards like a Samurai warrior poised for an attack but you can see a smile on her face which you can not resist. She’s Toyah Willcox, England’s Jeanne d’Arc of latter times.
Her moves are a part of her carefully calculated image. She’s has consciously made herself into a mystery which invites the audience to explore her world further. But you can’t fit all of the pieces together – it’s not easy to find the real person behind this made-up facade. Her aggression can turn into warmth in a second – and the other way round. Her mindset changes from a hearty laugh into the deepest despair. Her sentences are deep and meaningful half of the time, the other half you’re left wondering what on earth is she on about? Toyah is like dynamite made out of flesh, the slightest emotional spark will set her off.
She also has a soft sweeter side which the audience rarely gets to see. The aggression she hides behind when dealing with the mass media is of course there on purpose. The media in turn treats her with contempt and suspicion. For this reason she feels misunderstood and defends herself in a way even Lou Reed would be proud of.
• Continue reading at Dreamscape’s Press Archive. Read another rare Finnish interview with Toyah here.
The Smash Hits Archive collection at flickr has a new layout, making browsing each issue far easier than previously. The archive is currently at mid 1983, with tons of Toyah content including her three cover issues: View 27 November – 10 December 1980, September 3 – 16 1981 and May 27 – June 9 1982.
• More retro Toyah magazine articles: View Toyah articles from three issues of 80’s music magazine ZigZag. (Thanks to John Kidd)
A rare 1982 article from German music magazine Popcorn, featuring great photos of Toyah, Joel Bogen and Phil Spalding from ‘The Changeling’ Tour. Would any German visitors care to translate? Click below to view a larger version. (Thanks to Glyn Whelan for this great scan)
A new cover for Toyah, from Dunfermline Press’ ‘Press:On’ magazine:
Toyah Willcox: The Hormonal Housewife on stand-up, style and why she’ll never be ‘normal’.
Hormonal Housewives play a handful of Scottish dates early next month, at the King’s Theatre, Glasgow (Sunday 5th May), Caird Hall, Dundee ( Tuesday 7th May) and beginning at the Alhambra Theatre in Dunfermline on Saturday 4th May.
The ‘Press:On’ interview with Toyah is only currently available in the print version of the magazine, published today and mainly on sale in the Fife area, but may appear online at some point at the Dunfermline Press website.
Click on the cover to view a larger version of the cover.
Toyah is included in the latest issue (number four) of Classic Pop, the magazine that is steadily growing in reputation and popularity since first publishing at the end of last year.
We’re delighted to announce that the latest issue of Classic Pop magazine is on sale today! Issue four features our first female cover star in the form of the indefatigable Annie Lennox – striking front-person of the Eurythmics, award winning solo artist and outspoken campaigner. We have an exclusive interview with Annie…
There’s a veritable host of Toyah content in the issue, including a full-page black and white pin-up (taken from the ‘Neon Womb’ performance from the 1980 ATV documentary), plus a short article and photo from the Crimson Queen era (Floored by Toyah: Toyah Willcox was the undisputed queen of aggro pop…), a couple of photos are also included in a feature on Birmingham’s music scene, and there’s also a photo of Toyah and Nick Heyward on the contents page.
Great to see Toyah’s presence in the magazine, which hopefully means they will include a full feature on her sometime soon.
• View further info on Classic Pop at the magazine’s website.
Low quality photos of a cover feature on Toyah from 1981. These are from Italian music magazine ‘Melody News’, which included a couple of very rare photos of Toyah. Click below to view slightly larger versions. (Thanks to Andi)
• Birmingham Post: Arson suspected as fire hits Birmingham venue where The Beatles played: Kings-Heath-born Toyah Willcox was the first person to be honoured on the Kings Heath Walk of Fame which was unveiled along York Road last July. Bob Prew, who helped organise the initiative, said the plaque now lies under the building’s smouldering rubble. He said: “It’s devastating because the Ritz Ballroom was one of the major venues in the 1960s.”
• Birmingham Mail: Fire at Kings Heath venue where The Beatles once played: “The roof is totally collapsed. It’s the old Ritz Ballroom . It’s sad for Kings Heath as on Cash Converters – which has collapsed – there was a plaque for Toyah Willcox.”
• BBC News: Ex-Beatles gig venue destroyed in Kings Heath fire: A Kings Heath Walk of Fame, honouring the area’s musical and comedy heritage, had also been planned to start outside the building with a star marking singer Toyah Willcox.
• Buzzfeed: 23 Amazing Smash Hits Covers From The ’80s: Quite clearly the greatest magazine of our time – 7. Toyah, May 1982.
• Telford & Wrekin Council: Hormonal Housewives on tour!: Hormonal Housewives are in Telford as part of their Spring Tour 2013 and you are in for a treat with this hilarious show presented by British pop icon Toyah Willcox.
• An Actor Pantos: Let’s get Critical – The Sequel: SLEEPING BEAUTY, Marlowe Theatre Canterbury: Toyah Willcox and Gareth Gates were the stars and really worked hard for their billing. Willcox especially proved particularly eager to take part and was a very good baddy!
Toyah is the cover star of the latest Journal2, the ‘North Devon Journal’ magazine. It’s likely that the accompanying interview is the one, by Rosanna Rothery, that we mentioned on Friday.
Rosanna Rothery chats to Toyah Willcox ahead of Hormonal Housewives
Hormones can wreak havoc with your life. Just ask Toyah Willcox. The singer and actor visits Barnstaple next week with the hilarious show, Hormonal Housewives.
• Read our previous post about the accompanying interview, or view it at the North Devon Journal. View a larger version of the cover here. (Thanks to Owen Jones)
A new interview with Toyah, from ‘Woman’s Own’ magazine.
Actress and singer Toyah, 54, reveals how her life was plagued with insomnia for 40 years before she discovered acupuncture…
You might think staying up all night is part of the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, but four decades of insomnia left former punk princess Toyah sick and very tired! Last year she finally found a solution with acupuncture – just as well now she’s busy touring with the two-woman stage show Hormonal Housewives. Toyah, who lives with her husband of 26 years, musician Robert Fripp, tells us about her new zest for life…
Have you always had trouble sleeping?
Yes. It started when I was 14, triggered by the pressure of exams. I was doing revision all night and, once you’re in that stress-related pattern, it sticks. Then in my late teens it was ideal, as I was working in music and theatre, where everyone stays awake until the sun comes up!
How bad did it get?
I could go 10 days without sleeping, by which time I’d be delirious and feel very poorly. I’d get nauseous and stop functioning. I’d have an episode as bad as that about once a year. But I won’t take sleeping pills. I tried them in my twenties and found them very negative. Read more…
The March 17-30 1983 issue of ‘Smash Hits’ has been uploaded to the Smash Hits Archive, exactly 30 years ago to the day it was originally published.
The magazine, with Tracie Young and Paul Weller on the cover, includes a “Bitz” news clipping with the first mention of Toyah appearing in Trafford Tanzi.
Poll-winning warbler and sometime actress, your very own Ms Toyah Willcox, is due to begin treading the boards of the Mermaid Theatre, London from some time in late March. She’ll be taking over the title role in Trafford Tanzi, a very successful feminist musical that takes the form of a wrestling match. Rehearsals for the new cast have just been started, and they sound somewhat strenuous! The reason that there’s no precise opening date is because the show can’t go on until they’re all “in shape”.
Meanwhile, over in New York, Debie Harry is getting in shape to take the same role in a Broadway production of the same play! All this theatrical activity means, of course, that meantime there won’t be many records from either of this pair.
• Continue reading at the Smash Hits Archive.
The March 3-16 1983 issue of ‘Smash Hits’ has been uploaded to the Smash Hits Archive, exactly 30 years ago to the day it was originally published.
The magazine, with Eurythmics on the cover, includes their first “Personal File” on Toyah (they printed another one in 1985 around the time of ‘Dont Fall in Love’ & ‘Minx’).
NAME: Toyah Ann Willcox
BORN: May 18, 1958, in Kings Heath, Birmingham, at home. I can’t remember much about it.
FIRST MEMORY: Sometimes I feel I can be aware of when I was inside my Mum. Otherwise, my first memory is of my first day at school. I was never told what school was; I was told about the day before that I was going to school. It was the first time I was ever parted from my mother and I never forgave her for it. I was petrified and cried and fought all day. I remember holding on to my Mum’s clothes and having to be ripped apart from her.
• Continue reading at the Smash Hits Archive.
Toyah details her daily diet in the latest issue of ‘Natural Health’ magazine.
There is no doubt that actress and singer Toyah Willcox is clean living…
Breakfast: I have the same breakfast every day; a bowl of bran flakes with lactose-free milk and an Actimel and Activa yoghurt.
Lunch: For lunch I have homemade fresh vegetable soup with freshly made wholemeal bread and olives on the side. Or, roast salmon with steamed broccoli and steamed carrots.
Read more…
Toyah is interviewed in this week’s issue of ‘Woman’s Weekly’ magazine.
Having A Cup Of Tea With Singer And Actress Toyah Willcox
Who would you most like to have a cup of tea with?
David Bowie, Helen Mirren and Judi Dench – all British legends.
You’re about to appear in the play Hormonal Housewives. What can we expect?
It’s an all-out comedy about three women. It’s one of those plays where you read the script and you keep thinking, ‘Oh yes, I’ve been through that!’. The madness that comes through PMT is all captured in an evening. It’s very funny, light-hearted and well-observed.
Read more…
The Smash Hits Archive uploaded the full ‘Smash Hits Yearbook 1983’ over Christmas. The annual includes two pages on Toyah, with a great late 1981 photo and quotes from three previous interviews, plus a BNW photo at the start of the book. Visit the Smash Hits Archive here and click below to go directly to the scans at flickr.
The All-Star Request issue (January 6 – 19 1983) of Smash Hits magazine was published 30 years ago today. This included ‘Ieya’ by Toyah and many other songword favourites. The complete issue has just been uploaded to the Smash Hits Archive.
Neil Tennant’s Smash Hits Christmas aired on ‘BBC Radio 2’ on the 20th December. 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 has now been deleted from iPlayer and isn’t being repeated any time soon. Click below to listen to a recording of the programme that’s recently been added to You Tube.
Toyah was featured in ‘Weekend’ magazine’s “My Tube” last Saturday (8th December).
Singer and actress Toyah Willcox, 54, lives in Worcestershire with her husband, musician Robert Fripp.
My favourite programme when I was about five was FIREBALL XL5, a Thunderbirds-style puppet show. Some of it was a bit scary for me at that age though, and I remember Mum having to cuddle me when she was meant to be cooking dinner.
I was so gripped by SKY – a children’s drama about a boy who’s really an alien stranded on Earth – when I was at drama school in my late teens I wrote to the producers asking for a part. They called me in for a chat but I didn’t get the job.
Joanna Lumley was brilliant in THE NEW AVENGERS. I was 18 when it started in 1976 and a hair model at a department store, and I remember having the Purdey ‘Pudding Bowl’ cut. But then I discovered punk rock…
In my 20s I was a big fan of Trevor Eve’s private eye SHOESTRING, so I was delighted when I got to appear in an episode as a singer called Toola. Six of my songs were featured, and soon after my single It’s A Mystery entered the charts.
I’M A CELEBRITY is unmissable. When I was on it in 2003 we only had nasty trials towards the end, but now they get them from the start. I’d be too terrifird to do it today.
• As told to Richard Webber | Toyah is in Sleeping Beauty at Canterbury’s Marlowe Theatre until 20 Jan, tel: 01227 787787 (Thanks to Ann-Marie Farran)
The second issue, with Madness on the cover, of Classic Pop magazine has just gone on sale. Here’s hoping for a Toyah feature at some point!
Classic Pop is the new bi-monthly magazine that finally gives pop music the recognition it deserves. After decades of rock magazines wallowing in the 60s and 70s, Classic Pop truly celebrates the explosion of creativity and diversity that shook up music in the late 70s, defined the sound of the 80s, and continues to influence today. Whether it’s New Wave, synth-pop, indie, ska or the New Romantics, Classic Pop gives the artists and music in-depth coverage in a glossy, high-quality magazine.
• More info on Classic Pop at the magazine’s website.
Toyah is guesting in a BBC Radio 4 special on Smash Hits this Christmas, hosted by Neil Tennant.
Neil Tennant’s Smash Hits Christmas: BBC Radio 4: Thursday 20th December: 11.30am
Neil Tennant was a journalist on music’s most poptastic magazine before he was a Pet Shop Boy. Here, with colleagues and stars, he recalls the early 80s golden age of Smash Hits.
We hear from founder and legendary magazine-maker Nick Logan, from 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 what’s probably Neil Tennant’s first ever recording.
The legendary early 1980’s magazine, Flexipop!, is now at Facebook.
Another quite rare, retro, Toyah article… this one from early 1981. I’m not sure which magazine but it was most likely to be one of the Sunday supplements, possibly ‘The Telegraph’ or similar: Toyah! Toyah! burning bright in the forests of the benighted acting and rock music industries. Illuminated by her twin talents for performing words and music, and fired by a scorching ambition, her dyed red hair dancing around her impish face like flames, Toyah Willcox is blazing parallel meteoric trails to exalted positions in both spheres (phew!). Click below to read. View all of our recent retro Toyah press articles & interviews here. (Thanks again to Andi)
