A short, but fantastic, clip of one of Toyah’s appearances on TISWAS in 1981. Performing “I’m A Misery” with the band and various presenters, and then flanned by the Phantom Flan Flinger. A classic clip. Click on the caps to watch, and visit Dreamscape’s You Tube Channel.
Even our Chief Rebel Runner is looking forward to “Love Is The Law Month” at Dreamscape :) Huh? Oh, okay it’s stills of Toyah promoting the album in 1983. Stay tuned for an abundance of LITL-related updates… Even as I type some Martian Cowboys are having Broadband installed to make sure they don’t miss out!
We are now into the third part of September and the end of the month is almost here so it’s not too early to announce that October is “Love Is The Law Month” at Dreamscape. We will be bringing you lots of content related to the magnificent 1983 album in the build up/countdown to Toyah’s Love Is The Law & More Tour kicking off. The horns of elfin land really will be calling you to come to the Dreamscape :) In the meantime, click below for details on the tour, including dates and links to buy tickets for each venue.
• Toyah is getting ready for the tour. She tweeted on Wednesday: “Just learning Dreamscape….perfect opener for the tour set…..into Rebel Run perhaps?“
‘Dreamscape’ has always been one of my favourite Toyah songs, hence the title of this website, but listening to the Love Is The Law album over the last year, I think ‘Time Is Ours’ has overtaken it. Thus I thought it deserved a little preferential treatment when doing the songwords – Think of it as a double-pager :)
• I haven’t forgotten about ‘Dreamscape’ – The songwords from last year are here. I was going to redo it to fit the theme of The Complete LITL Lyrics page, though possibly not as ‘Time Is Ours’, above, differs too.
• Magazines: There are Toyah interviews in two new, just and just about to be published, magazines: ‘Vive Le Rock’ (September/October 2013 issue) and ‘Respect Magazine’ (October 2013 issue).
• Vive Le Rock: A CBGBs special, Issue #14. September/October 2013, includes a one-page interview with Toyah. View a l/q preview of the article here, and order online at their website or locate where the magazine is stocked near you. (Thanks to Jimi LaLumia)
• Respect Magazine: The cover for Issue 22 of ‘Respect’ has just been made available. Toyah is interviewed inside the “Respect Goes Pop” issue, and her name appears on the cover. The magazine will be published online soon here…
• Time Out: Now. Here. This.: Time Out film editor Dave Calhoun sits down with the cast and crew of this legendary street-tough British drama. Director Franc Roddam (he created Masterchef, fact fans) and stars Philip Davis and Toyah Willcox will be among those looking back on a true national treasure, the tale of a young working class mod’s struggle with the mounting pressures of fitting in, growing up, rocking out and getting laid. It’s not cheap, but it’ll be well worth it – Continue reading…
• Time Out: Events: The best film events in London this week: One-off screenings, festivals, seasons, double-bills and more. Each week we bring you the very best of London’s alternative film events – ‘Quadrophenia’ + Q&A – Continue reading…
• Pictureville: Cast and crew of Quadophenia to gather at Ciné Lumière: Ciné Lumière and the London Film School are presenting a special screening of Quadrophenia, attended by members of the cast and crew, on Monday 23 September, as part of the ongoing ‘Classic Cinema: The Reunion’ series – Continue reading…
“Well…..30yrs on, I can still get into original Rebel Run outfit….just!” Toyah tweeted earlier today – View the full photo at Toyah’s Instagram. Watch Toyah perform ‘Rebel Run’ wearing the outfit on ITV’s Hold Tight in 1983. (Photo © Toyah Willcox)
• Bird in Flight: A rare promo flyer for one of Toyah’s greatest singles, ‘Bird in Flight/Tribal Look’ from 1980, was recently listed on ebay. The reverse includes info on Toyah’s Safari recordings up to the release of the single. A great piece of retro Toyah memorabilia!
• Made At The Mill: Toyah tweeted a photo taken at the Kaleidoscope event celebrating Pebble Mill yesterday. She participated in presentations on Look! Hear! and Glitter – View the photo at Instagram.
• Made At The Mill #2: John Holmes, another of the former Look! Hear! presenters, also tweeted a photo from the event – View at Twitter…
• Time Out: ‘Quadrophenia’ reunion screening + Q&A: Time Out says – Reunion screening of the 1979 film, loosely based around the rock opera by legendary band The Who. This special screening will be followed by a Q&A with a panel including: Franc Roddam (Director), Bill Curbishley (Producer and manager of The Who), Martin Stellman (Writer), Sean Barton (Editor) and Toyah Willcox. ‘Classic Cinema: The Reunion’, is new series presented by the London Film School and Ciné Lumière in association with Time Out Live – View here…
• Cool Britannia: On this day (14th September) in 1979, The film Quadrophenia was released. Based on The Who’s 1973 rock opera the film featured Phil Daniels & Toyah Willcox.
• Smash Hits Archive: September 15-28, 1983: A small news article on Toyah is included in this issue, just uploaded 30 years to the day it was originally published: Toyah’s new single, “Rebel Run”, will soon be followed by a new LP, “Love Is The Law”. Her next project is a TV film called The Ebony Tower – View here… (Lots of Toyah in the next issue, including a two-page interview and songwords)
The other three mock “Q Special Edition” Toyah magazine covers Andy designed for my birthday. Just amazing! One day perhaps something like this may really happen. Thanks again to Andy and I’d like to dedicate these to Lärwi, another great friend to me and this website (thanks for the pressie & card Lärwi x). Click below to view larger versions of these covers.
It’s been a while since we posted about Andy’s awesome Toyah dolls, so to rectify that here are a couple of great recent photos of these uncanny creations. A collection of four classic Toyah images; Ieya/The Blue Meaning, Anthem, Brave New World/The Changeling, Be Proud Be Loud (Be Heard), plus a recreation of a 1980 photos session. Click below to view the original photos and visit Andy’s Instagram.
I had to share this with Dreamscape’s visitors – The only way this could be better is if it was a real magazine. Andy Westhorpe has designed a collection of mock “Q Special Edition” Toyah magazine covers for my birthday this weekend, using iconic Toyah photos, and I think they are utterly fantastic. So thoughtful of Andy to take the time to do this but he has always been a great friend to me and this website. I’ll add the other three covers tomorrow. Click below to view a larger version.
It’s Vampires Rock‘s 10th anniversary. In a newly published interview Steve Steinman, who created and stars in the show, talks about the last 10 years and also pays tribute to the Devil Queen herself!
The show has attracted some famous names in its time on tour too, in 2007 Eddie Ojeda of hit rock band, Twisted Sister, played guitar in the show, and he was followed by Toyah Willcox, who toured in the show for two years as the Devil Queen, the long suffering wife of Baron Von Rockula.
Steinman says: “Toyah wanted to be in the show but there wasn’t a suitable character for her to play so we wrote one specially. Toyah was great; she introduced the show to a new audience. I remember in one of our first meetings we were discussing what type of costumes we would design for her and she said ‘Oh don’t worry darling, I’ve got the perfect thing in my wardrobe already’ – that was Toyah, she was made to be in a show like this!”
• Continue reading at All Media Scotland.
• Rebel Run: Toyah’s 13th single, was released this week 30 years ago. Toyah couldn’t appear in the studio on Top Of The Pops to perform the song as she was still in France filming The Ebony Tower – The edition of the show, which includes a play of the promo video, has recently been uploaded to You Tube…
• Rare Import Singles: Longtime Toyah fan Asher Meekins is auctioning off some of the rarest items from his Toyah collection, including French, German and Yugoslavian import singles – View at ebay…
• Made At The Mill: This weekend sees Toyah revisit her roots as she takes part in Made At The Mill: A Celebration of Pebble Mill & BBC Birmingham, taking place in Stourbridge in the West Midlands:
14:00 Look Hear Reunion: Chris Phipps, John Holmes and Toyah Willcox talk about the Midlands pop show and share a special reunion before episode screening. 16:00 Toyah introduces her screen debut in Second City Firsts television play Glitter (1978)
• Full details of the event is available at the Kaleidoscope website.
Vote for your top albums of 1987 in Slicing Up Eyeballs poll. Toyah’s album ‘Desire’ is included as an option. Voting closes on 27th September and the results will be announced at the beginning of October. Click below to participate in the poll. (Thanks to Paul Johnson)
• View Dreamscape’s ‘Desire’ feature here.
A trio of Toyah news posts from The Official Toyah Willcox Website:
• TOYAH CONTRIBUTES WRITING TO NEW DEREK JARMAN BOOK: Toyah contributes to a brand new publication Derek Jarman’s Sketchbooks, published by Thames & Hudson this September. Toyah acted in two of Jarman’s features films in the roles of Mad in Jubilee and an Evening Standard Best Newcomer Award-nominated performance of Miranda in the director’s re-imagining of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Toyah wrote the piece for Chapter 3 ‘Jubilee to The Angelic Conversation 1978-1985’ – Continue reading at www.toyahwillcox.com – View further details of the book at Thames & Hudson.
• TOYAH REUNITES WITH QUADROPENIA DIRECTOR FOR SCREENING & Q&A: How has Quadrophenia influenced British cinema and pop culture? Why don’t collaborations between musicians and filmmakers always work this well? And why do we insist on referring to one of the most popular films of its era as a ‘cult classic’? Find out on 23 September at this special screening and discussion, the second in the ‘Classic Cinema: The Reunion’ series presented by the London Film School and Ciné Lumière in association with Time Out Live! – Continue reading at www.toyahwillcox.com – Buy tickets online here.
• TOYAH JOINS V&A CLUB TO CATWALK IN CONVERSATION EVENT: The recently opened V&A exhibition Club To Catwalk features an in-depth look through the fashions, looks and iconic styles of the 1980 and includes a 1981 outfit designed by Melissa Kaplan for Toyah. Toyah will join a panel including Caryn Franklin and Brix Start-Smith at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London on Friday 8 November in an exclusive in-conversation event, designed by women for women. Join Caryn, Toyah and Brix as they bring their thoughts, ideas, experiences and memories to a discussion on women who developed, fused and influenced fashion and music in 1980s London – Continue reading at www.toyahwillcox.com – View further details on the ‘In Conversation’ event here.
Dreamscape is compiling Love Is The Law – The Complete Lyrics (though almost all of you will already have them if you own the original album or the recently released 30th Anniversary digital edition). We’ve reached the fifth song on the album – the sublime Martian Cowboy, co-written by Toyah, Joel Bogen, Simon Darlow and Phil Spalding. Click below to visit the new LITL – The Complete Lyrics page.
• I Want To Be Free/Anthem: A collection of rare shots by Jay Myrdal, from the iconic 1981 IWTBF/Anthem photo sessions, have just went up for auction at Ebay – View here…
• Evesham Journal: Familiar Face To Open Village Fete: A touch of Hollywood glamour will be bought to the fields of Wick, near Pershore, this weekend as the annual village fete takes place. The theme of Saturday’s event is Wick goes to the Movies and a familiar face will be opening the gates. Robert Fripp, guitarist with King Crimson and husband of Toyah Willcox, will be kicking off proceedings at 1.30pm along with Pershore town crier Robert Speight – Continue reading…
• Official Toyah Instagram: A photo of Robert Fripp and Bill Rieflin at yesterday’s fete was tweeted by Toyah and is available to view at Instagram…
• Site News: An exceptionally busy day for Dreamscape yesterday – I can only assume because of the repeat of Saturday Cookbook on ITV with Toyah guesting.
• Timeline Of Punk Rock: Toyah is mentioned in Wikipedia’s ‘Timeline Of Punk Rock’: 1978 – Events: Film director Derek Jarman releases the cult punk-themed film Jubilee, featuring Adam Ant, Toyah Willcox, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Malcolm McLaren protégé and early punk fashionista, Jordan – View here…
• A Pessimist Is Never Disappointed: Aileen Alonzo is in Dark Himaya — and you can read all about their new album here — and she’s in cleen along with Claudio Canzonetta. And cleen have just shared a wonderful and atmospheric new track called “Serpentine” which you can play below. The track, especially Aileen’s vocals, recalls the more atmospheric side of Tori Amos with a hint of Toyah Willcox – Continue reading…
• Safffra: Press for Andrea Plamondon: “If you like the music of Kate Bush, Toyah Wilcox, or Siouxie Sioux, you’ll add Andrea Plamondon to those names. Andrea is one of the underground’s best kept secrets (outside San Francisco)” – Continue reading…
• Elusive Little Comments: After The Ice – Thick Snow Magic EP: After The Ice is a three piece from London, and this is the forthcoming debut EP Thick Snow Magic. It was recorded at State of the Arc studios with veteran producer Nick Tauber who has worked with the likes of Thin Lizzy, Toyah and Marillion – Continue reading…
• Deviant Art: Toyah in Concert by Andy Ridae – View here…
Check out the new Dreamscape Links page – A small but perfectly formed list of other great Toyah, and The Humans, websites – Including both official and fan resources.
Speaking of which, the fantastic Toyah Willcox Interview Archive is celebrating seven years online today – The site launched on 7th September 2006 and has brought us lots of great Toyah content over the last seven years. Happy Birthday to the Archive and Lärwi.
An update to the 2010- page at Dreamscape’s Gallery, with 20 new photos from some of Toyah’s recent gigs, appearances and events, including BBC Breakfast, Rock The Stadium in Falkirk, Club to Catwalk at the V&A, Tatton Park Picnic Concert, Jack Up The 80s, Upton Festival and Manchester Pride. Click below to visit the Gallery (the updates are at the foot of the page)
Around this time, late Summer, 30 years ago in 1983 Toyah was in the Dordogne region of France filming John Fowles’ The Ebony Tower alongside Sir Laurence Olivier, Greta Scacchi and Roger Rees. The drama, made by Granada Television, eventually aired on ITV in December 1984. We can’t look back at Toyah’s 1983 without including one of her most memorable acting roles. View promo shots from the film here, here, here and here. Read an interview with Toyah, published when The Ebony Tower aired, by Outlook magazine. Read Dreamscape’s 2011 DVD review, and view a couple of our fan adverts. (Thanks to Andi)
Toyah’s September blog is now available to read at The Official Toyah Willcox Website. Toyah talks Jubilee, her sister Nicola, Lorca & The Outlaws, new films, Vintage TV, this Summer’s festivals, a busy 2014, the Love Is The Law & More Tour, and a possible release date for The Humans third album. Click below to read!
Over the next few months Dreamscape will count down to Toyah’s Love Is The Law & More Tour by compiling “The Complete Love Is The Law Lyrics Collection”. Continuing with songs three and four from the album: A double dose of rebelling… Rebel of Love and Rebel Run. I’ll put together a page for the collection once a few more are ready. Please click below to view full versions of each.
