Dreamscape – Toyah Willcox Fansite

Toyah’s recent Sounds Of The 80s special is currently featured at BBC Music.

The latest post at Fragments is a Simon Darlow special, with lots of rare info and photos (the screencap below is a “blink and you’ll miss her” appearance by Toyah from Simon’s late 80s solo single ‘Hot’). Read the full feature by clicking below.

Toyah is also celebrating Simon Darlow’s birthday. She posted a fantastic 1983 shot of them together at Instagram today.

A new post at Fragments with some, frankly, tantalisingly exciting details on future music (re)releases from Toyah. At an early stage for now.

The Big Question Mark (Or The Art Of Being Wrong)

I was wrong.

I often am about a whole host of things. This is a really, really happy wrong though in what has been a pretty amazing month for one reason or another.

The reason I am so gleeful that I was wrong relates to the sleevenote I penned for the reissue of Mayhem back in October 2005.

• Continue reading at Fragments: Toyah Tales From Now & Then.

Toyah: Echo Beach (Surf Mix, 7″ Mix), Plenty

This is a cover. The original was by a Canadian new wave band called Martha and the Muffins. There were actually two Marthas in that band at one point, so they really should have been called Marthas and the Muffins, but I guess that doesn’t really roll off the tongue. What are the odds of having two Marthas in a band anyways? Is that like some crazy common name in Canada or something?

I’m getting off topic. This version is by perennial UK oddball Toyah, and I prefer it to the original. It has less horns and more synthesizers.

• Continue reading at The Lost Turntable.

An imaginary Toyah collection, or a real Toyah playlist. You decide… Yes it’s been pointed out that the song the collection takes its name from isn’t included… Click to zoom!

The concert Toyah guested at with Weekend Guitar Trio at Kings Place, London in February 2011, is being released as a six-song live album.

WGT’s next release, a live album which also features Toyah Willcox and Jan Bang, is now in the last stages of production. It was recorded at a concert at Kings Place, London, in February 2011, as part of Eesti Fest – a festival celebrating Estonian music and culture. The album, which will feature 6 tracks, has been mastered by Markus Reuter and Lee Fletcher.

• View photos from the Eesti Fest concert here. (Photo © Madli)

There’s now just one week left to collect all the songs from Twenty Four From Toyah: Live Archive Selections 1993-2102.

The page at Soundcloud, where all the tracks can still be listened to, will expire on the 24th January. Get your cover/artwork for the album, plus a digital booklet with photos and info here. The complete Twenty Four From Toyah can be downloaded at Media Fire in two zip files.

Twenty-Four From Toyah – Side 1 | Twenty-Four From Toyah – Side 2 (These are officially provided links).

The sixth window on Toyah’s Official Christmas Countdown was opened yesterday, taking visitors to another live recording.

Twenty Four From Toyah: Live Archive Selections 1993-2012 – Collect the ‘Twenty Four From Toyah’ full album in the run up to the 24th December.

Already available: Moonlight Dancing (Live in Plymouth 1994), Neon Womb (Acoustic, Faith & Music 2006), Little Tears Of Love (Live in London 2002), It’s A Mystery (Acoustic, Take The Leap! Sessions 1993) and more.

Visit Toyah’s Christmas Countdown here and Twenty Four From Toyah here.

Tom Leon has uploaded another track to ‘house-mixes.com’ – This one is ‘Let Me Go (Here It Comes Again 2012 Remix)’, a song that was originally released in 1994 on Toyah’s Dreamchild album.

Toyah is one of Tom’s favourite singers. In 1995 he created ‘Awake’n Dreams: Alan Parsons Project vs Toyah Willcox’, two tracks that used samples from the 1981 song ‘Pop Star’. He also put both of these online earlier in 2012. More info on that in our news from April.

• Listen to ‘Let Me Go (Here It Comes Again 2012 Remix)’ by Tom Leon here.

Want to hear what Joel Bogen was doing immediately after his Toyah days?

Apparently ALL music on Exposure is by Joel, that’s 13 demo tracks by Southside Jimmy! Although I’m still working my way through them for the first time the guitar work is sounding very Joel circa Rebel Run. I really wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if his pal Phil Spalding was on bass too. Sure sounds like him to me!

Anyway this is the closest you’ll probably get to a Joel solo album and maybe a hint of what direction a future Willcox/Bogen album could have taken in 1984.

• Above by Mark Taylor – Listen to Joel, post-Toyah, at Soundcloud.

Toyah was “Diva Of The Day” on Brighton Gay Radio yesterday. An uninterrupted hour of amazing Toyah songs, an eclectic selection, past and present, played every three hours from 2pm.

DOTD Playlist: Good Morning Universe, I Want To Be Free, Don’t Fall In Love (I Said), 21st Century Supersister, Echo Beach, It’s A Mystery, Be Proud Be Loud (Be Heard), Fallen, Danced, Rebel Run, Thunder In The Mountains, Over 21, Latex Messiah (Viv La Rebel In You), Brave New World, Soul Passing Through Soul, The Vow, We Are.

As expected, Florence & the Machine have scored their first number one single with ‘Spectrum (Say My Name)’. It entered the UK Top 40 this evening. View the video.

I know some disagree but I still think the video and imagery is heavily influenced by early 80s Toyah and Kate Bush (who were in turn influenced by David Bowie of course). Good to have a decent song at number one for a change :) I’ll shut up about Florence now!!!

Florence & The Machine’s ‘Spectrum’ is on course to enter the UK Top 40 at number one this Sunday. If it does so it will be the band’s first. Florence’s image, and the imagery used in the accompanying promo video, is very Toyahesque (with a smidge of Kate Bush too).

A couple of stills from Florence & The Machine’s video for their new single ‘Spectrum’. This debuted today… That hairstyle looks interestingly familiar!

Safari Records’ late 70s/early 80s timeline of Toyah dates the band signing to the label as January 1979, though their “Our History” implies it may have been late 1978: In 1978 a Melody Maker postage stamp picture of Toyah together with a small but glowing review of one of the very few gigs that her band had ever played led us to a leaky rehearsal space under Waterloo Bridge, where we saw the band and they signed with Safari who then were pleasantly surprised to learn of Toyah Willcox, actress, her performances in ‘The Corn is Green’ (starring Katherine Hepburn), ‘Jubilee’, ‘Quadrophenia’ and her current casting as Miranda in Derek Jarman’s forthcoming ‘The Tempest’.

Toyah’s ‘Pop Star’, Alan Parsons’ ‘The Raven’ and Orson Welles? This shouldn’t work, but it does!

Tom Leon has uploaded to ‘house mixes.com’ two mash-ups he created in the mid-90’s:

1995: Long before mashups or bootlegs are gone to mainstream, I created a special mix….. really handmade with discs and effect-recording:

One of my first bootleg-mixes and I like it to this day! It is a fusion between Alan Parsons The Raven and the voice of Toyah Willcox. Hope U like it?

Listen to ‘Awake’n Dreams (On A Lost City Of Mars) [Shortplay Fusion Mix]’ here, and ‘Awake’n Dreams (On A Lost City Of Mars) [Smooth House Version]’, here.

The 10 most popular Toyah downloads at ‘iTunes’ currently are: 1. I Want To Be Free (way ahead due to being included on ‘Ministry of Sound: Anthems Alternative 80s’), 2. It’s A Mystery, 3. Thunder In The Mountains, 4. Rebel Run, 5. Pop Star, 6. Demolition Men, 7. Latex Messiah (Viva La Rebel In You), 8. I Am, 9. Obsolete, 10. Jungles Of Jupiter.

Rumours are brewing of a brand new Toyah track called ‘Frail Pool’ that has been recorded to mark Toyah’s 54th birthday next month. Apparently 54 is a significant number for Toyah and she felt she needed to do something special for it. What could be more special than new Toyah music?

As 2012 is significant anniversary years for both ‘The Changeling’ and ‘Desire’ albums the song will be inspired by elements from both. There’s a little more info on this exciting news here.

Remember ‘Ladies Love The Beatles’? A couple of recent related pieces of news on this forthcoming compilation:

• Katrina Leskanich, of Katrina & The Waves, posted on her 8th March 2012 website update: “I was in the studio recording a couple of Beatles tracks for a new compilation which includes Kim Wilde, Mica Paris, Toyah and several other female artists which will be released in 2012”.

• Producer/Mixer Martin Sutton’s ‘Wikipedia’ page has recently been updated to include his Programming, Instrumentation & Mixing on “The Ladies Love…The Beatles”. Artists listed are: Mica Paris, Beverley Craven, Des’ree, Kim Wilde, Toyah, Heather Small and Katrina Leskanich.

The ‘Fade2Grey’ website has just added a mini-feature on the band Blood Donor, focusing on their single releases.

There is, of course, mention of Toyah. Blood Donor were also on Safari Records and the band’s keyboard player Keith Hale wrote ‘It’s A Mystery’.