Dreamscape – Toyah Willcox Fansite

• Exciting news for fans of The Humans: “The Humans are stirring. Keep an eye out for an announcement by the end of this Friday”: The Official Toyah Facebook, yesterday.

• Kent Online: Stars shine to honour panto legend Dave Lee.

• Toyah Playlisted: ‘Good Morning Universe’ was included in Dark Night of the Soul with Julie (8 May) on WFMU. Toyah is being played all over the place at the moment. Twitter seems to update by the hour with info on Toyah on another playlist.

• Coming Soon: Toyah: Thru A Photographer’s Eye – A new FTE Toyah feature.

• The complete issue three of Grinding Halt fanzine has been made available online at the fanzine’s Facebook page. This includes great retro Toyah content: a review of a gig from the ‘Bird in Flight’ tour, at Bulmerche College, Reading, plus an interesting interview with Toyah. She talks about meeting Joel, forming the band and a lot more. This issue dates from February 1980.

• Toyah, Shaun Williamson, Bradley Walsh, John Altman, Richard Digance, Bobby Davro, Jim Davidson and numerous others, including 10 panto dames and circus performers, paid tribute to the late Dave Lee at The Marlowe Theatre on Sunday night in a celebration of his life and career. The comedy gala raised money for Dave’s Happy Holidays charity.

• The Blitz Kids: Toyah by Richard Sharah: “I look like a bushbaby!”. View another shot from this 1981 photo session here.

• The Toyah Timeline has been rebooted. A visual reference guide to Toyah’s career. Not everything, as that would take until the end of time, but all the key moments: music releases, tours, theatre, television, film, books…

• A trio of ‘The Changeling Resurrection II’ dates, for Manchester, London and Newcastle in October, were included in “Today’s Top Tour Announcements” in The Guardian last Thursday.

• I feel like I’ve been moaning a lot recently (not like me atall lol), sorry! One last word: There are a zillion and one fan websites populating the internet. The www would be a dull place without them. Some of these offer tittle-tattle and intrusion into an artist’s private life, and some offer relatively intelligent, respectful career coverage in appreciation of a band, artist or actor’s work… I’d rather chuck, Quadrophenia style, my computer off a cliff (He runs to the water’s edge…) than be thought of as the former!

• Toyah’s German TV performances of ‘I Want To Be Free’ and ‘It’s A Mystery’ are included on the 2010 DVD The Story Of MusikLaden, (No. 3: 1981 – 1984). The huge 10-disc collection features 100’s of performances from numerous new wavers and Eighties bands, including OMD, Hazel O’Connor, Visage, Adam & The Ants and Kim Wilde. Toyah’s aired on the long-running music show on 10th September 1981 (IWTBF) and 11th March 1982 (IAM).

• Official footage from ‘The Changeling Resurrection’ Bush Hall, London gig – ‘Voodoo Doll’. Watch at You Tube.

• View 135 photos of Toyah at The Robin2, Wolverhampton. Posted by ‘Midlands Live’ at Facebook.

• Toyah is mentioned in a Female First article on Stereo Influence. Their new single ‘Edgar Allan Poe’ is produced by Mike Bennet, also the producer of ‘Dreamchild’.

• I’ve (or should I say Falling To Earth has) taken the leap to Twitter. Not sure why. Except that I wanted to follow @toyahofficial :)

• The Blitz Kids: Toyah 1980 by Gerard McNamara. A classic live shot from the, legendary, ‘Ieya Tour’.

• Some great live shots of Toyah that the photographer doesn’t seem pleased with!

• Toyah at The Ruby Lounge: Photo #1 and photo #2 (courtesy of Man Alive! at flickr). ShatterJapan.com – new website coming soon.

• The running order for Let’s Rock The Moor (Saturday 12th May): 3.20pm: Nick Heyward, 4.10pm: Toyah, 5pm: Modern Romance, 5.50pm: Boney M, 6.55pm: Heaven 17, 7.55pm: Go West, 8.55pm: Billy Ocean. (Subject to change: Source: Lets Rock The Moor Twitter)

• Why have a mere t-shirt when you can have a Toyah Harrington? Take a look.

• Toyah is mentioned in The Digital Fix review of Doctor Who: Ace Adventures DVD box set. (Someone needs to tell them that “Toyah wigs” are back!)

• The UK Top 40 on the day that ‘Four From Toyah’ entered. Many of those singles bring back many memories… (Thanks to PJ)

• I think I may have mentioned this in the past, though possibly not! The 1986 film Toyah appeared in, alongside Christopher Lee, The Disputation, is available on DVD.

• Toyah Live 2012: Another new live date has been added to the Official Gigs page at toyahwillcox.com. Toyah plays a live PA at ‘Birmingham Pride’ at the Eden Bar on Sunday 3rd June 2012. Toyah is also playing Blackpool Pride (9th June) and Manchester Pride (26th August).

• Adam Ant (Adam Ant & The Good The Mad & The Lovely Posse) is playing a lot of live gigs this year, including festivals and a tour. View here.

• Books and Music and Stuff: Three Top British Films: 3. Quadrophenia. View here.

• There is still one date of the ‘The Changeling Resurrection’ Spring tour to go, on Saturday in Bishop’s Stortford (tickets available here), with Toyah headlining ‘Stortfest 2012’, but already there is a whole new ‘Changeling Resurrection’ Autumn tour to look forward to, and even (very vague) murmurs of a similar 30th anniversary outing for ‘Love Is The Law/Rebel Run Tour’ in 2013.

• The tour has been a huge success, probably even more so than last year’s ‘From Sheep Farming To Anthem’, with incredible fan response via Facebook, You Tube and Twitter. Proof, if it was ever in any doubt, how loved ‘The Changeling’ album is.

• tenek on ‘The Changeling Resurrection’: For us the Toyah tour is now over sadly! Played to lots of people over the 5 nights and met many new friends. (Source: tenek @ Twitter) View all of our tenek news.

• Soley Mourning on ‘The Changeling Resurrection’: End of Tour: Well, first of all what a great tour – we’ve had a real blast and met some really cool people along the way. All of the gigs have been excellent and we have thoroughly enjoyed them. Shame its over now until next time. Thanks to everyone who came and saw us and thanks to Toyah and her crew for really making us feel welcome. Pictures to follow! (Source: soleymourning.com) View all of our Soley Mourning news.

• Check out three great ‘Changeling Resurrection’ wallpapers, by ‘The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive’, here, here and here.

• A rare shot from a well-known 1978 Toyah photo session has appeared online. It was used as a “pin-up” in Issue 16 of the fanzine Ripped and Torn in January 1979. Photos from this session were most famously used on the cover of, and inside, ‘Record Mirror’, also in January 1979.

• Lärwi has compiled a great video to mark the 30th anniversary of ‘The Changeling’ and ‘Warrior Rock’, with music from 1982 and visuals from 2012. View it at You Tube.

• ‘Ieya’ is included in ‘The Epileptic Gibbon Podcast Music Show’ in their 77th podcast: “Episode 77: The Far Distant Dead”. View here.

• Tommy’s Garage: Toyah Willcox, Pioneer of Punk + New Wave: She’s an incredible woman and artist. We Love Toyah!

• The Changeling Resurrection 2012′: Autumn Tour: Numerous dates for the Autumn tour are already all over the internet. No point in mentioning them here until they are officially confirmed. This one, however, at Rechabite Hall, Telford (a new venue), is worth a look. Their flyer is full of great bands.

• The rare promo poster for the American video release of Murder: Ultimate Grounds for Divorce from the mid-80s. View a larger version here. (Thanks to Sean Green)

• According to a tweet today by ‘The Showbusiness Co’: “Joe Pasquale, Bobby Davro, Toyah Willcox, Richard Digance and many more appear in the Dave Lee tribute show at Marlowe, Canterbury on 6 May.”

• View more details about Dave Lee A Celebration at The Marlowe theatre website. There are other news reports  today about the show. None of these mention Toyah.

• Three musicians, who have all worked with Toyah at various stages of her music career, play at ‘Jammin Java’, Vienna tomorrow. STICK MEN ft. Tony Levin, Pat Mastelotto and Markus Reuter. More info here.

• Manchester Pride Twitter today: “The Women’s Stage will return to Sackville Gardens for this year’s event. We’ll welcome Toyah as the headline act!”

• Canal Street (Manchester) Twitter today: “Look who is headlining the Women’s stage at Manchester Pride this year.. Toyah”

• Collapse Board: How I lost my love for music (and how I found it again): The first record I think was mine was ‘I Want To Be Free’ by Toyah…

• So So Gay: Blue To Headline Blackpool Pride 2012. Toyah is also mentioned in this article published today.

• Toyah Montaging: I’ve, quite literally, thrown together a couple of Toyah video montages. At The Rainbow and some career clips. I’d love to do a more professional and substantial career montage at some point, with lots of interview and music clips, almost like a documentary type retrospective.

• As expected with a sold out London gig, a lot of footage has been uploaded to ‘You Tube’ over the last couple of days. Check out Steve Day’s, up close and personal, Warrior Rock. It has the distinction of being the very first clip made available online, from a gig that is already being compared to some of the legendary Toyah concerts.

• The Birmingham Press: What’s On At The Robin: On Saturday there’s the return of eighties icon Toyah, who since her chart days has honed her act into a top-line live performance. She’ll be celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of her influential album The Changeling, which itself spawned the live follow-up Warrior Rock. There are four support acts and the fun starts at 7pm. Tickets £19.50,

• Lost Turntable: Tony Banks’ Soundtracks: In 1984 he composed the score for a low-budget sci-fi flick called Lorca And The Outlaws (it was released as Starship on VHS). In addition to the score, he also composed the original songs, “You Call This Victory” featuring vocalist Jim Diamond and “Lion of Symmetry” featuring vocals by the amazing Toyah Willcox.

• Prosceneium: Calamity Jane: This set for Calamity Jane was originally built for the highly acclaimed professional tour starring Toyah Willcox.

• A new ‘Blackpool Pride 2012’ flyer has been released, with Toyah included. View it here.

• Time Out London: Time Out Says: Last year she celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of her most successful album ‘Anthem’ and tonight she’ll be celebrating 30 years since the release of her second best-selling LP, ‘The Changeling’. Wilcox will be performing prime cuts from the 1982 record, as well as other material.

• A random, but funny, reminiscence about the 12″ picture disc of ‘Thunder In The Mountains’ is included the latest blog by ‘Married To The Moz’. View here.

• Let’s Get Better Terms: It’s Jubilee Time Again: Jarman knows what he is doing visually, and enjoyed gardens (with or without plastic flowers), wastelands, and also had an eye for the beauty of people like Toyah, Jordan, Jack Birkett, Helen the dwarf and many others.

• I’ve lost count of the number of times Minder has been reissued on DVD over the last 12 years. This latest box set is a goodie though: Minder: The Dennis Waterman Years. A 20 disc set featuring every episode (68), from the ‘classic’ series, with Arthur and Terry. Toyah, of course, plays Kate in Series Two, Episode Eight, ‘All Mod Cons’, which is included in this, recently released, set.

• ‘The Acoustic Album’ version of ‘Danced’ was included in the playlist for Dark Night Of The Soul with Julie last night on ‘WFMU’. View here.

• More press reports on the Toyah/Gareth Gates Sleeping Beauty panto announcement yesterday: This is Kent, Musical Theatre News, Your Canterbury, KMFM, Kent Business TV.

• The Brighton Source: Turns out that weird woman from kids’ telly was a singer once. Had to include this just for the fact that their one sentence “article” made me laugh!

• Sign Of The Times: J is for Juju: Also in 1981 Toyah released Thunder in the Mountains… and I vividly remember having this poster next to my Fox and the Hound poster on my Bedroom wall. The ‘TITM’ image seems to be everywhere at the moment! View here.

• There’s an interesting new article on the film Starship at the ‘Revok DVD’ website. Starship is probably better known to Toyah fans as Lorca & The Outlaws. Made in 1984, Toyah appears briefly in the film, on a holographic video jukebox in the ‘Miram Bar’, performing ‘Lion Of Symmetry’. Read the article here.

• Toyah is mentioned in the ‘Gay Times’ blog Boogaloo Killed The Video Star – So, whether you want to piece together insane costumes, devise dance routines, write inappropriate lyrics or sing in your best Toyah voice…

• London Drum: Toyah Willcox, at Bush Hall London: It’s been 30 years since “The Changeling” hit the charts, and the flame-haired Toyah is still going strong. She will be celebrating the album’s 30th anniversary by performing a selection of songs from the LP, alongside some classic tracks from her back catalogue. Bush Hall is one of London’s most unique venues. Its opulent chandeliers and period plaster work betray it’s original use as an Edwardian dance hall. It is a favourite venue of up-and-coming talent, and big names that want to play an intimate gig.

• Soley Mourning: Toyah Tour: We are really looking forward to playing the gigs with Toyah over the next few weeks. Gonna be a blast!!

• The brilliant The Druids at ‘You Tube’ (by Diamondsky66, aka Dawn)

• More Toyah “press namechecks” over the last few days: Bucks Free Press: Children’s TV legend to host music fest. Times & Star: Eighties pop star David Van Day and rock act The Quireboys are the latest acts to be confirmed for Workington’s Decades festival. This is Hampshire: Radio station is in tune 40 years on. (Not only misspelling Willcox but managing to plonk a hypen into it as well – no mean feat!)

• A Tale Of Two Anthems: The ‘what’s new’ section of Spotify keeps displaying an album called Anthem by somebody called Desolation Angels, with a strangely familiar cover. It reminded me of something… View this interesting article at ‘Skuds’ Sister’s Brother’ blog.

• View a short article on Brum at the, quite brilliant, ‘Retro Rambling’ blog, “A joyride through our slightly ridiculous though memorable past”

• ‘The Telegraph’ included ‘Let’s Rock The Moor 2012’ in its “Top 100 Music Festivals: April – September 2012” on Monday: Not so much rockin’ the moor as inundating it with hits of the mid-Eighties. View here.

• Toyah is included in the ‘Heart’ Who’s On Heart: “Wrong Guesses – Women Pt 2” gallery. View here.

• There’s an excellent selection of screen caps from Tomorrow Calling, the 1993 short film Toyah appeared in, at ‘William Gibson aleph’. Tomorrow Calling aired on Channel 4, premiering in December 1994 (part of the ‘Short & Curlies’ season), and was also presented at the British Film Festival in October 1996. View here. Take a look here too :)

• Lärwi, of The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive, has created an audio/slide video for Andi Fragg’s version of ‘Wow’. View here.

• Toyah is mentioned in the ‘Scotsman’ obituary of Andrew Currie who passed away on 28th March: In the 1990s one of his visitors was the singer Toyah Willcox who, as part of a television series, made a trip to Skye to see eagles and talk to Currie, the local expert on the subject.

• Toyah is namecked in this ‘Herts & Essex Observer’ news article on Hazel O’Connor.

• A couple of great Toyah photos (including one of Andi’s Toyah wallpapers, which seem to pop up all over the internet) in the “Make Up” gallery at ‘Pinterest’. View here.

• Rainbow Messengers: It’s A Mystery, It’s A Mystery… View here.

• ‘The Blue Meaning’ is one of the choices at the Naim Audio forum’s “What are you listening to and WHY might anyone be interested? (Vol.VIII)”.

• Toyah, 1979 is included in a gallery of great art by Gary Thomas in ‘My Art’ at Pinterest.

• Uploaded to ‘You Tube’ on Friday, this ‘ITV Night-Time Junction 1996’ advert includes a brief clip of Toyah presenting The Good Sex Guide Late: “Sex, sex and more sex! That’s what you’ll be getting from me for the next hour!!” View here.

• The ‘Moon In The Gutter’ blog uploaded a collection of screen shots from Jubilee on Tuesday: Operation Screenshot (Films of the Seventies): Derek Jarman’s Jubilee (1978). The “revival” of all things Jubilee continues… View here.

• Evening Times: Heaven is a place on Glasgow Green… Toyah is mentioned in this article today. View here. (NB. Toyah isn’t officially confirmed as playing this concert)

• Heard of Ghost Loft? Described as having “a heavy dash of the Cocteau Twins and a little bit of early Toyah”.

• Toyah’s ‘Warrior Rock: Toyah On Tour’ album was mentioned in Tuesday night’s Alex Lester Show on BBC Radio 2. (Thanks to Luke)

• Toyah received a namecheck in the, brilliantly titled, ‘Life Like Butter Sculptures’ blog yesterday: “This morning, the random music selector fed me Toyah Willcox’s “Mein Herr”. It was exactly what I needed. I’ll go find some Joan Jett next, I think.”

• Toyah was mentioned in the ‘Funnel Of Love’ blog post, on Sunday 1st April, about the recent BBC2 documentary series The Tube: “The hawk is called Toyah after Toyah Willcox. ‘Aw bless’ or ‘ew groce’, depending on your view on naming birds after women. Considering Ms Willcox’ affection for strange headwear with feathers it’s probably totally appropriate”. View here.

• View a fantastic ‘flickr’ gallery of photos, by ‘Sanctuary Music’, of Toyah live at the HMV Institute, Birmingham last April on one of the first dates of the ‘From Sheep Farming To Anthem’ UK tour.

• Toyah Playlisted: ‘Don’t Fall In Love (I Said)’ is included in Dark Night of the Soul with Julie (3 April) on WFMU, and ‘Ieya’ (The Blue Meaning original) in the Ian Fairholm Special (2 April) on Phoenix FM. (Thanks to Sarah)

• Maidenhead Advertiser: Let’s Rock The Moor: Family support charity to benefit: Families in need are set to benefit from a fundraising music festival in Cookham this summer. Proceeds from Let’s Rock the Moor, on Saturday, May 12, will raise money for the Link Foundation. This year’s line up includes Billy Ocean, Go West, Heaven 17, Toyah and Modern Romance, and will be hosted by Pat Sharp. Continue reading here.

• View photos of Toyah “at home” in 2010, by ‘Jamie Hughes Photography’, here and here.

• Many Happy Returns to Chris Wong. It’s his birthday today! (Thanks to Sugar Rush: The Humans.org.uk)

• Not exactly earth-shattering news, but it is related to ‘The Changeling’ in “Changeling Month” :) Yesterday Toyah was mentioned in a question at Just Quiz: 23. What links a Jacobean tragedy, an Oscar nominated film starring Angelina Jolie and a 1982 album by Toyah?

• Kylie channels her inner Toyah: Kylie Minogue is celebrating the 25th anniversary of her music career this year, “K25”. I’m not sure how recent this photo is, though it does have the anniversary logo on it. There’s definitely a Toyah, circa 1981, influence going on. The ‘TITM’ swirls & hairpiece, the ‘GMU’ braids, the forehead make-up :)

• Toyah fan (and my friend since the beginning of Dreamscape) Sabine Bode from Germany has started her own comedy show. Sabine takes to the stage to the sound of Toyah’s ‘Sensational’ from 2008’s ‘In The Court Of The Crimson Queen’.

• Toyah on TV (in Sweden): Toyah’s edition of Celebrity Fantasy Homes airs on BBC Lifestyle, Friday 6th April at 11.45am.

• Steve Lillywhite, producer of ‘The Changeling’ and numerous other great albums, by among many others, Morrissey, U2 and The Chameleons, was recently awarded a CBE. (Thanks to Stephen Bennett)

• BBC2’s documentary series The Tube, behind the scenes of London Underground, this week featured the underground’s most unusual employee, a hawk called Toyah. If you missed it The Tube is repeated tonight at 11.20pm on BBC2. (Thanks to Paul Johnson)

• It looks like Remember The Eighties will be returning very shortly. The new website is currently “99% completed”.