Dreamscape – Toyah Willcox Fansite

More great photos of Toyah from last night in Brighton. View larger versions of the first two here and here. (Thanks to Lärwi for these excellent shots)

Check out this amazing photo of gorgeous Toyah and gorgeous Lärwi at last night’s Concorde2, Brighton gig. The first concert of ‘The Changeling Resurrection’ tour was a massive success, with celebratory tweets from Toyah and roars of approval from fans all over Facebook. The set list, which, for fear of being lynched, I’m not going to reveal here in full, included six songs from ‘The Changeling’ (incl. the sublime ‘Castaways’, ‘Brave New World’, ‘Dawn Chorus’ and ‘The Packt’). Official photography from the gig will be added to toyahwillcox.com today. There’s also a great photo of Toyah with, ‘I Was A Teenage Toyah Fan’ author, Chris Limb at the book’s Facebook page. Please pay a visit to Falling To Earth again later for more great photos from last night, a mini review of the gig by Lärwi and a round-up of post-first gig news. Click below to view a larger version of this great photo.

… take a look back at last year’s ‘From Sheep Farming To Anthem’ tour. View 100s of photos, from many of the dates, at the dedicated Dreamscape Gallery. (Thanks to Lärwi & Damon)

• A previously unseen photo was added to Toyah’s Official Facebook on Tuesday, with Toyah wearing a classic, and rare, Melissa Caplan outfit. The photo looks like it was taken at the same time as last year’s Dean Stockings’ promo shots for the ‘From Sheep Farming…’ tour. Toyah’s Facebook said: Just 4 days until Toyah premieres her new show THE CHANGELING RESURRECTION @ BRIGHTON with new set list and new costume….. what do you think she will be wearing? (PS it’s not the outfit in this photo). View the full/larger version of this photo at Facebook (© Dean Stockings/Official Toyah)

• Official Toyah ‘Resurrection Countdown’ tweet from Monday: “LUCK’S ON OUR SIDE, WE THROW OUR CARES INTO THE SKY, IT’S YOU & I…. 5 days until #changeling2012“.

• Toyah ‘Resurrection Countdown’ tweet from Tuesday: “EYES ALIGHT, I AM THE NIGHT… I’M A VOODOO DOLL! great rehearsal today for #changeling2012 just 4 days to go ’til Brighton Concorde“.

• This morning Toyah tweeted: “WILD BOYS WITH THEIR BATONS AND PEARLS, HELLO BOYS! WE’RE THE MIDNIGHT GIRLS Just 2days til we rock #changeling“, and then followed up with this important info: “P.S. i will be on stage at Brighton Concorde THIS SAT at 8.30pm prompt so don’t miss the start….u don’t want to!!!“

There are now just two days to go until ‘The Changeling Resurrection 2012’ is finally unleashed. What will be included in the set list? Which songs from the album have made it into the 30th anniversary celebratory tour? What will Toyah look like? What will she be wearing?

It really is fantastic that Toyah is taking the time to, yet again, indulge her fans in this way. I’m sure everyone who is heading to Brighton for Saturday’s gig must be getting ridiculously excited.

The imagery created for ‘The Changeling’ album is not only some of the finest of Toyah’s many different looks and guises but also probably the best of any pop star’s visuals. Especially when you consider that they were achieved without digital trickery, airbrushing and photoshop. Astounding creativity and ideas. The two below are particularly beautiful and timeless.

Focusing on the much-loved Barry Plummer 1981 photo shoot for this “Classic Toyah” post. This session featured significantly in the book ‘Toyah’ by Mike West, The ‘Official Toyah Annual’ from 1982 and various European and Japanese press articles. Click below to view larger versions, and view more from this photo session at Dreamscape’s 1981 gallery page.

A couple of rare-ish Japanese magazine Toyah photo articles from 1981, featuring great photos by Barry Plummer and Fin Costello. View the full sessions of each at the Dreamscape 1980 and 1981 gallery pages. Click on each of the below to view larger versions.

Simon Fowler took some iconic photos of Toyah in the late 70s/early 80s and he is responsible for a handful of the best Toyah photo shoots, as well as amazing photos of other bands. Visit his website by clicking below.

Possibly one of Toyah’s best photo shoots? Certainly one of the most colourful.

These great photos were used in European magazine ‘Pop Rocky’ and the UK’s ‘Jackie’ in the Summer of 1982, at the height of the glorious ‘Changeling’ era.

Gorgeous Toyah wears various Melissa Caplan designed outfits that were rarely seen anywhere else.

One of the pioneers of fashion make-up artists… from Biba, London in the seventies, to an international career in the 1980s and 90s, Régis Huet was one of the first make-up artists to use make-up as art and some of his creations are extraordinary, and extraordinarily beautiful.

In 1985 Régis worked with Toyah on the promotional imagery for the ‘Don’t Fall In Love (I Said)’ single and the album ‘Minx’.

The look was striking but subtle and, ironically, far removed from his more outlandish and experimental earlier work. Imagery that certainly inspired some of Toyah’s most adventurous early 80s visuals.

Régis eventually made Sydney, Australia his base where he worked on the first issue of ‘Australia Vogue’ among many magazines.

The seriously good ‘Gods & Alcoves’ blog recently added a link to the 1980 magazine ‘Punk’s Not Dead!’. It features a Toyah pin-up from the (in)famous 1979 Simon Fowler photo shoot.

Punk’s Not Dead! magazine – edition one available online
Following hot on the heels of all 11 editions of “Punk! Lives” being available online, I found another punk magazine – Punk’s Not Dead! – (1980) available online via Scribd. Obviously the exclamation mark is critical in the naming of any Punk! publication.

Although it is focussed on Punk (duh) it has interviews/photos of Killing Joke, Theatre of Hate and Toyah – worth a look! According to one blog…

View the ‘Gods & Alcoves’ post here. View the scanned ‘Punk’s Not Dead!’ magazine here.

This will possibly be a regular feature on ‘Falling To Earth’. Collecting together key images from a specific Toyah “era”. Starting us off… Various Toyah photos from the ‘Sheep Farming in Barnet’ days.