Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

Get ready to rock to the sounds of the Eighties

Marion McMullen turns back the clock with some of the stars of the 1980s who are coming out to play at the Let’s Rock retro festival dates across the country

What is your strongest memory of the 1980s?
I sing my hits at least two to four times a week these days – the 80s are alive and kicking. But if I was to look back for a strong memory, it would be how large the clothes were. Everything was big and baggy.

What was your favourite gig?
Drury Lane Theatre, Christmas Eve, 1981. Headline artist for BBC TV’s The Old Grey Whistle Test – there were 12 million viewers tuned in. I was slightly nervous!

Did you ever have a starstruck moment?
(David) Bowie, always Bowie. He took my breath away. I have run away from him twice because I was speechless.

Did you embrace 1980s fashion?
I was very individualistic so I like to think 80s fashion embraced me. All my clothes were one-off designer made. I liked the big shoulders ’til I realised how out of proportion they were.

• See a larger version of the feature here. (Thanks to Colin Dew-Parry)

The Dundee Evening Telegraph‘s interview with Sharon has also now been published online. Click below to see it! (Photo © Dundee Evening Telegraph)

A great retro Barmy Aunt Boomerang photo of Toyah and Richard Madden was included in The Guardian‘s interview with Richard, published on Saturday.

The lengthy feature also references Toyah and Barmy Aunt Boomerang:

Madden has had a taste of this all-consuming busyness before: with Game Of Thrones, in his early 20s, and even before then, when he was cast, aged 12, in a BBC One series called Barmy Aunt Boomerang. So, he says, he knows enough for the shift in status not to go to his head

… Then he got the lead part in Barmy Aunt Boomerang (Toyah Willcox played the eponymous aunt), so he didn’t really go to school much between the ages of 11 and 13, and when he went back, he struggled.

• Continue reading at The Guardian. (Photo © BBC) NB: Toyah and Barmy Aunt Boomerang were previously included in a BBC feature on Richard Madden earlier this year.

CONCERT REVIEW: TOYAH with support from THE MEDIA WHORES – The Church. Dundee – April, 2019

The Church in Dundee is not large in size but full of character and given the capacity is less than 400, this was always going to be an intimate gig and the chance to experience a Goddess of Rock at close quarters.

First up on stage were The Media Whores a 4 piece post-punk band from central Scotland.

… With only a short break and time to replenish one’s glasses it was time for Toyah. The soundsystem, hit the intro ‘Every girl born is the queen of her own domain’ so let’s Dance in the Hurricane, a new track included in Toyah’s repackaged album and 2CD package In The Court Of The Crimson Queen.

The track is quality and so was Toyah, elegantly dressed in a tight fitting shiny golden dress and loaded with neck and wrist jewellery. The heavy drumming on this track excites as Toyah twists and turns to the beat.

• Continue reading at Patchchord News.

SDE has a bundle of Record Store Day releases from Demon Records to give away!

One winner will receive the Suede Head Music 3LP coloured vinyl set, The League of Gentlemen Live Again! 2LP, Heaven 17‘s Bigger Than America on coloured vinyl, Toyah‘s new album In The Court of the Crimson Queen on purple vinyl and the Marc Bolan/T. Rex bump ‘n’ grind set on blue vinyl.
One runner-up will win Suede, Marc Bolan/T. Rex and Heaven 17.

This competition, open to all, that will end at midnight BST on Sunday 28 April 2019. Good luck and enter below!

• Continue reading/Enter the competition at Super Deluxe Edition.

Her latest album’s just become her biggest in almost 25 years and Toyah’s in the mood to celebrate. The former punk marked 40 years in music with a series of anniversary shows last year and is back on the road this week just days after her revamped 15th solo album In The Court Of The Crimson Queen returned her to the charts.

Toyah, 60, admits she’s been pleasantly surprised by the success of the re-recorded set, which also includes a clutch of new songs. “It’s a good album but I don’t think anyone would’ve been as brave to imagine it’d do as well as it’s doing,” she says. “It’s been album of the week in many places so the reception’s just been fabulous.” Crimson Queen, which was originally released in 2009, has been substantially reworked by the It’s A Mystery hit-maker and her co-writer Simon Darlow. “Our record company Demon gave me an opportunity to make the album that I’d originally wanted it to be,” she explains.

“That allowed us to put in live drums and bass, and remaster and retexturize the whole album plus put new material in. We finished this at the end of January and as far as I’m concerned it’s a new release because the majority of the people buying it now never knew it existed in the first place.”

• Continue reading at Music News.

Ahead of her appearance at Church, Dundee on April 26, singing sensation Toyah Willcox shares some glimpses into her life

Q Which singers, alive or dead, inspire you?
A David Bowie, Jim Buckley, Antony Hegarty.

Q What was your plan B career-wise?
A I always wanted to be a sculptor.

Q Your house is on fire, what one item do you save?
A My husband. If it was an object, then one of my paintings by my friend Frankie Sundsten.

Q Theme song for your life?
A All Along the Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix. He was one of the ‘27 Club’, like Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain, who died aged 27 and the philosophy is that their work is done by then. That’s a tragic but also slightly romantic notion.

Q Last meal on earth?
A Superfood salad with fresh mango.

• Continue reading at The Courier. See the print version of this article. (Thanks to Sharon Dickson)

Toyah Willcox: “I was high in the charts yet had to punch sex pests to be left alone”

Eighties singer Toyah Willcox was groped and sexually harassed during her pop heyday and had to be chaperoned to protect her from sex pest club bosses. The star, who had hits with It’s A Mystery and I Want To Be Free, has revealed a string of shocking encounters at the beginning of her career.

At a club where she was performing, she was warned that the owner expected to sleep with her and was urged to have an escort to the toilets. In another encounter, a director asked her to remove her top during an audition, forcing her to walk out. Toyah also fended off sex pests by punching them and reveals that the pressure to be thin was so great that she was weighed by a dietitian before being on Top Of The Pops.v The singer, who has just released the album In The Court Of The Crimson Queen, welcomes the #MeToo movement because it gives “vulnerable women a voice”. Toyah, 60, who first took to the stage in 1977, aged just 19, says: “It was unbelievable being a woman very much in a man’s world. We mostly played working men’s clubs, I don’t want to put these places down as the audiences were fantastic but you were just groped. There are even photographs out there of me being groped.

“Some extreme things have happened to me. My band really looked after me, though. I remember going to a club in Leeds in 1979. I arrived and my lighting man said, ‘Do not stay here alone, the owner thinks he has the right to sleep with you. Don’t even think of going to the ladies without one of us escorting you’.

“It’s cool, that’s what my band did, they looked after me. As for the casting couch, there’s one I’m actually quite proud of.This director was legendary. I arrived and I was asked to take my top off. I put two and two together and I just walked. But that happened in those days, it did happen.”

• Continue reading at The Express. NB. This article was created from quotes from Celebrity Radio’s recent interview with Toyah.

Robert Fripp Recalls ‘Missed Opportunity’ With David Bowie

King Crimson leader Robert Fripp recalled the “missed opportunity” of working with David Bowie in 2002, and said his wife, singer Toyah Willcox, had never forgiven him for the incident.

Fripp appeared on Bowie’s celebrated albums Heroes and Scary Monsters during a period in which he had also worked with Peter Gabriel, Brian Eno and others. In 2002, Bowie curated the Meltdown festival in London, England, and invited Fripp to take part.

“[There] wasn’t enough time to do it properly, so I declined,” Fripp told Rolling Stone in a new interview. “My wife has never forgiven me. My wife is a very considerable Bowie fan. That’s an opportunity missed, but I don’t feel I could honorably have engaged with it.”

• Continue reading at Ultimate Classic Rock.

Punk, rebel, icon. This week we are absolutely bloody delighted to be able to bring you an interview with a true legend. We will not lie to you readers, we are starstruck. Fangirl-ing all over the shop. She is an era-defining songstress, star of stage and screen and – pardon my millennial-ness – #hairgoals extraordinaire. She is, of course, the incomparable Toyah Willcox, and we chatted to her (ever-so-coolly) this week about rebellion, creativity, and her most recent album In The Court of the Crimson Queen.

Your career began in acting but many know you better as a musician. If that’s not enough, you have also presented and produced – what’s it like to have so many ‘hats’ you can wear, and do you prefer one to the others?

I think my career is purely accidental.  If I had superstar status, I would not be able to be diverse. My career is such that I am able to kickstart everything I do, and I think that’s what makes my career so unique. I do love being asked to do projects but most of the time I have to create my own.

So much of your work is based around – or an expression of – nonconformism, of rebelling. What do you think we should all be rebelling against nowadays, and what do you think the best form of rebellion is?

I am going to answer the latter first. The best form of rebellion is non commitment to what you don’t believe in and don’t want to support. The internet has proven that hatred is a too easy and convenient instrument to block all creativity. And, answering the first part of the question, the best rebellion we can have as exceptionally creative unique creatures is not to accept the mundane. For me the mundane is when you are encouraged to imitate others. None of us needs to imitate – we are all unique.

• Continue reading at Velvet Box Office.

Another new In The Court Of The Crimson Queen cover for Toyah – Your Weekend, the Press & Journal supplement, published in Northern and Highland Scotland, including Aberdeen, Inverness and Moray. The print feature included in Your Weekend is previewed below.

• The Press & Journal: Return Of The Crimson Queen – It’s no mystery as to why Toyah Willcox, who recently celebrated her 60th birthday, looks and sounds amazing. “I don’t drink, I don’t overeat, I drink lots of water and en route to shows I travel alone so I don’t have to speak to anyone,” said Toyah — This feature was previously published online earlier this week. See here.

Toyah was also interviewed in Friday’s Express, which only appears to have been available in the newspaper’s print edition as it hasn’t been published online, so far.

• The Express: Music: My Six Best Albums – Toyah Willcox, 60, is a pop star and actress whose eight Top 40 hits include It’s A Mystery and I Want To Be Free. Her latest album, a new version of In The Court Of The Crimson Queen, is released today…

Toyah: “There’s a common theme on my new album: how grief makes us better people. It makes our hearts stronger.”

Celebrating over four decades in music, Toyah this week releases a new studio reworking of her 2008 album In The Court Of The Crimson Queen.

Written and arranged by Toyah Willcox and Simon Darlow, In The Court Of The Crimson Queen has been newly recorded and mastered with the added bonus of extra tracks. The album’s 15 tracks explore life, love, empowerment and wonderment.  

In 1977, whilst playing the part of Emma in Tales From The Vienna Woods at The National Theatre, 18-year old Willcox formed a band. After several line-up changes, they spent a brief period under the name Ninth Illusion, without recording any music. The following year, the band – comprising of Joel Bogen (lead guitar), Pete Bush (keyboards), Dave Robin (drums), and Windy Miller (bass) – decided on naming the group Toyah.

• Continue reading at philmarriott.net.

Toyah Willcox: ‘Relax? I have no idea what the word means’

The musician on her white rabbit, giving advice and still holding hands with her husband after 32 years

Born in Birmingham, Toyah Willcox, 60, appeared in Derek Jarman’s 1978 film Jubilee, and Quadrophenia in 1979. Her early hit singles included It’s A Mystery and I Want To Be Free, and by 1982 she had made two platinum-selling albums.

She has just released a new studio reworking of her album In The Court Of The Crimson Queen, and is currently on tour in the UK. She is married and lives in Worcestershire.

When were you happiest? Between 2007 and 2016, I had a large white rabbit called WillyFred. I was happiest pressing my ear to his fur and hearing his heart beat.

What is your greatest fear? Living in an environment of banality.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? I am disproportionately ambitious.

• Continue reading at The Guardian.

It’s no mystery as to why Toyah Willcox, who recently celebrated her 60th birthday, looks and sounds amazing.

“I don’t drink, I don’t overeat, I drink lots of water and en route to shows I travel alone so I don’t have to speak to anyone,” said Toyah, who is visiting Inverness later this month. Her show at The Ironworks, Inverness, on Saturday April 27, is one of four Scottish gigs she is undertaking as part of her Thunder In The Highlands Tour.

“It must be at least 10 years since I was in Inverness, that time starring in Steve Steinman’s Vampires Rock,” said Toyah, who is celebrating a landmark anniversary this year.

It’s 40 years since her music career took off and she released her first single and studio album. She, and her full electric band, will play tracks from it at the show, which celebrates her hit singles, album classics and fan favourites.

“The show will see me travel through punk, new wave and into the present day which results in a pretty high-energy show,” said Toyah.

• Continue reading at The Press & Journal.

1st April 1981: Bucks Fizz, Talking Heads, Kim Wilde, Toyah, Shakin’ Stev…
Who is more than a little miffed about his pet red-kneed tarantula, Doris, who’s gone off her daily diet of locusts and appears terribly ill? Which band are Phil Oakey Human League’s favourite group? Win a Ferguson Videostar 3V22 video cassette recorder in the Smash Hits/Visage video competition! It’s all here in this week’s Chart Trivia on 1st April 1981! Starring Bucks Fizz, Talking Heads, Kim Wilde, Toyah, Shakin’ Stevens, Ultravox and a cast of thousands!

Viewers in the Midlands can catch Toyah every Tuesday throughout March/April as she co/hosts BBC Birmingham’s Look Hear with #ChrisPhipps. Toyah is also filming an episode for Tales of the Unexpected – A story called Blue Marigolds, in which she will play a character called Myra. The Four From Toyah EP, containing It’s A Mystery, is down two places to no.6 and the album Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! is down eight places to no.30! All this and more trivia in this week’s Retro Chart Trivia show – listen below!

• Continue reading/Listen to the Retro Chart Trivia podcast at iTunes.

Edinburgh fans will be first to hear Toyah’s new songs live

It wouldn’t be wrong to introduce Toyah Willcox as an iconic 80’s pop star but such a tag tells a very small part of her story.

Actress, presenter, author, it was in the late-70s that the then ‘punk princess’ first exploded onto the music scene with the EP Sheep Farming In Barnet. The albums Blue Meaning, Anthem, The Changeling, Minx and Love Is The Law all followed, along with many more.

Her latest album, In The Court of the Crimson Queen, released on Friday 12 April, brings the singer/songwriter back to Edinburgh for her first headline gig in the Capital since selling out The Playhouse in 1982.

n the intervening years, of course, Toyah has been no stranger to the city, appearing in numerous ‘Best of the 80s’ tours as well as starring in the play Picasso’s Women at the Festival and in musicals such as Calamity Jane.

Consequently, it’s clear the diminutive powerhouse performer is looking forward to returning on 25 April to play The Liquid Room.

• Continue reading at the Edinburgh Evening News.

Out This Week / on 12 April 2019

Duran Duran, Emma Bunton, Nick Cave, Nirvana, Norah Jones, Pet Shop Boys, Suede, The Spice Girls, Toyah, Various Artists, Warren Ellis.

Toyah Willcox / In The Court of the Crimson Queen
2CD Deluxe Edition
UK punk/pop legend Toyah Willcox releases a two-CD deluxe edition of her 2008 album In The Court of the Crimson Queen. Look out for an SDE ‘on the sofa’ interview with Toyah later this week.

• Continue reading at Super Deluxe Edition.

Fashion icon Mary Quant is the subject of a new V&A exhibition, opening on Saturday. Toyah is quoted on the V&A’s The Story Of Mary Quant make-up page:

In this edited extract from the Mary Quant exhibition book, Beatrice Behlen explores why Quant’s make-up range was as revolutionary as her clothing.

Singer Toyah Willcox was only eight years old and living in Birmingham when Quant’s cosmetics hit the market. Unsurprisingly she was’t allowed to wear make-up, but her older sister:

would bring home beautiful round Mary Quant bottles of nail varnish in amazing colours such as canary yellow, shimmery green and night time black. I could stare at these beautiful bottles for hours, the design was one of the best things I have ever seen. Mary Quant celebrated colour in all its spectrum and this had a huge influence on how I saw make up as an instrument of self-discovery and self-expression. Toyah Willcox, 2018

• Continue reading at the V&A website. See further info on the Mary Quant exhibition here.

Toyah Willcox: The things that have remained constant are originality and energy

Almost 40 years after Toyah Willcox first appeared on Top Of The Pops, the ever-busy Birmingham-born performer is set to join other stars of the 80s at the Forever Young festival in Co Kildare this summer. Lorraine Wylie caught up with her

Toyah Willcox is a woman of many talents, proving her skill as an actress, producer, author, singer and songwriter in the past four decades. But for diehard music fans, she is best known as the ‘princess of punk’.

Between 1979 and 1981 her band Toyah released their first three studio albums, Sheep Farming in Barnet, The Blue Meaning and Anthem; it was the latter that truly launched Willcox into the spotlight and, as well as spawning hits such as I Want To Be Free and It’s A Mystery, earned her a gold disc.

This summer, fans will have an opportunity to hear material from Willcox’s most recent album, In The Court Of The Crimson Queen, when she joins a host of other stars of her era at the Forever Young Festival in Co Kildare. With that Irish visit in the pipeline and a British tour about to kick off, I caught up with the star who told me why, at 60, she still loves performing and what inspires her music today.

“I love doing live festivals,” she said. “The summer has arrived, the weather is great and you’re performing outside. It’s a fabulous way to communicate your music. I’m very much looking forward to coming to Ireland. There’s such a strong cultural identity there and I get such a warm welcome. My music is very much for my audiences who have travelled with me for the past 42 years.

“Although, I say that but when I look out at my audiences, they’re all under the age of 25. Today, I’m writing from the perspective of my age. I’m not interested in a historic perspective. My lyrics are a nod to things I experience at this age.”

• Continue reading at The Irish News. (Photo © Official Toyah)

Toyah hits the road in autumn 2019 to celebrate and perform material from her newly re-imagined double album ‘In The Court Of The Crimson Queen’, released 12 April 2019. The album, written and arranged by Toyah Wilcox and Simon Darlow, presents a collection of finely honed songcraft, killer hooks and brings together two lifetimes of performing, writing and producing music.

The live dates will see the accomplished live performer present songs from the album including lead single ‘Sensational’ and epic album opener ‘Dance In The Hurricane’ alongside instantly recognisable classics from her revered catalogue of hit singles including ‘It’s A Mystery’, ‘Thunder In The Mountains’ ‘Good Morning Universe’ and ‘Brave New World’,  live favourites and renowned album tracks. Simon Darlow will also join Toyah on stage at some of the tour dates.

• Continue reading at Brighton & Hove News.

Liam Rudden: Dancing in the hurricane with the Crimson Queen

When Toyah Willcox sings that she danced in the hurricane, drums driving a hypnotic rhythm in the background, you can just picture the scene.

So opens In The Court of The Crimson Queen, her new studio album, reimagined from an earlier release of the same name with five brand new tracks added, including the opener of Act I, Dance In The Hurricane. And what an opener it is. Raw, emotional and with an entrancing narrative, this old-school floor filler finds the singer still on the top of her game. With an irresistible beat and simple but effective hook, Toyah’s message remains as simple and clear as it has always been Be Loud, Be Heard, Be Proud.

Split into two acts – Act I has eight tracks, Act II another seven – In The Court of The Crimson Queen is the result of a collaboration with co-writer and producer Simon Darlow, he also plays all the instruments. The title, a nod to her husband, King Crimson’s Robert Fripp.

Willcox and Darlow first wrote together as far back as 1978 and influences of their previous hits Rebel Run and Don’t Fall In Love hover like ghosts throughout this release. The second track of Act I, Sensational, is a punchy uplifting bundle of joy that, like Dance In The Hurricane, is sure to become an anthem in its own right, if it hasn’t already.

• Continue reading at the Edinburgh Evening News.