‘We have had 40 years of practice at what we do’: pop icon Toyah Willcox is ready for the 80s Invasion in Greenwich
They may have ended over a quarter of a century ago but the 1980s will never really die. With its colourful fashion and experimental pop it seems everyone has a soft spot for the decade.
Pop star Toyah Willcox, whose hits included It’s a Mystery and Thunder in the Mountains, will play the 80s Invasion Tour at Indigo2 on March 16 alongside Paul Young, Martika and China Crisis.
She told us: “It is going to be a lot of fun. We have two hours of non-stop hits so I am looking forward to it a lot. I work with China Crisis and Paul Young all the time so we are very much old friends as well as family. I think it is going to be a bit of a giggle.
“We are well practised, we have had 40 years of practice at what we do so the shows tend to be quite sparkling and polished but we do have fun at the same time.” She added: “Eighties music is a phenomena and it seems to go from strength to strength.
“I’ve found this with nearly everything I did in the eighties – my films are the same. They bring new audiences. It must be something about that decade that rang in the changes.
“For me I think it was because songs were pretty epic back then.”
• Continue reading at News Shopper. See also This is Local London.
Toyah, Paul Young and China Crisis hit Rhyl for 80s nostalgia meltdown
Big names coming to Pavilion after “overwhelming public demand” for 80s revival night, which will also see Martika – of Martika’s Kitchen fame – perform in UK for first time in 25 years
Pop icons Toyah, Paul Young and China Crisis are riding back to North Wales on a wave of Eighties nostalgia. The evergreen stars will bring their ‘Invasion’ show to Rhyl next year and it’s sure to revive memories of punk haircuts, suave suits and timeless tunes.
They’ll be joined by US-based singer Martika – perhaps best known for her No 5 hit ‘Toy Soldiers’ released in 1989 – who will be performing in the UK for the first time in 25 years. Organisers say the show follows this year’s successful concerts and is being staged due to “overwhelming public demand”.
How can I buy tickets?
Paul Young, Toyah, China Crisis, Martika are at Rhyl Pavilion Theatre on Thursday, March 2, 2017. To buy £35.50 tickets ring 01745 330000 or visit www.rhylpavilion.co.uk. Tickets to meet and greet the stars cost £76 but check for availability.
All tickets go on sale tomorrow, (Friday, September 9) at 10am.
• Continue reading at the North Wales Daily Post.
How to be noticed after 50? Dress like a lady! Eighties punk Toyah Willcox reveals the secrets of her ladylike look
Toyah Willcox was a punk singer in the Eighties, and dressed to match | But at 58 she’s discovered that the best way to be noticed is to be feminine | She demonstrate her newfound love of skirts, dresses and subtlety
By Toyah Willcox For The Daily Mail
Back in my Eighties heyday as a singer, I wouldn’t have been caught dead in anything pretty or ladylike. The only thing remotely pink from this punk era was my hair.
But, at the age of 58, I’ve discovered a style secret which would leave the old rebellious Toyah reeling. The best way for me to be noticed isn’t to be outrageous. It’s to be feminine.
The clothes that made me famous wouldn’t suit me now. And that’s why I’ve decided to get rid of my old wardrobe. Some items are going to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The rest I am selling in aid of charity.
They are joyous clothes, but these days, I have a new look. I still, however, want to be noticed and look exciting.
• Continue reading at the Daily Mail. (Photo © Daily Mail)
Crime & Punishment: A Rock Musical
Nineties kids might remember Willcox as ‘Barmy Aunt Boomerang’ on CBBC, but she had a big career in the late ’70s and ’80s with hits like ‘It’s A Mystery’ and ‘I Want To Be Free’. All her old tunes make an appearance, with some new songs too. They’re fun, but tend to interrupt the rather arch, overwrought Russian melodrama and its philosophical inserts about moral superiority, rather than complementing or enlightening it.
The adaptation by Phil Willmott (who also directs and acts in the show) has its merits and although it’s a brisk 90 minutes it feels pacy rather than rushed. All the necessary beats, from heinous act through falling in love and eventual contrition, find their moment and there are some semi-decent bits of acting in there too.
• Continue reading at Time Out. Read other reviews of Crime and Punishment here. (Photo © Time Out/Sheila Burnett)
Review | ‘Crime & Punishment’ at The Scoop amphitheatre in London
Dostoyevsky meets steam punk in this bold retelling of the literary classic.
Setting a theatrical performance of Dostoyevsky’s brooding novel Crime and Punishment in a world of steam punk is a brave choice; accompanying it with a soundtrack made up of Toyah Willcox’s classic rock anthems is even braver. The production team at Gods and Monsters Theatre Company have not only attempted this, they’ve pulled it off with all the brazen authority of an axe-wielding Raskolnikov.
The classic Russian tale opens the new season at The Scoop in London, a 1,000-person sunken amphitheatre, and follows Raskolnikov as he justifies the brutal murder of a pawn broker with his belief that it was for the greater good of mankind, that by using the money he steals for good causes he has the right to go above and beyond the law. Directed by Phil Willmott, songs like ‘Love Crazy’ and ‘Who Let the Beast Out’ are intermingled with the tale, fitting surprisingly well with the heavy story and lifting it into a lighter tone that can be enjoyed more readily by all.
• Continue reading at Attitude. Read other reviews of Crime and Punishment here. (Photo © Attitude/Sheila Burnett)
Crime and Punishment: A Rock Musical is a semi-jukebox musical, in that Willcox’s back catalogue is raided for some of the numbers, and some brand new songs have been provided specifically for the show. Somehow it all works surprisingly well! The jukebox musical approach can sometimes make a show feel forced, as songs are shoe-horned into a storyline, but everything (bar an inadvertently funny It’s A Mystery) gels really well together. It may help if you are unfamiliar with Willcox’s work, as I am, however the themes in the chosen songs fit the feeling of the scenes in which they are included. Given Raskolnikov’s frustration & revolutionary fervour, rock music is definitely the best way to express these feelings. It’s also impressive that quite a sizeable novel can be condensed into a 100-minute show, that still has a tangible storyline running through it.
Crime and Punishment: A Rock Musical runs at the Scoop (London Bridge City) until 25 September 2016. Entry is free – donations can be made & programmes bought on the day.
• Continue reading at Mind The Blog. Read other reviews of Crime and Punishment here.
Talented singer and actor Toyah admits her pop stardom was literally a case of “life imitating art”, coming soon after she was cast in a BBC play as a wannabe pop star who breaks into the Top of the Pops recording studios.
Speaking at the Rewind 80s Festival in Henley-on-Thames, Toyah recalled her first acting break aged 18 in the BBC play Glitter, playing alongside Phil Daniels, who was later to act alongside her again in the cult mod film Quadrophenia.
Toyah said: “I was spotted on the streets of Birmingham around 1973/74 because I had green and yellow hair! A director asked me to come and audition with Phil Daniels, and to play his girlfriend in a BBC2 drama and I got the part.
“The biggest irony was that I was playing a girl who wrote a song and broke into the Top of the Pops studios to sing the song in the studios; so talk about life imitating art!
“I was pretty instantly well known as an actress from the age of 18 and I was very successful as an actress right up until 1981 when I started having hit singles. I was the hottest name in the acting industry after I started at the National Theatre.”
• Continue reading at Music-News.com.
Crime and Punishment review at the Scoop, London – ‘Dostoyevsky gets the steam-punk treatment’
Gods and Monsters Theatre has been creating exciting open-air theatre at the Scoop for the last 14 years. Unlike the cosy, enclave of Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, the venue is subject to the surrounding bustle of life on the Thames embankment and director Phil Willmott’s production employs the broad strokes necessary to attract and engage with an outdoor audience.
This year Dostoyevsky gets the steam-punk treatment. Willmott has tuned Crime and Punishment into a musical with the help of songwriter and composers Toyah Willcox and Simon Darlow.
The revolutionary undercurrent of nineteenth century St Petersburg seems an appropriate match for Willcox and Darlow’s soft punk score and a couple of crowd-pleasing hits including I Want to be Free and It’s a Mystery sit comfortably in Willmott’s accessible adaptation.
• Continue reading at The Stage. (Photo © The Stage//Sheila Burnett)
Somerset bands to support Steve Harley And Cockney Rebel and Toyah Willcox
A group of Somerset bands will perform alongside rock legends Steve Harley And Cockney Rebel and Toyah Willcox at the Music In The Meadow festival.
The event, which will be held at Secret World Wildlife Rescue in East Huntspill, will see the artists take to the stage to support the charity while performing alongside their idols on September 10. Bands including Storm, A Cunning Plan, Daytona, Twerzels and Luna-C will perform alongside punk singer Toyah Willcox and London band Steve Harley And Cockney Rebel.
Music In The Meadow will raise money for the charity which works to provide rescue services for sick, injured and orphaned wildlife. The charity is responsible for rescuing more than 5,000 animals each year.
Tickets are available online via www.secretworld.org/musicinthemeadow or can be bought at the Secret World gift shop.
• Continue reading at the Weston, Worle & Somerset Mercury.
A review, by Howard Loxton of the British Theatre Guide, of Crime and Punishment.
Phil Willmott has managed to cut Dostoyevsky’s novel down to a ninety-minute musical. Concentrating on protagonist Rodiom Raskalnikov, he has carved out storyline that presents the main plot clearly and uses Toyah Willcox’s songs (mainly old ones, some specially written) not as decoration but integrated so that they contribute to the storytelling.
Philip Eddoll’s steampunk set, all cogwheels and smoking chimneys, has already been used for The Wawel Dragon (the evening’s earlier offering for a younger audience). Now onion domes are added to make it more Russian but, though the location remains St Petersburg, with the black-goggled cast slowly crawling all over it as the audience assembles, this surreal place could be any- and everywhere.
Toyah’s “We Are” opens the show with an eruption of confidence from the gathering of students: “we are the young ones, we are the chosen ones, we are the only ones!” before Raskolnikov (Alec Porter) declares that he is penniless and must give up his studies.
• Continue reading at the British Theatre Guide. (Photos © British Theatre Guide/Sheila Burnett)
Win a pair of tickets to ‘Music In The Meadow’ at Secret World Wildlife Rescue on Saturday 10th September.
Somerset’s newest festival, Music in the Meadow, sees Yeovil bands Storm and Daytona, Castle Cary’s A Cunning Plan, Twerzels (the West Country’s finest Wurzels Tribute band) and Luna-C from Wedmore, taking to the stage to support Steve Harley and his band. Punk icon Toyah Willcox will also play at this all-day family event.
• Continue reading/Enter competition at Taunton’s Tone FM. More information on this new one-day festival, which is aiming to raise money for a fantastic cause, here.
Crime and Punishment: A Rock Musical – The Scoop, London
Dostoyevsky is turned into a musical featuring specially written songs and favourite tracks by Toyah Willcox and her songwriting partner Simon Darlow, opening a free season at London’s Scoop that runs to September 25.
• Continue reading at The Stage.
Getting The Scoop on London’s Free Open Air Theatre Season
Director Phil Willmott talks to Matthew Amer about bringing free theatre to City Hall.
Growing up, theatre director Phil Willmott was enthralled and inspired by pocket money-priced trips to the theatre. Now he hopes to inspire Londoners with shows that are entirely free.
“I didn’t know anything about theatre or plays,” Willmott says of his early exposure to the excitement of live theatre at Bristol Old Vic. “I would sit in the dark and this extraordinary story would happen in front of me. It was just the most brilliant education in literature and humanity. The stories I saw taught me so much about the world and different cultures. I always want to capture that for other people, to give them theatre that is that exciting.”
That is exactly what the director has been doing since 2003 at The Scoop with London’s Free Open Air Theatre Season. Each year he stages a classic text and a children’s production, and the audience can watch without having to open their wallets.
“Because we’re free,” Willmott continues, “people from all walks of life will come along, take a chance and sit down. An hour and a half later they’ve watched our play and want to talk about it. The really exciting thing about The Scoop’s audience is most of them have never dreamed of going to the theatre.”
• Continue reading at Theatre.London.
Eighties pop icon Toyah Willcox will perform her acoustic show on October 22, at Colne Municipal Hall, with music and stories taking centre stage.
From filming pop videos on horseback to acting alongside Katharine Hepburn and Laurence Olivier, Toyah lifts the lid on working in the entertainment business. There will be “meticulous and melodic.” acoustic versions of the hits It’s A Mystery, Thunder In The Mountains, I Want To Be Free and Good Morning Universe.
Visit themuni.co.uk or call 01282 661234 to book tickets.
• Continue reading at Keighley News.
Rewind South 2016 was 10 days ago, but here’s a newly published review, from the Henley Standard, of the festival anyway…
The weather gods were not kind to Rewind this year, with a very windy weekend punctuated by some heavy rain showers.
However, this did not in any way deter the thousands of Eighties pop fans who visited the riverside site — and certainly not the 23 acts who performed for them.
The festival proper opened with regular Rewind star Tony Hadley — but this time he performed a 45-minute set with the Southbank Sinfonia behind him, as well as the Tony Hadley Band. Fittingly for an artist who cites David Bowie as one of the major influences on Spandau Ballet, he opened with Life on Mars.
More than 30 years on from the band’s Eighties peak, Hadley’s voice has held its strength and power — and ably covered Bowie’s anthem, as well as an Elvis Presley number and Spandau Ballet’s biggest hits. The synthpop era of the early Eighties was well represented by artists such as Hazell Dean, Toyah and Jimmy Somerville, while the big voices came in the form of Rick Astley and Leo Sayer.
• Continue reading at the Henley Standard. (Photo © Henley Standard)
LONDON’S FREE OPEN-AIR THEATRE SEASON 2016
For over a decade, the core artists of Gods & Monsters Theatre have created work inspired by the diverse cultures of those around them, sharing their perspective on the great stories of the world to an audience of over 40,000 each summer.
For 2016 Gods & Monsters Theatre return to The Scoop with a season dedicated to two cornerstones of Russian culture: the 19th century masterpiece Crime & Punishment by Dostoyevsky and the beautiful folktales of Russia, Poland and Ukraine.
Presented by Gods & Monsters Theatre | 31 August – 25 September 2016 | Directed by Phil Willmott | 8pm: Crime & Punishment
As the skies darken over The Scoop so does our story. For our fourteenth season we offer a brand new rock musical based on Dostoyevsky’s classic tale of youth and alienation. Arguably literature’s first psychological detective novel, Crime & Punishment put Dostoyevsky at the forefront of Russian literature when it appeared in 1866 and is one of the most famous and influential novels in world literature. In keeping with the spirit of the novel our production will incorporate a rock score that powerfully captures the youthful energy, angst, beauty and violence at its heart.
• Continue reading at London Bridge City Summer Festival.
Eighties icons helped bring a Hampshire festival to life.
Graze Festival in Twyford saw more than 2,000 people gather where they enjoyed acts like The Beat and Toyah.
Rock ‘n’ roll singer John Otway was also a performer at the event where people also danced to music by Flight Brigade, Polly and the Billets and The Lucky Strikes. Also appearing were Robert Vincent, Rews, Lilo’s Wall, Southampton Ukulele Jam, DJ Super Kat and Luna Rivers.
• Continue reading at the Southern Daily Echo. This morning Toyah tweeted a photo from yesterday’s Graze Festival congratulating them on a successful second year.
‘Crime And Punishment: A Rock Musical’: Dostoyevsky Meets Punk Princess Toyah Willcox
What do you get when you mix the music of 80s punk princess Toyah Willcox with the writing of Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky? Crime and Punishment: A Rock Musical, of course. As part of London’s Open Air Theatre Season, The Scoop amphitheatre will be hosting the world premiere of this unlikely production, using the raw energy and passion of rock music to introduce new audiences to one of the world’s most important literary works.
Since 2005, the award-winning Gods and Monsters Theatre, The Scoop’s resident company, have been bringing together Londoners of all class and creed with an exciting programme of free, open air theatre as part of More London’s five-month-long London Bridge City Summer Festival. Each year, 40,000 free tickets are up for grabs in the sunken stone amphitheatre, which lies in the shadow of City Hall and Tower Bridge, with productions ranging from exciting musicals to Greek classics to adaptations of contemporary literature.
• Continue reading at The Culture Trip. Crime and Punishment begins on Wednesday at The Scoop Theatre, London at 8pm. The set has been built and technical rehearsals have begun. Browse all of Dreamscape’s news on the production here.
The Graze Festival returns to Twyford on Sunday. The home-grown music and food festival is once again ready to rock.
Headlining the main stage this year are ska and reggae sensations The Beat, featuring Ranking Roger and his son Ranking Junior. The band have eight top 40 hits to their name, including Mirror in the Bathroom which reached number 4 in the UK charts back in 1980.
Joining them at the top of the bill is Toyah, famous for her hits It’s A Mystery and I Want To Be Free. She has appeared on TV in everything from Doctor Who to Loose Women. She was even in the film Quadrophenia and is currently filming the sequel.
• Continue reading at the Southern Daily Echo.
Great things to do in Hampshire this weekend:
Art exhibitions, walks, concerts, theatre, places to visit and other events and ideas.
Graze Festival, Winchester – Sunday 28 August
Hazeley Fields, Twyford
Graze is a real home-grown fest, started last year by a small group of residents in Twyford. This family day of music and fine food drew crowds of more than 2000 people and raised over £10,000 for local charities. “The feedback we received was ‘please don’t change anything, please don’t go corporate or try to expand too much’”, says co-organiser Tim Smith. So, this year the festival returns, hoping to keep its raw charm, with a line-up including Toyah (Willcox), John Otway and 80s ska revival band, The Beat – whose lively tunes are the perfect accompaniment for a balmy summer evening.
• Continue reading at Hampshire-Life.
Daytona, Luna C, and A Cunning Plan ‘proud’ to warm up for legends Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel
Somerset bands say they are “proud” to be warming up for rock legends Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel on September 10 at Secret World’s Music in the Meadow. Somerset’s newest festival, Music in the Meadow, sees Yeovil bands Storm and Daytona, Castle Cary’s A Cunning Plan, Twerzels (a Wurzels tribute band) and Luna-C from Wedmore, taking to the stage to support Steve Harley and his band.
Punk icon Toyah Willcox will also play at the all-day event at Secret World Wildlife Rescue near Highbridge in Somerset.
• Continue reading at Somerset Live. Browse all of our Music In The Meadow 2016 news.
