Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

Production to Begin on Sequel to the Who’s ‘Quadrophenia’ Film

This summer, production will begin on To Be Someone, a sequel to the 1979 film adaptation of the Who‘s rock opera Quadrophenia. The movie, which will be directed by Ray Burdis, is expected to be released next year.

NME reports that the plot is based on a 2011 novel of the same name by Peter Meadows that was inspired by the characters in the movie. Phil Daniels and Toyah Willcox are reprising their roles as Jimmy and Monkey, and sees where they are at in their lives decades removed from the mods vs. rockers battles of the mid-’60s.

• Continue reading at Ultimate Classic Rock.

British mod movie Quadrophenia sequel is being made – 37 years after the original

A sequel to the iconic British mod movie Quadrophenia is being made – 37 years after the original.

The new film will star many of the same cast members as the 1979 cult hit – singer Toyah Willcox, 58, Mark Wingett, 55, Phil Daniels, 57 and Trevor Laird, 58, and will start filming in London this summer.

The era-defining 1979 film adaptation of The Who’s rock opera, which also starred Leslie Ash, 56, Sting, 64, and Ray Winstone, 59, documented the infamous clashes between rival gangs of mods on their scooters and rockers on motorbikes terrorising seaside resort Brighton with violent fighting.

The follow-up is set in the present-day and based on the book To Be Someone, by Peter Meadows, which was inspired by the original movie – and will be directed by Ray Burdis, who made The Wee Man and The Krays, with his company Archangel productions.

• Continue reading at The Mirror.

Quadrophenia star Toyah Willcox says her character has become a ‘sexual predator’

The 80s singer said: “The natural journey for my character, nearly 40 years on, has seen her become a sexual predator, working in the sex industry”

A sequel to the iconic British mod movie Quadrophenia is being made – 37 years after the original.

The new film will star many of the same cast members as the 1979 cult hit – singer Toyah Willcox, 58, Mark Wingett, 55, Phil Daniels, 57 and Trevor Laird, 58, and will start filming in London this summer.

80s popstar Toyah will revisit her role as Monkey – who has grown into a swinging cougar. She said: “Quadrophenia was really zeitgeist and it’s never really gone away, as every new generation connects with it.

“No-one expected that to happen – it grabbed teenage angst by the balls and never let go. None of us realised the impact it would have at the time – we were all just desperate to out do each other. The natural journey for my character, nearly 40 years on, has seen her become a sexual predator, working in the sex industry as a madam. She’s married to one of the other main characters and they’re swingers.”

• Continue reading at The Mirror. (Photos © TSIPhotography.co.uk)

Toyah Willcox brings her band to Derby to play an intimate stripped back show, full of hits, album tracks and new songs.

Derby Cathedral is set to become the major entertainment venue in the city centre with more than a dozen events already planned this year and more to follow.

Following the closure of the city’s Assembly Rooms in 2013 after a fire in its car park, Derby has been noticeably unable to stage large-scale concerts and exhibitions. At the same time, the cathedral is committed to getting as many people as possible through its doors in addition to those who worship there.

• Continue reading at the Derby Telegraph.

Quadrophenia reunion 37 years after cult film was released – and the stars have changed quite a bit

Looks like these Quadrophenia stars are still talking about their generation…

Toyah Willcox, Mark Wingett, Phil Daniels and Trevor Laird met up for a reunion 37 years after the hit mods and rockers movie was released.

And while there was not a scooter or parka in sight, the group looked delighted to see each other. Singer Toyah, 58, played Monkey. Mark, 55, (Dave in the 1979 film) became Jim Carver in The Bill and 57-year-old Phil had the lead role as Jimmy.

• Continue reading at The Mirror.

Toyah announced as first headliner for Dartford Festival 2016

Dartford Borough Council is excited to announce the first act in a fantastic line up for this year’s FREE Dartford Festival in Central Park.

Birmingham-born Punk princess, award-winning rock legend, actress and composer, Toyah Willcox will be appearing on Saturday 16th July.

Toyah’s career spans nearly 40 years and during that time she has amassed 13 top 40 singles, recorded 20 albums, written two books, appeared in over 40 stage plays and acted in 15 feature films. She has also presented several TV programmes including Watchdog and Songs of Praise.

Toyah is currently touring and performing at festivals up and down the country. She also continues to act in feature films including a cameo role in British film Extremis which will be released this year.

• Continue reading at Dartford Borough Council.

Toyah revealed as first major act appearing at this year’s Dartford Festival

The first headliner for this year’s free Dartford Festival in Central Park has been revealed as singer Toyah.

Dartford Borough Council has just announced that the Birmingham-born Punk princess, award-winning rock legend, actress and composer, will be appearing on Saturday, July 16.

Welcoming the announcement council leader Jeremy Kite said, “Every year, we put on the sort of show that usually attracts a high ticket price and then we make it free!

“The Festival’s success is built on some of Britain’s most talented and successful live artists and I’m delighted Toyah has accepted our invitation to feature on the Saturday stage. She is the first of many great festival acts to be announced in the coming weeks.”

• Continue reading at the Gravesend Reporter.

17. Aaaaaaaah!

Fans of the early John Waters and early Gregg Araki oeuvre may feel right at home with all the vulgarity and body fluids on display in Steve Oram’s Aaaaaaaah! This is adventurous and crude postmodern cinema, and the easily offended need not apply.

Oram displays a ruthless instinct with sadistic lapses into camp and caricature with Aaaaaaaah!, a film hell bent on upsetting the audience in this tale of society’s collapse. In the film the human stock has downgraded, and devolved into grunting, drooling, depraved, inarticulate primitives.

Robbed of the capacity to speak beyond gorilla-like elucidation, chest-beating, and genital-waving, I found the film to enact a Beckett-like scenario but at least half the audience I saw it with thought it was just shit. Their loss.

A winning cast of Brits including Oram, Julian Barrett, Noel Fielding, and Toyah Willcox add street cred to this one-of-a-kind mindfuck. Aaaaaaaah! is a strangely sublime picture, in turns delicate and disorienting, with a Buñuelian bite and a whiff of nasty nihilism, too. You’ll either love it or you’ll hate it but you won’t ever forget it.

• Continue reading at Taste Of Cinema. Browse our Aaaaaaaah! news archive…

PJ Crook, Nick Park and Toyah Willcox donate paintings for Gloucester exhibition in aid of LINC

A star-studded line up of exhibitors including Nick Park, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and Toyah Willcox feature in a pop-up exhibition this weekend in Gloucester. The event, at St Michael’s Tower, has been organised by Bishop’s Cleeve artist PJ Crook in aid of LINC.

Nick Park has donated a Wallace & Gromit painting which was created especially for the exhibition.

Toyah Willcox has contributed two watercolours and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, who is also a patron of LINC with PJ Crook, has donated a large Caryatid drawing framed in a magnificent gold frame.

The exhibition takes place on Sunday, May 1 and Bank Holiday Monday, from noon until 6pm each day with tea and cakes.

• Continue reading at the Gloucester Citizen.

Toyah was included alongside Blondie, Iggy Pop, Culture Club, Kate Bush, Simon & Garfunkel and a host of music icons in one of the Daily Mail’s daft, and badly photoshopped, photo features yesterday…

Phil Collins broke new ground when he re-released his back catalogue of albums earlier this month — complete with recreations of the classic covers using up-to-date photographs of his face. Collins, 65, seems to have weathered fairly well since he first stormed the charts as a solo artist 35 years ago, barring a few inevitable wrinkles.

So we wondered how some of our other music legends would fare if their albums were given the same treatment. Obviously, the music stands the test of time, but what about their faces…

It’s a mystery: Toyah Willcox, 57, just needs make-up to recapture her eighties look

• Continue reading at the Daily Mail.

Tony Hadley, The Stranglers, Lindisfarne and the SAS Band with Roger Taylor of Queen have been confirmed as headliners for this year’s Wickham Festival.

The Spandau Ballet frontman Tony tops the bill on the opening night on August 4, with The Stranglers and Bruce Foxton’s From The Jam as the main attractions the next day.

Spike’s All Stars Band with a line-up including Queen drummer Roger Taylor, Marillion lead singer Fish, Madeleine Bell and solo artist/actress Toyah Willcox will appear on Saturday. They will be supported by the Trevor Horn Band. Also on the bill are the Oysterband plus Chas & Dave.

Lindisfarne close the four-day event on Sunday with back-up from Steeleye Span, Hayseed Dixie and the Red Hot Chilli Pipers.

Festival organiser Peter Chegwyn said: “We are thrilled with this year’s line-up which has something for everyone. It reflects our rapidly-growing reputation locally, nationally and internationally with fans coming from the USA, Canada and Australia. We have a fantastic array of bands who will provide fantastic entertainment.”

• Continue reading at The Portsmouth News. Check out all of Toyah’s confirmed festival appearances for 2016, plus her other upcoming live dates, at toyahwillcox.com.

Don’t trust that meme: Prince’s death at 57 was no music industry average

After the tragic and untimely death of Prince, an internet meme took flight claiming that the singer died ‘at the average age of death for American pop stars’. This is not really true and, insofar as it contains a germ of truth, it is not useful.

A better way would be to compare people who were born in the same year, but you could only do that once they were all dead. Prince was born in 1958 and died at the age of 57. Barring an outbreak of bubonic plague or an unusually methodical serial killer, it is most unlikely that the average age of death for musicians born in 1958 will turn out to be 57. Other pop stars born in 1958 include Ice-T, Madonna, Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Neil Finn (Crowded House), Nikki Sixx (Motley Crue), Toyah, Simon Le Bon, Joan Jett, Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden), Nik Kershaw, Belinda Carlisle, Paul Weller, Bill Berry (REM), Mark King (Level 42), Michael Jackson and Andy Gibb (Bee Gees). Of these, only Jackson and Gibb are not still with us. In fact, nearly all of the celebrities born in 1958 are still alive.

• Continue reading at The Spectator (Health).

A great review, by nerve, of Toyah’s Acoustic, Up Close & Personal date at St. George’s Hall, Liverpool last month.

It’s No Mystery

Toyah Willcox strode onto the stage looking resplendent in a kaleidoscopic Oriental smock above a gold long sleeved top and in thigh length boots over black pants. Her frizzed blood red hair of her prime, now a less outlandish strawberry blonde, complementing her attire. She joined both her duo guitar and vocals backing, Colin Hinds and Chris Wong, before thanking the 80 – 90 strong audience for coming out on such a miserable rainy night. Visibly thrilled and gobsmacked to be at such a venue, she enthused ‘we usually play grotty clubs’.

Also on stage was a laptop and video screen, which she used to project key images of her varied acting and singing careers when appropriate. But it was the songs that the crowd had primarily come to see and hear Toyah perform, and when she launched into Good Morning Universe the memories started flooding back. Now 56, her voice was not as visceral as it once was, but came over loud and clear.

• Continue reading at nerve. Browse Toyah’s Official Gigs page for info on forthcoming Acoustic, Up Close & Personal dates.

As part of the three-day Cleethorpes Rock Festival another headline act has been announced for Sunday August 21.

This fantastic live rock music festival will see the fabulous punk princess Toyah Willcox take to the stage at the Meridian Showground.

Cleethorpes Rocks Festival, Sunday August 21 2-10pm, gates open 1.30pm. Early bird tickets only £21, on a first come first served basis.

Tel 01472 349222 or online www.cleethorpesrocks.co.uk or www.solidentertainments.com

• Continue reading at the Cleethorpes People. Visit the Cleethorpes Rocks festival website here.

Craig Astley, Manager of The Official Toyah Willcox website, was featured in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph, in an article on the People’s History Of Pop.

Craig Astley: 37, Communications Officer

Photo of himself, aged four, with Toyah Willcox, backstage at Newcastle City Hall, December 1983

“I latched on to music at a really young age. It was on TV shows like Swap Shop. I was drawn to how energetic and colourful Toyah was. My mother took me to the concert but I was so small I had to have cotton wool in my ears as it would have been too loud. It was near christmas and I’d taken a card to the gig. Our seats were close to the sound engineer and my mum asked him to give my card to Toyah. He said, ‘Why don’t you give it to her yourself?’ and let us backstage. I can remember that moment, burned in my memory. Years later I started running Toyah’s website. Now I look after her artwork and tour merchandise and manager her archive. She’s now a friend I see through the eyes of a fan.”

• Read more on the People’s History Of Pop. (Photo © Official Toyah – See a larger version of the article at Toyah’s Official Twitter page).

It’s no mystery that Toyah Willcox can’t wait to get back to Rewind

With her dramatic hairstyles and funky clothes, Toyah was the ultimate punk princess of the 1980s. Her unique style and incredible musical talent made her one of the leading rock legends of the era.

And now for the second year in a row, she is returning to Tayside to perform at this year’s Rewind Scotland 80s festival at Scone Palace.

Speaking to the Tele, Toyah revealed just how much she is looking forward to coming back to the area. “Rewind is a joyous occasion and I am really looking forward to coming to Scone once more,” she said. “However, I’m hoping to have a slightly easier time than last year.”

Toyah presented last year’s festival over the entire weekend — announcing the acts and leading the audience over the two days of entertainment.

• Continue reading at the Evening Telegraph. Look back at Rewind Scotland 2015 here.

Toyah Looks Forward to Getting Up Close & Personal at St George’s Hall

There are very few musicians and singers around who are instantly recognisable by their first names alone. Adele, Kylie, Madonna and, also, Toyah spring immediately to mind, with the latter set to appear at Liverpool’s St George’s Hall Small Concert Room venue on March 24th.

Known for her outlandish costumes, punk hairstyles, outspoken views and full on gig experiences, Toyah’s Acoustic, Up Close & Personal show, however, will be a completely different occurrence altogether. “I can’t tell you how well it works because it is all about the songs and all about the harmonies,” the It’s A Mystery singer explained.

“I have the two most amazing guitarists and backing vocalists with me, Colin Hinds from China Crisis and my permanent guitarist Chris Wong, and the sound we create is just so dancey and happy it makes for a really, really enjoyable show. I also use a lot of personal photographs and tell the stories behind the songs. Not too many, because it is still a music driven show, but it is very funny and incredibly irreverent.”

• Continue reading at Purple Revolver.

Galaxy of stars lined up for this year’s Grassington Festival

All roads will lead to Grassington in June, with a galaxy of stars lined up for the village’s two-week art and cultural festival. The opening night on June 17 promises a crowd-pleasing mix of Frank Sinatra songs performed by brothers Patrick and Gregory Kane from Hue and Cry alongside their own hits and newer material.

British rock group The Stranglers promise a showstopper of an evening on Friday, July 1, and finally, closing the festival on Saturday, July 2, will be the infamous Last Night Party with Marc Almond, supported by Toyah Willcox.

• Continue reading at the Craven Herald & Pioneer.

Once known as the High Priestess of Punk, actor and singer Toyah Willcox will be in Oxted later in the year.

Birmingham born Toyah will be at the Bluehouse Festival in the town’s URC Church on October 21 to talk about the music industry.

The Bluehouse Festival will run from October 16-30 and the organisers are putting together a mix of entertaining events and thought-provoking authors and speakers throughout the event.

The Festival will be closed by Emma Johnson who is an outstanding British clarinettist and won the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition. For further information and to go on the mailing list please contact thefestival2016@hotmail.com or telephone on 01883 712893. Tickets will be on sale from Tuesday, August 9.

• Continue reading at Oxted Today.

Will Brand manage a 20-mile-a-day hike from the Humber Bridge to Liverpool? Does it matter who pulled the trigger if your father is gunned down? And would you trust Neil Morrissey with your life?

Plus: the Who’s rock opera Quadrophenia.

Quadrophenia (Franc Roddam, 1979), 12.15am, ITV4
Roddam’s screen version of the Who’s rock opera is an excellent recreation of a seedy, sultry, angry time – the mods v rockers seaside clashes of 1964. Phil Daniels leads the way as Jimmy, a pill-popping rebel on a scooter, and there are vigorous performances from Ray Winstone, Leslie Ash, Sting and Toyah Willcox. Plus, of course, Pete Townshend’s explosive music.

• Continue reading at The Guardian.

1980s music stars set to perform in Brean at special event this weekend

Several music stars from the 1980s will be performing at a special festival in Brean this weekend.

They include Toyah Willcox, Limahl from Kajagoogoo, Carol Decker from T’Pau… Tickets for the event cost from £15 per person. Call 01934 744958 for more details.

• Continue reading at Burnham-On-Sea.com. Toyah will play an acoustic set at “Yesterday Once More” – More details at the Official Gigs page.