BBC asks viewers to share their musical memorabilia to tell ‘The People’s History of Pop’
Do you treasure a ticket stub from David Bowie at Aylesbury Friars? Is there a glow-stick from an illegal rave in your attic? Does your teenage diary list every band you ever saw in painstaking detail?
Now the BBC is asking viewers to share their most cherished musical possessions to help tell The People’s History of Pop through a unique crowdsourcing appeal. An online archive is being created for a new BBC4 series which will tell the story of British rock & pop music from the 1950s to the noughties – but without the traditional narrative from chin-stroking “experts”.
Craig Astley uploaded a picture of himself, then aged 4, with his first pop idol, the punk singer Toyah after a concert in Newcastle. “Sixteen years later and I received a phone call from Toyah herself if I would be interested in running her website,” writes Astley, who now manages the singer’s archive. “Pop dreams can come true.”
• Continue reading at The Independent. View further info here.
Eighties pop icon Toyah Willcox will play Stonehaven Town Hall this Friday and Saturday night with the singer eager to look around the town.
The former punk princess – whose biggest hit was ‘It’s A Mystery’ spoke to the Mearns Leader this week about playing Stonehaven, looking forward to fish and chips and what fans can expect.
Toyah said: “I’m really looking forward to the show as we’ve never been to Stonehaven and it is great to have the chance to go there. As it is on the coast I’m looking forward to getting to know the town and I love history so I’d love to walk around the museum.”
The event is being organised by music shop owner Chris Stirk with tickets still available for both shows. Toyah’s two gigs follows her successful appearance recently at the Rewind festival in Perth with the singer adding that she’ll have all the hits and maybe a few surprises for those attending.
She said: “I think fans are going to really enjoy the show as it is fun and it is really about them. I’ll have all the hits, the singles from the 80s and singles that have charted on iTunes in the last couple of years. It will be a fun and able show, where we’ll look to put in a few other songs.”
• Continue reading at the Mearns Leader. See all of Toyah’s forthcoming Proud, Loud & Electric gigs at toyahwillcox.com.
Eighties star Toyah brings the house down at New Mills Art Theatre
In a coup for the New Mills Festival 1980s’ icon Toyah Willcox played a greatest hits concert at New Mills Art Theatre on Saturday evening to an almost sell out crowd.
Drawing on her considerable back catalogue Toyah soon had the crowd rocking as she played hit after hit taking us back to those heady days of the eighties. Opening with Good Morning Universeit was clear Toyah’s voice was as strong as ever, the hair and makeup might have gone but the songs were as powerful as ever and she had the audience in the palm of her hand.
Thunder In The Mountains, I Want To Be Free and Brave New World were all rapturously received as were cover versions of Echo Beach and fellow eighties star Billy Idol’s Rebel Yell.
Of course what most of us remember Toyah for is the massive hit It’s A Mystery and when she played it she brought the house down (almost literally as plaster fell from the ceiling) and got a standing ovation. Coming back for the inevitable encore of Danced, Toyah thanked what was a very appreciative audience and in the words of Rebel Yell left them wanting More, More, More!
• Continue reading at the Derbyshire Times. Also available at the Buxton Advertiser.
Toyah is on the cover of Sturminster Newton’s The Exchange brochure for Autumn/Winter 2015, which is published/launched today. She plays an Acoustic, Up Close & Personal date at The Exchange on Thursday 15th October. Click below for further details.
Punk artist Toyah Willcox hails Derby rock hotspot as one of the best in the country
Punk pioneer Toyah Willcox is back in Derby tomorrow night – at a rock hotspot she hails as one of the best venues in the country! Toyah will be performing at The Flowerpot on her “‘Proud, Loud and Electric” tour.
“My American band, The Humans, played The Flowerpot at least six year ago, it was one of the best gigs we’ve done! I love it there!” Toyah exclaims, when asked about Derby.
Fans who decide to attend the show can expect a truly unique performance.
“I always make sure that the band and I gear the music to the venue. We always look around and judge the audience then tailor our set to what they want so it’s different every night. Some nights they want a heavy set and sometimes they want to hear laid-back music. The Flowerpot is a really intimate venue with a low ceiling so it’s going to be a real rock ‘n’ roll show.
“I wanted to call the tour a name that allowed us to cherry-pick from a retrospective of 36 years of music. Because it’s so small, it’s going to get pretty hot in there so we’ll be playing a lot of music from the punk days.”
• Continue reading at the Derby Telegraph.
• Live 2015: Another trio of gigs – Toyah plays an Acoustic, Up Close & Personal date tonight at Vauxhall Tavern, London and tomorrow a Proud, Loud & Electric gig at The Flowerpot, Derby. On Saturday she is the opening music artist of the New Mills Festival 2015.
• Mansfield Chad: See Toyah in full flow at The Flowerpot: Iconic performer Toyah Willcox will be joined by her full band for a gig at The Flowerpot in Derby on Friday, September 11. The popular singer and actor is currently touring with her show, entitled Proud, Loud and Electric – Continue reading…
• Aaaaaaaah!: Another screening at Picture House Central, tomorrow night – View details…
• Get Ready To Rock: Gig review: Cropredy – Oxfordshire, 13-15 August 2015: Last year the festival had a proggy feel to it which I think really worked well but this year I think the attempt to mix in an 80′s pop feel hasn’t really paid off. The Proclaimers, Level 42 and Toyah actually played very good sets; for the folkies they were a bit leftfield – Toyah came out to huge applause and reeled off a set that included ‘It’s A Mystery’ alongside some great covers like ‘Rebel Yell’ and ‘Echo Beach’ – Continue reading…
• Toyah @ Twitter: Stay updated via Toyah’s Official Twitter page….
• Live 2015 +: New dates are sporadically being added to Toyah’s Official Gig page for the remainder of 2015, and also now into 2016 – Check if there’s an upcoming gig near you here…
Toyah Willcox and Madness tribute band to hit Flowerpot stage
Rock star Toyah Willcox is taking to the stage at The Flowerpot in Derby on Friday night.
Willcox, whose music career spans over 30 years, is performing at the King Street music venue with her electric band as part of her Proud, Loud & Electric tour. The singer-songwriter has brought in 13 top 40 singles including I Want To Be Free and Thunder In The Mountains, recording 29 albums during her career and touring worldwide.
Spokesman for the event, Alan Woolley, said: “From punk princess to cult stage actress and high priestess of TV, Toyah Willcox is a gifted performer and an inextinguishable flame.
“Charismatic, outspoken and impossible to categorise, she is one of Britain’s iconic household names – an award-winning rock legend as well as a much-loved stage and screen actress and music composer.”
• Continue reading at the Ashbourne News Telegraph.
Onion Talking: Steve Oram Opens Wide & Says AAAAAAAAH!
With AAAAAAAAH!, are you trying to say something significant about modern society, or is the construct simply an idea that you liked?
It’s just something I found funny; I didn’t set out to make something that was a satire or a commentary. I just really enjoyed creating an intricate world, and creating the interactions and the characters – making them do silly, extreme things.
You’ve worked with many of the cast members multiple times before, but how did you decide on which new faces to bring on board, like Toyah and Julian Rhind-Tutt?
With Toyah, I loved her work in Jubilee and Quadrophenia – I’ve been a massive fan of hers for years. I was trying to cast a lady in her 50s who wouldn’t mind having to do embarrassing sex scenes and have blancmange thrown at her face. There’s not that many of them! I didn’t know her before, but I sent her the script and she loved it.
• Read the full interview at The Velvet Onion. Browse all of our Steve Oram news.
• Artsbeat: Toyah To Open New Mills Festival: Opening this year’s New Mills Festival with a bang, is the colourful, dynamic and unique Toyah Willcox who will be taking to the stage with her band at New Mills Art Theatre on September 12. At New Mills Toyah will be belting out her old hits including the iconic singles It’s A Mystery, I Want To Be Free and Thunder In The Mountains, as well as newer material, in her famous high-energy style – Continue reading…
• Buxton Advertiser: Organisers promise “something for everyone” at New Mills festival: The annual New Mills Festival returns this Friday and organisers say it will be “bigger and better than ever”. This year’s programme’s theme of toys and games seeks to aim the festival’s programme at a younger audience but the presence of acts such as Toyah Willcox will ensure the festival has something for everyone – Continue reading…
• Visit the New Mills Festival 2015 website for further info and/or to buy tickets. Browse all of our New Mills Festival 2015 news. (Photo © Toyah Willcox/Dean Stockings)
Eighties’ legend Toyah to perform at New Mills Festival
Eighties pop princess Toyah adds a touch of stardust to this year’s New Mills Festival.
She will be backed by a full band when she sings at the town’s Art Theatre on Saturday, September 12. Toyah will be performing greatest hits from her 30-year career which include It’s A Mystery, Thunder in the Mountains and I Want To Be Free.
The concert promises to be a highlight of the fortnight-long festival which celebrates the cultural and community spirit of New Mills.
Activities kick off on Friday, September 11, with a Mad Hatters Afternoon Tea Party at The Cakery from 2pm to 4pm and an art trail which turns the town into a gallery.
For the full programme, see www.newmillsfestival.co.uk
• Continue reading at the Derbyshire Times. Visit the New Mills Festival 2015 website for further info and/or to buy tickets. Browse all of our New Mills Festival 2015 news.
It’s a busy Friday night in London’s West End, I escape the hustle and bustle in the new Picturehouse cinema bar; it’s vast and empty… the calm before the storm. The venue anticipates a celeb-studded screening of the new Steve Oram film “Aaaaaaaah!” and I am anticipating meeting Steve to talk about his new (crazy-amazing) film.
I attended the press screening of Aaaaaaaah! a couple of weeks ago & the film completely haunted me. Images and thoughts from the movie were triggered by day-to-day life. In that sense it is extremely powerful and well crafted, well acted. I’m not exactly sure what it was trying to say, but I think like a lot of good art, it says what you want it to say.
… Then who should appear in the cinema bar, but Toyah Willcox (one of the leading ladies in the film) she’s dressed in a beautiful orange dress, her hair coiffed but not overdone. She’s sprightly and bubbly and bounds up to our table chatting about how she still gigs 3 times a week. But who knew Toyah could act? Toyah’s acting is incredible in Aaaaaaaah! & she would like to do more acting, her range is pretty broad, she had just filmed an episode of Doctors (that daytime show on BBC), which couldn’t be further from her character in Aaaaaaaah! I asked Steve about how he came to cast Toyah in his movie, “I’ve always been a long time fan of Toyah’s acting, she’s brilliant in Quadrophenia. People forget Toyah can act, but they shouldn’t forget.”
Robert Fripp is Toyah’s other half, and the music in the film is by King Crimson Projekts, and it’s a perfect otherworldly, primal backdrop.
• Continue reading at The Huffington Post.
Vale Park was alive with the sound of music at the weekend, and it was all free. Punk princess Toyah Willcox headlined on Saturday night with an energetic and enthusiastic show that had the crowd shouting for more.
Thirty seven years in showbusinesses hasn’t dimmed her enthusiasm for her craft, and her voice was strong as she sang These Boots Are Made For Walking, In The Midnight Hour, It’s A Mystery, Sweet Child of Mine and I Wanna Be Free. The charismatic performer interacted naturally with the audience and was generous with her time after the show, meeting fans, signing autographs and posing for pictures.
• Continue reading at The Bucks Herald. (Photos © The Bucks Herald)
Bucks Herald: It’s here! Weekend of free live music in Vale Park
Vale Park will be hosting two great days of live music with something to suit everyone. The action starts on
Saturday with Live In The Park, featuring ten hours of live music culminating in an appearance by 80s singer Toyah Willcox at 8.30pm.
Other acts performing throughout the day include disco band Platform Soul, singer-songwriter Kitty Roisin, guitarist and
backing vocalist James
Manders and new wave band The Synthetix.
The second part of the weekend musical bonanza in the park is on Sunday evening with Proms in the Park. Orchestral music begins at 7pm with a fireworks display to round off the evening. Both events are organised by Aylesbury Town Council. Photos and reports from all the weekend’s activities will appear in next week’s Bucks Herald.
• Continue reading at the Bucks Herald. Browse all of our Live In The Park news.
Mix 96: Live In The Park Kicks Off Weekend Of Free Events In Aylesbury
A weekend of free outdoor entertainment in Aylesbury starts today with Live in the Park. The gig in Vale Park replaces Hobble on the Cobbles this year.
It starts at midday with local acts and a funfair and is headlined by 80s superstar Toyah. We gave Toyah a call and asked her if her audience had changed over the years:
“We still have people with us who’ve been with me for 37 years, now they tend to have children and grandchildren and they tend to come along as well. We do though have a new audience increasingly under the age of 25 and I think that’s because 80s music is so popular and it’s popular with all generations.”
• Continue reading/Listen to a short audio interview with Toyah at Mix 96.
Screen talks to the British actor about his feature directorial debut, which receives its world premiere today [Aug 28] at Film4 FrightFest.
Set to be one of the most original films of this year’s Film4 FrightFest, Aaaaaaaah! is a twisted family drama with a difference: there is no dialogue, with all actors speaking in animalistic grunts and moans.
It marks the feature directorial debut of British actor Steve Oram who, along with Alice Lowe, wrote and starred in Ben Wheatley’s Sightseers.
Aaaaaaaah!, produced by Lincoln Studios, receives its world premiere today [Aug 28] and Oram believes FrightFest is the ideal place for the film to make its bow.
“FrightFest accepts and celebrates the weirdos, and we think we fit in quite well there,” enthuses Oram. “It’s the perfect showcase for us. It’s totally un-snooty and just about people who love strange films and horror films. It’s a big opportunity to show it to the people, which is all I care about really.”
• Continue reading at Screen Daily.
Dir/Scr. Steve Oram. UK, 2015, 79 mins.
In its enthusiasm for poo-flinging, food-fights, penis-chewing, cannibalism, tea-bagging and sudden stabbings, the film sets out to shock in a particularly cosy way
Inhabiting a waste ground somewhere between radical theatre and slob comedy, Steve Oram’s debut as a writer-director-star – following up his writer-actor work on Ben Wheatley’s Sightseers – is liable to corner a small but devoted cult following. It’s at least as interested in gross-out gags that out-gross the average Hollywood frat-boy film as it is in delivering a skewed yet pointed look at a suburban Britain where everyone communicates in grunts and gestures the way cavemen and women do in Hammer Fillms’ well-remembered prehistoric adventure films (One Million Years BC, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth).
AAAAAAAAH!’s specific precedents might include such one-offs as Richard Lester’s post-apocalyptic The Bed-Sitting Room, Akira Kurosawa’s rubbish-strewn Dodes’ka-den or Claude Faraldo’s Parisian troglodyte drama Themroc, but it’s fresh, distinctive and strange enough on its own and tight enough at 79 minutes not to outwear its welcome.
• Continue reading at Screen Daily.
Human beings have the same violent tribal urges as wild apes in this surreal horror comedy, the directing debut of British actor and screenwriter Steve Oram.
An outlandish blend of wacko sci-fi horror and grotesque comedy, this low-budget British oddity will divide critics, but it should pick up a devoted following among fans of macabre, surreal, cheerfully disgusting cult cinema. The feature-directing debut of its writer and co-star Steve Oram, AAAAAAAAH! takes place in a contemporary London where humans behave like wild apes, speaking only in simian grunts as they masturbate, defecate, urinate, copulate and engage in deadly tribal rivalries. Vulgar and violent and intermittently hilarious, Oram’s uncompromising experiment in arty trash has its world premiere this weekend as part of Frightfest in London.
• Continue reading at The Hollywood Reporter.
Film4 FrightFest has returned for more macabre mayhem. The 5 day residency at the Vue West End, Leicester Square marks its 16th year with its biggest line-up to date. From Thurs 27th August to Mon 31st August, the UK’s leading event for horror genre fans returns to present 76 films across five screens, plus a host of other special events.
There are eighteen countries representing 5 continents with a record-breaking 16 European premieres and 26 UK premieres. In addition, there is a further ‘Discovery’ strand at The Prince Charles Cinema, signalling a welcome return to FrightFest’s spiritual home.
The festival kicks off with David Keating’s Cherry Tree, there is the world premiere of Steve Oram’s hilarious and very disturbing AAAAAAAAH!.
• Continue reading at Entertainment Focus. Click below for full details on FrightFest 2015.
This month’s Total Film magazine includes a small photo of Toyah (yes, the now almost legendary shot of her with that frying pan) and article on Aaaaaaaah! on their “agenda” page feature on FrightFest 2015 – the film festival which began today in London.
FrightFest 2015 offers 75 horror movies in five days! Here are a few that are making Agenda’s spine tingle…
We know Steve Oram can do weird, wild and wonderful – with Alice Lowe, he wrote and starred in Ben Wheatley’s Sightseers – but his directorial debut is a different kettle of fish altogether. Or make that barrel of monkeys, because the cast (Noel Fiedling, Toyah Willcox, Oram, Lowe…) communicate only with ape-noises in this bizarre talke of the battle to take over a community. Proof that human beings really are animals.
• View a larger version of the scan here. (Thanks to Lärwi, of The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive, for the scan)
– Aaaaaaaah! premieres at FrightFest tomorrow evening, with Toyah, Steve Oram and the cast in attendance, and also participating in a Q&A session.
Icon Film Distribution (IFD) and FrightFest have announced the first films which will be released under the curated banner FrightFest Presents.
The seven titles selected will all have their UK theatrical premieres at the FrightFest five day festival in August at the Vue Leicester Square and represent some of the most exciting genre filmmakers working today.
The exclusive Icon and FrightFest partnership, first announced in April, will see titles released across the UK and Ireland via the distributor’sdigital partners (including iTunes, Virgin Movies, Sky, Google 
Amazon, Xbox , Blinkbox, Google, Wuaki, TalkTalk and Volta) giving film fans instant access to some of their favourite FrightFest titles.
FrightFest Presents launches officially on 19 October with a consumer campaign pushing out from the beginning of the month. Each release has the collective backing of IFD and FrightFest across all marketing, PR and social channels.
The seven titles to be released under FrightFest Presents are: AAAAAAAAH!, The Sand, Afterdeath, Landmine Goes Click, Emelie, The Lesson and Estranged.
• Continue reading at the Horror Channel.
Ten Unmissable Horrors From This Year’s Festival
FrightFest founder and co-director Alan Jones picks his top ten movies showing at this year’s festival. Tickets are on sale now here and the festival runs at Vue Leicester Square from 27 – 31 August
AAAAAAAAH!: If you liked actor Steve Oram in the quirky comedy thriller Sightseers, chances are you’ll adore his directorial debut, bound to become the cult film of this year and many more to come. Original to the point of WTF, imagine future humanity regressing to ape-like behaviour and put under a wildlife documentary microscope. Dialogue-free and featuring a game cast of Oram’s best mates – including Toyah Willcox, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Noah Fielding and Alice Lowe – this is terrifyingly funny, deeply offensive hilariously sick and unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. David Attenborough, eat your heart out!
• Continue reading at VUE.
Icon, FrightFest confirm first films for new genre label
The Sand and Aaaaaaaah! among first FrightFest Presents acquisitions.
UK distributor Icon Film Distribution and UK horror festival FrightFest have set the first films to be released under their FrightFest Presents banner.
The films will premiere at FrightFest, which gets underway in London on Thursday (Aug 27), before unspooling online between October and February 2016. Digital partners will include iTunes, Virgin Movies, Sky, Google Amazon, Xbox , Blinkbox, Google, Wuaki, TalkTalk and Volta.
Among the first batch of titles is Sightseers actor-writer Steve Oram’s surreal ‘monkey comedy’ Aaaaaaaah!, which Icon will release online this October.
Oram stars alongside Noel Fielding (The Mighty Boosh), Alice Lowe (Sightseers), Lucy Honnigman (The Ex-PM), Julian Rhind-Tutt (Lucy), Julian Barratt (The Mighty Boosh) and Toyah Willcox (Quadrophenia) in the story of a tribe of warring ‘monkeys’.
• Continue reading at Screen Daily.
