Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

As it’s almost Christmas, I asked South Shields’ man of music and mystery, Wavis O’Shave, to come up with his favourite festive tales involving his own eccentric exploits.

He kindly sent me the following seasonal stories for your delectation.

“At the start of the 1980s, I had become close friends with pop star and actress Toyah Willcox. I would visit her each Christmas-time whenever she was on tour – I was the only person she would see after a show. In 1981 she was being pressurised by her record company to come up with a cheesy pop song for a hit, but she hated the idea of being too commercial. I suggested she wrote a song about me! Well, whether she did or not, the result became her most famous hit “It’s A Mystery’.”

• Continue reading at The Shield Gazette.

Original Quadrophenia cast reunite for special live event

Phil Daniels and co talking ’bout their generation

Members of the original cast of Quadrophenia are to reunite as part of a special, interactive cinematic event in honour of the film.

Phil Daniels, Phil Davis, Toyah Willcox, Mark Wingett, John Altman, Trevor Laird, Garry Cooper and Daniel Peacock will join director Franc Roddam on February 11, 2016 at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith for a Q&A session following a screening of the film and live re-enactments of its most famous scenes.

• Continue reading at Uncut. Browse all of Dreamscape’s Quadrophenia – The Immersive Cinematic Experience news here.

There’s a great new Toyah feature/review, of last month’s Proud, Loud & Electric gig at The Garage, just published at the Retro Man Blog.

Toyah + The Tuesday Club at The Garage Islington London

So, be honest now, what was your first gig? Mine wasn’t The Sex Pistols at the 100 Club Punk Festival, or The Who at Leeds University Refectory. I didn’t see Iggy smear peanut butter all over himself while crowd surfing at the Cincinnati Pop Festival and I never saw The Clash at the Victoria Park Rock Against Racism Rally. Nope, my first ever gig was Toyah on June 06th 1981 at the Hammersmith Odeon, the “Anthem Tour” in fact and I was 15 years old. Now, why I should feel a little bit guilty admitting this I’m not sure, but you know how snobby us music fans can be sometimes. But as Toyah herself might say, I should be “proud, loud and heard” and not try to cover up the facts just because it might not be thought of as very “cool”. However, your first gig is rather like your first kiss, buying your first 7” single or going to your first football match, it’s something that stays with you forever. Due to many and varied reasons it was impossible for me to get to many gigs in my teenage years so the whole experience of that first live show was magical.

• Continue reading at Retro Man Blog.

Franc Roddam, Director of Quadrophenia Joins Original Cast Members To Talk About Their Generation

Franc Roddam, Director of British movie classic Quadrophenia will join original cast members for an exclusive Q&A as part of a special, interactive cinematic event in honour of the cult film.

Franc Roddam joins original cast members Mark Wingett, John Altman and Phil Davis, as well as Phil Daniels, Toyah Willcox and more for a Modtastic night of nostalgia. Taking place on 11 February at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, the event will showcase Quadrophenia like never before, plunging fans into the sights and sounds of 1964 and capturing the spirit of the era.

Franc Roddam said: “This event is a great celebration of the film and era. It’s overwhelming to think that Quadrophenia is still held in such high regard all these years later. I’m looking forward to being reunited with the cast and talking to fans of the film.”

Tickets for this fully immersive showcase of Quadrophenia are on sale now available at eventimapollo.com and AXS.com.

• Continue reading at Just Another Mag. Browse all of our Quadrophenia: The Immersive Cinematic Experience here.

The Marlowe celebrates a delightful decade of pantomimes produced by Eastry-based company Evolution Productions.

Last year, Evolution Productions celebrated 10 years of pantomime in Canterbury’s Marlowe Theatre. The Eastry-based company, comprising of Paul Hendy and Emily Wood, have produced some star studded productions at Canterbury’s Marlowe in the last decade.

We take a look at some of the most iconic stars who have appeared in Evolution pantomimes at the Marlowe over the last 10 years. Paul, who produces, directs and writes The Marlowe’s pantomimes, said: “I am immensely proud of our long association with the theatre. It has a wonderfully loyal, vocal audience and I’m grateful to the people of east Kent for their support.”

• Continue reading/View the gallery at the Canterbury Times.

Toyah Willcox – Sleeping Beauty, 2012/13 (Browse our Sleeping Beauty 2012/13 news here).

Toyah Willcox first made the cover of Smash Hits on 27 November 1980, the day before her band Toyah released a ‘live’ album. It had been recorded at Wolverhampton’s Lafayette Club on 17 June 1980; the gig was also filmed for inclusion in a television documentary about Willcox and her band. Of the documentary (a ‘fly-on-the-wall’ in which she was followed around over a period of months), she spoke about her unhappiness at being under the control of ATV, the station producing it: “The director wouldn’t give me all the shots I suggested. For example, when we were playing Blue Meaning on top of Battersea Power Station he wouldn’t take a camera up in a helicopter. A lot of it is quite personal though, down to fights with the band in the dressing room.”

One of the tracks performed at the Wolverhampton show, Danced, was issued as Toyah’s fourth single: “A live album – Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! – contains further tracks recorded at this concert but Ghosts and Neon Womb [the B-side songs] are available only on this single,” the sleeve notes ran.

• Continue reading at If You Were There.

Punk queen, actress, TV personality, music composer and wife of King Crimson’s Robert Fripp – Toyah Willcox wears many hats, but after a career spanning five decades and 20 albums, she’s not short of material for this solo show featuring classics and rarities from the early-80s hits like It’s A Mystery and I Want To Be Free, through to her latest work.

Toyah: 5th Nov, 7pm: The Fleece, 12 St Thomas Street, Bristol.

• Continue reading at the Bristol Post.

Details on next Tuesday’s episode of, BBC1 daytime drama, Doctors, “Afternoon of the Living Dead”, in which Toyah plays Bill. (Photo © BBC)

The team have a scary day out
1:45pm, Tuesday, 10 November 2015

The team arrive at an abandoned hospital for their team building day. Suddenly Bill appears and splits into two teams to survive a Zombie invasion. Jimmi tells Sid that the whole thing is ridiculous – but Daniel is fired up and starts to take on a lead role in the action.

Both teams are told that one of them has to make a sacrifice, so Mrs Tembe throws herself to the mercy of a zombie, while Heston reluctantly does the same.

Bill compliments Jimmi on surviving and he unenthusiastically admits they worked as a team. Daniel points out you can’t be a good leader without a good team, an idea that gets him thinking…

• Continue reading at What’s on TV. Read more about this forthcoming episode of Doctors here. Cast list and further info is available at the BBC Doctors website.

Toyah was interviewed earlier this month, in Metro‘s “60 Seconds With”, discussing Aaaaaaaah! and more.

The actress and singer, 57, is starring in a dark British comedy where all the characters act like wild apes.

Your new film, Aaaaaaaah!, is brilliantly bonkers. Why did you say yes to a movie about humans behaving like apes?
It was a clever. well structured, brilliant script with absolutely no respect for anything. It was fabulously complex and incredibly rewarding to do. But I never thought, ‘What the hell have I got myself into?’ because it was a team of really great comedians (including Julian Rhind-Tutt and Julian Barrett) and so they had licence to do something as mad as this.

How do you describe it to your friends?
The first thing I say is, ‘Don’t go and see it!’ I’m 57, so my friends aren’t that much older than me. I said, ‘If you can’t handle vomit, poo, semen, gratuitous sex and gratuitous violence, this isn’t for you,’ and they say, ‘Oh God we’ve got to see this film!’

What was the maddest scene?
It was a kitchen scene. I cook for my husband (musician Robert Fripp) three times a day and so to do the cooking scene was very natural. But to do it where there are no social norms and no hygiene is a very different thing. To do a cookery scene while watching telly with one of the most brilliant interpretations of food porn I’ve ever seen and then to take a crap in the corner – I just thought it was utter genius… Read more…

Pop and 80s icon Toyah Willcox was at Bridgwater College last night (Sunday, October 25, 2015) to perform at The McMillan Theatre.

The gig proved a unique opportunity for people to experience Toyah up close and personal.

The evening included Toyah performing an acoustic set of her hit singles and classic songs, alongside recalling stories from her colourful 35-year career.

Even Bridgwater Press photographer Jeff Searle could not resist from going along and grabbing a picture with Toyah.

• Continue reading at Bridgwater Press.

Autograph hunters head to Blackpool for a star studded convention

Bond girls, a former Miss World who famously dated George Best, and the ‘Stupid Boy’ from Dad’ Army are just some of the celebrities taking part in the inaugural Charity Autograph Convention in Blackpool.

Other celebs attending including former Miss World (1977) Mary Stavin, pop star Toyah Willcox, Game of Thrones actors Ian Whyte and the ‘Stupid Boy’ from Dad’s Army, Ian Lavender.

• Continue reading at ITV News.

Steve Oram on AAAAAAAAH!, monkey business and Battenberg

We talk to Steve Oram about his mad monkey movie Aaaaaaaah!

You’ve not seen anything quite like Steve Oram’s dark comedy Aaaaaaaah! Set in a dystopian world where everyone behaves like apes (complete with grunting, there’s no dialogue), it’s a viciously funny and totally odd piece of work that’s been building excellent word of mouth since its debut at FrightFest.

The film has been going round a few festivals, how have you found the reaction so far?
We’ve had various screenings all around the country, we had a little tour with Picturehouse Cinemas, so we’ve been going round with them and it’s been brilliant. We’ve been doing Q & As at most of these places and I’ve been blown away by the response, it seems people like no-dialogue films these days! FrightFest was a really good start for us, it was amazing. It really seems to be growing, which is great. We had a really good screening at Mayhem in Nottingham on Sunday, which went really well. Really great crowd there, very pleased.

Did you have actors in mind?
I did, I wrote most of the parts for the actors that ended up playing them. They’re gathered from the comedy world and most of them are good friends of mine, Tom Meeten who plays my beta male in it and Julian [Barratt] and Noel [Fielding] and Julian Rhind-Tutt, Holly Dempsey, they’re all really good friends, but Toyah [Willcox] was the one I didn’t know. I just sent her a script because I was a huge fan of her in Jubilee and Quadrophenia, her early work I think is just incredible. And she loved it and fit right in with all my mental friends! Which was really great, a really happy coincidence.

• Continue reading at SciFiNow.

Actor & Comedian Steve Oram In Leeds to Hold Special Late Night Screening of His Debut Film, Aaaaaaaah!

Comedian, actor & writer Steve Oram is bringing his new debut feature film to the Hyde Park Picture House this Saturday, where it will show at a special late night screening, alongside a Q&A with the director. The film, entitled AAAAAAAAH! , is a hilarious, anarchic and touching look at the human condition, and stars many of Oram’s comedy contemporaries including Julian Barratt, Noel Fielding, Alice Lowe and Julian Rhind-Tutt.

Aaaaaaaah! plus live Q&A with director Steve Oram is at the Hyde Park Picture House on Saturday 24th October at 11pm.

• Continue reading at North Leeds Life.

The 28th Bewdley Festival has been described as a great success by its organisers.

Bewdley Festival brought its traditional mix of local talent, regional celebrities and national and international stars of stage, screen and concert halls, all packed into an eventful ten days and all delivered entirely by volunteers. The event, which ran from Friday, October 9, to Sunday, October 18, is much anticipated by lovers of music, comedy, drama and the arts in Wyre Forest.

Other performances across the 10-day festival included Toyah Willcox, Lesley Smith, Andrew Downes, Dr Phil Hammond and Max Keen.

• Continue reading at The Kidderminster Shuttle. Browse our Bewdley Festival 2015 news.

• The Guardian/Guide: Charlie Lyne’s Home Entertainment – Aaaaaaaah!: Frightfest Presents, VOD: Even as physical media starts to look like a relic from a less enlightened age, the internal hierarchy of home video lives on, decreeing that real films come out on Blu-ray – Continue reading… (Thanks to Lärwi for the scan)

• The List: 10 Best New Horror DVDs for Hallowe’en: 5. Aaaaaaaah! (Icon) Aaaaaaaah! is the pick of the new FrightFest Presents imprint (other titles include Some Kind of Hate, Estranged and Night of the Living Deb). The directorial debut of actor Steve Oram (Sightseers) verges on the experimental with a society that hasn’t developed language but communicates via grunts, hoots and gestures. Imagine chimpanzees in a domestic urban setting (anyone who has read Will Self’s masterpiece Great Apes will recognise the concept) as they fight, squabble and rut. Deeply weird but strangely brilliant – Continue reading…

• Westword: Denver Film Festival Announces First Wave of Programming and Early-Bird Discounts: LATE NIGHT – Aaaaaaaah! / UK (Steve Oram): Humans live like wild apes in the midst of a present-day London neighborhood — grunting, fornicating and fighting to kill — in this exuberantly low-budget mash-up of horror, comedy, cult sci-fi, and commentary on social devolution from co-star, screenwriter and first-time director Steve Oram – Continue reading…

• EW: Denver Film Festival to screen Gaspar Noé’s Love, action movie Camino, and Aaaaaaaah!: The Gaspar Noé-directed 3D erotic drama Love, the Zoë Bell-starring action-thriller movie Camino, and the horror-comedy Aaaaaaaah! — about humans living like wild apes in present-day London — will all screen at this year’s Denver Film Festival – Continue reading…

• Brutal as Hell: New Sizzle Reel For FrightFest Presents VOD Platform: At the stroke of midnight on 19th October, FrightFestPresents.com will release its first six titles for VOD. In conjunction with Icon Home Entertainment, the biggest name on the British horror fest scene are now bringing some titles from their 2015 flagship event into the digital realm for all to see – and the first movies to be released under this banner are The Sand, Estranged, After Death, Aaaaaaaaah!, Night of the Living Deb and Some Kind of Hate – Continue reading…

Singer, actress, TV personality, author – Toyah Willcox has gained fame from all of the above in a career spanning over 30 years. And, as she prepares to come to East Lancashire for a special show celebrating her music she reveals she’s probably having the best time of her whole career.

“I’m fortunate to have had such longevity,” she said. “But I really do think this is the best time for me.”

In her new show which comes to Oswaldtwistle Civic Arts Centre next Friday, Toyah will be performing many of her hits acoustically. For those familiar with her many chart successes including Thunder in the Mountains, Brave New World and Ieya, the idea of an acoustic show may, at first, be surprising.

But Toyah can put them at their ease. “It all works fabulously well,” said the star who had eight top 40 singles and has released over 20 albums. “I thought I’d give it a go so there’s me and two guitarists who can also both sing and that’s it. When you take away the drums and a lot of the volume the songs really prove themselves. You can hear the harmonies and people have been coming up after the show saying that they like many of the songs even more the acoustic way than the original.”

• Continue reading at the Lancashire Telegraph.

College News: 80s cult pop star Toyah is coming to Bridgwater

Pop and 80s icon, Toyah Willcox will be performing a lively unplugged storytellers style gig at Bridgwater College’s The McMillan Theatre later this month.

This gig on Sunday, October 25, 2015, at 7.30pm will be a unique chance to experience Toyah up close and personal.COLLEGE NEWS: 80s cult pop star Toyah is coming to Bridgwater

The evening will include Toyah performing an acoustic set of her loved hit singles and classic songs, alongside recalling stories from her colourful 35-year career. Tickets cost just £18 and are available from www.mcmillantheatre.com or the Box Office in person or by phone, 01278-556677.

• Continue reading at Bridgwater Press.

In his directorial debut, Sightseers star Steve Oram delivers a remarkable film that satirises human behaviour with apeshit craziness.

Set in a superficially recognisable South London of semi-detached houses, football pitches and fashionable clothing boutiques, Aaaaaaaah! nevertheless offers an alternate reality that entirely eschews dialogue for primal grunts and gesticulations, with civilisation repeatedly shown to be a thin veneer over simian wildness.

Aaaaaaaah! features some dark and comically extreme sequences, but it’s not too aloof in its arthouse outlook. Plotwise, it’s essentially Romeo and Juliet.

• Continue reading at Chortle. Catch up on all of our Aaaaaaaah! news here.

The world of VOD is sometimes seen as the bargain bin of film but new services like Frightfest Presents and its new ape drama might be about to change all that

British comedy stalwart Steve Oram’s directorial debut Aaaaaaaah! sees a host of famous faces (Toyah Willcox included) occupy a world in which human beings act like apes, their social graces eradicated and all known language replaced by a series of unintelligible grunts. So far, so kooky, but from the opening moments of the film – in which Oram’s character weepily urinates over a photo of his ex-wife – Aaaaaaaah! reveals itself as something much more tender than its offbeat premise might imply.

• Continue reading at The Guardian.

A popular Shipley Gate venue is hosting the auditions for a new rock music-based show. Thunder Valley Rocks is a nine-episode television show, filmed in a “live” format, and presented by Toyah Willcox.

Each episode features five live, unsigned rock bands, with celebrity guests appraising the bands’ performances and offering tips and advice from their own experiences.

The premise behind the show is that rock bands receive minimal exposure on national television compared to solo artists and pop music. In the final episode, the guests will choose a band between them, who will be offered a chance to play at a top UK music festival in 2016.

The pilot show will be screened on November 14. The celebrity guests will be taken from a range of different eras, and include musicians such as Roy Wood, Suzi Quatro, Kofi Baker, Rex Brown, Rick Wakeman, Ginger Fish, Martin Turner, Mark Brzezicki and more.

• Continue reading at Belper News.

80s star Toyah Willcox to perform at Bridgwater’s The McMillan Theatre

Pop and 80s icon, Toyah Willcox is set to perform a lively unplugged storytellers style gig at Bridgwater College’s The McMillan Theatre. The event is taking place on Sunday October 25 at 7.30pm.

It is a chance to experience Toyah up close and personal and will include the star performing an acoustic set of her loved hit singles and classic songs, as well as telling stories from her thirty-five year career.

Anthony Bruton, Theatre Manager, said: “We are looking forward to hosting Toyah and know it will be a great evening for both fans and those who love acoustic music.”

Tickets cost £18 are available from www.mcmillantheatre.com or the Box Office in person or by phone, 01278 556677.

• Continue reading at This is The West Country.