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‘I saw dead people’ – actress Rula Lenksa on her terrifying moment inside Toyah Willcox’s haunted house

The Celebrity Big Brother star is coming to Birmingham Hippodrome in spooky new play The Frozen Scream

The lights went out and the next thing Rula Lenksa knew, she was huddled in the corner, hysterically crying with fear. The terrifying experience happened in the Worcestershire home of singer Toyah Willcox, which Rula believes is haunted.

Such ghost stories are now uppermost in her mind as she stars in the spooky new play The Frozen Scream at Birmingham Hippodrome.

Rula, 67, remembers that Birmingham singer Toyah invited her to her 17th century house in Pershore to take part in the satellite TV series called Living with the Dead.

• Continue reading at the Birmingham Mail.

Nostalgia: Millennium memories 15 years on – do you remember when we partied like it was 1999?

It’s been 15 years since the turn of the new millennium. We take a look back on the day Birmingham welcomed in a new year with a difference.

Can you believe it’s really been 15 years since we celebrated the new millennium?

Were you there in Centenary Square on that electric, if not a little rainy, night when Birmingham partied like it was 1999? Thousands of people turned out, bearing umbrellas, big 2000 hats and silly glasses, wigs and costumes to add to the party atmosphere. They paid up to £100 each for a ticket.

Toyah Willcox took to the stage too to help raise funds for the project, which even had the backing of the then Prime Minister Tony Blair.

• Continue reading at the Birmingham Mail.

High Priestess of Punk Toyah Willcox lights up Bournemouth hotel

Singer and actress Toyah Willcox fired-up this year’s Christmas celebrations at the Days Hotel Marsham Court by setting light to the Christmas pudding. Toyah, whose famous hits include It’s a Mystery and Thunder in the Mountains was at the hotel in Russell Cotes Road, Bournemouth, as the special guest of the Dorset Ladies Luncheon Club.

The Club, which has over 180 members, is celebrating its 40th anniversary and invited Toyah to be guest speaker at its annual Christmas Lunch.

…Rosie Wallace, general manager of the Days Hotel Marsham Court said: “It was great to have Toyah at the hotel. She is a fascinating woman and full of sparkle – the perfect choice to perform the traditional lighting of the pud.”

• Continue reading at www.afc-business.co.uk.

Toyah Willcox delivers key note speech at Dorset Ladies Luncheon Club

Singer and actress Toyah Willcox, best known for hits It’s a Mystery and Thunder in the Mountains, appeared at the Days Hotel Marsham Court as a special guest of the Dorset Ladies Luncheon Club.

Toyah marked the occasion by setting the Christmas pudding alight and delivery a keynote speech. The club, which has more than 180 members, is currently celebrating its 40th anniversary.

As she lit the Christmas pudding, Toyah said: “Being asked to light the Christmas pudding came as a complete surprise. It was huge, with a lot of Brandy! And it was good fun.”

• Continue reading at Blackmore Vale Magazine.

Toyah Willcox among guests at PJ Crook’s open studio charity event

Toyah Willcox was among the guests at an open studio event hosted by world-renowned artist PJ Crook.

Miniature canvases were sold at the first of two weekends designed to give art-lovers the chance to see a large altarpiece PJ is painting for St Michael and All Angels’ Church in Bishop’s Cleeve. The proceeds from the event at PJ’s Priory Lane studio will be going to the National Star College, LINC, the Friends of Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum and the Holst Birthplace Museum.

Among the visitors were Dame Janet Trotter and 80s pop star Ms Willcox, who lives near Pershore.

• Continue reading at the Gloucestershire Echo.

We like to call it our seasonal selection box – perfect Christmas TV to dip into for those melting musical moments. It’s pure indulgence but these are sweet treats to keep you entertained throughout the festivities. Unwrap and savour shows including Toyah’s Christmas at the Zoo, A Very Vintage Christmas, Christmas in the Studio – with Martine McCutcheon and Michael Ball introducing performing artists Nerina Pallot, Beverley Craven, Paul Carrack and Jive Bunny – Pat Sharp’s Christmas Top 20, Toyah’s Vintage Christmas and a host of Christmassy song selections. There are goodies galore for everyone to share in our programming pic ‘n’ mix!

• Continue reading at Vintage TV. Check out our recent Vintage TV Toyah news.

Toyah is mentioned in a recent Daily Mail article, on the past century of hairstyles being captured in a time lapse video.

1970s: “At the beginning of the 1970’s a dark natural blonde look remained popular, inspired by Farrah Fawcett from the cult series ‘Charlies Angels’. Hair was all about manes of free-falling curls, soft partings and long fringes completed by bronzed skin. However by the end of the era with the ‘Punk’ movement, women like Toyah Willcox started to experiment with hair colour. For the first time we saw vivid primary or fluorescent hair colours emerging.”

• Continue reading at the Daily Mail.

Soundstock Festival tickets on sale tomorrow at launch party

Tickets are set to go on sale for a new family-friendly festival coming to Roxwell next year.

Soundstock Festival, a two-day music and comedy event, will be held on the weekend of May 2 and 3 and could see thousands of people through the gate. Music acts confirmed so far include former X Factor contestants Next of Kin as well as Toyah Willcox, Ultimate Eagles, the Johnny Cash Roadshow and the Simon and Garfunkel Story.

• Continue reading at the Chelmsford Weekly News.

What did you do last Thursday? Watch TV? Eat pizza? Read a magazine? Take a bath?

That’s my usual Thursday regimen, too – yeah, I’m wild – but last Thursday was a little bit different. I’d been invited to take part in a Twitter Q&A with the legend that is Toyah Willcox in association with the team behind The Sun’s online bingo show! You can’t get more modern than that when it comes to interviewing a celebrity, can you?

• Continue reading at More Than Toast. (Photo © More Than Toast)

Toyah Willcox and her band are set to perform at Yardbirds Rock Club in Grimsby

Princess of Punk Toyah Willcox is heading to Grimsby’s Yardbirds Rock Club next year. The star will perform at the Church Street venue on Friday, March 6.

Toyah and her band had a number of hits in the eighties including Four From Toyah, Thunder In The Mountain and I Want To Be Free before she embarked on a solo career. She has had thirteen top 40 singles, recorded twenty albums, written two books and has also presented TV programmes such as Watchdog and Songs Of Praise.

Toyah has also appeared in a number of stage productions including the rock musical Vampires Rock which was performed at Grimsby Auditorium in 2009.

Tickets for the gig – which is part of her band’s greatest hits tour – go on sale this weekend priced at £18.

• Continue reading at the Grimsby Telegraph.

Hazel O’Connor recalls the famous Rainbow Theatre gig with The Stranglers from 1980 in a new interview at The Birmingham Press.

You’re touring with Hugh Cornwell now; he’s seen as a distinguished elder statesman of the music business which is a long way removed from the time you played a gig for him when he was in prison for drug possession.

“That was a night. The Stranglers were due to play the Rainbow but with Hugh in prison a few of us replaced him as singer, or rather tried to, because Hugh’s irreplaceable. Myself an Toyah did couple of songs, that was when I did Hanging Around for the first time. We were singing backing vocals on Peaches with Ian Dury singing. Toyah was dancing round the stage as she always does while Ian was scrabbling around on the floor trying to pick his hat up which she’d knocked off. Robert Smith was playing guitar as well, in his pre-make up days. I wish someone could find footage of it.

“It wasn’t so good for Hugh though – he was in prison for something he might not have been charged for now. The authorities were making an example of someone famous.”

• Continue reading at The Birmingham Press.

Forever a member of the exclusive Mononymous Club, Toyah is perhaps best known to most today as a TV personality appearing on quiz shows and umpteen celebrity reality programmes.

To others she will always be remembered as the once wild woman of British mainstream pop who in the early Eighties broke the mould for female singers who previously only sang songs about unrequited love. Starring roles in iconic films Quadrophenia and Jubilee cemented Toyah’s reputation as being bold and rebellious further still.

Gigging consistently since the beginning of her career the interestingly titled latest tour, Songs From The Intergalactic Ranch House, named after her original fan club, is a retrospective celebration spanning the 1979 release of her debut album, Sheep Farming in Barnet through to her last solo studio album In The Court Of The Crimson Queen.

• Continue reading at the Bristol Post.

For 15 years, Jonathan Sale interviewed the famous about their school years for a column in ‘The Independent’. Here’s what he discovered about how triumph or failure, diligence or dissent, shaped their working lives.

… Dragon James Caan flogged leather jackets from his father’s shop during break – and added a mark-up that his dad didn’t know about. Toyah Willcox was one of several who thought that their first day at school was a one-off; they didn’t realise that you went back the next day, and the day after and…

• Continue reading at The Independent.

Today, 35 years ago, the movie Quadrophenia was released.

…and did you know…? “Monkey” was Toyah Willcox who you might know as TOYAH from the New Wave scene in the 80s. She is still quite a beauty.

The opening scene at the beach and the scooter ride… “Can you see the real me?”

• Continue reading at This Is Indie.

She may be 56 and stand a mere 5ft 1in tall, but there’s no denying that actress, singer and TV presenter Toyah Willcox remains a powerhouse of energy on stage. Last Friday, her 1979 track Danced proved just that… and no doubt left more than a few of us in the audience with sore ankles the next day, having stupidly joined in with the bouncing. We are old enough to know better.

Actually, it’s hard to believe that is 32 years since I went to my first Toyah gig – The 1982 Changeling Tour at the Playhouse, for those who may have been there. Back then she easily sold out the 3000 seater… and I had dyed orange hair. Friday was a more intimate affair and all the better for it… I’ll pass on a hair update.

• Continue reading at the Edinburgh Evening News.

Toyah Willcox is to bring her ‘Up Close and Personal’ show to Lowdham Village Hall as part of the 2015 Lowdham Book Festival.

In this ‘Up Close and Personal’ show Toyah will perform an acoustic set of her much-loved hit singles and classic songs, accompanied by two acoustic guitarists. A big screen presentation will show clips of the many films and videos in which Toyah has participated and she will talk about these – and the various actors and musicians she has worked with over the years – in a relaxed and informal way. Tickets on sale now, priced £20.

• Continue reading at Warthog Promotions.

Toyah’s autumn tour, Songs From The Intergalactic Ranchouse kicked off in Birmingham on 18 October and so far has wowed Leeds, Glasgow and Manchester.

The tour is treating fans to a reworked set list which spans Toyah’s whole career from Sheep Farming In Barnet through to Crimson Queen. For the first time ever, selections from Minx are included with a fantastic rendition of Soul Passing Through Soul which can you hear a special audio preview of on this page or at Toyah’s official Soundcloud.

• Continue reading at toyahwillcox.com.

Russell Brand’s revolution, an X Factor star and an 1980s punk princess – here’s three things to do in West Yorkshire tonight

They say variety is the spice of life – and we’ve certainly got that for you today! If you’re looking for a night out, there’s plenty going on in West Yorkshire this evening – from a comedian predicting revolution to the return of an 80s punk princess.

Relive the eighties with Toyah — That’s right, 80s superstar Toyah is back — and she’s performing live in Leeds tonight. Her Songs from the Intergalactic Ranch House tour, her fourth venture this year, is calling at Leeds University Union tonight, features hits from the Safari catalogue through to Crimson Queen.

• Continue reading at The Huddersfield Daily Examiner.

Pershore appeared on prime time TV this weekend as Through the Keyhole explored the home of town resident, Toyah Willcox. The 80s singer and voice of the Telly Tubbies lives in the centre of the town in a large Georgian home. She became the latest victim of funny man Keith Lemon as he explored her large home, which she shares with husband Robert Fripp.

He originally filmed the segment back in May, when he was spotted in Pershore by some locals.

• Continue reading at Worcester News.

A great new interview with Toyah, published yesterday, by The Argus.

Hannah Collisson talks to singer Toyah Willcox about her music and more

To say Toyah is busy is an understatement. She is touring the UK with her acoustic and electric shows, writing two new albums, and has just finished work on a feature film.

Somewhere in between she finds time for meet and greets, learning three musical instruments, and interacting with her fans online.

The singer and actress rose to fame in the 1970s and 1980s with an appearance in the film Quadrophenia, and hits including It’s A Mystery and I Want To Be Free, and she has not stopped since.

Over the course of 30 years, she has released 20 albums, had 13 top 40 hits, and appeared widely in film, theatre and television. Recent musical appearances for Toyah include a sell-out acoustic date at Shoreham’s Ropetackle Arts Centre earlier this month, and she will be in Brighton for a full-on electric show, Songs From The Intergalactic Ranch House, at The Haunt on November 7.

“At the moment, this year is blowing 35 years away,” reflects Toyah. “It has been incredible; we are getting standing ovations every night…”

• Continue reading at The Argus.

I have been coming to Evesham Dental Health Team (EDHT) for at least ten years. The team is friendly and helpful, and more importantly local and available. I am horrified at the prices that London charge for treatment and I disagree that you have to pay a premium just for being in London. Also I know people that have to book six months ahead and for me that would be a nightmare.

I think it is really important to have good teeth. I don’t think people realise how often your teeth are looked at. I realised during photo shoots that my teeth no longer translated the way I felt about them. I had lost a lot of enamel from natural wear and tear, as well as through a very healthy lifestyle of lots of fruit and vegetables – which I found ironic as you wouldn’t expect that to happen. As a result of this loss of enamel, my teeth felt very rough and I hated food sticking to them.

• Continue reading at EDHT.