Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

Three iconic bands from the 1980s will headline next month’s Lechlade Music Festival, it has been announced.

Punk princess Toyah Willcox receives top billing on Friday May 23 while Dr and the Medics and The Blow Monkeys will be joint headliners on Sunday May 25.

The three day family-friendly festival takes place at Riverside Country Park in Lechlade over the bank holiday weekend, with camping from Friday to Monday.

The line-up features more than 80 bands which will perform on three stages.

• Continue reading at the Gloucestershire Echo.

The recent Chorley Guardian interview with Toyah has been slightly rejigged and published today by the Lancashire Telegraph.

No mystery that Toyah Willcox still rocks

Toyah Willcox has never been afraid to speak her mind, and, now she’s a 50-something, the former high priestess of punk doesn’t show any signs of putting the brakes on.

Toyah burst on to the pop scene with smash hits It’s A Mystery and I Want To Be Free, and since then she’s also enjoyed a successful career as a singer, presenter and an actress, appearing in several films, stage plays and in numerous television dramas.

• Continue reading at the Lancashire Telegraph.

Crick Boat Show needs no introduction. It is a hallmark of the waterways events calendar at the heart of the waterway network. Every year crowds of boaters, boats and lovers of the great outdoors flock to Crick in Northamptonshire for the renowned Crick Boat Show.

Pop icon, TV presenter and actress Toyah Willcox will headline this year’s Crick Boat Show & Waterways Festival entertainment programme. Toyah will be performing her ‘Acoustic, Up Close & Personal’ set at Crick as part of the show’s Saturday evening entertainment programme. Her gig will include renditions of her best loved hit singles, alongside stories from her colourful 35-year career.

• Continue reading at Canal & River Trust. Browse all of Dreamscape’s Toyah at Crick Boat Show news.

She’s 55 but already this year she’s high dived in Splash and made her point on Pointless – now she’s back on the road – as Tony Dewhurst discovers

Toyah Willcox has never been afraid to speak her mind, and, now she’s a 50-something, the former high priestess of punk doesn’t show any signs of putting the brakes on.

Toyah burst on to the pop scene with smash hits It’s A Mystery and I Want To Be Free, and since then she’s also enjoyed a successful career as a singer, presenter and an actress, appearing in several films, stage plays and in numerous television dramas.

“The punk revolution changed my life, but I’m as busy now as I ever was,” said Toyah, who brings her colourful greatest hits stage show to Clitheroe tonight.

“Slow down? Not a chance. “I love performing and I’m chocka with commitments.

• Continue reading at the Chorley Guardian.

Fripp, Buck, and Others Make Slow Music

Viewed through a wide-angle lens, the line that runs through Bill Rieflin’s projects seems to follow the trend of many musicians who came out of the punk era. There’s the furious, angst-driven beginning that coasts steadily downward into calmer, more middle-of-the-road fare.

In the case of Rieflin, the 53-year-old musician made a name for himself in the late ’80s when he joined forces with industrial-rock carpet bombers Ministry and Revolting Cocks, while also helping form the equally brutal collective Pigface. So his moving into the world of straightforward rock like the Minus 5 and R.E.M. (he was their drummer from 2003 until the band split up in 2011) might seem like he’s gone soft in his later years.

• Continue reading at The Portland Mercury.

Holy shit, Robert Fripp’s going to be playing two dates in Seattle! But don’t expect selections from Evening Star or Exposure or a medley of greatest non-hits by King Crimson (who are reunited, by the way). The British guitar innovator’s here as part of the ensemble Slow Music, an odd conglomeration of rock vets including R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck, percussionist Bill Rieflin (Swans, R.E.M.), drummer Matt Chamberlain (Critters Buggin, Pearl Jam), and bassist Fred Chalenor (Hughscore). As Slow Music, they create a kind of intimate ambient sound that hints at ECM-ish chamber jazz abstraction. It’s super-refined and minimal, demanding utmost focus to appreciate the minute, elegant contours and subtle gestures.

• Continue reading at The Stranger.

A great new interview with Bill Rieflin, by The Seattle Times, ahead of next week’s The Humans/Slow Music US live dates in Seattle and Portland.

It’s Bill Rieflin times two at Slow Music and Humans show next week | Concert preview

Bill Rieflin will be on double duty next week when he appears at the Triple Door on April 14 and 15. The multi-instrumentalist, who boasts a wide-ranging resume (Ministry, R.E.M., Nine Inch Nails, Robyn Hitchcock), will headline both shows with his improvisational group Slow Music, which also includes legendary English guitarist Robert Fripp, as well as playing in the evening’s opening act, the Humans, which features Fripp’s wife, English singer/actress Toyah Willcox.

“Believe me, it’s not my idea,” Rieflin said of the double billing. It all began when Rieflin was recently out dining in London with Fripp, Willcox, R.E.M.’s Peter Buck (another Slow Music member), and Young Fresh Fellows/R.E.M. guitarist Scott McCaughey.

• Continue reading at The Seattle Times.

Toyah was never a shrinking violet when it came to rummaging through the dressing up box, and she’ll no doubt be done up like Fenwick’s Christmas window when she gets out her greatest hits at Blyth’s lovely Phoenix Theatre this May.

Has Toyah released an autobiography yet? If not she needs to get scribbling as she’s got a tale to tell. From playing ‘Mad’ in Derek Jarman’s punk film Jubilee (and ‘Monkey’ in mod epic Quadrophenia) to colourful pop star, to stage performer, to a whole range of TV presenting jobs (she’s ran the full gamut on the small screen from The Good Sex Guide to Songs Of Praise), she’s a woman who’s been constantly on the move. And her pop career, which has yielded thirteen top 40 singles and twenty albums, has won her an enormous army of fans who will no doubt be in force on her Crimson Queen tour in which she’ll be playing all her greatest hits. X-Factor? Toyah’s still got the Max-Factor.

Toyah Willcox, Saturday 10 May, Phoenix Theatre, Blyth, 7pm, £20/£23. thephoenixtheatre.org.uk

• Read the article at The Crack website.

A new article on Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, in which Toyah appeared as Janet in 1980, at Memorable TV. They use a great screen cap of Toyah’s character too.

Period horror. In 1980 the BBC broadcast a feature length period adaptation of Stevenson’s proto horror classic, pulling out all the stops and persuading David Hemmings to take the lead in a rare TV role and very good he is too as the doctor who unleashes his dark side on Victorian society – with murderous and bloody consequences…

Hemmings is marvelously decadent as Hyde and the production design is sumptuous. There are some great supporting performaces too, not least from the excellent Ian Bannen who is not as well remembered these days as he should be) and also a young Toyah Willcox who at the time was trying to make more of a mark as an actress than as the punk singer she was best known for. There’s also a cameo from the gorgeous Diana Dors.

• Read the full article, including cast list and production details, at Memorable TV.

SohoCreate to showcase some of the creative quarter’s brightest talents, with restaurateur Mark Hix and Line of Duty’s Simon Heath joining the list of speakers

Actor Gary Kemp and singer and I’m a Celebrity contestant Toyah Willcox have agreed to take part in SohoCreate, the West End neighbourhood’s inaugural creative arts festival.

Assembling some of the UK’s leading creative minds, the June event will offer insights with sessions featuring a number of other creative specialists .

• Continue reading at the Radio Times.

Pop icon, TV presenter and actress Toyah Willcox will headline this year’s Crick Boat Show & Waterways Festival entertainment programme.

The annual event, which showcases the inland waterways industry with over 250 exhibitors from across the canal world, takes place at Crick Marina, near Rugby from May 24 to 26.

Organised by Waterways World in partnership with the Canal & River Trust and Crick Marina, the Show is expected to attract 25,000 visitors. Toyah will be performing her Acoustic, Up Close & Personal set at Crick as part of the show’s Saturday evening entertainment programme.

• Continue reading at the Rugby Advertiser. Browse all of Dreamscape’s Toyah at Crick Boat Show news.

Around 100 ‘extras’ will be needed in Birmingham tonight for a scene in a science fiction film.

The film Kaleidoscope Man, directed by Simon Cox, will star Toyah Willcox.

Tonight’s scene (Sunday 30th March) will be filmed in Cornwall Street, off Margaret Street and Edmund Street, between 7.30pm and 10.30pm. The film crew are hoping to capture crowd action and special effects scenes.

• Continue reading at the Tyburn Mail.

A new interview with Toyah, published yesterday, by the Western Morning News.

Toyah aims to make a big impression at festival

Toyah Willcox thrives under the spotlight… and there have been all manner of such illuminations during her three-decade music-making and acting career. From Top of the Pops, films like Quadrophenia, via West End musicals, pantomime, countless TV and radio drama roles, reality shows like I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, to intimate West Coast USA club shows with side project The Humans, there are few performance opportunities the 55-year-old has not embraced.

She is the veritable queen of diversity and reinvention, with almost 20 albums, eight top 40 hits and a myriad acting parts behind her, as well as many honest revelations about her family, her marriage and her facelift.

Tomorrow she and her band will rock the stage at the Great British Alternative Music Festival in Minehead as part of a weekend feast of punk, new wave, mod and ska excellence from original late 1970s and early 80s artists. We’re talking names like the Damned, Buzzcocks, Bad Manners, Eddie and the Hot Rods, Cockney Rejects and The Blockheads.

Tapping into the contemporary thirst for nostalgia with quality credentials, it’s a Westcountry gathering that’s now in its third year. Not only does it attract stalwart original fans, there’s a whole new generation joining the party, fuelled by their parents’ record collections and the vast cultural library offered by Internet trawling.

• Continue reading at the Western Morning News. It’s also been published under the title: No mystery about Toyah’s multi-talented career.

A new article, on Toyah’s forthcoming Crimson Queen/Greatest Hits…Live! date in Hastings, by the Bexhill-On-Sea Observer.

Toyah Willcox and her band
St Mary in the Castle, Hastings
Saturday April 5 at 7.30pm

Toyah’s career has been diverse with hit records and prestigious acting roles to her credit, and she is also an author, TV celebrity, and vocalist with her husband Robert Fripp new band The Humans.

But it is her own band that she brings to St Mary in the Castle, and you can expect a dynamic performance from this charismatic survivor.

The show is a celebration of her thirty year songbook with well-loved songs that include such massive hits as It’s a Mystery and I Wanna Be Free and cult classic tracks from those early albums Sheep Farming In Barnet and The Blue Meaning through to the Platinum-selling Anthem and the critically acclaimed The Changeling.

• Continue reading at the Bexhill-On-Sea Observer.

Pop singer and ’80s icon Toyah Willcox will be the headline act at the Crick Boat Show.

The annual show will be held at Crick Marina from Saturday, May 24 to Monday, May 26 with more than 250 exhibitors at the event.

Toyah will be performing her acoustic, up close and personal set during the Saturday evening entertainment. Her gig will include renditions of her most well-known singles, such as It’s A Mystery, Thunder in the Mountains and I Want to Be Free and she will tell stories from her colourful 35-year career.

• Continue reading at the Daventry Express.

Hold on to your hats as Toyah Willcox plays her greatest hits at the Tivoli, Wimborne, next Friday (28th) at 7.30pm.

The lovable livewire has moved from punk princess to high priestess of TV, treading the boards as an actress, composing music and being an award-winning rock legend along the way.

Toyah will be performing a full set with her band, featuring songs from In the Court of the Crimson Queen along with classic hits and fan favourites.

• Continue reading at Blackmore Vale Magazine.

Pop icon Toyah Willcox headlining this year’s Crick Boat Show and Waterways Festival in Northamptonshire

Pop icon, TV presenter and actress Toyah Willcox is headlining this year’s Crick Boat Show & Waterways Festival.

The annual event, which showcases the inland waterways industry with over 250 exhibitors from across the canal world, takes place at Crick Marina, near Daventry in Northamptonshire, from 24 to 26 May 2014.

Toyah will be performing her ‘Acoustic, Up Close & Personal’ set at Crick as part of the show’s Saturday evening entertainment programme.

• Continue reading at Northampton Herald & Post.

80s singer Toyah Willcox to headline Crick Boat Show

Pop singer and TV presenter Toyah Willcox will headline this year’s Crick Boat Show & Waterways Festival.

The annual event, which showcases the inland waterways industry with over 250 exhibitors from across the canal world, takes place at Crick Marina, near Daventry in Northamptonshire, on the weekend of May 24 to 26.

The show is expected to attract 25,000 visitors and Toyah will be performing her ‘Acoustic, Up Close & Personal’ set during the Saturday evening entertainment programme.

Her gig will include renditions of her most well-known singles, such as It’s A Mystery, Thunder in the Mountains and I Want to Be Free and she will tell stories from her colourful 35-year career.

• Continue reading at Northampton Chronicle & Echo.

This is fast becoming our favourite diary date – the chance to see five incredible acts do their stuff live from the atmospheric and intimate Bedford pub in Balham. And this month veteran singer songwriter, broadcaster, campaigner and all-round good guy Tom Robinson is hosting.

Taking to the stage at the 4th Vintage TV Sessions (20th March, 8pm) are: punk princess Toyah Willcox and her band: indie rockers The Struts, 80s idol Nik Kershaw, the gorgeous Judie Tzuke of ‘Stay with me ‘til Dawn’ fame; and acclaimed singer songwriter Josephine. Let’s keep it live!

• Visit the Vintage TV website.

A short news article on Toyah, by the Huddersfield Daily Examiner, ahead of the Crimson Queen/ Greatest Hits…Live! gig in Holmfirth next Friday.

Seventies and 80s pop star Toyah is set to play a live show at the Picturedrome.

In a career spanning over 30 years she has amassed 13 top 40 singles, recorded 20 albums and toured the world. She first emerged in 1977 and by 1979 Toyah’s band was gaining critical success with the debut single, Victims of the Riddle.

A platinum album Anthem followed and in 1981 she featured on the famous Old Grey Whistle Test Christmas Special. The following year saw her winning Best Female Singer at the Rock And Pop Awards.

• Continue reading at the Huddersfield Daily Examiner.

The collaboration celebrates the life and work of Jarman in a year that marks the 20th anniversary of his death.

Jarman died in 1994, aged just 52, but his legacy lives on. In the 20 years since, his films have lost none of their relevance and remain influential, with public interest increasing substantially in recent years.

Edinburgh also plays a key role in Jarman’s fascinating story, as he brought several films – starting with The Tempest – to the Edinburgh’s International Film Festival.

With the help of the British Film Institute, the film season will include features such as Caravaggio, The Tempest, The Angelic Conversation, War Requiem, Jubilee, Wittgenstein, The Garden, Blue, The Last of England, Edward II and Glitterbug, alongside more experimental films and rarely seen shorts.

• Continue reading at the Edinburgh Evening News.