Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

COMPETITION: 50 family tickets to the Crick Boat Show to be won

The 15th Crick Boat Show & Waterways Festival will be held at Crick Marina in Northamptonshire this weekend.

The annual event, which attracts over 25,000 visitors, is organised by Waterways World in partnership with the Canal & River Trust and Crick Marina. It will run from Saturday until Monday (May 24-26).

As well as showcasing the inland waterways industry with over 250 exhibitors from across the canal world, Crick Boat Show offers a fantastic day out for all the family with boat trips and live music including huge stars Toyah Willcox and Seán Cannon from The Dubliners both performing on Saturday evening in our real ale marquee. There is also a large variety of food and drink stalls.

• Continue reading/enter the competition at Northampton Chronicle & Echo. All entries must be received before noon on Friday, May 23.

A major outdoor music festival at the home of Fleetwood Town FC starring the Happy Mondays has been postponed.

The club today released a statement saying the concert on June 1 has been postponed after being contacted by Wyre Council to say the event had not got permission. Wyre Council leases Highbury Stadium to the club and it is understood the concert breaks the terms of their contract.

A statement on the club website said tickets will be refunded in full. The anti-fracking gig was announced following Happy Mondays maraca player Mark “Bez” Berry’s visit to the port earlier this year.

Toyah Willcox, Big Country, Bad Manners and Alabama 3 were all due to play at the 10-hour event, alongside a number of local bands.

• Continue reading at Fleetwood Weekly News.

Interesting Toyah news over at www.worcesternews.co.uk – I don’t want to spoil the surprise by directly linking to it.

Toyah also tweeted in relation to this on Saturday: “Had a mini riot outside our house yesterday when a very famous person was spotted coming out of the front door!”

• Search for Toyah at Worcester News if you really want to know ;))

Toyah is featured in today’s ‘Mail On Sunday’ supplement Event, in their “Desert Island Pics”, with some excellent photos of, and memories from, Toyah:

Caged by Chris Tarrant, trapped in the jungle by the Aussie SAS… the It’s A Mystery singer’s colourful life.

1. Pants performers, 1980: That’s a promo shot of my first band. They dumped me but within months I had my debut hit. We’re all still friends, by the way. The belt I’m wearing was given to me by Lou Reed.

2. Women on top, 1986: This was the Woman Of The Year Awards at the Savoy. Diana was a beautiful person, quick to laugh and very kind. I sat next to her during lunch that day and she talked to me about how she wanted William and Harry to have normal lives, to be able to travel and do whatever they chose. She was a devoted, loving mother.

Click here to read the full article via a larger scan. (Thanks to Lärwi, of The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive, for scanning this.)

A new article on Toyah, By Chronicle Live, published today.

Eighties pop star Toyah to play Phoenix Theatre in Blyth

Former punk princess Toyah will be performing all her greatest hits at the Phoenix Theatre in Blyth this Saturday

Eighties pop star Toyah will play the Phoenix Theatre in Blyth this Saturday.

It all began in her hometown Birmingham in 1977 when film director Derek Jarman offered her the role of ‘Mad’ in seminal punk epic Jubilee. She continued to gain strong roles, appearing alongside Katherine Hepburn in the film, The Corn is Green, as well as playing Monkey in the legendary Quadrophenia. She teamed up with Jarman again to play Miranda in his innovative version of The Tempest, which won her a nomination as Best Newcomer at the 1980 Evening Standard Awards.

Saturday’s show will see her play all her greatest hits plus her tracks from her album Crimson Queen.

• Continue reading at Chronicle Live.

A host of top acts will join the Happy Mondays at a 10-hour outdoor music festival at the home of Fleetwood Town FC, it has today been announced.

The League Two club will host the anti-fracking gig, headlined by the Manchester legends, at its Highbury Stadium on June 1 – with fans and Fylde coast residents first in line for tickets.

The Gazette can reveal the former first lady of punk Toyah Willcox is among the names confirmed to play at the Live Wyre concert next month. Scottish rockers Big Country are also on the bill, alongside ska band Bad Manners. London-based Alabama 3 are set to play at the concert, as well as a selection of local bands.

• Continue reading at the Blackpool Gazette.

Iconic eighties bands The Blow Monkeys, Dr and the Medics and Toyah Willcox to headline Lechlade Music Festival next month

A group of iconic eighties bands have been announced as headliners for next month’s Lechlade Music Festival. Punk princess Toyah Willcox will headline on the first day of the festival, Friday, May 23 with Dr and the Medics as well as The Blow Monkeys headlining on Sunday, May 25.

“Toyah has had the biggest reaction so far,” said festival director Jennie Rainsford. “She’s the biggest act we have ever had play at the festival and is proving very popular. All these headliners will be giving the festival evenings a bit of a retro feel.”

• Continue reading at the Wilts & Gloucestershire Standard. Visit the Lechlade Music Festival website.

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.