Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

Toyah helped launch the opening of new photography studios on Saturday, as reported today by the Maidenhead Advertiser.

New photography studios launched by pop star Toyah Willcox

Marlow welcomed the launch of a new photography studio on Saturday

The ribbon on the Apollo Photography Studio was cut by special guests Toyah Willcox and the mayor of Marlow, Suzanne Brown, to officially open the business.

The studio in Dean Street offers experts and facilities for contemporary, commercial and environmental photography. Studio manager, Gary Ian, said he was delighted to finally open the doors after a long search for the right premises and offer residents a place to get that perfect portrait.

• Continue reading at the Maidenhead Advertiser. Toyah also tweeted a photo from this on Saturday. View that at the Official Toyah Instagram. (Photo © Maidenhead Advertiser)

Toyah is appearing at the ‘MCM Comic Con and Memorabilia Show’ today in Birmingham, and has already posted a few photos to the Official Toyah Instagram. Click below to view larger versions of Toyah with her Jubilee co-star, the sensational Little Nell, those legendary Star Wars characters and a Pinhead lookeylikey from Hellraiser. Toyah has also met up with Nintendo characters (okay, it’s two blokes dressed as them but anyway…) Mario and Luigi. (Photos © Toyah Willcox Ltd)

• Birmingham Mail: Dr Who and Star Wars pull the crowds to Birmingham Comic Con and Memorabilia Show: Birmingham-born pop star and actress Toyah Willcox, who played Monkey in Quadrophenia, was joined by fellow cast members Phil Daniels, who played Jimmy, and Daniel Peacock, who took the role of Danny, to celebrate the ultimate mod movie, based on The Who’s 1973 rock opera – Continue reading…

Celebrity fans of the Time Lord hop into the Tardis to revisit their favourite memories.

Toyah Willcox, singer and actress

When Doctor Who was made into a cinema film in 1965 as Dr Who and the Daleks with Peter Cushing as the Doctor, I insisted on going. The problem with seeing a horror film in public when you are only seven years old is that it’s unforgivable to show fear.

Even the opening sequences of mist-covered marshlands surrounding the Daleks’ city had me frozen to the spot. I remember wanting to slide down the seat and hide but I was flanked by my parents who were all too ready to laugh at my fear. So I sat, wide-eyed and as petrified as those on-screen forests, for two tortuous and exhilarating hours… which kept me in full supply of nightmares for a good month.

• Continue reading at bt.com.

An Evesham nightspot is bringing Essex and the 80s to the Vale with two very special club nights.

The Only Way is Essex (TOWIE) and Celebrity Big Brother star Mario Falcone will hold a meet and greet at the club next Friday (November 29) before 80s legend Toyah Willcox performs live the following night (Saturday).

Toyah is an 80s icon with a career spanning 30 years that includes eight Top 40 singles and more than 20 albums. General Manager Richie Ross said: “We’re heading into the festive season with bang this year and can’t wait to welcome Mario and Toyah to Evesham”.

• Continue reading at the Evesham Observer.

A couple of recent press reports on next year’s Chilfest from ‘Hemel Today’.

• New acts and Tring location announced for next year’s Chilfest – but are you ‘tempted’ to go?: Heaven 17 and Go West are the two latest acts confirmed as performers at next year’s Chilfest – and it will be held at a Tring location… Post-punk comedy vaudevillians Bad Manners, It’s a Mystery singer Toyah Willcox and Scottish rock band Big Country will also be appearing. Tickets are due to go on sale in mid-January – Continue reading…

• Jason Donovan will be at Chilfest: Other confirmed performers are post-punk comedy vaudevillians Bad Manners, It’s a Mystery singer Toyah Willcox and Scottish rock band Big Country – Continue reading…

• Toyah tweeted on Tuesday to confirm the type of set she will be playing: “Just letting u know that Chilfest, Tring on the 5th July is the full TOYAH band…..loud n’ proud“.

Toyah talks Doctor Who, in a new article by the Birmingham Mail/Sunday Mercury, ahead of its 50th Anniversary episode this weekend. (Text originally published in Behind The Sofa)

Brummie chart star turned stage singer Toyah Willcox admits that she can’t wait for Saturday’s big Doctor Who special.

Brummie chart star turned stage singer Toyah Willcox admits that she can’t wait for Saturday’s big Doctor Who special. Because she’s TURNED ON by the telly Time Lord, who’ll be played in the 50th anniversary adventure by no fewer than three actors.

Matt Smith, David Tennant and John Hurt will all appear as incarnations of Britain’s best-loved sci-fi star – and viewers may also be treated to fleeting glimpses of all the other Doctors who have graced the Tardis over the years.

And that’s great news for Toyah, 55, who was born in Kings Heath. “When I was a ratty pubescent teen I started to find the whole concept of Doctor Who highly erotic,” she admits. “And I still do!” The singer says that the show played a big part in her Second City childhood. “Haven’t we all hidden behind the sofa when Doctor Who was on the telly?” she asks.

• Continue reading at the Birmingham Mail/Sunday Mercury.

‘Chilfest’ announced the first three music acts, one of which being Toyah, for their 2014 festival taking place in July. Hemel Today reported the news on Friday.

First three acts to perform at next year’s Chilfest music festival are announced

The first three acts at next year’s Chilfest have been confirmed as post-punk comedy vaudevillians Bad Manners, It’s a Mystery singer Toyah Willcox and Scottish rock band Big Country.

The two-day music festival was staged for the first time in Tring in the summer, and attracted big names ranging from teen pop sensations Little Mix to Spandau Ballet crooner Tony Hadley. Organiser Steve Butcher said the 2014 event may go on for three days, but the location has yet to be decided.

• Continue reading at Hemel Today.

A new interview with Toyah, published today, by The Telegraph.

Toyah Willcox, the singer and actress, has fond memories of Estonia and the remotest regions of Belize, but hates to travel with Ryanair

Your earliest memory of travelling?

As a young child, my family holidays were always in Rock, Cornwall, with my parents, older brother Kim and sister Nicola. We hired a bungalow on the grounds of a hotel, but there were only two bedrooms. Mum and Dad stayed in one while Kim and Nicola shared the other. They used to put me to sleep in the living room by pushing two armchairs together. We lived in Birmingham at the time, so it took what seemed like 10 hours to get there, pootling along the single-track roads and country lanes.

• Continue reading at The Telegraph – Travel.

Greatest hits, fan favourites and cult classics will feature when former punk princess Toyah headlines Bilston’s Robin 2 on Friday October 25.

Fans can look forward to classics like Thunder In The Mountains, I Want To Be Free and It’s A Mystery when the Brummie star takes to the stage for her Love Is The Law show, which will feature songs from her last studio album, before she embarked on a solo career.

Willcox was bullied at school because she had a speech impediment and was short – however, that spurred her on to become a star.

Toyah said: “Yipeee, it’s show time.Interestingly I already know the songs inside out. Whereas The Changeling took months to learn, Love Is The Law is still firmly in my head from 1983, which was one of the happiest and most fulfilling years of my life.”

• Continue reading at Native Monster.

A new press report, and video interview, with Toyah from the beginning of the tour last week.

Toyah talks touring to mark an album which became a career milestone

A paragon of punk is hitting the road to mark 30 years since an album which marked a milestone in her career. Toyah Willcox said recording the Love is The Law album in 1983 was one of the happiest times of her life however it was to be the last studio album with her band.

She went on to a successful career as a solo artist, actor and TV presenter and is now ready to revisit Love is The Law on a tour with a set list which will also include all her biggest hits, new songs and fans’ favourite tracks.

• Continue reading at The Shuttle. Watch the interview at You Tube.

A new interview with Toyah, ahead of Friday’s first Love Is The Law & More gig, from Chronicle Live, published today.

Love is still the Law for 80s singer Toyah: We chat to Toyah ahead of her gig at Legends

Entertainment Editor Gordon Barr chats to Toyah, who is at Legends in Newcastle on Friday

Three decades on, 80s pop princess Toyah still recalls 1983 as one of her favourite years. Little wonder then she is bringing her album release of that year back out on the road.

Love Is The Law was critically acclaimed at the time and Toyah will be performing about six tracks from it, as well as a host of her numerous other hits, when she takes to the stage of Legends in Newcastle on Friday.

“This is my favourite album, it has very happy memories for me,” she tells me. “It was released in 1983 and I made it at a time when I was also appearing as Trafford Tanzi in the West End and it had to be written and recorded at the same time.

“But it was just glorious. I don’t have one bad memory of that year at all…”

• Continue reading at Chronicle Live.

Legendary singer Toyah, will be bringing her rollicking Love Is The Law & More Tour to the Concorde 2, Brighton on Thursday, October 24 at 7pm.

The singer, who has recorded 20 albums and famously starred in the Brighton mods and rockers film Quadrophenia, will be performing all her greatest hits, including It’s a Mystery and I Want To Be Free, alongside fan favourites and cult classics. Known for her exuberant, energetic live shows, Love Is The Law & More promises to be a night filled with colour, drama, fantastic wigs and explosive songs.

• Continue reading at GScene.

Toyah is mentioned in The Telegraph‘s review of the, recently published, Derek Jarman’s Sketchbooks.

Derek Jarman’s Sketchbooks, ed. Stephen Farthing and Ed Webb-Ingall, review

Tim Robey is absorbed by the creative mind of film-maker and artist Derek Jarman, as revealed through his extraordinary sketchbooks

The nicest touch is that each chapter gets a separate commentary, too, by someone involved in a working relationship with Jarman at that time. Toyah Willcox, who starred in Jubilee, talks about the excitement of being an 18-year-old virgin from an all-girls school when she first arrived at Jarman’s Edwardian flat to find naked men cavorting around.

• Continue reading at The Telegraph.

It’s Vampires Rock‘s 10th anniversary. In a newly published interview Steve Steinman, who created and stars in the show, talks about the last 10 years and also pays tribute to the Devil Queen herself!

The show has attracted some famous names in its time on tour too, in 2007 Eddie Ojeda of hit rock band, Twisted Sister, played guitar in the show, and he was followed by Toyah Willcox, who toured in the show for two years as the Devil Queen, the long suffering wife of Baron Von Rockula.

Steinman says: “Toyah wanted to be in the show but there wasn’t a suitable character for her to play so we wrote one specially. Toyah was great; she introduced the show to a new audience. I remember in one of our first meetings we were discussing what type of costumes we would design for her and she said ‘Oh don’t worry darling, I’ve got the perfect thing in my wardrobe already’ – that was Toyah, she was made to be in a show like this!”

• Continue reading at All Media Scotland.

A few more recent online reports about the V&A ‘Club to Catwalk’ exhibition, including more great shots of Toyah’s Melissa Caplan outfit:

• Hardzine: Club to Catwalk: London Fashion in the 80s – Review: Playing homage to the eccentricity of 80s fashion and the eclectic inspirations behind it, the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Club to Catwalk exhibition captured in essence the radical theatrics of 80s design – Continue reading…

• Chinti & Parker: ‘Club to Catwalk’ at the V&A Museum: Chinti and Parker’s perpetual love of outlandish prints and zingy colour combinations has meant that we’ve been dying to get down to the V&A’s ‘Club to Catwalk’ exhibition since it opened in July.  A retrospective on how London’s vibrant Eighties club scene sparked a new wave of design inspiration – Continue reading…

• House of Helen: V&A Club to Catwalk: 1980s Fashion Exhibition: Last month, the iconic V&A museum opened their Club to Catwalk: London Fashion in the 1980s exhibition. The 1980s was a poignant era in fashion history. It saw the birth of London Fashion Week and institutes such as the British Fashion Council – Continue reading…

• Club to Catwalk: In Conversation: Toyah is participating in a special event with Caryn Franklin and Brix Start-Smith on Friday 8th November. The details have yet to be added to the V&A event schedule but not doubt soon will be.

• Dreamscaping @ Club to Catwalk: View all of our Club to Catwalk news updates here.

A comprehensive review of the recent Jack Up The 80s festival, including kind words about Toyah, by eFestivals.co.uk.

Jack Up The 80s hits all the right notes on the Isle of Wight

Toyah is an artist who is as well known for her TV work these days as she is for her music, however despite her other career, music is still her first love, something that she showed today, even though she was performing to a small crowd, you could see that the buzz she was getting. Her performance was still as vibrant as when she first started. This emotion spilled over to the crowd, who despite only being familiar with a few of her songs quickly warmed to the show.

• Read the full review at eFestivals.co.uk. View the full version of their Toyah photo here. (Photo © eFestivals)

Thousands of families, friends and even faithful pets danced the weekend away at the fourth Upton International Music Festival.

More than 4,000 people turned out for the three-day event, which kicked off on Friday in Fish Meadow and boasted something for all.

There was a real family atmosphere with young and old enjoying performances from stars including 80s soul favourite Alexander O’Neal, Chesney Hawkes and West Country legends the Wurzels.

Also on the bill was Pershore resident Toyah Willcox, Slade and the Official Bucks Fizz.

People even paid homage to some of the bands on stage by dressing in brightly coloured gear from the 1960s and 70s. Speaking to your Worcester News on Saturday, festival spokesman Steve High was in upbeat mood. “It’s a great atmosphere,”.

• Continue reading at the Ledbury Reporter. (Photo © Ledbury Reporter)

Hair was back-combed and fluorescent leg-warmers pulled up to celebrate 25 years of an Island charity which supports adults with learning and physical disabilities.

Osel Enterprises, a charity most famous for its Way Forward Programme and Island-sourced bottled water Wight Crystal, celebrated its quarter century at the weekend with a Jack Up the 80s party, sponsored by Jack FM.

Around 2,000 people dug out the shoulder pads and shell suits and headed to the Garlic Festival site in Newchurch to enjoy the festivities with live music from 80s legends, including Bad Manners, Katrina and the Waves, Toyah and Heaven 17 among many others.

• Continue reading at County Press. (Photo © Malcolm Harrison)

Review: The Human League, Howard Jones and Toyah Willcox

The Human League prove they’re still in a league of their own when it comes to giving the 80s bandwagon full throttle.

Thirty years ago, when proms didn’t trouble us or our pockets, the school disco was the place to be…

Toyah definitely gives her relatively thin hits back catalogue some welly, belting out It’s A Mystery with gusto and filling in the blanks with covers. She knows her place – as warm-up gal to Messers Jones and headliners The Human League and just seems happy to be at Tatton entertaining  a 40-something nostalgia-drenched crowd.

• Continue reading at the Manchester Evening News.

Northern Pride event attracts thousands

Thousands of people took part in Newcastle’s annual gay pride event.

Now in its sixth year, it is one of the biggest celebrations in the North East of lesbian, gay, and transgender life, with organisers hoping to beat last year’s record attendance of 23,000.

The parade began at the Civic Centre, and moved through the city centre to end at Exhibition Park. Festivities included performances by Toyah Willcox and Amelia Lily, and there are market stalls and a fun fair.

• Continue reading at BBC News Tyne & Wear.

Birmingham’s well known landmarks: But for a city so linked to heavy metal, many sounds have left its clubs to find fans aroud the globe. In the 1980s in particular, Birmingham bands were among the biggest around. While Toyah found fame in post-punk pop, UB40 were at the forefront of British reggae and Duran Duran became the biggest band on the planet.