An interview with Toyah, from The York Press, published on Thursday.
Theatre: Hormonal Housewives, Grand Opera House, York, April 18
For Toyah, appearing in a three-hander is a new concept. “It’s pure comedy with the three of us playing ourselves and various characters, so we’re the glue that holds together this celebration of women,” says the 54-year-old performer from King’s Heath.
“I don’t think the show is patronising, but nor is it feminist or political at all. I think shows like this exist because feminism has paved the way for them. It’s your everywoman show, looking at aspects of being a woman, such as the competition at the school gates; dress sizes; book groups; going to the gym; and staying thin.”
• Continue reading at The York Press.
Could Toyah be the next star on another Midlands “Walk of Fame”? There’s a possibility it may happen.
Who will be the next star on the Birmingham Broad Street Walk of fame?
Front-runners include athlete Denise Lewis, members of Duran Duran, TV presenter Cat Deeley, singer Toyah Willcox – and surely there must be a place for Led Zeppelin soon.
• Continue reading at the Birmingham Mail.
Toyah Willcox, pictured below, reveals to Steve Pratt how she found her hormonal side in spite of living the kind of life that doesn’t lend itself to motherhood and being a housewife
Hormonal Housewives is the title of the show, but Toyah Willcox isn’t one of them. Only on stage every night in the show of that name. She doesn’t have children or teenagers, and has lived a life out of the ordinary, mainly in a man’s world.
She’s gone from Derek Jarman’s punk movie Jubilee to playing Billie Piper’s mother in Diary Of A Call Girl on TV, she’s flown high as Peter Pan on stage and continued to rock with her band in concert.
• Continue reading at The Northern Echo.
An interview from the North Wales Chronicle, published on 5th April.
Interview: Toyah comes to Rhyl for Hormonal Housewives
Singer and actress Toyah Willcox takes to the stage in Rhyl for the first time as a popular production returns to north Wales.
Hormonal Housewives comes to the Pavilion Theatre on Thursday, April 11 for what is sure to be an entertaining exploration of modern women’s lives.
Toyah explained what attracted her to the show, which also stars its co-creator Julie Coombe and former Hollyoaks actress Sarah-Jane Buckley.
• Continue reading at the North Wales Chronicle.
The Toyah Story Continues
It’s clear, as soon as she starts talking, that Toyah Willcox means business. When we say that, we don’t mean she’s forceful or forthright; it’s just, right now, Toyah’s touring the country with a show called Hormonal Housewives and she’s committed to the cause. She has to be.
“It’s 67 shows in two-and-a-half months, only one night in a place (as opposed to a week), four hours’ travel a day and two hours’ press. I’ve got a string of calls lined up after you. It’s intense,” she says. Oh, okay. Bang goes the plan for a long chat about those pink haired punk-pop days then. “I think every decade brings new challenges and new life experiences,” she says.
• Continue reading at the Leicester Mercury.
Stars of the play Hormonal Housewives were treated to a special pampering session courtesy of students from Poole and Bournemouth College.
Toyah Willcox joined co-stars Julie Coombe and Sarah Buckley at Poole Lighthouse to relax before the show with the full Girls Night Out package comprising of beauty treatments, cupcakes and cocktails.
The Hormonal Housewives comedy arrived at the Lighthouse for one night on Thursday following a hugely successful tour last year. It features sketches looking at everything that makes today’s women tick – from the joys of teenagers to the insanity of DIY.
• Continue reading at the Bournemouth Daily Echo.
Two great shows to cheer up even the coldest nights come to Milton Keynes Theatre this week
Toyah Willcox, self-confessed ‘teenager from hell’, has clearly grown up – but it’s still hard to envisage Toyah, the rock star, writer, television presenter and serious actor of stage and screen, as a hormonal housewife. Nevertheless, next Sunday, at Milton Keynes Theatre, that is exactly who she will be!
Hormonal Housewives, a series of sketches, gags and stories would appear to be one for the girls but, Toyah says, it’s actually a great night out for all.
• Continue reading at Bedfordshire on Sunday. The article does also say there is a full interview: “Judy Riley talks to Toyah Willcox about being on tour, the show…and her iconic hair styles!” but it doesn’t seem to be available yet.
• Birmingham Post: Arson suspected as fire hits Birmingham venue where The Beatles played: Kings-Heath-born Toyah Willcox was the first person to be honoured on the Kings Heath Walk of Fame which was unveiled along York Road last July. Bob Prew, who helped organise the initiative, said the plaque now lies under the building’s smouldering rubble. He said: “It’s devastating because the Ritz Ballroom was one of the major venues in the 1960s.”
• Birmingham Mail: Fire at Kings Heath venue where The Beatles once played: “The roof is totally collapsed. It’s the old Ritz Ballroom . It’s sad for Kings Heath as on Cash Converters – which has collapsed – there was a plaque for Toyah Willcox.”
• BBC News: Ex-Beatles gig venue destroyed in Kings Heath fire: A Kings Heath Walk of Fame, honouring the area’s musical and comedy heritage, had also been planned to start outside the building with a star marking singer Toyah Willcox.
• Buzzfeed: 23 Amazing Smash Hits Covers From The ’80s: Quite clearly the greatest magazine of our time – 7. Toyah, May 1982.
• Telford & Wrekin Council: Hormonal Housewives on tour!: Hormonal Housewives are in Telford as part of their Spring Tour 2013 and you are in for a treat with this hilarious show presented by British pop icon Toyah Willcox.
• An Actor Pantos: Let’s get Critical – The Sequel: SLEEPING BEAUTY, Marlowe Theatre Canterbury: Toyah Willcox and Gareth Gates were the stars and really worked hard for their billing. Willcox especially proved particularly eager to take part and was a very good baddy!
Toyah talks health, touring, Bournemouth, Hormonal Housewives and more to the Bournemouth Daily Echo in an interview published Saturday.
If Toyah Willcox is describing it as ‘outrageous’, there’s a fair chance her new show, Hormonal Housewives, doesn’t fall into the realm of vanilla-coloured.
The former punk princess has never been one to happily slink under the radar. From being a rebellious teenager she morphed with astonishing fluidity into roles including huge rock icon (she’s had 13 Top 40 singles and released more than 20 albums), successful actress, writer and even Songs of Praise presenter.
On Thursday she’s coming to Lighthouse with the comedy sketch show she describes as ‘celebrating modern womanhood’.
• Continue reading at the Bournemouth Daily Echo.
Toyah is the cover star of the latest Journal2, the ‘North Devon Journal’ magazine. It’s likely that the accompanying interview is the one, by Rosanna Rothery, that we mentioned on Friday.
Rosanna Rothery chats to Toyah Willcox ahead of Hormonal Housewives
Hormones can wreak havoc with your life. Just ask Toyah Willcox. The singer and actor visits Barnstaple next week with the hilarious show, Hormonal Housewives.
• Read our previous post about the accompanying interview, or view it at the North Devon Journal. View a larger version of the cover here. (Thanks to Owen Jones)
Toyah is the subject of the latest “My Family Values” series in The Guardian today. A poignant interview.
The actor and singer talks about not getting on with her mother, but idolising her father
My father was having a dirty weekend in Weston-super-Mare with a woman he was engaged to when he saw my mother and fell in love with her. He pursued her for about 14 months, followed her around the country and proposed to her. He was nine years older than her when they got married, and she was pregnant immediately, aged 19, and I think she regretted it.
My early family life was incredibly happy but I was very, very protected and very much living in a bubble.
• Continue reading at The Guardian.
Toyah talks family life, her varied career, Hormonal Housewives and much more to Wales Online.
Toyah Willcox prepares to bring the Hormonal Housewives to Wales
From punk princess to pantomime, Shakespeare to the Teletubbies, Toyah Willcox has certainly had a diverse career. Abbie Wightwick chats to her about it and discovers why she’s happy to be hormone free
She may be appearing in Hormonal Housewives but Toyah Willcox is happy to be free of pesky monthly mood swings.
The former high priestess of punk cheerfully announces she has had a hysterectomy, been through the menopause and, as she approaches 55, has never felt better. “I had everything removed four years ago,” Toyah declares as she prepares to tour to Wales with the stage show.
• Continue reading at Wales Online.
Another new, Hormonal Housewives related, interview. This one from today’s North Wales Daily Post.
Toyah Willcox stars in show at Rhyl Pavilion
It’s naughty fun and guaranteed to make you “howl with laughter” according to Toyah Willcox one of the stars of a show called Hormonal Housewives on tour right now.
Former punk icon Toyah joins writer Julie Coombe, and former Hollyoaks actress Sarah Jane Buckley, in a follow-up to a much-enjoyed 2012 production which starred Margi Clark and Carol Smillie.
• Continue reading at the North Wales Daily Post.
A new interview with Toyah, published yesterday, by the North Devon Journal.
Rosanna Rothery chats to Toyah Willcox ahead of Hormonal Housewives
Hormones can wreak havoc with your life. Just ask Toyah Willcox. The singer and actor visits Barnstaple next week with the hilarious show, Hormonal Housewives.
Throughout her thirties, the former punk icon was plagued with severe PMS. “I have not one positive thing to say about PMS,” she says with feeling. “It was a complete waste of my youth. I can’t look back and say, ‘ooh I was wonderfully creative during that period’. I wasn’t. I was frustrated. I was emotional. Probably not the best person to be near.”
For Toyah the intense monthly madness could only be described as “sheer hell”.
• Continue reading at the North Devon Journal/This is North Devon.
• This is South Wales: Toyah Ready To Rip: The neat and sweet pink dress from the promo photos might make Toyah Willcox look like a Stepford Wife or an extra from The Hour, but Hormonal Housewives, she says, is far from sugar-coated. She and her sisters-in-theatre, Julie Coombe and Sarah Jane Buckley, will let rip on everything from domestic chores to challenging teenagers in the show, at Swansea Grand Theatre on Monday.
• Swindon Wyvern Theatre: Toyah Willcox, Julie Coombe and Sarah-Jane Buckley perform a sketch from Hormonal Housewives. Listen at Soundcloud.
• Shropshire Live: Hormonal Housewives visit Telford as part of national tour: Hormonal Housewives are in Telford as part of their Spring Tour 2013 and you are in for a treat with this hilarious show presented by British pop icon Toyah Willcox, writer Julie Coombe, and former Hollyoaks actress Sarah Jane Buckley.
• This is Surrey Today: Understanding what makes women tick: Pop princess Toyah Willcox and Julie Coombe take you on a journey through everything that makes women tick – or ticked off.
• Toyah tweeted yesterday: “Since steve wright this afternoon the box office for Hormonal Housewives has gone bonkers! Thank u SW“.
A new report, by the King’s Heath Walf Of Fame website, on Toyah’s star being laid.
Toyah’s Star gets laid in King’s Heath’s York Road
Toyah’s star has now been laid in King’s Heath’s York Road. The marble star, which is set in the frontage of Maurice Robinson’s Sports Shop, is the first of many that will make up King’s Heath’s very own Walk of Fame.
Bob Prew and Ken Whittaker who came up with the idea of the Walk of Fame said, “This is the start of a major new attraction for King’s Heath. Toyah’s star has taken longer to manufacture than we had originally hoped but future stars should now take a lot less time to appear. We hope that there will eventually be at least 20 stars stretching down York Road and encouraging more visitors to King’s Heath”.
• Continue reading at the King’s Heath Walk of Fame. (Photos © KH Walk Of Fame)
Pop icon Toyah Willcox is to star in the latest production of Hormonal Housewives, which will arrive at The Castle in Wellingborough on Tuesday.
A spokesman said: “Charismatic, outspoken and impossible to categorise, Toyah will be bringing the laughs to Wellingborough this spring.
“Ideal for a girls’ night out, Hormonal Housewives is guaranteed to be a hilariously funny evening.”
• Continue reading at the Northampton Chronicle & Echo.
Organisers of a popular summer music festival are drawing up exciting plans to attract even more families from Worcester and across the county.
Upton Music Festival returns to the town from August 23 to 25 with a host of big acts including 80s Brit pop sensation Bucks Fizz, local superstar Toyah Willcox and former chart toppers Slade.
New to the festival this year will be a variety tent packed with family entertainment as well as a Top of the Pops tent where DJs including former Fun House presenter Pat Sharp will get people of all ages filling the dance floor.
• Continue reading at the Worcester Standard.
Richard Kay quotes Toyah’s most recent blog, and the health issues she mentions, in his latest Daily Mail column.
It is a debilitating illness that she likens to a hammer blow every 15 minutes to her knees, back, shoulders and hips. This is how singer and actress Toyah Willcox describes the ‘peculiar virus’ she’s been suffering for the past three months.
Her symptoms have been so painful that she has had to undergo daily physiotherapy at a sports injury centre. But despite her illness, she has just started a nationwide tour of a play, Hormonal Housewives.
• Continue reading at the Daily Mail.
Toyah’s involvement in yesterday’s huge traffic-jam in Sussex has been reported just about EVERYWHERE today, from Sky News to ITV’s Daybreak, from BBC Breakfast to many local tv and radio stations. Both Daybreak and Breakfast even tweeted Toyah directly, requesting interviews. Online it’s essentially the same story being reported by countless websites. Here are just a few:
• OK! Magazine: Toyah Willcox among stars caught up in snow hell: Singers Toyah Willcox and Cheryl Baker, and hip-hop duo Rizzle Kicks, were left stranded on a snowbound road for up to 10 hours as blizzards blanketed parts of the U.K. this week
• The Express and Star magazine running exactly the same report – they are all owned by the same publisher so that makes sense. Contact Music also ran this story.
• Orange News: Toyah Willcox & Rizzle Kicks caught up in snow hell: 1980s star Willcox took to Twitter.com to reveal her six-hour misery in the snow.
• Birmingham Mail: Birmingham born actress Toyah Willcox among hundreds forced to spend the night in their car: Brummie actress Toyah Willcox was marooned for more than 14 hours as roads in the south of England were blocked by snow and stranded vehicles. The Kings Heath-born star posted on Twitter how she finally got off the M23 in Sussex at 6.30am following a freezing night trapped in her car.
• ITN News: Rizzle Kicks and Toyah Willcox get caught up in the snow: Half the nation was battling with snow-covered roads on Monday evening and so were Rizzle Kicks and Toyah Willcox.
• View more coverage at Digital Spy, The Epoch Times, The Argus, Yahoo News, Heart…
Snow ‘apocalypse’ in Sussex leaves hundreds of motorists (and Cheryl Baker) stranded for up to ten hours in freezing weather
• 80s pop stars among hundreds trapped
• Minus temperatures force Red Cross to be drafted in to help
• Vehicles jackknifed on A23, making access hard for emergency vehicles
• Parts of A23 and M23 worst hit by freezing weather and delays
Cherly Baker, Toyah Willcox, and pop group Rizzle Kicks were among hundreds of motorist trapped for up to ten hours on motorways in Sussex and Kent. The Red Cross dispatched emergency teams to help people stranded in the freezing conditions on the A23.
• Continue reading at the London Evening Standard.
