An interview with Toyah, from last October by Glasgow’s Evening Times, which was previously only viewable to subscribers is now available to all.
Toyah’s performing her classic album, 30 years on
It’s her fans’ favourite record – but it’s taken 30 years for Toyah Willcox to face up to playing The Changeling album again.
The popular singer, actress and TV personality released the album in 1982, and it captured a dark, stressful time in her life. It’s only now that she feels she can perform it.
“The important thing about The Changeling and now is that I feel I can face it again,” she says ahead of her show at Classic Grand in Glasgow on Friday. “It was a pretty intense time making it, and being extremely famous is not a comfortable place to be, especially when you’re trying to write an album.
“I found the pressures of that one difficult, especially with the demands on time and the technology was very new as it was being made on digital.It brought back difficult memories revisiting it, as it was so intense at the time and I was just trying to remain true to myself. Being the most commercial female pop star at the time and wanting to write really dark material doesn’t go hand in hand.”
• Continue reading at the Evening Times.
Some people seemed quite excited yesterday that Pop Justice ran an article on Toyah and ‘Sensational’.
Toyah was a fairly big popstar in the early 1980s. It’s probably overstating things slightly to say that she was the Lady Gaga of her day because she didn’t really have the tunes, but you can’t argue with magazine covers like the one you see to your right. We reckon Toyah could probably have pulled off a fairly successful comeback on the back of this Weight Watchers ad appearance. You know the sort of thing – you find one or two up-and-coming acts who might be prepared to drop her name as an influence, Radio 2 play the single quite a bit, broadsheets do the usual ‘she was there at the dawn of the pop age now the original Gaga is back and she’s as colourful as ever’ pieces…
• Continue reading at Pop Justice.
The curtain closed on Canterbury’s Sleeping Beauty pantomime for the final time at the weekend. And crowds still turned up to the show, despite widespread snowfall across the area. Since its first show on 30 November, nearly 84,00 people turned up to see the pantomime, which starred singers Gareth Gates and Toyah Willcox.
Marlowe Theatre director Mark Everett said: “More people saw Sleeping Beauty than any other Marlowe pantomime. I am absolutely delighted that they enjoyed such a wonderful show and my thanks go to the cast, company and all the theatre staff who worked so hard to make it such a success, especially over the last few, snowy, days.”
• Continue reading at Canterbury People.
British singer Toyah Willcox has credited acupuncture with ending her 40 years of insomnia.
The I Want to Be Free hitmaker began suffering disturbed sleep when she studied for exams as a teenager, and she continued to struggle after finding fame in the 1980s.
Willcox, 54, explored alternative therapies after suffering a bad reaction to medication, and since her first acupuncture session last June (12), she has finally been able to sleep through the night. She tells Britain’s Daily Express newspaper, “I’m teetotal and health conscious so I decided to look into more natural methods of curing my sleep problems. I drink Chamomile tea and use aromatherapy.
• Continue reading at Contact Music.
A new interview with Toyah, published today, by The Express.
Singer and actress Toyah Willcox says a course of acupuncture ended 40 years of insomnia.
After struggling with insomnia since she was 14, Toyah Willcox is an expert at surviving on little sleep. The singer, 54, who found fame as an orange-haired punk in the Eighties, says: “I had just started revising for my GCEs and the anxiety I felt made me stop sleeping.
“I would go to bed around 11 or 12 at night and be awake two hours later. It didn’t help me with my exams as my brain would feel foggy the next day but there was nothing anyone could do for me. No one would give a child a sleeping pill and from that point on I had chronic sleep problems.”
She comes from a family of insomniacs. “My mother never slept,” says Toyah, who was born in Birmingham, the youngest of three. “I remember her doing housework until four in the morning and then she would take me to school a few hours later.
• Continue reading at The Express.
Toyah is mentioned as being a guest, in the line-up for the new series of RTÉ Two’s Wagon’s Den, in an article by the RTÉ Press Centre.
Katherine Lynch’s hit comedy showbiz news show Wagon’s Den returns to RTE Two on Thursday January 10th with its usual thunderous cacophony of female wit and opinion on all the celebrity news issues of the week.
Amongst those appearing alongside Katherine Lynch’s anchor Sheila Chic character are wingman Brian Dowling plus model Sarah Morrisey, ‘Gossip Girl’ Siobhan O’Connor, Anthea Turner, ‘Doctor’ Gillian McKeith, Toyah Willcox and Model-turned-Super Injunction Poster Girl Natasha Giggs.
• Continue reading at the RTÉ Press Centre.
The Express have paid tribute to the remarkable Alfie Fripp, Uncle of Robert, who passed away this week.
Obituary: Alfie Fripp, Britain’s Oldest Surviving POW, June 13 1913 – January 3 2013
It was October 13, 1939, and nearly six weeks after Britain declared war on Nazi Germany Alfie Fripp and his fellow Blenheim crewmen found themselves at the mercy of the Luftwaffe who had shot down their aircraft.
• Continue reading at Express.co.uk.
The Express & Star feature a photo of Toyah from this year’s Changeling Resurrection tour in their article on what’s playing at the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre in Spring 2013.
Joseph, Cats and Evita coming to Wolverhampton Grand Theatre
Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Cats and Evita are among the big shows coming to Wolverhampton as theatre bosses reveal their new spring line-up.
The Grand Theatre in Lichfield Street will also welcome Toyah Willcox, Hormonal Housewives, starring Toyah Willcox on April 2 and 3, features sketches about day-to-day problems that women face.
• Continue reading at the Express & Star.
Toyah’s ‘Walk of Fame’ gig in King’s Heath in July has been named one of Birmingham’s Top Gigs Of 2012.
Let’s hear it for B-Town… the best of the rest: Some of the biggest music acts in the world have played Brum this year – after the top ten, here’s our selection of the highlights
Toyah Willcox, who not only was inducted on Birmingham’s walk of fame this year, she also played a home-coming gig at the Ballroom.
• Continue reading at the Birmingham Mail. View our Walk of Fame News Archive.
The Eighties are coming to Falkirk Stadium next year, with a series of music concerts planned at their stadium to
raise money for the club’s academy.
“Rock The Stadium” kicks off over the weekend of 22-23 June with the line-up featuring 80s favourites Five Star, Altered Images, The Real Thing, Toyah, T’Pau, Paul Young, Curiosity Killed the Cat and Midge Ure.
The club are hoping to attract a crowd in the region of 25,000 over the weekend following the success of Elton John’s gig at the stadium in June.
• News Source: Scotsman.com.
Toyah is included in the ‘PRS for Music’, newly updated, Festive 50 countdown, as reported by The Independent.
The 50 Best Christmas songs: Bells continue to ring for the Pogues’ ‘Fairytale of New York’
It’s beginning to sound a lot like Christmas… Listen to our festive playlist here
‘Tis the season to hear the same songs repeated endlessly on the radio and none has been played more regularly in the last two years than “Fairytale of New York” according to new research.
24. I Believe In Father Christmas, Greg Lake/Toyah Willcox/Elaine Paige, 1975/1982/1986 – Written by Greg Lake/Pete Sinfield.
• Continue reading, and view the full 50 Best Christmas songs (according to PRS for Music) in full, at The Independent.
Yet another positive review for Sleeping Beauty at The Marlowe, this one by This is Kent.
Good Fairy Katrina Bryan from children’s TV show Nina and the Neurons has cast her magic spell the Marlowe Theatre to create a spectacular production of Sleeping Beauty. In the wake of last year’s hugely successful pantomime Cinderella, production company Evolution had a lot to live up to.
The cast and crew do not disappoint. Sleeping Beauty has all the ingredients for a festive family treat packed with glitz, glamour, camp comedy and a fire-breathing dragon.
Former punk princess Toyah Willcox is enchanting as the evil queen Carabosse. She has great stage presence and basks in the boos and hisses as she plots against the beautiful princess who *****s her finger on a poisoned needle and falls asleep for 100 years.
• Continue reading at This is Kent.
Laughs, frights and too much water at Marlowe panto
It’s that time of year when hundreds of people gather in one place to watch a man dressed as a woman dressed as a jockey riding an ostrich.
Or at least that was my expert assessment as I sat down at the Marlowe on Tuesday to watch this year’s panto Sleeping Beauty.
Pop Idol runner-up Gareth Gates, as the charming Prince Michael, and ex-punk princess Toyah Willcox, playing the evil Carabosse, were given star billing.
• Continue reading at Kent Online.
The third review of the day for Sleeping Beauty, and it’s another one full of praise from Kent News.
Writing a pantomime can be no easy task. There before you sits an audience as diverse as Alec Guinness’ CV and all with the expectation that their hard-earned money spent on the tickets will deliver laughs and pratfalls a-plenty.
With that in mind, there’s also the added complication of weaving in the particular talents of your eclectic cast – drawn from a wide variety of showbusiness disciplines – and still make sure you don’t lose sight of driving the storyline along.
Toyah Willcox is an excellent Carabosse, endlessly eliciting boos and jeers as her character looks to kill the young princess.
• Continue reading at Kent News.
A positive review for The Marlowe Theatre’s Sleeping Beauty, and Toyah, by The Stage.
This rather wet show meant that my notebook was soaked during the water pistol chase. And water spouts out of every corner and orifice in a hilarious slapstick scene set in a bathroom with Lloyd Hollett – very accomplished as Jangles – and Ben Roddy, terrific as Nurse Nellie. But water makes for wonderful comedy, and Hollett and Roddy know how to exploit every drop of it.
Rather drier, but also in fine form, is the ever-youthful Toyah Willcox, who cackles, curses, sings and dances like a teenager as Carabosse, the wicked fairy.
• Continue reading at The Stage.
Sleeping Beauty reviewed by The Public Reviews.
It’s panto time again and Paul Hendy and Emily Wood’s Evolution Productions is back in residence at Canterbury’s Marlowe Theatre. This production brings the sunshine back to a cold winter’s evening with plenty of laughs and heaps of audience participation.
The ‘big names’ this year are Toyah Willcox as Carabosse the bad fairy, and Gareth Gates as Prince Michael, closely followed by children’s favourite Katrina Bryan as Fairy Moonbeam. Toyah Willcox has an incredible energy and presence, and her vocals are strong in her rock numbers, as expected.
• Continue reading at The Public Reviews.
A very brief video interview with Toyah, recorded in Canterbury on Saturday, from ITV Meridian: Panto season is almost upon us – oh yes it is! And across the region, the stars are encouraging us get into the Christmas spirit. In Canterbury they’re gearing up for Sleeping Beauty at the Marlowe Theatre with Pop Idol finalist Gareth Gates and Toyah Willcox in the lead roles. (Click below to watch the clip, and view larger versions of the screen caps here)
An interview with Toyah, from October, by The Weekender.
It’s that time of year already! Pantomime returns to The Marlowe Theatre this winter with a new production of Sleeping Beauty. Alongside former Pop Idol Gareth Gates, pop stalwart Toyah Willcox stars as the Wicked Fairy. Toyah has had a long-running musical career; her first album was released back in 1979 and she still tours with her band today. Having performed in numerous theatre, television and film productions she is also a panto veteran. Toyah tells Emma Featherstone why she is looking forward to hitting the Canterbury stage.
You’ve worked in panto since 1993. What makes you return to it?
I’ve learnt to love pantomime as a form of theatre, which is more successful than any other. In the last 20 years it has been completely reinvented, mainly by one man, Kevin Wood (one of Britain’s top pantomime producers). His daughter Emily produces Sleeping Beauty.
• Continue reading at The Weekender.
Record ticket sales have been recorded at the Marlowe Theatre as thousands of panto fans gear up for their Christmas celebrations in Canterbury.
Next Friday will mark the first performance of Sleeping Beauty, starring pop idol Gareth Gates and punk princess Toyah Willcox, with predictions of several sell-out shows throughout the seven-week stint.
60,000 tickets have already been snapped up, more than 2,000 than was sold at this time last year, with bookings taken from as far afield as the USA, Australia and South Africa. Tickets have also been bought in France, Holland, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Canada, adding a global flavour to thie year’s audiences.
Rehearsals for the production began last Monday with many making noises that it will go down in history as the city’s greatest ever pantomime. (Photo, below right © Canterbury Extra)
Stars from the Marlowe Theatre panto ‘Sleeping Beauty’ will meet fans in Canterbury on Saturday.
Cast including singers Gareth Gates, Toyah Willcox, Ben Roddy, Lloyd Hollett and Ieuan Rhys will don their costumes to take part in a meet and greet session in department store Fenwick. They will appear in the toy section of the store from 3.45pm to 4.14pm on Saturday, 24 November.
• Continue reading at Canterbury People.
Panto stars Gareth Gates and Toyah Willcox switch on Christmas lights in Canterbury
Stars of the Marlowe Theatre’s panto bathed Canterbury in light yesterday evening (Thursday), as they turned on the city’s Christmas lights.
Pop idol Gareth Gates and punk princess Toyah Willcox were among the celebs to flick the all-important switch in the city centre.
Crowds descended on St George’s Street to meet the pair, who will be appearing together in Sleeping Beauty this Christmas.
• Continue reading at This is Kent.
