…on new King’s Heath Walk of Fame
Flame-haired songstress Toyah Willcox is to be the first inductee to a new Walk of Fame celebrating a Birmingham suburb’s rich musical heritage.
• Continue reading at the Birmingham Mail.
Celebrating Toyah’s induction as the very first star on the King’s Heath Walk of Fame comes a very special, intimate homecoming gig in the Hare & Hounds. This one-off concert with Toyah’s full band is a true celebration of Toyah’s roots in her hometown on the day her star is unveiled on the King’s Heath Walk of Fame.
Touring to great acclaim for the past 18 months Toyah has been revisiting material not performed for thirty years.
• Continue reading at Live Brum | View all of our King’s Heath Walk Of Fame news.
PREVIEW: Toyah Willcox – Walk of Fame presentation & concert @ Hare & Hounds, July 16th
Musician, songwriter, actress and author, Toyah Willcox is one of Birmingham’s best known contemporaries.
And on Monday July 16th, Toyah will be the first person celebrated on King Heath’s Walk of Fame, with her memorial star being presented on York Road – before a one off concert at the Hare & Hounds.
Born in Kings Heath, growing up in the family house on Grove Road, Toyah Willcox is a self confessed enemy of convention. Reportedly suffering bullying at school, due to her limp (from a spine defect at birth) and lisp, Toyah turned the tables one day, when she ‘got into class, picked up chair and threw it at the main bully.’
After school, Toyah worked to pay her way through drama school; where a chance referral saw her as ‘Sue’ – in Tony Bicat’s short play ‘Glitter’. From there Toyah was picked for a place at the National Theatre, where she met Derek Jarman – first appearing as ‘Mad’ in his seminal punk film, ‘Jubilee’.
• Continue reading at Birmingham Review.
IT’S NO MYSTERY
Toyah Willcox will be going back to her roots with a full band performance at the Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath on Monday (7.30pm). The Walk of Fame concert will include two sets spanning Toyah’s punk beginnings…
• Continue reading at the Birmingham Mail.
It’s the most exciting date on the Fylde calendar! Cuffe & Taylor present the Lytham Proms Festival Weekend from Friday 3rd – Sunday 5th August.
Friday is the ultimate pop party with Here and Now – The Very Best of the 80s. DJ Pat Sharp will kick off an incredible line up of acts including Rick Astley, The Real Thing, Belinda Carlisle, Toyah, Curiosity Killed the Cat, Bananarama and T’Pau.
• Continue reading at Radio Wave 96.5fm | View more Lytham Proms news.
…on King’s Heath’s Walk of Fame
Singer and actress Toyah Willcox is to be honoured as the first star on King’s Heath’s very own Walk of Fame on York Road on Monday 16 July at 11.30 a.m. Interviewed recently on Radio WM, Toyah said “My DNA is firmly rooted in King’s Heath. Not only was I born on Grove Road, my grandfather, a construction developer, built most of the buildings there. And then my father took over the business that was then known as Willcox-Lang”. Later in the evening Toyah will play a special intimate homecoming show at the Hare & Hounds with tickets priced £15 available at www.hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk
Toyah’s induction is the latest stage in an ambitious plan to create a Walk of Fame to rival that of Hollywood. Starting last month with the unveiling of the first Musical Heritage Plate to commemorate the Ritz Ballroom, it has continued with the erection of a specially commissioned Guitar and Microphone Floral Display as part of Kings Heath’s 2012 Britain in Bloom entry. And now Toyah is to be honoured in the first pavement plaque.
• Continue reading at King’s Heath Floral Trail.
Boating enthusiasts from across the country will head to Evesham this weekend for the annual river festival.
The festival, which is being held on Saturday and Sunday, has added significance this year as it is the 50th anniversary of the River Avon being opened to the sea.
Famous faces such as Timothy Spall, David Suchet and Toyah Willcox are expected to attend and stalls and entertainment will be on the riverside throughout. One of the highlights comes on Saturday evening with the eye-catching illuminated boat parade and fireworks display.
• Continue reading at the Evesham Journal.
Pure speculation, but…
Something that Toyah said in the This is Derbyshire interview (see post below):
Next year I have accepted one of the biggest tours of my career. We are doing 30 dates in the spring and 30 in the autumn.
Could this 60-date tour be marking what will be the 30th anniversary of the fantastic ‘Love Is The Law’ album and the ‘Rebel Run’ UK tour?
I guess we will just have to wait to find out, but interesting all the same.
‘Love Is The Law’ is an album, and Toyah era, that truly deserves to be properly celebrated!
A new interview with Toyah, from This is Derbyshire.
Frustrated biker Toyah here to judge dream machines
The only thing stopping Toyah from hitting the road astride a motorbike is her husband.
“He (musician Robert Fripp) said he would leave me if I ever bought a bike,” she says. “When I was in my 30s I wanted a chopper Harley and he wouldn’t let me have one.
“Then he said that if I bought one he would get one – and he’s as blind as a bat. So there’s no way I would let that happen. It got down to as strong as he would leave me if I bought one. So it’s an unfulfilled ambition.”
But at least the singer and actress gets the chance to get close to some genuine dream machines when the Rock and Bike Fest comes to Elvaston Castle in July.
• Continue reading at This is Derbyshire.
Jersey.com have republished their 2008 winter holiday feature with Toyah and Robert.
Toyah Willcox and husband Robert Fripp took a short break in Jersey. It’s the first time she’s been back since a childhood visit. The island seems to have grown up with her.
I was seven years old when I took my very first plane on my very first trip abroad – to Jersey. Okay, I know that Jersey is perceived as being a part of Britain. But where in the Albion isles do you find turquoise seas and the French hopping just 14 miles across the water on day trips?
Forty-three years later and one hour and 10 minutes from Birmingham Airport and I am back in Jersey, a lot older and wiser.
• Continue reading at Jersey.com.
Toyah Willcox has confirmed a special autumn 2012 tour, which will celebrate the 30th anniversary of “The Changeling”, & “Warrior Rock”, following a highly acclaimed run of spring dates which saw five-star reviews and sold out shows. She will be performing her classic second album The Challenging and a number of her top 40 hits.
19th Sep 2012: 07:30pm until 10:00pm
A photo of Toyah is included in a new article, on May’s ‘Let’s Rock The Moor’ festival, from Glow Magazine.
LET’S ROCK THE MOOR – THE MAKING OF MEMORIES
Sometimes, you hear a song and in a flash it takes to to a special time or place. Like an aural photograph, you can close your eyes and remember every detail. Since the early eighties, when I started getting into music, the best times were school disco’s, recording the charts on your tape recorder and spending pocket money on 7″ singles. Each song had its own memory.
Take a small village in Berkshire, 7500 party-goers and 8 of the biggest bands of the 80′s, and you end up with a huge melting pot of memories. My memory’s burst into life with Toyah, so many memories through the whole of the 80′s.
• Continue reading at Glow Magazine. View all of our Let’s Rock The Moor news.
As the Queen celebrates 60 years on the throne, we look back at the changing celebrity hairstyles which have influenced hairdressing trends, clients and photographic collections since her reign began. Here we look at the edgy eighties icons that rocked a generation. Celebrity Hairdresser, Richard Ward comments on 80s hair trends.
Toyah Willcox “I remember Toyah as being the punk girl that your mum could love; she crossed the divide between the dying breed of Punk Rocker and the emerging New Romantics.
Today’s teenagers think Pink, Katie Perry and Rihanna are setting the trend in outlandish hair colour – but Toyah Willcox was setting the trend back in the 80s which proves that what goes around comes around.”
• Continue reading at Hairdressers Journal Interactive.
What is the Rock and Bike Fest?
It’s a family-friendly music and bike/trike event in the grounds of Elvaston Castle over the weekend of July 12 to 14, with Pendulum, the Quireboys, the Sweet, Toyah Willcox and lots of tribute acts, plus a custom bike and trike show, live wrestling, tattoo competitions and more.
What is its history?
It was started five years ago by a team of people who share a passion for music and bikes. The first major event was in 2008 but there were a couple of smaller scale ones prior to that.
Who are the big music names who’ve played the festival in the past?
Saxon, Girlschool, T-Rex, Bad Company, the Levellers, the Quireboys, New Model Army, Toyah Willcox and Nazareth.
How many people are expected to attend this year? Around 5,000.
• Continue reading at This is Nottingham.
Pop Idol and punk princess look to build on success
The stars were out in force ahead of the new Marlowe Theatre pantomime for 2012, Sleeping Beauty.
Pop Idol star Gareth Gates and punk legend Toyah Willcox head the cast which also includes Katrina Bryan, better known as Nina from the CBeebies series Nina and the Neurons.
A stint on Dancing on Ice in 2008 prompted Gareth to change musical direction and he went on to take the lead role in Joseph And His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. He has since appeared in Les Miserables, both on the 25th anniversary tour and in the West End. Former punk princess Toyah appeared in six productions at the old Marlowe and is delighted to be returning to the new venue, where she will play the Wicked Fairy
Sleeping Beauty is at The Marlowe Theatre from 30 November to 20 January 2013. To book tickets, call the Box Office on 01227 787787 or go to marlowetheatre.com
• Continue reading at Kent News. (Photos © Kent News)
Gareth Gates made a promise to the county as he led the cast of Sleeping Beauty at the Marlowe Theatre pantomime launch. The singer and actor, who has sold more than 3.5 million records in the UK, will play a cheeky Prince who is “more Prince Harry than Prince William” when the show gets underway. Gareth, 27, was joined outside the theatre in Canterbury on Monday, June 25, by punk princess and actress Toyah Willcox and CBeebies’ Katrina Bryan from Nina and the Neurons.
Toyah Willcox, who has a home in Canterbury, has only had one Christmas off from panto since her first one in 1993. This will be her seventh Marlowe Theatre pantomime. She said: “It’s a great Christmas tradition which you get nowhere else in the world. It is a time for the family to be together. I love it. I wouldn’t know what to do if I didn’t do panto.”
• Continue reading at Kent Online. (Photo © Kent Online)
A new article on Toyah, from the Birmingham Mail.
Latest award in a varied career for Brum’s Toyah
The beat will go on for Birmingham star Toyah Willcox after it emerged she would be the first name on a new walk of fame in her home town.
• Continue reading at the Birmingham Mail.
Another report on Toyah’s inclusion on the King’s Heath ‘Walk Of Fame’, from today’s Birmingham Mail.
Eighties pop star Toyah first to be honoured on Kings Heath walk of fame
Brummie pop icon Toyah Willcox is to be the first star on a new Kings Heath Walk of Fame next month.And she will mark the occasion with a homecoming gig at the Hare & Hounds on July 16.
• Continue reading at the Birmingham Mail | The ‘Walk of Fame’ news has also been reported today by This Is Not Retro, UK Wired and Birmingham Local News.
BBC News reporting on Toyah being honoured on the King’s Heath ‘Walk Of Fame’.
• Also covered, so far, by The Brummie, i West Midlands and My Headlinez.
Toyah will be performing at the Tremayne Hall in Mylor later this month as part of the Mylor Sessions.
Toyah will be play a selection of songs from her Platinum-selling albums Anthem and The Changeling which celebrates its 13th anniversary this year, among many other tracks. This is a unique chance to hear Toyah’s well-known hits alongside cherry-picked songs and dark quirky anthems – many of which have not been heard live since her early tours from the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The Saturday, June 23 show starts at 8pm with doors from 7pm.
Headliners included Toyah Willcox, Ed Tudorpole and David Van Day.
Thousands of people enjoyed the warm weather and the atmosphere was electric around the town centre pubs, where the festival was based.
Toyah was perhaps the most anticipated artist in the build-up to the festival and she didn’t disappoint. The 1980s punk princess played to a bumper crowd at Club Ice on Saturday night Van Day was the headline act on Friday at Club Ice, performing cover hits from the 60s to the 90s with his wife Sue Moxley.
• Continue reading at In Cumbria. View all of our Decades 2012 news here.
