• A rare photo of the Toyah band, circa late 1979, has recently appeared on eBay. It looks like it was taken in a pub while the band were on tour. The listing says: “The shot is date stamped 29 Oct 1979 by the UK pop music newspaper that received it”. Great photo!
• All Toyah: Continues to grow!
• Pause, Rewind, Obsess: Quadrophenia: …has a cult following but, despite some terrific scenes and some memorable characters (like the gnomish, lovesick, little pre-punk girl played by Toyah Willcox), it feels even more narratively half-baked than Pete Townshend’s musical scenarios tend to be.
• Critical Mass: Improvisation and carving: This article includes a photo of the cast of The Ebony Tower.
• Canterbury People: Canterbury girls chance to be in Marlowe Theatre’s Sleeping Beauty: Budding young actresses have the chance to star in the Marlowe Theatre’s pantomime. Sleeping Beauty will be at the Marlowe Theatre from November 30 to January 20 and star singers Gareth Gates and Toyah Willcox.
Five more amazing, and rare, photos, featuring three icons: Toyah, Hazel O’Connor and Ian Dury. These are from the April 1980 gig by The Stranglers at The Rainbow Theatre, London. View our other related posts here. View the full versions of the photos below at Dreamscape’s Gallery. I’d like to dedicate these great photos to Alec Kelly! (Thanks again to Andi)
• A rare Safari Records promo photo from early 1979, which includes the first and very quickly changed Toyah logo, has recently appeared on eBay.
• Blog Critics: DVD Review: Quadrophenia – The Criterion Collection: There is no question that this is the definitive edition of the film, and if you have a 5.1 system, the sound of it is absolutely incredible.
• DPRP News Blog: Robert Fripp quit music: Toyah is mentioned in this news article on Robert: His last live outings were in 2009 when he performed with wife Toyah Willcox’s band the Humans and toured with Theo Travis to support the duo’s Threads album.
• Themusic.com: Toyah is also mentioned in, ‘Going For The One, an article on Australian band Greenthief: An Englishman in Byron Bay, Steve James produced everyone from The Jam to The Rutles, Toyah Willcox to The Sex Pistols, Cold Chisel’s The Last Wave Of Summer to Skunkhour’s The Go.
• Toyah on TV: The Most Fertile Man In Ireland is airing again on Sky Movies Indie (& HD), Sunday 16th September @ 9.45am.
• University of Bristol: O Brave New World: This devised performance by final year students is inspired by Derek Jarman’s 1979 film of The Tempest, shot during the winter of discontent, and Jubilee, the punk musical he made a year earlier. View the trailer.
More photos of Toyah onstage at The Rainbow in April 1980. She was one of a number of guest vocalists who appeared with the band at the gig while Hugh Cornwell was in prison. Others included Hazel O’Connor, Robert Smith, Ian Dury, Wilko Johnson and Richard Jobson. View larger versions at Dreamscape’s 1980 Gallery. (Thanks to Andi for these rare photos)
Another rare photo from December 1981’s ‘Good Morning Universe European Tour’. This photo of Toyah onstage in Paris is by the same photographer who took the great backstage shot (below right). Click here to view a larger version. (Thanks to Andi)
A very rare photo of Toyah and Hazel O’Connor onstage with The Stranglers at The Rainbow, London in April 1980. More of these great photos soon. (Huge thanks to Andi)
A small preview of all of the photos of Toyah included in ‘Herb Schulz, Capturing The New Romantics’ digital book, including rare shots from the famous 1981 session that have never been published before. If you’re a fan of Toyah’s early 80s imagery, or the New Romantics in general, this book is a must! Buy the book here. It may be available in other formats, including hard-copy, at some point in the future. (Thanks again to Andi | Photos © Herb Schulz)
Herb Schulz, an acclaimed advertising and fashion photographer of the time took these portraits of the ‘Blitz Kids’ in his studio. Unlike other images documenting from this period, Schulz decided to capture these creations in a sterile environment, removing them from the clubs or drab streets of 1980s London, imbuing them with a sense of hyper-reality. These images, like no other of the era, capture with a heightened sense of intimacy the characters behind the facades. Photos include Steve Strange, Boy George, Toyah Willcox, Siouxsie Sioux and many never before seen images from the earlier time of the New Romantic movement.
Rare, and amazing, photos of Toyah from 1980!! Photos from this session were used in a TV Times interview that year but these are all unpublished as far as I’m aware. (Thanks to Andi)
Three more photos of Toyah from the archives (and the 80s!!). 1. The final date of the ‘Good Morning Universe’ European Tour 1981 at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane; 2. A rare shot of Toyah during ‘The Changeling Tour’ 1982; 3. A serene looking Toyah during the hectic days of Trafford Tanzi at the Mermaid Theatre, 1983. Click on each to zoom. (Thanks to Andi & Lärwi)
This fanzine, the first issue of ‘Shout!’ from 1981, recently listed on eBay appears to include two rare photos of Toyah. Difficult to tell with the smaller one but I can’t remember ever seeing the main photo. Toyah is interviewed about the break up of the band and the ATV docu!
Amazing, and rare, photos of Toyah from one of the band’s European gigs (most probably the Theatre Le Palace, Paris) on the ‘Good Morning Universe’ 18-date tour in December 1981. Click below to view larger versions. (Thanks again to Andi)
Rare photos of Toyah live at Torrington in 1987. This was a charity concert where Toyah performed songs from her, recently released, ‘Desire’ album and Cabaret, with Robert Fripp on guitar. Please click below to view larger versions. (Thanks to Andi)
The full, rarely seen, four-page Smirnoff advertising feature from ‘Company’ magazine in 1980.
To a gifted jewellery designer, we dedicate the Mint Gem. To a rising star, who played Miranda in The Tempest, we present the Stormy Weather cocktail…
Toyah Willcox: Star of Derek Jarman’s The Tempest, subject of an ITV documentary, founder of her own band and leading lady in a new Royal Court play, is the phenomenon of 1980. Can she continue to succeed as both a rock singer and serious actress? ‘I have the energy, so of course I can’. Of the future, the fiery redhead says quite simply: ‘I’d like to be an astronaut.’ – Dress, Bruce Oldfield; jewellery, Butler & Wilson.
NB: Valerie Robertson, also included in this feature, was the designer of the famous gold & black bangle Toyah wore in numerous photos in the early 80s. Gill Smith, also in the feature, is wearing Toyah’s famous bronze bangles!
• Click below to view a larger version of the feauture. (A huge thanks to Andi for this rarity)
A rare photo of Toyah from 1980! Plus a great shot from 1983 when she was starring in Trafford Tanzi at the Mermaid Theatre, London, and at the same time recording the ‘Love Is The Law’ album. Please click on each to zoom. View another picture from the 1980 photo session. These are the only two I know of from it! (Thanks to Michael Tyler & Andi)
Two rare-ish photos of Toyah from 1981. The first is a great shot from the ‘Melody Maker’ cover feature, “Toyah Unmasked”, photo session, and the other is a fantastic live image from the ‘Anthem Tour’. Please click on each to zoom. (Thanks to Lärwi & Andi)
I’ll be adding more rare Toyah photos over the coming weeks so do please make a return visit as there are some great shots to come | View all of our recent Classic Toyah posts.
Check back to Dreamscape News soon for a brilliant, and rare, 1981 interview with Toyah, courtesy of our very good friend Lärwi, from Finnish pop magazine ‘Suosikki’ (similar to the UK’s ‘Smash Hits’): Toyah is 145 centimetres of pure sex appeal and energy…
Two more rare-ish photos of Toyah. These are from 1980 and were taken during the filming of, and as publicity for, the ATV documentary TOYAH. Please click on each to view a larger version. (Thanks again to the incredibly generous Andi)
Apologies for my previous post. This is probably not the best place to let off that sort of steam. I’ve removed it.
Two photos of Toyah from the late 70s. The first is a very rare shot taken on the stairs outside Mayhem in Battersea, and the second is a fuller length version of a shot I previously added to Dreamscape. Amazing photos! Click on each for larger versions. (Thanks to Andi)
• A rare shot from a well-known 1978 Toyah photo session has appeared online. It was used as a “pin-up” in Issue 16 of the fanzine Ripped and Torn in January 1979. Photos from this session were most famously used on the cover of, and inside, ‘Record Mirror’, also in January 1979.
• Lärwi has compiled a great video to mark the 30th anniversary of ‘The Changeling’ and ‘Warrior Rock’, with music from 1982 and visuals from 2012. View it at You Tube.
• ‘Ieya’ is included in ‘The Epileptic Gibbon Podcast Music Show’ in their 77th podcast: “Episode 77: The Far Distant Dead”. View here.
• Tommy’s Garage: Toyah Willcox, Pioneer of Punk + New Wave: She’s an incredible woman and artist. We Love Toyah!
• The Changeling Resurrection 2012′: Autumn Tour: Numerous dates for the Autumn tour are already all over the internet. No point in mentioning them here until they are officially confirmed. This one, however, at Rechabite Hall, Telford (a new venue), is worth a look. Their flyer is full of great bands.
With the very recent discovery of two rare, and fantastic, ‘Desire’ photos now seems as good a time as any to take a look back at some of the imagery from this era. In a 10 year career this was probably the first time Toyah had looked “conventional”. The ‘Desire’ album and related image seems to be more appreciated retrospectively than at the time of release… dive in!
• View the 25th anniversary ‘Desire’ feature at Dreamscape here. (Photography by Carrie Branovan)
Let me run riot of colour, over you…
You wait 25 years and then, not one but, two very rare photos of Toyah from 1987 (a year I prefer to refer to as “the ‘Desire’ era”) surface.
This one is from an official EG print, and, as with all of the fantastic ‘Desire’ promotional photography, is likely to have been taken by Carrie Branovan.
If I was wealthy I would definitely publish a Toyah Photo Book: ‘Visions’. Full sessions, rare photos, outtakes… Every coffee table would want one! Toyah’s amazing visual imagery, both past and present, really should be captured for posterity. Anyway, back to reality! (Thanks to Michael for this great photo)
