Congrats to Toyah and, her new studio album, Posh Pop. As of right now at Amazon UK the album’s release formats hold the top four positions in their Pop Rock Best Sellers and the top three on the Dance Pop Best Sellers. It is also at positions 3, 4 and 31 in the Rock Best Sellers, and number 7, 8 and 11 in CDs & Vinyl Best Sellers. Astounding stats!
The Ghosts Of Borley Rectory, a supernatural horror based on terrifying true events: a hopeful paranormal investigator attempts to illuminate the truth behind Britain’s most haunted house, with chilling consequences. Watch the official trailer.
Toyah introduces the announcement of new studio album “Posh Pop” out 27 August 2021. The album is available on CD, space grey-coloured 180g vinyl, digital download and deluxe CD+DVD including a video album with a video for each of the 10 songs. Pre-order now!
The cover art for Toyah’s new single, Levitate. The first track to be taken from Posh Pop.
Welcome to Posh Pop Day. Expect lots of news over the next few days. Visit Toyah at Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for numerous Posh Pop updates and links to press. Details on how to pre-order the new album (released on Friday 27th August), tracklist, artwork and previews of new songs can be browsed at toyahwillcox.com by clicking below.
Official Toyah are excited to announce two very special releases from Toyah for Record Store Day 2021. Both exclusive releases will be available as part of RSD Drop 1 on Saturday 12 June. Visit the RSD website to find a participating store near you.
Mesmerised – Rarities & Remixes 85-94
• Released by Demon Records for #RSD21. Mesmerised compiles rarities and remixes spanning 1985-1994.
• Side 1 starts with Lion Of Symmetry, Toyah’s collaboration with Tony Banks of Genesis originally recorded for the motion picture Lorca & The Outlaws. It then features the Mike Hedges-produced ‘Desire’ album’s B-sides and an outtake Mesmerised. Side one closes with the 12″ Surf Mix of “Echo Beach”.
• Side 2 features Phil Nicholas-produced rarities and remixes, all on vinyl for the very first time, including Tears For Ellie and the “Weybridge Mix” of “It’s A Mystery” which features re-recorded vocals and Friday Forever.
• Rare imagery taken to accompany the Desire album and singles feature on this exclusive compilation which is pressed on 180 gram vanilla coloured vinyl and will be made available exclusively from participating stores on Saturday 12 June.
SIDE ONE
1. LION OF SYMMETRY – TONY BANKS & TOYAH
2. PLENTY – B-SIDE
3. SUN UP – B-SIDE
4. RE-ENTRY INTO DANCE – B-SIDE
5. MESMERISED – OUTTAKE
6. ECHO BEACH – SURF MIX/12″ MIX
SIDE TWO
1. TEARS FOR ELLIE – DEMO
2. GOD CEASES TO DREAM – REMIX
3. POLAND (ONE DAY ON EARTH) – DEMO
4. NOW I’M RUNNING – REMIX
5. IT’S A MYSTERY – WEYBRIDGE MIX
Official Toyah are excited to announce two very special releases from Toyah for Record Store Day 2021. Both exclusive releases will be available as part of RSD Drop 1 on Saturday 12 June. Visit the RSD website to find a participating store near you.
Four From Toyah – Fortieth Anniversary
• Cherry Red Records is delighted announce the newly remastered 40th Anniversary release celebrating Toyah’s 1981 hit EP Four From Toyah as a special expanded coloured vinyl mini- album exclusively for Record Store Day 2021.
• Produced by Nick Tauber and introducing a new band line-up the EP was led by the song ‘It’s A Mystery’ which became a hit and entered the top 40 UK singles chart, rising to no.4 in February 1981 and earning a silver certification from the BPI in March 1981. ‘It’s A Mystery’ became one of Toyah’s signature songs and is still performed to this day.
• This expanded release presents all four tracks from the original 7” EP on side one of the vinyl – remastered from the original mastertapes for the first time ever.
• Side Two includes the four original demo/incarnations of the songs which all started life in previous recording sessions, and again are remastered from the original mastertapes for the first time ever.
• The release carries stunning new artwork including previously unseen shots from the classic photography for “Four From Toyah” which saw Toyah in four different striking and meticulous looks representing all four songs and is pressed on ‘jungle green’ coloured vinyl echoing Toyah’s make-up from the front sleeve shot.
SIDE ONE
1. IT’S A MYSTERY – 2021 REMASTER
2. REVELATIONS – 2021 REMASTER
3. WAR BOYS – 2021 REMASTER
4. ANGELS & DEMONS – 2021 REMASTER
SIDE TWO
1. IT’S A MYSTERY (ORIGINAL VERSION) – BLOOD DONOR FEAT. TOYAH WILLCOX – 2021 REMASTER
2. JACK & JILL – ORIGINAL INCARNATION OF REVELATIONS – 2021 REMASTER
3. THE MERCHANT & THE NUBILE – ORIGINAL INCARNATION OF WAR BOYS – 2021 REMASTER
4. ANGELS & DEMONS (DEMO) – 2021 REMASTER
Toyah unboxes the Four From Toyah – 40th Anniversary Mini-Album and Mesmerised | Rarities & Remixes 85-94, two very special releases from Toyah for Record Store Day 2021. In-stores ONLY as part of RSD Drop 1 on Saturday 12th June.
• Visit recordstoreday.co.uk to find a participating store near you.
“I was very reliable” Toyah tells SDE
Toyah Willcox, the new queen of ‘Sunday Lunch’ lockdown videos talks to SDE about the reissue of Toyah’s 1980s album The Blue Meaning. This is the second major release in Cherry Red’s reissue campaign, since the label acquired Safari Records in early 2020.
SDE: You’ve been keeping busy during lockdown – I’ve seen the videos – but you must have missed playing live, since you used to do it so much?
Toyah Willcox: Yes, that’s true, but I managed to build a pretty phenomenal… brand name in lockdown. So we’re going to continue with it. It’s been a phenomenon we never expected, and it’s still growing. In a couple of years we’ll have our own TV channel, doing our own TV broadcasts. What seems to have struck home is the very basic truth and simplicity of what we do. We’re not in hi-tech studios or anything like that, but we’ll actually be broadening the whole of that.
• Continue reading at Super Deluxe Edition. Browse Dreamscape’s SDE news archive.
Buy the gorgeous pink vinyl edition of The Blue Meaning. It is sold out at Cherry Red but is still available, in all of it’s pink glory, at Amazon UK.
Toyah unboxes the new 2CD+DVD edition of The Blue Meaning, released by Cherry Red Records this Friday, 28th May 2021. Pre-order this or the neon pink vinyl LP edition at Cherry Red.
A new video to previously unreleased Jack & Jill including footage of Toyah in Park Gates Studio with producer Steve James. This track is a bonus track on the deluxe edition of The Blue Meaning, out 28 May. Pre-order the three-disc set here. Click below to watch the video.
A new Toyah track with Simon Darlow and Bobby Willcox features on the album release Miniatures 2020. The track Future Dreaming is what Simon Darlow describes as a “theatre production in 3 parts that had to fit in a minute … from star birth to the peace of the infinite.”
Former Mott The Hoople keyboardist Morgan Fisher released an obscure underground album in 1980 called “Miniatures”. It was effectively a collection of 52 “miniature masterpieces”, i.e. tracks of one minute length or less by a myriad of music legends and cult figures. Although at the time, the album flew pretty much below the radar it has over the years had a lasting and continually growing influence.
• Continue reading at toyahwillcox.com.
Toyah and Cherry Red Records are delighted to announce the newly remastered and expanded release of Toyah’s 1980 album “The Blue Meaning” on 28 May 2021. This is the second in a reissue programme of Toyah’s entire Safari Records catalogue.
Produced by Steve James with arrangements by Steve James and ‘Toyah’ the band (Joel Bogen, Pete Bush, Toyah Willcox, Steve Bray and Charlie Francis), the album reached number 1 on the UK Independent Album Chart and charted in the main UK Top 40 album chart in June 1980.
Remastered by Nick Watson from the original mastertapes and original sources, overseen and approved by Joel Bogen. The album features the ultimate fan favourite ‘Ieya’ considered a signature song by the band, which was also released as a single.
2-CD+DVD digipack with a fully illustrated 24-page booklet containing a brand new introduction note from Toyah plus rare and unseen imagery including album cover outtakes taken at Wykehurst Place, a gothic revival mansion in Bolney, Sussex.
This expanded edition features 27 remastered bonus tracks including single mixes, live tracks, rarities and unheard demos compiled by Craig Astley. Amongst the 20 previously unreleased tracks are the final recordings made by this band line-up including ‘Silence Won’t Do’ and ‘Jack & Jill’, as seen being recorded on the 1980 ITV documentary “Toyah” and have been long awaited by fans for forty years.
The very first demo of ‘Angels & Demons’ recorded at Eel Pie Studios, an Alternate Vocal take of ‘Blue Meanings’ with the previously unheard original longer song outro and three tracks recorded live at the ICA London all make their release debuts.
Includes the early original version of ‘It’s A Mystery’ by Blood Donor feat Toyah Willcox that a ‘new’ line-up of Toyah ‘the band’ went on to record and enjoy their first hit single with in 1981.
A sleevenote by Toyah’s archivist Craig Astley, with input from Toyah Willcox and Joel Bogen, chronicles the creation of the album and reveals the recording origins of the bonus material.
Includes a DVD (NTSC/Region Free) containing three brand new features with Toyah Willcox, an interview about the album/period, a track-by-track album commentary and an exclusive acoustic three-song session of songs from the era – all filmed October 2020.
The DVD also includes rare archive BBC TV performances of ‘Mummies’ and ‘Danced’ from Friday Night, Saturday Morning (November 1980) available on DVD for the first time ever.
Strictly limited edition neon pink coloured vinyl echoes Toyah’s hair colour from the back sleeve and the colourful glow surrounding the gothic mansion, Wykehurst Place in Sussex on the LP’s front cover. The vinyl LP features the original album track listing and features rare unseen imagery plus full album lyrics.
Initial copies of the Vinyl LP from Cherry Red website come with a signed postcard by Toyah – design exclusive to the LP pre-order. Initial copies of the 2CD+DVD from Cherry Red website come with a signed postcard by Toyah – design exclusive to the 2CD+DVD pre-order.
• Continue reading at toyahwillcox.com to see the full tracklist, hear a preview track and read further details on the release. Pre-order The Blue Meaning, 2CD/1DVD Deluxe Edition, and Limited Edition Colour Vinyl LP here.
1980 debut reissued as 2CD+DVD set & coloured vinyl
Toyah’s debut album Sheep Farming In Barnet has been remastered and expanded and will be reissued in December. Cherry Red bought the Safari Records catalogue earlier this year and Sheep Farming In Barnet represents the start of a planned reissue programme of Toyah’s entire output on that label, including 1981’s hit-packed Anthem.
Originally a six-track EP issued in August 1979, Sheep Farming In Barnet was expanded to full album status the following year with the addition of five further tracks, including both sides ‘Victims Of The Riddle’, Toyah’s first single (released in 1979).
The reissue is fairly straightforward, with two formats on offer: 2CD+DVD and an LP pressed on white vinyl. The former offers the newly remastered album, plus 30 bonus tracks made up of non-album singles, rarities and demos (20 previously unreleased).
• Continue reading at Super Deluxe Edition.
Toyah & Cherry Red Records are delighted to announce the long-awaited newly remastered and expanded release of Toyah’s debut album Sheep Farming In Barnet which kickstarts a reissue programme of Toyah’s entire Safari Records catalogue.
Sheep Farming In Barnet will be reissued on 4 December 2020 as a limited edition white vinyl LP and expanded 2CD+DVD package.
Limited quantities of both formats come with a different design postcard signed by Toyah.
Produced by Steve James and Keith Hale (Blood Donor), the album reached number 1 on the UK Independent Albums in February 1980 and celebrates its fortieth anniversary in 2020.
The album has been remastered from the original mastertapes and the 2CD+DVD package includes 30 bonus tracks including 20 that are previously unreleased.
The 7” single Victims Of The Riddle (1979) was Toyah’s very first release and is included here. This was followed up by 6-track mini-album Sheep Farming In Barnet that contained three tracks per-side on a 33 1/3 playing 7” vinyl. This mini-album was then expanded to a full length 11-track album (originally for the German market) in early 1980 by adding the Victims 7” A-Side/B-Sides and some further tracks also recorded at Chappell Studios, London.
This album contains the fan favourites Race Through Space, Neon Womb and Danced, all of which went on to become signature songs for the band. Non-album Double A-Side single Bird In Flight/Tribal Look produced by The Boys’ lead singer Matt Dangerfield is also included.
2CD+DVD digipack with a fully illustrated 24-page booklet containing a brand new introductory note from Toyah plus rare and unseen imagery including album cover shots taken at RAF Fylingdales Early Warning site, Yorkshire.
The album has been remastered by Nick Watson from the original mastertapes with mastering approved by Joel Bogen.
The expanded 2CD+DVD edition features 30 bonus tracks compiled by Craig Astley and is made up of non-album singles, rarities and demos. Amongst the 20 previously unreleased tracks are versions originally recorded for Shoestring, the original improvisation vocal that became Victims of The Riddle and the band’s first ever pre-signing 1978 demos.
Includes a sleevenote by Toyah’s archivist Craig Astley, researched with input from co-writer/guitarist Joel Bogen, chronicles the creation of the album, musician line-ups and reveals the recording origins of the album and bonus material for the first time.
The package includes a DVD (NTSC/Region Free) containing two brand new features with Toyah Willcox; ‘The Story Behind The Album’ is an in-depth interview about the album/period, a Track-by-Track Album Commentary interview plus an exclusive acoustic three-song session of songs from the era – all filmed August 2020.
The DVD also includes rare archive TV footage available on DVD for the first time ever including a 1979 interview/performance clips of Race Through Space filmed at Toyah’s Battersea warehouse ‘Mayhem’ for broadcast on What’s On (ITV Midlands-only region) and two songs, Danced, Indecision, filmed February 1980 for BBC’s The Old Grey Whistle Test.
• Continue reading at toyahwillcox.com to see the full tracklist, hear a preview track and read further details on the release. Pre-order Sheep Farming In Barnet, 2CD/1DVD Deluxe Edition, and Limited Edition Colour Vinyl LP here.
Something special coming soon on Cherry Red – Announcement on Toyah At Home, airing from 11am, today at the official Toyah You Tube channel and Facebook page. (Photos/Images © 1. Neil Anderson, 2. Official Toyah, 3. Cherry Red Records Ltd)
The bold beginning of an awesome music career! Welcome to Sheep Farming in Barnet Saturday!
Out now digitally, 21st Century Schizoid Man from Toyah & The Humans. This is the final recording the late Bill Rieflin collaborated on with Toyah. Click below for download and streaming links.
Doll House, directed by Steven M. Smith (Doll Cemetery, The Howling, The Doll Master, Haunted), was officially released on 21st July in USA & Canada on DVD and digital platforms.
Starring Toyah Willcox (Invasion Planet Earth, Quadrophenia), Mark Wingett (The Bill, Quadrophenia), Louisa Warren, Jennifer Leahey and Paul Danan (Hollyoaks, Are We Dead Yet?).
