A vintage television clip of the song “Danced”, filmed in 1979., from the album Sheep Farming In Barnet.
There’s new songs every Saturday morning uploaded to the Toyah channel in the 11am ‘Toyah At Home’ slot. Remember to catch a new monthly Toyah At Home special at 11am on the first Saturday of each month.
This Tuesday’s Anthem Countdown gifted a vintage live performance of Danced with the Anthem band from a concert in Ulster which was broadcast on BBC Northern Ireland in 1981. A version of Danced from Paris Theatre, London can be heard on CD2 of the 2CD+DVD edition of Anthem.
A preview of the live performance of Danced performed live in June 1980 at Club Lafayette, Wolverhampton is premiering on Toyah’s Official You Tube channel on 5th April. As featured on the DVD with the Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! Deluxe CD+DVD release from Cherry Red Records. Released Friday 13 May 2022.
From Victims of The Riddle to The Vow, Danced to Dance In The Hurricane and I Want To Be Free to Levitate… stream the new Toyah Singles Collection playlist at Spotify by clicking below.
Last Saturday’s episode of Toyah At Home featured two archive performances: The mighty Danced, from Sheep Farming In Barnet, and one of the best pop songs of the 1980s (or any other decade), Thunder In The Mountains.
Click below to watch/rewatch episode 16, in which Toyah reveals there are plans to release a trio of live Toyah/Toyah & The Humans concerts from Trading Boundaries, East Sussex, and O2 Islington in the not too distant future.
On This Day, via the Official Twitter presence of the BBC Archive – 1980: Toyah Willcox introduced Steve Strange, Vivian Stanshall, Derek Jarman and Christopher Biggins to Space Invaders. Nothing about this clip makes any sense…
As well as interviewing a handful of guests she herself chose on the above programme – Saturday Night, Sunday Morning (Series Three, Episode 10) – Toyah, Joel and band also performed two songs. Incredible live versions of Mummies and this…
• Friday Night, Saturday Morning was a television chat show with a revolving guest host. It ran on BBC2 from 28 September 1979 to 2 April 1982, broadcast live from the Greenwood Theatre. The programme was the idea of Iain Johnstone and Will Wyatt, who insisted on a changing presenter every fortnight. Another innovation was that the presenters chose the guests they were to interview. (Info Source: Wikipedia)
Strictly limited edition handwritten lyric artworks by Toyah were available at the merch stall last night at The Fleece Bristol. Voodoo Doll, Danced, Angel & Me… (Photos © Official Toyah)
Toyah Willcox first made the cover of Smash Hits on 27 November 1980, the day before her band Toyah released a ‘live’ album. It had been recorded at Wolverhampton’s Lafayette Club on 17 June 1980; the gig was also filmed for inclusion in a television documentary about Willcox and her band. Of the documentary (a ‘fly-on-the-wall’ in which she was followed around over a period of months), she spoke about her unhappiness at being under the control of ATV, the station producing it: “The director wouldn’t give me all the shots I suggested. For example, when we were playing Blue Meaning on top of Battersea Power Station he wouldn’t take a camera up in a helicopter. A lot of it is quite personal though, down to fights with the band in the dressing room.”
One of the tracks performed at the Wolverhampton show, Danced, was issued as Toyah’s fourth single: “A live album – Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! – contains further tracks recorded at this concert but Ghosts and Neon Womb [the B-side songs] are available only on this single,” the sleeve notes ran.
• Continue reading at If You Were There.
The Resurrection Live Sessions: An occasional series of videos, filmed at Brighton Concorde 2, the final date of The Changeling Resurrection II UK Tour. First up is Danced. I think this was filmed and, brilliantly, edited by Ali Carron who is also making a Toyah related documentary that will air next year. NB: The gig footage won’t be released on DVD but more will feature exclusively at Toyah’s new Official Vimeo Channel. (Thanks to Michael)
• A new photo of Toyah was made available this week: View it at Toyah’s Official Facebook. For those not on FB a smaller version is also on the news page at toyahwillcox.com.
Seven years apart and very, very different music and imagery, but both “classic” Toyah – The iconic ‘Danced’, the live version from ‘Toyah! Toyah! Toyah!’ released as a single in late 1980, and ‘Desire’ the album released in Summer 1987 that includes some of Toyah’s best lyrics, showcasing what a fine songwriter she is. Please click on each to zoom.
The ‘Desire’ photo is actually from a 1986 shoot but image/time wise it’s close enough to be associated to the 1987 album! (Thanks to Andrew York for working his magic on the photo)
