Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

As previously mentioned, Toyah’s Thunder In The Mountains image will be included in the forthcoming Victoria & Albert exhibition Club To Catwalk: London Fashion In The 80s, Toyah will also participate in a special accompanying event in November. Tickets will be available soon but Breaking Through has released further details:

CARYN FRANKLIN, TOYAH WILLCOX & BRIX START-SMITH: IN CONVERSATION
Friday 8 November / 18.30-19.30
Designed by women for women. Join Caryn, Toyah and Brix as they bring their thoughts, ideas, experiences and memories to a discussion on women who developed, fused and influenced fashion and music in 1980s London. An exclusive look at some of Toyah’s 80s performance costumes will also be part of the evening.

• Toyah also talks about the ‘Club To Catwalk’ exhibition and taking part in the ‘In Conversation’ event in her latest blog.

The 2011 single, Fallen, the song Toyah wrote with Yomanda (Paul Masterson) will shortly receive its hard copy CD debut when the Extended Mix appears on the compilation album GayFest 2013.

The album will be released by Rumour Records with an exact release date still to be confirmed. This is the 14th album in the Gayfest series of compilations.

The single, which made the higher reaches of the Electronic Chart at iTunes in September 2011, is available to download.

I Must Confess… This is a great pop song. Fusing together a brilliant production with Toyah’s unique and distinctive vocals.

• Visit the ‘Fallen’ page at toyahwillcox.com. Watch the video at You Tube. See Toyah perform the single at Wig Out back in 2011. News courtesy of Toyah’s Official Newsletter. Sign up to Breaking Through.

Following last month’s news that Toyah’s ‘Thunder In The Mountains’ image will be included in the forthcoming ‘Club To Catwalk’ exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, Toyah’s Official Newsletter has revealed that Toyah will also participate in a linked event.

TOYAH CONFIRMED FOR ASSOCIATED EVENT
Breaking Through can also exclusively reveal that Toyah will take part in a panel discusion event at the V&A Museum on Friday 8 November 2013. Booking details will be available soon at the V&A website.

To celebrate the announcement of the Love Is The Law & More Tour two live Toyah recordings have been made available for the first time as downloads to add to your collection. They are the special soundcheck version of Rebel Run from The Regal, Oxford in 2011 and the brass version of I Explode from the Wasted Festival 2005. These download links will expire on 31st July 2013 so be sure to catch them while you can.

• It’s A Mystery: Following on from the fantastic ‘Mystery’ (Soft Mix by The Sonic Healer) comes another two, unofficial, remixes of ‘It’s A Mystery’, both just made available online this week. These don’t stray too far from the original, simply just extending the classic song. Listen at Magnum’s 1980s Extended Edits & Remixes.

• Uncut: Robert Fripp steals the show in David Bowie documentary: I don’t know if you saw it, but BBC2’s David Bowie documentary, Five Years, screened at the weekend, was very entertaining.

• Louder Than War: Top 10 Punk Rock Films: Jubilee: Derek Jarman’s 1978 film is as utterly ridiculous and campily bizarre as one of the several strands of early punk itself, Jubilee is a fascinating and ageing curio of the times and the reflection of one of the UK’s most imaginative film directors.

• Jubilee Art: While on the subject of Jubilee, some digital art by Neveryan at deviantart.com.

• Tanzi Libre: The original production, Trafford Tanzi, premiered at Contact Theatre in Manchester in 1980 before playing at the Edinburgh Festival and touring. It played at West End’s Mermaid Theatre starring Toyah Willcox in the title role and then later, on Broadway, as Tuebrook Tanzi: The Venus Fly Trap, starring Debbie Harry with Andy Kaufman as the Referee.

• Night Fever: Meanwhile in the 90s, Toyah and Sam Kane perform ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’ in this, long forgotten, Channel 5 show presented by Suggs.

More info on the forthcoming V&A Club To Catwalk exhibition, in which Toyah’s ‘Thunder In The Mountains’ sleeve will be included, is now available at Toyah’s Official Website.

The classic single sleeve from ‘Thunder In The Mountains’ will feature in the forthcoming Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition Club To Catwalk which opens on 10th July. The exhibition traces the theatricality and experimentation of early 80s club fashions and includes the work of Melissa Kaplan amongst many others. (News Source: Official Toyah Facebook)

This is interesting, all 13 minutes of it…

‘Mystery’ (Soft Mix by The Sonic Healer): Mr Tones & Mr Burns featuring Toyah

Atmospheric & slow; kind of a remix of a remix, done at half tempo and using guitar as well as keys and samples. I think this was about 1998, and I used an early version of Cubase, a Yamaha A3000, and a Roland general midi keyboard. Also a soft synth of some kind that wouldn’t run without glitching. Oh yeah, there was that vocoder too – the one with the pink blobby pattern on the front panel. You know the one.

• Listen to ‘Mystery’ (Soft Mix by The Sonic Healer) at Soundcloud.

Toyah: Echo Beach (Surf Mix, 7″ Mix), Plenty

This is a cover. The original was by a Canadian new wave band called Martha and the Muffins. There were actually two Marthas in that band at one point, so they really should have been called Marthas and the Muffins, but I guess that doesn’t really roll off the tongue. What are the odds of having two Marthas in a band anyways? Is that like some crazy common name in Canada or something?

I’m getting off topic. This version is by perennial UK oddball Toyah, and I prefer it to the original. It has less horns and more synthesizers.

• Continue reading at The Lost Turntable.

Praying to the silent man…

‘Rebel Run’, released in September 1983, was Toyah’s 13th single in the UK. It’s fitting that the song is celebrating it’s 30th anniversary in 2013.

This was one of only two singles to be released by Toyah in 1983 and was the debut from the album ‘Love Is The Law’. It was written by Toyah and Simon Darlow and reached number 24 in the UK Top 40.

Toyah made a memorable video for the single and promoted it with numerous appearances and interviews on shows including TVAM’s Summer Run, Hold Tight, The Saturday Show, Saturday Superstore, and German TV show Jugendabend. The video was also played on Top Of The Pops.

Toyah said of the imagery: “This is the Rebel Run look. I was into armour. A friend, Simon, made a bronze headdress based on the skeletal structure of American football players.”

• Download ‘Rebel Run’ at iTunes, view the promo video, and the airing on Top Of The Pops. Watch Toyah perform the single on Hold Tight and Saturday Superstore. Listen to the song live at Hammersmith Odeon on the ‘Rebel Run’ Tour in December 1983. Andromeda Rising covered the song in 2005. Listen to their version here.

• Fade 2 Grey: It Should Have been A Hit: Toyah, Soul Passing Through Soul, 1985: Very much in the vein of Bowie´s Heroes but still a great underrated single from Toyah. It should have been a bigger hit for her. It only reached a UK no 57. Minx fared better peaking at no 24. This was from her album Minx. I also love her cover of Sympathy which I have also included, and from the same album. Great sleeve too.

• Toyah Instagrammed a great photo of Easter bunny Willyfred yesterday. He even now has his own Appreciation Page at Facebook.

• Robert Fripp’s Diary: A huge thank you to Robert for linking to Dreamscape’s reports on Toyah’s traffic woes in his great online diary, sending the site numerous new visitors over the last week.

• Bexhill-On-Sea Observer: Sketch comedy show starring UK pop icon: Following 2012’s celebrated reception as they caused mayhem and mania in theatres across the land, the irrepressible Hormonal Housewives are back at the White Rock Theatre on Saturday, April 20.

• The (Sydney) Telegraph: The return of the mullet and the girl who got the chop: It seems this long-buried monster, last spotted upon the heads of footballers like Chris Waddle and Kevin Keegan, DJ Pat Sharp and rock chicks Kim Wilde, Toyah Willcox and Suzi Quatro, seems to have been disinterred, and is now uber-cool.

The Popjustice forum has been running another comprehensive countdown, this one detailing the Top 100 Singles Acts of the 80s. Based entirely on UK sales of singles from 1980 to ’89, Toyah places at number 84 for the decade, selling close to 1.5m singles.

84. TOYAH (1,481,000)

TOTAL HITS: 12
BEST YEAR: 1981
BEST SELLER: FOUR FROM TOYAH (EP) (381,000)

Knocking around since the late 70s, Toyah are more than just spokesman Toyah Willcox whose striking image was the main factor in getting press coverage in the early days. It started out very well for the group with 4 straight top 20 hits, and then……no more!

• View the opening page of the thread for details on the countdown, and the page that includes the info on Toyah. The countdown was completed yesterday, with Madonna revealed as selling the most singles of the 1980s. View here.

Another report on the Media Molecule story, this one also published yesterday by, the mighty, Digital Spy.

Media Molecule teases mystery new game announcement with Toyah video

Media Molecule is teasing a mystery new game announcement on its website. Under the games section of the Media Molecule site, the LittleBigPlanet developer has a page marked with a question mark. Clicking on the question mark launches a YouTube video of Toyah song ‘It’s a Mystery’.

With Sony expected to unveil the PlayStation 4 on February 20, Media Molecule’s mystery game could be a next-generation release.

• Continue reading at Digital Spy.

Who would have thought a few days ago that ‘It’s A Mystery’ would be being mentioned all over the internet this week? Media Molecule using Toyah’s, second, Top Of The Pops appearance from 1981 on their “teaser” page for a new, highly anticipated, game project has led to mention of the song, and Toyah going sorta “viral”. Here are a few more of the many websites reporting the story:

• Gamezone: The new project is listed as “?”, and the dedicated page contains a YouTube video of Toyah Willcox singing “It’s a Mystery.” Attempting to scour the source code for any hints, Media Molecule has cleverly teased the keywords: “what are we doing at the moment, exactly, mystery, new game, how awesome will it be?, who knows.”

• Gameranx: In place of further information about what the game entails (or whether it’s a game or not at all), right now all they’ve posted is a video of early 80s UK New Wave artist Toyah singing her song “It’s A Mystery” on a classic episode of Top Of The Pops.

• Video Gamer: Click through to the game and you are greeted with a YouTube embed of Toyah Wilcox hit ‘”It’s a Mystery”. It sure is.

• Playstation Universe: The developer behind the critically-acclaimed LittleBigPlanet series has seemingly posted up a teaser for a new project. Media Molecule’s official website notably includes a ‘?’ among its list of games, with the page linking to a clip from Toyah’s ‘It’s a Mystery.’ No further information is given.

• Warp Zoned: The list of games on the developer’s website includes their previous titles as well as a question mark. The question mark links to the music video for “It’s A Mystery,” a minor hit for the UK band Toyah in 1981. Sadly, the lyrics aren’t much help: It’s a mystery, oh, it’s a mystery, I’m still searching for a clue, It’s a mystery to me, A shot in the dark, The big question mark in history, Is it a mystery to you? (minor hit? It was huge Warped Zone ;))

LittleBigPlanet developer Media Molecule has a page labelled “?” in the Games section of its website, which plays Toyah’s ‘It’s A Mystery’ when accessed.

This is now being reported on games websites and forums all over the internet, including Game Informer: There’s A Media Molecule Mystery Afoot, Only SP: Media Molecule Teasing Unannounced Title, VG24/7: Media Molecule website teases secret new project.

• Visit the Media Molecule ‘Mystery’ page, and the LittleBigPlanet website.

The All-Star Request issue (January 6 – 19 1983) of Smash Hits magazine was published 30 years ago today. This included ‘Ieya’ by Toyah and many other songword favourites. The complete issue has just been uploaded to the Smash Hits Archive.

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.

• The fantastic Revelations, from the 1981 EP ‘Four From Toyah’, was played on ‘Q Radio’ on Thursday night. Still sounds great after, almost, 32 years!

• Toyah tweeted a great photo of herself, James Endeacott and Frankie from Frankie and The Heartstrings when they guested on Steve Lamacq’s Roundtable yesterday.

• Dark Beauty Mag: Brilliance From The Past: Lady Gaga, Madonna, and so many others would never match up. (This tribute to Toyah was published in January 2011 so I’m not sure why it showed up in my news feeds today but I’m glad it did!)

Where the mountains meet the sea…

I’ve always loved ‘Thunder In The Mountains’. It’s a great pop song; slightly over the top lyrics, excellently synth-driven, with a pulsating rhythm and memorable chorus/hook, “Can you hear it breaking through…“, and a huge production by Nick Tauber. I’ve always said that if this was used in a big budget movie it would easily be as massive again as it was back in 1981. Music this well produced doesn’t date!

Of course this was Toyah moving further away from their early ‘Sheep Farming in Barnet/The Blue Meaning’ “coolness”, eras that are still popular 30-odd years later with fans, but most bands and artists want to progress and reach bigger audiences.

Toyah did this by evolving and adopting a more commercial sound and embracing mainstream/kid’s television, but they still managed to retain a quirkiness that set them way apart from the run-of-the-mill popsters of the early 80s. ‘Thunder In The Mountains’ illustrates that perfectly. This was Toyah’s eighth UK single, written by Toyah, Adrian Lee and Nigel Glockler, with a spectacular promo video by Godley and Creme.

Toyah’s visuals were a significant aspect of her, and the band’s, appeal. The imagery for TITM was possibly the most adventurous yet. Why Toyah isn’t lauded far more loudly in New Wave/Romantic/80s documentaries and articles really is a mystery. Thankfully fans in their own way are ensuring the wonderful imagery isn’t being forgotten.

I’m hoping to add a new ‘Song Of The Week’ each Monday. If anyone would like their’s added here please get in touch. It doesn’t have to be a single.

I mentioned earlier in the year that Kylie seemed to be channeling her inner Toyah with this image. Thanks to Andi for this collection of photos which reinforces this further, and also for inventing “Toylie” – Copyright that name Andi ;)

I know everyone is probably thoroughly bored with my mock Toyah adverts and Photoshopping of various other classic Toyah photos… but here’s another two anyway :)