Carol Decker’s 30 Rock Chicks!: NOW 80s: Monday 24th February: 4am
T’Pau’s Carol Decker brings a bit of Heart and Soul to a countdown of ’80s ladies who like to rock! With Joan Jett, Tina Turner, Stevie Nicks and Pat Benatar. (as well as Toyah via the Thunder In The Mountains video)
Christmas 2016, and BBC Four aired a repeat Top Of The Pops, which was originally broadcast in October 1982 on BBC1, with Toyah’s studio performance of the single, Be Proud Be Loud (Be Heard). This site described it as “iconic, classic and utterly unforgettable“.
While the retro TOTP aired, BBC Four also tweeted: “In 1982, Toyah was so famous, she even had a lion-tailed macaque named after her on Animal Magic, and appeared on the show to meet it“.
Carol Decker’s 30 Rock Chicks!: NOW 80s: Thursday 12th December: 10pm
T’Pau’s Carol Decker brings a bit of Heart and Soul to a countdown of ’80s ladies who like to rock! With Joan Jett, Tina Turner, Stevie Nicks and Pat Benatar. (as well as Toyah via the Thunder In The Mountains video)
Toyah, performing a crowd-pleasing version of It’s A Mystery at Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham last Friday night at the first concert of the Let’s Rock Winter three-date tour. There are another two dates to be played later this month. See I Want To Be Free performed here. (Thanks to Darren)
Carol Decker’s 30 Rock Chicks!: NOW 80s: Thursday 5th December: 11am
T’Pau’s Carol Decker brings a bit of Heart and Soul to a countdown of ’80s ladies who like to rock! With Joan Jett, Tina Turner, Stevie Nicks and Pat Benatar. (as well as Toyah via the Thunder In The Mountains video)
The artwork for the digital release of Step Into The New World.
Carol Decker’s 30 Rock Chicks!: NOW 80s: Wednesday 9th October: 9pm
T’Pau’s Carol Decker brings a bit of Heart and Soul to a countdown of ’80s ladies who like to rock! With Joan Jett, Tina Turner, Stevie Nicks and Pat Benatar. (as well as Toyah via the Thunder In The Mountains video)
A great mini article on the Thunder In The Mountains single, just published by From The Stacks.
From The Stacks: Toyah, “Thunder In the Mountains” (Picture Disc)
Toyah never made a dent in the American charts, but lead singer Toyah Willcox left a big impression on the new wave kids. Willcox had it all: Big hair, beauty, and that “new wave diva” vocal style shared by so many early ’80s Brit artists. She was an art school kid’s dream.
And speaking of art school dreams, the video for “Thunder in the Mountains” is a Mad Max meets Spartacus fever dream:
Willcox is still getting things done, both as an actress and a musician. Her latest release is an extended version of In the Court of the Crimson Queen, featuring a guest appearance by her husband, King Crimson’s Robert Fripp.
As for this beautiful “Thunder in the Mountains” 7-inch: Expect to pay about three bucks, and just imagine how cool it will look hanging behind your turntable. Happy hunting.
• Continue reading at From The Stacks by clicking below on the Thunder In The Mountains collage I created circa 2012 (which, much like a lot of the other Toyah imagery I’ve created over the past 20 years, has been posted all over the internet/Facebook/Pinterest etc but never with any sort of link back to this website or design credit).
A belated Happy Anniversary/Birthday to an incredibly important single/AP/EP!
Not only is it one of the most important but also one of the best – all six songs are amazing and all stand the test of time, still sounding fresh, vibrant and way ahead of anything else that was released in 79!
Toyah’s second single, the Sheep Farming In Barnet (EP/AP) – following the debut single, Victims Of The Riddle, a few months earlier – was released in July 1979. The traditional EP contained four songs, Toyah’s record label wanted to differentiate from that format and decided to release SIX songs on one single (a mini album really). This was the first, and last, AP release. Tracks were: A. Neon Womb, Indecision, Waiting; B. Our Movie, Danced, Last Goodbye.
The band members were Pete Bush: Keyboards, Mark Henry: Bass, Joel Bogen: Guitar, Steve Bray: Drums, Toyah Willcox: Verbals. As with the debut single, this was a huge hit on the UK indie chart, and also increased the band’s, already growing, popularity in other parts of Europe. The, now iconic, cover shot for the single was taken at the RAF Fylingdales radar station near Whitby in Yorkshire. Unfortunately, the “golf balls” were demolished in the mid 1980′s.
• Continue the celebration – See Official Toyah’s Sheep Farming in Barnet collage/info post at Instagram (part of the Crimson Queen Tour countdown). Visit the SFIB AP page at the Toyah Discography. You can also check out our Toyah 40 Archive.
There’s a repeat airing of the Toyah Special of Video Killed The Radio Star on Sky Arts early next month. This is its first repeat since premiering in August 2018.
Video Killed The Radio Star: Sky Arts: Tuesday 2nd July: 7pm
Toyah Willcox. (Series 7, Episode 6) An insight into the making of videos by Toyah Willcox, whose hits included It’s A Mystery, Thunder in the Mountains and I Want To Be Free.
Carol Decker’s 30 Rock Chicks!: NOW 80s: Wednesday 19th June: 6pm
T’Pau’s Carol Decker brings a bit of Heart and Soul to a countdown of ’80s ladies who like to rock! With Joan Jett, Tina Turner, Stevie Nicks and Pat Benatar. (as well as Toyah via the Thunder In The Mountains video)
There’s another chance to catch Toyah’s Sack The Stylist?! Top 30. It airs again this Wednesday, at 12pm, on NOW 80s
Here’s the show’s full playlist: 30. Love and Pride – King, 29. Fade To Grey – Visage, 28. Bad Boys – Wham!, 27. The Slightest Touch – Five Star, 26. Synchronicity II – The Police, 25. You Think You’re A Man – Divine, 24. I Found Someone – Cher, 23. The Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had To Swallow) – The Jam, 22. Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye – Bananarama, 21. What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For? – Shakin’ Stevens, 20. Touch Me (I Want Your Body) – Samantha Fox, 19. You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) – Dead Or Alive, 18. Things Can Only Get Better – Howard Jones, 17. Lucky Star – Madonna, 16. Just Say No – Grange Hill Cast, 15. London Town – Bucks Fizz, 14. The Look Of Love – ABC, 13. More Than This – Roxy Music, 12. Open Your Heart – The Human League, 11. Just Can’t Get Enough – Depeche Mode, 10. Blue Jean – David Bowie, 9. Ant Rap – Adam & The Ants, 8. Starting Together – Su Pollard, 7. The War Song – Culture Club, 6. Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You) – A Flock Of Seagulls, 5. Thunder In The Mountains – Toyah, 4. Too Shy – Kajagoogoo, 3. The Wild Boys – Duran Duran, 2. Wired For Sound – Cliff Richard, 1. I’m Not Perfect (But I’m Perfect For You) – Grace Jones. Bonus Track: Sensational – Toyah
“Well, I’ve been taking an affectionate look at fellow pop stars and their styles so I had to balance things out with that. My hair, make-up and outfit on Thunder In The Mountains was pretty crazy. But I loved it!”
Carol Decker’s 30 Rock Chicks!: NOW 80s: Sunday 28th April: 9pm
T’Pau’s Carol Decker brings a bit of Heart and Soul to a countdown of ’80s ladies who like to rock! With Joan Jett, Tina Turner, Stevie Nicks and Pat Benatar. (as well as Toyah via the Thunder In The Mountains video)
It’s the 1981 Gallery! It’s Anthem, it’s I Want To Be Free, it’s Thunder In The Mountains, it’s At The Rainbow, it’s Good Morning Universe, it’s the College Tour, it’s The Old Grey Whistle Test, and yes… It’s A Mystery!
Ieya, Toyah’s fourth single, was released in June 1980. The song has become one of the cornerstones of Toyah’s music career. Ieya began its extraordinary life as a soundcheck jam:
A lot of my band were Jewish, and we all found it particularly offensive that the NF would recruit at concerts – they’d go around the audience intimidating the youngest, the smallest, the scrawniest boys into joining the NF By the end of this concert in Bath, the NF were chanting ‘Sieg heil’ at the back. Charlie Francis, our bass-player, found this intolerable, and Joel kept taking his guitar off to go and beat them up, which we all had to stop him from doing. Instead we just shouted back ‘Nazi scum’ and got the audience to chant ‘Nazi scum’. For the fourth encore, all we could think of doing was something that had started as a jam in the sound-check that day, which was ‘IEYA’. It was a sequence of chords that grew, so every verse had more chords added to it, and it had a fantastically simple chorus, a chant, ‘IEYA’. ‘IEYA, I am solar, IEYA I’m the beast.’
Ieya was re-recorded and re-released as a single in 1982. The song is almost always played during a Toyah gig, often during the encore. Ieya was written by Willcox/Bogen/Bush. Browse the full history of the song at Wikipedia.
He runs to the water’s edge, To feel the sea, To smell the air, To feel he’s free, He does not really need to see…
Toyah’s third single, and first new music of the Eighties, was the double A-Side, Bird in Flight/Tribal Look. The single was released in February 1980 on Safari Records. Bird in Flight is a brave, raw and ambitious classic from Toyah’s discography and has stood the test of time well, still sounding as good today as upon its release 39 years ago! Though Toyah has said she now finds the lyric “excruciatingly wrong”!
Bird in Flight/Tribal Look were both written by Willcox/Francis/Bogen/Bush/Bray.
Toyah was included on Carol Decker’s Rock Chicks which aired on NOW Xmas on Boxing Day and a few other times over Christmas. Toyah was number 30 on the rundown, with the Thunder In The Mountains video being shown.
From our friends NOW 80s T’Pau’s Carol Decker brings a bit of heart and soul a countdown of 80s ladies who like to rock.
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)
Definitely the best mug design ever – Drink your tea/coffee from a Brave New World mug. This was on sale at Toyah’s Acoustic… dates at the weekend and will also be available on Toyah’s Anniversary Tour dates later this month and in early November!
