New print issues of Dreamscape’s Toyah Fanzine are coming… In the meantime, our free digital lockdown issue – celebrating Toyah Solo – is still available online to read or download.
Over the past year or so all of Toyah’s (and Toyah & The Humans’) releases: In The Court Of The Crimson Queen, Solo and Noise In Your Head have entered various charts – Top 100, Midweeks, Sales, Rock & Metal, Independent – compiled by The Official UK Charts Company, aka Official Charts. Click below to browse our “Toyah on the charts” news archive!
Re-uploaded to this website’s You Tube channel recently, Sky Trax – The 1985 Toyah Special; a great Minx-era interview; and BBC Breakfast Time, a much shorter but still interesting Desire-era interview. These uploads have both been edited to remove all music from them, which was the reason they were originally made unavailable by You Tube.
Lots of other quirky clips and footage have also been added to our channel: Toyah, Superhits, Monster Munch 80s adverts, and more! Click below to visit and/or subscribe!
The new compilation: Rare, Remixed and Revisited, released as part of the Toyah Solo box set, is now available as a digital download and to stream via Spotify.
The album includes previously unreleased songs, a number of demos, remixes and re-recordings (Revisited) and features 16 tracks:
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 (Whispered Elixir Mix), 6. Lust For Love (Demo), 7. Angel (Demo), 8. Rebel Run (Revisited), 9. Good Morning Universe (Revisited), 10. Be Proud, Be Loud (Be Heard) (Revisited), 11. Desire (Revisited), 12. Obsolete (Revisited), 13. Danced (Revisited), 14. We Are (Revisited), 15. Angel & Me (Revisited), 16. Believe In You (Demo)
As previously posted, Desire, Take The Leap! and Velvet Lined Shell are also now available in standalone digital Deluxe Editions – all featuring bonus songs. These albums are also available to stream via Spotify (click the links above for official links to streaming and more).
Toyah Solo also entered The Official Charts Independent Albums Top 50 at number 10.
Toyah Solo entered The Official Charts Album Sales Top 100 at number 34.
Missed this at the time! Earlier this month Toyah Solo charted on The Official UK Album Chart midweek Top 100 at number 51.
This follows In The Court Of The Crimson Queen charting on the Official Album Top 100 countdown last April. See screenshots of those charts here.
Toyah’s March 2020 blog is available to read at toyahwillcox.com – Toyah talks Toyah Solo, the forthcoming new colour vinyls, great February gigs in Halifax, Holborn, Bacup, Selby, Stamford, Norwich and Scarborough, and more. She also pays tribute to Colin Hinds and Caroline Flack. Click below to read.
Dreamscape’s Toyah 2020 Releases page has just been updated – With new information and photos related to Toyah’s busy release schedule this year.
So far there’s been the eight-disc + 48-page booklet box set, Toyah Solo (just released and just incredible!) and the five colour/clear vinyl albums; Minx (red translucent vinyl), Prostitute (yellow translucent vinyl), Ophelia’s Shadow (aqua translucent vinyl), Take The Leap! (double album clear vinyl), Velvet Lined Shell (10″ purple vinyl).
With a number of other releases to follow through the year this page will be added to and updated. Check out the page and revisit for new releases.
A review of Toyah Solo by We Are Cult.
Little Tears of Love: ‘Toyah: Solo’ reviewed
❉ This is a fine time to look back at the solo career of an underrated artist.
“I’m too qualified, to give up lie down and die. This is my unsentimental education.”
Toyah Willcox has been a household name since her eponymous band burst onto the UK pop charts in the early 1980s. Juggling her musical career with high profile work as an actress on stage and screen, and a string of television presenting work was both a blessing for her career longevity and a poisoned chalice when it came to her enduring legacy as an artist in her own right.
The release of Solo – the first ever Toyah boxset – is the first step for Willcox and her faithful master of the archives Craig Astley in a bid to right those wrongs.
Compiling most – but crucially not all – of Toyah’s solo albums released since the Toyah band broke up in 1984, alongside a collection of rare and unreleased material, plus a bonus DVD, the release starts a dedicated reissue campaign which continues with standalone coloured vinyl pressings of almost every studio album in the set in March, bringing most of them back into print for the first time in over a decade.
• Continue reading at We Are Cult.
It’s Toyah Solo Day!! Toyah’s first ever box set is released today!
Toyah Solo is released tomorrow – Check out Dreamscape’s, just uploaded, tribute to Toyah’s first box set – An info-packed digital issue – Spring/Summer 2020 – of our Toyah fanzine, compiling new and previously published features related to Toyah Solo + extra bits and pieces!
• Toyah Solo: Review: Released this Friday, Toyah’s new box set is reviewed, and given four stars, in the new issue of Classic Pop magazine, which is on sale now.
• Classic Pop: Toyah Solo Review: The complexities of Toyah leaving her band – called Toyah – to become a solo singer – called Toyah – takes up several spreadsheets and pages of footnotes. In short, Solo rounds up the first six albums Toyah made when she left Toyah in 1985…
• Toyah Solo: Official Trailer – View here…
• Toyah Solo: Unboxing the box set: See Toyah unboxing her new, just about to be released, 8-disc box set here…
• Super Deluxe Edition: Out This Week/on 28 February 2020: Toyah Solo 7CD+DVD box – Toyah Solo mops up the era from 1985 onwards when Toyah Willcox signed as a solo artist to Sony’s Portrait Records and then subsequent EG releases, and comprises of seven CDs and a DVD plus a 48 page book – Continue reading…
The brilliant new trailer for Toyah Solo – a box set of incredible albums, released on 28th February. View the trailer below or at Toyah’s You Tube channel. The new 7 CD + DVD anthology of collected works by Toyah, released by Edsel Records, can be pre-ordered here.
Toyah unboxing Toyah Solo. It looks great. A much better looking box set than Madonna’s Complete Studio Albums released in 2012 (and that one was really good!)
“I am so excited. This is the first ever Toyah box set… The first of a few to be announced. Enjoy!” TOYAH
Toyah Solo is a new 7 CD + DVD anthology of collected works by Toyah, released 28 February 2020 by Edsel Records
An Amazon Exclusive edition featured a signed print and was strictly limited to 500 copies. (Now Sold Out!)
The first Toyah box set ever features six studio albums (Minx, Desire, Prostitute, Ophelia’s Shadow, Take The Leap!, Velvet Lined Shell).
The set also boasts 44 bonus tracks, including rarities, B-sides, collaborations, and several unreleased tracks, plus a DVD of promo videos and a brand new exclusive interview filmed in December 2019 with Toyah talking about her solo albums.
RELEASE DATE: 28 February 2020 | FORMAT: 7 CD + DVD in wallets in 2-piece box with 48 page booklet.
• Toyah Solo is available to pre-order now from Amazon. See Dreamscape’s Toyah Solo News Archive and our new Toyah 2020 Releases page which will, hopefully, be updated with each release this year. (Screen caps taken from a video clip that is © Toyah Willcox).
Dreamscape’s new Toyah Releases 2020 feature page is now online.
Toyah’s February Blog: “There is so much happening this year and it is all going to be announced in stages. Toyah Solo box set was announced in January and yesterday five Toyah Colour Vinyl were announced for pre-order“. Click below to take a look!
Dreamscape has features on four of the six Toyah solo studio albums included in the forthcoming Toyah Solo box set: Desire, Prostitute, Take The Leap! and Velvet Lined Shell.
Click below to see all four plus lots of other Toyah features.
Just over three weeks until Toyah Solo is released, on 28th February. Toyah’s first retrospective box set release, with seven CDs, a DVD, bonus songs and booklet.
• Official Toyah: Toyah Solo 7-CD/DVD Box Set: Toyah Solo is a new 7 CD + DVD anthology of collected works by Toyah, released 28 February 2020 by Edsel Records – Continue reading…
• Super Deluxe Edition: Toyah Solo 7CD+DVD Box: A new box celebrating Toyah’s career is on its way • Signed set sold out | Toyah’s solo career is to be celebrated in a new box set due next month from Demon. Toyah Solo mops up the era from 1985 onwards when Willcox signed as a solo turn to Sony’s Portrait Records and then subsequent EG releases, and comprises of seven CDs and a DVD plus a 48 page book. (If you’re a cursory fan and a bit confused and wondering ‘hang on, wasn’t she always solo?’ it transpires that up until then, Toyah was the name of the band she fronted.) – Continue reading…
• DGM Live: Toyah Set Due Feb: Toyah Willcox has a major retrospective box set release due in February. The 7CD set also comes with a DVD includes the albums she released on the EG label. Robert Fripp is a frequent collaborator appearing on 1987’s Desire, 1988’s Prostitute and in 1991, along with Trey Gunn, Tony Geballe and drummer Paul Beavis, Ophelia’s Shadow – Continue reading…
• Demon Music Group: Toyah – Solo (Standard Edition): This 7 CD + DVD box set (the first Toyah box set ever) features six albums (Minx, Desire, Prostitute, Ophelia’s Shadow, Take The Leap, Velvet Lined Shell) and 44 bonus tracks – Continue reading…
• Dreamscape: Toyah Solo: Our news archive for Toyah’s new box set – Continue reading…
Wow! It’s release has only just been announced and already Toyah Solo is doing incredibly well at Amazon: #1 in New Wave & Post-Punk, #1 in Box Sets (CDs & Vinyl), #1 in Pop Rock and #2 in CDs & Vinyl. Pretty impressive. But that’s just half the story, as these stats are for the Limited Edition version (which appears to have already sold out) of the forthcoming box set. The other version of the set (without the signed print) is at #2 and #3 on these sales charts too!
Stay tuned to this website for a Toyah Solo Newsy Bits & Pieces! update soon. Browse further info on Toyah’s first box set release at toyahwillcox.com and the official order page.
Toyah Solo is a new 7 CD + DVD anthology of collected works by Toyah, released 28 February 2020 by Edsel Records
RELEASE DATE: 28 February 2020
CAT NO: TOYAHBOX01
FORMAT: 7 CD + DVD in wallets in 2-piece box with 48 page booklet
An Amazon Exclusive edition features a signed print and is strictly limited to 500 copies.
The first Toyah box set ever features six studio albums (Minx, Desire, Prostitute, Ophelia’s Shadow, Take The Leap!, Velvet Lined Shell) alongside 44 bonus tracks, including rarities, B-sides, collaborations, and several unreleased tracks, plus a DVD of promo videos and a brand new exclusive interview filmed in December 2019.
In 1985, after five studio albums and two live albums with her band, Toyah decided to go solo, and signed to Sony’s portrait label. The album Minx contained two hit singles, Don’t Fall In Love (I Said) and Soul Passing Through Soul, as well as covers of Alice Cooper’s School’s Out and Rare Bird’s Sympathy. 1987’s Desire, featured appearances from Robert Fripp and Ron Wood and Toyah’s cover of Echo Beach, and now contains the previously unreleased outtake “Mesmerised. Prostitute (1988) was an arresting and fascinating departure from the pop formula, a trend continued by 1991’s Ophelia’s Shadow. In 1994, Take The Leap” featured new songs and intriguing revisits of several of her earlier pop hits. 2003’s “Velvet Lined Shell took Toyah back to her guitar punk roots.
Amongst the bonus tracks are Toyah’s collaborations with Tony Banks, Trey Gunn, German band Kiss Of Reality, Family Of Noise and This Fragile Moment. The lavishly-illustrated 48 page booklet features annotation about each album written by Toyah herself. Also featured is an essay on the period covered by the box by Toyah’s official archivist and compiler of this box set, Craig Astley. As Craig says: “eclectic is an often-overused word but is an accurate description of this intriguing and revelatory body of work. From unashamed pop and avant-garde to progressive rock and back to punk, the Common factors throughout are Toyah’s voice and lyrics but moreover, a sense of forging and following her own creative solo path”.
• Continue reading about Toyah Solo at toyahwillcox.com.
