Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

The story of Toyah’s star, by the King’s Heath Walk Of Fame, just uploaded to You Tube.

Just uploaded half a dozen short clips of Toyah from various TV shows, mostly from the very early 2000s: FBI, Through The Sunroof, You Dancin? I’m Askin!, Scotland Today… and more. These include a very brief clip of Toyah in rehearsals for Picasso’s Women at the Edinburgh Festival in 2000 and Issey Miyake speaking about the outfit Toyah wore on the cover of her single ‘Don’t Fall in Love’. View these at Dreamscape’s You Tube channel.

A few screen caps of Toyah looking utterly amazing when she guested on Russell Harty’s BBC2 show in March 1983. Other guests were Willie Rushton and Janet Street-Porter in a programme looking back at celebrities’ school days. Toyah’s former teacher also made an appearance. View a clip from the programme by clicking on the caps. (Thanks to Andi)

• Tatton Park Picnic Concerts 2013: Toyah at Tatton Park on Saturday 20th July, playing on the same bill as The Human League and Howard Jones, has been officially confirmed. Details and links to buy tickets here. (Thanks to The Official Toyah Facebook)

• Independent Woman: This Week’s Birthdays: Toyah Willcox, singer and TV presenter, is 55.

• All Star Mr & Mrs: Robert and Toyah’s VT from last week’s programme has been uploaded to You Tube. (Thanks to Jack Cooper)

• Sky Live 1998: I’ve also just uploaded a clip of Toyah from Sky Live. A very short interview and an acoustic performance of ‘It’s A Mystery’. Apologies for the poor picture quality but Toyah is sounding in fantastic voice here.

• Elu24: Weekend Guitar Trio – Live At Kings Place: A review of the new live album. Read the original here or a translation here.

• The Changeling: Alison Moyet mentions Toyah in an interview with ‘Gay Times’ (June 2013 issue) when talking about considering names for her new album: Moyet revealed other considered titles: “Changeling” (“but Toyah had an album called Changeling”).

• David Bowie: Five Years: An intimate portrait of five key years in David Bowie’s career: I’m not sure if he directly contributes to this new documentary but Robert Fripp is mentioned during it. Airing on Saturday 25th May on BBC2. Time tbc, more info here.

• Sign Here: Toyah autographs a Hormonal Housewives crew member’s leg: “Crew member wants my name tattooed on his leg. How could I refuse!“. View the photo at Instagram.

• Hemel Today: Hormonal housewives vent anger at the Arena: An extended sketch show, Hormonal Housewives calls on the same elements that proved such a draw in The Vagina Monologues and Hot Flush.

• Artrocker: Focus Wales 2013: Saturday 27th April, Wrexham County Borough Museum – Golden Fable is Rebecca Palin and Tim McIver, a synth/acoustic duo who produce a magical, hypnotic sort of pop. Palin is all glimmer suit and headdress something akin to Toyah Willcox in her prime.

Toyah appearing on The Saturday Show in 1983. (Thanks to Andi for this great Toyah footage)

Exactly 30 years ago Toyah was starring in Claire Luckham’s Trafford Tanzi at the Mermaid Theatre, London. BBC1’s Get Set aired a great interview on the Tanzi set, with Toyah, looking quite amazing, putting Peter Powell in his place! And here it is.

Toyah addresses the audience at the Federation of Small Businesses annual conference 2013, filmed on Saturday in Leicester. Toyah talks imagery, women in business and her career.

• A rare contact sheet of photos, taken at the Nordoff-Robins Musical Therapy lunch in 1983, is currently up for auction at ebay. Toyah is included in some of the photos.

• The Wrath Of Blog: Review #595: ‘Jubilee’ (1978): One particular group, consisting of, amongst others, Amyl Nitrate (Jordan), Mad (Toyah Willcox), Bod (Runacre in a dual role), Crabs (Nell Campbell) and Chaos (Hermine Demoriane), tend to spend their time smashing cars, having sex, participating in the odd murder, and generally giving the two-finger salute to anything resembling conformity.

• This Blackmore Vale: Have a girls’ night out with Toyah Willcox at Poole Lighthouse: Rock star and actress Toyah Willcox heads the cast of Hormonal Housewives at Poole Lighthouse next Thursday, 28th March.

• Noel’s House Party: A clip from the 1990’s of Toyah guesting, and being gunged, on Noel’s House Party, alongside John Stapleton and Nick Owen.

• Jelly: Troubador, Wizard, Queen and Machine – The band launch their debut album on 11th May at the “Punk ‘N’ Roll Rendez Vous” at The Unicorn in Camden.

• It’s the final couple of days of, the first part of, James and Lärwi’s Toyah Song Poll. Voting closes tomorrow so there’s still time to get involved. The top two from each album will then be voted on to find fans current favourite song. It’s not going to be a Top 50 as I, incorrectly, previously mentioned, more likely to be either a Top 20 or 15! Vote here.

• Entertainment Focus: Hormonal Housewives returns to Woking: Hormonal Housewives is returning to Woking’s New Victoria Theatre for one night only on Monday 18th March. Toyah Willcox and Julie Coombe star in the hilarious show which will features all-new sketches and all the best bits from the successful 2012 tour. Written by Julie and her husband John McIsaac, Hormonal Housewives looks at everything that makes today’s women tick…

• You Tube: Two clips of Toyah, possibly from around 2008, in fine voice playing It’s A Mystery and I Want To Be Free with The Subs have just been uploaded to ‘You Tube’. These clips are filmed from various angles and edited professionally but I’m not sure where they originate from.

• The Changeling Resurrection II: Anyone For a T? If you didn’t manage to get a t-shirt from the autumn tour, there are now some limited stock for sale online. All T-shirts are signed too! Get in quick if you would like one.

• Slightly late for the panto season that has just gone, but Toyah’s panto-themed guest appearance on Gloria Hunniford’s Open House has just been uploaded to You Tube. This originally aired on Channel 5 in December 2002.

• Cumbria Crack: Hormonal Houswives: With previous Hormonal Housewives including Margi Clark and Carol Smillie, this year the ladies are led by British pop icon Toyah Willcox and writer Julie Coombe, with further casting to be announced.

• Toyah paid tribute to Reg Presley of The Troggs, who died on Monday: “Dear Reg Presley God Bless You. A true wonderful legend. U will b missed“.

• Birmingham Mail: Birmingham Cluedo inventor to be honoured on Kings Heath Walk of Fame: Another mention for Toyah and more news on plans for the KH WOF.

• Portrait Records: A history of the label Toyah was signed to for around 18 months in the mid-1980s has just been updated at Wikipedia: In 1985, British singer Toyah released her album Minx on the Portrait label.

• Vents Magazine: Dutch pop-rockband Chabliz, who play adventurous alternative rock, popnoir and gothicjazz, cite Toyah as one of their musical influences in a new interview at ‘Vents Magazine’.

• The Changeling Resurrection: Lots of video footage of Toyah’s gig at The Tunnels Bristol last April has been added to You Tube over the last couple of days.

• Channel 4 News: Is Punk Back From The Dead? is now available to watch at You Tube. As a new book is published featuring the origins of punk music in the lower east side of New York, Katie Razzall looks at how Punk magazine changed life in Britain.

• FM: The epsiode of FM in which Toyah makes a, very, brief appearance, but is mentioned a lot, has recently been uploaded in full at You Tube. Series One, Episode Two – System Addict: The group try to stick to some new resolutions: Dom gives up booze, Jane gives up cigarettes, and Lindsay gives up giving up on girls. Featuring a performance by The Wombats, and guest appearance by Toyah Willcox.

• Back To The 80s: The Ultimate Megamix Of The Year: A 43-minute mix which includes ‘I Want To Be Free’ (or “Upside Down”) and ‘Thunder In The Mountains’ and numerous other great tunes from 1981.

• Absolute 80s Radio: ‘It’s A Mystery’ has just been played this afternoon on AR. Apparently the ‘I Want To Be Free’ video is also being shown a lot on Vintage TV at the moment. (Thanks Michael)

• The Visitors: No, not ABBA’s 1981 album… The hits to Dreamscape last night and this morning have went through the roof. Always great news when the site is busy, though this time a large chuck of the visitors have arrived after searching for “wagon’s den geordie shore charlotte” or similar!!

It’s become a tradition over the years for Dreamscape to put together an “ad” for Toyah’s latest release… So, here’s one for ‘Sensational’. Available at iTunes, Amazon etc… Click here to view a larger version and below to watch the video at You Tube.

Rather than celebrating the fact that almost 40 years into her career Toyah is still making music, releasing videos and imagery, entertaining her fans (is there anybody else from the New Wave era that is still so busy and visible that a news website about them can be updated almost every day?) and much more, there seems to be even more negativity swirling around than usual, especially regarding the video for ‘Sensational’. Check out the video on You Tube for Toyah’s feelings on the matter!

• The new video for Toyah’s Sensational has just been released. Here is another clip featuring the song, uploaded to You Tube a couple of years ago, featuring footage from The Sarah Jane Adventures. There’s also a SJA video set to It’s A Mystery, and a Doctor Who one too!

• Dangerous Minds: Punk Rock, Now More Than Ever: The Gospel According To Henry Rollins And Various Old Punks: I’m no Henry Rollins fan but when he’s good he can be very good, as he is in this short piece on punk rock, Is Punk Back From The Dead?, that was broadcast on British TV recently. The clip also includes some thoughts on punk from John Holmstrom, Tony James (Generation X), Mark Perry (Sniffin’ Glue) and Toyah Willcox. The consensus: punk now more than ever!

• Pun Based Name: Copy? Compliment? Coincidence?: For whatever reason, lots of album covers seem to pay tribute to lots of other ones… 15. Kate Bush – Never For Ever (EMI, 1980) & Toyah – Anthem (Safari, 1981): Anthem was probably Toyah’s best album; a nice mix of post-punk and new wave/synth pop influences.

• Leamington Courier: Family fun, theatre, comedy and music live in Leamington: Toyah Willcox will star in Hormonal Housewives, a comedy evening of sketches covering what makes women tick – or ticked off.

• In Concert 1981/Rebel Run Tour 1983: Low quality, but still really good, fan radio and concert recordings of War Boys, Neon Womb and I Explode at You Tube.

The full length video for Sensational was released this morning. Uplifting song, great visuals!

Yes, this is a word in your ear… Just uploaded to You Tube. Excellent quality footage of Toyah performing ‘We Are’, on German music programme RockPop, in 1981. Amazing! (Why didn’t British music shows emblazon huge photos of Toyah as backdrops?)

• Toyah’s appearance on last night’s Channel 4 News saw an increase in visitors to Dreamscape, certainly our busiest day for a while. Unfortunately a high-profile appearance also brings out the keypad warriors of Twitter, questioning whether Toyah was “punk”. There’s something slightly hilarious about people associated with punk nitpicking about who was more punk! Wasn’t that the sort of petty, elitist, judgemental way of thinking punk was fighting against?

• You Tube: Fart For Your Rights: Toyah tweeted on Monday: “Take note, my hubby’s response to no royalty payments“.

• You Tube: It’s A Mystery and I Want To Be Free – Acoustic covers of two Toyah classics by Danny McEvoy.

• This is Sussex: Go on and have a bit of a laugh this year: The Hormonal Housewives are back, and this time they mean business.

• WS County Times: Comedy classics at the Hawth: The Hormonal Housewives are back, plus this time Toyah Willcox takes on a leading role.

BBC Breakfast Time went on air 30 years ago this morning. The original programme logo and memorable theme tune still remind me of getting ready for school.

Toyah has guested on the programme numerous times over the years: In 1983, talking about ‘Love Is The Law’ and The Ebony Tower; in 1985, around ‘Minx’ time, talking about a tour that didn’t happen (see below); in 1987, talking about ‘Desire’ and Cabaret; in 2007, talking about panto in Reading and in 2008, talking about Vampires Rock.

BBC Breakfast is celebrating 30 years of broadcasting with a trip down memory lane

Considered a “huge risk” when it launched on 17 January 1983, Breakfast Time was the UK’s first regular national breakfast show. Famous for its magazine-style approach, it combined news and lighter features. The 30th anniversary show will feature appearances from some of the original team.

Introduced two weeks before rival broadcaster ITV’s TV-am with David Frost, Breakfast Time hoped to lure audiences away from radio with a combination of news, travel information and lifestyle segments. Although breakfast TV had been the staple diet in the US for three decades, the British public was wary of the innovation in 1983.

• Continue reading at BBC News. View Toyah’s 1985 Breakfast Time appearance below.

The official trailer for The Power Of Three, the film Toyah made a couple of years ago, is available to watch at You Tube. Toyah plays one of the lead characters in the film, which will be released on DVD at some point soon. View larger versions of the screen caps here.

Neil Tennant’s Smash Hits Christmas aired on ‘BBC Radio 2’ on the 20th December. An interesting look back at the golden years of the magazine, including contributions from Toyah, talking about ‘Smash Hits’ in general as well as her iconic “Brave New World” cover from 1982. The programme has now been deleted from iPlayer and isn’t being repeated any time soon. Click below to listen to a recording of the programme that’s recently been added to You Tube.

This year is the 30th anniversary of Smash Hits’ “Free Christmas Record (12 Minutes of Festive Fun)”, a flexi that was attached to the December 9-22, 1982 issue. The full magazine has just been uploaded to the Smash Hits Archive. Click below to listen – Toyah arrives at 4.46, inbetween Martin Fry of ABC and Steve Strange of Visage. Too-de-loo!!

I think I’ve mentioned I Believe in Father Christmas every December for the last 13 years, so here we go again… Toyah covers the Greg Lake 1975 classic (which I didn’t realise also features Robert Fripp until Toyah mentioned it this week on Toyah’s Christmas at the Zoo) for ITV’s Pop Goes Christmas in 1982. She sounds great, looks amazing and Keith Hale and Joel Bogen are having a right old festive time in the forest of lit up trees. Bravo!