• Three Of A Kind: Tracey Ullman recreates Toyah’s I Want To Be Free promo video back in the early 80s. (Thanks to Stephen Bennett Troake)
• Lorraine: Toyah tweeted a photo from the filming of ITV1’s Lorraine earlier this week. As far as I’m aware the footage hasn’t been shown yet. Maybe it will be this morning.
• Heart: Appear in the Panto: For one night only you will appear alongside Gareth Gates, Toyah Willcox and Katrina Bryan. You could be staring on stage in this years Panto – Sleeping Beauty at the Marlowe Theatre Canterbury. For the evening performance on Thursday 20th December you will be in the panto alongside Toyah Willcox and Gareth Gates.
• Under Ground Theatre, Eastbourne: Jubilee: A film with attitude, features punk icons Adam Ant and Toyah Willcox. (The 35th anniversary of the film – Showing on Thursday 25th April 2013 – Visit the cinema’s website)
• Like Punk Never Happened: Smash Hits Archive: November 25 – December 8 1982 issue. A so-so review of Warrior Rock by Fred Dellar – Direct link here.
• Pop Quiz: One day till December, time to try to get into the festive spirit (vodka?), here’s the full edition of Toyah on BBC1’s Pop Quiz, Christmas Eve 1984. (View larger versions of the screen caps here).
• An excellent selection of footage from the final Changeling Resurrection II Brighton gig at Concorde2 was uploaded yesterday to ‘You Tube’ at the brilliant Toyah Fan Videos channel: The Packt, Dawn Chorus, Obsolete, Latex Messiah (Viva La Rebel in You), Castaways, Angel and Me, Blue Meanings, Thunder In The Mountains, Danced, Good Morning Universe are all now online. There are more to come too!
• We still have a two month chunk of 2012 left and already live Toyah dates for 2013 are appearing: Toyah will be headlining the 70’s & 80’s Weekend at St Audries Bay Holday Club, West Quantoxhead, Somerset: Friday 1st – Monday 4th March 2013. Info & Booking: Tel: 07407 635 802, Email: boogienites55@yahoo.com (Thanks to Rob Wenham)
• Tomorrow Calling: I had completely forgotten that Colin Salmon of Doctor Who, James Bond & much more fame, and just voted off Strictly Come Dancing last Saturday starred with Toyah in Tomorrow Calling, the Short & Curlies CH4/British Screen film that was shot in Blackpool, London and at Pinewood in 1993. (Thanks Rachel)
A slightly different version of ‘Ghosts In The Universe’ from Toyah’s 1988 album Prostitute has recently been uploaded to You Tube. It isn’t vastly different but it certainly isn’t the same as the version available on the album. (Thanks to secondsish)
Two more: Waiting (Goodbye Mankind) and Last Goodbye. Unsure if these “slightly different” versions of well-known Toyah songs are fan “mixed” or not.
Live footage from two recent Changeling Resurrection II gigs: Ieya at The Horn in St Albans (1st November) and Our Movie at The Electric Palace in Bridport (26th October). Click on either below to view at ‘You Tube’. (Thanks to Kevin Tucker & Stephen Bennett Troake)
Great footage of Toyah onstage at Islington Academy, London, last Saturday performing ‘Good Morning Universe’. Click below to view at You Tube. (Thanks to Damon King)
• More TCRII footage: Creepy Room at Glasgow’s Classic Grand (12th Oct – Thanks to Sharon Dickson) and It’s A Mystery at Islington Academy (20th Oct – Thanks again to Damon)
Screen caps from the trailer for the forthcoming Doctor Who DVD set The Legacy Box. Click here to view larger versions of the caps and below to view the trailer at You Tube.
Gered Mankowitz took some iconic, and memorable, photos of Toyah at the height of her, and the band’s, pop career in the early 1980s. A brief clip of him talking about working with Kate Bush and Toyah has recently been uploaded to You Tube. (Thanks to Stephen Bennett Troake)
British Gered Mankowitz, one of the world’s most prominent photographers in the music and artistic world. Here he talks about what it was like to work with Kate Bush & Toyah Willcox. His iconic images of The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Eurythmics, Marianne Faithfull and Kate Bush have become historic pieces of history that graced hundreds of magazine & album covers.
Screen caps from The Humans: Live, Up Close & Personal, recorded at the HMV Institute, Birmingham last October, and recently uploaded to You Tube. The footage is comprised of the gig, an interview with The Humans plus comments and opinions from fans who attended the special concert. Click on the caps to view larger versions. (Thanks to Sanctuary Music)
• Setlist: Sugar Rush, Titanium Girl, Labyrinth, Love In A Different Way, This Reasoning, Fragment Pool, Sea of Size, Quicksilver, Telekenisis, These Boots, Twisted Soul, Pebble, Put A Woman On The Moon, Small Town Psychopath/Playing In The Dark, Demigod.
• Immerse yourself in more of The Humans at thehumansofficial.com, the brilliant Sugar Rush fansite and Toyah @ Twitter (a fortnight of updates from the recording sessions in Seattle).
THE HUMANS: TOYAH WILLCOX vocals, BILL RIEFLIN guitar/bass, CHRIS WONG guitar/bass, IGOR ABULADZE percussion: were LIVE, UP CLOSE & PERSONAL: Recorded at HMV Institute, Birmingham, Monday 10 October 2011. Sound: PAUL NICHOLSON
Toyah tells The National Trust about her favourite walk at Croome Park in Worcestershire. Why not tell ‘The National Trust’ about your favourite walk? Watch Toyah’s walk by clicking below, and view all of our Toyah related ‘Great British Walk’ news here.
There’s also a brief Toyah article on Toyah’s Great British Walk at the National Trust website: It’s the setting of Croome Park that appeals to Toyah Willcox, the multi-talented singer, performer and writer. ‘We tend to forget the fabulous countryside we have all around us, and it’s there for us to discover’, she said. There’s also a PDF file available with details of Toyah’s walk.
It isn’t included in ‘The Changeling Resurrection’ set lists, but ‘Street Creature’ – which could/should have been a single back in 1982 – is still a huge fan favourite. Probably the “poppiest” track on ‘The Changeling’ and a song Toyah had an absolute ball performing on Get Set For Summer, Three Of A Kind and Razzmatazz in ‘Summer ’82 (For Michael :))
A few newsy bits on Toyah’s Manchester Pride PA. There was a very large crowd for Toyah headlining the Women’s Stage at Sackville Gardens (Alison Moyet was the Main Stage headliner) and after the gig Toyah chatted to, and was photographed with, fans at the artist’s gate.
• Toyah tweeted: “Manchester Pride was excellent. Great crowd & so friendly & welcoming. I Loved it.”
A great clip of a fantastic looking Toyah performing Thunder In The Mountains at ‘Manchester Pride’. It’s A Mystery has also been uploaded. (Thanks to Paul Lomas)
A 1991 report from ITV Calendar News, featuring rare footage of Toyah’s Cheap Thrills performance, has just been uploaded to You Tube. Toyah visited a number of British prisons, while simultaneously touring theatres with Amadeus, in 1991 in Cheap Thrills, a specially written play based on the life of Janis Joplin. Click below to view and here for larger caps.
Toyah’s appearance on BBC1’s Clean Slate, also from 1991, has been uploaded too.
The complete, four-part, late 70s version of Quatermass, starring John Mills and Simon MacCorkindale, in which Toyah also had a small role as Sal, is available to view in full at ‘You Tube’. This was made by Euston Films, filmed in 1978 and aired on ITV in October and November 1979: Chapter One: Ringstone Round; Chapter Two: Lovely Lightning; Chapter Three: What Lies Beneath; Chapter Four: An Endangered Species. View a photo of Toyah taken during the filming here. The series has previously been released on VHS and DVD but is currently unavailable. This was also released as a television film in 1979, The Quatermass Conclusion, an edited down version of these four episodes. View further info at Wikipedia.
This has always been one of my favourite Toyah TV appearances, especially as there is very little footage from 1982 of live performances of songs from ‘The Changeling’: It’s BBC1’s Get Set For Summer from July 1982. The band perform ‘Castaways’, ‘Street Creature’ and ‘Brave New World’ and Toyah is also interviewed by Peter Powell. View all at Dreamscape’s You Tube playlist. (Thanks to Andi)
A preview of tomorrow night’s The Women Of Doctor Who special, airing on ‘BBC America’, is now available to view at You Tube. Guests discuss the character Donna Noble, including a brief clip of Toyah.
Click below to watch and here for larger versions of the screen caps. There’s also another, shorter, preview trailer. View that here (This doesn’t feature Toyah).
Revisit the Tenth Doctor’s beloved companion Donna Noble in this exclusive sneak peek at BBC America’s All New Special The Women Of Doctor Who. Don’t miss the World Premiere, Saturday Aug 11 at 9/8c. Who’s the greatest woman of Doctor Who? Vote here!
NB: Toyah may also have guested in last week’s The Science Of Doctor Who. I’ll let you know when I’ve watched it. If she does it probably means she will be appearing in all four specials.
Recently re-uploaded to You Tube in good quality, Toyah’s Beatclub Live 1982 concert. A great gig (onstage at least ;)) Please click here to view larger versions of the caps.
As expected, Florence & the Machine have scored their first number one single with ‘Spectrum (Say My Name)’. It entered the UK Top 40 this evening. View the video.
I know some disagree but I still think the video and imagery is heavily influenced by early 80s Toyah and Kate Bush (who were in turn influenced by David Bowie of course). Good to have a decent song at number one for a change :) I’ll shut up about Florence now!!!
• Three Of A Kind: Tracey Ullman recreates Toyah’s I Want To Be Free promo video back in the early 80s. (Thanks to Stephen Bennett Troake)
A few newsy bits on Toyah’s 
