Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

Someone has, just today, uploaded the full HQ Rock In The City Toyah Special, from 1981, to You Tube. A 30-minute programme filmed at Toyah’s Ulster Hall, Belfast gig: Setlist: Race Through Space, Angels & Demons, It’s A Mystery, Indecision, Danced, It’s A Mystery (again), plus an interview with Toyah! Click below to watch. View larger versions of the caps here.

NB: Screen caps not taken from the YT upload. These are my originals first posted years ago!

A new Toyah interview, by ‘Vision4Dreams’. It runs for just under six minutes and Toyah chats about her career, education, building a career via the internet and more.

Music was very much on the backburner at the time so when Toyah appeared on the National Lottery’s Greatest Hits in 1999 it was an exciting moment. It was a great performance and Toyah even wore a classic Melissa Caplan outfit for the occasion. Show host Angela Griffin introduced Toyah by claiming ‘It’s A Mystery’ was a “number one hit”. Not quite but who cares it was just good to see Toyah singing on TV again. She also released the lottery balls and as she pressed the button exclaimed “may this finger make you rich“! Unfortunately it didn’t. View at You Tube, and see larger caps here. (Thanks to Paul Lomas)

Toyah co-presented Look! Hear! for ‘BBC Midlands’ for three series between 1979 and 1981. The programme covered music and the arts in The Midlands and was made at BBC Pebble Mill studios. This programme, from the 1981 series, includes two live performances from Duran Duran. Click below to watch the full edition (in six parts). (Thanks to Andi)

Toyah appeared in, what was billed as a “younger version of Not The Nine O’Clock News“, Dear Heart in Spring 1982. There was only one series, which aired on BBC2. The best known of the numerous characters Toyah played was probably “Super Advice Person”, who appeared every week. Click below to view a full edition (in five parts). (Thanks to Andi)

• Toyah’s German TV performances of ‘I Want To Be Free’ and ‘It’s A Mystery’ are included on the 2010 DVD The Story Of MusikLaden, (No. 3: 1981 – 1984). The huge 10-disc collection features 100’s of performances from numerous new wavers and Eighties bands, including OMD, Hazel O’Connor, Visage, Adam & The Ants and Kim Wilde. Toyah’s aired on the long-running music show on 10th September 1981 (IWTBF) and 11th March 1982 (IAM).

• Official footage from ‘The Changeling Resurrection’ Bush Hall, London gig – ‘Voodoo Doll’. Watch at You Tube.

• View 135 photos of Toyah at The Robin2, Wolverhampton. Posted by ‘Midlands Live’ at Facebook.

• Toyah is mentioned in a Female First article on Stereo Influence. Their new single ‘Edgar Allan Poe’ is produced by Mike Bennet, also the producer of ‘Dreamchild’.

• A rare shot from a well-known 1978 Toyah photo session has appeared online. It was used as a “pin-up” in Issue 16 of the fanzine Ripped and Torn in January 1979. Photos from this session were most famously used on the cover of, and inside, ‘Record Mirror’, also in January 1979.

• Lärwi has compiled a great video to mark the 30th anniversary of ‘The Changeling’ and ‘Warrior Rock’, with music from 1982 and visuals from 2012. View it at You Tube.

• ‘Ieya’ is included in ‘The Epileptic Gibbon Podcast Music Show’ in their 77th podcast: “Episode 77: The Far Distant Dead”. View here.

• Tommy’s Garage: Toyah Willcox, Pioneer of Punk + New Wave: She’s an incredible woman and artist. We Love Toyah!

• The Changeling Resurrection 2012′: Autumn Tour: Numerous dates for the Autumn tour are already all over the internet. No point in mentioning them here until they are officially confirmed. This one, however, at Rechabite Hall, Telford (a new venue), is worth a look. Their flyer is full of great bands.

‘Bird in Flight’ at The Robin2, Wolverhampton on Saturday. (Thanks to popsikate)

• The rare promo poster for the American video release of Murder: Ultimate Grounds for Divorce from the mid-80s. View a larger version here. (Thanks to Sean Green)

• According to a tweet today by ‘The Showbusiness Co’: “Joe Pasquale, Bobby Davro, Toyah Willcox, Richard Digance and many more appear in the Dave Lee tribute show at Marlowe, Canterbury on 6 May.”

• View more details about Dave Lee A Celebration at The Marlowe theatre website. There are other news reports  today about the show. None of these mention Toyah.

• Three musicians, who have all worked with Toyah at various stages of her music career, play at ‘Jammin Java’, Vienna tomorrow. STICK MEN ft. Tony Levin, Pat Mastelotto and Markus Reuter. More info here.

• Manchester Pride Twitter today: “The Women’s Stage will return to Sackville Gardens for this year’s event. We’ll welcome Toyah as the headline act!”

• Canal Street (Manchester) Twitter today: “Look who is headlining the Women’s stage at Manchester Pride this year.. Toyah”

• Collapse Board: How I lost my love for music (and how I found it again): The first record I think was mine was ‘I Want To Be Free’ by Toyah…

• So So Gay: Blue To Headline Blackpool Pride 2012. Toyah is also mentioned in this article published today.

• Toyah Montaging: I’ve, quite literally, thrown together a couple of Toyah video montages. At The Rainbow and some career clips. I’d love to do a more professional and substantial career montage at some point, with lots of interview and music clips, almost like a documentary type retrospective.

Yes ‘It’s A Mystery’ has possibly been uploaded to ‘You Tube’ more times than is necessary but this addition today is quite cool. The video clip looks great thanks to a clever montage of photos and clips from one of the Top Of The Pops appearances. Click below to view.

• As expected with a sold out London gig, a lot of footage has been uploaded to ‘You Tube’ over the last couple of days. Check out Steve Day’s, up close and personal, Warrior Rock. It has the distinction of being the very first clip made available online, from a gig that is already being compared to some of the legendary Toyah concerts.

• The Birmingham Press: What’s On At The Robin: On Saturday there’s the return of eighties icon Toyah, who since her chart days has honed her act into a top-line live performance. She’ll be celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of her influential album The Changeling, which itself spawned the live follow-up Warrior Rock. There are four support acts and the fun starts at 7pm. Tickets £19.50,

• Lost Turntable: Tony Banks’ Soundtracks: In 1984 he composed the score for a low-budget sci-fi flick called Lorca And The Outlaws (it was released as Starship on VHS). In addition to the score, he also composed the original songs, “You Call This Victory” featuring vocalist Jim Diamond and “Lion of Symmetry” featuring vocals by the amazing Toyah Willcox.

An amazingly positive post-gig response for last night’s London concert, the third date of ‘The Changeling Resurrection’ tour. Footage from the gig has already been uploaded to ‘You Tube’. View a selection here and here.

Official footage from last night’s sold out gig will be available at toyahwillcox.com soon.

The post-gig response to the second concert of ‘The Changeling Resurrection’ tour, at The Tunnels in Bristol, has been as positive and enthusiastic as the premiere in Brighton at the weekend.

‘Demolition Men’ and ‘We Are’ which weren’t played at Brighton due to time constraints were played in Bristol. View a selection of fan videos from the gig at You Tube. (Thanks to Stuart)

View an excellent collection of video clips, from ‘The Changeling Resurrection’ gig in Brighton, at You Tube.

Including ‘Brave New World’, ‘The Packt’, ‘Dawn Chorus’, ‘Creepy Room’, ‘Angel & Me’ and more. Changeling-tastic indeed! (Thanks to Claire Wheeler)

I must confess, this is the song I’ve been dying to hear. It doesn’t disappoint. (Thanks Claire)

Slightly odd hearing this performed live after 30 years. Singing these songs again after all this time must be cathartic for Toyah, especially as ‘The Changeling’ was an unhappy time. I’ll bet a few demons are being laid to rest. (Thanks to Claire Wheeler for uploading ‘The Packt’)

Awash With Colour, from BBC2 September 2001, with Toyah learning to watercolour, has just been uploaded, in three parts, to ‘You Tube’. Click on each cap below to view each part.

The scenery in this programme is stunning. Presenter Dermot Cavanagh and Toyah visited Yeats’ country, Co. Sligo in Ireland. Toyah talks about her career. Toyah and Dermot then paint the picturesque Glencar Loch, set in the shadow of the majestic Benbulben Mountain. Toyah recalled an artist using watercolour on her face to create her ‘Brave New World’ look.

Two fantastic photos, from last night’s gig, by Angus Turner. Click below to view larger versions. FTE has been incredibly busy today, definitely the busiest since the site started just over a month ago! There are probably more that I didn’t notice, but as of half an hour ago at ‘You Tube’ there are clips of Angel & Me, Warrior Rock, and It’s A Mystery. More amazing photos of Toyah by Angus, and that news round-up, tomorrow. (Thanks to Angus)

This rare television interview is from that amazing Summer of 1982, the fantastic era of ‘The Changeling’. I’m not sure what the programme was called (possibly… It’ll Be A Laugh, Let’s Get The Office Junior To Do The Interviews This Week… just kidding, we love him really!). Toyah looks incredible here (how absolutely vibrant did Toyah look throughout 1982?) and talks ‘Brave New World’, making the video, ‘The Changeling’ tour dates and more.

Toyah guested on Parkinson on BBC1 in October 1981. This was at a time when Michael Parkinson’s chat show was still considered the best of the “talk shows”. Toyah appeared alongside legendary comedian Dave Allen. She talks about her childhood and upbringing, time at The National Theatre, her imagery and hairstyles, music career and more.

The full Sky Trax Toyah Special. This aired in 1985 around the time of the release of ‘Don’t Fall In Love (I Said)’. It’s a great programme, hosted by one of Toyah’s biggest supporters in the 80s, Peter Powell. This was a one-hour show with Toyah talking about her career, including Glitter, Jubilee, Katharine Hepburn, Quadrophenia, the early live gigs, 1981 and a lot more. Sky Trax was a music show, with a variety of hosts including Radio 1 DJs, covering music from all over Europe. It aired on ‘Sky Channel’, Europe’s very first satellite channel (which began as a cable channel in 1982) and was renamed ‘Sky One’ in 1989. View larger caps here.