Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

King Crimson’s Robert Fripp Performs Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” as Wife Toyah Sings and Dances Behind Bars:

The King Crimson founder and his wife cover Sabbath’s classic song in bizarre fashion

This year has seen its fair share of unexpected and bizarre phenomena, and King Crimson founder Robert Fripp and his singer wife Toyah Willcox have come to embrace it. The musical duo have spent quarantine making performance art videos, but their latest idea for Halloween might be their most absurd yet.

Donned in henna-like tattoos that cover his face and arms, Fripp starts playing Black Sabbath’s iconic song “Paranoid” on his Les Paul. Behind him, Willcox is locked behind bars — in what’s either an old prison cell or an underground bank vault — and starts dancing when the songs begins. When it comes time for the verses, she starts singing the metal classic.

The effect of the video is pretty uncomfortable but morbidly entertaining. Perhaps the use of “Paranoid” and dancing in a cage is a metaphor for quarantine? Or maybe it’s just Fripp and Willcox’s idea of a Halloween joke.

• Continue reading at Consequence Of Sound.

There’s a repeat airing of the Toyah Special of Video Killed The Radio Star on Sky Arts later this month. This great half hour programme originally premiered in August 2018.

Video Killed The Radio Star: Sky Arts: Monday 16th November: 4.30pm
Video Killed The Radio Star: Sky Arts: Tuesday 17th November: 10.30am
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.

Do you have a question please for Toyah? Please add them in the comments sections at Twitter and Instagram for this weekend’s Toyah At Home. (Photo © Toyah Willcox)

The autobiography of Martin Kiszko, Major & Minor Adventures in Lah Lah Land, has just been published. Toyah wrote a film script with Martin and is mentioned in the book.

Available Now! My autobiography Major & Minor Adventures in Lah Lah Land, a candid fly-on-the-wall behind-the-scenes look at film music composition, natural history filmmaking, TV projects and eco-poetry. Also a personal memoir and a good laugh along the way! The book is also a useful primer for anyone wishing to enter the music and writing industries.

By buying a book/books, you will be supporting an artist who received no support during lockdown and who was unable to work due to the closure of venues. You will also be helping to keep the Green Poems for a Blue Planet environmental campaign running.***

• Continue reading at martinkiszko.com.

“I feel its power within me, bells ringing in my head, so often I have heard its cry, but forgotten what it said, it’s a mystery…”

Last Saturday’s episode of Toyah At Home – the 20th!! – had a few ghosts in the machine (well, it was a Halloween Special) and featured two more archive performances: It’s A Mystery, from the 1981 album, Anthem, and Brave New World, from the 1982 album, The Changeling.

Click below to watch/rewatch Episode 20, with talk about ghosts, pink highlights, making jewellery in lockdown, new films Swiperight and Heckle, film scripts and much more! Episode 21 of Toyah At Home airs this Saturday at 11am at Toyah’s official You Tube channel, and Facebook.

Watch a tattooed Robert Fripp play Black Sabbath in a prison cell while Toyah dances

You heard us right: Watch a tattooed Robert Fripp play Black Sabbath’s Paranoid in a prison cell while Toyah dances

Imagine: you wake up from a coma in November 2020. You’ve been asleep since Christmas, so you’re entirely unaware of the year’s contents. You don’t know about the virus, or the lockdowns, or that Liverpool are champions and that everything’s been cancelled.

You grab your smartphone, and you log into Facebook to check out what’s been happening in your absence. And the first thing you see is a video of a heavily tattooed Robert Fripp. The King Crimson mastermind is alone sitting in a prison cell, playing Black Sabbath’s Paranoid on a Les Paul. In the background stands his wife of 34 years, the adventurous pop star Toyah Willcox. She dances, and at the point where Ozzy Osbourne would normally start singing, she sings.

• Continue reading at Louder.

Exclusive personalised artworks handcrafted by Toyah are now available to order. Choose from an illustration or gilt metal artwork created by Toyah for you or a loved one. An extract of your favourite Toyah lyrics also features on the piece alongside a specially dedicated message + autograph, making these true one-off creations.

A new, Sheep Farming In Barnet/Early Years, interview with Toyah, from Cherry Red’s My Favourite Flavour magazine. A classic SFIB era photo of Toyah is also included on the cover!

According to the sleevenotes of the lavish re-issue of Toyah’s debut album ‘Sheep Farming In Barnet’ her progress to punk icon, then pop star, really began back in 1975…

“Back then I just wanted to get out of school, get out of Birmingham. I definitely wanted to act and sing, but there was no way I was equipped for that. I think I was lucky to have been born at the right time and been around for the punk movement, that allowed every shape, size, sound and form into the fold. If you had something to express or to say back then, punk accepted it. That was the saving grace for me.

“I’d left home and got a job at the National Theatre in London, school hadn’t really prepared me for life, I had to land on my feet and learn to adapt to the outside world and somehow mould myself into what I wanted to be.

“At the National, an actor called Ian Charleson introduced me to Derek Jarman who was about to start work on his film Jubilee and around the same time I got into a punk band and started writing with Joel Bogen. We started playing the pub circuit and I was embraced by that whole community, they were amazing times.”

• Continue reading here. (Thanks to Sharon Dickson for the scans)

Celebrity Ghost Stories: Lifetime: Saturday 14th November: 9pm
Celebrity Ghost Stories: Lifetime: Sunday 15th November: 0.00am
Sue Cook reveals a spooky encounter with a UFO, Toyah Willcox recalls her experience with an apparition, and Alex Fearns discusses a sinister sound he once caught on tape.

The Halloween vibes have seeped over into Toyah & Robert’s somewhat ‘Paranoid’ Sunday Lunch. Enjoy…..

Welcome to November! Phew! October was this website’s busiest month for over five years!!

Toyah and Robert invite you to their Halloween Party… (Caps from a video that is © Toyah Willcox)

Happy Halloween. More of your social, emotional and music tuning predicaments are addressed with care and attention by the deeply unqualified Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp.

It’s Halloween! The perfect day for a spooky Toyah playlist (albeit a short one!). I’m not much of a horror fan, can’t even watch a scary movie without the light on, but being brave to compile this tuneful frightfest… Six from Toyah, from the spine tingling to the truly electrifying! Listen to the playlist at Spotify. (Thanks Craig!)

The Packt: From the 1982 album The Changeling. “The doors blow open. You’ve arrived!” Scary and Epic! #Majestic

She: From the 1980 album The Blue Meaning. The opening of this track is as “gothic” as Toyah ever sounded. An incredible song that builds and builds… “Alleluia!” #Cataclysmic

Voodoo Doll: A b-side from 1983 which, on the surface, sounds like a fairly straightforward pop song. “Eyes alight, I am the night…“. Maybe not so straightforward! #Supernatural

Creepy Room: Another from The Changeling. “They’re sending me to the creepy room, for some chemically induced fear“. Enough said! #Ominous

Victims Of The Riddle (Vivisection): The b-side of Toyah’s 1979 debut single. The subject matter of this track is bizarre in itself (experimenting on sentient animals is highly controversial), but the high-pitch squeals make it all the more uncomfortable to listen to. Producer, Steve James recently revealed they were achieved by Toyah sucking on helium (which would also be utilised during 1980 recording sessions). #Spinechilling

Angels and Demons: From the 1981 EP, Four From Toyah. “Angels and demons, omens and requiems, peers and sightseers, merchants with souvenirs“. Toyah said of the song, “This one’s about growing up, and everything you’re told not to believe in“. #Mysterious

Great Lives: BBC Radio 4 Extra: Thursday 12th November: 6.30pm
Great Lives: BBC Radio 4 Extra: Friday 13th November: 0.30am
Great Lives: BBC Radio 4 Extra: Saturday 14th November: 7.30am/5.30pm
Great Lives: BBC Radio 4 Extra: Sunday 15th November: 5.30am
Toyah Willcox on Katharine Hepburn. (Series 37, Episode 9). Singer Toyah Willcox chooses the actress and Hollywood legend, Katherine Hepburn. With Matthew Parris. From 2015.

Dubbed an ‘oddity’ and ‘box office poison’, she liked to goad the press and public with her eccentric behaviour and unconventional love life. Her career in Hollywood spanned six decades, during which she starred alongside other Hollywood greats, including James Stewart, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart and Spencer Tracy.

The four time Oscar award winning actress Katharine Hepburn is this week’s Great Life. She is championed by singer and actress Toyah Willcox – who met and worked with her. The expert is Dr Mark Glancy – Reader in Film History, at Queen Mary, University of London. The presenter is Matthew Parris. Producer: Perminder Khatkar. First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2015.

Some of the biggest pop stars of the ’80s will take part in a brand new online weekly series with an innovative business model that helps touring artists affected by the current lack of live shows to generate income.

That Was Then… This Is Now! will arrive next month in a pay per view format hosted online, allowing for artists to share equally in the revenue. For full details on the broadcast visit www.thisisnow.tv.

The series, consisting of five editions, will be broadcast live at 7pm on Thursday evenings, a nod to the classic Top Of The Pops timeslot.

It aims to provide a modern twist on the quintessential living room comfort watch of popular music television that has been missing from screens for generations.

Each episode of the series will feature multi-artist line-ups… The first series of the show will feature artists such as Paul Young, Kim & Marty Wilde, Toyah, Steve Harley, Chesney Hawkes, The Fizz and many more.

That Was Then… This Is Now! will be broadcast online via pay-per-view live streaming service TicketCo.TV. Its full HD quality and crystal-clear sound can be enjoyed by viewers on any device.

• Further info/book a ticket at This Is Now. View a print article, featuring Toyah, by the Knaresborough Post. Browse our That Was Then… This Is Now! news archive.

Fangs for the memory! Are you in Ipswich Regent Vampires Rock photos in Days Gone By?

Do you love putting on a ghostly or ghoulish costume to watch Vampires Rock at the Ipswich Regent?

The cult show has visited Ipswich many times over the years – and today we’re looking back at some of the amazing costumes worn by members of the audience.

The concert series is masterminded by Steve Steinman, alias Baron von Rockula. Laced with pyrotechnics, it pays a spectacular tribute to Meat Loaf, AC/DC, Guns ‘n Roses, and more.

It’s all very light hearted, and the perfect way to celebrate Halloween. There have been various different twists to the show over the years, and Toyah Willcox took part in 2009.

Steve Steinman is due to bring his Meat Loaf tribute show, Anything For Love, to the Regent in November next year.

• Continue reading at the Ipswich Star. (NB. Toyah also starred in Vampires Rock, as the Devil Queen, through most of 2008 – Browse lots of news on those tours at our news archive)

Film London Jarman Award announces new Patrons in run up to 2020 Award

Film London has announced eight Patrons of the Film London Jarman Award, honouring and showcasing artist moving image practice, with one month to go until the 2020 virtual Award Winner announcement. Spanning actors, artists, screenwriters and musicians, the Patrons’ work and support will be vital in the development and success of the Award.

The Film London Jarman Award Patrons are: John Akomfrah, Terence Davies, Rupert Everett, Dexter Fletcher, Hetain Patel, Tony Peake, Tilda Swinton, Toyah Willcox.

The Patrons’ expertise, industry knowledge and connection to Derek Jarman in either a professional or a personal capacity will help to introduce artist filmmaking to a wider audience. They will promote and sustain the legacy of Jarman, whose inventiveness and bold ambition is seen in the work of artists practising today and those shortlisted for the Award.

• Continue reading at Film London. (Photo Collage by Film London)

RF: Bobby Willcox was invited to rock out with Toyah and Simon Darlow for their new album. So, sprayed some burning guitar over a remorseless stomper that got the guitarist bouncing…

RF: There have been some online simperings of approval for the slippers worn by Bobby Willcox at yesterday’s session for Toyah & Simon Darlow’s new album. Regrettably, for one keen to suck up all appreciative comments even and especially where underserved, these colourful accessories for any session player’s calceamental turnout were provided by Studio Darlow, in a manner simply understood by anyone who has entered a Japanese home.

• Continue reading at DGM Live. (Photo © Toyah Willcox/Robert Fripp/DGM Live)

A great new interview with Toyah, just published by Punktuation. Also includes a shorter interview with Steve James discussing the recording of Sheep Farming in Barnet.

Punktuation chats to the high priestess of punk, Toyah Willcox, about the reissue of her debut album, Sheep Farming In Barnet and her extraordinary career

Toyah is quite simply a force of nature. She is a musician and songwriter, she’s a very successful actress, and she’s a producer and storyteller. She’s had eight top 40 hit singles, released 23 albums, written two books and appeared in over 40 stage plays and ten feature films including Derek Jarman’s Jubilee and Franc Roddam’s Quadrophenia.

Now 62 years old there’s also no sign that Toyah plans to slow down anytime soon. However, the events of 2020 have forced her, like the rest of us, to readjust to the ‘new reality’.

“Yes, it’s been an extraordinary time, hasn’t it? I don’t think I’ve spent so much time at home as I have this year, ” Toyah says over the phone from her English countryside home that she shares with her husband of over 30 years, guitarist Robert Fripp.

“It’s taken a bit of time to get used to. Here we are at the end of October and Robert and I are just finding our stride. We both believe if we can get through this we can get through anything. The reality for us is that we will have to be in quarantine for a while longer as Robert is now 74 – we have to be careful,” Toyah confides.

• Continue reading at Punktuation.

“I knock the phone from the table, and the room starts purring, smash the contents from a drawer, and a photo starts twirling…”

Last Saturday’s episode of Toyah At Home featured two more live archive performances: The 1987 single, from the Desire album, Echo Beach – also a single for Martha & The Muffins in 1980 – and the truly amazing Angel & Me, from the 1982 album, The Changeling.

Click below to watch/rewatch episode 19, with a guest appearance by Robert Fripp, and Toyah reminiscing about playing Calamity Jane, currently revisiting albums including The Blue Meaning, not being part of the Band Aid single in 1984, and more. Episode 20 of Toyah At Home airs this Saturday at 11am at Toyah’s official You Tube channel, and Facebook.