National Album Day: 80s theme helps boost sales of classic albums
Several popular titles were reissued to coincide with this year’s 80s-themed National Album Day.
This year’s National Album Day resulted in a boost in album sales last week, new figures have revealed.
The UK-wide event – a celebration of the album format organised by The BPI and the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) – took place on Saturday, October 10 and was themed around the 1980s.
The BPI reports that of all the albums released to coincide with National Album Day, 25,000 copies were sold on vinyl, contributing to a total of just under 112,000 vinyl albums sold that week – a week-on-week uplift of 9.2%.
The Saturday of National Album Day itself (Oct. 10) saw vinyl sales rise by 24% on the previous Saturday (and 19% year-on-year), while the Friday – the day the albums were largely all released – saw a 44% year-on-year spike.
One of this year’s National Album Day ambassadors, Toyah Willcox said: “This year’s re-releases encouraged music lovers to buy timeless music. I like to think NAD has also encouraged new up-coming artists to think about making full albums as their right of expression, thus keeping the high street retailers stocked and trading in decades to come.”
Introducing personalised artworks handcrafted by Toyah – especially for you, a friend, partner, family member or the diehard Toyah fan in your life. Order a Personalised Artwork by Toyah or a Personalised Aphorism by Robert Fripp by clicking below.
Toyah Willcox & Robert Fripp present the ultimate personalised gift idea especially for their fans.
Toyah will create a piece of artwork for you including a hand-written snippet from your favourite Toyah song. Robert will hand-write an Aphorism from a set list of his own favourites, and will also include a piece of handmade art to accompany his words. Both of these unique items will be signed and can be personalised.
More of your social, emotional and music tuning predicaments are addressed with care and attention by the deeply unqualified Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp.
Befriending Toyah Willcox
The Mrs Barbara Nice & Friends Podcast
SUMMARY
Ahead of her remastered Album Launch “Sheep Farming in Barnet”, Toyah Willcox stops by to chat to Barbara about the importance of the audience, the differing priorities of a band and befriending people on stage.
SHOW NOTES
Mrs Barbara Nice chats to Toyah Willcox about the re-release of her album “Sheep Farming in Barnet” on Cherry Red Records
They become fast, firm friends as they discuss the coincidence in their locations, interacting with individual audience members amid big gigs. the importance of the audience to a performer and somehow, wild swimming in the Avon
“Remove the thorn from the lion’s paw, hear my words, pain no more…”
Last Saturday’s episode of Toyah At Home , a National Album Day 2020 special, featured two archive performances: The iconic Brave New World, from The Changeling, and Toyah’s 1981 single, I Want To Be Free, from Anthem.
Click below to watch/rewatch episode 17, with lots of album chat from Toyah as well as memories about the “first album cover and back cover” (Sheep Farming In Barnet), and She from The Blue Meaning – “Steve Bray’s drums… Charlie Francis on Bass!”. Episode 18 of Toyah At Home airs tomorrow at 11am at Toyah’s official You Tube channel, and Facebook.
Paul Young, Kim Wilde, Toyah, Steve Harley and Chesney Hawkes back from the 80s for new show ‘That Was Then… This Is Now!’
Some of the biggest British popstars of the 80s will take part in a brand new online weekly series, featuring performances and interviews, with an innovative business model that helps touring artists affected by the current lack of live shows 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.
The series will be broadcast live at 7pm on Thursday evenings (a nod to the classic Top Of The Pops timeslot), and deliver a modern twist on the quintessential living room comfort watch of popular music television that has been missing from screens for generations.
Online music TV show launched to help 1980s stars ‘ignored’ during pandemic
Pop songwriter Mike Stock has launched an online music TV show to give some of the biggest stars of the 1980s financial help during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The 68-year-old, who penned many of the decade’s enduring hits as one third of Stock Aitken Waterman, said he hoped the series would help artists who had been “largely ignored” in recent years.
That Was Then… This Is Now! will feature live performances and interviews from touring artists who have lost their livelihoods due to current restrictions on performance and travel.
The five-part series was shot in 5k resolution at a studio in Worthing, West Sussex, and will air online weekly. The first series will feature artists including Paul Young, Kim and Marty Wilde, Toyah, Steve Harley, Chesney Hawkes, The Fizz and more.
Bands from 1980s and 90s stream hits to make up for lost live earnings
Worthing, England (Reuters) – Pop acts from the 1980s and 1990s including Right Said Fred, Paul Young and Toyah, whose income from live performances has slumped during the coronavirus pandemic, are recording their hits for a new pay-per-view series being streamed online.
Chesney Hawkes, Kim Wilde and Steve Harley are also among those performing in five planned shows in the “That Was Then … This is Now!” series hosted by streaming service TicketCo TV.
Tales Of The Unexpected: Sky Arts: Thursday 22nd October: 1pm Tales Of The Unexpected: Sky Arts: Friday 23rd October: 4am/9am Tales Of The Unexpected: Sky Arts: Sunday 25th October: 9am Blue Marigold. Series 5, Episode 1. Dropped by her agency for her diva-like behaviour, supermodel Marigold’s mental health deteriorates. Years later, she plots a comeback. Director: Giles Foster. Starring: Toyah Willcox, Ralph Bates, Sharon Duce, Helen Fraser, Billy Hamon, Edward Jewesbury.
BBC’s warning is a bit of a Brum do for pop star Toyah
Singer Toyah Willcox, who had a hit in the Eighties with It’s A Mystery, is baffled as to why the BBC slapped a warning on episodes of Brum, the harmless BBC children’s show she narrated.
A notice on iPlayer repeats told viewers the series may reflect out-of-date ‘language and attitudes of the Nineties’.
The flame-haired singer tells me: ‘I can’t think why they did that. Was it because of the Birmingham accent? Is it sexist in some way? I’m sure we never impersonated a black person.’ Toyah adds: ‘I always refused to do anything if it was offensive. Brum was written by Anne Wood who made Teletubbies and she was on top of all that sort of thing.’
The BBC says the notice was added in ‘error’ and has been removed from Brum episodes. Perhaps it is the BBC, with its determination to censor TV classics, that is out of touch with today’s audiences?
Following last weekend’s Anthem listening party, there’s a possibility Sheep Farming In Barnet will follow sometime soon. See Toyah’s tweet regarding this by clicking below,
More of your social, emotional and music tuning predicaments are addressed with care and attention by the deeply unqualified Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp.
Today is National Album Day 2020 and Toyah is one of this year’s Ambassadors, with the 2020 theme of the event being the 80’s!
In celebration, Toyah is hosting a Listening Party this afternoon for the iconic 1981 album Anthem.
There was also another episode of Toyah At Home this morning, as well as Toyah’s Album Escapes. Read Toyah’s HMV Record Collection interview, and win a Sheep Farming In Barnet reissue rarity.
Keep an eye on Toyah at Twitter for more National Album Day news and updates. Click below for the Anthem Listening Party venue, taking place from 3pm today.
Win a rare Sheep Farming In Barnet reissue rarity, courtesy of HMV…
It’s National Album Day on Saturday 10th October and to celebrate we will be running a new prize draw everyday with prizes from some of the National Album Day Ambassadors who are supporting this exciting day.
Happy National Album Day!! Today, we have a prize from Toyah Willcox where you could win a signed test pressing of remastered Sheep Farming vinyl!
• To enter, all you have to do is enter your details here or by clicking below. (The prize draw ends at 11:59pm Saturday 10th October. Entries received after this time will not be included.)
It’s the vicious circle... Episode 2 of Series 2 of French and Saunders, which originally aired on 11th March 1988, is currently available to watch online at BBC iPlayer. This episode features Toyah, performing a great version of Patti Smith’s Because The Night and participating in a French and Saunders sketch. Click below to watch (requires a UK TV Licence)
Toyah Willcox: ‘You can’t copy me, I’ve trademarked my name’
Toyah Willcox, a National Album Day 80s ambassador, has copywritten her name to stop copycat artists from emerging
“I gave girls the right to believe in themselves. I was getting 10,000 letters a week, most of them starting with ‘I’ve just been expelled from school for dyeing my hair pink,’” reflects Toyah Willcox, the singer and actress whose electric hair and rebellious anthems lit up the charts in the 1980s.
A Top of the Pops fixture with hits like It’s A Mystery, I Want To Be Free and Thunder In The Mountains, accompanied by a video of Toyah thundering across a barren landscape on a chariot, the empowered image portrayed by the Birmingham-born singer directly inspired Shirley Manson and other singers who adapted her punk style.
The only pop star to have acted opposite Laurence Olivier and appeared in two films directed by arthouse auteur Derek Jarman, before going on to narrate the BBC’s Teletubbies, Toyah, 62, has now trademarked herself as a one-word “brand.”
National Album Day follows on Saturday, with an 80s theme of its own. Record stores will be stocked with limited editions of classics like ZZ Top’s Eliminator, Paul Simon’s Graceland, Cyndi Lauper’s She’s So Unusual, Prefab Sprout’s Steve McQueen and Duran Duran’s self-titled debut album.
On Twitter, Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess will hold an all-day session of his album listening parties, featuring Toyah Willcox (15:00 BST), Marillion (17:30 BST), Matthew Wilder (19:00 BST), Blossoms (20:00 BST) and La Roux (21:00 BST).
Celebrity Catchphrase: ITV2: Sunday 18th October: 11.15am
Stephen Mulhern hosts a celebrity special of the classic game show, with Nicola Coughlan, Stephen Mangan and Toyah Willcox all trying to say what they see as they guess well-known phrases for the chance to win a £50,000 jackpot for their chosen charity.
National Album Day: 80s theme helps boost sales of classic albums
