Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

Christmas 2011, Toyah was featured in the Winter 2011/Issue 10 of The Magical Times magazine. With a wonderfully festive cover image and an exclusive “fairytale” interview with Toyah inside! – Toyah Willcox speaks about fairies!

The pages of issue 10 are set to shine a splash of colour and a magical sparkle to your winter season…!

Inside this edition we present an exclusive interview with 80’s punk princess Toyah Willcox, who shares with us her spiritual experiences and why she believes that fairies do exist!

Kyle Gray writes about Angels and Ascension, Kit Berry speaks about her journey to Stonewylde and Laura Daligan explains to us how we can welcome the goddess Aphrodite’s loving energies into our everyday life.

First acts announced for Watchet Music Festival 2020

The first acts have been announced for the 2020 Watchet Music Festival. The popular music festival, which takes place over the August Bank Holiday weekend, has tickets on sale now.

The first acts announced include R&B singer Gabrielle, Ian Dury’s backing band The Blockheads, and The South who are comprised of former members of The Beautiful South.

Other names on the first batch of artists announced include the band Toyah, fronted by Toyah Willcox, female folk rock duo The Sound of the Sirens, Westcountry folk band The Leylines, and rock band Hands Off Gretel among others.

• Continue reading at Somerset County Gazette and also at This Is The West Country.

Christmas 2012, Toyah guested on Steve Lamacq’s Rock College on BBC Radio 2 discussing how absolutely life-changing first discovering David Bowie was for her when growing up in Birmingham in the early 1970s.

Toyah talks about the legendary album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, and of first glimpsing, and hearing, Bowie performing Starman on the music programme Lift Off With Ayshea.

This was such a great audio clip it would’ve been a real shame to just let it disappear after its week on iPlayer back in 2012… so here it is! Click below to listen.

Toyah Willcox answers our most probing questions

‘People expect me to be tall after seeing me with that big hair‘: Toyah Willcox gives her definitive answers to our most probing questions

We ask a celebrity a set of devilishly probing questions – and only accept THE definitive answer. This week it’s actress and singer Toyah Willcox’s turn

The prized possession you value above all others… My notebooks. I think very fast and visually and I have to write down an idea right away or it will be lost forever.

The biggest regret you wish you could amend… Not learning the piano and guitar when I was really young. The height of a child’s learning is before ten, so I missed out.

• Continue reading at the Livingston Ledger.

Christmas 2016, and BBC Four aired a repeat Top Of The Pops, which was originally broadcast in October 1982 on BBC1, with Toyah’s studio performance of the single, Be Proud Be Loud (Be Heard). This site described it as “iconic, classic and utterly unforgettable“.

While the retro TOTP aired, BBC Four also tweeted: “In 1982, Toyah was so famous, she even had a lion-tailed macaque named after her on Animal Magic, and appeared on the show to meet it“.

As recently posted, and following this year’s Quadrophenia screening/Q&A + Gig, Toyah will return to Square Chapel Arts Centre in early 2020 for a Jubilee screening/Q&A and a new full-band electric concert.

As well as this, Square Chapel Arts Centre are also screening The Tempest, along with a Q&A with Christopher Biggins.

All of these events are taking place in February 2020 as part of LGBT History Month – We are delighted to be celebrating LGBT History Month with a series of live events and special film screenings.

• Browse details of the Jubilee and The Tempest screening events, as well as the full diary for LGBT History Month, at the Square Chapel Arts Centre website.

Toyah’s December/Christmas 2019 blog is available to read at The Official Toyah Willcox website.

Toyah says “Happy Christmas Everybody!” and talks about 2019, gigs, film shoots, Christmas and life! As well as looking ahead to 2020: “2020 is bringing some very well timed surprises, especially as I am gearing up to tour with Hazel O’ Connor, in fact quite a few surprises are coming over the following year for my fans and record collectors.”

Quadrophenia Reunited – 40 Years On: Sky Arts: Saturday 21st December: 1.15am
Quadrophenia Reunited – 40 Years On: Sky Arts: Christmas Eve: 3,30am
Lauren Laverne hosts a one-off special bringing the stars of Quadrophenia together. Featuring reminiscing, interviews, a table-read of the script and plenty of other surprises.

2019 has been an amazing 40th Anniversary year for Quadrophenia, with documentaries, reunion events, special screenings and more to celebrate. Rounding off the year is a revised “Complete Guide” book:

Quadrophenia (At 40) The Complete Guide by Layne Patterson | Specially revised & updated film only edition | Foreword by Franc Roddam. Afterword by Gary Shail

A percentage of royalties are being donated to the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Following on from the book’s previous incarnation two years ago a new (film only) edition is now available to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the iconic film!

The new larger format is packed with many new pictures and newly gleaned information about the film that refuses to grow old gracefully! Following on from the previous book a further donation from the author’s royalties will be donated to the Teenage Cancer Trust.

The author: Layne Patterson is based in Norfolk, having relocated from London in 2001, and is married to Liz, with three grown up sons and six grandchildren. This is Layne’s second solo book although he has previously contributed to two titles on his beloved Wealdstone FC.

• See further info/Buy the book at Amazon.

A selection from the numerous Invasion Planet Earth press clips, interviews and reviews published over the last few days. Stay updated by following Simon Cox at Twitter.

• Flatpack Festival: Interview – Simon Cox: Two decades ago, Nuneaton based filmmaker Simon Cox had an idea for a science fiction film called Kaleidoscope Man. Filmed on a shoestring budget with limited resources at locations across the Midlands, what ultimately became Invasion Planet Earth finally screens to audiences this month. We talked to Simon about an epic twenty year journey to pay homage to the sci-fi films he loved as a child – Continue reading…

• Britflicks Reviews: BritFlicks Reviews Simon Cox’s Imaginative Sci-Fi Invasion Planet Earth: A true one off from a very wide imagination… Coming from the mind of writer/director, Simon Cox, Invasion Planet Earth, is one of those films that is a true original. It was also made over 17 years, which by anyone’s standards is a long production line! However, the film is set very much in the here and now, but of course, the question does arise, ‘how much’ of it dates from 17 years ago – Continue reading…

• Midlands Movies: Invasion Planet Earth: A number of children in the 1980s recreating their favourite TV show ‘Kaleidoscope Man’ (this film’s previous title in fact) opens new sci-fi feature Invasion Planet Earth from Midlands director Simon Cox. This clever parody is a fun way to start a feature that contains more than its fair share of disaster and peril – Continue reading…

• Nevermore: Invasion Planet Earth – Review: Reading the history of this film made me more apprehensive than it did excited – Continue reading…

• Film Stories: Invasion Planet Earth review: Invasion Planet Earth review is a sci-fi movie made in the UK over the course of a decade – and it’s worth seeking out too – Continue reading…

• Dark Eyes Of London: Invasion Planet Earth (UK 2019: Dir Simon Cox): Imagine. You’re a filmmaker, maybe not in the first flush of youth. You’ve had one not very well publicised feature made years ago, but you have a project within you so ambitious in scope that it becomes an all consuming passion. But you have little resources, financially or technically, at your disposal, to realise the vision. So what do you do – Continue reading…

• Filmuforia: Invasion Planet Earth (2019): Director Simon Cox (Driven) has spent seventeen bringing this labour of love to the big screen, and his perseverance has paid off – Continue reading…

Toyah with Simon Cox at the screening of Invasion Planet Earth last night at The Electric Cinema, Birmingham. She tweeted “can’t wait to see Invasion Planet Earth“. (Photo © Electric Cinema)

Christmas 1984, The Ebony Tower written by John Fowles and originally published in 1974 – aired on ITV on the 9th December.

Toyah filmed the 90-minute television drama, which was produced by Granada TV, in the Dordogne region of France during the Summer of 1983. She starred alongside Sir Laurence Olivier, Greta Scacchi and Roger Rees.

View promo shots from the drama here and here. Read an interview with Toyah, published when The Ebony Tower aired, by Outlook magazine, and another from around the same time, by Cosmopolitan magazine. Read Dreamscape’s 2011 DVD review, and view a couple of our fan adverts. (Thanks to andy for the screen cap below)

Carol Decker’s 30 Rock Chicks!: NOW 80s: Thursday 12th December: 10pm
T’Pau’s Carol Decker brings a bit of Heart and Soul to a countdown of ’80s ladies who like to rock! With Joan Jett, Tina Turner, Stevie Nicks and Pat Benatar. (as well as Toyah via the Thunder In The Mountains video)

Toyah chats about Halifax gig and Jubilee Q&A – Featuring a live on stage Q&A with Toyah Willcox, hosted by BBC Radio 6 Music presenter, Chris Hawkins. See our previous post on this here.

Two hours, 27 massive 80s hits. How does she do it? Kat’s Kick up the 80s – Kat plays the biggest 80s hits and Kool (& the gang) tells the story of Get Down On It

Kick Up The 80’s: BBC Radio Oxford: Saturday 7th December: 12pm
With Wham!, Toyah, Bronski Beat, the top 3 from 1989, a rock track from Queen, two tracks from ‘the boss’, and a one-hit-wonder from Stan Ridgway you won’t have heard since … the 80s! Plus The Eurythmics, Mari Wilson, Air Supply, Kim Wilde and two very different songs with the same title – “Hold Me Now” from Johnny Logan and The Thompson Twins.

Christmas 2010, Toyah helped launch the Unwrapped Gift Appeal at a Worcestershire branch of Oxfam with her fellow Sleeping Beauty cast members.

Toyah Willcox and other stars of the Sleeping Beauty pantomime, which is currently running at Malvern Theatres, joined forces with Archie the Oxfam goat to launch the charity’s range of Christmas gifts at the Oxfam shop in Church Street, Malvern, on Thursday.

Ms Willcox, children’s TV presenter Derek Moran, panto stalwart Charles Burden and stage star Wendy Purdy were all on hand to unveil the festive range. The Oxfam Unwrapped gift scheme is used by the international charity to help communities living in poverty around the world.

Invasion Planet Earth – in which Toyah has a role and also performs the end credits title song, Step Into The New World – available now as a digital single – is showing in numerous cinemas around the UK today. The film project has been a labour of love for its creator, Simon Cox. for many years. Click below for details on where you can see Invasion Planet Earth.

A little, albeit unconventional, retail therapy at one of London’s top department stores made the fourth festive season of the 80s a very memorable one for Toyah fans and viewers of Good Morning Britain on TVAM.

Christmas 1983, Toyah, and her Brave New World video co-star Messenger, went early Christmas shopping in November… Pop singer and actress Toyah Willcox has always wanted to do her Christmas shopping on horseback! With a little help from TV-am’s ‘Fantasy Time’, and Liberty London in Regent Street, Toyah rode a white horse called Messenger through the store.

• Watch the full TVAM clip at Toyah’s Official You Tube channel and click below to see larger versions of the screen captures of Toyah and Messenger.

Toyah, performing a crowd-pleasing version of It’s A Mystery at Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham last Friday night at the first concert of the Let’s Rock Winter three-date tour. There are another two dates to be played later this month. See I Want To Be Free performed here. (Thanks to Darren)

Let’s Rock Winter also features Tony Hadley, Marc Almond, Jimmy Somerville, Nik Kershaw, Boney M, Clare Grogan of Altered Images, Then Jericho, Sonia, Annabella Lwin of Bow Wow Wow, Peter Coyle of The Lotus Eaters and Dr & The Medics.

Christmas 2016, saw Toyah Willcox and the Great British Panto take place. The festive event was held at the Victoria & Albert Museum, aka the V&A, London. A fascinating event, with Toyah discussing the history, origins and traditions of pantomime, as well as her own 20-year panto career.

Toyah Willcox’s career has encompassed chart-hits, novels and roles on stage and screen, from working at the National Theatre to cult-classic Quadrophenia. She is also a celebrated pantomime performer, having spent many a season playing a variety of roles from Principal Boy to Wicked Queen. Join her as part of the V&A’s Christmas Festivities as she celebrates one of her and Britain’s best loved artforms.

Toyah will be in conversation with Senior Curator and Pantomime Editor of the British Theatre Guide, Simon Sladen. (Photos © Damon King)

A four star review for Invasion Planet Earth, the film which is showing in cinemas for one day only this Thursday.

Almost a decade from script to screen, the labour of love that is Invasion Planet Earth is bold, ambitious, with tongue in cheek humour that occasionally pops up in an otherwise solid science-fiction drama. It will appeal to fans of the science fiction genre from all eras, particularly. It may be pitched, by marketing people, as a British Independence Day (there’s a nod to that in the dialogue), but it’s far from that as Simon Cox, writer and director, flits between drama, science fiction and action with deft awareness of just how preposterous his story is. The story does deliver a tale that has depth and weight amongst its familiar “aliens attack earth” trope, especially as the truth is revealed.

• Continue reading at Vulture Hound. Browse our Invasion Planet Earth news.