Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

Iconic singing superstars Toyah Willcox and Hazel O’Connor bring tour to Islington

Iconic singing superstars Toyah Willcox and Hazel O’Connor will ramp up the retro when their pulsating new nationwide tour Electric Ladies of the 80s hits the capital next month.

The musical legends, who were at the forefront of post-punk and new wave, will evoke the era of neon brights and vintage beats as they each perform their own hit-packed set – and team up for some duets and surprises.

Between them, Toyah and Hazel have a combined back catalogue of 60 albums, plus several TV and film roles. Promising an uplifting show full of synth-spiked classics and more modern numbers, the 14-date tour will arrive in London on April 23rd.

The pair will be joined on stage at Islington Assembly Hall by a full electric band, with the set featuring much-loved tracks like Thunder In The Mountains, Eighth Day, It’s A Mystery, Will You, I Want To Be Free and D-Days.

Speaking of the tour, Toyah says: “I’m wildly excited for this. We’ll be doing some of our own repertoires, original arrangements, and new material. Expect it to be a very upbeat show, very musical and nostalgic, and above all, great to watch.”

Despite first meeting in 1980 at an audition, Toyah and Hazel’s careers have never collided – until now. Delighted to be hitting the road together at last, Hazel says: “It’s taken us 40 years, but we finally have this opportunity. I always love watching Toyah perform; her music is part of the roadmap of my life. The show is sounding incredible in rehearsals, and we can’t wait to get going.”

• Continue reading at the London Post. Book tickets for the tour here. NB: A number of the dates have already Sold Out, with more just about to!

Toyah guested on Tammy Gooding’s show on BBC Radio Hereford & Worcester on Tuesday afternoon.

Chatting about Hazel O’Connor, touring, Electric Ladies, future releases for 2020, making movies (including, soon to released, To Be Someone which has many of the Quadrophenia cast in but is “not Quadrophenia Two“), Kate Bush and more.

“We smuggled Kate Bush in to Pershore!”
Pershore’s punk rock legend Toyah Willcox catches up with our Tammy Gooding, talking the joys of living a secret life in Worcestershire and the moments that made her music what it is.

• Toyah’s interview has been made available as a seperate clip at the BBC website. Listen here.

In my spare time I’m slowly regenerating this website. The Features section has recently been updated (with more to follow) and currently the Press Archive is having a much needed overhaul. It’s taking a while as there are tons of past Toyah press interviews and articles in there.

Toyah’s March 2020 blog is available to read at toyahwillcox.com – Toyah talks Toyah Solo, the forthcoming new colour vinyls, great February gigs in Halifax, Holborn, Bacup, Selby, Stamford, Norwich and Scarborough, and more. She also pays tribute to Colin Hinds and Caroline Flack. Click below to read.

Three of the albums included on the, recently released, retrospective box set, Toyah Solo – Desire, Take The Leap!, Velvet Lined Shell – are also now available in standalone digital Deluxe Editions – all featuring bonus songs.

Desire includes the previously unavailable Mesmerised, as well as Plenty, Sun Up and Re-Entry Into Dance. Take The Leap! bonus songs are the demos of Requite Me and Invisible Love, an alternate mix of Waiting and the incredible It’s A Mystery (Weybridge Mix). While Velvet Lined Shell has Experience as an extra song.

Desire | Deluxe Edition, Edsel/Demon Music: February 2020
Tracklist: Echo Beach, Moonlight Dancing, Revive The World, The View, Moon Migration, Love’s Unkind, Dear Diary, Deadly As A Woman, Goodbye Baby, When A Woman Cries, Desire, Echo Beach (Surf Mix), Plenty, Sun Up, Re-Entry Into Dance, Mesmerised.

Take The Leap! | Deluxe Edition, Edsel/Demon Music: February 2020
Tracklist: Now I’m Running, Lust For Love, Invisible Love, Name Of Love, Winter in Wonderland, God Ceases To Dream, Ieya (Revisited), Waiting (Revisited), Neon Womb (Revisited), Elusive Stranger (Revisited), Our Movie (Revisited), Thunder In The Mountains (Revisited), I Wanna Be Free (Revisited), It’s A Mystery (Revisited), Requite Me (Demo), Invisible Love (Demo), Waiting (Alternate Mix), It’s A Mystery (Weybridge Mix)

Velvet Lined Shell | Deluxe Edition, Edsel/Demon Music: February 2020
Tracklist: Every Scar Has A Silver Lining, Velvet Lined Shell, Little Tears Of Love, You’re A Miracle, Mother, Troublesome Thing, Experience

Who’s Doing The Dishes?: Virgin Media One: Wednesday 18th March: 5.20am
Brian McFadden presents the dining challenge. Will it remain a mystery that Toyah Willcox is the celebrity host when she throws a dinner party for four complete strangers?

As well as giving Toyah Solo a four star review, the latest issue (No. 62) of Classic Pop magazine also reviews Toyah’s gig at the Slade Rooms, Wolverhampton in January.

Before her co-headlining tour with Hazel O’Connor kicks off, Toyah runs through a brisk set that maps her career from punk icon to Crimson Queen.

Toyah Willcox is not an easy figure to pin down. From her early days as ‘Punk Princess’, she morphed into a multi-coloured pop star, before enjoying later success with presenting, musical theatre and, perhaps most unexpectedly, children’s television. Hard to imagine for those who recall her in Derek Jarman’s Jubilee or leaping about on TOTP, but there’s a generation of 20-somethings out there who only know Toyah from Teletubbies, Brum and as the lead character in Barmy Aunt Boomerang.

• Issue 62 of Classic Pop magazine is on sale now. (Thanks to Minna of The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive for the scan)

Toyah will be a guest on Jools Holland’s upcoming BBC Radio 2 series in April.

Toyah will be talking about her new box set Toyah Solo and selecting some of her favourite music act’s performances from the Later with Jools archive. Broadcast details coming soon.

• Further info at Toyah’s Official Instagram.

A message from Toyah and the amazing 80s Lowde Fest 2020. Toyah plays the festival, taking place in Hampshire, on 11th July. Visit the website.

Toyah guested on Alex Dyke’s Wall of Sound on BBC Radio Solent yesterday, talking about the Electric Ladies Of The 80s Tour, Toyah Solo, career longevity and more. It’s A Mystery and Thunder In The Mountains were also played at either end of the chat.

Toyah Willcox: Alex chats to Toyah about her upcoming show in Wimborne

• Toyah’s interview begins around 39m into the show and is available for the next four weeks at BBC Sounds.

Dreamscape’s Toyah 2020 Releases page has just been updated – With new information and photos related to Toyah’s busy release schedule this year.

So far there’s been the eight-disc + 48-page booklet box set, Toyah Solo (just released and just incredible!) and the five colour/clear vinyl albums; Minx (red translucent vinyl), Prostitute (yellow translucent vinyl), Ophelia’s Shadow (aqua translucent vinyl), Take The Leap! (double album clear vinyl), Velvet Lined Shell (10″ purple vinyl).

With a number of other releases to follow through the year this page will be added to and updated. Check out the page and revisit for new releases.

Toyah celebrating the release of her Toyah Solo box set, and, very soon (Friday 13th March) to be released, Minx on Red Vinyl album. See the full versions of both of these great photos at Toyah’s Official Instagram and Twitter pages. (Photos © Toyah Willcox)

15 photos of Toyah’s electrifying gig at Scarborough Market Hall on Saturday

The original punk princess, Toyah, stormed Scarborough’s Market Hall on Saturday night with an electrifying gig.

The pop star-actress mesmerised the audience of a couple of hundred with a whirlwind performance of new and old songs, including It’s a Mystery, Sensational, I Want To Be Free, Thunder in the Mountains and Echo Beach.

Her warmth, charisma and vocal range would put to shame some of the modern starlets a third her age … she’s approaching 62, with a 43-year singing career!

• Continue reading/Browse the photos at The Scarborough News.

If you’ve never been to the Clarence Hall in Crickhowell then we guarantee you’ll want to make that the place you go to see Toyah Willcox next. Great, intimate venue and a fantastic performer, what more could you ask for on a night out. It’s only when you start doing your homework to write something like this that you realise just how much Toyah has achieved.

I come to this with a little piece of Toyah history. A long time ago I played cricket in the field at her home. It was a charity thing, which is just as well cause I’m rubbish at cricket. Toyah and hubby Robert Fripp came out to lend a bit of support. She did bowl a ball right at me, and I’m sure she won’t mind me saying that she is as rubbish at bowling as I was at batting. Through every other aspect of her life though, she is one mighty fine talented woman.

• Continue reading at South Wales Life. NB: This gig is scheduled for Saturday 30th January 2021.

Derek Jarman (1942-1994) is known as one of our most poetic and anarchic film-makers and artists, as well as a prominent gay rights activist. He started his career as a stage designer, working as Ken Russell’s production designer for “The Devils” 1971.

Art Fund needs to raise £3.5m by 31 March 2020 to purchase Jarman’s Dungeness house, Prospect Cottage, and to establish a permanently funded programme to conserve and maintain the building, its contents and its garden for the future. More than 25 years after his death, Prospect Cottage continues to be a site of pilgrimage for people from all over the world who come to be inspired by its stark beauty a Jarman’s legacy. The cottage and its contents are now being sold following the death in 2018 of Keith Collins, Jarman’s close companion in his final years, to whom he bequeathed the cottage.

More than 3,000 people have donated to the Art Fund’s campaign to save Prospect Cottage in its first two weeks. Find out more and donate on the Art Fund website.

Book tickets for Glitterbug fundraising screening
To help with the cause to save Jarman’s cottage, we’re screening his 1993 film Glitterbug on Sunday 22 March at 4.30pm. The event will include a special introduction by Derek Brown, Art Director (The Garden). Glitterbug features Adam Ant, William S. Burroughs, Michael Clark, Duggie Fields, Derek Jarman, Andrew Logan, Genesis P-Orridge, Tilda Swinton and Toyah Willcox.

• Continue reading/Further info at the Electric Palace website. Visit the “Save Prospect Cottage” Art Fund campaign page here.

Doll House, the new horror film from 101 Films, directed by Steven M. Smith (Doll Cemetery, The Howling, The Doll Master, Haunted) and starring Toyah Willcox (Invasion Planet Earth, Quadrophenia), Mark Wingett (The Bill, Quadrophenia), Louisa Warren, Jennifer Leahey and Paul Danan (Hollyoaks, Are We Dead Yet?) is released on DVD and digital download on 23rd March.

Toyah plays Layla in the film, which is available to pre-order at Amazon now.

Synopsis: A care home for child runaways takes in a 12-year-old girl, found alone, late at night, on the street, whos only belongings are her Doll and mysterious Doll House. She refuses to speak and wont ever let go of her doll or doll house and the other children tease her. As the days pass, the residents start to disappear and seem to appear as tiny dolls inside the doll house. An evil entity haunts the doll and doll house and is collecting the souls of the children for its ultimate cause, to be alive.

The Let’s Rock 2020 line-up has been released and it’s a belter – here’s everything you need to know about this year’s event

80s icons aplenty will descend on Dalkeith Country Park in Midlothian on Saturday 13 June.

It’s time to party back to the 80s with Let’s Rock, the UK’s biggest retro festival. And this year, the stellar line-up makes for their biggest summer yet.

A celebration of all things pop and 80s, Let’s Rock offers gloriously unpretentious non-stop fun, with legendary artists performing hit after hit to a crowd of all ages – many of whom embrace the throwback vibe by dressing in their finest retro fashion.

Let’s Rock 2020 headliners include: Adam Ant, OMD, UB40 and Wet Wet Wet. Other performers include ABC and Howard Jones – exclusives for Let’s Rock, plus Billy Ocean, Tony Hadley, Kim Wilde, Sister Sledge, The Boomtown Rats, Belinda Carlisle, Heaven 17, The Undertones, Midge Ure’s Electronica, Toyah, T’Pau, Go West, Nik Kershaw, Chesney Hawkes, Betty Boo + many more.

• Continue reading at Edinburgh Live.

A review of Toyah Solo by We Are Cult.

Little Tears of Love: ‘Toyah: Solo’ reviewed

❉ This is a fine time to look back at the solo career of an underrated artist.

“I’m too qualified, to give up lie down and die. This is my unsentimental education.”

Toyah Willcox has been a household name since her eponymous band burst onto the UK pop charts in the early 1980s. Juggling her musical career with high profile work as an actress on stage and screen, and a string of television presenting work was both a blessing for her career longevity and a poisoned chalice when it came to her enduring legacy as an artist in her own right.

The release of Solo – the first ever Toyah boxset – is the first step for Willcox and her faithful master of the archives Craig Astley in a bid to right those wrongs.

Compiling most – but crucially not all – of Toyah’s solo albums released since the Toyah band broke up in 1984, alongside a collection of rare and unreleased material, plus a bonus DVD, the release starts a dedicated reissue campaign which continues with standalone coloured vinyl pressings of almost every studio album in the set in March, bringing most of them back into print for the first time in over a decade.

• Continue reading at We Are Cult.

It’s Toyah Solo Day!! Toyah’s first ever box set is released today!

Toyah Solo is released tomorrow – Check out Dreamscape’s, just uploaded, tribute to Toyah’s first box set – An info-packed digital issue – Spring/Summer 2020 – of our Toyah fanzine, compiling new and previously published features related to Toyah Solo + extra bits and pieces!

• Toyah Solo: Review: Released this Friday, Toyah’s new box set is reviewed, and given four stars, in the new issue of Classic Pop magazine, which is on sale now.

• Classic Pop: Toyah Solo Review: The complexities of Toyah leaving her band – called Toyah – to become a solo singer – called Toyah – takes up several spreadsheets and pages of footnotes. In short, Solo rounds up the first six albums Toyah made when she left Toyah in 1985…

• Toyah Solo: Official Trailer – View here…

• Toyah Solo: Unboxing the box set: See Toyah unboxing her new, just about to be released, 8-disc box set here…

• Super Deluxe Edition: Out This Week/on 28 February 2020: Toyah Solo 7CD+DVD box – Toyah Solo mops up the era from 1985 onwards when Toyah Willcox signed as a solo artist to Sony’s Portrait Records and then subsequent EG releases, and comprises of seven CDs and a DVD plus a 48 page book – Continue reading…