Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

Toyah’s blog for July 2016 – a tribute to WillyFred – is available to read at toyahwillcox.com.

Singer-songwriter Toyah Willcox has been a quirky tour de force in British culture since she found herself in the heart of London’s music scene as punk imploded in 1977.

Her eclectic musical tastes and penchant for penning life affirming songs have ensured she’s never been far from the public eye during her 40 year career. With eight top 40 singles under her belt, several lauded albums, a new acoustic show plus a musical in the pipeline, she’s a versatile songsmith whose background in acting has helped raise her performance chips.

We caught up with her in the PRS for Music tent at Glastonbury 2016 to learn more about her enduring love affair with music…

Singer and actress Toyah has had many Top 20 hits and appeared in films with stars such as Katharine Hepburn. She has also written several books. She starred at The National Theatre with John Gielgud, and she acted alongside Laurence Olivier in TV’s The Ebony Tower.

Toyah will be singing at The Rewind Festival, Scone Palace, Perth, on Sunday, July 24.

Why do the Rewind Festival?
The audience there is from three to 83 and I seem to get rediscovered by every new generation. It’s very rewarding. It becomes a party for all of us and every song is a hit.

What do audiences say to you?
Usually they say their mothers hate me because I’m the reason they dyed their hair as a teenager, or because I got them expelled from school.

Are you still a rebel?
I prefer to think that I’m just not a conformist. If that makes me a rebel, then I guess that’s what I am.

Is image still important when performing?
Yes, but I’m 58 now and I don’t want to look stuck in the past, so when I dress for stage I try to be age appropriate and reinterpret the songs for today.

• Continue reading at The Sunday Post/in10 Magazine.

Celebrity Fantasy Homes: Home: Sunday 17th July: 10pm
Celebrity Fantasy Homes: Home: Monday 18th July: 3am
Celebrities hunt for a new home. Gaby Roslin helps punk-pop princess Toyah Willcox search for a second home, in Richmond upon Thames, with a budget of £650,000.

Furious front women, terrifying girl gangs and a film that pissed off Dame Vivienne – these are the riotous movie classics you need to see

Punk was never a gender-bound movement. Propelled by a riotous sense of freedom and rebellion, it offered women the chance to break free from the constraints of conformity; and marked a major cultural moment for oppressed outsiders everywhere. Now, to celebrate its 40-year anniversary, one of punk’s principal spearheads Don Letts has announced an excellent programme of films centred on the movement. In anticipation of its premiere at the British Film Institute this summer, we round up some of the season’s biggest female-focused features.

JUBILEE (1978, DIR. DEREK JARMAN)

Derek Jarman’s twisted post-apocalyptic nightmare sees fashion, sex and satire clash in a dystopian London, the streets of which are ruled by an army of terrifying girl gangs. A bizarre narrative in which the Queen is transported 400 years into the future to view what the country will become lets Jarman channel fury and mayhem through his female protagonists. It’s a glorious and gorgeously shot piece of punk history, with a joyous list of cameos including Adam Ant, Toyah Willcox and Brian Eno (with his first film score). Its release garnered mixed reactions (Vivienne Westwood notoriously printed an open letter to Jarman on a t-shirt stating how much she despised the film), but the director remained unperturbed, relishing the tribal-like fierceness of his women at a time when chaos ruled.

• Continue reading at Dazed.

Exclusive interview with Simon Cox, director of Kaleidoscope Man

You’ve just returned from the cinema and what an experience: the music, the action, the story, the special effects and those edge-of-your-seat moments! If you’re an independent filmmaker or film fan you might dream one day of making such a film. So you’ve decided to make to make a feature film, not only that, but fund it independently, gather a wonderful team and five hundred supporters from around the world. Simon Cox, director of sci-fi feature film Kaleidoscope Man, has done just that. I was intrigued to find out more , so I caught up with him.

JT: What was the moment you decided to embark on making a sci-fi feature film ?

SC: I’ve wanted to make an epic sci-fi movie since I first saw the original Star Wars when I was 13. I came up with the initial idea for Kaleidoscope Man back in 1999 after I’d finished my first feature Written in Blood (1998). I had no idea it would take me nearly 20 years to make!

JT: How did you go about getting the team together to make K – Man?

SC: Having worked in TV and film over the years, a lot of the people I’ve brought in were people I’d met along the way. I also found a few local people who have since joined the team. Our cameraman, Gordon Hickie, shot my first feature film (Written in Blood) and he now shoots Holby City, Casualty and The Inspector Lyndley Mysteries.

I found the cast via acting agencies apart from Toyah Willcox who I met at a film meeting a few years ago.

• Continue reading the interview at D&C Film. Browse Dreamscape’s Kaleidoscope Man news archive. (Photo © kaleidoscopeman.com)

It’s the 4th of July so we had to do something cool for US Independence Day. So, of course, Stuart Mulrain sat down with audiomeister Dirk Maggs to remember Independence Day UK. Caution: contains envy-inducing photos of Dirk sitting in fighter planes…

In 1996, Independence Day became the smash hit blockbuster of the summer, spawning the usual array of tie-in TV specials, toys, books, magazines and games. Perhaps the most interesting tie-in though is the BBC Radio audio movie Independence Day UK, which was broadcast on BBC Radio 1 on Sunday 4th August 1996 and depicted the events of the alien invasion from the view point of the UK.

The audio movie starred Radio 1 DJ’s Nicky Campbell & Mark Goodier and astronomer Sir Patrick Moore as themselves, along with a cast that included Colin Baker, Toyah Willcox, Simon Treves, Peter Serafinowicz and Toby Longworth as RAF Pilots and William Hootkins as Orson Welles.

• Continue reading at Garbage-File.

Dreamscape’s Toyah news for April, May and June 2016 has now been archived. Click below to browse the past – Now close to 16.5 years of retro Toyah news, updates and info. Bonkers!!

• Fife Free Press: Toyah was the cover star of FFP’s “The Weekend” at the end of May – This accompanied the article: Rewind and Pause… at the Eighties!

• The Weekend: Toying With Us: Punk Princess is looking forward to rewinding to the ’80s – See a larger version of this cover here…

• Hound: Browse more on set and behind the scenes, photos from Hound, the new film Toyah is currently shooting, here…

• The Fine Times Recorder: Toyah gets up close & personal: Dorchester Corn Exchange welcomes Toyah Willcox for an evening of acoustic music, up close and personal on Friday 8th July – Continue reading…

• Dorchester Arts: What’s On: Household name, pop icon, TV presenter, and stage/screen actress (Calamity Jane, Cabaret, Peter Pan, Jubilee, Quadophenia) Toyah comes to Dorchester with her Acoustic, Up Close & Personal show – Continue reading…

• Grassington Festival 2016: Toyah onstage yesterday at the Last Night Party in Yorkshire – See the photo here…

• Under The Bridge: Great photo of Toyah with Nicole Rebelro, at the Under The Bridge Acoustic, Up Close & Personal date last month – See the photo here…

Great photo of Toyah and Gary Shail on the set of Hound: “Toyah Willcox has started filming historic drama HOUND. Corsets, pin curls and poetry!”. (Photo courtesy of DAA Management)

Sure, there’s a movie sequel out now called Independence Day: Resurgence. Of course, it’s missing a lot of weird over-the-top charm that made the first movie fun. Thankfully, there’s a better option out there.

Independence Day UK is an hour-long radio play that aired on BBC Radio 1 in 1996, about a month after the original movie premiered in the US. It was meant as a way to promote the film in the UK, and combined the events of Independence Day with Orson Welles’ The War of Worlds. It’s very weird. (All the involved names are doubtless much more familiar to the UK than to anyone else. I apologize in advance for being incurably American)

Independence Day UK has actual BBC broadcasters playing themselves. Well, themselves as they would be if there was a giant alien invasion. So the first half of the play is “UFO Watch,” with actual British presenters Nicky Campbell and Mark Goodier. Oh, and the astronomer Patrick Moore, who had the very strange task of trying to introduce anything remotely scientific into an Independence Day property.

• Continue reading at io9. Further info on Independence Day UK at toyahwillcox.com.

Toyah is interviewed in today’s print edition of ‘The Sunday Post’ – 10 Toughies For Toyah is included in their “In10 Magazine” – We put some hard (and some easy) questions to an 80s icon…

Quadrophenia: Sky Select HD: Monday 4th July: 0.10am
Quadrophenia: Sky Select HD: Saturday 9th July: 2.30am
Quadrophenia: Sky Select HD: Thursday 14th July: 2.25am
The Who wrote and produced this energetic story of a young man disillusioned with his life in 1960s London. Phil Daniels excels as the alienated anti-hero Jimmy Cooper. Director: Franc Roddam. Starring: Phil Daniels, Leslie Ash, Toyah Willcox, Philip Davis, Mark Wingett, Sting, and Ray Winstone. (Sky Select HD is on Sky Channel 312)

Tomorrow night Toyah, and Marc Almond, play the Last Night Party at the Grassington Festival 2016 bringing the 15-day event to a sensational, music-filled, close. They will appear at the Festival in the Field Marquee. Click below for further info and ticket booking link.

Our Last Night Party will end Grassington 2016 off with pop and a fizz as internationally acclaimed icon Marc Almond headlines – Almond has sold over 30 million records Worldwide with a solo career which sprang from his success with Soft Cell.

The legendary Toyah is supporting Marc Almond. From punk princess to high priestess of TV, Toyah Willcox is a uniquely gifted performer. Charismatic, outspoken and impossible to categorise, she is one of Britain’s iconic household names – an award‐winning rock legend as well as a much‐loved actress and music composer.

• Browse all of Dreamscape’s Grassington Festival 2016 news. Visit the festival website.

Derek Jarman’s The Tempest is showing at Athens Open Air Film Festival, taking place between 1st and 31st July 2016. The Tempest is screened on Wednesday 13th July at Peiraios 260, Garden D, and admission is free. See further information on the festival by clicking below.

Toyah and Gary Shail in period costume, hair and make-up for Hound. They play Alice and Wilfred Meynell. Hazel O’Connor will also appear in the film, as Lady Poverty. See more photos and updates at the Official Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. (Photos © Toyah Willcox)

Creativity, longevity and relationship advice with Toyah Willcox

There aren’t many things that make me nervous these days, I’ve come to the conclusion that I can pretty much hold my own in most situations. I’m rarely intimidated and I refuse to treat anyone any differently because of their status. It would seem strange then, that as I’m sitting at my desk watching the clock ticking ever closer to 11am, my palms are sweating and my heart is beating so fast I have to take deep breaths to stop it from leaping out of my chest.

I have a fairly solid reason for the nerves mind you, at the aforementioned time I’m scheduled to do a telephone interview with Toyah Willcox. The prospect of dialing her number and asking to speak to her is doubly scary because I have loved her work since I first saw her perform on Top Of The Pops, and if the truth be told, I’ve never done anything like this before – I didn’t tell her that though and I hope she didn’t realise!

The purpose of the call was to talk to her about her sharing the stage with the fabulous Marc Almond for the Last Night Party at the Grassington Festival of Music and Arts that’s taking place June 17th to July 2nd. It sounds like it’s going to be a fantastic festival (and why wouldn’t it be, it is in Yorkshire after all). Toyah is supporting Marc Almond for the final night of the event July 2nd at the Festival in the Field Marquee.

• Continue reading at Northern Life Magazine. (Photos © Toyah Willcox/Dean Stockings)

Toyah, Simon Darlow, Chris Wong, Tim Rose and Colin Hinds at Glastonbury’s “PRS for Music” tent/stage last weekend. (Photo © Toyah Willcox)

This August BFI Southbank will host Don Letts Presents: Punk on Film, a season of films curated by film director, DJ and musician Don Letts. The season will bring together a broad range of documentary, archive footage and feature films that draw attention to the diversity of the punk movement, how it has been depicted on film, and its huge influence on filmmakers past and present.

Films being screened during the season will include Don Letts’ Grammy award-winning doc The Clash: Westway to the World (2000), Jubilee (Derek Jarman, 1978) and Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer (Mike Lerner, Maxim Pozdorovkin 2013). The season will include a World Punk Day on Sunday 7 August, featuring screenings of Afro Punk (2003) which follows black punks in the USA, Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam (2009) about the birth of the Muslim punk scene, and Punk in Africa (2012) which explores the spread of punk across that continent.

Don Letts Presents: Punk on Film is part of Punk.London a year-long festival that celebrates punk, a counter-cultural movement that has had a profound and lasting impact on the face of music, film, culture, art and fashion.

• Further info on this and “Punk.London” at the BFI website and the Press Releases:  August 2016 at BFI Southbank and Don Letts Presents: Punk on Film at BFI Southbank.

• Arab Times Online: Humor, gore in Oram’s ‘Aaaaaaaah!’: Though it’s at once too subtle and too extreme to attract a broad audience, those who get something out of gross-out humor, silent film and British comedy will treasure “Aaaaaaaah!” as a rare cult gem – Continue Reading…

• Wet Paint Theatre/Films: Hound: Lots of info on this new film, currently in production, here…

• New York Times: In London, A Celebration Of All Things Punk: Corbin’s “Visible Girls” series is part of a digital presentation during the gallery’s “Punk Weekender”: a three-day event incorporating exhibitions, a screening of Derek Jarman’s film “Jubilee” and a performance by the postpunk all-female band the Raincoats – Continue Reading…

• Warrington Guardian: Eighties Night: Win a VIP Package and a Pair of Tickets to the Eighties Night with Rick Astley, Toyah and Paul Young on the 22nd July – Continue Reading…

• Essex Chronicle: Chelmsford City Racecourse hosts second annual Ladies’ Day extravaganza: Tickets are still on sale for Simply Red’s performance on July 1, while Katherine Jenkins, Paul Young, Rick Astley and Toyah will all take to the stage next month – Continue Reading…

• Radio New Zealand: The World’s Greatest Guitar Solos!: Robert Fripp with Brian Eno: ‘Baby’s on Fire’ from Eno’s Here Come The Warm Jets features an off the wall solo, triple-tracked by Robert Fripp, originally a founding member of King Crimson. Eno and Fripp have collaborated a lot over the years on all manner of records including ‘No Pussyfooting’ and contributions to David Bowies single ‘Heroes’. Robert Fripp is a most unusual man who is married to singer Toyah Willcox – he’s had an amazing creative career – Continue Reading…

Thanks to Brian for this fantastic colourful shot of Toyah onstage last night at Hole In The Roof in Deal, Kent for a Proud, Loud & Electric gig. (Photo © Brian Marsh)