Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

Toyah guested on Channel 5 News on Thursday evening, talking Chameleon, her career, her imagery and look, AI, next year’s Songs & Stories Tour and more. (Screenshot © 5)

Chameleon: The Very Best Of Toyah entered numerous Official Charts rundowns on Friday, the highest placing being at #9 on the Independent Top 40.

More importantly the album placed at #10 on the Physical Album chart and #11 on the Album Sales chart. Great stats!

#9 Independent Chart
#10 Physical Album Chart
#11 Album Sales Chart
#15 Scottish Charts
#22 Vinyl Album Chart
#35 Record Store Chart

• Browse Toyah’s Official Charts history, dating back to 1980, and also including numerous releases from recent years on a variety of Official Album Charts.

A selection of just some of the Toyah news and press – all about Strictly – instigated by her interview on Thursday’s Good Morning Britain. (Photo © BBC)

• Manchester Evening News: Strictly Come Dancing star picked own partner after ‘rejecting’ two professional dancers: Singer Toyah Wilcox danced with Neil Jones on the hit BBC Latin and ballroom dance show in 2024 – Continue…

• Mirror: Strictly Come Dancing’s Toyah Willcox turned down partners over ‘inappropriate’ fears: Toyah Willcox has admitted that she turned down certain Strictly Come Dancing partners over fears of coming across as ‘inappropriate’ if there was a considerable age gap – Continue…

• Liverpool Echo: BBC Strictly Come Dancing star rejected two partners as ‘it would have felt completely wrong’ – Continue…

• Devon Live: Strictly Come Dancing star got to pick professional partner after ‘inappropriate’ choices: A former Strictly Come Dancing star has revealed why she turned down two partners before signing up for the show last year – Continue…

• Daily Star: GMB: BBC Strictly Come Dancing star turned down two partners as she admits ‘it felt wrong’ – Continue…

• Female First: Toyah Willcox reveals why she was allowed to pick her Strictly Come Dancing partner – Continue…

• Yahoo! News: GMB: Toyah Willcox turned down two Strictly pros before show – Continue…

• Wales Online: Strictly Come Dancing star turned down two partners before signing up for BBC show – Continue…

Toyah guested on David & Carrie Grant’s BBC Radio London show on Saturday morning. Talking Chameleon: The Very Best Of Toyah, her career, touring and more.

• Click below to listen at BBC Sounds – Toyah’s interview is in the final half hour of the four-hour show.

Good Morning Britain‘s studio looking amazing this morning with some of Toyah’s most iconic imagery as the backdrop…

Toyah talked her 45-year music career, working with Katharine Hepburn and George Cukor, making – or not making – music with AI, the upcoming tours, including Songs & Stories, and a new book Meteorite, which she said will be published in November. (Screenshot © GMB)

The interview has resulted in numerous press articles… Most centring around Toyah mentioning she chose her dance partner for Strictly last year, rather than the show choose one for for her!

Underneath the Toyah “Top Stories” news links at Google, there just happened to be a link to this very website :)

NB. Toyah guests on David & Carrie Grant’s BBC Radio London show tomorrow morning.

Toyah – Chameleon – The Very Best of Toyah: Album Review

First-ever career-spanning collection covers Toyah’s entire recording career – the band years, the solo years and the adventures alongside husband Robert Fripp. Chameleon REALLY is a ‘Best Of’ collection

Release Date: 5th September 2025
Label: Cherry Red Records
Formats: 2xCD, 3xCD+Blu Ray, 2LP Vinyl

A TRUE ‘BEST OF’ COLLECTION
Rule-breaker, boundary-pusher, consummate entertainer. Even, dare I suggest it – National Treasure. Toyah Wilcox has been, and remains, all of these things – and she fulfills her roles in many guises, from attitude-loaded punk to loving companion. As the title to this career-spanning collection suggests, Toyah is a persona-shifting chameleon.

It’s hard to believe that Chameleon is the first ever comprehensive retrospective of Toyah’s varied recording career, a career that began as long ago as 1977 when fledgling actor Toyah hooked up with guitarist/songwriter Joe Bogen and keyboardist Pete Bush to form the band that would soon be christened ‘Toyah.’ Tall trees from little acorns grow – Toyah’s musical career went on to spawn over 20 albums and delivered eight Top 40 singles. And the highlights of that career are all here. Chameleon is, truly, a ‘Best Of’ collection.

• Continue reading at At The Barrier. See links to other Chameleon: The Very Best Of Toyah reviews here. Buy the album on 3CD/Bluray Boxset, 2CD & Double Vinyl at Cherry Red.

Toyah’s Wonderful World Of Weird
The Long Weekend
An original short story
Written & read by Toyah Willcox

A brand new short story – the seventh – written by and narrated by Toyah!

“I have always loved short stories, they can inhabit any world from suburbia to the fantastic. When time is short and long distances need to be travelled, the short story has taken me to places i willingly want to go to. So whether you have five minutes to spare, or you want to escape for a while…join me and my love of the unpredictable. Welcome to Toyah’s Wonderful World of Weird…”

• Listen at Toyah’s official You Tube and Facebook. Browse our other Toyah’s Wonderful World Of Weird posts, here. (Image © Toyah)

We’re hoping for a great chart placing for Chameleon: The Very Best Of Toyah tomorrow evening when the Official Charts Top 100 Albums is announced. The album is currently at #10 but streaming is the best chance for the album to stay in the upper reaches of the chart. We have 24 hours… PS. Here’s some Chameleon fan art I created – to celebrate the new release and it’s fantastic debut chart placing – and will be including in the new issue(s) of Toyah Fanzine.

Toyah: Chameleon: The Very Best Of Toyah
Box Set Review

From humble beginnings of a young girl from Kings Heath in Birmingham, the rebellious nature shone through early with acts that thrill the heart such as setting off a multitude of clocks from underneath the stage of her school that disrupted a speech from the then Education Secretary Margaret Thatcher, and which led rightly to her being hailed within a few short years as the Queen of the British Punk movement.

It is in that reassurance of Time shaping our future without our realising that those who hear the ticking of the clock act with a kind of urgency that commands attention, that regards even a minute wasted as a tolling bell ringing out the laments of lost opportunities and creative despair; a kind of passing of the moment that would never resurface.

The be the best in the world you have to take it on, the ticking of the clock that signals each beat of a life’s intended mission, the chameleon’s camouflage adapting, changing, altering with every circumstance and yearning, of breaking free…this is the heartfelt and honourable belief that comes from every pore of the Cherry Red release of Chameleon: The Very Best Of Toyah.

• Continue reading at Liverpool Sound and Vision. See links to other Chameleon: The Very Best Of Toyah reviews here. Buy the album on 3CD/Bluray Boxset, 2CD & Double Vinyl at Cherry Red.

50 Wild Women Of The 80s!: NOW 80s: Tuesday 16th September: 9pm
Brilliant songs, big voices, blazing hair & bags of attitude – the ladies of the 80s had the lot! From Toyah to Tina & Joan Jett to Janet Jackson.

Way Back When! 1981: NOW 80s: Wednesday 17th September: 7pm
60 minutes of lesser heard hits from 1981. Including The Pretenders, Spandau Ballet, George Harrison, Toyah & The Pointer Sisters.

Toyah said “Thank You” on the day Chameleon was released… (Image © Toyah)

Toyah guested on The Diamond Dave Show on Total Rock yesterday, talking Chameleon: The Very Best Of Toyah, her career and much more. Listen by clicking below.

Chameleon is currently in the Top 10 – at #10 – of the Official Chart’s Top 10 Albums (Chart Update).

Official Charts: Midlands-born singer Toyah may earn a third Top 10 with greatest hits compilation Chameleon: The Very Best of Toyah (10).

• Browse all of our ‘Toyah on the Official Charts’ posts here…

Review | Chameleon – The Very Best of Toyah [Cherry Red Records]

Toyah Willcox’s career has always defied easy classification, and Chameleon – The Very Best of Toyah leans into that restlessness, offering a panoramic view of her 45-year arc as punk agitator, pop icon, and enduring creative force. Released via Cherry Red Records, this career-spanning anthology is the first to fully embrace the breadth of her recording history, and it does so with a curatorial precision that mirrors Willcox’s own chameleonic artistry.

The collection’s structure tells a story. CD1 captures the original Toyah band years (1979–1983), where the collision of Joel Bogen’s spiky guitar and Willcox’s commanding, otherworldly vocals forged a sound that felt both feral and theatrical. Singles like “It’s A Mystery” and “I Want to Be Free” may have cemented her as a chart presence, but it’s deeper cuts like “Jungles of Jupiter” and “We Are” that underline her singular lyrical vision, tapping into cosmic anxieties and spiritual yearning against the urgency of post-punk rhythms. The material retains its charge, a reminder of how Toyah helped broaden the vocabulary of British new wave beyond mere attitude.

• Continue reading at Ottic Media. See links to other Chameleon: The Very Best Of Toyah reviews here. Buy the album on 3CD/Bluray Boxset, 2CD & Double Vinyl at Cherry Red.

• Toyah At Home: September Chameleon Special – Watch… • Toyah & Robert: UpBeat Moments: Watch… • Toyah & Robert’s Sunday Lunch – The Hives/Hate To Say I Told You So – Watch… (Image © Toyah Willcox)

“Chameleon is so respectful of my 45 years in music and that means so much to me. What I love about this epic release is virtually every song on it has been a single or an exceptionally important song to me. Because of that, I thought I would give a brief explanation of what each song means to me on this remarkable double album in my Blog. The first part of this covers disc 1, the songs from the band years 1979-1983, now live.” Toyah xxx

• Continue to read Toyah’s Chameleon blog, and the first part of Toyah talking about the songs included on the double album, at toyahwillcox.com. (Text/Photo © Toyah/Cherry Red)

We had a, much needed, fun day out in Glasgow on Friday. Beginning with a big breakfast at The Crystal Palace, then onto the amazing Tutankhamun: The Immersive Experience at the SECC, a walk around the city centre, lunch and then a visit to King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, where Toyah played in 1993 & ’94.

• See all our 2025 “tour dates” :) here! (Photos © David Fleming)

50 Wild Women Of The 80s!: NOW 80s: Monday 8th September: 11am
Brilliant songs, big voices, blazing hair & bags of attitude – the ladies of the 80s had the lot! From Toyah to Tina & Joan Jett to Janet Jackson.

It’s Chameleon Release Day Eve… Less than 24 hours until one of the finest ever Toyah compilations is released, and there have been many since that first Toyah retrospective vinyl album, cassette and video back in 1984 – Which was, of course, Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! All The Hits.

Toyah has worked her socks off recently promoting the album via numerous radio, TV and press interviews. Scroll back through our recent news posts or visit Toyah’s official website, Facebook, Instagram and You Tube for much more.

Toyah guested on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row on Tuesday evening.

She is also guesting all this week on BBC Radio 2’s The Vernon Kay Show revealing her ‘Tracks Of My Years’ daily.

• Listen to both at BBC Sounds: Front Row | Vernon Kay/TOMY.

A new interview with Toyah, from The Sunday Post. This was also included in P.S. magazine, with Toyah on the cover.

Toyah Willcox on the 50 years of hard graft that have kept her at the top of her game

It’s Wednesday lunchtime and I am telling Toyah Willcox my own favourite Toyah story.

I remember going to see you as part of a 1980s revival night in Glasgow, alongside Belinda Carlisle, Go West and various members of Spandau Ballet, I say. This must have been back in the late 1990s, early 2000s. I’m a bit hazy on the date, I admit.

But Toyah’s not. “2002,” she interrupts emphatically.

Ah, right. Anyway, you came bounding on to the stage and exclaimed: “Glasgow, I’ve come for your men!” And a woman in the crowd shouted back: “Take them! Take them!”

“I remember it happening!” Toyah tells me gleefully over Zoom.

Speak to the singer, actor and presenter and it’s quickly clear that she remembers everything. Dates, chart positions, people. Her memory is a Google search engine containing the records of nearly 50 years in showbiz. And there’s a lot to remember.

• Continue reading at The Sunday Post.