Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

Christmas 2016, Toyah guested on Pop Quiz, which had been retitled Pop Quiz: The Comeback for its, very short-lived, revival.

Pop Quiz, was of course, huge in the early to mid 1980s, a Saturday evening staple, presented by Radio 1 DJ Mike Read, and a must-watch for every music fan. Toyah guested a number of times between 1981 and ’84.

It was the Saturday night smash hit music quiz show that ran for four years between 1981 and 1984. Over 30 years later it’s back, with the original presenter Mike Read hosting the first of two special celebration shows where the biggest pop stars from the 1980s go head to head in a test of their 80s music knowledge. Guests include Toyah Willcox, Tom Bailey (Thompson Twins), Andy McCluskey (OMD), Steve Norman (Spandau Ballet), Mari Wilson and Leee John (Imagination).

The Telegraph said: A blissfully self-indulgent chance to reminisce for pop-pickers of a certain vintage

Who got a lifetime ban from a Manchester hotel for swinging from a chandelier and stealing a zebra? Ginger diva Toyah Willcox. Who bought an Austin A40 convertible so she could poke her beehive hair out of the roof? Jazz chanteuse Mari Wilson. What did this pair have in common? They were both on Pop Quiz: The Comeback (BBC Four), a revival of the retro gameshow which pitted two teams of Eighties pop stars against each other for no apparent reason other than festive fun.

Pop Quiz: The Comeback, episode one with Toyah guesting, aired on BBC Four on Wednesday 28th December 2016.

Toyah talks Christmas… to Greatest Hits Radio! Click below to watch.

Christmas 1984, and Toyah had released no new music during the year for the first time since very early 1979, although the compilation album – on vinyl, cassette and video – Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! (unofficially, and latterly officially sub-titled “All The Hits”, and not to be confused, and never really has been aside from a few chart compilers, with the live 1980 album with the same title) was released in February of this year. This is significant as it was the first ever Toyah hits compilation.

Despite no new music this year, Toyah still appeared in many of the music magazines in 1984, including this Christmas feature from Smash Hits special issue… Smash Hits Christmas Party – featuring Frankie Goes To Hollywood on the cover – published in association with Woolworth – in December: Will You Be Watching The Queen’s Speech? When you jump up after the Christmas Top Of The Pops, is it to stand to attention for Her Majesty or a mad dash to switch off the TV? We asked a selection of pop stars if they’d be tuning in to that speech?

You can read Toyah’s response below, but more interestingly, in retrospect, Toyah appears to be incredibly prescient about the Royal Family…

Minder: That’s TV: Saturday 3rd January: 4.30pm
All Mod Cons. Series 2, Episode 8. Terry tries to help his friend Kate evict some unwanted tenants, but comes to doubt her motives. Meanwhile, Arthur is desperate to get into the property market and tries to sell Terry’s flat without telling him. Guest starring Toyah Willcox and Simon Cadell. Director: Ian Sharp. Also starring: George Cole, Dennis Waterman, Peter Childs, George Layton, Patrick Malahide, Michael Troughton.

Christmas 2025, and Official Toyah recalls Christmas 1980…

Broadcast 45 years ago tonight…. The documentary ‘Toyah’ on ATV

ATV decided to profile Toyah in a documentary, directed by filmmaker Graham Moore. This was a significant
coup for Toyah, securing an hour of prime-time TV as an ‘up and coming’ recording artist. It was produced by ATV, the Midlands franchise of ITV but networked across the ITV regions on 18 December 1980.

The documentary meant cameras followed Toyah’s weekly activity for several months. This included photo shoots, in-store record signings, television appearances including Straight Talk, rehearsals for Nigel Williams’ controversial play Sugar And Spice and band rehearsals at Toyah’s live-in Battersea warehouse ‘Mayhem’.

• Continue reading here… Buy Toyah! Toyah! Toyah!

Toyah says… “Santa outfits at the ready… It’s Christmas“.

Christmas 2012, BBC Radio 4 aired Neil Tennant’s Smash Hits Christmas on 20th December – a real festive pop treat for everyone who grew up in the 1980s. The programme was an interesting look back at the golden years of the UK’s biggest music magazine of the eighties. Neil recalls the golden days of, the iconic, Smash Hits magazine, when he worked as a writer in their Carnaby Street office.

There were also contributions and memories from founder and legendary magazine maker Nick Logan, editors David Hepworth and Mark Ellen, writers Miranda Sawyer and Sylvia Patterson, and from regular Smash Hits cover girl, Toyah., talking about Smash Hits in general and her Brave New World cover from the Summer of 1982.

Neil Tennant had a life as a journalist before he became famous as a Pet Shop Boy. In fact, it was on a Smash Hits trip to New York that he had his big breakthrough with the record producer Bobby O. Also included is a rare recording from the 1982 Christmas Flexidisc (a message from the stars) and probably Neil Tennant’s first recording – the music for a trailer advertising Smash Hits stickers. (Producer: Susan Marling. A Just Radio Ltd. production for BBC Radio 4). Click on any of the images in this post to listen to Neil Tennant’s Smash Hits Christmas at You Tube.

Toyah’s Christmas Party 2026 Tour announced

Get ready for a sparkling seasonal celebration as music icon Toyah Willcox brings her electrifying Christmas Party to the stage.

With dates in Liverpool, Sunderland, London and Birmingham, Toyah and her band will delight fans with a mix of her biggest hits, plus a sprinkling of festive magic included in this seasonal show.

On the tour, Toyah said “I’m absolutely thrilled to be bringing my Christmas Party Shows back on the road for 2026. These shows are all about joy, celebration and coming together, and I can’t wait to share an unforgettable festive night with everyone. See you there!”

With a career spanning over four decades, Toyah has earned her place as one of Britain’s most distinctive performers — from her Top 10 chart hits including It’s A Mystery, I Want To Be Free, Thunder in the Mountains and Good Morning Universe to acclaimed roles in cult classic films such as Quadrophenia, groundbreaking theatre, and a wealth of television work.

In recent years, Toyah has reached a whole new global audience thanks to the runaway success of Toyah & Robert’s Sunday Lunch on YouTube — a wildly popular series that has now attracted over 150 million viewers worldwide showcasing her energy, humour, and fearless creativity.

• Continue reading at toyahwillcox.com. Book tickets for Toyah’s Christmas Party 2026 here.

Christmas 2024, and I wished all the visitors to Dreamscape a Merry Christmas with a giant Toyah Christmas card.

I’ve been posting self posts – almost always Toyah related – on here for a couple of years now, and most people seem to like them, so it may continue in 2026.

Working on Dreamscape has been a part of my life for almost half the time I’ve been alive now, so sharing some personal content on these pages just seemed to organically happen over time. Of course the main focus will always be Toyah. I still love reporting on Toyah’s legendary career. It’s fun, always interesting and an enjoyable hobby, and here’s to a very Merry Christmas to everyone reading this in 2025, and a Happy 2026 – Please pay us a visit sometime next year!

Legendary singer Toyah to perform at Beacon Arts Centre

Singer and actor Toyah Willcox is set to bring her “Songs and Stories” show to the Beacon Arts Centre.

Presented by A Way with Media, the event will take place on Thursday, June 11 at 7.30pm.

With a career spanning more than 50 years in the spotlight, Toyah has worn many hats including being a singer, actor, TV host, and author.

Standard tickets for the evening are priced at £29.50, while premium and ‘meet and greet’ ticket options are also available at the Beacon’s website

Toyah became a household name following her role in the film Quadrophenia and soon after, she struck the charts with hits like It’s A Mystery, I Want To Be Free, and Thunder In The Mountains.

• Continue reading at Greenock Telegraph. Browse all of Toyah’s confirmed 2026 live dates here.

Christmas 1983, Toyah was promoting The Vow, the final physical single released on Safari Records; the Love Is The Law album; and travelling the UK on the Rebel Run Tour.

Toyah, Joel and the band, appeared on numerous television shows in the UK and Europe through November and December, being interviewed as well as performing The Vow and Rebel Run.

During this amazing era Toyah’s image was radically different from anything that had come before, which is another reason this time in late 1983 is particularly memorable and magical!

In every waking hour I miss you, In my dreams I never kiss you, And in the shadows creatures want to hurt you, but in love and war I’ll never desert you…

The Vow is such an important, and poignant, part of Toyah’s discography for a number of reasons. It was a goodbye to five years of working with Safari Records; the performances mentioned above are Toyah and Joel Bogen’s final ever appearances together, performing as music collaborators/partners; and the final Safari-era band performances on television…

The TV shows included; Pebble Mill, Did You See?, Pop Watch, Saturday Superstore, Breakfast Time, Razzmatazz, The Saturday Show, Harty, Crackerjack and Judgendbund. Other shows included in ‘The Vow’ promotion were; TVAM: Good Morning Britain and 60 Minutes.

Toyah Willcox tour coming Birmingham Town Hall at Christmas

Pershore music legend Toyah is heading back on tour with a string of joyful Christmas shows.

The 80s icon is bringing her 2026 Christmas Party tour to venues across the UK.

The singer and her band will perform at Birmingham Town Hall on December 13, promising to ‘delight fans with a mix of her biggest hits, plus a sprinkling of festive magic included in this seasonal show’.

Toyah said: “I’m absolutely thrilled to be bringing my Christmas Party Shows back on the road for 2026.

“These shows are all about joy, celebration and coming together, and I can’t wait to share an unforgettable festive night with everyone. See you there.”

• Continue reading at Worcester News. Book tickets for Toyah’s Christmas Party 2026 here.

We had a fantastic festive Saturday night out in Glasgow at the weekend, starting with a lovely meal, and lots of chat, at China Sea on Renfield Street, then a great time at The Polo Lounge with Christmas cocktails, including a fab Margarita – and we ended a brilliantly Christmassy night at Speakeasy!

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

Steve… A Strange Life: BBC Radio Wales: Friday 2nd January: 6.30pm
Steve… A Strange Life: BBC Radio Wales: Sunday 4th January: 6am
Steve… A Strange Life: BBC Radio Wales: Monday 5th January: 6.30am
Toyah Willcox explores the life of pop and fashion icon Steve Strange, a star who competed with David Bowie in the 1980s as the New Romantic scene took off.

Christmas 2023, Toyah and Robert were at Millennium Point in, Toyah’s home city of, Birmingham to switch on their Christmas lights, which included their utterly massive Christmas tree.

That year Toyah included photos from the switch-on event in her official blog.

Millennium Point said: Thank you to everyone who joined us for our Christmas Lights Switch On yesterday! It was wonderful to welcome icon Toyah Willcox to switch on our Christmas lights, alongside her husband – fellow music legend, Robert Fripp. Plus, the Birmingham Community Gospel Choir’s performance was incredible. Our fabulous 39ft Christmas tree will be lighting up Millennium Point throughout the festive season for you to enjoy. (Photo © Millennium Point)

NOW Music have confirmed a new Yearbook release, Vault ’82, focusing on tracks from 1982.

NOW Yearbook Vault ’82 will be released on 16th January 2026.

The Vault brand celebrates lesser known singles that weren’t huge chart hits, sometimes not hits at all, or maybe more successful in the US than in the UK.

Toyah’s Ieya ’82 is included on CD2 of the release. Other artists include: The Cure, Kim Wilde, Bananarama, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Culture Club, Funboy Three, Visage, The Go-Go’s and many more. The formats of Vault ’82 are 4CD deluxe with hardcover book and 28 page booklet, 3LP coloured (yellow) vinyl and standard 4CD in a card sleeve.

NOW Music say: 1982 was a stellar year in pop music. We have already included more than 150 tracks on the CDs of the 1982 Yearbook, the 80-84 Final Chapter, and their extras so far in our appreciation of the year. Those tracks were generally the bigger hits of the year, with their chart achievement a factor in their inclusion – however – that’s not the whole singles story of the year, and our celebration of 1982 wouldn’t be complete without shining a light on some of that year’s singles that have been compiled much less frequently over the past 40 years.

Welcome to THE VAULT for 1982. Some of the tracks included were Top 40 hits, some missed the chart completely. Some were representative of massive selling albums, and some were big hits in the U.S. and not in the U.K, but all are part of the wonderful pop story of 1982.

Toyah & Robert: UpBeat Moments – Watch… • Toyah & Robert’s Sunday Lunch – The Festive One! (Christmas Singalong) – Watch… (Image © Toyah Willcox)

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.

The Ebony Tower, and working with Laurence Olivier, is a memory and a career entry Toyah has often remembered in interviews across the past four decades.

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)

Toyah shares a look at the recently released Ophelia’s Shadow and Take The Leap! Deluxe 2CD Editions. Out now and available to order here and here. (Screenshot © Toyah)

For the third consecutive December I had a wonderful festive day last week in Dundee with Sharon and her folks, Irene and Bob. We had an amazing Christmas lunch at Market restaurant in the city. Later, Sharon and I visited the fab Secret Pub for a festive mocktail. Such a lovely day with lots of laughter and Christmas moments!

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

Toyah to bring festive show to Birmingham

Toyah’s Christmas Party promises to be ‘an unforgettable festive night’.

Music icon Toyah Willcox is set to tour her electrifying Christmas Party next year, coming to Birmingham Town Hall on 13th December.

Toyah and her band will delight fans with a mix of her biggest hits, plus a sprinkling of festive magic included in this seasonal show.

• Continue reading at Birmingham World. Book tickets for Toyah’s Christmas Party 2026 here.