Toyah is included in the line-up for next Summer’s Let’s Rock Bristol festival, taking place 6th – 8th June. Others playing include: Bananarama, Kim Wilde, ABC, Level 42, Go West, T’Pau, Nik Kershaw, Captain Sensible, Heaven 17 and numerous others. Click below to visit the festival’s website.
A photo of Toyah is included in a new article, on May’s ‘Let’s Rock The Moor’ festival, from Glow Magazine.
LET’S ROCK THE MOOR – THE MAKING OF MEMORIES
Sometimes, you hear a song and in a flash it takes to to a special time or place. Like an aural photograph, you can close your eyes and remember every detail. Since the early eighties, when I started getting into music, the best times were school disco’s, recording the charts on your tape recorder and spending pocket money on 7″ singles. Each song had its own memory.
Take a small village in Berkshire, 7500 party-goers and 8 of the biggest bands of the 80′s, and you end up with a huge melting pot of memories. My memory’s burst into life with Toyah, so many memories through the whole of the 80′s.
• Continue reading at Glow Magazine. View all of our Let’s Rock The Moor news.
Singing legend Billy Ocean serenaded nearly 7,000 people in Cookham on Saturday at the biggest Let’s Rock the Moor! festival to date.
The sell-out event attracted its largest crowd ever, with 6,500 tickets snapped up and a brand new site set up on Marsh Meadow to fit everyone in.
It was headlined by Eighties icon Ocean, who performed hits including Caribbean Queen and Love Really Hurts Without You to a crowd of all ages.
Children’s TV favourites Pat Sharp and Dave Benson Phillips shared presenting duties at the event, introducing acts such as Toyah, Boney M and Heaven 17.
Rain stayed away from the festival, which is now in its fourth year, and families enjoyed a range of food and drink as well as plenty of attractions for children.
Proceeds are expected to exceed £20,000; the majority of which will be split between two main charities which fit in with its family feel.
(All photos © Maidenhead Advertiser)
In it’s 30th birthday week… and the “album version” too. Take a bow ‘Brave New World’, and Toyah, live at Let’s Rock The Moor 2012 in Cookham.
Thousands of Eighties music fans descended on Cookham on Saturday to see the likes of Billy Ocean and Toyah play Let’s Rock The Moor. The event, now in its fourth year, was held on Marsh Meadow and all 6,500 tickets sold out.
• Continue reading, and view their gallery, here. Read a review of the concert here.
Yesterday’s ‘Let’s Rock The Moor 2012’ one-day festival was a roaring success, with a crowd of almost 7000 attending. Toyah’s great set list was: Good Morning Universe, Thunder In The Mountains, Brave New World, Echo Beach, It’s A Mystery, Rebel Run, I Want To Be Free (Thanks to Angus Turner). Photos soon. View all of our ‘LRTM’ news here.
Toyah’s official Facebook confirmed yesterday that Toyah’s set, at this Saturday’s Let’s Rock The Moor 2012, “is all Toyah classics”. Great news for fans attending.
Toyah tweeted: “Weather 4 saturday 15• & sunny. Yipee! Let’s Rock The Moor. I might wear summer clothes at last“.
• View all of our ‘Let’s Rock The Moor 2012’ news here.
The ‘Let’s Rock The Moor 2012’ website has been given a colourful 80stastic makeover! Toyah plays “The Family Friendly 80’s Festival” in Cookham, Berkshire a week tomorrow.
Thousands will be raised for disadvantaged children at a fundraising Eighties concert next month. Let’s Rock the Moor, on Saturday, May 12 is set to be the second biggest Eighties event in the country, with the proceeds going to worthy causes.
The line up includes Billy Ocean, Go West, Heaven 17, Toyah and Modern Romance, and will be hosted by Pat Sharp. Tickets are £24 for adults and £14 for children aged three to 12. Visit www.letsrockthemoor.com for details.
• Continue reading, at the ‘Maidenhead Advertiser’, here.
It’s the official flyer for ‘Let’s Rock The Moor!’ Summer 2012, the one day festival that includes Toyah in its line-up.
‘Lets Rock The Moor!’, taking place in Cookham, Berkshire on Saturday 12th May, has also had more bands added. Nick Heyward and Modern Romance are both now also on the bill.
The festival’s website has also been updated. Visit it here. View a larger version of the official flyer here.
From the website: Let’s Rock The Moor! will be returning for its 4th year on Saturday May 12th, with an action packed day of live music at this Boutique, Family Friendly, 80’s Festival. Now relocated on to a much larger site, Billy Ocean, Go West, Heaven 17, Boney M, Toyah, Nick Heyward, China Crisis and Modern Romance are all confirmed. Set in the picturesque village of Cookham in Berkshire, this event has plenty to do for everyone!
• Official Toyah: Robert is at home and he’s seated in the kitchen. Toyah’s ditched the cooking and for Sunday Lunch there is an intimate performance from that burning venus Toyah aboard the kitchen table. It might just make the fur fly! – Watch Sunday Lunch… (Image © Toyah Willcox)
• NME: Watch Toyah Willcox cover The Velvet Underground’s ‘Venus In Furs’ – “Toyah will do almost anything to get out of cooking”: Toyah Willcox and husband Robert Fripp have shared a cover of the The Velvet Underground’s ‘Venus In Furs’ – It’s part of their regular, ongoing series of “Sunday Lunch” online performances which see them perform a cover together at home in their kitchen – something they started during lockdown – Continue reading…
• Consequence: Toyah Sings Velvet Underground’s “Venus in Furs” as Robert Fripp Gazes in Amazement: “Toyah will do almost anything to get out of cooking” – With Robert Fripp back at home in the UK following King Crimson’s US tour, he and wife Toyah Willcox are together again for “Sunday Lunch” performances in their kitchen. This time around, Toyah sings the Velvet Underground classic “Venus in Furs” as Fripp stares up at her with a devilish grin on his face – Continue reading…
• Metal Sucks: Toyah Willcox Covers The Velvet Underground for King Crimson’s Robert Fripp: King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp is back home from tour but continues to be content to let his wife, actress and singer Toyah Willcox, carry on with the duo’s “Sunday Lunch” cover videos on her own as he sits back and watches from the other side of their world famous kitchen – Continue reading…
• DGM Live: Toyah & Robert’s Weekend: Toyah & Robert’s Sunday Lunch – Venus In Furs… Toyah & Robert’s Burning Questions (October 2nd, 2021)… The Bride Will Return (from 2021 studio album “Posh Pop” out now)… Toyah At Home & On The Road – Episode 8 – Continue reading…
• Toyah & Sidney Jake: Toyah and Sidney improvising at the end of Toyah’s Guitar Lesson completely unpracticed for fun… Catch it here…
• Lets Rock The Moor: Cancelled – Watch Toyah talk about the cancellation, here…
A fab weekend of concerts for Toyah: “THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! to everyone who made Minehead, Lets Rock Leeds, Devizes and Bognor the best weekend ever! 4 concerts in 3 days…..bring it on xxx photos courtesy Gail Foster“. Click below to visit Toyah at Twitter.
• I’ve (or should I say Falling To Earth has) taken the leap to Twitter. Not sure why. Except that I wanted to follow @toyahofficial :)
• The Blitz Kids: Toyah 1980 by Gerard McNamara. A classic live shot from the, legendary, ‘Ieya Tour’.
• Some great live shots of Toyah that the photographer doesn’t seem pleased with!
• Toyah at The Ruby Lounge: Photo #1 and photo #2 (courtesy of Man Alive! at flickr). ShatterJapan.com – new website coming soon.
• The running order for Let’s Rock The Moor (Saturday 12th May): 3.20pm: Nick Heyward, 4.10pm: Toyah, 5pm: Modern Romance, 5.50pm: Boney M, 6.55pm: Heaven 17, 7.55pm: Go West, 8.55pm: Billy Ocean. (Subject to change: Source: Lets Rock The Moor Twitter)
• Why have a mere t-shirt when you can have a Toyah Harrington? Take a look.
• Toyah is mentioned in The Digital Fix review of Doctor Who: Ace Adventures DVD box set. (Someone needs to tell them that “Toyah wigs” are back!)
• The UK Top 40 on the day that ‘Four From Toyah’ entered. Many of those singles bring back many memories… (Thanks to PJ)
Hey, welcome to the penultimate Christmas Countdown entry for 2022. It’s Christmas Eve Eve… Always one of the most exciting days of the year!
Christmas 2019, Toyah rounded off yet another incredibly busy year of live concerts by playing the three-date Let’s Rock – The Retro Winter Tour. A festive extravaganza which played three arenas; Motorpoint in Nottingham (29th November), The SSE Hydro in Glasgow (11th December) and Wembley Arena in London (13th December).
The tour also featured Tony Hadley, Marc Almond, ABC, Jimmy Somerville, Nik Kershaw, Boney M, Altered Images, Toyah, Sonia, Annabella Lwin, Peter Coyle, Dr & The Medics.
Here’s the Let’s Rock Winter promo image and photos of Toyah ready to hit the stage at Motorpoint, Nottingham and the Crimson Queen with Clare Grogan at Glasgow’s Hydro. (Photos © Toyah Willcox/Clare Grogan)
An hour of chat, fun and quiz questions – with Toyah, Dave Benson Phillips and Owen Paul. It’s the Lock Inn Pub Quiz, episode 10 hosted by Ivo Graham/ Watch/Rewatch at You Tube.
A lengthy new article, on the ever-enduring Quadrophenia, published today by The Independent as part of The Indy Film Club.
How Quadrophenia immortalises and scrutinises mod culture
It’s an indelible part of Brighton’s history but, as Clarisse Loughrey writes, the 1979 adaptation of The Who’s rock opera is really concerned with a search for identity
Brighton residents know the sound well – the stentorian rattle of engines, as a fleet of Vespas and Lambrettas zip down the promenade. It feels odd for a moment, as if there’s been a rip in the space-time continuum and a little of the Swinging Sixties has trickled out. But it’s tradition here. On sunny weekends, mod aficionados gather in the city to fraternise, evangelise, and compare the number of mirrors on their scooters. Brighton was a favoured hang-out spot for the original mods, who’d travel down from London to the south’s seaside resorts, eager to ruffle the feathers of middle-class daytrippers.
Trouble came in the form of the rockers, their rivals. It was like the Capulets versus the Montagues – divided not by blood, but by the way someone might wear their hair. The mods (short for “modernist”) embraced continental style, with their crisply tailored suits and Italian scooters. To protect said suit while on said scooter, parkas became a staple. The girls wore miniskirts, as popularised by Mary Quant. The rockers, meanwhile, were bikers. Their “tough guy” attitude complemented their black leather jackets, Doc Marten boots, and Elvis pompadours.
There were clashes. The most infamous of these took place in Brighton over the Whitsun weekend (18-19 May) in 1964. A small group of rockers were corned on the beach. Police tried to intervene, but it quickly spiralled into chaos. And though, in hindsight, it’s clear the press blew events out of proportion, it’s become an indelible part of the city’s history – due largely to the fact it was immortalised in 1979’s Quadrophenia.
The film, a loose adaptation of The Who’s 1973 rock opera, stars Phil Daniels as Jimmy, a disgruntled London teen. At home, his parents treat his non-conformity as a curse. At his mailroom job at an advertising firm, he’s just another drone. And so he throws himself head-on into the hell-raising, dandyish, amphetamine-fuelled world of mod culture. It becomes his entire identity. When he ends up at the centre of the Brighton brawls and gets arrested, the adrenaline sends him heavenward – only for a moment, before disillusionment sets in and he starts to spiral.
• Continue reading at The Independent/Culture (registration may be required).
• Yorkshire Times: Let’s Rock Announce On Line 80’s Lockdownfest2: Following the huge success of the first 80s LockdownFest last month, Let’s Rock have announced a second online festival, 80s LockdownFest2, happening on Friday 3rd July from 7:00pm – Continue reading…
• Glastonbury/PRS for Music: Rewatch Toyah’s 2016 Interview which has just been added to PRS for Music’s Glasto Playlist – Toyah Willcox chats to M magazine in the PRS for Music tent at Glastonbury 2016 about her creative highs, early inspirations and ongoing love affair with songwriting – Continue watching…
• The Audiophile Man: Vinyl Review Round-Up #1: Reviews of Toyah’s recent vinyl releases, including Minx, Prostitute and Ophelia’s Shadow – Watch here (from 8.04)…
• Octopus TV: Andrew Eborn is joined by Chris Wong who talks about his life and career including as Toyah Willcox’s musical director and guitarist, working with Toyah in The Humans along with REM’s Bill Rieflin and 25 years in panto at Marlowe Theatre where he has played the Ghostbusters theme tune over 13,500 times! – Continue watching…
• Jools Holland: Toyah chooses her favourite acts: if anyone missed this when it aired or was available on BBC Sounds, you can listen to it here…
Last Saturday’s Let’s Rock 80s Lockdown Fest helped raise over £100,000 for Child Bereavement UK.
Jason Donovan, Toyah, and Tony Hadley led the line-up for the virtual event, which was held in place of the annual Let’s Rock events, which have been called off due to the coronavirus lockdown.
Five Star, Sonia, Wet Wet Wet, Midge Ure, and Howard Jones were also among the performers, who went live on YouTube at 7pm to entertain fans and raise money. After all of the performances, it was announced that the event had raised an impressive £105,000, which will benefit Child Bereavement UK.
• Continue reading at Retro Pop Magazine.
Pop heroes of the 1980s unite for fundraising LockdownFest
Some of the biggest names in ’80s pop are coming together this weekend for a special online event in aid of charity.
80s LockdownFest will feature appearances by Tony Hadley, Wet Wet Wet, ABC, Howard Jones, Midge Ure, Jason Donovan, Toyah, Hue & Cry, Chesney Hawkes, Brother Beyond, Five Star, Then Jerico and many more on Saturday May 16.
The evening, part of the Let’s Rock season of festivals, will be hosted by Pat Sharp and Dave Benson Phillips. The fun kicks off at 7pm on YouTube and across all the Let’s Rock locations’ Facebook pages.The Let’s Rock season of retro festivals was due to start this weekend.
A spokesperson for Let’s Rock organisers UK Live said: “We would really like to thank both our audience and the artists for their amazing support and loyalty, and we really can’t wait to come back bigger and better next year. However, we couldn’t just leave it until then!
• Continue reading at The Falkirk Herald. See also The Hertfordshire Mercury.
• Let’s Rock 80s Lockdown Fest: Toyah is taking part in the Let’s Rock 80s Lockdown Fest on Saturday 16th May, 7-10pm… Tune in from your home
• Official Toyah: Unicorn Bolero Sunday Lockdown Lunch #toyahwillcox #robertfripp #bolero #unicorn #lockdown – Continue watching…
• BBC Archive: #OnThisDay 1981: Toyah Willcox and Chris Phipps crowned the winner of The Poser competition on Look! Hear! – Take a trip back to the 80s…
• Big Issue North: In The Frame – Derek Jarman: Best known as a film-maker, Jarman was also a diarist and artist. From pop to politics, his work epitomises 1980s culture but remains vital today – Contnue reading…
• Hero Magazine: Jubilee, Mouth Music and Magnolia: In Jubilee, Derek Jarman tells the story of a time-travelling Queen Elizabeth who arrives in 1979 to find her kingdom destroyed by punks. It’s a gloriously unhinged celebration of chaos, where hierarchy is demolished and renegades are given free rein – Continue reading…
Toyah Solo is a new 7 CD + DVD anthology of collected works by Toyah, released 28 February 2020 by Edsel Records
RELEASE DATE: 28 February 2020
CAT NO: TOYAHBOX01
FORMAT: 7 CD + DVD in wallets in 2-piece box with 48 page booklet
An Amazon Exclusive edition features a signed print and is strictly limited to 500 copies.
The first Toyah box set ever features six studio albums (Minx, Desire, Prostitute, Ophelia’s Shadow, Take The Leap!, Velvet Lined Shell) alongside 44 bonus tracks, including rarities, B-sides, collaborations, and several unreleased tracks, plus a DVD of promo videos and a brand new exclusive interview filmed in December 2019.
In 1985, after five studio albums and two live albums with her band, Toyah decided to go solo, and signed to Sony’s portrait label. The album Minx contained two hit singles, Don’t Fall In Love (I Said) and Soul Passing Through Soul, as well as covers of Alice Cooper’s School’s Out and Rare Bird’s Sympathy. 1987’s Desire, featured appearances from Robert Fripp and Ron Wood and Toyah’s cover of Echo Beach, and now contains the previously unreleased outtake “Mesmerised. Prostitute (1988) was an arresting and fascinating departure from the pop formula, a trend continued by 1991’s Ophelia’s Shadow. In 1994, Take The Leap” featured new songs and intriguing revisits of several of her earlier pop hits. 2003’s “Velvet Lined Shell took Toyah back to her guitar punk roots.
Amongst the bonus tracks are Toyah’s collaborations with Tony Banks, Trey Gunn, German band Kiss Of Reality, Family Of Noise and This Fragile Moment. The lavishly-illustrated 48 page booklet features annotation about each album written by Toyah herself. Also featured is an essay on the period covered by the box by Toyah’s official archivist and compiler of this box set, Craig Astley. As Craig says: “eclectic is an often-overused word but is an accurate description of this intriguing and revelatory body of work. From unashamed pop and avant-garde to progressive rock and back to punk, the Common factors throughout are Toyah’s voice and lyrics but moreover, a sense of forging and following her own creative solo path”.
• Continue reading about Toyah Solo at toyahwillcox.com.
