TV loves to wheel in a celeb, but it was a shock to see Dion Dublin tour houses with a punk princess of the 80s
TV review: As Homes Under The Hammer celebrates its 20th anniversary with the help of Toyah Willcox, there are unruly throngs of celebs queuing up for festive specials
The joy of working shifts is that you have mornings to do things.
Butterfly collecting, going roller-blading with the dog or helping the elderly and infirm are just three things that I could do, but let’s face it, I don’t…
• Continue reading at the Belfast Telegraph. (Subscription required)
Celebrity Cathphrase: ITV: Friday 5th January: 2pm
Series 3, episode 7. Stephen Mulhern hosts a celebrity special of the classic game show, with Nicola Coughlan, Stephen Mangan and Toyah Willcox all trying to say what they see as they guess well-known phrases for the chance to win a £50,000 jackpot for their chosen charity.
Included in the release of Echoes: Ancient & Modern is a brand new interpretation of Relax – one of the 80s most successful records in the UK. Featuring performances by Toyah and Robert Fripp. Listen or download the track now by clicking below. (Text & Image © Trevor Horn)
Christmas 1981, 1982, 1983 and 1984. In the early eighties Toyah’s Official Fanclub – Intergalactic Ranch House – sent out Christmas cards to subscribing members each December, with Toyah taking the time to sign each and every card, which numbered around 6,000 at the height of the fanclub’s popularity.
This tradition was carried on for an extra year, in 1984, when the Intergalactic Ranch House became simply the Toyah Fanclub following Toyah leaving Safari Records after five years and signing to CBS/Portrait Records.
All four cards featured photos of Toyah, showcasing great early eighties imagery and creating a unique set of fanclub memorabilia that became collector’s items. Here’s a snapshot of a feature on the Christmas cards from an issue of Dreamscape’s fanzine.
• NB: Lovely to see Official Toyah sharing the 1984 card in festive posts at Toyah’s Official Facebook and Instagram yesterday.
It’s Toyah Day on BBC2 today, with two programmes airing today – both from earlier this week on BBC1 and are being repeated on BBC2. (Photos © BBC)
Homes Under The Hammer: BBC2: Friday 22nd December: 6.15am
Toyah Willcox. Dion Dublin is joined by Toyah Willcox in a 20th anniversary celebrity special, to look around a three-bed semi in her native Birmingham.
The Great British Sewing Bee: Friday 22nd December: BBC2: 1.25pm
Celebrity Christmas Special 2023. Former Christmas special sewer Kiell Smith-Bynoe takes over as host as musician Toyah Willcox, comedian Jessica Knappett and actors Kerry Godliman and Hammed Animashaun are put to the test by judges Esme Young and Patrick Grant.
Christmas 2016, Toyah attended a ceremony and was inducted into the Birmingham Walk Of Stars.
Toyah said: “I am thrilled to be receiving a star on the Birmingham Walk of Stars. Having spent my childhood and teenage years in this great city, I developed my love of music and theatre here, thanks to all the great music venues and theatres available within the one city.“
• See news on Toyah attending the Birmingham Walk Of Stars event here and here. (Photo © Birmingham Mail)
Portrait Artist Of The Year: Sky Arts: Wednesday 3rd January: 8pm
Celebrities V Kids Special. Nitin Ganatra, Anita Mangan, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Toyah Willcox, Leigh Francis and Gemma Cairney join six school pupils selected as part of Sky Arts Access All Arts initiative to paint portraits of Konnie Huq, Lee Ridley and Chi-Chi Nwanoku. (Photos © Toyah Willcox)
Christmas 2022, Toyah announced the release of a special 10” cherry red coloured vinyl EP commemorating the classic 1982 single Brave New World. To be released in March 2023, and limited to 500 copies only.
The EP contained four tracks, all previously unreleased versions, including the long-awaited Dawn Chorus (6.55 Special Mix). The release was part of Cherry Red Records’ special ‘45s at 45’ vinyl series marking the 45th Anniversary of the label.
The Tracklist: Side One: 1. Brave New World (Razzmatazz Mix). 2. Street Creature (Razzmatazz Mix) | Side Two: 1. Dawn Chorus (6.55 Special Version), 2. Ieya 1982 (Edited Version)
• Click below to browse the EP’s page at toyahwillcox.com.
• Saturday Morning Song: Rhythm In My House (Live In Putney 2021) – Watch… • Toyah & Robert: UpBeat Moments – Watch… • Toyah & Robert’s Sunday Lunch – Jingle Bell Rock – Watch… (Image © Toyah Willcox)
Homes Under The Hammer’s Dion Dublin says ‘I’m out of a job’ as ’80s music legend co-hosts show
Cue the music of the 1980s and the Toyah puns as the BBC show steps back in time
It’s no mystery that BBC’s Homes Under the Hammer is one of the most popular property programmes on TV – it’s been on for 20 years and has been celebrating this landmark anniversary by inviting celebrity fans onto the show to co-host a visit to an auction property.
Presenter and retired professional footballer Dion Dublin’s invited guest to a three-bed, semi-detached house on the outskirts of Birmingham was 1980s pop legend Toyah Wilcox, who was born less than 20 minutes away from the property in Rubery that went to auction with a guide price of £49,000.
Dion was over-excited, not because he managed to find a way to weave a football gag or reference into the show, but because he was joined by someone he really admires. He said: “You are not going to want to miss this! Sit tight, tea and toast on the lap, and you’re going to love it. You can call her a pop icon, you can call her a punk icon, but I’m just going to call her – I’m so excited – a music icon.”
• Continue reading at Wales Online. See also The Sun.
Toyah plays Sign of the Times Festival, Hertfordshire on Saturday 6th July 2024, alongside Travis & Jake Bugg. Tickets on sale now, more details by clicking below.
The Great British Sewing Bee – Celebrity Christmas Special airs on Thursday at 9pm on BBC1, and is also repeated the following day on BBC2.
The Great British Sewing Bee: Friday 22nd December: BBC2: 1.25pm
Celebrity Christmas Special 2023. Former Christmas special sewer Kiell Smith-Bynoe takes over as host as musician Toyah Willcox, comedian Jessica Knappett and actors Kerry Godliman and Hammed Animashaun are put to the test by judges Esme Young and Patrick Grant. The celebrities begin by putting their own twist on a pattern for a stocking then turn the humble puffer jacket into food-themed children’s fancy dress. In the final challenge, the competitors create an outfit perfect for their dream Christmas Day.
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.
A great review, by Velvet Thunder, of The Changeling reissue
TOYAH – THE CHANGELING:
DELUXE REISSUE (CHERRY RED)
“Far from being the musical Yin to Fripp’s Yang in those 1980s days, comparison of their respective works reveals as many creative similarities as there are differences.”
The excellent Cherry Red reissue campaign of Toyah’s classic early 1980s catalogue continues here with 1982’s The Changeling, the fourth Toyah studio album in just over three incredibly prolific years. Nowadays it is common for people, particularly those from a prog rock background, to simply regard Toyah as her contemporary incarnation as ‘Mrs Robert Fripp’, and the person responsible for dragging the famously irascible and studiously earnest King Crimson keystone out of his shell and into an ongoing series of light-hearted and often hugely entertaining YouTube video clips of them performing together in a variety of guises. All of which is fine as far as it goes, but there was far more to her wonderfully creative musical side than that – and this reissue series really ought to bring that to the fore in the public consciousness. Far from being the musical Yin to Fripp’s Yang in those 1980s days, comparison of their respective works reveals as many creative similarities as there are differences.
Following an intensely creative 1981, it would have been a very tempting – and indeed understandable – development for The Changeling to follow a relatively commercial and public-pleasing course. Just a year previously, the album Anthem – and particularly its two hugely successful singles It’s A Mystery and I Want To Be Free – had sent her into the world of mainstream TV and media in an easily marketable guise as a sort of ready-made ‘pop-punk with glam’ persona, with subsequent hits such as Thunder In The Mountains continuing that impression. As that whirlwind year came to an end, however, Toyah and her band (led by her chief songwriting partner and musical soulmate Joel Bogen) had other ideas. Indeed, not only did Toyah want to go back to the darker, more challenging template of previous works such as 1980’s The Blue Meaning, but she also planned to base the new album conceptually around how the events of 1981 had affected her on a personal level. The resulting album was certainly not the one which the record company executives wanted or expected her to produce, yet despite, or indeed because of that fact, it has remained one of her key creative statements.
• Continue reading at Velvet Thunder.
Toyah guests on a Celebrity Christmas Special episode of The Great British Sewing Bee this coming Thursday (BBC1, 9pm) – see previous posts from the past couple of weeks on this below – and the programme is featured in a variety of this week’s television magazines. (Thanks to Paul and Ray)
Homes Under The Hammer, 20th Anniversary special, with Toyah and Dion Dublin aired yesterday morning on BBC1, and will be repeated this Friday on BBC2. It’s also availabe for the next year at BBC iPlayer.
Homes Under The Hammer: BBC2: Friday 22nd December: 6.15am
Toyah Willcox. Dion Dublin is joined by Toyah Willcox in a 20th anniversary celebrity special, to look around a three-bed semi in her native Birmingham. Jacqui Joseph is in Lincolnshire to see a ground-floor flat. Plus, a look through the series archives to remember one of Dion’s early appearances, where he shows off his dance moves at a former nightclub in Burnley. (Photo © Toyah Willcox)
Christmas 1983, and a little, albeit unconventional, festive retail therapy at one of London’s most legendary department stores – Liberty on Regent Street – made the fourth festive season of the 1980s a very memorable one for Toyah fans and viewers of Good Morning Britain on TVAM.
Toyah sporting her late 1983 – most associated with the promotion of The Vow – look, and her Brave New World video co-star Messenger (the beautiful horse), went early Christmas shopping in November…
Pop singer and actress Toyah Willcox has always wanted to do her Christmas shopping on horseback! With a little help from TV-am’s ‘Fantasy Time’, and Liberty London in Regent Street, Toyah rode a white horse called Messenger through the store.
• Watch the full TVAM clip at Toyah’s Official You Tube channel and click below to see larger versions of the screen captures of Toyah and Messenger.
Homes Under The Hammer, 20th Anniversary special, with Toyah and Dion Dublin aired this morning on BBC1, and will be repeated this Friday on BBC2. It’s also available to watch for the next year at BBC iPlayer.
Christmas 2019, Toyah announced that in 2020 there would be three tours – as well as numerous festival appearances – to look forward to, with the culmination of the Crimson Queen Tour, further dates for – the long-running – Acoustic Up Close & Personal, and the joint-headlining Electric Ladies Tour, with Hazel O’Connor.
2019 ended with a lot of music to look forward to in 2020!
Toyah & Robert’s Sunday Lunch, revisiting their Christmas 2022 performance of Jingle Bell Rock premieres at 10.30am (UK time) on Monday. In the meantime, here’s a lovely Christmassy shot of Toyah & Robert & Tinsel from last Christmas… (Image © Toyah Willcox)
Christmas 2012, Toyah guested on Marlow FM’s ‘Musical Milestones’ on The Eclectic Light Show.
She discussed her life and career in relation to music and what it has meant to her, as well as its importance in her life. Toyah also chose six pieces of her favourite music, for significant reasons which she discusses during the programme.
The music choices were by Gustav Holst (Mars, The Planet Suite), Simon & Garfunkel (Bridge Over Troubled Water), T. Rex (Ride A White Swan), David Bowie (Life On Mars), Shakespears Sister (Stay), Muse (Supermassive Black Hole).
“Music embodies your soul, it embodies your physicality, it embodies your thoughts…”
This aired on Christmas Eve that year, and at the time marlow FM didn’t have a Listen Again function so I recorded it and uploaded to Dreamscape a low quality mp3 of the 30-minute special. Click below to listen/download.
