Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

The second Breaking Through, Toyah’s Official Newsletter, was mailed out to subscribers on Monday night. It includes news on the tour, Toyah’s Summer 2013 activities and more. Here’s a brief synopsis of what’s included:

• Love Is The Law & More: Full official details of Toyah’s Autumn tour dates. The tour is subtitled Greatest Hits | Fan Favourites | Cult Classics.

• Exclusive Downloads: Two live tracks, ‘Rebel Run’ and ‘I Explode’ (more info on that below).

• Summer 2013 Gig Diary: All of Toyah’s festival, PA and one off gigs. Details of these can also be found at the Official Gigs page.

• There is also news on the V&A: Club to Catwalk exhibition, and a linked appearance by Toyah, Weekend Guitar Trio’s new live album and more.

• Sign up to Breaking Through: The Official Toyah Mailing List here.

Following last month’s news that Toyah’s ‘Thunder In The Mountains’ image will be included in the forthcoming ‘Club To Catwalk’ exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, Toyah’s Official Newsletter has revealed that Toyah will also participate in a linked event.

TOYAH CONFIRMED FOR ASSOCIATED EVENT
Breaking Through can also exclusively reveal that Toyah will take part in a panel discusion event at the V&A Museum on Friday 8 November 2013. Booking details will be available soon at the V&A website.

To celebrate the announcement of the Love Is The Law & More Tour two live Toyah recordings have been made available for the first time as downloads to add to your collection. They are the special soundcheck version of Rebel Run from The Regal, Oxford in 2011 and the brass version of I Explode from the Wasted Festival 2005. These download links will expire on 31st July 2013 so be sure to catch them while you can.

A new article on Dear Heart, the BBC2 sketchshow series Toyah appeared in back in 1982.

The TV That Time Forgot – Dear Heart
In the early eighties, BBC2 made a short-lived attempt at filling the notorious scheduling wasteland between 6pm and 7pm with all manner of sophisticated teenager-slanted entertainment. Numerous high-concept dramas, sitcoms and pop music shows came and went in a flurry of cheers from the target audience and jeers from disapproving parents, but concepts never came higher than they did with bizarre comedy sketch show Dear Heart…

In a neat bit of audience-enticing, Super Advice Person was played by post-punk popster Toyah Willcox, then in the middle of a run of massive chart hits but also one of a baffling wave of ‘they can also act a bit’ punk rockers (see also Adam Ant and, erm, Sting) that emerged around that time.

• Continue reading at Tim Worthington’s Newsround. Great to see that, once again, Dreamscape’s Gallery has been of use. View more photos from Dear Heart here.

We recently posted about Zooberon, who are promoting new, up-and-coming and unsigned bands and singers in Brighton. Zooberon is run by a long time Toyah fan and the name is a direct tribute to Toyah and her live music career.

There’s now another Toyah link. Zooberon have an amazing new band playing at their music night this Friday at The Seven Stars in Brighton. The gig is headlined by Loose Lips, is free entry and begins at 8pm. Not to be missed if you are in or around Brighton.

The Toyah link? Scarlett Rae & The Cherry Red’s drummer is none other than Chris Wong, Toyah’s guitarist for the best part of the last decade, and a member of The Humans.

The Live Music Zooberon > The Sound Of Brighton > Friday 7th June > 8-11pm
The Seven Stars, 21 Ship Street, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 1AD

• Further info on Scarlett Rae & The Cherry Reds at their official website and Facebook page.

• Love Is The Law 30: Check out all of Dreamscape’s recent “build up to the tour announcement” news here.

• BBC Radio Coventry & Warwickshire: Read a full transcript of Toyah’s recent interview on Vic Minett’s show at The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive.

• Busy!: Lots of extra visitors to the site yesterday and last night. Thanks, as always, to everyone who takes the time to pay a visit to Dreamscape.

• Slicing Up Eyeballs: Disappointing that ‘Love Is The Law’ didn’t make it into SUE’s 1983 albums poll, especially after Toyah albums figured in their three previous Top 100 countdowns. View the 1983 results here. View all of Dreamscape’s news on the polls here.

• Get Into Newcastle: Northern Pride Set To Boost Tyneside Economy By £1Million: Headlining this year will be X Factor finalist Amelia Lily along with 80s star Toyah. (Also available at Sky | Tyne & Wear)

Visit Toyah’s Official Facebook and website tonight at 20:13… It’s the Law!

Welcome to 03.06.2013, or as we are unofficially calling it “Love Is The Law Day”. Later today the live Toyah dates for this Autumn, marking the 30th anniversary of the ‘Love Is The Law’ album and ‘Rebel Run’ Tour, will be announced. It’s all very exciting. In anticipation of this I’ve put together a montage of some of the LITL imagery I’ve created over the last year, to the sound of the wonderful title song. Happy “Love Is The Law Day” to you all!

More Toyah shots from a 1978 photo session have surfaced very recently. Until a year or so ago there were only two photos available from this collection, best known for an image used on the cover of ‘Record Mirror’ in January 1979, and now there are many more. I’ve updated Dreamscape’s Gallery with all now available from the session. Great shots of Toyah just after filming Quadrophenia and a very early band line-up. (Thanks to Andi)

• You Tubing with Dreamscape: Just uploaded a collection of clips of Toyah from the documentary Glam & Glitter, which originally aired on Channel 5 back in 2001. Toyah speaks briefly about David Bowie, Marc Bolan, Alice Cooper and The Sweet.

• Live At Kings Place: It appears that the, just released, Weekend Guitar Trio/Toyah/Jan Bang live album is now being shipped to the UK. Get your copy here. It’s also available as a download. (Thanks to Larwi)

• The Herald: A Taste of Parka Life: Review: Film – Quadrophenia (18): The film many of us never tire of is playing at the, wonderful, GFT (Glasgow Film Theatre) tomorrow afternoon.

• Viva Lifestyle: Win Tickets to Tatton Park Picnic Concert 2013 – Headliners Include The Human League & Katherine Jenkins. Toyah has also been cofirmed for this. Go here to enter the competition.

• K9 Stole My Trousers: Toyah is mentioned the publicity blurb for Bob Baker’s, soon to be published, autobiography: A stalwart of HTV, Bob has worked with Sir Laurence Olivier, Leonard Rossiter, Ron Moody, Toyah Willcox and Trevor Eve. (Thanks to James Armstrong)

• Still The Beast Is Feeding: Forty Years Of Rocky Horror: Toyah contributed an interview to this new book, by Rob Bagnall and Phil Barden, celebrating the fortieth anniversary of The Rocky Horror Show which has now been published by Telos. It chronicles the extraordinary history, continued evolution and enduring legacy of this immortal stage show/film. Toyah talks about her personal memories of the phenomenon and about joining the Royal Court Tribute concert. (Source: Official Toyah Facebook)

• The Guardian: Music Weekly Podcast: Pete Paphides is among us once more, rustling through his comprehensive back-catalogue of pop papers. This week, he returns to the early 80s, and learns a little too much about Toyah in his Parallel History of Pop.

• BBC Radio Essex: Read a full transcript of Toyah’s recent interview on Mark Punter’s show at The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive.

Guaranteed to put a smile on your face! What a great photo, a fantastic, and rare, band shot from 1980. This was originally a Safari Records promo photo, possibly mailed out to radio stations etc. Please click below to view a larger version. (Thanks to Andi)

Good quality footage of Toyah’s Theatre Le Palace, Paris gig from the ‘Good Morning Universe’ European Tour in December 1981 has just been uploaded to ‘You Tube’. Selected songs from the gig, along with a Toyah interview, aired on French TV in early 1982 on Megahertz. View part one here and part two here. Larger versions of the screen caps can be seen here.

20:13 / 03.06.2013 – A teaser from Official Toyah – I’m assuming LITL dates announced… ?

The second episode of The Older Woman is now available to listen to at BBC iPlayer. It will remain online until early next Friday morning.

Episode Three airs next Thursday morning/afternoon and very early Friday morning.

The Older Woman: BBC Radio 4 Extra 
Thu 6th June: 7am & 5.30pm/Fri 7th June: 5.30am Episode 3 of 6. Roy’s quest to insinuate himself further into Jane’s good books gets a new lease of life when she requests his help to save a tree. Stars Zoe Wanamaker, Martin Clunes and Toyah Willcox. From January 1993.

The Corn is Green: True Movies 1: Thursday 6th June: 1.00am
The Corn is Green: True Movies 2: Thursday 6th June: 9.00am
Academy Award winner Katharine Hepburn stars as a schoolteacher determined to help the people of a turn-of-the-century Welsh mining town. With Ian Saynor, Bill Fraser, Patricia Hayes, Anna Massey, Artro Morris, Dorothea Phillips, Toyah Willcox, Huw Richards, Bryn Fon, Dyfan Roberts and Robin John. Directed by: George Cukor (1979).

As previously mentioned, the 2013 reprint of the 2005 CD reissue of Toyah’s 1985 Safari Records album ‘Mayhem’ is now available to pre-order at Burning Shed and will ship from 3rd June. This is the same edition as the ’05 CD, but the album is also now available digitally for the first time. Here’s a new Dreamscape “advert” for Mayhem. Please click for a larger version.

This fascinating album gives an insight into late 70s/early 80s works in progress by Toyah and comprises finished songs not included on EPs and albums.

• It’s A Mystery: Following on from the fantastic ‘Mystery’ (Soft Mix by The Sonic Healer) comes another two, unofficial, remixes of ‘It’s A Mystery’, both just made available online this week. These don’t stray too far from the original, simply just extending the classic song. Listen at Magnum’s 1980s Extended Edits & Remixes.

• Uncut: Robert Fripp steals the show in David Bowie documentary: I don’t know if you saw it, but BBC2’s David Bowie documentary, Five Years, screened at the weekend, was very entertaining.

• Louder Than War: Top 10 Punk Rock Films: Jubilee: Derek Jarman’s 1978 film is as utterly ridiculous and campily bizarre as one of the several strands of early punk itself, Jubilee is a fascinating and ageing curio of the times and the reflection of one of the UK’s most imaginative film directors.

• Jubilee Art: While on the subject of Jubilee, some digital art by Neveryan at deviantart.com.

• Tanzi Libre: The original production, Trafford Tanzi, premiered at Contact Theatre in Manchester in 1980 before playing at the Edinburgh Festival and touring. It played at West End’s Mermaid Theatre starring Toyah Willcox in the title role and then later, on Broadway, as Tuebrook Tanzi: The Venus Fly Trap, starring Debbie Harry with Andy Kaufman as the Referee.

• Night Fever: Meanwhile in the 90s, Toyah and Sam Kane perform ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’ in this, long forgotten, Channel 5 show presented by Suggs.

Love Is The Law in the 21st Century… An update to In The Fairground.

There’s a certain anticipation in the air… Love Is The Law, a wonderful album by Toyah, is about to be celebrated in style. The horns of elfin land are calling you…

A rare 1982 article from German music magazine Popcorn, featuring great photos of Toyah, Joel Bogen and Phil Spalding from ‘The Changeling’ Tour. Would any German visitors care to translate? Click below to view a larger version. (Thanks to Glyn Whelan for this great scan)

A new interview with Toyah, by the Buckinghamshire Examiner, published on Friday.

If you were asked to name a housewife, Toyah Willcox would probably not be the first person on your list.

More of a pop princess or actress than a woman plagued by chores she may seem a strange choice to star in Julie Coombe’s hit show, Hormonal Housewives, but it’s a role she is cherishing nevertheless.

Now coming to the end of the tour Toyah says it’s been ‘emotional,’ the Wycombe Swan is the last stop on May 26. “I’ll be sad to say goodbye to it,” she said. “Wycombe is our last show so it’ll be emotional for me. I’ve really enjoyed it. Comedy isn’t something I tend to do, though I’ve done Shakespearean comedy and American comedy. It’s addictive though. I’m used to applause in stadiums, but it’s something quite different when you tell a joke and people applaud and laugh. I think I’ll have terrible withdrawal.”

• Continue reading at the Buckinghamshire Examiner. The three month Hormonal Housewives tour comes to an end tonight. View all of Dreamscape’s related news on the show here.