Dreamscape | The Toyah Willcox Fansite

Toyah was featured in ‘Weekend’ magazine’s “My Tube” last Saturday (8th December).

Singer and actress Toyah Willcox, 54, lives in Worcestershire with her husband, musician Robert Fripp.

My favourite programme when I was about five was FIREBALL XL5, a Thunderbirds-style puppet show. Some of it was a bit scary for me at that age though, and I remember Mum having to cuddle me when she was meant to be cooking dinner.

I was so gripped by SKY – a children’s drama about a boy who’s really an alien stranded on Earth – when I was at drama school in my late teens I wrote to the producers asking for a part. They called me in for a chat but I didn’t get the job.

Joanna Lumley was brilliant in THE NEW AVENGERS. I was 18 when it started in 1976 and a hair model at a department store, and I remember having the Purdey ‘Pudding Bowl’ cut. But then I discovered punk rock…

In my 20s I was a big fan of Trevor Eve’s private eye SHOESTRING, so I was delighted when I got to appear in an episode as a singer called Toola. Six of my songs were featured, and soon after my single It’s A Mystery entered the charts.

I’M A CELEBRITY is unmissable. When I was on it in 2003 we only had nasty trials towards the end, but now they get them from the start. I’d be too terrifird to do it today.

• As told to Richard Webber | Toyah is in Sleeping Beauty at Canterbury’s Marlowe Theatre until 20 Jan, tel: 01227 787787 (Thanks to Ann-Marie Farran)

Yesterday’s Pointless Celebrities is now available to watch at BBC iPlayer. The programme, which included Toyah and Cheryl Baker, will remain online until next Tuesday. Host, Alexander Armstrong revealed that ‘Anthem’ was the second album he bought. Click below for iPlayer.

The second issue, with Madness on the cover, of Classic Pop magazine has just gone on sale. Here’s hoping for a Toyah feature at some point!

Classic Pop is the new bi-monthly magazine that finally gives pop music the recognition it deserves. After decades of rock magazines wallowing in the 60s and 70s, Classic Pop truly celebrates the explosion of creativity and diversity that shook up music in the late 70s, defined the sound of the 80s, and continues to influence today. Whether it’s New Wave, synth-pop, indie, ska or the New Romantics, Classic Pop gives the artists and music in-depth coverage in a glossy, high-quality magazine.

• More info on Classic Pop at the magazine’s website.

100 Greatest Toys with Jonathan Ross: Channel 4: Sunday 23rd December: 3.00pm
100 Greatest Toys with Jonathan Ross: 4Seven: Boxing Day: 3.55pm
100 Greatest Toys with Jonathan Ross: 4Seven: Sun 30th December: 1.05am/5.55pm
A countdown of the nation’s favourite games, gadgets and playthings, as decided by a Channel 4 online poll. Inventors and toymakers tell the inside stories of their creations and successes – including Action Man, Yahtzee, Barbie and Trivial Pursuit – while the children of yesteryear, namely today’s celebrities, authors, actors and journalists, take a nostalgic look back at the toys they loved. Also revealed is the inspiration behind the design of the Raleigh Chopper, the unlikely individual responsible for the creation of one of the world’s toughest action figures, and why the Vietnam War almost brought Britain’s Matchbox car range to an end.

The 100 Greatest Musicals: More4: New Year’s Eve/Hogmany: 8.15pm
Part One, 100 – 51. Denise Van Outen presents the first in a two-part rundown of the 100 best musicals as voted for by viewers, featuring 42nd Street, 8 Mile and The Sound of Music. The first show counts down from 100 to 51 and features memorable clips from film, stage and TV, interspersed with interviews given by performers, directors, writers and choreographers. Also airing on More4 +1.

The 100 Greatest Musicals: More4: New Year’s Day: 6.15pm
Part Two, 50 – 1. Denise Van Outen concludes the rundown of viewers’ favourite musicals, counting down from 50 to number one. Including memorable clips from film, stage and TV productions, plus contributions by celebrity fans, Hollywood movers and shakers, critics and journalists. Also airing on More4 +1.

• Just a reminder that Toyah guests on Pointless Celebrities this afternoon on BBC1 at 5.15pm.

• Toyah’s Official Advent Calendar: Anyone for some unheard/unseen Toyah exclusives? Toyah’s Christmas Countdown begins at toyahwillcox.com on 12-12-12.

• Phil Spalding is now at Facebook. An official website will also be online soon. New website PhilSpalding.Com coming soon … Music and Mayhem !!! A lot of music and a lot of MAYHEM !!! Watch this space !!! Phil also told me: I have a load of personal photos from Toyah tours which I will be posting, bit by bit, on FB and my site.

• The Brit Awards @ You Tube: Paul Young wins Best Male presented by Toyah | BRIT Awards 1985 – Just uploaded!

• Read a transcript of Toyah’s ‘BBC Radio Kent’ interview (broadcast on Saturday, more info here) at The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive.

Toyah is included in the ‘PRS for Music’, newly updated, Festive 50 countdown, as reported by The Independent.

The 50 Best Christmas songs: Bells continue to ring for the Pogues’ ‘Fairytale of New York’

It’s beginning to sound a lot like Christmas… Listen to our festive playlist here

‘Tis the season to hear the same songs repeated endlessly on the radio and none has been played more regularly in the last two years than “Fairytale of New York” according to new research.

24. I Believe In Father Christmas, Greg Lake/Toyah Willcox/Elaine Paige, 1975/1982/1986 – Written by Greg Lake/Pete Sinfield.

• Continue reading, and view the full 50 Best Christmas songs (according to PRS for Music) in full, at The Independent.

This year is the 30th anniversary of Smash Hits’ “Free Christmas Record (12 Minutes of Festive Fun)”, a flexi that was attached to the December 9-22, 1982 issue. The full magazine has just been uploaded to the Smash Hits Archive. Click below to listen – Toyah arrives at 4.46, inbetween Martin Fry of ABC and Steve Strange of Visage. Too-de-loo!!

The legendary Christmas double issue of ‘Radio Times’ goes on sale this week, signalling that Christmas is well and truly under way (not long till the BBC idents start either ;)). This year’s brilliant cover features The Snowman and The Snowdog, the follow-up to Raymond Briggs’s much-loved classic The Snowman.

Toyah is, as always, part of the festive TV schedules: There are numerous showings of Toyah’s Christmas at the Zoo over the next couple of weeks, The 100 Greatest Christmas Moments next weekend, Pointless Celebrities this Tuesday and Maigret tomorrow. No doubt more will be added to the listings over the next week in the build up to Christmas!

Maigret: ITV3: Monday 10th December: 00.30am
Maigret and the Hotel Majestic. Crime series featuring Georges Simenon’s celebrated Parisian detective. Maigret is called to the scene when a beautiful woman is found dead in the basement of the Hotel Majestic with a gun in her handbag. The Chief Inspector’s investigations initially centre around the staff at the hotel – until he discovers that the woman’s husband booked a trip to Rome that he never made. Starring: Michael Gambon, Geoffrey Hutchings, Michael Shannon, Toyah Willcox (1993). Also airing on ITV3 +1 and ITV3 HD.

Toyah’s Christmas At The Zoo: Vintage TV: Monday 10th December: 2.00pm
Toyah’s Christmas At The Zoo: Vintage TV: Tuesday 11th December: 11.00am
Toyah’s Christmas At The Zoo: Vintage TV: Wednesday 12th December: 2.00pm
Toyah’s Christmas At The Zoo: Vintage TV: Friday 14th December: 5.00pm
Toyah’s Christmas At The Zoo: Vintage TV: Saturday 15th December: 1.30pm
Toyah’s Christmas At The Zoo: Vintage TV: Saturday 15th December: 11.00pm
Cosy up with family and friends as Toyah Willcox brings you 30 of the finest Christmas songs and a sprinkling of festive stories, surrounded by an extraordinary variety of creatures great and small.

Pointless Celebrities: BBC1: Tuesday 11th December: 5.15pm
Comedian Stephen K Amos, singer and actress Toyah Willcox, TV presenter Katie Derham and singer Cheryl Baker take part in the unorthodox general knowledge quiz, in which contestants must find the least likely correct answers to a series of questions posed to members of the public. Presented by Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman.

The 100 Greatest Christmas Moments: More4: Saturday 15th December: 9.00pm
The 100 Greatest Christmas Moments: More4: Monday 17th December: 10.00pm
Jimmy Carr reveals the greatest Christmas moments of all time. From when George Bailey’s guardian angel earns his wings in It’s a Wonderful Life to Dawn and Tim’s long-awaited kiss under the mistletoe in The Office, this programme counts down the 100 festive moments that remain indelibly stuck in the nation’s memories. Also airing on More4 +1.

Neil Tennant’s Smash Hits Christmas: BBC Radio 4: Thursday 20th December: 11.30am
Neil Tennant was a journalist on music’s most poptastic magazine before he was a Pet Shop Boy. Here, with colleagues and stars, he recalls the early 80s golden age of Smash Hits. We hear from founder and legendary magazine-maker Nick Logan, from editors David Hepworth and Mark Ellen, writers Miranda Sawyer and Sylvia Patterson and from regular Smash Hits cover girl, Toyah.

Quadrophenia: ITV1: Saturday 22nd December: 3.00am
Quadrophenia: STV: Christmas Day: 12.45am
The Who wrote and produced this energetic story of a young man disillusioned with his life in 1960s London. Phil Daniels excels as the alienated anti-hero Jimmy Cooper. Director: Franc Roddam. Starring: Phil Daniels, Leslie Ash, Toyah Willcox, Philip Davis, Mark Wingett, Sting, and Ray Winstone. Also airing on the +1 channels.

Toyah is guesting in a BBC Radio 4 special on Smash Hits this Christmas, hosted by Neil Tennant.

Neil Tennant’s Smash Hits Christmas: BBC Radio 4: Thursday 20th December: 11.30am
Neil Tennant was a journalist on music’s most poptastic magazine before he was a Pet Shop Boy. Here, with colleagues and stars, he recalls the early 80s golden age of Smash Hits.

Toyah guested on Matthew Davies Show yesterday morning on BBC Radio Kent.

Toyah talked all things panto and playing the baddie in Sleeping Beauty at The Marlowe Theatre. She also mentioned her plans for 2013.

The show is available until next Saturday at BBC iPlayer Radio. Toyah appears at approximately 37 minutes into the programme with a play of ‘I Want To Be Free’ and then her interview. It runs for around seven minutes.

I think I’ve mentioned I Believe in Father Christmas every December for the last 13 years, so here we go again… Toyah covers the Greg Lake 1975 classic (which I didn’t realise also features Robert Fripp until Toyah mentioned it this week on Toyah’s Christmas at the Zoo) for ITV’s Pop Goes Christmas in 1982. She sounds great, looks amazing and Keith Hale and Joel Bogen are having a right old festive time in the forest of lit up trees. Bravo!

A great review of Toyah’s London Changeling Resurrection II gig at Islington Academy by Record Collector.

Next, Toyah pounced into the opener Good Morning Universe, dressed in a black flowered kimono, her bright red wig in flamboyant geisha style. She held court, playing a large chunk of The Changeling, celebrating its 30th anniversary…

• Continue reading at Record Collector.

Toyah’s festive December/Christmas blog is now online at toyahwillcox.com. There will also be a 12 Days of Toyah Christmas Advent Calendar at the official website beginning on 13th December.

Keep an eye on Toyah @ Twitter for updates from pantoland, aka The Marlowe, Canterbury.

Yet another positive review for Sleeping Beauty at The Marlowe, this one by This is Kent.

Good Fairy Katrina Bryan from children’s TV show Nina and the Neurons has cast her magic spell the Marlowe Theatre to create a spectacular production of Sleeping Beauty. In the wake of last year’s hugely successful pantomime Cinderella, production company Evolution had a lot to live up to.

The cast and crew do not disappoint. Sleeping Beauty has all the ingredients for a festive family treat packed with glitz, glamour, camp comedy and a fire-breathing dragon.

Former punk princess Toyah Willcox is enchanting as the evil queen Carabosse. She has great stage presence and basks in the boos and hisses as she plots against the beautiful princess who *****s her finger on a poisoned needle and falls asleep for 100 years.

• Continue reading at This is Kent.

Pointless Celebrities: BBC1: Tues 11 Dec: 5.15pm
Comedian Stephen K Amos, singer and actress Toyah Willcox, TV presenter Katie Derham and singer Cheryl Baker take part in the unorthodox general knowledge quiz, in which contestants must find the least likely correct answers to a series of questions posed to members of the public. Presented by Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman.

Laughs, frights and too much water at Marlowe panto

It’s that time of year when hundreds of people gather in one place to watch a man dressed as a woman dressed as a jockey riding an ostrich.

Or at least that was my expert assessment as I sat down at the Marlowe on Tuesday to watch this year’s panto Sleeping Beauty.

Pop Idol runner-up Gareth Gates, as the charming Prince Michael, and ex-punk princess Toyah Willcox, playing the evil Carabosse, were given star billing.

• Continue reading at Kent Online.

Numerous opportunities through December to catch Toyah’s Christmas at the Zoo, a three-hour festive (and animal) filled special from Vintage TV.

Toyah’s Christmas At The Zoo: Vintage TV: Saturday 8th December: 11.00am
Toyah’s Christmas At The Zoo: Vintage TV: Monday 10th December: 2.00pm
Toyah’s Christmas At The Zoo: Vintage TV: Tuesday 11th December: 11.00am
Toyah’s Christmas At The Zoo: Vintage TV: Wednesday 12th December: 2.00pm
Toyah’s Christmas At The Zoo: Vintage TV: Friday 14th December: 5.00pm
Toyah’s Christmas At The Zoo: Vintage TV: Saturday 15th December: 1.30pm
Toyah’s Christmas At The Zoo: Vintage TV: Saturday 15th December: 11.00pm
Cosy up with family and friends as Toyah Willcox brings you 30 of the finest Christmas songs and a sprinkling of festive stories, surrounded by an extraordinary variety of creatures great and small.

The third review of the day for Sleeping Beauty, and it’s another one full of praise from Kent News.

Writing a pantomime can be no easy task. There before you sits an audience as diverse as Alec Guinness’ CV and all with the expectation that their hard-earned money spent on the tickets will deliver laughs and pratfalls a-plenty.

With that in mind, there’s also the added complication of weaving in the particular talents of your eclectic cast – drawn from a wide variety of showbusiness disciplines – and still make sure you don’t lose sight of driving the storyline along.

Toyah Willcox is an excellent Carabosse, endlessly eliciting boos and jeers as her character looks to kill the young princess.

• Continue reading at Kent News.

A positive review for The Marlowe Theatre’s Sleeping Beauty, and Toyah, by The Stage.

This rather wet show meant that my notebook was soaked during the water pistol chase. And water spouts out of every corner and orifice in a hilarious slapstick scene set in a bathroom with Lloyd Hollett – very accomplished as Jangles – and Ben Roddy, terrific as Nurse Nellie. But water makes for wonderful comedy, and Hollett and Roddy know how to exploit every drop of it.

Rather drier, but also in fine form, is the ever-youthful Toyah Willcox, who cackles, curses, sings and dances like a teenager as Carabosse, the wicked fairy.

• Continue reading at The Stage.

Sleeping Beauty reviewed by The Public Reviews.

It’s panto time again and Paul Hendy and Emily Wood’s Evolution Productions is back in residence at Canterbury’s Marlowe Theatre. This production brings the sunshine back to a cold winter’s evening with plenty of laughs and heaps of audience participation.

The ‘big names’ this year are Toyah Willcox as Carabosse the bad fairy, and Gareth Gates as Prince Michael, closely followed by children’s favourite Katrina Bryan as Fairy Moonbeam.  Toyah Willcox has an incredible energy and presence, and her vocals are strong in her rock numbers, as expected.

• Continue reading at The Public Reviews.

A few screen caps from Toyah’s guest appearance on Lorraine. Click below to zoom!