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.
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!
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…
Toyah announced info about the upcoming tour in her May blog yesterday: The autumn tour is shaping up and we should be announcing the dates any day now. London, Manchester and Bristol are solid, we are now awaiting confirmation on a few other dates before we announce. We have decided to keep it selective and to main venues as I have a TV series to shoot in the autumn, but there will be enough venues for everyone to reach and to follow us around the country. The tour set will include songs from LOVE IS THE LAW, CRIMSON QUEEN, ANTHEM, CHANGELING and SHEEP FARMING, in that order of priority.
Toyah also mentions the possibility of a tour in 2014: Next year I might tour CRIMSON QUEEN, in it’s own right, especially if I can pin SIMON DARLOW down to record the follow up and to come and do some dates too. CQ is a fantastic album and it has had such a great response in the industry I’d like to give it the time it deserves. But this isn’t my priority just yet.
• View a larger version of Dreamscape’s LITL Tour teaser here or by clicking on the image.
There will be a series of live dates this autumn to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the album Love Is The Law. Last year there was a voting element to the autumn tour. For the moment whilst the tour is in planning stages toyahwillcox.com wonder which songs you are most wanting to hear on this autumn tour from the period in question. There’s a rare wild card bonus track too. Take part in the survey and select the two songs you want to hear the most. After that it’s up to Toyah and the band to see what works best. Vote online by clicking below.
• View a larger version of the Dreamscape LITL creation above here.
Dreamscape is ‘Remembering ’83′ all through 2013, with sporadic updates related to Toyah’s career in 1983, in the build-up to the ‘Love Is The Law & Greatest Hits’ tour in the Autumn. Here is a beautiful Japanese press advert for the ‘Love Is The Law’ album. This is is not fan created, it’s a genuine ad used in Japanese press. Click to zoom! (Thanks Andi)
Dreamscape is ‘Remembering ’83’ all through 2013, with sporadic updates related to Toyah’s career in 1983, in the build-up to the ‘Love Is The Law & Greatest Hits’ tour in the Autumn.
Toyah talks ‘Love Is The Law’ in 1983: “For the first time I’ve written real love songs, a field I’ve never ventured into before. The songs are all inter related. There’s a loose story behind it but I’m not telling anyone that. There’s a very emotional feeling to the whole thing.”
Toyah talks the ‘Love Is The Law’ and ‘Rebel Run’ imagery in 1987: “This is the Rebel Run look. I was into armour. A friend, Simon, made a bronze headdress based on the skeletal structure of American football players. What I wanted to put acros was The New Woman. I believe we’ve got into a new kind of feminism. Women’s bodies are becoming more muscular, more streamlined. They’re not based on having babies. I won’t be having babies. By now I’d changed from a girl into a woman. Everything is based on becoming the Ultimate Woman.” (Thanks to Andrew York)
Written by Toyah and Joel Bogen, the opening song on ‘Love Is The Law’, the wonderful Broken Diamonds. Strange to consider that this album marked the end of the Willcox/Bogen songwriting partnership after six years of creating incredible music together!
Over the last couple of days we’ve been running a “Favourite Songs” from the ’Love Is The Law’ and ‘Desire’ albums poll at Dreamscape’s Facebook Group. A bit of fun and hardly definitive but an interesting current gauge of what some fans think of the songs on these great albums. Some chose two songs and others opted for related songs not on the albums, I’ve included these in the totals.
LOVE IS THE LAW: Broken Diamonds – 8, I Explode – 10, Rebel Of Love – 2, Rebel Run – 1, Martian Cowboy – 6 , Dreamscape – 5, Time Is Ours – 8, Love Is The Law – 4, Remember – 2, The Vow – 2, (To The Mountains High – 1, Haunted – 1, Be Proud Be Loud (Be Heard) – 1)
DESIRE: Echo Beach – 1, Moonlight Dancing – 5, Revive The World – 4, The View – 4, Moon Migration – 2, Love’s Unkind – 2, Dear Diary – 0, Deadly As A Woman – 3, Goodbye Baby – 1. When A Woman Cries – 5, Desire – 3, (Re-Entry Into Dance – 5, Sun-Up – 2, Plenty – 1)
“Next year we are going to tour ‘Love is the Law’, the album which came after ‘The Changeling’, but we are not going to do two tours of that, just one extended tour“…
(Info Source: Toyah Interview @ Penny Black Music)
The bonus Christmas Eve Digital Advent gift was unveiled at Toyah’s Official Website today and it was Live Is The Law, a seven-track mini-album of songs recorded on the 2013 Love Is The Law & More UK Tour. There’s also downloadable artwork. Click below for Toyah’s final 2013 Christmas goodie, as well as a full Digital Advent summary. Merry Christmas to toyahwillcox.com!
We’re now into the last few days of the build up to the launch of Toyah’s Love Is The Law & More Tour. A 30th anniversary tribute to the 1983 album which kicks off this coming Friday in Newcastle. Here are another two pictures, Rebel of Love and Time is Ours – Will they be on the set list? View larger versions by clicking here, and get your tour tickets by clicking below. (Original photos by Dean Stockings © Toyah Willcox Ltd)
Are you ready to share the ‘Love’? – Starting tomorrow Dreamscape is celebrating Toyah’s 1983 album ‘Love Is The Law’ (one of the songs on it inspired this website so it would be wrong not to). Every day throughout the month we will be bringing you at least one LITL-related post – So please do Come to the Dreamscape…
In memory of Keith Wainwright.
Photos 1&2. Taken the day Toyah had her Blue Meaning hair cut off, and had the style that she kept for Sugar ‘n Spice and through Autumn 1980.
Photo 3. Taken the day Toyah had her Rebel Run/Love Is The Law haircut in 1983.
Photo 4. Taken the day Toyah had her Don’t Fall In Love (I Said) cut and colour in early 1985.
All of these polaroids were provided by Keith at Smile, who began cutting Toyah’s hair at the time of Jubilee and created most of Toyah’s best known hairstyles during the 80’s. These were intended for a Toyah fanzine that never happened and I was kindly allowed to add them to Dreamscape.
Please click below to view larger versions at Instagram. (Huge thanks to Keith and Andy)
We’ve reached the final day of our Christmas Countdown 2023…
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…
Christmas 1983, Toyah was promoting The Vow, the final single for Safari Records, the Love Is The Law album, and travelling the UK on the Rebel Run Tour. Toyah, and the band, appeared on numerous TV shows in the UK and Europe through November and December, being interviewed as well as performing The Vow and Rebel Run.
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.
Christmas 2023, the Saturday 9th December edition of Toyah At Home was a Christmas Special – Toyah introduced the show saying “Hello everybody, Happy Christmas, it is December, it’s that magical time of the year, I hope you’re ready and have your plans all in hand for what should be, and will be, I promise you, a spectacular four weeks...”.
Toyah briefly summarised what’s to come in 2024: New music (“at least an EP“), the reissue of Love Is The Law, two movies, a radio show, tours for Toyah and Toyah & Robert, and more.
The festive Toyah At Home consisted of various clips, photos and memories, mostly with a Christmas connection: Relax/Trevor Horn; past Christmas times and memories; Toyah’s TVAM Christmas fantasy shopping trip to Liberty in London (accompanied by Messenger the Horse), to the soundtrack of The Vow; Toyah receiving her Walk Of Fame star in Birmingham in 2016 – featuring Toyah’s only ever live performance of I Believe In Father Christmas; Reminiscing about recording Love Is The Law while simultaneously starring in Trafford Tanzi, and the fans who camped outside the Mermaid Theatre; Christmas Eve at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane for The Old Grey Whistle Test‘s annual concert – Big hair, big sound, fabulous theatre“; The New Year’s Eve Radio 2 concert; and ending with I Believe In Father Christmas from the 1982 ITV show, Pop Goes Christmas.
• Watch this festive edition of Toyah At Home here or by clicking below.
I was sad to hear of the death of Janice Long at Christmas. I grew up through the 80s listening to her BBC Radio 1 show and loving many of the bands she championed, most notably The Smiths, Echo & The Bunnymen and Manic Street Preachers.
Janice was the first woman to have her own daily show on Radio 1. A true pioneer!
I also often listened to Janice’s BBC Radio 2 show much later on. She was a true music fan and a great broadcaster who was so good at her job it felt like you were listening to a friend. She will be greatly missed.
Janice interviewed Toyah many times, most memorably in 1983 (Love Is The Law era), 1985 (Minx era), and 2021 (Posh Pop era). Toyah also guested twice on The Janice Long Review Show on Vintage TV in 2012, and was one of the artists Janice chose on her NOW 80’s show Janice Long’s Ladies With Attitude.
Toyah paid tribute to Janice on Boxing Day, saying: “Dear wonderful Janice Long championed women in music. Janice has been in my life my whole career, my deepest sympathy to all her family, friends, listeners and fans. Too young to lose you. Toyah xxx”
There have been many tributes to Janice over the past few days, from her friends, work colleagues and many of the bands she supported via her radio shows over the years.
The Guardian said: “The DJ Janice Long, who has died aged 66 following a short illness, became a pioneer in broadcasting as the first woman to have her own weekday show on BBC Radio 1 and the first to become a regular presenter of Top of the Pops. Unlike some of the prominent DJs with whom she shared the airwaves during the first part of her career in the 1980s, Long was a genuine music fan, credited with giving a helping hand to a number of artists whom she had championed, including Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Primal Scream, Manic Street Preachers, the Teardrop Explodes, Amy Winehouse and the Coral.”
• Read The Guardian‘s full Janice Long obituary here.
• See Toyah’s tribute to Janice here.
• Browse Dreamscape’s Janice Long news archive here.
• Click on the screenshots – from Toyah’s appearance on Vintage TV’s The Janice Long Review Show in 2012 – to view larger versions. (Thanks to Paul for the 1985 Radio Times clipping)
Toyah – The Blue Meaning (Expanded Deluxe Edition): Album Review
Dark, intense and disturbingly graphic – an early masterpiece by Toyah revisited
Release Date: 28th May 2021
Label: Cherry Red Records
Formats: 2CD + 1DVD, Limited Edition Coloured Vinyl
Cherry Red Records have done it yet again! This week’s lucky recipient of their deluxe reissue treatment is Toyah and the band’s second album, 1980’s The Blue Meaning. In fact, Cherry Red are working their way through Toyah’s Safari Records catalogue – the band’s debut album, Sheep Farming In Barnet, has already received the deluxe repackaging and the rest of the bunch, Anthem (1981) The Changeling (1982) and Love Is The Law (1983) will be along soon – a veritable treasure trove from the happiest, most productive and most creative period of Toyah’s career. Oh – and for clarity – at this stage in the career of Toyah Willcox, Toyah was the collective name for the band in which she featured – Joel Bogen on guitar, Charlie Francis on bass, Steve Bray on drums, Peter Bush on keyboards and Toyah herself on vocals (or verbals and unusual sounds, as the album’s excellent sleeve notes put it.)
• Continue reading at At The Barrier.
The next episode of Toyah At Home is coming this Saturday (10th October), which is also National Album Day 2020. Do you have any questions about Toyah’s albums..?
Sheep Farming In Barnet, The Blue Meaning, Toyah! Toyah! Toyah!, Anthem, The Changeling, Warrior Rock – Toyah On Tour, Love Is The Law, Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! All The Hits, Minx, Mayhem, The Lady Or The Tiger, Desire, Prostitute…
There are many to choose from, and that impressive list is just Toyah’s album releases of the 1980s!!
Submit your questions in the comments section at Toyah’s official Instagram and Twitter, about albums or anything else and tune in at 11am on Saturday at You Tube and Facebook. (Photo © Toyah Willcox)
