Screen caps from The Humans: Live, Up Close & Personal, recorded at the HMV Institute, Birmingham last October, and recently uploaded to You Tube. The footage is comprised of the gig, an interview with The Humans plus comments and opinions from fans who attended the special concert. Click on the caps to view larger versions. (Thanks to Sanctuary Music)
• Setlist: Sugar Rush, Titanium Girl, Labyrinth, Love In A Different Way, This Reasoning, Fragment Pool, Sea of Size, Quicksilver, Telekenisis, These Boots, Twisted Soul, Pebble, Put A Woman On The Moon, Small Town Psychopath/Playing In The Dark, Demigod.
• Immerse yourself in more of The Humans at thehumansofficial.com, the brilliant Sugar Rush fansite and Toyah @ Twitter (a fortnight of updates from the recording sessions in Seattle).
A new t-shirt for the new tour! ‘The Changeling Resurrection II’ begins in under a week’s time, next Wednesday in Middlesbrough. View all the tour info/ticket details here, participate in the set list vote here and view all of Dreamscape’s TCR II pre-tour news here.
THE HUMANS: TOYAH WILLCOX vocals, BILL RIEFLIN guitar/bass, CHRIS WONG guitar/bass, IGOR ABULADZE percussion: were LIVE, UP CLOSE & PERSONAL: Recorded at HMV Institute, Birmingham, Monday 10 October 2011. Sound: PAUL NICHOLSON
The albums SUGAR RUSH and WE ARE THE HUMANS available from iTunes & thehumansofficial.com.
• Check out Toyah’s Official Twitter for regular updates and photos from The Humans third album recording sessions, direct from Toyah in Seattle.
The Marlowe Theatre certainly know how to promote their panto. This was spotted in Canterbury today. View more info on Sleeping Beauty here. (Thanks to Brian Marsh)
A couple of Toyah/’Echo Beach’ related press clippings, from yesterday’s ‘Evening Standard’ and today’s ‘Daily Mail’ newspapers. Even though it was included in the article I’ve blocked out Toyah’s address. (Thanks to Lärwi for both of these)
The Love and Marriage series that Toyah and Robert Fripp participate in begins airing on ‘BBC Four’ next Tuesday.
This three part series follows the ups and downs of marriage in Britain from the 1900s to the present day using the deeply moving personal stories of couples, and their children, from all walks of life. This first film looks at the period between the 1900s and the late 1950s, an era when the ideal of romantic love in marriage had to withstand the harsh realities of a world very different to today.
Love and Marriage: A 20th Century Romance: BBC Four: Tue 18th September: 9.00pm
Three part series. This first episode considers the strengths and weaknesses of the Victorian marriage ideal. Despite mass unemployment and the tragedy of two world wars, most marriages not only survived, some became even stronger. Denise Robertson, Hetty Bower, Diana Athill and others tell their stories.
Toyah tells The National Trust about her favourite walk at Croome Park in Worcestershire. Why not tell ‘The National Trust’ about your favourite walk? Watch Toyah’s walk by clicking below, and view all of our Toyah related ‘Great British Walk’ news here.
There’s also a brief Toyah article on Toyah’s Great British Walk at the National Trust website: It’s the setting of Croome Park that appeals to Toyah Willcox, the multi-talented singer, performer and writer. ‘We tend to forget the fabulous countryside we have all around us, and it’s there for us to discover’, she said. There’s also a PDF file available with details of Toyah’s walk.
The full transcript of last month’s great Toyah interview from The Dave Llewellyn Show on ‘BBC Radio Tees’ is now online at The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive.
Possibly Toyah’s most iconic song? ‘Ieya’ was, of course, originally released as a single on Safari Records in 1980 and included on the album ‘The Blue Meaning’. It was also re-recorded and released again, as ‘Ieya ’82’, in the Summer of 1982, with Toyah performing it on various TV shows, including Hold Tight and the 6.55 Special. The single even charted. Here’s to the 30th (and 32nd!) anniversary of an absolute classic… Ieeeeeeeeeeyyaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
• Vinyl Dreams: Toyah – Thunder In The Mountains/Street Addict: The one with the Mad Max Vid (thanks to Godley and Creme), a gem from 1981. Lots of operatics and bombast with main track, Lady Ga Ga borrowed a lot from her! “Street Addict” is a slower, much darker track and a rare, fan favourite. (Thanks to Andrew)
• From Sheep Farming To Anthem 2011: We Are at the 02 Islington, London in June 2011. View at You Tube. (Thanks to Mark Evans)
• Jelly, featuring Stevie Bray, are playing more live dates. Further details on where and when is available at their Facebook page.
Over the last, almost, 13 years Dreamscape has been sent thousands of photos of Toyah from the numerous live gigs, tours and PA’s of the late 90′s, through the Noughties and into this decade (the Teenies?). Welcome to Fotofriends, an occasional feature focusing on the fans who took some of those photos.
Longtime Toyah fan Ray Sears has taken some stunning photos of Toyah over the years (give up the day job, Ray, and become a photographer!). Not only that but he has generously let Dreamscape feature many of them in our Gallery.
Photos from: 1/6/11: From Sheep Farming To Anthem Tour, Assembly, Leamington Spa (November 2011), 2/8: Blackpool Pride (June 2012), 3/12: Walk of Fame @ Hare & Hounds, King’s Heath (July 2012), 4: New Foresters, Nottingham (September 2010), 5/7: The Changeling Resurrection Tour, Robin 2, Wolverhampton (April 2012), 9: New Foresters, Nottingham (September 2011), 10. The Humans – Sugar Rush UK Tour, The Flowerpot, Derby (October 2011). That’s Ray with Toyah, bottom right.
It looks like the forthcoming ‘Changeling Resurrection II’ tour dates could be your last opportunity to see a “Toyah” gig for the next year: Toyah says in her latest blog: “If you missed the spring dates, be sure to catch the autumn because live TOYAH dates possibly won’t be happening again for about 12 months!” The tour begins very soon – a week tomorrow in Middlesbrough – Check out the full itinerary and ticket links by clicking below.
The fantastic ‘In The Fairground’ from Four More From Toyah was included in Q The 80s playlist (Show #105) yesterday evening. Such a great song. View the songwords and click below to view a larger version of the photo (Thanks to David Herd & Andrew York)
• I Was A Teenage Toyah Fan: The Kindle edition of “I Was A Teenage Toyah Fan” is available for just 80p at Amazon – A coming of age tale of Adolescent Misadventures in Eighties Pop. You don’t have to have a Kindle to read it – Kindle editions are also readable on iPhones, iPads, Macs, PCs and many more portable devices with the Kindle app. The paperback has been dropped to £5.99 + P&P on Lulu.
• Behind The Sofa: Celebrity Memories Of Doctor Who: In which Toyah contributes a memory, is now available to pre-order and goes on general release, in print and digitally, in late September: Behind The Sofa is a collection of over 100 celebrity memories of Doctor Who, compiled in aid of Alzheimer’s Research UK. Steve Berry decided to undertake this project in memory of his mother Janet, who suffered from Alzheimer’s in her final years and passed away in 2009. The book has taken more than four years to put together and its publication has been “crowd-funded” by the pre-orders of an enthusiastic Whovian community. More details at Troubador and Amazon.
• The Changeling Tour 1982: ‘Angel and Me’, live at the, now demolished, Glasgow Apollo in July 1982. Listen at Fuck Yeah Toyah – and browse some rare photos too, including Toyah with Marianne Faithfull in 1981!
• Angels and Demons: 350 Months Later: Some of the A&D Toyah fans, who famously provided backing vocals on the title track of ‘Love Is The Law’ in Summer 1983, revisited the Mermaid Theatre last week, 30 years after they made it their temporary home while Toyah played Trafford Tanzi. View some photos of the reunion at the ‘I Was A Teenage Toyah Fan’ Facebook.
• From Sheep Farming To Anthem 2011: Ieya at the 02 Islington, London in June 2011. View at You Tube. (Thanks to Mark Evans)
As previously reported, Toyah is the cover star of the Autumn 2012 issue of the National Trust Magazine.
Did you know? The magazine has a readership of 3.76 million, and it currently has the sixth highest magazine circulation in Britain (and that figure doesn’t include the digital version).
Three issues are sent out every year – Spring, Summer and Autumn – and are delivered as part of the National Trust members’ mailout, which includes local newsletters and other information for Trust members.
Meaning those great photos of Toyah with the umbrella will be seen by almost four million people! View the digital version online.
Punk princess Toyah Willcox has named Croome Park, near Pershore, as her favourite place to walk.
The actress and singer, who lives in Pershore, named the historic landscape park as her top spot as its owners the National Trust launched a nationwide search to discover the country’s Ten Greatest British Walks.
She said: “Croome Park is just absolutely stunning. It’s designed yet you think you’re in natural countryside. You look out across these gentle rolling hills and you see wonderful monuments, follies and statues and the lake in particular is really lovely.”
• Continue reading at Worcester News.
Toyah Willcox: The reason I became a make up artist.
In the studio today playing one of my favourite 80′s playlists from my iPod, a Toyah Willcox track came on. I was describing to my model (who hadn’t even been born in Toyah’s heyday) the very first time I saw Toyah perform on TV as a girl. I was blown away by her New Romantic/Punk image, her trademark flame red hair and her incredible make up. This was the first time I consciously thought, “I want to be a make up artist!”.
• Continue reading at The Truth About Beauty.
Toyah’s September blog is now available to read at toyahwillcox.com. A busy update, direct from Toyah, with news on the forthcoming Autumn tour, The Humans’ third album recording sessions in Seattle, unintentionally breaking BBC cameras, being the ‘National Trust’ cover girl, not opening fetes and much more… Click below for a great read.
The seventh monthly online live track has been added to Toyah’s official website. It’s the mighty ‘Bird in Flight’, recorded live at the Ruby Lounge, Manchester in April of this year, on ‘The Changeling Resurrection’ Spring tour.
Toyah’s official website will be offering visitors exclusive live tracks each month as ‘The Changeling Resurrection II’ tour approaches. At the beginning of each month an exclusive live track recorded from Toyah’s extensive 2011 tour dates will feature on the Gigs page.
The live tracks will be available to listen to for a limited time only with a new track replacing it each month. These live tracks are a taster for a special live album release planned for digital release in autumn/winter of 2012.
• Listen to ‘Bird in Flight’, live at the Ruby Lounge, Manchester, here | View news on the previous live tracks here (these are no longer available).
Three more photos of Toyah from another late 70s session, and this one is definitely 1979. These were taken in, and around, Toyah’s famous Mayhem warehouse in Battersea, London. The first photo has been around for a few years but the others have just recently surfaced online. Click on each to zoom. (Thanks to Craig Watkins/1, and Andi/2&3)
