The Most Fertile Man In Ireland : Sky Movies Indie: Saturday 25th August: 8.00am
Satirical comedy with Kris Marshall, Kathy Keira Clarke, Bronagh Gallagher, James Nesbitt, Kenneth Cranham, Olivia Nash, Pauline McLynn, Tara Lynne O’Neill, Toyah Willcox, Harry Towb, Marc O’Shea and Paddy McCarney. Also airing on Sky Movies Indie HD.
The Tempest has just been released for the first time on Blu-ray. Here is the Time Out cover feature/interview from 1980 published the week that the film was originally released. View the magazine cover here.
Toyah reflects… stage actress, rock singer, icon of the New Wave, star of ‘Quadrophenia’ and now Derek Jarman’s ‘The Tempest’, Toyah Willcox on creating her own image. Next Thursday Derek Jarman’s film of ‘The Tempest’ opens. Toyah Willcox, late of ‘Jubilee’ and ‘Quadrophenia’ plays Miranda. Chris Auty went in search of Ms Willcox…
Click here to read at Dreamscape’s Press Archive. View all of our recent retro Classic Toyah press articles & interviews here. (Thanks to Andi)
Celebrity Ghost Stories UK: Bio: Sunday 26th August: 11.00pm
Sue Cook reveals creepy encounters with a malevolent nutcracker and a UFO, Toyah Willcox speaks of a spooky apparation, and Alex Fearns discusses sinister sounds he caught on tape.
Screen caps from last night’s The Women Of Doctor Who, which aired on ‘BBC America’. Toyah appeared numerous times throughout the 45-minute docu special, talking about Rose Tyler, the TARDIS, Martha Jones, Sarah-Jane Smith and Donna Noble. No word as yet on whether Toyah will apear in the next two specials: The Timey-Wimey of Doctor Who (18th August), and The Destinations of Doctor Who (25th August). (Thanks to Niall)
• Jelly, the band which includes Stevie Bray of the original Toyah (Sheep Farming/Blue Meaning/Toyah! Toyah! Toyah!) line up, have been playing gigs recently. They are revisiting The Water Rats in Kings Cross for another date later this month (Friday 31st August). Visit the events page at Facebook for more info. Check out Jelly’s Facebook page for links to some of their songs.
• New Wave Photos: Toyah: An excellent selection of photos of Toyah from an appearance on Belgian TV in 1981. (Thanks to Dawn)
• DVD Beaver: Quadrophenia (Blu-ray): Quadrophenia looks highly impressive on Blu-ray from Criterion. Textured grain is prominent and establishes a strong image quality through the 1080P. I can easily state that this is the best I have seen Quadrophenia look. Sweet.
• Spy Vibe: Mod Movie Returns: The long out-of-print Mod classic, Quadrophenia (1979), will be released on DVD and Blu-ray by the Criterion Collection on August 28th.
This has always been one of my favourite Toyah TV appearances, especially as there is very little footage from 1982 of live performances of songs from ‘The Changeling’: It’s BBC1’s Get Set For Summer from July 1982. The band perform ‘Castaways’, ‘Street Creature’ and ‘Brave New World’ and Toyah is also interviewed by Peter Powell. View all at Dreamscape’s You Tube playlist. (Thanks to Andi)
Another retro Toyah magazine interview. This one is from ‘Cosmopolitan’ magazine, published in 1983 (Main photo by Brian Aris): Amazing and unclassifiable, Toyah – rebel and bizarre pop star – is also an accomplished actress, starring opposite Lord Olivier in a TV film of The Ebony Tower. Click below to read, and here for part two. View all of our recent retro Classic Toyah press articles & interviews here. There are yet more here. (Thanks to Andi)
A couple of Toyah magazine items from the early 80’s: ‘With Love From Toyah!’; a mini article on Toyah’s make-up range, which had just gone on sale at the time, and ‘Four From Toyah’; four classic early 80’s Toyah photos. Click below to view larger. (Thanks to Andi)
Toyah is the cover star of the Autumn 2012 edition of ‘MT’, the Middlesbrough Theatre brochure. The much-anticipated Changeling Resurrection II tour plays at the venue on Wednesday 19th September, the first gig of the 12-date UK tour. Click below to view larger or here to read the full brochure online. (Thanks to Andrew Moore)
A preview of tomorrow night’s The Women Of Doctor Who special, airing on ‘BBC America’, is now available to view at You Tube. Guests discuss the character Donna Noble, including a brief clip of Toyah.
Click below to watch and here for larger versions of the screen caps. There’s also another, shorter, preview trailer. View that here (This doesn’t feature Toyah).
Revisit the Tenth Doctor’s beloved companion Donna Noble in this exclusive sneak peek at BBC America’s All New Special The Women Of Doctor Who. Don’t miss the World Premiere, Saturday Aug 11 at 9/8c. Who’s the greatest woman of Doctor Who? Vote here!
NB: Toyah may also have guested in last week’s The Science Of Doctor Who. I’ll let you know when I’ve watched it. If she does it probably means she will be appearing in all four specials.
• A previously unseen photo of Toyah and Nick Heyward, taken at the Let’s Rock The Moor 2012 festival in May of this year, was tweeted by the organisers this week. View it here. It’s similar to another photo, released at the time of the concert. (Photo © Let’s Rock The Moor)
• View all of our ‘Let’s Rock The Moor 2012’ updates, including photos, press, videos, here.
• The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive: Read a full transcript of Toyah’s ‘BBC Radio WM’ interview.
• Toyah headlines the Women’s Stage at Manchester Pride 2012 later this month. View Toyah content at their website here. here and here.
A few more reviews of The Tempest, released for the first time on Blu-ray (Region A/1) earlier this week.
• TCM: Movie News: The Tempest – Derek Jarman’s Acclaimed 1979 Adaptation of the William Shakespeare Play: The jump to Blu-Ray for The Tempest is a substantial improvement here, given that transfer technology has improved considerably in the several years since its last telecine pass and the obvious benefits of 1080p.
• DVD Direct: The Tempest: Like most of Derek Jarman’s work, The Tempest is strange and difficult to access, but remains one of my favorite Shakespeare adaptations in all of film.
• DVD Beaver: The Tempest (Blu-ray): Jarman’s The Tempest is certainly interesting as a unique take on The Bard’s work and still recognizable to the play on many fronts but there are notable omissions. I suspect that this Blu-ray can only find an audience for those who appreciate Jarman.
A fantastic 1985 photo session by Terence Donovan… View more at Dreamscape’s Gallery.
Hole In The Wall: CBBC: Sunday 19th August: 3.30pm/Tuesday 28th August: 6.15pm
Anton Du Beke hosts the madcap gameshow. The celebrity contestants are TV chef Simon Rimmer, singer Toyah Willcox, actress Zaraah Abrahams and presenter Barney Harwood, captained by rugby legend Austin Healey and EastEnders’ Joe Swash. Joe gets to play a special wall with a mystery guest. (There’s more info on this and a clip of Toyah at the ‘BBC One’ website)
A reminder that The Janice Long Review Show is repeated on ‘Vintage TV’ tonight.
The Janice Long Review Show: Vintage TV
Thursday 9th August: 11.00pm
Toyah and Sex Pistols. Broadcaster Paul Sexton returns, alongside producer Trevor Horn and 80s starlet Toyah, to discuss her 1982 gothic release ‘The Changeling’ and Sex Pistols’ ground-breaking ‘Never Mind The Bollocks’.
The, soon to be aired, first episode of Series 7 (aka Season 33) of Doctor Who has more Daleks than ever before, and this weekend Toyah guests in the ‘BBC America’ documentary The Women Of Doctor Who – so now seems as good a time as any to post this!!! Skaro’s finest definitely have good taste (though their marketing techniques are a little extreme).
A couple of fan-created Toyah CD covers: A “wishful thinking”, career-spanning, retrospective (by me) and, a perfect new studio album cover (by Andrew York). Please click below to view larger versions. (Thanks to Andrew York | Original photo © Dean Stockings/Toyah)
Toyah was “Diva Of The Day” on Brighton Gay Radio yesterday. An uninterrupted hour of amazing Toyah songs, an eclectic selection, past and present, played every three hours from 2pm.
DOTD Playlist: Good Morning Universe, I Want To Be Free, Don’t Fall In Love (I Said), 21st Century Supersister, Echo Beach, It’s A Mystery, Be Proud Be Loud (Be Heard), Fallen, Danced, Rebel Run, Thunder In The Mountains, Over 21, Latex Messiah (Viv La Rebel In You), Brave New World, Soul Passing Through Soul, The Vow, We Are.
The Tempest was released on Region A/1 Blu-ray yesterday. View a comprehensive article on the film and Blu-ray remastered edition at DVD Talk.
How do you follow up an apocalyptic punk-rock satire that seemed to offend even more people than A Clockwork Orange, up to and including the purist punks whose energy it was inspired by and meant as a tribute to? If you were celebrated British underground auteur Derek Jarman in 1979, having just shocked and rocked the world with your prior year’s film, the scorched-earth, anti-royalist comic nightmare Jubilee, why, of course, your next step would (un)naturally be to take on Shakespeare!
…Prospero’s daughter, Miranda (Jubilee’s sinisterly lisping girl-woman Toyah Willcox, here sporting a no less punkish ‘do of straggly dreadlocks, along with a stripped skeleton of a period dress that looks like something out of vintage Vivienne Westwood).
• Continue reading at DVD Talk.
• Sound + Vision: New Blu-rays for August 7, 2012: The Tempest (1979) is Jarman’s campy adaptation of William Shakespeare’s theatrical masterpiece which includes a full-scale Hollywood production number of Elisabeth Welch singing “Stormy Weather”…
• Indiewire: Playlist: DVDs You Should Know About Including ‘Jaws,’ ‘Quadrophenia,’ and A Pair of Derek Jarman Films.
• Coming Soon to BBC4: Love & Marriage: A new three-part BBC series on the story of love and marriage in Britain from the 1930s up to the present day, based on the personal memories of those who have the strongest tales to tell. This will include Toyah & Robert (no transmission date available yet).
• Lytham Proms 2012: More than 25,000 people attended the three Lytham Proms concerts to see Olly Murs, Alfie Boe and the “Here and Now” stars of the 1980s. The three-day extravaganza was hailed by Fylde Council’s tourism chief as a “great success” in attracting crowds – and tourism cash – to the area. (News Source: Fylde Borough Council)
• The Acoustic Pineapple: The Concert: In 1980, I become aware of a diminutive, flame-haired singer called Toyah Willcox. Imaginative lyrics, containing elements of mysticism and science-fiction, were often backed by thumping, tribal rhythms. From the outset I am intrigued by Toyah.
