Exciting news! A new ‘Changeling Resurrection’ related tweet from Toyah yesterday, mentioning what may, just possibly, be the opening song of the gig:
“Loving Creepy Room. Want to open set with it. It would set the mood for the show……BONKERS“.
• View the lyrics to ‘Creepy Room’ here, and the complete songwords/lyrics for ‘The Changeling’ album here.
• The ‘Moon In The Gutter’ blog uploaded a collection of screen shots from Jubilee on Tuesday: Operation Screenshot (Films of the Seventies): Derek Jarman’s Jubilee (1978). The “revival” of all things Jubilee continues… View here.
• Evening Times: Heaven is a place on Glasgow Green… Toyah is mentioned in this article today. View here. (NB. Toyah isn’t officially confirmed as playing this concert)
• Heard of Ghost Loft? Described as having “a heavy dash of the Cocteau Twins and a little bit of early Toyah”.
• Toyah’s ‘Warrior Rock: Toyah On Tour’ album was mentioned in Tuesday night’s Alex Lester Show on BBC Radio 2. (Thanks to Luke)
• Toyah received a namecheck in the, brilliantly titled, ‘Life Like Butter Sculptures’ blog yesterday: “This morning, the random music selector fed me Toyah Willcox’s “Mein Herr”. It was exactly what I needed. I’ll go find some Joan Jett next, I think.”
Life & Times of Toyah Willcox aired in either late 2000 or early 2001 (can’t remember!) on BBC1. Vanessa Feltz interviews Toyah about her life and career. Unfortunately this is incomplete. I rescued just over 20 minutes (of approx 26 minutes) from a damaged DVD and thought I’d upload it anyway as it’s worth watching, there’s not too much missing and it includes numerous clips and photos from Toyah’s career. Click on the caps to view larger versions.
A couple of rare-ish Japanese magazine Toyah photo articles from 1981, featuring great photos by Barry Plummer and Fin Costello. View the full sessions of each at the Dreamscape 1980 and 1981 gallery pages. Click on each of the below to view larger versions.
For some reason Google have ranked this page’s recent ‘Audley End Concerts 2012’ news posts at the very top of their searches whenever anyone Googles “audley end concert”. It’s slightly odd that we’ve been listed so highly but it’s great for ‘Falling To Earth’ as we have received hundreds of extra visitors over the last few days. (Hello!!!) Hopefully it may even result in a few new fans for Toyah as well as ticket sales for the Audley End Concerts! Full info on the weekend of concerts here.
As Part One was fairly popular (almost 170 listens and six downloads) I’ve transferred and uploaded the second part quicker than I’d planned to. So, here is Part Two of the radio documentary Toyah presented in 1999, To Mother With Love: The Story Of The Tattoo. This originally aired on ‘BBC Radio 2’ on 2nd March 1999. In this part Toyah briefly talks about fans who have her image tattooed on themselves! Listen to Part One here. (Thanks again to Seàn)
The official flyer for the ‘Rock & Bike Festival 2012’. Please click on it to view a larger version. Toyah’s non-music appearance, she will be compering, at the July festival was confirmed officially at the weekend. Another “festival” update: ‘Absolute Radio’ are currently airing an advert for ‘Let’s Rock The Moor 2012’. Toyah plays this event on Saturday 12th May in Berkshire. Full details of all upcoming live dates at the official Gigs page.
Toyah returns to ‘Blackpool Pride’ in June, playing a live PA at the North Pier Theatre. This will be Toyah’s third ‘Blackpool Pride’ appearance since the event began in 2006. Organisers are celebrating seven years of entertaining people from Blackpool and far beyond.
The official ‘Blackpool Pride 2012’ website recently added an artist page for Toyah, saying “Toyah is back by popular demand”.
• View the official ‘Blackpool Pride 2012’ flyer here.
One of Toyah’s quotes on him is used in yesterday’s post about David Bowie at the ‘Vitiworks’ blog.
“Bowie set a standard. Within weeks every boy under the age of twenty had that haircut.” – Toyah Willcox
• View more of Toyah’s thoughts on Bowie, his influence on her and her memories of ‘The Jean Genie’, from last month’s My Vintage, on ‘Vintage TV’, here.
Toyah’s 11th song choice from My Vintage, ‘Even Better Than The Real Thing’.
“I have never seen this band live. I would love to see them live, but I’m kind of put off by the fact that they are so mega, they are so big, they are the biggest band in the world. I think still, Coldplay might be about to overtake them. I’ve always loved their music. I think they’ve always released great albums that make you want to dance, they make you want to put your hands in the air…”
• Read the full transcript of the reasons for this song choice here. View all of Toyah’s other song choices from My Vintage here. The 12th, and final, song choice soon.
This has been available on Dreamscape for a few years but I thought I’d add it here in case anyone hasn’t heard it or wants to listen again. It’s a really interesting interview with Toyah in mid 1980, discussing details about her career up to that point. (Thanks to Giddy Gavin)
Toyah discusses the origins of her name, The Tempest and playing Miranda, how she was “discovered”, Jubilee, Quadrophenia, the forming of the first Toyah band, her career to date, future plans and more. (The sound is quite low so please crank up your volume)
• Read a full transcript of this interview, at ‘The TW Interview Archive’, here. (Thanks to Min)
• Toyah was mentioned in the ‘Funnel Of Love’ blog post, on Sunday 1st April, about the recent BBC2 documentary series The Tube: “The hawk is called Toyah after Toyah Willcox. ‘Aw bless’ or ‘ew groce’, depending on your view on naming birds after women. Considering Ms Willcox’ affection for strange headwear with feathers it’s probably totally appropriate”. View here.
• View a fantastic ‘flickr’ gallery of photos, by ‘Sanctuary Music’, of Toyah live at the HMV Institute, Birmingham last April on one of the first dates of the ‘From Sheep Farming To Anthem’ UK tour.
• Toyah Playlisted: ‘Don’t Fall In Love (I Said)’ is included in Dark Night of the Soul with Julie (3 April) on WFMU, and ‘Ieya’ (The Blue Meaning original) in the Ian Fairholm Special (2 April) on Phoenix FM. (Thanks to Sarah)
A full transcript of Toyah’s interview with Keith Middleton on BBC Radio’s Late Show is now available to read at The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive. The show aired last Saturday night and is still live for the next few days at BBC iPlayer. Click below to read the transcript.
‘Second Sight’, classic film and tv on DVD, has great pages dedicated to the DVD releases of Jubilee and The Tempest. Both of these. now iconic, films were reissued on Region 2 DVD in the mid-2000s.
Both are also just about to be reissued again, as part of The Derek Jarman Collection: A 5DVD box set of Derek Jarman films released by Umbrella Entertainment, in Australia, on 2nd May 2012.
I’ve periodically thought about a Toyah photo book for many years. If anyone is worthy or entitled to a photographic celebration of their imagery it surely is, the visual genius, Toyah? Sadly, I doubt it will ever happen. The copyright issues, sourcing high quality versions of photos, finding the owners/photographers, the cost involved… etc, but I still like to dream…
Toyah presents a radio documentary on the story, and history, of the tattoo: To Mother With Love: The Story Of The Tattoo aired on ‘BBC Radio 2’ on 2nd March 1999. This is Part One. I’ll upload the remainder when I’ve converted it from tape to mp3. (Thanks to Seàn)
A slightly strange but funny photo tweet from Toyah this evening: “Since her sex change toyah has been experiencing a little testosterone overload.”
• Maidenhead Advertiser: Let’s Rock The Moor: Family support charity to benefit: Families in need are set to benefit from a fundraising music festival in Cookham this summer. Proceeds from Let’s Rock the Moor, on Saturday, May 12, will raise money for the Link Foundation. This year’s line up includes Billy Ocean, Go West, Heaven 17, Toyah and Modern Romance, and will be hosted by Pat Sharp. Continue reading here.
• View photos of Toyah “at home” in 2010, by ‘Jamie Hughes Photography’, here and here.
• Many Happy Returns to Chris Wong. It’s his birthday today! (Thanks to Sugar Rush: The Humans.org.uk)
• Not exactly earth-shattering news, but it is related to ‘The Changeling’ in “Changeling Month” :) Yesterday Toyah was mentioned in a question at Just Quiz: 23. What links a Jacobean tragedy, an Oscar nominated film starring Angelina Jolie and a 1982 album by Toyah?
Tweeting with Toyah #1: Toyah tweeted a fun photo of Robert (aka Frank Fripp) yesterday morning. Tweeting with Toyah #2: Toyah also tweeted last night: “Small world! Bill rieflin & don gunn (humans producer) are with simon phillips (drummer on the changeling) in seattle!” Tweeting with Toyah #3: Toyah tweeted today: “Talk about synchronicity! Booking seattle recording studio for Humans 3 & steve lillywhite is mixing there!“
The 1-14 April, 1982 issue of ‘Smash Hits’ has just been added to the ‘Like Punk Never Happened – Smash Hits Archive’.
Just a small news article (in Bitz!) on Toyah this fortnight, accompanied by this great photo from the 1982 Rock & Pop Awards: If you haven’t managed to secure tickets for Toyah’s forthcoming tour, here’s a flicker of light on the horizon. The 32 year old has just added an extra show at Sheffield City Hall on June 18th and two extras at London’s Hammersmith Odeon on July 17 and 18. Tickets cost £5, £4.50 and £4.
In addition to the tour she’s recording a new album for release in June. On April 25 she appears on telly in a play called “Blue Marigolds” which kicks off the new teeth-chattering series of Tales Of The Unexpected. This girl deserves a holiday.
View scans of the full issue, and every previous issue of ‘Smash Hits’, here.
The second monthly online live track has been added to Toyah’s official website. It’s the majestic ‘Pop Star’, recorded live at The Regal, Oxford on 2nd July 2011.
Toyah’s official website will be offering visitors exclusive live tracks each month as Toyah’s Changeling Tour and summer festival/concert dates approach. 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 ‘Pop Star’, live at Oxford’s The Regal, here.
