More new gigs, festivals and PAs for Toyah have been confirmed by the official website.
Toyah plays the ‘Decades Festival’ in Workington on Saturday 26th May, a return to ‘Blackpool Pride’, with a live PA at the North Pier Theatre, on Saturday 9th June. There’s also a return to ‘Manchester Pride’, headlining the Women’s Stage at Sackville Gardens on Sunday 26th August.
• All the details are available on the Gigs page at toyahwillcox.com.
Celebrity Fantasy Homes: Home: Sunday 15th April: 6.00pm Celebrity Fantasy Homes: Home +1: Sunday 15th April: 7.00pm
Celebrities hunt for a new home. Gaby Roslin helps punk-pop princess Toyah Willcox search for a second home, in Richmond upon Thames, with a budget of £650,000.
Two brief excerpts from last night’s ‘BBC Radio Shropshire/Stoke/etc’ interview, with Toyah talking about ‘The Changeling’ and ‘The Changeling Resurrection’. See below for info on how to hear the full interview. (Apologies for the noises, they are included in iPlayer’s recording)
The Keith Middleton Late Show, broadcast on various ‘BBC Radio’ stations last night – a “Punk!” special – is available to listen to for the next seven days at BBC iPlayer.
Toyah guested, along with Hazel O’Connor and Annabella Lwin, via pre-recorded telephone interviews. Toyah and Keith’s conversation was recorded on Friday.
Annabella’s interview begins at approximately 1h 09m, Hazel’s at 1h 37m, and Toyah at 2h 13m
Toyah talks The Changeling, The Changeling Resurrection and its set list, her haunted home in Worcestershire and its history, ghosts and the paranormal, punk (obviously) and how unique and exciting it was, her career, living in the present and not stopping working, how she relaxes and more.
There are plays of ‘Thunder In The Mountains’, ‘Brilliant Day’, ‘I Want To Be Free’ and ‘It’s A Mystery’, and Toyah’s interview, including the music, lasts for around 30 minutes.
Steve Riley saw The Power Of Three in Brooklyn last night and, very kindly, agreed to share his thoughts, with ‘Falling To Earth’ and our readers, on the movie:
The Power Of Three is a feel good, funny, moving, motivational and enlightening movie. I am amazed at how women are treated as they age, It’s very different being a man. All of TPOT cast were very believable and Toyah was excellent of course. I would happily see the movie again. The rest of the audience certainly appreciated it as everyone applauded as the end titles rolled.
More ‘Changeling’ related tweets from Toyah yesterday: “Fab day plugging in2 The Changeling. Started to really like the songs again. Can c beyond the stresses at the time.”, and this morning: “Pop Star (Live) is online 4 ur pleasure. toyahwillcox.com/gigs. Only 13 days till 1st concert. Can’t wait. The devil in me is excited.”
Welcome to the month of ‘The Changeling Resurrection 2012’… It’s going to be wild (child)!
From Toyah’s Official Facebook today: Welcome to April…the month of THE CHANGELING RESURRECTION 2012 tour which kicks off in Brighton on 14 April. Full details of the 7 tour dates plus lots of additions to Toyah’s gig diary are now online along with a new exclusive live track….. ONLY at www.toyahwillcox.com/gigs
An interesting article on punk in ‘The Independent’ yesterday. It includes a gallery of great photos, featuring rare shots of Adam Ant, Jordan, Billy idol, Little Nell, Siouxsie etc, plus Derek Jarman at the premiere of Jubilee.
Anarchy in the UK: The Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977 was also the year that punk hit Photographer Simon Barker was there to capture it. Michael Bracewell opens his archive.
Punk lasted in the UK for little more than 14 months, between 1976 and the Jubilee Summer of 1977. Thirty-five years later, in another Jubilee year, how might we regard the intense, chaotic, moody, surreal, futuristic-yet-Victorian aesthetics of the movement? In answer to this question, photographs taken at the time by Simon Barker, also known as Six, go a long way to articulating the ways in which a phase of youth culture attained the impact of a manifesto – while never quite losing the cool allure and faintly slapstick temperament of its confrontational amateurism.
Rumours are brewing of a brand new Toyah track called ‘Frail Pool’ that has been recorded to mark Toyah’s 54th birthday next month. Apparently 54 is a significant number for Toyah and she felt she needed to do something special for it. What could be more special than new Toyah music?
As 2012 is significant anniversary years for both ‘The Changeling’ and ‘Desire’ albums the song will be inspired by elements from both. There’s a little more info on this exciting news here.
2012 is a significant anniversary year for two of Toyah’s albums: It is, of course, the 30th since the release of ‘The Changeling’ (1982) and also the 25th since ‘Desire’ (1987).
Aside from this vague connection there’s a more explicit link for the two albums, the songs ‘Dawn Chorus’ and ‘Moonlight Dancing’. In 1982 Toyah performed the former on BBC1’s 6.55 Special (think The One Show with the added bonus of Sally James) and towards the close of the song added new lyrics that weren’t included on the album version. This “alternative” version of ‘Dawn Chorus’ was never performed again, and it wasn’t until the release of ‘Desire’ five years later that ‘Moonlight Dancing’, which the new lyrics were an excerpt from, was heard again.
‘Moonlight Dancing’ probably didn’t even exist as a fully formed song at this point in time, though both were written by Toyah and Joel Bogen. It’s interesting, though, that these few extra lines from 1982 went on to become part of one of Toyah’s finest singles and forged an ever lasting link between two very different Toyah albums…
A post at ‘Catmachine’, by Chris Limb, on Thursday’s free kindle version of ‘I Was A Teenage Toyah Fan’.
The experiment of making the Kindle edition of my book I Was A Teenage Toyah Fan available free for 24 hours under Amazon’s KDP Select scheme was an interesting one and seems to have been a success in its own way – in 24 hours it was downloaded just shy of 700 times and peaked at number 50 in the Kindle chart.
Whether this translates into a greater visibility of the book in the long run is another matter (I would hope so) but even if it doesn’t one thing I can say is that hundreds more people will have read my book than before. And that, after all, is what it is all about.
Toyah has been confirmed as one of the artists participating in ‘The Marc Bolan 35th Memorial Concert’, taking place at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire on Saturday 15th September 2012.
Other artists confirmed, so far, are Boy George, Steve Harley, Glen Matlock, Alvin Stardust, Rick Wakeman, Linda Lewis, Andy Ellison, and T.Rextasy. All proceeds from the concert are going to the PRS (Performing Right Society) Charity, for the music members benevolent fund.
Tickets go on sale from 16th April. Stay updated on the concert at the Facebook Event page.
Just a reminder that Toyah, along with Hazel O’Connor and Annabella Lwin, guests on Keith Middleton’s Late Show tonight on ‘BBC Radio’ (various stations: Shropshire, Stoke, WM, Hereford & Worcester and Coventry & Warwickshire).
Keith Middleton Show: BBC Radio (Various): Sat 31st March: 9pm
Keith is joined by Toyah Willcox, Hazel O’Connor and Annabella Lwin (of Bow Wow Wow) for a ‘Punk Extravaganza’. Is there a punk track you haven’t heard for a while? Let Keith know and he’ll do his best to play it…
Listen to the show online as it airs, or via ‘BBC iPlayer’ post-broadcast. (Available for one week only)
There are several live dates confirmed this morning on Toyah’s official website: The ‘Rock & Bike Festival 2012’ in July: This is a non-music appearance. As with last year Toyah will compere. ‘The Greatest 80’s Party Ever’ at Audley End in August, and the Marc Bolan 35th Anniversary Show’ at Shepherd’s Bush Empire in September.
Toyah’s Official Facebook posted this morning that there will be another exclusive live track on The Official Toyah Gigs page at 00.01 on Sunday 1st April: “…as we start the 13 day countdown to the premiere of THE CHANGELING RESURRECTION @ BRIGHTON.“
All the best things come boxed, right? Check out the great “themed” packaging Andi has created for the ‘Anthem’ Toyah doll. You can almost imagine this sitting on a toy shop (or Woolworths’) shelf, Christmas 1981. Click below to view a larger photo. (Thanks to Andi)
We are just about to hit April… and that month is all about ‘The Changeling’, ‘The Changeling Resurrection 2012’ and pretty much nothing else. What else could possibly matter when it’s the 30th anniversary of something so good? Before that, time for a look back to last year’s ‘From Sheep Farming To Anthem’ UK tour: Check out all the news, photos, imagery, press, reviews and gossip at Dreamscape’s ‘FSF-A’ bumper section.
We are thrilled to announce that the much-loved Summer Picnic Concerts at Audley End House and Gardens will go ahead as usual this summer. English Heritage has teamed up with independent concert producers, Portal Events Ltd to deliver a fantastic line-up of musical stars and the concerts will take place from Friday 3rd August to Sunday 5th August 2012.
On Saturday 4th August it’s time to relive your youth with The Greatest 80’s Party…Ever! Hit 80s artists Rick Astley, Jimmy Somerville, Midge Ure, Nik Kershaw, T’pau, Toyah, Wang Chung and Dr and the Medics will wow the crowd into a party frenzy with their famous hit songs including “Never gonna give you up”, “China in your hand” and “Spirit in the Sky”.
Toyah: From punk princess to high priestess of TV, Toyah Willcox is a uniquely gifted performer. Toyah is going to rock Audley End with some of her 80’s classics.
• View the ‘Audley End Concerts’ Toyah info at their ‘Line Up’ page here.
Audley End Picnic Concerts: Jools Holland, Rick Astley and the Royal Philharmonic are among the stars for this year’s open air concerts at Audley End. This summer’s concerts, supported by Heart, take place from Friday 3rd August to Sunday 5th August.
• To win a pair of tickets for ‘The Best 80’s Party… Ever!’ go here and answer the question. Competition closes on 29th April.
Great News! An update this morning, on yesterday’s promotion, from ‘I Was A Teenage Toyah Fan’ Facebook: “The Amazon promotion making the Kindle edition of the book free for a day yesterday went well – just shy of 700 downloads in 24 hours with the book peaking at number 50 in the Kindle charts.”
An actual physical copy is something special though, and a great addition to a book (or Toyah) collection. Visit the I Was A Teenage Toyah Fanwebsite for details on how to buy the book.
Celebrity Antiques Road Trip: BBC2: Thursday 12th April: 6.30pm
Tony Blackburn and Toyah Willcox take to the road with antiques experts Charlie Ross and Charles Hanson. Their journey starts in the historic town of York and ends up with an auction in Stanstead, Essex.
• View all of Toyah’s upcoming TV & Radio appearances here.
More new gigs, festivals and PAs for Toyah have been confirmed by the official website.
