Toyah Willcox is arguably the busiest she has ever been.
These days split very much between acting and singing, the ’80s legend who set the template for many modern musical maidens returns to Sheffield and Corporation on Saturday in a very different guise to her last visit – playing The Wicked Queen in panto at the Lyceum.
“Actress/singer,” she says when asked what goes on her passport these days. “Because you want to get into different countries you’re not going to put controversial person, troublemaker.”
She’s got a point. In her post-punk heyday Toyah was something of a mould-breaker. With costumes as outrageous as she was outspoken, pop hadn’t really come across someone like her before.
“I was being very successful at a time when it was a novelty for a woman to be successful. When you look at the 1980s the glass ceiling was being raised daily and I came into the music business as a strong woman who knew what I wanted with a strong identity. That sense of novelty continued for quite a while.
• Continue reading at The Star.
Toyah did, after all, guest in Saturday night’s third documentary special, The Time-Wimey Of Doctor Who, on ‘BBC America’. Here is a transcript of what she said.
Toyah on Rose Tyler in the epsiode ‘Father’s Day’: “Rose Tyler is human. She’s made like all humans, to nurture and save, and she sees her father and she has a chance to save him… So she saves him from the car hitting him, and all hell breaks loose. It cracks a moment in time, where these demons, these gargoyles, can come to life.”
On the Doctor and instant time travel, specifically from the episode ‘The Big Bang’: “He can go like that (clicks fingers) and he’s with one person, and he can be having a conversation with that, and he can go like that (clicks fingers) and he’s back in another time having a conversation with someone else. ‘Oh! I forgot to say something’ (clicks fingers), and he’s back somewhere else!”
On Doctor Who and its effect on viewers: “What the writers of Doctor Who manage is to broaden our perceptions, broaden our beliefs, broaden our horizons. They get it brilliantly correct every time.”
• Screen caps of Toyah from Timey-Wimey coming soon. (Thanks to Paul Lomas)
• Check out Toyah’s Official Twitter: Over the last couple of weeks she has tweeted about vistiting the National Portrait Gallery, Robert Fripp, tasty food from homegrown veg, the Olympics, recent gigs, traffic jams and more!
• Irenebrination: The (Blitz) Kids That Never Were (According to the Fashion Mainstream): A new mini-article on Melissa Caplan.
• Top Of The Pops: The Story Of 1976 is currently available to watch at BBC iPlayer.
• Samantha Fox mentions Toyah in a new article at The Quietus in which she chooses her 13 Favourite Albums: Eurythmics – Sweet Dreams: I remember when Annie Lennox first came out I just loved her voice and loved her image. She’s very androgynous and different to everyone else, other than someone like Toyah Willcox, who when I was younger I thought; ‘oh, she’s different.’
Someone has, just today, uploaded the full HQ Rock In The City Toyah Special, from 1981, to You Tube. A 30-minute programme filmed at Toyah’s Ulster Hall, Belfast gig: Setlist: Race Through Space, Angels & Demons, It’s A Mystery, Indecision, Danced, It’s A Mystery (again), plus an interview with Toyah! Click below to watch. View larger versions of the caps here.
NB: Screen caps not taken from the YT upload. These are my originals first posted years ago!
• Had some lovely feedback on the recent Classic Toyah photos and articles I’ve been adding. As someone said: “it’s good to mix the old with the new”. Toyah has such a rich and vast career history so delving into it is a good idea (I think!). There are more press & photos to come, including larger versions of the photos to the right. (Thanks to Andi Westhorpe for making so many Toyah goodies available | Thanks also to Andrew York)
• Toyah and Robert were filmed all day yesterday for a BBC documentary on the tradition of marriage. Mr Fripp even agreed to be interviewed for the docu!! (News Source: Official Toyah Twitter)
• On a personal note: I’d just like to say a huge congratulations to Toyah on her induction into the King’s Heath Walk Of Fame. I grew up reading interviews with Toyah talking about her early life and teenage years in King’s Heath. How exciting for her to be honoured by her hometown. I’m sure Monday will be a great day and a proud moment for Toyah!
• A few more screencaps from Florence & The Machine’s new ‘Spectrum’ video. After watching the full clip, co-directed by David LaChapelle, it’s difficult not to consider that it is influened by Toyah (Ieya, Brave New World) and Kate Bush. View the video here and larger versions of the caps here.
• Toyah mentioned a couple of weeks ago she had been asked to participate in a new Doctor Who documentary for ‘BBC America’. She tweeted today to say she was now filming this and her thoughts were full of plots, facts, Daleks and Cybermen!
• According to the Mylor Sessions website Toyah’s concert on Saturday 23rd June, at Tremayne Hall, is now sold out (75% of the tickets were bought in the first 24 hours of going on sale).
• What’s on TV include a clip from the 1990 BAFTA Awards in their latest “What’s on You Tube” feature, with someone you may just recognise presenting the award…
• Sanctuary Music Presents: The Humans: Live, Up Close & Personal: Sanctuary’s promotional poster/flyer for The Humans’ July 2012 dates. View a larger version here.
• The Press Association: BBC Celebrates Birth Of Punk: Never mind the Jubilee, here’s a punk season … the BBC is to celebrate the birth of a musical revolution with a series of programmes on radio and TV.
• There’s less than a week to go until Toyah’s birthday. In the past Dreamscape always celebrated Toyah’s special day by bringing you a rarity or three from the archives, and why break a tradition? Please do look! back hear! on May 18th for something just a little bit groovy :)
• Thanks to some amazingly loyal Toyah fans, who have stuck by Dreamscape since the very beginning, for the lovely messages over the last week or so. Despite having a degree in Marketing (yuk!) I never really thought, or think, in the terms of “Brand Dreamscape”, as someone suggested I should. I do agree, though, that it’s not a great idea that everything should revolve around Facebook or social networks in general. It is a fantastic way to communicate news immediately but great bands and artists should always be represented by at least a couple of independent/non official websites… FTE will stay, as I think it works well having a seperate site/url for a news (yes, and trivia/occasional nonsense) resource, but there may be a sporadic update or two to Dreamscape’s Gallery (one possibly quite soon!). In archive status the site is still as busy as it was when “active”.
• Toyah plays Let’s Rock The Moor 2012 this afternoon. It’s been officially confirmed Toyah is onstage at 4pm. Great weather up here today, here’s hoping it’s the same for Toyah and all the other bands in Cookham, Berkshire…
• I’ve (or should I say Falling To Earth has) taken the leap to Twitter. Not sure why. Except that I wanted to follow @toyahofficial :)
• The Blitz Kids: Toyah 1980 by Gerard McNamara. A classic live shot from the, legendary, ‘Ieya Tour’.
• Some great live shots of Toyah that the photographer doesn’t seem pleased with!
• Toyah at The Ruby Lounge: Photo #1 and photo #2 (courtesy of Man Alive! at flickr). ShatterJapan.com – new website coming soon.
• The running order for Let’s Rock The Moor (Saturday 12th May): 3.20pm: Nick Heyward, 4.10pm: Toyah, 5pm: Modern Romance, 5.50pm: Boney M, 6.55pm: Heaven 17, 7.55pm: Go West, 8.55pm: Billy Ocean. (Subject to change: Source: Lets Rock The Moor Twitter)
• Why have a mere t-shirt when you can have a Toyah Harrington? Take a look.
• Toyah is mentioned in The Digital Fix review of Doctor Who: Ace Adventures DVD box set. (Someone needs to tell them that “Toyah wigs” are back!)
• The UK Top 40 on the day that ‘Four From Toyah’ entered. Many of those singles bring back many memories… (Thanks to PJ)
Tonight ‘The Changeling Resurrection’ reaches Bristol, for the second gig of the tour, playing at The Tunnels. Following the Brighton concert, Bristol is sure to be another amazing night of Toyah music and visuals. A special mention for someone who is attending and deserves to have a great time… have a brilliant gig Lee Jones! (Photos © Andy Sturmey)
This is an interesting interview from around the time of ‘The Changeling’ album and the UK tour. Toyah and Joel talk the music, the imagery, the fans, the songwriting, sex appeal and much more. Toyah also explains the origins of the “breast bared” photo(s) and why it was taken.
“I’d like to have Bo Derek’s body and someone else’s brain…”
It wasn’t until my third interview in nine weeks with Toyah that I felt confident enough to broach the subject of sex. As casually as I possibly could, I suggested to her that compared to other female artists ranging from Kim Wilde to Kate Bush to Souxsie, her image contains virtually no sex appeal, despite being a young, vivacious, attractive girl.
“I think, supposedly onstage, there’s much more sex appeal than in the photos” she counters. ” But I couldn’t do an Annabella (Lwin of Bow Wow Wow), I couldn’t show parts of my body…”
WHAAAT!! There’s that infamous pic of you with one breast bared and daubed with painted circles which has appeared almost everywhere from Sounds and Punk’s Not Dead to The Sun!
“Oh the ‘boob photo’ that’s the only one that exists, and no one knows why that was done” she offers matter of factly.
• Continue reading at the ‘Dreamscape Press Archive’ here.
The, vaguely strange, tv programme Toyah guested in back in December 2005 on E4, Rajan And His Evil Hypnotists, is repeated later this month for the first time in over six years.
Toyah is interviewed by someone who seems to think they are hypnotised, resulting in an amusing discussion. She has no idea the “interviewer” is hypnotised. Post interview, Toyah says: “I’ve just been interviewed by someone who didn’t seem to be completely giving me their attention.”
Rajan And His Evil Hypnotists: 4Music
Wed 25th April: 11.35pm/Mon 30th April : 11pm
Rajan and his evil team make a grown man petrified of Santa Claus, while 80s pop star Toyah has a most unusual chat show experience – with no idea that her host is a hypnotised member of the public. Other trance subjects drink vinegar, pour ice down their trousers, arrest the over-60s for underage drinking, and regress to being a three-year-old child in a supermarket.
A huge thank you to Stephen for his review of The Humans at The Scala, and for the photos also:
On arrival at the Scala the signs of Mr Fripp’s well known intolerance for illegal recording, were noticeable in the form of a large number of hand printed poster notices from ‘The Humans’ stating that “no unauthorised photography or recording of any kind would be permitted or you will be asked to leave”. Harsh perhaps? But frankly refreshing to be at a gig again without being confronted by a sea of mobile phone screens shining back at you and distracting from the act in hand. The act in this case being Toyah, Bill Reiflin, Chris Wong and ‘Mr Willcox’ as the guest man at the back.
After a no doubt talented, but rather middle-of-road support artist, Robert commenced the proceedings solo with one of his trademark soundscapes. I have personally always found watching RF perform to feel slightly voyeuristic and at times the hushed reverence can be uncomfortable (maybe a “good evening” would help ease the audience in). However he is always impressive whether you are a fan or not, and at times I was wondering how such sounds could be coming from a mere guitar. During the piece, as reported, a shout of ‘Cmon Toyah’ could be heard, presumably from someone imagining the opening bars of Good Morning Universe would perhaps be next – erm, nope.
Please click here, or above, for the full review and larger versions of the pictures.
