The 1981 POWER Hour!: NOW 80s: Thursday 15th January: 4pm
60 minutes of power pop & rock! Earplugs at the ready as we rewind to 1981 with Toyah, Genesis, Rick Springfield & Meat Loaf.
Celebrity Help! My House Is Haunted: Really: Monday 12th January: 0.00am
Toyah Willcox. Series 1, episode 5. The team undergoes one of the most terrifying investigations yet when visiting Toyah Willcox, who has experienced strange activity in her home ever since she moved in.
Toyah, Robert, Fripp & Eno wished everyone a Happy Christmas on 25th December with a very festive video. Click below to watch at YouTube (Image © Toyah)
The Chase: Celebrity Special: Challenge: Thursday 8th January: 11am
Bradley Walsh hosts the quiz show as four celebrities take on the Chaser. Singer Toyah Willcox, ex-footballer John Barnes, writer Germaine Greer and heavyweight boxer Audley Harrison pit their wits against one of the country’s finest quiz brains in the hope of winning thousands of pounds for their chosen charities.
It’s Christmas Eve! Wishing everyone who has taken the time to visit Dreamscape this year a very Merry Christmas and a Happy 2026 – This year has been yet another incredibly busy one for Toyah, and for me, attempting to keep up with her again on this news page these past 12 months.
I hope you’ve enjoyed our countdown to Christmas, a month packed full of Toyah nostalgia and a few new baubles of info along the way. December always goes by really fast, or at least seems to. I wish it would last longer as it’s such a magical month and the lead up to Christmas is always my favourite time of the year, but I’ve enjoyed updating every day again this month, alongside doing some fun things in my everyday life too.
For the first time in 26 years, I have, not one but, two website Christmas cards for Dreamscape’s Christmas Eve post, and I couldn’t decide which one to post so I’m including both. Well, it is Christmas!
Okay, it’s time to get rocking (and eating) around that Christmas tree – Have a good one! Merry Christmas to you and yours x
The night of Christmas Eve 1981… will always be one of my most cherished Toyah memories, not only because it’s a legendary night from Toyah’s career at the culmination of a year we all remember so fondly, but it also has a very poignant significance to me. This night was the final time I ever saw my Gran before she died, and I will always remember that she actually commented positively on Toyah and the concert before she left on Christmas Eve. I love that the last words I ever heard my dear Gran say were about another woman who has meant so much to me through my life! So, yes, a very personal Christmas memory that I’ve never shared before.
Christmas 1981, Following an incredible year of huge hit singles, gold-selling album, tours, a multitude of images, hundreds of press interviews and numerous television appearances, Toyah closed her/their sensational 1981 by playing the final date of the Good Morning Universe European Tour, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London on Christmas Eve.
This was Toyah’s third, and final, tour of the year, following the College Tour at the beginning of 1981 and the Anthem Tour in the middle of the year. The gig was broadcast live on BBC2 – and simultaneously in stereo on BBC Radio 1 – on The Old Grey Whistle Test – introduced by Radio 1/TOGWT legend, Annie Nightingale – as their annual Christmas Eve concert for 1981, in a schedule that also included everything from a festive All Creatures Great & Small, to an episode of Russell Harty At Home.
The band were: Toyah Willcox (Vocals|), Joel Bogen (Guitar), Adrian Lee (Keyboards), Phil Spalding (Bass Guitar, Vocals), Simon Phillips (Drums). The concert was released on regular VHS (and Limited Edition hardback cover VHS with an Introduction note by Toyah) by BBC Video in 1982.
As part of Cherry Red Record’s reissue schedule of Toyah’s complete Safari Records discography, Toyah Live At Drury Lane was released on double vinyl album and CD+DVD for the first time in May 2023, a fitting full-circle for this legendary and memorable concert.
Toyah was among a small number who received this not inconsiderable accolade during the 1970s/80s golden era of music. Others bands/artists who were gifted The Old Grey Whistle Test festive concert over the years included Elton John (1974), Queen (1975), Rod Stewart (1976), The Kinks (1977), 10CC (1978), Ian Dury & The Blockheads (1980), Elton John (1982), Paul Young (1983).
Toyah would later recall: “I spent one Christmas in complete euphoria after doing the Drury Lane Whistle Test. I can remember driving home to Birmingham that night and it was snowing. Everything was just wonderful and I remained on a high after doing that show for about ten days.“
Toyah’s Theatre Royal, Drury Lane/The Old Grey Whistle Test concert has become an intrinsic and memorable part of Christmas. A legendary event that thousands attended and many millions watched, and remember as such a special moment in Toyah’s career as well as everyone’s Christmas – past, present and, no doubt, future!
Here’s a fab Christmas Eve treat, courtesy of my pal, and fellow Toyah fan, Brian.
An AI video for Toyah’s legendary Anthem album track Jungles Of Jupiter. This is a completely non profit project and created as a fan tribute to Toyah’s inspirational imagery and music. Watch below or at Dreamscape’s YouTube channel.
Toyah has been an incredible inspiration to us, for almost our entire lives. So many friendships that wouldn’t have happened, so much joy and happiness, so much music and creative visuals…
Christmas 1996, Toyah contributed a thoughtful festive recollection of Christmas Times past to the charity publication Once Upon A Christmas (Memories and Recipes From Your Favourite Celebrities). This book is now long out of print and unavailable.
In this delightful Christmas book, a host of our most popular and well-known celebrities from all walks of life have contributed stories, memories, recipes and thoughts about Christmas to make this the most irresistible festive anthology there is… Once Upon A Christmas will help to put – and keep – you in the Christmas spirit.
Toyah Willcox: Broadcaster and Singer
Childhood Christmasses were the most magical. It was the appearance of the Christmas tree that cued two weeks of sheer all-encompassing joy. I’m talking about being four years old. Just able to talk but unable to comprehend the hidden meanings of the words of wisdom from the giants, the adults…
• Continue reading Toyah’s Once Upon A Christmas contribution at Dreamscape’s Press Archive.
It’s Christmas Eve Eve – always been my favourite day of the year… So from me to everyone who reads this, and each and every one of you who has visited Dreamscape in 2025, wishing you a very Merry Christmas Eve Eve and all the best for 2026!
Toyah Willcox coming to Epic Studios in Norwich in 2026
A BRIT Award-winning singer, actor, TV host and film star is coming to Norwich in 2026.
Toyah Willcox has worn many hats during her career, which spans more than 50 years.
She will be entertaining a large crowd at Epic Studios for one night only on May 24, when she will perform songs and tell stories from across her many decades in the public eye.
The “High Priestess of Punk” burst onto the scene in 1976 as she forged dual careers as a musician and actor who featured at The National Theatre and London’s Royal Court.
• Continue reading at Eastern Daily Express. Browse all of Toyah’s confirmed 2026 live dates here.
Toyah’s Sack The Stylist?! Top 30: NOW 80s: Saturday 27th December: 7pm
Toyah’s Sack The Stylist?! Top 30: NOW 80s: Saturday 3rd January: 9am
Pop legend Toyah brings 30 memorable videos featuring a cavalcade of clothing calamities from superstars including Visage, Five Star, Divine, Cher, The Jam, Bananarama, Dead Or Alive, Bucks Fizz, ABC, Depeche Mode, David Bowie, Madonna, Adam & The Ants, A Flock Of Seagulls, Roxy Music, Kajagoogoo, Duran Duran, Grace Jones, Su Pollard, Toyah herself and more in this crazy countdown!
I took another trip up to The Highlands last week for, yes, another festive day out. We had breakfast, and later dinner, at The Great Glen in Fort William and had a Christmassy day in and around the town. Delightful, and of course we took some photos…
• See all our 2025 “tour dates” :) here! (Photos © David Fleming)
Christmas 2012, Toyah guested on Steve Lamacq’s Rock College on BBC Radio 2 as ‘Guest Lecturer’, discussing how absolutely life-changing first discovering David Bowie was for her when growing up in Birmingham in the early 1970s.
Toyah talks about the legendary album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, and of first glimpsing, and hearing, Bowie performing Starman on the music programme Lift Off With Ayshea.
“This was a moment that changed my life forever…”
This was such a great audio clip/opinion piece by Toyah it would’ve been a real shame to just let it disappear after its week on iPlayer back in 2012… so here it is! Click below to listen.
Way Back When! 1981: NOW 80s: Tuesday 30th December: 3pm
60 minutes of lesser heard hits from 1981. Including The Pretenders, Spandau Ballet, George Harrison, Toyah & The Pointer Sisters.
Christmas 2016, Toyah guested on Pop Quiz, which had been retitled Pop Quiz: The Comeback for its, very short-lived, revival.
Pop Quiz, was of course, huge in the early to mid 1980s, a Saturday evening staple, presented by Radio 1 DJ Mike Read, and a must-watch for every music fan. Toyah guested a number of times between 1981 and ’84.
It was the Saturday night smash hit music quiz show that ran for four years between 1981 and 1984. Over 30 years later it’s back, with the original presenter Mike Read hosting the first of two special celebration shows where the biggest pop stars from the 1980s go head to head in a test of their 80s music knowledge. Guests include Toyah Willcox, Tom Bailey (Thompson Twins), Andy McCluskey (OMD), Steve Norman (Spandau Ballet), Mari Wilson and Leee John (Imagination).
The Telegraph said: A blissfully self-indulgent chance to reminisce for pop-pickers of a certain vintage
Who got a lifetime ban from a Manchester hotel for swinging from a chandelier and stealing a zebra? Ginger diva Toyah Willcox. Who bought an Austin A40 convertible so she could poke her beehive hair out of the roof? Jazz chanteuse Mari Wilson. What did this pair have in common? They were both on Pop Quiz: The Comeback (BBC Four), a revival of the retro gameshow which pitted two teams of Eighties pop stars against each other for no apparent reason other than festive fun.
Pop Quiz: The Comeback, episode one with Toyah guesting, aired on BBC Four on Wednesday 28th December 2016.
Toyah talks Christmas… to Greatest Hits Radio! Click below to watch.
Christmas 1984, and Toyah had released no new music during the year for the first time since very early 1979, although the compilation album – on vinyl, cassette and video – Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! (unofficially, and latterly officially sub-titled “All The Hits”, and not to be confused, and never really has been aside from a few chart compilers, with the live 1980 album with the same title) was released in February of this year. This is significant as it was the first ever Toyah hits compilation.
Despite no new music this year, Toyah still appeared in many of the music magazines in 1984, including this Christmas feature from Smash Hits special issue… Smash Hits Christmas Party – featuring Frankie Goes To Hollywood on the cover – published in association with Woolworth – in December: Will You Be Watching The Queen’s Speech? When you jump up after the Christmas Top Of The Pops, is it to stand to attention for Her Majesty or a mad dash to switch off the TV? We asked a selection of pop stars if they’d be tuning in to that speech?
You can read Toyah’s response below, but more interestingly, in retrospect, Toyah appears to be incredibly prescient about the Royal Family…
Minder: That’s TV: Saturday 3rd January: 4.30pm
All Mod Cons. Series 2, Episode 8. Terry tries to help his friend Kate evict some unwanted tenants, but comes to doubt her motives. Meanwhile, Arthur is desperate to get into the property market and tries to sell Terry’s flat without telling him. Guest starring Toyah Willcox and Simon Cadell. Director: Ian Sharp. Also starring: George Cole, Dennis Waterman, Peter Childs, George Layton, Patrick Malahide, Michael Troughton.
Christmas 2025, and Official Toyah recalls Christmas 1980…
Broadcast 45 years ago tonight…. The documentary ‘Toyah’ on ATV
ATV decided to profile Toyah in a documentary, directed by filmmaker Graham Moore. This was a significant
coup for Toyah, securing an hour of prime-time TV as an ‘up and coming’ recording artist. It was produced by ATV, the Midlands franchise of ITV but networked across the ITV regions on 18 December 1980.
The documentary meant cameras followed Toyah’s weekly activity for several months. This included photo shoots, in-store record signings, television appearances including Straight Talk, rehearsals for Nigel Williams’ controversial play Sugar And Spice and band rehearsals at Toyah’s live-in Battersea warehouse ‘Mayhem’.
• Continue reading here… Buy Toyah! Toyah! Toyah!
