Dreamscape – Toyah Willcox Fansite

An award-winning singer will be performing at a Bristol venue with a full live band in what promises to be an evening packed with hit songs.

Toyah Willcox has amassed 13 top-40 UK singles in a career which has spanned 35 years, recording 24 studio albums to date. Between 1977 and 1983 she fronted the band Toyah, before embarking on a solo career in the mid-1980s.

She has also appeared in a variety of film and television roles, including Quadrophenia and Secret Diary Of A Call Girl. Signature songs Morning Universe, Thunder In The Mountains and It’s A Mystery are all sure to feature in this electrifying live show.

Toyah: Loud, Proud and Electric will be performed at Bristol’s The Fleece at 7pm on November 5, with support acts yet to be confirmed.

• Continue reading at the Weston, Worle & Somerset Mercury.

Celebrating the forthcoming 30th anniversary of the release of Toyah’s debut solo album MINX. View a larger version of Dreamscape’s fan art by clicking on it and another image here.

• Toyah Willcox is topping the bill for this year’s Music in the Park

• The 56-year-old is headlining the annual event in Vale Park

• Toyah is best known for her 80s solo hits including It’s a Mystery

Popstar, author and presenter Toyah Willcox has been announced as the headline act for this year’s Music in the Park. The 56-year-old is top of the bill for the free outdoor music event in Vale Park, Aylesbury on Saturday August 29.

“I am thrilled to be playing Live in the Park” Toyah Willcox

Toyah will be on stage at 8.30pm and she said she is very excited to be performing in the town.

Toyah said: “I am thrilled to be playing ‘Live in the Park’ in Aylesbury! “It will be a wonderful, fun day with great music.”

• Continue reading at the Bucks Herald.

Toyah Willcox to play Uplands venue with band The Humans

Homo Sapians began to evolve 200,000 years ago, but The Humans first appeared in Estonia in 2007.

The band is fronted by Toyah Willcox, who first announced herself to British cultural consciousness in the late seventies, first in Jubilee, the seminal piece of punk celluloid, and then forging her own solo musical career with a string of top 40 UK hits during the eighties, an explosion of colour and energy.

• Continue reading at the South Wales Evening Post.

A great new interview with Toyah, published yesterday, by UK Music Reviews.

Toyah Willcox, singer, songwriter and lead vocalist with The Humans chats with Kevin Cooper about how The Humans got together, acting in Quadrophenia, her solo acoustic tour and the tour of the UK with The Humans.

Toyah Willcox, singer, songwriter from the 1980’s and actor, formed The Humans in 2007 after her husband, Robert Fripp was too busy to perform at the birthday party of the President of Estonia. Having written a forty minute set, and toured Estonia with it in 2007, The Humans have since released three albums.

We Are The Humans was released in 2009, with the follow-up Sugar Rush being released in 2009. The latest album, Strange Tales was released in March 2014. As they prepare for a six date tour of the UK to promote The Humans, Toyah is also busy with her own acoustic tour, she is heavily involved with The Flashback and Rewind Festivals, as well as working on a new Toyah Willcox album together with her successful acting career.

Taking time out from her busy life, she had a chat with Kevin Cooper, and this is what she had to say.

• Continue reading at UK Music Reviews.

Singer Toyah Willcox with be coming to Kent next month with band The Humans.

The Humans’ third album ‘Strange Tales, recorded in Pearl Jam’s studio, is available digitally now and will be available exclusively on CD at the six UK tour dates. The band is the brainchild of Toyah Willcox and brings together three lifetimes of musical experience, experimentation and craftsmanship.

Ms Willcox is best-known for being a household name since the early 80s with platinum selling-albums, a string of top 40 UK hit singles and screen and stage roles alongside Katharine Hepburn and Laurence Olivier.

Bill Rieflin is a respected figure from the us music scene and was the live drummer for rem for over ten years. Most recently he played drums on the Robbie Williams album Take the Crown and the no1 hit single Candy.

Chris Wong is a Cambridge-born musician and a professional guitarist, bass guitarist, arranger, orchestrator, composer and musical director. Alongside band work Chris musically directs extensively in musical theatre. His debut solo album The Edible Suite reflects his interest in jazz/funk/rock.

The Telling Strange Tales tour comes to Chatham On April 19, at the Britannia Theatre. For tickets call 0844 858 6656 or visit www.thebritanniakent.com. Tickets cost £20 on the door, or £15 in advance (plus a booking fee).

• Continue reading at Kent News.

Toyah guested on Philip Solomon’s Music and Memories show last night on WCR FM, chatting about her forthcoming Acoustic, Up Close & Personal gig at the Robin 2, Bilston in Wolverhampton. She also talked about her early life in Birmingham, husband Robert and more.

• The full show, and interview, is available at the WCR FM website on their Listen Again page. Toyah appears at approximately 17 minutes into the programme.

Christmas 2010, and The Hazel O’Connor Collective, which included Toyah as one of the main vocalists, released the lovely Re-Joyce (In The Bleak Midwinter). Proceeds from the single went to Myton Hospice in Coventry where Hazel’s mum, Joyce, received care and treatment for cancer.

The track was also released on CD, and alongside the main single mix, some special solo versions were also released digitally, including Toyah’s. Re-Joyce reached the Top 10 of the Amazon UK Music/Singles chart.

Toyah Willcox and her band are set to perform at Yardbirds Rock Club in Grimsby

Princess of Punk Toyah Willcox is heading to Grimsby’s Yardbirds Rock Club next year. The star will perform at the Church Street venue on Friday, March 6.

Toyah and her band had a number of hits in the eighties including Four From Toyah, Thunder In The Mountain and I Want To Be Free before she embarked on a solo career. She has had thirteen top 40 singles, recorded twenty albums, written two books and has also presented TV programmes such as Watchdog and Songs Of Praise.

Toyah has also appeared in a number of stage productions including the rock musical Vampires Rock which was performed at Grimsby Auditorium in 2009.

Tickets for the gig – which is part of her band’s greatest hits tour – go on sale this weekend priced at £18.

• Continue reading at the Grimsby Telegraph.

Forever a member of the exclusive Mononymous Club, Toyah is perhaps best known to most today as a TV personality appearing on quiz shows and umpteen celebrity reality programmes.

To others she will always be remembered as the once wild woman of British mainstream pop who in the early Eighties broke the mould for female singers who previously only sang songs about unrequited love. Starring roles in iconic films Quadrophenia and Jubilee cemented Toyah’s reputation as being bold and rebellious further still.

Gigging consistently since the beginning of her career the interestingly titled latest tour, Songs From The Intergalactic Ranch House, named after her original fan club, is a retrospective celebration spanning the 1979 release of her debut album, Sheep Farming in Barnet through to her last solo studio album In The Court Of The Crimson Queen.

• Continue reading at the Bristol Post.

Toyah was interviewed on myPod with Dom Chambers on ‘Somer Valley 97.5 FM’ yesterday. The interview is available at the station’s Listen Again page (at 37 minutes in).

The show was based around this weekend’s upcoming Great British Alternative Music Festival 2014. Toyah plays this on Sunday and she talks about what music she will be playing at the gig, her vinyl collection, Dexter Brown and his Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! painting, how younger generations perceive the original punk/new wave eras, the process of her songwriting in the present day for The Humans and solo, her television work including Shoestring, memories of the early music career and how punk changed things, and the line-up for this weekend’s festival.

There was also a play of ‘It’s A Mystery’ – The interview lasts for approximately 17 minutes. Listen to it here. There’s also a brief trailer for the station, recorded by Toyah, at Soundcloud. “Get ready to pogo!!“

Greatest hits, fan favourites and cult classics will feature when former punk princess Toyah headlines Bilston’s Robin 2 on Friday October 25.

Fans can look forward to classics like Thunder In The Mountains, I Want To Be Free and It’s A Mystery when the Brummie star takes to the stage for her Love Is The Law show, which will feature songs from her last studio album, before she embarked on a solo career.

Willcox was bullied at school because she had a speech impediment and was short – however, that spurred her on to become a star.

Toyah said: “Yipeee, it’s show time.Interestingly I already know the songs inside out. Whereas The Changeling took months to learn, Love Is The Law is still firmly in my head from 1983, which was one of the happiest and most fulfilling years of my life.”

• Continue reading at Native Monster.

A new press report, and video interview, with Toyah from the beginning of the tour last week.

Toyah talks touring to mark an album which became a career milestone

A paragon of punk is hitting the road to mark 30 years since an album which marked a milestone in her career. Toyah Willcox said recording the Love is The Law album in 1983 was one of the happiest times of her life however it was to be the last studio album with her band.

She went on to a successful career as a solo artist, actor and TV presenter and is now ready to revisit Love is The Law on a tour with a set list which will also include all her biggest hits, new songs and fans’ favourite tracks.

• Continue reading at The Shuttle. Watch the interview at You Tube.

• The Alan Titchmarsh Show: Toyah guested on Alan’s ITV1 Afternoon chat show on Thursday 4th October, chatting about music from the Sixties. The full programme is still available to view at ITV Player for the next couple of weeks.

• Toyah and Derek Jarman: Toyah has contributed a chapter to a new book on Jubilee/The Tempest director Derek Jarman. She has also been offered a film role by a scriptwriter who worked with Jarman.

• Pick Of The Pops (BBC Radio 2: Saturday 20th October: 1pm): Tony Blackburn plays the biggest hits from this week in the charts of 1962 and 1981, with music from Brian Hyland, Ray Charles, Little Eva, Alvin Stardust, Ottowan and Toyah.

• London Evening Standard: Vanity Fair – or a night at Annabel’s: Toyah and Robert photographed out and about in London at the Nicholas Coleridge book launch last week.

• Do Believe The Hype: W 40th Anniversary Issue: Wasikowska channels full on 80s in snakeskin-print Balenciaga (looking like a cross between David Bowie’s make-up and Toyah Willcox’s hair).

• 80s Remix: Toyah – Echo Beach (Extended Surf Mix): Released in 1987, this cover version of the classic hit by Martha And The Muffins was Toyah Willcox’s last single to chart in the British Singles Chart, peaking at #54. The track was released as the lead single from Toyah’s second album as a solo artist, Desire, which failed to chart. One more single was released from the album entitled Moonlight Dancing.

Want to hear what Joel Bogen was doing immediately after his Toyah days?

Apparently ALL music on Exposure is by Joel, that’s 13 demo tracks by Southside Jimmy! Although I’m still working my way through them for the first time the guitar work is sounding very Joel circa Rebel Run. I really wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if his pal Phil Spalding was on bass too. Sure sounds like him to me!

Anyway this is the closest you’ll probably get to a Joel solo album and maybe a hint of what direction a future Willcox/Bogen album could have taken in 1984.

• Above by Mark Taylor – Listen to Joel, post-Toyah, at Soundcloud.

The darling of punk rock Toyah Willcox and her guitar virtuoso husband Robert Fripp are lending their support to a village fete.

Mr Fripp, of prog-rockers King Crimson fame and who plucked the solo on David Bowie’s Heroes, is opening the Wick fete at 1.30pm on Saturday.

There will be live music from Wyred Up, entertainment by Tyro the Magician, a fun dog show, and lots more at the village near Pershore. Admission is free for children and a £1 for adults, ad no charge for car parking. For details visit wickfete.org.uk

• Continue reading at the Worcester News.

• On This Day: It feels like only yesterday but four years ago today the artwork for Toyah’s most recent studio album ‘In The Court Of The Crimson Queen’ was revealed by toyahwillcox.com. Toyah has recently said that she will be working again with Simon Darlow on a new solo album.

• Lytham Proms: Pat Sharp To Kickstart Lytham Proms!!! Toyah plays this festival which takes place between 3rd – 5th August 2012.

• Brian Aris took some incredible photos of Toyah in the early to mid 1980s. One of those shots is available to buy as a signed print.

• A recent screenshot of Toyah is included at the Track 2 website, in their “head & shoulders” section.

• Apparently there have been rumours that this year’s ‘Rock & Bike Festival’ isn’t going ahead! The official festival website says: The show is going ahead, don’t listen to those rumours!! Gates open Midday on Thursday. Toyah comperes on Saturday and guests on a couple of songs with The Sweet too!

• Toyah was quoted yesterday in an article by GScene on a new exhibition “f20-12” from the GPN: Actress and singer, Toyah Willcox, said: “The Gay Photographers Network Exhibition is a wonderful event exploding with vitality, fun, highly original ideas and inspirational images. I recommend it to everyone. it is one of London cultural gems that brakes taboos and enriches the city’s culture.”

• 2 up-top: Toyah: Anthem & The Changeling: Most people think Toyah Willcox is just some saucy older woman, who loves to talk about sex (FTE: do they?) and is married to guitar virtuoso Robert Fripp, but back in the early 1980’s Toyah was a very big pop star who released two very high quality albums ‘Anthem’ and ‘ The Changeling’; mixing pure pop, punk, dark gothic and prog rock in equal measures.

• Toyah will be compering the ‘Rock & Bike Festival 2012’ on Saturday 14th July…. AND performing as special guest with The Sweet on at least one song….. maybe more. (Source: Toyah’s Official Facebook)

• Win weekend passes for the  ‘Rock & Bike Festival 2012’ from Kerrang! Radio (entry via text message).

• Rest in Peace Donna Summer. Sad news. The Soul and Disco legend passed away today. Toyah covered Donna’s ‘Love’s Unkind’ on her second solo album, ‘Desire’ in 1987.

• Check out The Pauper Kings, aka The Lost Boys from Vampires Rock. View a photo of Toyah. Robert and two of The Pauper Kings doing lunch.

Toyah is interviewed in the latest issue (Feb/March 2010) of ‘Classic Rock Society’ magazine.

Steve Tomlin talks to Toyah Willcox about her latest musical project: The Humans

Toyah Willcox first came into the public conciousness 30 years ago as a flame haired pop-punk songstress bouncing around the Top Of The Pops stage to songs such as ‘It’s A Mystery’, a single I own to this day. You may think her flirtation with fame was brief, but that is not the case. This is a woman of many talents. Apart from continuing to record solo albums, the most recent of which came out in 2008, she has pursued a successful acting career on both stage and screen, remember ‘Quadrophenia’? She’s also been a regular on our TV screens as a presenter and contestant on ‘reality’ shows. As well as all of this, she has undertaken possibly her most difficult challenge, being the wife of Prog Godfather, the reputedly difficult Robert Fripp.

Now she has formed a new band, The Humans, who have an album and single out and are touring the UK in February. I managed to find 10 minutes in the lady’s busy schedule to find out more about this and everything else in her ridiculously busy schedule.

Read the full interview at Toyah’s Official Facebook, here. You may have to register.

Two new live solo (with full band) gigs have been announced by Toyah for March/April 2010, as well as confirmation of the two Pontins/48Hour Party dates we previously mentioned.

An extra “secret warm-up concert” by The Humans (with special guest Robert Fripp) has also been confirmed for February. Please see the Calendar at www.toyahwillcox.com for further information on all of these dates.

The full 2010 live schedule, so far, for Toyah and The Humans is now as follows:

The Humans In Concert 2010 (with special guest Robert Fripp)
Saturday 20th February – Secret warm-up concert – Further info tba
Monday 22nd February – The Assembly, Leamington Spa
Tuesday 23rd February – The Junction, Cambridge
Wednesday 24th February – The Scala, London

Toyah In Concert 2010
Friday 19th March – 48Hour Party, Southport
Friday 26th March – 48Hour Party, Cambersands
Saturday 27th March – The Robin 2, Wolverhampton
Friday 23rd April – The Asylum, Birmingham

From Official Toyah: TOYAH LIVE DATES FOR SPRING 2010
Toyah has announced a busy live gig calendar for Spring 2010 which will see both live dates with her band The Humans in addition to solo headline gigs. The Humans will perform their material for the first time in the UK in a short tour of 3 dates with an additional secret warm-up gig in an intimate venue to be announced nearer the time. Toyah will also perform solo headline gigs with her full band in Birmingham’s Asylum and Wolverhampton’s Robin 2.

The Changeling gives Toyah another Top 100 album this week, with the album landing at #79 on The Official Albums Chart.

The Changeling also places incredibly well in other Official Chart countdowns.

Independent Album Chart at #9, Vinyl Album Chart at #11, Physical Sales Chart at #13, Album Sales Chart at #15, Scottish Album Chart at #19.

• Chart Stats: Toyah has now had eight albums on the Official Albums Chart in the past five consecutive years: In The Court Of The Crimson Queen (2019) #74, Sheep Farming In Barnet (2020) #99, The Blue Meaning (2021) #59, Posh Pop (2021) #22, Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! (2022) #72, Anthem (2022) #33, Live At The Rainbow (2022) #100, The Changeling (2023) #79.

NB. As well as those album stats, the two box sets, Toyah Solo (March 2020), and The Humans: Noise In Your Head (July 2020), both entered a number of the Official Charts, including Sales and Independent.

• Browse Toyah’s Official Charts history, including numerous releases from recent years on a variety of Official Album Charts. Order the Remastered reissue of The Changeling by clicking below.