Dreamscape – Toyah Willcox Fansite

Toyah’s full interview, from September’s Time Out Live Quadrophenia Reunion is now available to watch at HiBROW: The Arts Online website.

Toyah discusses how she got the part of Monkey in Quadrophenia, the audition process, working with Director Franc Roddam, screen testing with John Lydon, kissing Phil Daniels, filming the huge riot scenes in Brighton, and her memories of the period the film was set in. She also talks about the other films she made during the late 1970s, in particular The Corn Is Green.

• Watch the full interview at HiBROW.

HiBROW: The Arts Online are currently airing a mini Quadrophenia documentary at their website, with footage from last month’s Time Out Live Quadrophenia Reunion and excerpts from interviews. They will be making the full Toyah interview available soon.

It’s 35 years since director Franc Roddam shot ‘Quadrophenia’ on the streets of London and Brighton – and along the way created a classic of British cinema adored by music and film fans alike. Inspired by the 1973 The Who album of the same name, the film tells of Jimmy (Phil Daniels), a troubled west London mod in 1965 who’s struggling in life and love and joins his mates for a dust-up with rockers one Bank Holiday weekend down in Brighton. Last month, HiBROW with Time Out and the London Film School brought Roddam and some of his key collaborators together …

• Watch at HiBROW. View larger versions of the screen caps here.

A trio of Toyah news posts from The Official Toyah Willcox Website:

• TOYAH CONTRIBUTES WRITING TO NEW DEREK JARMAN BOOK: Toyah contributes to a brand new publication Derek Jarman’s Sketchbooks, published by Thames & Hudson this September. Toyah acted in two of Jarman’s features films in the roles of Mad in Jubilee and an Evening Standard Best Newcomer Award-nominated performance of Miranda in the director’s re-imagining of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Toyah wrote the piece for Chapter 3 ‘Jubilee to The Angelic Conversation 1978-1985’ – Continue reading at www.toyahwillcox.com – View further details of the book at Thames & Hudson.

• TOYAH REUNITES WITH QUADROPENIA DIRECTOR FOR SCREENING & Q&A: How has Quadrophenia influenced British cinema and pop culture? Why don’t collaborations between musicians and filmmakers always work this well? And why do we insist on referring to one of the most popular films of its era as a ‘cult classic’? Find out on 23 September at this special screening and discussion, the second in the ‘Classic Cinema: The Reunion’ series presented by the London Film School and Ciné Lumière in association with Time Out Live! – Continue reading at www.toyahwillcox.com – Buy tickets online here.

• TOYAH JOINS V&A CLUB TO CATWALK IN CONVERSATION EVENT: The recently opened V&A exhibition Club To Catwalk features an in-depth look through the fashions, looks and iconic styles of the 1980 and includes a 1981 outfit designed by Melissa Kaplan for Toyah. Toyah will join a panel including Caryn Franklin and Brix Start-Smith at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London on Friday 8 November in an exclusive in-conversation event, designed by women for women. Join Caryn, Toyah and Brix as they bring their thoughts, ideas, experiences and memories to a discussion on women who developed, fused and influenced fashion and music in 1980s London – Continue reading at www.toyahwillcox.com – View further details on the ‘In Conversation’ event here.

Quadrophenia launches the 2013/14 Calgary Cinematheque season, showing this coming Wednesday. Here are a couple of reports.

• CJSW.com: An Outdoor Screening: Quadrophenia: Join us for a one-time-only, outdoor screening of Franc Roddam’s 1979 film, Quadrophenia to launch the 2013/14 Calgary Cinematheque season. Prior to the screening, enjoy the Hillhurst Sunnyside Farmers’ Market, and HSCA member and guest beer and wine garden. “Set against the soundtrack of The Who’s 1973 mighty concept album “Quadrophenia”, Phil Daniels plays working-class Jimmy, the drug-induced Mod, who hates his job and is misunderstood by his parents – Continue reading…

• Calgary Herald: The Poseur’s Guide to Quadrophenia: Mods and rockers should hop on their scooters and motorcycles and get down to the Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Centre Wednesday. Once there, the two camps need to put aside ancient enmities long enough (a little over two hours) to enjoy Calgary Cinematheque’s screening of Quadrophenia, the 1979 film based on The Who’s 1973 album of the same name. Poseurs, on the other hand, need to study up, then hop on the bus or their bicycles – Continue reading…

A new edition of Quadrophenia is released on DVD and Blu-ray next month.

Universal Pictures have commissioned new cover art for a selection of their classic and iconic titles on Blu-ray & DVD in the form of two series: Reel Heroes: superhero films reminagined in a comic-book artwork style and Screen Outlaws: which pays homage to street art and hip hop graffiti from the UK and the USA.

Release Date: 08 April 2013
Special Features: Exclusive Artwork and Artcards

Jimmy is a teenager growing up in the first half of the 1960’s; he rides through London on his scooter, pops pills, is mad about rock and roll and wears a Parka and Levis, nothing to extraordinary about that. But Jimmy’s life comes to an aggressive climax during a violent Holiday weekend controntation between Mods and Rockers on Brighton beach.

Starring: Phil Daniels, Leslie Ash, Michael Elphick, Toyah Willcox. Director: Franc Roddam.

Quadrophenia, which airs this week and next on ITV4, was filmed 35 years ago! It’s as popular now as it ever has been. Here’s a rare promo photo of Toyah. Click to view the original and a couple of “A Way Of Life!” inspired tributes. (Thanks to Andi for the photo)

First Toyah on TV of 2013, and it’s another airing for the legendary Quadrophenia!

Quadrophenia: ITV4: Wed 23rd Jan: 10pm
Quadrophenia: ITV4: Tue 29th Jan: 11pm
The Who wrote and produced this energetic story of a young man disillusioned with his life in 1960s London. Phil Daniels excels as the alienated anti-hero Jimmy Cooper. Director: Franc Roddam. Starring: Phil Daniels, Leslie Ash, Toyah Willcox, Philip Davis, Mark Wingett, Sting, and Ray Winstone.

• View all of Dreamscape’s recent Quadrophenia news updates here. Difficult to believe this movie was shot almost 35 years ago now.

Yet more articles and reviews for the recent Blu-ray (Region A/1) release of Quadrophenia.

• The Criterion Collection: A Whole New Quadrophenia: In this clip from a new interview on our release, Bob Pridden discusses the restoration, for which many tracks were painstakingly reconstructed from scratch, and the excitement of working in multichannel sound.

• Scene Stealers: Criterion ‘Quadrophenia’ Blu-ray Something To Scream About: What a difference a hi-definition reissue makes.

• WhatDVD.net: Quadrophenia: Criterion Collection: Quadrophenia has never looked better on this top notch Blu-Ray transfer. The print is pristine yet still retains the texture of film.

• HollywoodChicago.com: Blu-ray Review: Perfect Criterion Package for Essential ‘Quadrophenia’: “Quanrophenia” is a film that needs to be re-discovered, discovered and savored by all generations, and The Criterion Collection provides the Blu-ray and DVD package that is an honor and tribute to both The Who and the cinematic interpretation of their time-honored rock opera.

• DVD Snapshot: Quadrophenia: The Criterion Collection: Quadrophenia has been on DVD for years, but now it gets The Criterion Collection treatment, fully restored and jam packed with bonus features. The film looks incredibly good restored. For a film this old, the restoration is almost flawless.

• View all of our previous Quadrophenia on Blu-ray 2012 news here.

10 Things I Learned: Quadrophenia, By Susan Arosteguy

2. Quadrophenia was made in 1979, at the height of the British punk movement, and the filmmakers contemplated casting a punk musician as the lead, to lend Jimmy an authentic air of rebellion. They considered Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols for the role, but the film’s insurance company refused to allow him to be cast. Rotten apparently would have turned down the role anyway, saying he didn’t want to “live out any of Pete Townshend’s fantasies.”

4. Wingett and Phil Daniels, who ultimately played Jimmy, were reunited a year after Quadrophenia came out, in Brian Gibson’s 1980 cult film Breaking Glass, starring Hazel O’Connor as a singer in a new wave band struggling to get to the top. The film was coproduced by the future boyfriend of Princess Diana, Dodi Fayed.

• Continue reading at The Criterion Collection.

More articles and reviews for the Blu-ray (Region A/1) release of Quadrophenia, including a feature at ‘GQ’ magazine and a comprehensive article by ‘Movie Metropolis’.

• GQ: God Save The Mods: Director Franc Roddam’s Quadrophenia, newly out on Blu-ray from Criterion, is set in roughly the same era—now half a century ago—as George Lucas’s American Graffiti.

• Movie Metropolis: Quadrophenia – Blu-ray Review: One scene in “Quadrophenia” (1979) captures the absurdity and sincerity of youthful rebellion in all its sure-to-embarrass-you-in-the-future glory. Jimmy Cooper (Phil Daniels) says to his friend Kevin (an incredibly young Ray Winstone), “I don’t wanna be the same as everybody else. That’s why I’m a Mod, see?”

• Gibson.com: Refurbished ‘Quadrophenia’ Out This Week: Looking for a gift for the eternal Who fan” Then you may be in luck, as the restored version of Quadrophenia — the 1979 film based on the Who’s classic 1973 rock opera — is out on DVD and Blu-ray this week.

• The Portland Press Herald: New To Blu-ray: “Quadrophenia”, starring Phil Daniels and Sting. When discussing coming-of-age movies, this 1979 cult classic rarely gets tossed around with widely appreciated youth angst films such as “The Graduate” or “Dazed and Confused.” But the fact that filmmaker Cameron Crowe counts “Quadrophenia” among his favorite films of all time should tell you something.

• Jeffrey M Anderson: Blu-ray Review: Quadrophenia succeeds through its devil-may-care attitude and energy. It feels like a low-budget homemade movie from the period.

Quadrophenia in released on special edition Region A/1 Blu-ray this week by The Criterion Collection. Here are some new reviews and articles focusing on the new Blu-ray.

• Blu-ray.com: Review: (Very comprehensive look at the film, Blu-ray release and extras) As far as I am concerned, Franc Roddam’s Quadrophenia is one of the all-time best British coming-of-age films. It is painfully honest, gritty yet beautiful, superbly acted film.

• The Hollywood Reporter: Quadrophenia: A restored Blu-ray/DVD of The Who’s landmark film recaptures the 1960s.

• Blu-ray Definition: Quadrophenia [Criterion Collection] Blu-ray Review: Going back nearly 50 years in time, Quadrophenia does a creditable job in conveying the fashions and fads of the era.

• The Boston Globe: The Who, why, and how of ‘Quadrophenia’: Flash back to “Love Reign O’er Me” as the soundtrack of a life, as “Quadrophenia” (1979), the immersively scruffy feature riff on the Who’s classic rock opera, arrives this week in a terrific-sounding, meticulously remastered Blu-ray.

• The Globe & Mail: The Mods are back, but who were they? They wore their jackets cut slim and checked, maybe a touch of seersucker and an open neck. They rode Vespa GS scooters with their hair cut neat. They were British Mods. But what does that all mean?

• Criterion Corner: Under The Covers: Criterion sure loves their rock odyssees (there’s this, Head, Spinal Tap, that one where Takashi Miike tortures David Bowie for 2 hours…), and they have done some serious justice to Franc Roddam’s Quadrophenia.

• SLT Today: ‘Quadrophenia’ rocks on Blu-ray: On my ever-expanding list of favorite movies, two titles have shared the top spot since 1979: “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Quadrophenia.”

• DVD File: Review: What sets Quadrophenia apart from the pack isn’t as much its achievement as a ‘rock opera’ but its willingness to play among the fringes of the sub-genre.

An excellent new article on Quadrophenia, and the Blu-ray release, from The New York Times.

“Quadrophenia,” which the Criterion Collection is reissuing in a restored version on Blu-ray and DVD on Tuesday, concerns little more than a skinny 18-year-old West Londoner trying to track down some blues (speed) for one of these seaside gatherings turned tabloid-covered riots. But the emotions that “Quadrophenia” elicits and its role in converting troubled souls to smartly dressed members of a movement (one with its own chant: “We are the Mods! We are the Mods!”) can be as forceful as the waves that open both the film and the Who’s 1973 double album.

• Continue reading at The New York Times.

Those are our three reasons. What are yours? (Erm… 1. Monkey, 2. Brighton & 3. Jimmy!!!)

• The 1980 BBC version of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde has now been released on DVD in Sweden. This release has a slightly different cover to the UK version (released in 2007). The cast includes David Hemmings, Diana Dors and Toyah. View a larger version of the Swedish cover here.

• Derek Jarman’s 1979 version of The Tempest is just about to be released on Blu-ray (Region A/1) for the first time. There’s a new review of the film at the Criterion Cast website: A less easy choice however came in the casting of Miranda, which went to punk rock mega-star (and also star of Criterion-approved Jubilee also from Jarman and the soon to be released Quadrophenia) Toyah Willcox. Always seen as a virginal young woman, Willcox’s punk rock persona far from fit the character, but her performance was really quite entertaining, and the relationship between she and Williams’ Prospero is vital and engaging.

• A larger version of The Tempest Blu-ray cover is also now available. View here.

• Qudrophenia Region A/1 Blu-ray: Read more details on this forthcoming release at Modculture: As they say “You can get a UK Blu-ray already, but the Quadrophenia Criterion Collection Blu-ray release is a considerable step up from that.”

• Also at Modculture: View a limited edition Quadrophenia poster by Piper Gates Design, and read a new article on the movie by Eddie Piller.

The film airs on TV at least once every couple of months, most recently on BBC4, STV, ITV4 and Sky Indie, it’s just about to be released on Region 1 Blu-ray, and it seems to be as popular now as it was when first released 33 years ago! Quadrophenia! Here are a few rare items related to the film that I’ve spotted over the years: An advert for the soundtrack album; Japanese promo poster for the film; Japanese movie program, a car bumper sticker; and the Quadrophenia poster magazine. View a larger version of these and the full poster mag.

This evening is Quadrophenia/The Who night on ‘BBC Four’. Beginning at 9pm.

Quadrophenia is showing on BBC4 at the end of this month.

Quadrophenia: BBC4: Friday 29th June: 10.10pm
The Who wrote and produced this energetic story of a young man disillusioned with his life in 1960s London. Phil Daniels excels as the alienated anti-hero Jimmy Cooper. Director: Franc Roddam. Starring: Phil Daniels, Leslie Ash, Toyah Willcox, Philip Davis, Mark Wingett, Sting, and Ray Winstone.

The film may be available on ‘BBC iPlayer’ post-airing.

Quadrophenia is also coming to Blu-ray in the US later in the year. Blu-ray.com have the film listed for release, through The Criterion Collection, with more information than there is for The Tempest.

Quadrophenia (1979)
London, 1965: Like many other youths, Jimmy hates the philistine life, especially his parents and his job in a company’s mailing division. Only when he’s together with his friends, a ‘Mod’ clique, cruises London on his motor-scooter and hears music such as that of ‘The Who’ and ‘The High Numbers’, he feels free and accepted. However, it’s a flight into an illusionary world.

Quadrophenia (August 28th, 2012)
• New high-definition digital restoration of the uncut version
• Original 2.0 stereo soundtrack as well as an all-new 5.1 surround mix, supervised by the Who and presented in DTS-HD Master Audio
• New audio commentary featuring director Franc Roddam and director of photography Brian Tufano
• New interview with Bill Curbishley, the film’s co-producer and the Who’s co-manager
• New interview with the Who’s sound engineer, Bob Pridden, discussing the new mix, featuring a restoration demonstration
• On-set and archival footage
• Behind-the-scenes photographs
• A booklet featuring an essay by critic Nick James, a reprinted personal history by original mod Irish Jack, and Pete Townshend’s liner notes from the album

Quadrophenia is showing on STV in May. The channel airs in Scotland but is available UK wide via Sky.

Quadrophenia: STV: Tuesday 8th May: 00.10am
Quadrophenia: STV +1: Tuesday 8th May: 1.10am
The Who wrote and produced this energetic story of a young man disillusioned with his life in 1960s London. Phil Daniels excels as the alienated anti-hero Jimmy Cooper. Director: Franc Roddam. Starring: Phil Daniels, Leslie Ash, Toyah Willcox, Philip Davis, Mark Wingett, Sting, and Ray Winstone. Also airing on STV HD.

Quadrophenia, as with Jubilee, is a film that has grown in popularity in the decades since its’ release. Starring Phil Daniels, who gives an incredible performance as, central character, Jimmy, the film boasts one of the most famous and iconic movie “line up” promotional photos, instantly recognisable and used on various posters over the years. Toyah plays Monkey alongside Leslie Ash, Mark Wingett, Phil Davis, Ray Winstone and numerous others. It’s worth noting that Quadrophenia and Jubilee, films focusing on punk and Mods, are two of the biggest “youth” movies of the 1970’s. Toyah has the distinction of appearing in both.

Quadrophenia is to show at the ‘San Francisco International Film Festival’ next month. The 55th prestigious festival runs from 19th April – 3rd May.

Tommy (1975) may be Pete Townshend’s most famous rock opera, but Quadrophenia (1979) is his most personal. In the hands of director Franc Roddam, the tale becomes a kitchen-sink drama of near-vérité realism and a timeless tale of teenage alienation and identity. “I don’t wanna be the same as everybody else. That’s why I’m a Mod,” says Jimmy (Phil Daniels), the parka-wearing, scooter-riding London teenager who spends his days at a dead-end ad agency job and his nights grooving to the likes of The Who.

Held each spring for 15 days, the ‘San Francisco International Film Festival’ is an extraordinary showcase of cinematic discovery and innovation in one of the country’s most beautiful cities.