Toyah was interviewed this week by the Birmingham Post, in a joint feature with other 80s musicians. Here are a few quotes from the article.
Toyah is part of an all-star Let’s Rock cast of 80s pop artists. Martin Fry and Mark White of ABC. Pauline Black of The Selector. Electro pop pioneers OMD and Level 42’s Mark King.
Flame haired singer Toyah Willcox was a Top Of The Pops regular through the 1980s
“Top Of The Pops was an event, every time,” she says. “It’s a show I used to watch with my family and to actually be on it was an honour.”
“I worked and I worked and I worked and I worked – there was no time for celebration.”
“A hit meant more work and more work; the management kept us going 24/7. The excitement knowing I was at number four in the charts with Four From Toyah/It’s A Mystery was immense. That alone was a celebration. I’d toured five years solidly for that success so, when it came I kept working.”
A rare television advert for the ‘The Birmingham Post’ has just been uploaded to You Tube. It features “Actress, Singer and New Midlander” Toyah and looks like it was filmed in the 1990s. Click below to watch and view larger versions of the screen caps here.
• Birmingham Post: Arson suspected as fire hits Birmingham venue where The Beatles played: Kings-Heath-born Toyah Willcox was the first person to be honoured on the Kings Heath Walk of Fame which was unveiled along York Road last July. Bob Prew, who helped organise the initiative, said the plaque now lies under the building’s smouldering rubble. He said: “It’s devastating because the Ritz Ballroom was one of the major venues in the 1960s.”
• Birmingham Mail: Fire at Kings Heath venue where The Beatles once played: “The roof is totally collapsed. It’s the old Ritz Ballroom . It’s sad for Kings Heath as on Cash Converters – which has collapsed – there was a plaque for Toyah Willcox.”
• BBC News: Ex-Beatles gig venue destroyed in Kings Heath fire: A Kings Heath Walk of Fame, honouring the area’s musical and comedy heritage, had also been planned to start outside the building with a star marking singer Toyah Willcox.
• Buzzfeed: 23 Amazing Smash Hits Covers From The ’80s: Quite clearly the greatest magazine of our time – 7. Toyah, May 1982.
• Telford & Wrekin Council: Hormonal Housewives on tour!: Hormonal Housewives are in Telford as part of their Spring Tour 2013 and you are in for a treat with this hilarious show presented by British pop icon Toyah Willcox.
• An Actor Pantos: Let’s get Critical – The Sequel: SLEEPING BEAUTY, Marlowe Theatre Canterbury: Toyah Willcox and Gareth Gates were the stars and really worked hard for their billing. Willcox especially proved particularly eager to take part and was a very good baddy!
• The Guardian: From Rock’s Backpages: Toyah is namechecked in a newly published retro article at ‘The Guardian’: Neil Tennant on the 1985 Brits – a classic feature from the vaults: The Brits are coming! We’re marking the annual bunfest by reliving Neil Tennant’s visit to the 1985 ceremony for Smash Hits, courtesy of Rock’s Backpages – the world’s leading archive of vintage music journalism… Photographers are in a frenzy in the foyer snapping anyone remotely famous, like Bob Geldof and Paula Yates, Howard and Jan Jones, Meat Loaf, Toyah …
• The Brit Awards: Check out Toyah in the “History” section of The Brits website.
• Media Molecule: On Tuesday evening Google News were listing that over 100 online articles were currently mentioning Toyah and ‘It’s A Mystery’ in relation to the Media Molecule teaser game page. Even the IMDb got in on the action.
• Birmingham Post: Star names of stage and screen pay tribute to 100-year-old Birmingham Rep – Another press report on the Birmingham Rep’s Centenary.
