Dreamscape – Toyah Willcox Fansite

The centrepiece of this years event is a Quadrophenia 40th Anniversary reunion

Stars of retro TV and film will be descending on Coventry later this year as Covcon returns.

Coventry’s very own Comic Con will be back for a third year this September. The centrepiece of this years event is a Quadrophenia 40th Anniversary reunion where a number of the cast will appear to sign autographs and take part in photo opportunities.

Guests already confirmed include Mark Wingett, Toyah Willcox and Garry Cooper with more to be announced over the coming weeks.

The event will also pay homage to British classics such as Dad’s Army, Yes, Minister, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads, Doctor Who and more with guests such as Ian Lavender, Derek Fowlds, James Bolam and John Leeson set to appear. Organisers say many more famous names will be announced before the show opens.

• Continue reading at the Coventry Telegraph.

Sci-fi film by Nuneaton movie maker could hit screens in 2015

Film-maker Simon Cox has high hopes of seeing an ambitious project hit the screens later this year. His full-length sci-fi movie Kaleidoscope Man is now nearing completion – after two years of fund-raising, putting together an impressive cast and shooting scenes on locations throughout the Midlands.

Mr Cox, whose Alpha Star Productions company is based in Nuneaton, said: “We have around 45 per cent of the movie in the can and it looks really amazing. “We’re planning a big shoot in early March when we will film another battle scene in Birmingham – which will include using genuine military tanks in the city centre.”

Kaleidoscope Man is an all-action adventure story which stars Lucy Drive, Simon Haycock and 80s pop legend Toyah Willcox.

• Continue reading at the Coventry Telegraph.

It was the mid-70s. The Bee Gees had discovered disco, Queen were breaking the mould with Bohemian Rhapsody and that tartan clad boy band from Scotland The Bay City Rollers were driving parents to distraction and their teenage daughters to the state of near hyperventilation!

Never the less, the moguls of the music industry were watching from afar green eyed with corporate jealousy. They all wanted what Bell Records had in The Rollers, and for one Coventry born A&R man his wish was about to become a reality, and he didn’t have to go to far to find it!

… It was pretty obvious the band had now reached its sell-by date and it was over as quickly as it began. Steve Bray joined The Toyah Willcox band, and appeared on her two first albums The seminal Sheep Farming In Barnet and The Blue Meaning.

• Continue reading at the Coventry Telegraph.

Simon Cox is seeking financial backing for ambitious sci-fi thriller ‘The Kaleidoscope Man’

Film-maker Simon Cox is seeking financial backing for an ambitious sci-fi thriller, which he says “is starting to look like a Hollywood blockbuster.” Simon is based at Nuneaton’s Centenary Business centre and already has half of the project in the can, but now needs investors to come on board to help him complete the next phase.

His feature-length movie is called ‘The Kaleidoscope Man’ and last year he transformed his studio into the set of an International Space Station, while another scene had 700 people screaming through the streets of Birmingham from an onslaught of attacking alien spaceships and outdoor shooting has also taken place in Kenilworth.

…Eighties pop star Toyah Willcox and TV drama actess Lucy Drive both have parts in “Kaleidoscope Man” which is being put together through Simon’s Alpha Star Productions company.

• Continue reading at the Coventry Telegraph. View a photo Simon posted at Facebook of himself and Toyah. Become involved by donating to help the film progress at Indiegogo.

The ‘Coventry Telegraph’ also has a new interview with Toyah:

Pop Icon, Toyah Willcox Takes New Band On The Road

The lady in the thigh-high boots and flaming basque-cum-breastplate is unmistakably Toyah Willcox – the stack-heeled wench with her back to camera requires a tad more explanation.

“Ah yes,” says Toyah, “that’s John Wayne! He’s actually a transvestite who owns a nightclub in Stoke-on-Trent – I met him because he’s a Toyah impersonator and now he’s my PA.

“He was there when we were making our video and the director said ‘right John, get your gear on, we’re filming you’.”

Toyah (the surname has been superfluous since It’s A Mystery provided her breakthrough hit in 1981) supplies the information in a matter-of-fact tone which confirms that the bizarre is perfectly normal in her world…

… Artists can sometimes get decidedly sniffy if interviewers attempt to pin down their sound, but Toyah, fortunately, warms to the suggestion that there is a Brechtian feel to The Humans’ music.

“That’s a nice comparison,” she says. “It’s not 100 per cent because there’s a lot of energy and we’ll be playing some new stuff which is very Seattle grunge, but it is a listening experience rather than the ‘come on everybody sing along’ when I’m out there as Toyah. And, yes, it is a bit dark and bleak – the Humans’ world is permanently in winter!”

That being the case, long-term fans expecting a quick chorus of Thunder In The Mountains or Brave New World will be disappointed.

“We will be doing some hits, but they’re not Toyah hits,” she says. “That’s not a possibility because we are so peculiar – it’s not a band set-up – it’s two bass players and a guitar and vocals.”

Read the full interview online at ‘Coventry Telegraph’ here.