Dreamscape – Toyah Willcox Fansite

Derek Jarman: Protest!, Manchester Art Gallery, review: A fascinating sprint through a fearless career

The exhibition surveys the polymath’s wildly diverse work, from paintings to film, design to drag – and gardening

Film director Derek Jarman had a meteoric impact on British culture in the 70s, 80s and early 90s before his death in 1994. His work spanned low culture and high – Pet Shop Boys videos to Don Giovanni, punk to Shakespeare. Perhaps because in all he sensed the same human urges: sex, power, creativity, cruelty, magic and manipulation, delight in beauty and the urge to self-destructive behaviour.

Painting bookended Jarman’s creative life, and forms the core of Protest! at Manchester Art Gallery. Along the way there are jagged little sorties into his work in set design, performance, film, activism and gardening in adversity. (HOME in Manchester will also run a Jarman film season in the new year.)

• Continue reading at inews.co.uk.

Welcome to episode nine of our Patreon exclusive podcast documentary series, An Uncanny Hour hosted by Robin Ince.

In this episode we look at the life and influence of artist, activist and director Derek Jarman and more specifically his 1978 cult film, Jubilee. Was the film a punk film, a film about punk, or neither? How does it work in tandem with Jarman’s activism as a leading campaigner against Clause 28 and the homophobia of the time and how is it still relevant today?

Robin Ince talks about his affection for Jarman’s work and talks to:

Musician, actor and one of the stars of Jubilee, Toyah Willcox | Creator of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Jubilee performer, Richard O’Brien | Writer, journalist and friend of Derek Jarman, Jon Savage | Performance artist, musician, writer and creator of some of Derek Jarman’s soundtracks, Cosey Fanni Tutti | Musician, writer and front man for The Membranes, John Robb | Comedian, writer and former punk, Charlie Higson

• Continue reading/Watch the podcast at The Cosmic Shambles Network.

Film London Jarman Award announces new Patrons in run up to 2020 Award

Film London has announced eight Patrons of the Film London Jarman Award, honouring and showcasing artist moving image practice, with one month to go until the 2020 virtual Award Winner announcement. Spanning actors, artists, screenwriters and musicians, the Patrons’ work and support will be vital in the development and success of the Award.

The Film London Jarman Award Patrons are: John Akomfrah, Terence Davies, Rupert Everett, Dexter Fletcher, Hetain Patel, Tony Peake, Tilda Swinton, Toyah Willcox.

The Patrons’ expertise, industry knowledge and connection to Derek Jarman in either a professional or a personal capacity will help to introduce artist filmmaking to a wider audience. They will promote and sustain the legacy of Jarman, whose inventiveness and bold ambition is seen in the work of artists practising today and those shortlisted for the Award.

• Continue reading at Film London. (Photo Collage by Film London)

The Film London Jarman Award at a glance

A world-renowned annual prize for artists’ moving image in the UK, established in 2008 | Inspired by visionary artist filmmaker Derek Jarman | Artists are nominated by art and film world experts across the UK each year | A jury of industry leaders select 6 artists for the shortlist | Works by the shortlisted artists are toured to key cultural venues across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland | £10,000 prize money

Film London Jarman Award Patrons
Spanning actors, artists, screenwriters and musicians, the Patrons’ work and support are vital in the development and success of the Award. The Film London Jarman Award Patrons are John Akomfrah, Terence Davies, Rupert Everett, Dexter Fletcher, Hetain Patel, Tony Peake, Tilda Swinton and Toyah Willcox.

The Patrons’ expertise, industry knowledge and connection to Derek Jarman in either a professional or a personal capacity help to introduce artist filmmaking to a wider audience. Together they help promote and sustain the legacy of Jarman, whose inventiveness and bold ambition is seen in the work of artists practising today and those shortlisted for the Award.

“I consider myself extremely lucky to have worked with Derek Jarman, not only on the movies Jubilee and The Tempest, but also to have been present in his personal life. To have seen first-hand his creative processes and above all to learn from him what it is to live by the rule ‘no compromise’. This is the Jarman that inspires me so much today, not only a great visionary, artist, writer and collector of ideas, but a man who saw beyond class, gender, even intellect, into the very important stories of each individual’s soul.” – Toyah Willcox, singer, writer and actor

• Continue reading at Film London. (Photo © Toyah Willcox)

Info from Saturday’s third instalment of Toyah At Home, which aired at Toyah’s official You Tube channel.

• It’s A Mystery: from Toyah’s second EP was the song of the morning. She talked about her reaction when first hearing the song, written by Keith Hale of Blood Donor, and how it ultimately changed her life.

• The Humans: “It’s Humans day!!” said Toyah, and a very quick look at all of the Toyah & The Humans releases – Four vinyls and a great box set. Toyah mentioned Bill Rieflin wanted to call it “The Humans’ Greatest Hits”.

• Derek Jarman: Toyah talked about her experiences working with the late writer/director on the films from her early career; Jubilee and The Tempest.

• The Tempest: Detailed discussion on working on this film. Lots of memories from Toyah, including two wonderful keepsakes Derek Jarman gave her at the end of filming, and playing Miranda as a wild child. Toyah said: “The Tempest for me was one of the most important films of my career“, and her introduction to Shakespeare.

• Making Movies in Los Angeles: Toyah talked about relocating, or more to the point not relocating, to the USA for acting work, and whether her younger self would have done so now if she had the opportunity.

• Glastonbury: The experience of playing the legendary festival (in 2016) but never attending it as a festival-goer!

• Most Haunted: Toyah chatted about the various haunted homes she has stayed in, and the activity generated within them.

• In The Fairground: Interesting chat about the song from the 1981 EP Four More From Toyah; its origins, what the lyric is about, and how it relates to today.

• In The Fairground: Toyah said: “I listened to that and thought, wow this track, it’s really nice. I could probably sing it a lot better now than I did back then. Back then we were on tour, we had to deliver for Christmas. It was 1981 and was pretty much made in between live shows, and I think I could develop that now much better for the acoustic show“.

• New Studio Album: by the Toyah band of now? There are a number of obstacles, including geography, finances, the ongoing pandemic, but “It’s a possibility” Toyah said.

• Telepathic Lover: Live archive footage of this great song from Four From Toyah: Birthday Edition EP and 2019’s In The Court Of The Crimson Queen album. Toyah said: “One of my favourite songs live. I just love the groove and when we’re on stage, this is the Toyah band at their best. It’s absolutely fabulous“.

• Ask Toyah: Toyah said “Please keep those questions rolling in. It’s really good to do this. I love, I love It, I love it! They are wonderful!“.

• Toyah at Home: This week’s show was promoted on Toyah’s official Instagram with a rare Four From Toyah era photo (directly above).

• See you next week for Toyah At Home #4.

• Let’s Rock 80s Lockdown Fest: Toyah is taking part in the Let’s Rock 80s Lockdown Fest on Saturday 16th May, 7-10pm… Tune in from your home

• Official Toyah: Unicorn Bolero Sunday Lockdown Lunch #toyahwillcox #robertfripp #bolero #unicorn #lockdown – Continue watching…

• BBC Archive: #OnThisDay 1981: Toyah Willcox and Chris Phipps crowned the winner of The Poser competition on Look! Hear! – Take a trip back to the 80s…

• Big Issue North: In The Frame – Derek Jarman: Best known as a film-maker, Jarman was also a diarist and artist. From pop to politics, his work epitomises 1980s culture but remains vital today – Contnue reading…

• Hero Magazine: Jubilee, Mouth Music and Magnolia: In Jubilee, Derek Jarman tells the story of a time-travelling Queen Elizabeth who arrives in 1979 to find her kingdom destroyed by punks. It’s a gloriously unhinged celebration of chaos, where hierarchy is demolished and renegades are given free rein – Continue reading…

Derek Jarman (1942-1994) is known as one of our most poetic and anarchic film-makers and artists, as well as a prominent gay rights activist. He started his career as a stage designer, working as Ken Russell’s production designer for “The Devils” 1971.

Art Fund needs to raise £3.5m by 31 March 2020 to purchase Jarman’s Dungeness house, Prospect Cottage, and to establish a permanently funded programme to conserve and maintain the building, its contents and its garden for the future. More than 25 years after his death, Prospect Cottage continues to be a site of pilgrimage for people from all over the world who come to be inspired by its stark beauty a Jarman’s legacy. The cottage and its contents are now being sold following the death in 2018 of Keith Collins, Jarman’s close companion in his final years, to whom he bequeathed the cottage.

More than 3,000 people have donated to the Art Fund’s campaign to save Prospect Cottage in its first two weeks. Find out more and donate on the Art Fund website.

Book tickets for Glitterbug fundraising screening
To help with the cause to save Jarman’s cottage, we’re screening his 1993 film Glitterbug on Sunday 22 March at 4.30pm. The event will include a special introduction by Derek Brown, Art Director (The Garden). Glitterbug features Adam Ant, William S. Burroughs, Michael Clark, Duggie Fields, Derek Jarman, Andrew Logan, Genesis P-Orridge, Tilda Swinton and Toyah Willcox.

• Continue reading/Further info at the Electric Palace website. Visit the “Save Prospect Cottage” Art Fund campaign page here.

English woes – Derek Jarman’s apocalyptic visions of England are as relevant as ever

In The Last of England, a collection of autobiographical sketches, diary entries and script notes published in 1987, Derek Jarman offered a ferocious state of the nation address:

Young bigots flaunting an excess of ignorance. Little England. Criminal behaviour in the police force. Little England. Jingoism at Westminster. Little England. Small town folk gutted by ring roads. Little England. Distressed housing estates cosmeticised in historicism. Little England. The greedy destruction of the countryside. Little England.

It’s a passage that encapsulates many of Jarman’s most persistent concerns: national identity, reactionary politics, the representation of the past, architecture, landscape and ecology.

… Jarman’s shoots were renowned for their sense of camaraderie. Toyah Willcox, who starred in Jubilee, said, ‘the whole thing about Derek was that he allowed everyone to learn. He was the most fantastic teacher. There was no elitism, there were no closed doors.’ The emphasis placed on collaboration, thrift and imagination was partly a matter of necessity. For the majority of his career, his films had tiny budgets, though public money from the BFI and Channel 4 was forthcoming from his fourth feature onwards. Jarman’s cinematic ambitions were, however, constantly hindered by battles with producers and funding bodies. ‘The money required to make a film, let alone a consistent cinematic career, can evaporate like snow in June,’ he noted.

• Continue reading at Apollo Magazine.

This New York City Playwright’s Music Video Puts a Fantastical Spin on the Tutu

When New York artist Leah Hennessey starts describing some of the influences of her band’s first official video, “Sleeping Beauty,” you can tell straight away that she’s a pop culture fanatic.

She references comic books like Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles, old fairy tales like Sleeping Beauty—unsurprising, given the song’s title—and deeper cuts like cult director Derek Jarman’s 1979 film The Tempest.

…The ballet look, on the other hand, was loosely based on Toyah Willcox’s costumes in Jarman’s The Tempest. “I was going for a feral balletic ethereality to evoke the fairy-tale aspect of the song,” she describes. Plus, she never before had an excuse to wear a tutu.

• Continue reading at Vogue.com. Browse our archive dedicated to The Tempest.

As previously posted, Toyah plays the Holt Festival 2019 on Friday 26th July – at the Theatre In The Woods.

An addition to the festival schedule that day is a screening of The Tempest, at the Britten Building.

New this year, we’re delighted to introduce Festival Extras – a series of events in addition to the main programme.

The Tempest: Friday 26 July, 4.00pm Britten Building
Tickets available on the door | Running time: 1h 35min
Derek Jarman’s magical 1979 film version of The Tempest starring Toyah Willcox. This screening will be introduced by the film’s producer Don Boyd and Toyah will make a guest appearance.

Each July the festival, whose media partners are the Eastern Daily Press and North Norfolk News, sets the Georgian country town alight with performers, musicians, art exhibitions and literary events. The early announcements include two music stars with many weeks in the charts between them.

• Visit the Holt Festival website. Browse all of our Holt Festival news.

Yesterday was the 25th Anniversary of the death of Derek Jarman. Numerous events were held to mark the occasion including a memorial at The Tate and an unveiling of a new blue plaque in London.

A blue plaque marking the site of the studio where artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman lived and worked in the 1970s has been unveiled at Butler’s Wharf.

Once Butler’s Wharf ceased to be used as a warehouse in the early 1970s, it was rented out to artists and others at low rents. Speaking at the unveiling on Tuesday, English Heritage trustee David Olusoga said: “Jarman’s connection with this building lasted between 1973 and 1979.

“The building suffered a series of fires but it survived. It was converted to apartments, offices and a restaurant in the 1980s.” He added: “Today’s unveiling to Jarman marks 25 years since his death, and February also marks LGBT History Month.

“To me as a filmmaker, Jarman was a pioneer … you felt clever because you watched his films and pretended you fully understood them.”

• Continue reading at London SE1. Browse Dreamscape’s Derek Jarman News Archive.

Jubilee is showing at The Prince Charles Cinema, Leicester Place, London on Tuesday 12th March.

Jubilee | Directed by Derek Jarman
Starring Jenny Runacre, Nell Campbell, Toyah Willcox
1978 | 106mins | UK | rated (15)

Queen Elizabeth I and her occult aide Dr John Dee (brilliantly played by Jenny Runacre and Richard O’Brien, respectively) travel into the future, encountering the megalomania of big business as well as gangs of violent, marauding killers. Derek Jarman is hitting his stride here – and doesn’t spare the shocks – while electrifying punk rock numbers are abrasively delivered by Jayne County and Adam Ant. The mythological past and bleak future converge on the sparse, grey streets of London.

• Continue reading/Further info at The Prince Charles Cinema.

Jubilee is showing at the Harvard Film Archive, at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, tomorrow evening, in a double-feature with Fires Were Started.

Fires Were Started, Humphrey Jennings’ only feature film, is a docudrama centered around a real group of heroic firefighters as they extinguish the destructive blazes of war; Derek Jarman’s Jubilee follows a group of nihilistic punks who love nothing more than to set anything ablaze. In both films the spirit and mettle of the directors’ respective Britains are on display, and Jennings’ heart-heavy optimism is starkly opposed by Jarman’s bitterness. A mythic inferno opposes the British spirit, but may also be the only way to access it as it slips away, and both Fires Were Started and Jubilee explore this in contrasting but similar ensemble narratives.

The Harvard Film Archive (HFA) is a film archive and cinema located in the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

• Continue reading/More info at Harvard Library.

The BFI will release Jarman Volume Two: 1987-1994, its second Limited Edition collection of the iconoclastic filmmaker’s works, in a Deluxe 6-Disc Blu-ray Box Set on 25 February 2019.

Marking the 25th anniversary of Derek Jarman’s untimely passing, the box set brings together Jarman’s final six features – all now presented in High Definition for the very first time in the UK – made in the prolonged burst of creativity and political activism that followed his HIV diagnosis in 1987.

The collection also includes Jarman’s posthumously-released elegy to Super 8, Glitterbug (1994), along with an incredible 66 special features – both new and archival, plus trailers, image galleries of rare stills and promotional materials and a 100-page perfect bound book of essays, film credits and more.

The films included are:
· The Last of England (1987) with Tilda Swinton
· War Requiem (1989) with Nathaniel Parker, Tilda Swinton, Laurence Olivier
· The Garden (1990) with Tilda Swinton
· Edward II (1991) with Steven Waddington, Andrew Tierman, Tilda Swinton
· Wittgenstein (1993) with Karl Johnson, Michael Gough, Tilda Swinton
· Blue (1993): contributing musicians include Simon Fisher Turner, Coil, Scanner and Brian Eno
· Glitterbug (1994) with Adam Ant, Andrew Logan, Toyah Willcox, Marianne Faithfull, William S Burroughs, Genesis P-Orridge and Tilda Swinton

The box set includes a huge selection of Special Features.

• Continue reading at The Arts Shelf.

Jubilee, celebrating its 40th Anniversary this year, is showing at The Electric Cinema in Birmingham on Saturday 28th July at 5.30pm. Click below for further info.

Derek Jarman’s apocalyptic fantasia Jubilee couldn’t have been made in any other decade than the 1970s, shot through with punk aesthetics and featuring turns from Adam Ant, Siousxie & The Banshees and Toyah Willcox.

Filmed during the year of Queen Elizabeth II’s silver jubilee, Jarman’s film sees Elizabeth I and her alchemist Dr John Dee conjure up Shakespeare’s sprite Ariel, who sends them travelling through time to a brutal dystopian version of 1970s London where violent girl gangs roam the capital and Westminster cathedral has been turned into a gay disco club.

Sticking two bloodied fingers up to the establishment, Jubilee is a gloriously messy affair that’s as petty and nihilistic as the punk movement it aimed to simultaneously represent and satirise on screen, whilst Rocky Horror fans will get a thrill from seeing Nell Campbell and Richard O’Brien in Jarman’s eccentric cast.

When Queen Elizabeth I (Jenny Runacre) asks her court alchemist John Dee (Richard O’Brien) to show her the future of England she is transported forward 400 years to 1978. She arrives to discover a post-apocalyptic society on the brink of collapse where girl gangs rove the streets indulging in casual murder, the police are openly fascistic, and public opinion is manipulated by all-powerful media moguls.

Forty years on from its first release Derek Jarman’s Jubilee remains the quintessential punk film, a daring and unique vision, featuring many icons of the punk era including festival guest Toyah Willcox, Little Nell, Wayne Country, Jordan, Adam Ant and many more.

You can attend the May 5th 7pm screening of Jubilee for free if purchasing a ticket for Toyah Willcox In Conversation at 5pm the same day. Call the box office on 01332 290606 to claim this offer.

• Continue reading at Derby QUAD. View the full programme at the Derby Film Festival website. Full info on/Book tickets for Toyah Willcox in Conversation taking place on Saturday 5th May at DFF.

Jarman brings sumptuous visual style and a measure of the punk spirit that informed Jubilee to this cinematic version of the Shakespeare text. Festival guest Toyah Willcox plays Miranda, who has been banished to a desolate island with her father Prospero (Heathcote Williams) by Alonso, King of Naples (Peter Bull). Prospero’s plans for revenge are complicated when Miranda falls in love with the king’s son Ferdinand (David Meyer). If you discount the very loose sci-fi adaptation Forbidden Planet this was the big screen’s first version of the play.

Screening as part of Derby Film Festival. Passes are available which allow entry to all events across the full ten days of the festival for just £80.

• Continue reading at Derby QUAD. View the full programme at the Derby Film Festival website. Full info on/Book tickets for Toyah Willcox in Conversation taking place on Saturday 5th May at DFF.

Following the news that Toyah will be a guest at the Derby Film Festival 2018 on Saturday 5th May – talking about her career in film and on screen – as part of Paracinema, the full programme of films and events has been announced, with Jubilee and The Tempest showing a number of times during the 10 day film fest.

Jubilee (15): UK, 1978: 106m. Dir: Derek Jarman
Saturday 5th May: 7pm, Tuesday 8th May: 12.10pm/8.35pm, Wednesday 9th May: 2.15pm/8.45pm

When Queen Elizabeth I (Jenny Runacre) asks her court alchemist John Dee (Richard O’Brien) to show her the future of England she is transported forward 400 years to 1978. She arrives to discover a post-apocalyptic society on the brink of collapse where girl gangs rove the streets indulging in casual murder, the police are openly fascistic, and public opinion is manipulated by all-powerful media moguls. Forty years on from its first release Derek Jarman’s Jubilee remains the quintessential punk film, a daring and unique vision, featuring many icons of the punk era including festival guest Toyah Willcox, Little Nell, Wayne Country, Jordan, Adam Ant and many more.

The Tempest (15): UK, 1979: 91m. Dir: Derek Jarman
Wednesday 9th May: 12pm/6pm, Thursday 10th May: 1.30pm/8.45pm

Jarman brings sumptuous visual style and a measure of the punk spirit that informed Jubilee to this cinematic version of the Shakespeare text. Festival guest Toyah Willcox plays Miranda, who has been banished to a desolate island with her father Prospero (Heathcote Williams) by Alonso, King of Naples (Peter Bull). Prospero’s plans for revenge are complicated when Miranda falls in love with the king’s son Ferdinand (David Meyer). If you discount the very loose sci-fi adaptation Forbidden Planet this was the big screen’s first version of the play.

• View the full programme at the Derby Film Festival website. Full info on/Book tickets for Toyah Willcox in Conversation.

Blu-ray: Derek Jarman Collection, Vol One 1972-1986

Voyage through an alchemical universe: the magical realm of a flawed English genius

This BFI boxset of Derek Jarman films from the first phase of his career, brilliantly curated by William Fowler, is an exemplary package: a treasure trove of extras accompanies his first six features, here presented in re-mastered form, and a thorough, well-illustrated and thought-provoking 80-page booklet with extensive material about the films and a wealth of essays.

The collection makes it possible to follow the evolution of Jarman as a film-maker, always riding the wave of creative and mould-breaking adventure, from the mysteries of In the Shadow of the Sun (1981), a film that built on much of Jarman’s super-8mm footage from the 1970s, the controversial Sebastiane (1976), through to the explosive punk-inspired politics of Jubilee (1978), followed by The Tempest (1979), surely one of the best adaptations of Shakespeare on film, the avant-garde rigour and homo-erotic delirium of The Angelic Conversation (1985), and the assured and more straightforward account of the rebellious life of the painter Caravaggio.

• Continue reading at The Arts Desk. Read further info on this release here.

Jubilee was on release in cinemas this week & month forty years ago in 1978 after premiering in London on 28 February. (Image © Official Toyah)

How Jubilee Became the Greatest Punk Film of All Time

Today, Derek Jarman’s punk classic turns 40 – to celebrate, we track its journey from notoriety to immortality

“Punks were in the audience screaming ‘THIS AIN’T PUNK!’ and ‘WHAT A LOAD OF BOLLOCKS!’ and ‘SHIT!’” That’s how Jayne County recalled the raucous atmosphere at the premiere of Jubilee, Derek Jarman’s dark sci-fi reckoning with a dystopian England, in an interview from 2011.

County, a veteran of the New York punk scene who cameos in the film, was no more charitable in his own assessment of Jarman’s vision, released in cinemas 40 years ago this month. “Wasted celluloid”, she called it – though the scene she starred in wasn’t half bad, naturally.

• Continue reading at Another Man.