Toyah guested on Parkinson on BBC1 in October 1981. This was at a time when Michael Parkinson’s chat show was still considered the best of the “talk shows”. Toyah appeared alongside legendary comedian Dave Allen. She talks about her childhood and upbringing, time at The National Theatre, her imagery and hairstyles, music career and more.
The full Sky Trax Toyah Special. This aired in 1985 around the time of the release of ‘Don’t Fall In Love (I Said)’. It’s a great programme, hosted by one of Toyah’s biggest supporters in the 80s, Peter Powell. This was a one-hour show with Toyah talking about her career, including Glitter, Jubilee, Katharine Hepburn, Quadrophenia, the early live gigs, 1981 and a lot more. Sky Trax was a music show, with a variety of hosts including Radio 1 DJs, covering music from all over Europe. It aired on ‘Sky Channel’, Europe’s very first satellite channel (which began as a cable channel in 1982) and was renamed ‘Sky One’ in 1989. View larger caps here.
There are now just five days to go until the premiere gig of ‘The Changeling Resurrection 2012’ tour.
Click below to view Toyah’s 1982 feature on Nationwide. This originally aired in early July 1982 on BBC1, and includes a great interview with Toyah. She talks about her career, music, acting, individuality, her lisp and much more.
There are clips from ‘At The Rainbow’ Shoestring and the ‘Brave New World’ video,
What is significant about the Nationwide clip is that it contains the only, known, footage of 1982’s ‘The Changeling Tour’ as no other video recordings seem to have been made (strange when two full concerts were captured, and televised by the BBC, the previous year). Some of the rehearsals were filmed for inclusion in the programme’s piece and there are brief clips of Toyah performing ‘Dawn Chorus’. The stage set looks great onscreen! (Thanks to Andi)
Life & Times of Toyah Willcox aired in either late 2000 or early 2001 (can’t remember!) on BBC1. Vanessa Feltz interviews Toyah about her life and career. Unfortunately this is incomplete. I rescued just over 20 minutes (of approx 26 minutes) from a damaged DVD and thought I’d upload it anyway as it’s worth watching, there’s not too much missing and it includes numerous clips and photos from Toyah’s career. Click on the caps to view larger versions.
2012 is a significant anniversary year for two of Toyah’s albums: It is, of course, the 30th since the release of ‘The Changeling’ (1982) and also the 25th since ‘Desire’ (1987).
Aside from this vague connection there’s a more explicit link for the two albums, the songs ‘Dawn Chorus’ and ‘Moonlight Dancing’. In 1982 Toyah performed the former on BBC1’s 6.55 Special (think The One Show with the added bonus of Sally James) and towards the close of the song added new lyrics that weren’t included on the album version. This “alternative” version of ‘Dawn Chorus’ was never performed again, and it wasn’t until the release of ‘Desire’ five years later that ‘Moonlight Dancing’, which the new lyrics were an excerpt from, was heard again.
‘Moonlight Dancing’ probably didn’t even exist as a fully formed song at this point in time, though both were written by Toyah and Joel Bogen. It’s interesting, though, that these few extra lines from 1982 went on to become part of one of Toyah’s finest singles and forged an ever lasting link between two very different Toyah albums…
20 years ago! An interesting and honest interview from This Morning in 1992. Richard and Judy talk to Toyah about Memoirs Of A Survivor, her childhood, privacy, the press, fans, the recent Anthony Clare radio interview, being a parent and more. View the full interview below or at ‘You Tube’ here. Click on the screen caps for larger versions.
The aforementioned Formel Eins appearance. ‘Don’t Fall in Love (I Said)’ in all its glory!
Toyah guested on BBC1’s Ask Aspel on 16th June 1981, talking music, songwriting, acting, presenting and answering viewer’s questions. Includes clips from the ATV docu and The Tempest. Not great quality but interesting all the same.
I hope to occasionally bring you some rare Toyah footage. Here’s Toyah performing ‘Danced’ live on Friday Night Saturday Morning in 1980. The also performed ‘Mummies’.
The full edition of Tonight with Jonathan Ross, which originally aired on Channel 4 in January 1991, with Toyah guesting is available to watch at ‘You Tube’. Watch here and click below to view larger versions of the caps.
