Dreamscape – Toyah Willcox Fansite

She has been a household name since the eighties, and Toyah Willcox is heading to Gloucester Guildhall tonight (Dreamscape: It’s tomorrow night!) for an intimate gig with her band The Humans.

Toyah isn’t straying far from home when she plays at the Guildhall tonight. The Brummie-born singer lives just over the county border in Worcestershire.

“Looking back on my career I think I’m someone with a good voice who can express themselves,” says Toyah who lives in Pershore with her musician husband Robert Fripp.

“I don’t think you can define it by one subject. I’m a singer and an actress but I’ve also done very well as a businesswoman. But I like to create, I like to sing, I’m very good at that, I’m a good actress but I’m stylised. I can’t lose myself in a role so there’s limitations.”

Outspoken, free-spirited and strong-willed, on the surface Toyah appears to be your typical punk rock star. But she is now known for her smoky, jazz hall vocals.

• Continue reading at the Gloucestershire Echo. Browse Toyah & The Humans’ tour dates.

Toyah Willcox among guests at PJ Crook’s open studio charity event

Toyah Willcox was among the guests at an open studio event hosted by world-renowned artist PJ Crook.

Miniature canvases were sold at the first of two weekends designed to give art-lovers the chance to see a large altarpiece PJ is painting for St Michael and All Angels’ Church in Bishop’s Cleeve. The proceeds from the event at PJ’s Priory Lane studio will be going to the National Star College, LINC, the Friends of Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum and the Holst Birthplace Museum.

Among the visitors were Dame Janet Trotter and 80s pop star Ms Willcox, who lives near Pershore.

• Continue reading at the Gloucestershire Echo.

It is often said that small is beautiful and Toyah Willcox provided indisputable evidence.

In the court of the Crimson Queen, aka the Stroud Subscription Rooms, the diminutive, one-time punk princess demonstrated why after 35 years she still deservedly draws the crowds.

Opening appropriately with Good Morning, Universe, she cruised triumphantly through her greatest hits, strikingly revamped as a frothy acoustic set.

Instead of a full band, the entire performance was powered by accomplished guitarists Chris Wong from her current outfit The Humans, and Colin Hinds, formerly of China Crisis, thrashing out any number of solid chords and sizzling breaks.

• Continue reading at the Gloucestershire Echo.

Singer Toyah Willcox: “I’m no sociopath” as she chats ahead of a gig in Stroud

Conducting an interview can often feel like an odd form of psychotherapy in which you sit your subject down and probe at their personal life, hoping all the while that they’ll bare their soul and somehow thank you for the privilege.

Invariably in an increasingly media savvy, PR-managed and image conscious world, it doesn’t quite work out like that.

Now and again, however, there comes a breath of fresh air who doesn’t want to engage in a banal cat-and-mouse duel. Instead, in the case of singer and actress Toyah Willcox, they’ll be happy to speak their mind.

• Continue reading at the Gloucestershire Echo and/or the Gloucester Citizen.

Toyah And The Humans Gig In Cheltenham Raises Money

A gig by pop punk legend Toyah Willcox and The Humans at St Michael’s Church in Bishop’s Cleeve gave a much-needed cash boost to the building.

The church was packed on February 20 for the free gig which was a warm-up concert before the band kicks off their tour in March. The audience was asked to give a donation to the church fabric fund and more than £1,000 was raised on the night.

Team vicar Mike Holloway thanked the band and everyone who enjoyed the event. “The concert was great and there was a lovely atmosphere in the church,” he said. “It was nice to see it being used like that and it is always good to have live music there.

“If people went along expecting the Toyah of old, it was not that at all. The new stuff is very different.”

The cash raised will be put into a fund for future building work at St Michael’s.

“It was great people were able to enjoy the gig for free and give some money to help the church,” he said.

The Humans, which was launched in 2007, is made up of REM drummer Bill Rieflin, who plays bass guitar, Chris Wong and Toyah’s husband Robert Fripp.

A new Toyah interview, by the ‘Gloucestershire Echo’:

Toyah Willcox And The Humans Come To Cheltenham

Former pop punk star Toyah Willcox has chosen a Bishop’s Cleeve church to kick off her new tour.

St Michael’s and All Angels Church will be filled with fans of the singer, who shot to fame 30 years ago with hits such as It’s a Mystery.

Her new band The Humans will play a free, intimate gig at the church, which has a capacity of 200 people, on Saturday.

Joining the one-time princess of punk on stage will be REM drummer Bill Rieflin.

Toyah, who has had 13 top 40 singles, recorded 20 albums and toured the world, said: “We have a strong association with Bishop’s Cleeve artist PJ Crook.

“And a long-standing relationship with Cheltenham.”

Toyah and her husband, guitarist Robert Fripp, are patrons of Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum and she said her mother, who was a touring dancer, worked in a theatre in Cheltenham before she was born.

This will be her first gig in Cleeve, but Robert has already played at the church twice.

“I am so excited about it,” said Toyah.

Read the full interview online at ‘This is Gloucestershire’ here.