Dreamscape – Toyah Willcox Fansite

A new interview with Toyah, published yesterday, by the Western Morning News.

Toyah aims to make a big impression at festival

Toyah Willcox thrives under the spotlight… and there have been all manner of such illuminations during her three-decade music-making and acting career. From Top of the Pops, films like Quadrophenia, via West End musicals, pantomime, countless TV and radio drama roles, reality shows like I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, to intimate West Coast USA club shows with side project The Humans, there are few performance opportunities the 55-year-old has not embraced.

She is the veritable queen of diversity and reinvention, with almost 20 albums, eight top 40 hits and a myriad acting parts behind her, as well as many honest revelations about her family, her marriage and her facelift.

Tomorrow she and her band will rock the stage at the Great British Alternative Music Festival in Minehead as part of a weekend feast of punk, new wave, mod and ska excellence from original late 1970s and early 80s artists. We’re talking names like the Damned, Buzzcocks, Bad Manners, Eddie and the Hot Rods, Cockney Rejects and The Blockheads.

Tapping into the contemporary thirst for nostalgia with quality credentials, it’s a Westcountry gathering that’s now in its third year. Not only does it attract stalwart original fans, there’s a whole new generation joining the party, fuelled by their parents’ record collections and the vast cultural library offered by Internet trawling.

• Continue reading at the Western Morning News. It’s also been published under the title: No mystery about Toyah’s multi-talented career.

• Live 2014: It’s a busy weekend of gigs for Toyah. Tonight she plays the Tivoli Theatre, Wimborne and tomorrow night the Jazz Cafe, Camden. Both of these are Crimson Queen/Greatest Hits…Live! dates. On Sunday Toyah plays The Great British Alternative Music Festival in Minehead. Further info on that here.

• Plymouth Herald: Here’s Johnny!: Razorlight, The Feeling, Boomtown Rats, Toyah, Heaven 17, The Real Thing and Hayseed Dixie are set to make this year’s Volksfest the biggest and best yet – Continue reading…

• Crimson Queen/Greatest Hits…Live! – Neon Womb, at The Apex on Saturday – View at You Tube.

• 11 Polaroids: Derek Jarman: 21 photographs: It’s 20 years since Derek Jarman‘s (1942-1994) death, but his films continue to inspire audiences with his romantic and subversive imagery – Continue reading…

• Rock Choir: Rock Choir Live at the Birmingham Symphony Hall: Over 1,000 Rock Choir members from across The Midlands present two unique performances of uplifting, feel-good songs, featuring special guests Toyah Willcox and Caroline Redman Lusher – Continue reading…

• Electric Sheep Magazine: Jubilee: To mark the BFI’s two-month season on the work of Derek Jarman, which runs until the end of March at BFI Southbank, Lee Christien takes an illustrated look at one of Jarman’s best and most original films, Jubilee – Continue reading…

Toyah was interviewed on myPod with Dom Chambers on ‘Somer Valley 97.5 FM’ yesterday. The interview is available at the station’s Listen Again page (at 37 minutes in).

The show was based around this weekend’s upcoming Great British Alternative Music Festival 2014. Toyah plays this on Sunday and she talks about what music she will be playing at the gig, her vinyl collection, Dexter Brown and his Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! painting, how younger generations perceive the original punk/new wave eras, the process of her songwriting in the present day for The Humans and solo, her television work including Shoestring, memories of the early music career and how punk changed things, and the line-up for this weekend’s festival.

There was also a play of ‘It’s A Mystery’ – The interview lasts for approximately 17 minutes. Listen to it here. There’s also a brief trailer for the station, recorded by Toyah, at Soundcloud. “Get ready to pogo!!“