A new review for Revelations, published on 31st August, by Liverpool Sound and Vision.
Toyah: Revelations. Box Set Review
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
King’s Heath in Birmingham might not be that well known to anyone outside of the second city, but it has produced an astonishing number of people to whom art and sport have been fortunate to have graced the suburb, to have been influenced by the leafy green former village and the possibility of being part of a new breed of hero for the post-war generation.
Part of that incredible rebellious, heroic stance comes from Toyah Willcox, the chameleon look ever changing, a woman to whom no was just a two letter word that deserved a choice set of words in return, and who was perhaps the most wonderful sense of anarchy that anyone could ever hope to find in a period that produced the most exuberant of punk, this was the crowned Queen for Birmingham’s youth.
Following on from the Cherry Red boxset release from 2025 of Chameleon: The Very Best Of Toyah, the brand have really gone to town and brought to the public’s attention a set of CDs in Revelations detailing a huge swathe of tracks that were lost, unreleased, hidden away, and now lovingly restored to their rightful place in the Toyah pantheon of music.
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Toyah: Chameleon: The Very Best Of Toyah
Box Set Review
From humble beginnings of a young girl from Kings Heath in Birmingham, the rebellious nature shone through early with acts that thrill the heart such as setting off a multitude of clocks from underneath the stage of her school that disrupted a speech from the then Education Secretary Margaret Thatcher, and which led rightly to her being hailed within a few short years as the Queen of the British Punk movement.
It is in that reassurance of Time shaping our future without our realising that those who hear the ticking of the clock act with a kind of urgency that commands attention, that regards even a minute wasted as a tolling bell ringing out the laments of lost opportunities and creative despair; a kind of passing of the moment that would never resurface.
The be the best in the world you have to take it on, the ticking of the clock that signals each beat of a life’s intended mission, the chameleon’s camouflage adapting, changing, altering with every circumstance and yearning, of breaking free…this is the heartfelt and honourable belief that comes from every pore of the Cherry Red release of Chameleon: The Very Best Of Toyah.
• Continue reading at Liverpool Sound and Vision. See links to other Chameleon: The Very Best Of Toyah reviews here. Buy the album on 3CD/Bluray Boxset, 2CD & Double Vinyl at Cherry Red.
Toyah: Live At Drury Lane. Album Review
Liverpool Sound and Vision 8.5/10
In one of the great mysteries of life, the fans of one of Birmingham’s finest musical ambassadors, the scintillating and unique Toyah Willcox, have always been left wondering why one of the most memorable performances of her early career was never given the aural treatment it deserved. Why it seemed to appear on every other format except the one it mattered on, the vinyl love it required to truly capture an icon at the height of her powers and majestic best.
Toyah: Live At Drury Lane has become an almost mythic like tale, one of a queen riding into battle to take on the scourge of beige mediocrity, the uniform of men in suits and the screaming banshees of dull complexity. That tale of mythic, even legendary proportions has been mostly lost, the format used at the time that framed the evening as lost as the mists that have enveloped our lives as our bodies have been eroded by tide and the fears of those who wish us to be servient to the commonplace.
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