Age won’t change Toyah Willcox: ‘We’ve never stopped being rockers, we are just rockers in a different time and place’
Toyah Willcox says she’s far more than a punk princess
Born out of a lockdown-powered creative burst, Toyah Willcox and musician husband Robert Fripp’s weekly online Sunday Lunch videos have quickly become regular news events.
Cheeky, audacious, entertaining, and even eye-watering, each episode has been attracting hundreds of thousands of views.
But if you think they’re big now, wait till you hear what’s next.
‘We are developing a stage show and a movie is in development as well,’ reveals Toyah, adding that the duo are even considering an album.
‘But once you get into a studio situation you’ve got to rethink everything, and how people will experience that in an album form.
‘It’s not a no, but it takes an awful lot of consideration.’
• Continue reading at the Metro.
Terrifying moment ghost hunter is throttled by aggressive spirit living inside Toyah Willcox’s attic: ‘Get away from him!’
A ghost hunter is throttled by a malevolent spirit while investigating paranormal activity inside the home of singer, actress, and ‘80s pop icon Toyah Willcox. Yes, really.
In a Metro.co.uk exclusive clip from upcoming scenes filmed for Celebrity Help! My House Is Haunted, paranormal expert Barri Ghai is left coughing and gasping for air as he’s confronted by an aggressive ghost called George.
It all kicks off when Toyah leaves Barri and his colleagues Ian and Jayne for the night as their investigation starts shaping up to be one of the team’s most active cases yet.
Rigging the house with fixed cameras, the group attempted to reach out to George, who swears at them. After an unnerving start, they go upstairs to the attic when they hear a violent growl on Barri’s recording device. Suddenly, the audio begins picking up snippets of the spirit mentioning Barri by name and telling the trio to ‘get down.’
• Continue reading at the Metro. Celebrity Help! My House Is Haunted is streaming from tomorrow on Discovery +
Toyah was interviewed in Tuesday’s Metro, in their “Sixty Seconds” feature, talking about Posh Pop, Proud Cabaret, Sunday Lunch, Robert Fripp, Billie Piper and more.
• Read the full interview at The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive. (Thanks to Minna)
Frightfest goes virtual: Our pick of the UK film festival, which runs this week
Heckle – A 1980s-themed Halloween weekender attracts an unwelcome guest in a horror featuring Toyah Willcox and Steve Guttenberg.
• Continue reading at the Metro. (Photo of Toyah in Heckle © Voodoo Productions)
Toyah Willcox didn’t realise feminist aspect of Quadrophenia but now calls movie ‘liberating’
Toyah Willcox didn’t realise the feminist aspect of Quadrophenia while filming the cult classic. The 61-year-old played Monkey in the 1979 hit – a party animal who was in control of her sex life as well as being a constant supplier of drugs to her friends.
When chatting to Metro.co.uk, the star reflected on the character and how liberating it was to play her. She told us: ‘At the time I wasn’t aware of the feminist aspects of it. It was quite a schizophrenic time. I got signed to a record label was working on another movie, then working on Quadrophenia.’ She laughed: ‘Everything was going absolutely ballistic.’
• Continue reading at the Metro.
Quadrophenia cast threatened strike as Trevor Laird ‘couldn’t be seen with white girl’
The cast of Quadrophenia are currently celebrating the cult film’s 40th anniversary. But while the classic was progressive for its time, it turns out the movie could have been a whole lot more radical. Opening up on what went down behind the scenes, Trevor Laird, who played Ferdy, recalled the moment he was told he couldn’t be seen with a white girl.
Yes, that actually happened.
… Toyah Willcox who was sat next to Trev and played Monkey in the 1979 movie, chirped up: “I don’t know if you know, but we talked about going on strike because of that. All these walls were being knocked down, and here we were having to keep to a really bad tradition.”
• Continue reading at the Metro.
Quadrophenia cast spill BTS antics as they reunite to celebrate 40 years of cult film
The cast of Quadrophenia have reunited to celebrate 40 years since the cult movie was released. And what an evening it was.
Returning to Shepherds Bush, where the much-loved classic was filmed, the likes of Leslie Ash (Steph), Garry Cooper (Peter), Phil Daniels (Jimmy) and Toyah Willcox (Monkey) joined Lauren Laverne to talk all things mod. Phil Davis (Chalky), Trevor Laird (Ferdy), Gary Shail (Spider) and Mark Winget (Dave) were also in attendance to discuss the key themes of the plot, as well as spilling a number of backstage antics.
• Continue reading at the Metro. (Photo © Metro/Joe Newman/PinPep)
Toyah is interviewed in today’s print edition of the Metro.
The singer and actress loves walking from Regent’s Park to Kensington’s museums and wants to live by the BFI
Is there an area of London that you love?
The South Bank, because my first experience of London was the National Theatre in 1977. I was 18 when I joined the National, and Ian Charleson, who played Eric Liddell in Chariots Of Fire, introduced me to (film director) Derek Jarman who lived on Butler’s Wharf so lots of my formative years were spent in the area. In the late 1970s it was nothing like what it’s like now, it was derelict, there was no sign of any money going in. The National was ground-breaking for being built there at that time. Today, it’s still my favourite part of London. It’s vibrant, you have the arts on tap, it’s multicultural, it’s interesting and I love the architecture. If I could afford to I would live right next to the British Film Institute.
What are the most memorable London Stages you’ve performed on?
The Olivier (theatre) at the National Theatre is a sacred space to work in and I was one of the first people to perform on ‘the revolve’ (revolving stage) which was built in 1976, in the play Tales From The Vienna Woods. It was the first play to use the revolve, which was in its embryonic stages, and kept breaking down. When it broke it had to be operated manually by hand. The other stage is Wembley Arena, which I’ve done once. It was a dream come true. I love playing arenas and, as a performer, you have to have ticked off Wembley. It was big, it was loud, it was beautiful.
• Continue reading at Twitter. (Thanks to Talent 4 Media)
Toyah was interviewed earlier this month, in Metro‘s “60 Seconds With”, discussing Aaaaaaaah! and more.
The actress and singer, 57, is starring in a dark British comedy where all the characters act like wild apes.
Your new film, Aaaaaaaah!, is brilliantly bonkers. Why did you say yes to a movie about humans behaving like apes?
It was a clever. well structured, brilliant script with absolutely no respect for anything. It was fabulously complex and incredibly rewarding to do. But I never thought, ‘What the hell have I got myself into?’ because it was a team of really great comedians (including Julian Rhind-Tutt and Julian Barrett) and so they had licence to do something as mad as this.
How do you describe it to your friends?
The first thing I say is, ‘Don’t go and see it!’ I’m 57, so my friends aren’t that much older than me. I said, ‘If you can’t handle vomit, poo, semen, gratuitous sex and gratuitous violence, this isn’t for you,’ and they say, ‘Oh God we’ve got to see this film!’
What was the maddest scene?
It was a kitchen scene. I cook for my husband (musician Robert Fripp) three times a day and so to do the cooking scene was very natural. But to do it where there are no social norms and no hygiene is a very different thing. To do a cookery scene while watching telly with one of the most brilliant interpretations of food porn I’ve ever seen and then to take a crap in the corner – I just thought it was utter genius… Read more…
• The Guardian: This Week’s New Films: AAAAAAAAH! (18) (Steve Oram, 2015, UK) Steve Oram, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Toyah Willcox. 79 mins – In this highly original comic horror fable from Sightseers co-writer and actor Steve Oram, modern-day London is populated by a tribe of grunting, ape-like humans – Continue reading…
• Derby Telegraph: The Flowerpot celebrate 20 years of live music at the venue with an enticing autumn season: RAW Promotions celebrate 20 years of bringing great live music to The Flowerpot , in King Street, Derby, with a landmark autumn season which launches tonight. It kicks off this evening with late 1970s mod revival band Secret Affair and over the next four months goes on to feature 70s/80 punk starlet Toyah Willcox – Continue reading…
• Brutal As Hell: Festival News: Full Line-Up for Mayhem 2015 Revealed: It sure is horror festival season here in the UK – we’ve got another line-up to reveal today, from the fine folks at Mayhem. We’ve already gawped at the amazing unmade Dracula script-reading that the Nottingham festival has planned, and now they’ve revealed their full schedule and cor, is it good… – in addition to the previously announced opening and closing films, Aaaaaaaah! and The Invitation – Continue reading…
• Metro: 21 things you only know if you grew up in East Kent: It was once known as the Garden of England, and even though it has lost the title now, you have fond memories of a bucolic childhood – taking long walks in Bluebell Wood and summer days at Minnis Bay – There was Howletts Zoo, the Whitstable Oyster Festival and a fading soap actor starring in the panto to turn on the Christmas lights. We had Toyah Willcox once, and Wizadora – Continue reading…
