Dreamscape – Toyah Willcox Fansite

A great, and comprehensive, review of Toyah’s Posh Pop Tour gig on Thursday, at Haslemere Hall in Surrey, from Retro Man Blog.

Toyah at Haslemere Hall, Thursday February 10th 2022

Toyah treated us to a superb career-spanning show last night at Haslemere Hall in deepest rural Surrey, surely one of the poshest places that I’ve ever seen a gig and definitely a very apt venue to host a date on the “Posh Pop” album tour. Even Toyah remarked on how posh the area was, which, given the size and grandeur of Toyah & Robert Fripp’s home was really saying something.

Actually, joking aside, it was refreshing to see a show in a real community theatre, staffed by lovely friendly locals with no over-the-top security or regulations and everyone was extremely helpful. Certainly a bit different from when I saw Toyah for the very first time back in 1981 at the Hammersmith Odeon. So, it was great to see Toyah perform in such an intimate environment and it really suited the Electro-Acoustic line-up which featured Nat Martin on guitars, Chloe Dupree on keyboards, Mike Nichols on bass and Jamie Dupree on guitars and all were superb musicians, really doing justice to the songs.

I loved the new arrangements, they all worked really well and in my opinion “Brave New World” even beat the original. It was nice to hear something different for a change rather than note by note reproductions of songs that we pretty much know by heart anyway.

• Continue reading at Retro Man Blog. Browse all of Toyah’s upcoming Posh Pop Tour, live gigs and festival appearances at toyahwillcox.com.

There’s a great new Toyah feature/review, of last month’s Proud, Loud & Electric gig at The Garage, just published at the Retro Man Blog.

Toyah + The Tuesday Club at The Garage Islington London

So, be honest now, what was your first gig? Mine wasn’t The Sex Pistols at the 100 Club Punk Festival, or The Who at Leeds University Refectory. I didn’t see Iggy smear peanut butter all over himself while crowd surfing at the Cincinnati Pop Festival and I never saw The Clash at the Victoria Park Rock Against Racism Rally. Nope, my first ever gig was Toyah on June 06th 1981 at the Hammersmith Odeon, the “Anthem Tour” in fact and I was 15 years old. Now, why I should feel a little bit guilty admitting this I’m not sure, but you know how snobby us music fans can be sometimes. But as Toyah herself might say, I should be “proud, loud and heard” and not try to cover up the facts just because it might not be thought of as very “cool”. However, your first gig is rather like your first kiss, buying your first 7” single or going to your first football match, it’s something that stays with you forever. Due to many and varied reasons it was impossible for me to get to many gigs in my teenage years so the whole experience of that first live show was magical.

• Continue reading at Retro Man Blog.