Dreamscape – Toyah Willcox Fansite

• Queer Pagan Punk: BFI Derek Jarman retrospective: As mentioned yesterday, Toyah guested at this event last night. She tweeted: “fabulous night at @BFI Southbank Jarman retrospective. Loved it. The audience really liked The Tempest“.

• My Vintage: It’s a great upcoming weekend for Toyah fans, not only is she guesting on Sounds Of The 80s (see below) but Sunday sees the premiere of the My Vintage, Toyah and Robert special, which I know a lot of people are looking forward to seeing.

• Sounds Of The 80s: BBC Radio 2: Toyah guests on this show on Saturday night. Toyah tweeted on Tuesday: “I’m Sara cox’s special guest on this sat’s sounds of the 80s @BBCRadio2 10pm“. Listen live at the Radio 2 website or catch up at BBC iPlayer post-broadcast.

• Live 2014: Toyah played her first live date of the year on Sunday. A PA at the Ultimate 80s show in Skegness, with a host of other 80s bands. She tweeted: “In skeggy. Just met Annabelle from Bow Wow Wow 4 1st time! Musical Youth think im a Toyah Impersonator. BOYS! Lol“.

• Busy Toyah!: This “newsy bits” update wouldn’t have been possible without Twitter. Our penultimate post is this tweet from Toyah on how busy she is: “Crazy 2 weeks. Feel like I’m on a bob sleigh run with no shoes on! Acoustic rehearsal\press\tv\scripts\talks….Aaaahhhhhhhhhh“.

• Photos: View larger versions of each of the photos above at Twitter, Instagram and The Official Toyah Website, respectively. (Photos 1&3 © Toyah Willcox Ltd, 2 © Vintage TV)

She’s our Vintage TV presenter and princess of punk and he’s played with Bowie and Blondie and is one of the world’s greatest guitarists. Now Toyah Willcox and her musician, composer and record producer husband Robert Fripp, of prog rockers King Crimson, invite us into their Worcestershire home for a joint My Vintage (16th Feb, 5pm), giving a fascinating and intimate insight into the records they are both passionate about and telling the tales behind their top tracks. What a couple! What a coup for My Vintage!

• Visit the Vintage TV website. Toyah and Robert are also currently pictured on their Home page. (Photo © Vintage TV)

Vintage TV have uploaded the new advert for the forthcoming Toyah Willcox & Robert Fripp special of My Vintage which premieres this Sunday at 5pm. The advert has been airing on the music channel over the last week. View it at You Tube by clicking on the screen caps below,

My Vintage: Vintage TV: Sunday 16th February: 5.00pm
My Vintage: Vintage TV: Thursday 20th February: 10.00pm
Toyah and Robert. New! Husband and wife team, punk princess Toyah Willcox and guitarist and record producer Robert Fripp, invite My Vintage viewers into their home for their top record picks. (NB: This is being advertised as “Part 1”, so it looks like there will be a further programme…)

• Dark Night Of The Soul With Julie: Toyah and Fripp’s ‘The Discourager of Hesitancy/The Encourager of Precipitation’ from The Lady Or The Tiger was included in Julie’s playlist last night on WFMU – View the full list here…

• The Fripps at Christmas: Great festive photos of Toyah. Robert and Willyfred in the Christmas Day entry at Robert Fripp’s Diary – View here…

• My World Of Music: Toyah – It’s A Mystery: This track formed part of an E.P called Four From Toyah. Released early in 1981 it was Toyah’s breakthrough hit single after several years of building up a large fan base. It wasn’t like anything she had released before – Continue reading…

• Three Sides Of The Coin: Toyah’s new film had its first screening last night. View our recent news on the film here.

• Lytham St Annes Express: Lowther all set for a new look: Lowther Pavilion is set for a new look when the curtain goes up again at the Lytham theatre after its three-week winter break… Toyah Willcox and Ruby Wax are among a wide variety of attractions to follow – Continue reading…

• Metro: 60 Seconds – Paul Young: Paul mentions Toyah in this new article: It’s the same with Toyah Willcox’s hip – she could have damaged that – Continue reading…

Dreamscape posted news about this before Christmas, and now PROG magazine have put the article, and recipe, online.

In this month’s mag, we printed Robert and Toyah’s recipe for Christmas cake. If you missed it, here’s the winter fuel for a Crimson King…

• Continue reading at PROG magazine.

Not strictly Toyah news but she is mentioned in the article, as is fellow Human Bill Rieflin.

King Crimson unveil new-line up and 2014 tour plans

Robert Fripp has unveiled a new incarnation of King Crimson.

Speaking to Uncut, Fripp said: “King Crimson is returning to active service. We are on-call to be ready for a live performance on September 1, 2014. Seven members. Four English, three American. Three drummers. It’s a different configuration of King Crimson than before. Some are familiar names, maybe more than others.”

This line-up – the 8th in the band’s history – will be Fripp, Gavin Harrison, Bill Rieflin, Tony Levin, Pat Mastelotto, Mel Collins and Jakko Jakszyk.

• Continue reading at Uncut.

• It’s A Mystery: Following on from the fantastic ‘Mystery’ (Soft Mix by The Sonic Healer) comes another two, unofficial, remixes of ‘It’s A Mystery’, both just made available online this week. These don’t stray too far from the original, simply just extending the classic song. Listen at Magnum’s 1980s Extended Edits & Remixes.

• Uncut: Robert Fripp steals the show in David Bowie documentary: I don’t know if you saw it, but BBC2’s David Bowie documentary, Five Years, screened at the weekend, was very entertaining.

• Louder Than War: Top 10 Punk Rock Films: Jubilee: Derek Jarman’s 1978 film is as utterly ridiculous and campily bizarre as one of the several strands of early punk itself, Jubilee is a fascinating and ageing curio of the times and the reflection of one of the UK’s most imaginative film directors.

• Jubilee Art: While on the subject of Jubilee, some digital art by Neveryan at deviantart.com.

• Tanzi Libre: The original production, Trafford Tanzi, premiered at Contact Theatre in Manchester in 1980 before playing at the Edinburgh Festival and touring. It played at West End’s Mermaid Theatre starring Toyah Willcox in the title role and then later, on Broadway, as Tuebrook Tanzi: The Venus Fly Trap, starring Debbie Harry with Andy Kaufman as the Referee.

• Night Fever: Meanwhile in the 90s, Toyah and Sam Kane perform ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’ in this, long forgotten, Channel 5 show presented by Suggs.

• Daily Mail: David Bowie’s biggest fans reveal all: Five unique people, five remarkable encounters with Ziggy Stardust are revealed for the first time in a new TV film: Robert Fripp 1977. (Click below to view a larger scan – Thanks to Lärwi)

• Dangerous Minds: Cute Couple Alert: Robert Fripp & Toyah Willcox on ‘All Star Mr & Mrs’: They’d only just met a second time in 1985, but within a week, Robert Fripp asked singer/actress Toyah Willcox to marry him. They did so on Robert’s 40th birthday in 1986, when the pint-sized “force of nature,” to hear him describe his wife, was 28. That they are still very happily wed decades later…

• BBC Radio Bristol: Read a full transcript of Toyah’s recent interview on Laura Rawlings’ show at The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive.

• Song Of The Day (Facebook): Happy birthday to singer Toyah Willcox (The Humans, Toyah, Sunday All Over the World), born today in 1958, in Kings Heath, Birmingham, England.

• Leamington Courier: Toyah returns to tackle the mayhem of housewife life on Leamington stage: After a successful year of causing mayhem and mania at theatres across the UK, the Hormonal Housewives are back and stopping in Leamington this weekend.

• Lancashire Evening Post: Blame it on the hormones: Popstar turned TV presenter and actress Toyah Willcox is coming to Lancaster with smash hit girlie show, Hormonal Housewives. Plus a round up of the region’s theatre shows, performances and events.

• Learn to Paint with Dermot Cavanagh, Teaching Toyah Willcox at Glen Carr Lake, Sligo: Just re-uploaded to ‘You Tube’, this originally aired on BBC2 in September 2001 as Awash With Colour. It features incredible scenery.

Wishing Toyah and Robert a Happy Anniversary, their 27th!, and Happy Birthday too to Mr Fripp. Here is that great photo, one of the first of Toyah and Robert together, taken the year they married, 1986, and also released their first collaboration; ‘The Lady Or The Tiger’.

Wednesday night’s All Star Mr & Mrs on ITV achieved an overnight audience of 4.02m viewers, an 18.6% share of the total TV audience. 107k (0.4%) tuned in on ITV +1.

This is an increase on last week’s first show of the series and will no doubt be higher when the final figures are released next week. (BARB ratings data by Attentional)

• As everyone knows Toyah and Robert guested on tonight’s All Star Mr & Mrs on ITV. It’s now available to watch online (for UK residents only) at ITV Player for the next 28 days. It’s also available at UTV Player.

• The programme will also be repeated on ITV this coming Saturday at 12.30pm.

• STV Player are using a great photo of Toyah in their index of episodes of the series. View here.

• All Star Mr & Mrs Facebook: Backstage with singer Toyah Willcox & husband, guitarist Robert Fripp! – Congrats to Toyah & Robert, they won £5,000 for St. Richard’s Hospice, Worcester.

• Overnight viewing figures for tonight’s edition will be announced tomorrow. Last week’s programme was watched by almost four million people, though that will probably be over 5m when the final figures are released.

• Those Twitter folks were agog, tweeting: “Toyah Willcox & hubby are just so adorable!!“, “Awwww.. How sweet are Toyah Wilcox and her hubby Robert Fripp” and someone who doesn’t know that Toyah is only 54!!,  “I want to be like Robert and Toyah when I’m old“… etc.

• The power of a prime time TV appearance. In the couple of hours after All Star Mr & Mrs aired tonight Dreamscape has had FIVE times as many visitors as it usually does.

• The last fortnight has been quite entertaining. Every time I’ve searched for Toyah news online there have been Fripp/King Crimson fans aghast at this programme lol!

… Long-Distance Relationships

4. Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp

She once famously said: “I see my husband 12 weeks a year.” After marrying in 1986, the 80s punk pop star and the guitarist decided to live separately. At one point they even went 11 months without clapping eyes on each other. Toyah said of their set-up: “We’re never bored of each other, just always thrilled at the thought of meeting up again and leaping into each other’s arms.” Awww, and they say romance is dead!

Toyah and Robert have recorded an appearance and will guest on a forthcoming edition of ITV’s All Star Mr & Mrs.

Phillip Schofield hosts and each week three celebrities with their partners compete against each other to try and win money for a charity of their choice. Each couple receives a carriage clock whether they reach the final or not. (Thanks to Paul Lomas)

• Fade 2 Grey: It Should Have been A Hit: Toyah, Soul Passing Through Soul, 1985: Very much in the vein of Bowie´s Heroes but still a great underrated single from Toyah. It should have been a bigger hit for her. It only reached a UK no 57. Minx fared better peaking at no 24. This was from her album Minx. I also love her cover of Sympathy which I have also included, and from the same album. Great sleeve too.

• Toyah Instagrammed a great photo of Easter bunny Willyfred yesterday. He even now has his own Appreciation Page at Facebook.

• Robert Fripp’s Diary: A huge thank you to Robert for linking to Dreamscape’s reports on Toyah’s traffic woes in his great online diary, sending the site numerous new visitors over the last week.

• Bexhill-On-Sea Observer: Sketch comedy show starring UK pop icon: Following 2012’s celebrated reception as they caused mayhem and mania in theatres across the land, the irrepressible Hormonal Housewives are back at the White Rock Theatre on Saturday, April 20.

• The (Sydney) Telegraph: The return of the mullet and the girl who got the chop: It seems this long-buried monster, last spotted upon the heads of footballers like Chris Waddle and Kevin Keegan, DJ Pat Sharp and rock chicks Kim Wilde, Toyah Willcox and Suzi Quatro, seems to have been disinterred, and is now uber-cool.

The full transcript of Toyah and Robert’s Love and Marriage interview, which aired on BBC4 earlier this month, is available at The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive. The full episode is also available to view online at You Tube. (Thanks to Lärwi)

• A rare Safari Records promo photo from early 1979, which includes the first and very quickly changed Toyah logo, has recently appeared on eBay.

• Blog Critics: DVD Review: Quadrophenia – The Criterion Collection: There is no question that this is the definitive edition of the film, and if you have a 5.1 system, the sound of it is absolutely incredible.

• DPRP News Blog: Robert Fripp quit music: Toyah is mentioned in this news article on Robert: His last live outings were in 2009 when he performed with wife Toyah Willcox’s band the Humans and toured with Theo Travis to support the duo’s Threads album.

• Themusic.com: Toyah is also mentioned in, ‘Going For The One, an article on Australian band Greenthief: An Englishman in Byron Bay, Steve James produced everyone from The Jam to The Rutles, Toyah Willcox to The Sex Pistols, Cold Chisel’s The Last Wave Of Summer to Skunkhour’s The Go.

• Toyah on TV: The Most Fertile Man In Ireland is airing again on Sky Movies Indie (& HD), Sunday 16th September @ 9.45am.

• University of Bristol: O Brave New World: This devised performance by final year students is inspired by Derek Jarman’s 1979 film of The Tempest, shot during the winter of discontent, and Jubilee, the punk musical he made a year earlier. View the trailer.

The darling of punk rock Toyah Willcox and her guitar virtuoso husband Robert Fripp are lending their support to a village fete.

Mr Fripp, of prog-rockers King Crimson fame and who plucked the solo on David Bowie’s Heroes, is opening the Wick fete at 1.30pm on Saturday.

There will be live music from Wyred Up, entertainment by Tyro the Magician, a fun dog show, and lots more at the village near Pershore. Admission is free for children and a £1 for adults, ad no charge for car parking. For details visit wickfete.org.uk

• Continue reading at the Worcester News.

Happy Anniversary to Robert and Toyah. It’s 26 years since they married, and also since their first collaboration, ‘The Lady Or The Tiger’, was released. Best Wishes from FTE.

Artist and occasional writer, Matt Soffe is just over a third of the way through his year-long portrait blog, and today’s subject is, none other than, Robert Fripp.

…The guitarists’ guitarist, he pioneered the innovation of tape-looping in rock music (christened ‘Frippertronics’), improvised the guitar solo on Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ and devised the sounds for the Windows Vista operating system. He also married Toyah Willcox, came up with the ‘New Standard Tuning’ for guitar and has, to date, released over 700 records.

About the blog: This blog will run for one whole year, and in that time I’ll post a single portrait every day. Each one of these will be drawn in 10 minutes or less (I use the alarm on my phone – as soon as it beeps I stop, press snooze and move on to another one). 10 minutes, that’s it. In that time I’ll try to achieve two things: A quality drawing and a good likeness. I can’t always guarantee either but I’ll be striving for both!