As the bells from St Mary the Virgin rang out at 4pm on Thursday so too, on a sloping swathe of Oxfordshire farmland half-a-mile away, did a fiddle, an acoustic guitar and a mandolin. The sky was filled with threatening white-cum-greyish clouds and a mild drizzle descended but Fairport Convention were already in full flow.
The bass heavy, Eighties, jazz-funk of Level 42 was not up my particular alley. And neither, did I think feel, would be a revival of Toyah’s hits from the same era. But the sassy blonde pixie-warrior-princess delivered a breathless show which even included some pogoing. “Here I am, 57 years-old and I’m still singing the punk stuff,” she gasped between numbers. And singing it pretty well, too.
• Continue reading at the Swindon Advertiser.
Best of the fests: Our guide to 11 top summer festivals
Pull on your wellies and dig out your tent! It’s summer festival season and there’s everything from 1980s retro to world music to entertain you. Flicky Harrison reports
Fairport’s Cropredy Convention
Toyah Willcox joins the merry men and women invited to perform at this year’s Fairport’s Cropredy Convention. The former punk princess has now won her place among the music luminaries selected by folk rock legends Fairport Convention at the Oxfordshire festival.
She joins a line-up including Fish, the former lead singer of Marillion, The Proclaimers, Level 42, Dreadzone and a number of special surprise guests who simply ‘pop up’ in traditional Cropredy style. As host band, Fairport will open the festival which runs from Thursday, August 13, to Saturday, August 15. For more details visit fairportconvention.com/cropredy.php
• Continue reading at the Swindon Advertiser. Browse Toyah’s full gig diary, including all her upcoming 2015 festival appearances, at toyahwillcox.com.
… when she comes to Swindon
Punk princess of the 1980s Toyah Willcox is now trying her hand at stand-up comedy. This spring she is on the road with Hormonal Housewives, a sketch show covering all things woman.
Toyah and her stage cohorts, Julie Coombes and Sarah-Jane Buckley, stop off in Swindon as part of the UK tour next Tuesday.
The singer says she is having a good giggle every night, not just with her mates on stage, but with a whole room full of women on a girls’ night out. “It is like nothing I have done before,” she said. “It is an observational piece, little scenes where women recognise themselves when they are moaning about their men or boasting about their kids. We cover book groups, erotic literature and a gym scene, which is all girlie bad, and the audience love it.”
• Continue reading at the Swindon Advertiser.
