Dreamscape – Toyah Willcox Fansite

Born with club feet, a twisted spine and a lisp, all too often Toyah Willcox found herself the butt of the joke. But having exploited this outsider status to find fame as an actress and singer, she had the last laugh. And she’s still chuckling…

In a remarkably eclectic career spanning almost 50 years, peroxide princess Toyah Willcox has topped the pop charts, illuminated the silver screen with movie legend Katharine Hepburn and even dressed up as a giant vegetable with members of the Royal Family. And today, as she celebrates her newfound status as an unexpected social media sensation, with more than 120 million views of her YouTube channel, the 66-year-old is in a characteristically defiant mood.

“My rebellion has always been that I just don’t fit into the norm,” she says from the once-haunted Dorset home she shares with her online partner in crime, King Crimson guitarist and husband of 38 years, Robert Fripp. “And I never will. I don’t think like other people. I don’t move like other people. I’m unique.”

And for Toyah, who first came to public attention in 1979 as the party-loving Monkey in the iconic British mod film Quadrophenia, before launching a hugely successful pop career in the early 1980s, the roots of her distinctive, often-confrontational creativity lie firmly in her challenging childhood.

“Growing up in Birmingham I was disabled and I was treated as disabled, even though I was physically very, very strong,” she explains. “I had a twisted spine, my legs were twisted, I had club feet, and my family referred to me as ‘Hopalong’. I also had a very bad lisp and dyslexia, but even though people would laugh at me, I had grand ambitions and grand ideas from day one.”

Toyah recalls always being the butt of the joke to the people around her. “And that made me grow into a monster – and that monster grew daily,” she states with the ghost of a smile. “My ambitions grew daily because I was being set up for failure from the moment I could speak, but people didn’t see the person I knew.

• The full interview is available to read online here.

Toyah is interviewed in the print edition of today’s Daily Express. Here is some of the interview.

I suffered ageism in my 30s but at 62 I’m treated like a Goddess

“I’ve never had any maternal instinct and it’s always baffled me why I was expected to have children,” she confesses. “I believe you’re born knowing if you want to have kids and I knew that would not be happening.

“The only time I’ve ever experienced ageism was in my 30s, which was a very, very difficult decade. Back then if you were 30 and a woman, you were expected to have babies. But I had a successful career and never intended to have children and I couldn’t get anyone to hear that. People would say to me ‘Well, why are you married?’ and I would say, ‘er, because I love my husband!’

“I was too much of a bohemian to have children and anything that ties me down into one place is a challenge for me. But now I’m treated like a 62-year old goddess. I can say to women, ‘it does get better’ because people see you as having a wisdom they can tap into”.

The Independent recently interviewed Robert Fripp and The Express have published an article of cherry-picked quotes from the piece:

Toyah Willcox husband: The secret to 30 year marriage is separate HOUSES – and naughty sex

TOYAH WILLCOX has revealed the secret to her happy marriage is separate houses – as well as plenty of naughty sex.

Toyah Willcox is a four time Brit Award nominated singer who has had eight Top 40 singles and released more than 20 albums. The 61-year-old musician from Birimingham is also an author and actress, having written two books and appeared in more than 40 stage plays and 10 films – and now she will compete on BBC’s Pointless Celebrities. She married guitarist Robert Fripp, known for position in progressive rock band King Crimson, in 1986 – but why has Toyah said the secret to marital bliss is separate houses, and ‘very naughty’ sex?

Toyah Willcox, 61, has had a very lengthy career, since fronting band Toyah in 1983, before embarking on a solo career.

As a singer, songwriter, and actor, she has achieved many accolades, but one of her happiest achievements was meeting her husband Robert Fripp. The couple met at a charity lunch, first in 1983 and then in 1985.

Speaking to the Independent, he said: “My life really began when I met this little creature and she became my wife. It was like an arranged marriage. We didn’t know each other, but it was perfectly clear to me within a week of knowing Toyah that she was the woman I wanted to be my wife – just as I knew within a fairly short time of having a guitar in my hands at the age of 11 that this was going to be my life. We got to know each other within the commitments and vows of marriage.”

• Continue reading at The Express.

Toyah Willcox: “I was high in the charts yet had to punch sex pests to be left alone”

Eighties singer Toyah Willcox was groped and sexually harassed during her pop heyday and had to be chaperoned to protect her from sex pest club bosses. The star, who had hits with It’s A Mystery and I Want To Be Free, has revealed a string of shocking encounters at the beginning of her career.

At a club where she was performing, she was warned that the owner expected to sleep with her and was urged to have an escort to the toilets. In another encounter, a director asked her to remove her top during an audition, forcing her to walk out. Toyah also fended off sex pests by punching them and reveals that the pressure to be thin was so great that she was weighed by a dietitian before being on Top Of The Pops.v The singer, who has just released the album In The Court Of The Crimson Queen, welcomes the #MeToo movement because it gives “vulnerable women a voice”. Toyah, 60, who first took to the stage in 1977, aged just 19, says: “It was unbelievable being a woman very much in a man’s world. We mostly played working men’s clubs, I don’t want to put these places down as the audiences were fantastic but you were just groped. There are even photographs out there of me being groped.

“Some extreme things have happened to me. My band really looked after me, though. I remember going to a club in Leeds in 1979. I arrived and my lighting man said, ‘Do not stay here alone, the owner thinks he has the right to sleep with you. Don’t even think of going to the ladies without one of us escorting you’.

“It’s cool, that’s what my band did, they looked after me. As for the casting couch, there’s one I’m actually quite proud of.This director was legendary. I arrived and I was asked to take my top off. I put two and two together and I just walked. But that happened in those days, it did happen.”

• Continue reading at The Express. NB. This article was created from quotes from Celebrity Radio’s recent interview with Toyah.

Pointless host Richard Osman stunned by player’s shock admission: ‘Did I hear that right?’

Pointless hosts Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman were so taken aback by a contestant’s admission on the BBC programme, they had to ask her to explain herself.

Toyah Willcox was appearing on a music celebrities special of the BBC quiz when the moment unfolded. Just before it was Toyah’s turn to tackle the first question on Pointless, Alexander asked her how she got her big break. However, in doing so she make a surprise revelation that stunned both Alexander and Richard.

“Now Toyah, when did it all start for you, the showbiz career?”

Toyah, 60, explained: “I started at the age of 18. I was in a play with Noel Edmonds on BBC Two and then I was invited to join the National Theatre. But my singing started when I was at the National Theatre.”

• Continue reading at The Express.

Toyah Willcox turns 60: Singer looks unrecognisable in series of racy unearthed snaps

Toyah Willcox is celebrating her 60th birthday today and throwback pictures of the singer show her looking a world away from her present appearance.

Across the multi-talented star’s 40-year career, she has scored 12 charting singles, recorded 24 albums, appeared in 40 stage plays, 20 films and has written two books. In one unearthed snap, the singer was captured mid-performing in 1997 play Cabaret, one of her most memorable stage appearances.

• Continue reading at the Express for some great photos and utterly ridiculous “journalism”.

Nearly 40 years since the making of the era defining British film Quadrophenia one of its stars says plans are being put in place for a follow-up.

Speaking after a special presentation of the 1979 film, which documents the Mods and Rockers descent on Brighton on a 1960s Bank Holiday weekend, Toyah Willcox, 57, tells us at London’s Eventim Apollo: “We’re talking about making a film now, getting everyone back together. I’d love it and I think Sting would be up for it. I’ve enjoyed watching it again after all those years”.

As well as Toyah, who plays Monkey in the movie, and Sting, the likes of Ray Winstone, Leslie Ash and Phil Daniels, who most recently played Kevin Wicks in Eastenders, made up the star-studded cast, while The Who guitarist Pete Townsend was one of the writers. Perhaps they could replace Lambrettas with mobility scooters this time around?

A new Toyah article, choosing her six favourite albums, is published in today’s Express.

David Bowie, Lou Reed and Muse: Rock singer and actress Toyah Willcox’s six best albums

Toyah Willcox, 56, is the singer and actress who had hits in the 1980s with It’s A Mystery, I Want To Be Free and Thunder In The Mountains and appeared in the films Quadrophenia and Jubilee. She is touring throughout the year with The Humans and will be speaking at the new SohoCreate festival in London, June 4-6. Visit sohocreate.co.uk

DAVID BOWIE: Ziggy Stardust (EMI)

Bowie took the creative bull by the horns and steered a generation through problematic times. He went back to his rock ’n’ roll roots with this and it’s a gem. I saw him live and knew that I could only carry on living if I was a singer, writer and actress.

LOU REED: Transformer (Sony)

Bowie produced this. Reed could be off the wall but this honed and anchored him. I saw him in about 1978 and his transvestite lover was with him on stage so it was thrilling and different. It laughed in the eye of conservatism.

• Continue reading at the Express.

Toyah Willcox flaunts her fabulous figure in pink swimwear as she joins Splash!

She may be turning 56 this year, but Toyah Willcox will have women half her age envious of her body following her stint on Splash!

In official pictures taken for the actress’ appearance on the ITV1 reality show, she shows off her incredible figure in a hot pink low-cut swimming costume whilst posing by the pool.

However, despite looking so good it seems that the thought of wearing swimwear in public is scaring Toyah more than the fact that she has to dive off of a three metre board this Saturday.

Describing her thoughts on her figure, the actress and singer, who has admitted to having a facelift, admitted that she doesn’t “do beach holidays”.

• Continue reading at The Express.

1. TAROT CARDS Every morning I pull just one card from my deck of tarot cards to help shape my day. I am rather impetuous so I use my daily card to curb my natural impulses.

Some people believe tarot cards are a form of black magic or senseless new age mysticism but for me they are a practical way of talking directly to the universe.

I am currently using a beautiful deck of cards called Kat Black’s Golden Tarot which Robert bought me. It depicts female saints using Renaissance art work. The cards don’t just guide me they are beautiful too.

2. BEST FRIENDS For 10 years I was completely absorbed with looking after my ailing parents and losing them both left a huge void in my life.

My dad Beric died in 2009 and my mum Barbara passed away two years later. Since then I have been busily reconnecting with my best friends. Robert and I don’t have children so our closest friends are very important to us.

• Continue reading at The Express.

British singer Toyah Willcox has taken aim at the Hollywood stars who donned punk-inspired outfits for this year’s (13) Costume Institute Gala in New York on Monday (06 May 13), calling their faux rocker outfits “too manufactured”.

Anne Hathaway, Miley Cyrus and Sienna Miller were among the glamorous A-listers who tackled the evening’s punk theme in studded garments and dramatic make-up at fashion’s biggest night, also known as the Met Ball.

But Willcox, who found fame just as the punk movement took off in the 1970s, is adamant their designer gowns missed the mark since punk style was all about do-it-yourself creations made with little to no money.

In a column for Britain’s The Sun, she writes, “As the Met Ball celebrated and adorned itself with super-rich guests dressed in mandatory punk theme, A-listers arrived in their saccharin designer versions of punk chic. The A-listers at the ball… were all too manufactured. But here in the U.K. the punk movement has a far more working class power – a power for me that could never be mimicked by designer labels…”

• Continue reading at The Express. Also at Contact Music, New!, Orange News and OK!, among others!

Here is the print version of Toyah’s interview with the ‘Daily Express’ from last Tuesday. It is, of course, the same interview that was published on their website but this edition also includes a great photo of Toyah from 1980.

Singer and actress Toyah Willcox says a course of acupuncture ended 40 years of insomnia.

After struggling with insomnia since she was 14, Toyah Willcox is an expert at surviving on little sleep. The singer, 54, who found fame as an orange-haired punk in the Eighties, says: “I had just started revising for my GCEs and the anxiety I felt made me stop sleeping.

• Continue reading at The Express. Read Dreamscape’s news post from last week on this here. (Thanks to Richard Smith for the scan)

A new interview with Toyah, published today, by The Express.

Singer and actress Toyah Willcox says a course of acupuncture ended 40 years of insomnia.

After struggling with insomnia since she was 14, Toyah Willcox is an expert at surviving on little sleep. The singer, 54, who found fame as an orange-haired punk in the Eighties, says: “I had just started revising for my GCEs and the anxiety I felt made me stop sleeping.

“I would go to bed around 11 or 12 at night and be awake two hours later. It didn’t help me with my exams as my brain would feel foggy the next day but there was nothing anyone could do for me. No one would give a child a sleeping pill and from that point on I had chronic sleep problems.”

She comes from a family of insomniacs. “My mother never slept,” says Toyah, who was born in Birmingham, the youngest of three. “I remember her doing housework until four in the morning and then she would take me to school a few hours later.

• Continue reading at The Express.