Dreamscape – Toyah Willcox Fansite

Toyah Willcox says she was ‘negotiating’ monogamy during marriage to Robert Fripp

‘When we first got together there was a tsunami of women trying to claim him,’ Willcox said

Toyah Willcox has opened up about the early years of her marriage with Robert Fripp in a new interview.

Willcox, 64, and Fripp, 76, got married in 1986, and recently reflected on their nearly 40-year relationship.

Speaking to The Times, Willcox said Fripp proposed to her within a week of their second meeting in 1985, with the couple tying the knot on the King Crimson guitarist’s 40th birthday.

Willcox added she had to explain her “version of monogamy” to him, referring to the “tsunami of women trying to claim” Fripp.

“When we first got together there was a tsunami of women trying to claim him. It was breathtaking. I got very bored of the number of people who felt they had to tell me they’d slept with him,” she explained. “I was, like, ‘Go f*** yourself.’”

• Continue reading at The Independent. NB. This article is an extract from Toyah & Robert’s interview published this week by The Times/The Sunday Times.

After a few weeks of sporadic press on Celebrity Help! My House Is Haunted, reaction to Toyah’s episode airing has gone viral today, with numerous press reports. The episode was also partially aired on Channel 4’s Gogglebox, the first time on non pay-to-view TV! (Photos © Discovery)

• Independent: Ghosthunter claims he was ‘gasping for air’ in Toyah Wilcox’s home: A ghost hunter said he was left ‘gasping for air’ by a ghoul in 80s icon Toyah Willcox’s home. The spirit seeker was reportedly ‘strangled’ by an evil spirit in Toyah’s property. In scenes filmed for a new series, Celebrity Help! My House is Haunted, paranormal expert Barri Ghai was seemingly constrained whilst carrying out an investigation in the attic. The team were trying to speak with a ghost named George, which they believed to be a soldier who fought during the English civil war in the 1600s – Continue reading…

• Birmingham Mail/Live: It’s a mystery – spirit at Toyah’s Pershore home caught on camera ‘strangling’ ghost hunter: Birmingham 1980s star Toyah Willcox opens up home to Barri Ghai for Celebrity Help! My House is Haunted. TV ghost hunter Barri Ghai was filmed being ‘strangled’ by an evil spirit in the Worcestershire attic of pop icon Toyah Willcox, it has emerged. Paranormal expert Ghai said he was left ‘gasping for air’ by a ghoul after venturing into the historic Pershore home of the 1980’s singer during the new series of Celebrity Help! My House is Haunted – Continue reading…

• Evesham Journal: Ghost hunter strangled by spirit in Toyah Willcox’s Pershore home: A ghost hunter was left gasping for air by an evil spirit in the Worcestershire home of 80s icon Toyah Willcox. In scenes filmed for a new series, Celebrity Help! My House is Haunted, paranormal expert Barri Ghai was seemingly strangled whilst carrying out an investigation in the attic of Willcox’s Pershore home. Ghai was joined by colleagues Ian Shaw and Jayne Harris, who had set up a special ‘REM’ recording device in the attic – Continue reading…

• Mirror: Ghost hunter left ‘gasping for air’ after being ‘strangled’ by spirit in home of 80s icon: In scenes filmed for a new series, Celebrity Help! My House is Haunted, paranormal expert Barri Ghai was seemingly constrained while carrying out an investigation in the attic of 80s icon Toyah Willcox. The moment a ghost hunter was ‘strangled’ by evil spirit inside the haunted home of Toyah Willcox – The moment a ghost hunter was ‘strangled’ by evil spirit inside the haunted home of Toyah Willcox – A ghost hunter has claimed he was left “gasping for air” after a run-in with a ghoul in 80s icon Toyah Willcox’s home. The spirit seeker was reportedly “strangled” by an evil spirit in Toyah’s property – Continue reading…

• Indy 100: A ghost hunter claims he was strangled by a ghost in Toyah Willcox’s home: A ghost hunter said he was left ‘gasping for air’ by a ghoul in 80s icon Toyah Willcox’s home. The spirit seeker was reportedly ‘strangled’ by an evil spirit in Toyah’s property. In scenes filmed for a new series, Celebrity Help! My House is Haunted, paranormal expert Barri Ghai was seemingly constrained whilst carrying out an investigation in the attic – Continue reading…

• MSN: Ghosthunter claims he was ‘gasping for air’ in Toyah Wilcox’s home: A ghost hunter said he was left ‘gasping for air’ by a ghoul in 80s icon Toyah Willcox’s home – Continue reading…

• Yahoo! News: Ghosthunter claims he was ‘gasping for air’ in Toyah Willcox’s home – Continue reading/watching…

• Higgy Pop: ‘Gogglebox’ Cast React To Ghost Hunting Show ‘Celebrity Help! My House Is Haunted’: In the week Britain was battered by storms Eunice and Franklin, the cast of ‘Gogglebox’ watched lots of great telly, including a creepy ghost hunting show from Discovery+ which saw a team of paranormal experts search for spooks in pop star, Toyah Willcox’s Georgian house – Continue reading…

• More: See also – Lincolnshire Live, Bristol Live and Wales Online.

A lengthy new article, on the ever-enduring Quadrophenia, published today by The Independent as part of The Indy Film Club.

How Quadrophenia immortalises and scrutinises mod culture

It’s an indelible part of Brighton’s history but, as Clarisse Loughrey writes, the 1979 adaptation of The Who’s rock opera is really concerned with a search for identity

Brighton residents know the sound well – the stentorian rattle of engines, as a fleet of Vespas and Lambrettas zip down the promenade. It feels odd for a moment, as if there’s been a rip in the space-time continuum and a little of the Swinging Sixties has trickled out. But it’s tradition here. On sunny weekends, mod aficionados gather in the city to fraternise, evangelise, and compare the number of mirrors on their scooters. Brighton was a favoured hang-out spot for the original mods, who’d travel down from London to the south’s seaside resorts, eager to ruffle the feathers of middle-class daytrippers.

Trouble came in the form of the rockers, their rivals. It was like the Capulets versus the Montagues – divided not by blood, but by the way someone might wear their hair. The mods (short for “modernist”) embraced continental style, with their crisply tailored suits and Italian scooters. To protect said suit while on said scooter, parkas became a staple. The girls wore miniskirts, as popularised by Mary Quant. The rockers, meanwhile, were bikers. Their “tough guy” attitude complemented their black leather jackets, Doc Marten boots, and Elvis pompadours.

There were clashes. The most infamous of these took place in Brighton over the Whitsun weekend (18-19 May) in 1964. A small group of rockers were corned on the beach. Police tried to intervene, but it quickly spiralled into chaos. And though, in hindsight, it’s clear the press blew events out of proportion, it’s become an indelible part of the city’s history – due largely to the fact it was immortalised in 1979’s Quadrophenia.

The film, a loose adaptation of The Who’s 1973 rock opera, stars Phil Daniels as Jimmy, a disgruntled London teen. At home, his parents treat his non-conformity as a curse. At his mailroom job at an advertising firm, he’s just another drone. And so he throws himself head-on into the hell-raising, dandyish, amphetamine-fuelled world of mod culture. It becomes his entire identity. When he ends up at the centre of the Brighton brawls and gets arrested, the adrenaline sends him heavenward – only for a moment, before disillusionment sets in and he starts to spiral.

• Continue reading at The Independent/Culture (registration may be required).

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.

Jubilee, Lyric, Hammersmith, London, review: In the Lyric Hammersmith’s fine tradition of reanimating controversial classics

Chris Goode’s stage adaptation of Derek Jarman’s 1977 punk classic ‘Jubilee’, recasts Toyah Willcox who played Mad in the film, as Queen Elizabeth I, who time-travels to today

“It’s funny, isn’t it?” says Amyl Nitrate, towards the end of the end of Chris Goode’s raucous, shrewd and free-wheelingly rude re-imagining of Derek Jarman’s cult movie.  “In 1977, someone shouting “NO FUTURE” sounded like the most extreme nihilistic punk.  Forty years on, it’s a fact.  It’s mainstream climate science.”  To mark the ruby jubilee of Jubilee (1978), Goode’s stage version — a co-production between his company, the Lyric, Hammersmith and Manchester’s Royal Exchange — does more than pay tribute to the inherent theatricality in Jarman’s apocalyptic vision or recreate the paradoxical ethos of a broken Britain sodden with royalist propaganda during that flag-waving year.

• Continue reading at The Independent. Review by Paul Taylor.

• The Independent: Why The Sudden Rash Of Movies Onstage Now?: And it’s not just van Hove; theatre has been experiencing a boomlet of movie adaptations. Derek Jarman’s punk-inflected Jubilee (1978), adapted by Chris Goode, opens at the Lyric Theatre after earning rave reviews at the Royal Exchange in Manchester – Continue reading at The Independent…

• London Evening Standard: Things to do in London this weekend (and next week too): 3. Anarchy in the UK: Jubilee – Derek Jarman’s 1978 state-of-the-nation punk film has been adapted for the stage by Chris Goode – Continue reading at the London Evening Standard…

• London Evening Standard: London Arts: The best art, theatre, dance and concerts to see this week: Jubilee – Embrace the spirit of punk this week as the Lyric heads back to 1977 for a stage adaptation of Derek Jarman’s cult classic film. Expect a time-travelling Queen Elizabeth I, DIY fashion, sex, swearing, and a very loud soundtrack – Continue reading at the London Evening Standard…

• London Theatreland: Jubilee, Lyric Hammersmith: “An explosive, no-holds-barred punk musical that’ll set your world on fire!” – Capturing the punk wave at its dizzying height, English film director Derek Jarman captured the spirit of the rebellious era of the late 70s. Now his seminal work is once again sticking two fingers up… – Continue reading at London Theatreland…

BBC asks viewers to share their musical memorabilia to tell ‘The People’s History of Pop’

Do you treasure a ticket stub from David Bowie at Aylesbury Friars? Is there a glow-stick from an illegal rave in your attic? Does your teenage diary list every band you ever saw in painstaking detail?

Now the BBC is asking viewers to share their most cherished musical possessions to help tell The People’s History of Pop through a unique crowdsourcing appeal. An online archive is being created for a new BBC4 series which will tell the story of British rock & pop music from the 1950s to the noughties – but without the traditional narrative from chin-stroking “experts”.

Craig Astley uploaded a picture of himself, then aged 4, with his first pop idol, the punk singer Toyah after a concert in Newcastle. “Sixteen years later and I received a phone call from Toyah herself if I would be interested in running her website,” writes Astley, who now manages the singer’s archive. “Pop dreams can come true.”

• Continue reading at The Independent. View further info here.

For 15 years, Jonathan Sale interviewed the famous about their school years for a column in ‘The Independent’. Here’s what he discovered about how triumph or failure, diligence or dissent, shaped their working lives.

… Dragon James Caan flogged leather jackets from his father’s shop during break – and added a mark-up that his dad didn’t know about. Toyah Willcox was one of several who thought that their first day at school was a one-off; they didn’t realise that you went back the next day, and the day after and…

• Continue reading at The Independent.

Toyah is included in the ‘PRS for Music’, newly updated, Festive 50 countdown, as reported by The Independent.

The 50 Best Christmas songs: Bells continue to ring for the Pogues’ ‘Fairytale of New York’

It’s beginning to sound a lot like Christmas… Listen to our festive playlist here

‘Tis the season to hear the same songs repeated endlessly on the radio and none has been played more regularly in the last two years than “Fairytale of New York” according to new research.

24. I Believe In Father Christmas, Greg Lake/Toyah Willcox/Elaine Paige, 1975/1982/1986 – Written by Greg Lake/Pete Sinfield.

• Continue reading, and view the full 50 Best Christmas songs (according to PRS for Music) in full, at The Independent.