“Only 3 days to go till limited edition red vinyl release of DESIRE. get your stylus ready“, Toyah tweeted today. (All photos © Toyah Willcox/Official Toyah)
I know it’s out of fashion, and a trifle uncool, but I can’t help it… – A couple of Dreamscape’s Desire designs from somewhere in the distance. There’s just three days until the album is released on red vinyl for RSD2018.
Counting down to the release of Desire on RSD2018 this Saturday – Here is the advert which promoted the album’s release in various UK magazines back in 1987.
We’re marking the release of Desire for RSD2018 with some content this week from that great Toyah era. Here’s a short interview with Toyah from BBC Breakfast Time on the very day Echo Beach was released as a single in 1987. Click on the screen caps below to watch the interview at You Tube and view larger versions of the screen caps here.
Excitement is building as it’s now less than a week until Desire – Toyah’s wonderful 1987 studio album – is made available on limited edition translucent red vinyl.
The album is being released for a trio of reasons – as part of Record Store Day 2018, as well as in celebration of Toyah’s forthcoming 60th Birthday and also to help commemorate her incredible 40 years as a recording artist.
This new edition includes, for the first time, an inner sleeve which features Desire-era Toyah photos as well as the full album lyrics.
Of course the album is being listed at numerous online record stores in anticipation of going on sale next Saturday morning. Here are links to a few: Rough Trade, Crash Records, Lost in Vinyl, Banquet Records and Gray Whale.
Play Loud and Proud: Moonlight Dancing, Revive The World, The View, Moon Migration, Deadly As A Woman, Goodbye Baby, When A Woman Cries.
• Further info on Desire at toyahwillcox.com. (Photo below right © 101 Collectors Records)
Six years ago tonight Toyah launched The Changeling Resurrection UK Tour at The Concorde 2 in Brighton. The six-date tour took in Brighton, Bristol, Glasgow, London, Wolverhampton and Manchester. Below is one of Dreamscape’s many fan tour promo images from that time – Please click on it to visit the tour gallery to view numerous photos of Toyah.
Toyah’s penultimate blog before turning 60 is available to read at toyahwillcox.com. Toyah talks about her forthcoming birthday and the decade of her 50s: “Now I am gearing up for my 60th birthday! With the knowledge that the next decade can pass even faster I am grabbing the bull by the horns and getting ready for the ride of my life” – Click below to read.
• Above: Blog link image to mark the release of Desire for Record Store Day 2018 this month.
Just two weeks until Toyah’s 1987 album Desire is released on limited edition translucent red vinyl as a Record Store Day exclusive, on Saturday 21st April.
The LP will be available exclusively in independent record stores only on Record Store Day but will be available beyond this day until stocks are all sold. This new edition is mastered from the original master tapes.
Exclusive to RSD2018, this numbered 30th anniversary edition of Toyah’s Desire pressed on heavyweight red Translucent vinyl was her first album for the EG label, and features her hit single cover version of Echo Beach as well as a cover of Donna Summer’s Love’s Unkind. Produced by Mike Hedges (Tears For Fears, The Cure) the album features Robert Fripp (who co-wrote the title track) and Ronnie Wood. The inner sleeve features the lyrics. This is limited to 1000 units worldwide.
• In the meantime revisit Dreamscape’s celebration of Desire by clicking below… (Thanks to toyahwillcox.com and recordstoreday.co.uk for the above info)
On Friday 18 May 2018 – Toyah’s actual 60th Birthday – a new digital EP will be released on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon. Four From Toyah | Birthday Edition includes four new and previously unreleased songs written by Toyah and Simon Darlow, their first release since 2011. The EP begins with the rousing lead track Telepathic Lover which you can hear an exclusive preview of here.
Two tracks heard in the Crime & Punishment production at London’s Scoop Theatre also feature, Who Let The Beast Out and Fire Escape. The EP is rounded off with the stirring, beautiful Our Hearts Still Beat, written specially for the end titles of the film In Extremis. There are currently no plans to make a CD/vinyl of this particular release available.
• Subscribe: For full info on the above, and more Toyah news, sign up to Breaking Through. The EP was also given a special Instagram announcement today.
Just announced officially online – Four Gigs From #Toyah60 on sale now!
And with an extra special posting at Instagram too – Celebrating 40 years of music in her 60th year.
Toyah will perform 4 special gigs this autumn with her full band, in Manchester, Bristol, Wolverhampton and London.
Expect classics, hits & surprises. Tickets on sale now and available from TicketWeb and Stargreen.
26 Oct | Manchester Ruby Lounge
1 Nov | Bristol Fleece
2 Nov | Wolverhampton Slade Rooms
4 Nov | Islington o2 Academy
The year 2018 includes several momentous milestones for Toyah. This includes her 60th birthday and the 40th anniversary of her music career as Toyah recorded her first studio demos in 1978. These special concerts –with her full electric band– will be a celebratory retrospective including hit singles, album classics and fan favourites.
Toyah’s 1987 album Desire will be issued as a new limited edition translucent red vinyl LP on 21 April for Record Store Day 2018.
• Browse all of Toyah’s upcoming confirmed dates at her official Gig Diary at toyahwillcox.com.
Over the past 40 years Toyah has provided the world with numerous “Iconic Images” (good name for a fanzine, that!) but has there ever been imagery as mesmerising as that which Toyah adopted for Thunder In The Mountains in 1981? The book ‘Pop Styles’ seemed to think so even back in 1984…
Pop Styles, by Ted Polhemus & Lynn Procter (1984) An A-Z Guide To The World Where Fashion Meets Rock’N’Roll
Crazy Colour: Perhaps the most important pendulum swing in the history of pop styles is that between nature and artifice. One of the best ways to join the against-nature school of thought is to dye your hair a bright colour or better still a whole collection of colours which nature never intended to appear on the head of a human being. Historical examples are few, however, as the technology has only been widely available a short time. Only impermanent vegetable dyes were available before the seventies and it was punks who first combined an anti-natural attitude with the new chemicals. Special credit therefore goes to Wee Willie Harris who caused a furore in the fifties when he dyed his hair so pink it dripped down his collar in the rain, Roy Wood who fronted Wizzard behind a mass of multicoloured locks and of course David Bowie. Ultimately, however, the first prize must go to post-punk Toyah Willcox who with dyes and hair spray has resculpted her head into a homage to artifice which even the most daring of science fiction films have failed to equal.
• Toyah’s Offical website/social media spaces will be counting down to Toyah’s Birthday with Forty From Toyah – 40 classic images spanning Toyah’s amazing career.
Toyah guested on BBC Radio Four’s In The Psychiatrist’s Chair in September 1992. A fascinating interview with Dr Anthony Clare. Certainly one of the most honest and interesting of the many Toyah has given over the last 40 years. This originally aired on 9th September 1992 and runs for approximately 40 minutes. Click below to listen or download.
Check out the Dreamscape Press Archive. Classic Toyah interviews, reviews, features, articles and clippings – A huge virtual library with press from 1979 through to 2014.
I’ve voted for my Top 10 singles today in The Official Toyah Website’s Toyah60 Poll. The ultimate Toyah Chart will be revealed as part of Toyah’s 60th Birthday celebrations next month. Seriously difficult to choose 10 from so many great songs but my Top 10 is: 1. Bird In Flight, 2.Ghost Light, 3. Jungles Of Jupiter, 4. Run Wild, Run Free, 5. Elusive Stranger, 6. Brave New World, 7. Symbiotic, 8. Time Is Ours. 9. Moonlight Dancing, 10. Love Me – Vote for yours by clicking below.
• Bubbling Under: Waiting, For You, Snow Covers The Kiss, Computer, Falling To Earth, Tears For Elie, Dreamscape, Pop Star, Danced, Visions, Dawn Chorus, Freedom, When A Woman Cries, Don’t Fall in Love (I Said), Angel In You, Race Through Space… etc… etc.
VOTE for your Top 10 Toyah Songs in the Toyah60 Poll. The Official Toyah Website are creating the ultimate Toyah Chart to be revealed as part of Toyah’s 60th Birthday celebrations. Voting closes 23:59, Sunday 6th May 2018. Click below to visit the official website to cast your vote.
Toyah plays a full-band gig in Northampton tonight, at The Roadmender – with “tons of Toyah classics” on the set-list. There are still a few tickets left, click below to buy…
Jubilee was on release in cinemas this week & month forty years ago in 1978 after premiering in London on 28 February. (Image © Official Toyah)
This week seven years ago Toyah premiered her From Sheep Farming To Anthem UK Tour, playing the opening gig at The Cavern, Liverpool on 20th March 2011. The gigs received rave reviews and much praise, with Toyah playing songs not performed for decades and wearing her iconic outfits onstage for the first time in many years – Relive Toyah’s fantastic tour by visiting the News Archive, Gallery and read a great Review of the London concert.
Four rare radio interviews with Toyah; 1979 – 1982. Click below for the Downloads section.
1. Capital Radio: Mummy’s Weekly (1979): Fighting talk from Toyah! She also chats about being discovered, ‘Victims Of The Riddle’ and more. 2. Radio One: Rock On (1980): Toyah talks Shoestring, Glitter, the band’s influences, mayhem, ’Sheep Farming In Barnet’, ‘Neon Womb’, and future plans. 3. Radio Trent: (January 1981): Toyah, interviewed just before the release of the ‘Four From Toyah’ EP. Great interview with lots of interesting pre-mainstream fame chat. 4. Radio One: Rock On (May 1982): Toyah talks to, former ‘Smash Hits’ writer and eternal cynic, Mark Ellen about ‘The Changeling’, aliens, fairies, her ‘Brave New World’ image and much more.
• Thanks to Giddy Gavin (aka Logan 5) and Sean.
Taking a trip through the Dreamscape Archives… a rare interview uploaded to You Tube in 2011 (by sph476) with Toyah, looking utterly Minxtastic, from 1985.
“Soul deep!” – Next week there’s a repeat airing on BBC4 for the retro episode of Top Of The Pops with Toyah performing the euphoric Be Proud Be Loud (Be Heard)… Most of Toyah’s early Eighties TOTP appearances – both in the studio and on promo video – have been repeated over the last few months, see the rundown here.
Top Of The Pops: BBC4: Wednesday 21st March: 1am
21.10.1982. Peter Powell presents the weekly pop chart show, first broadcast in October 1982. Includes appearances from The Piranhas, Toyah, The Kids from Fame, Imagination, Kool and the Gang, Bauhaus, Spandau Ballet, Culture Club, Sharon Redd and Shakin’ Stevens.
