Highlights of the interview included Toyah saying of her facelift: "Sometimes it is a selfish act, and I did it because I wanted to do something. But having a facelift doesn't stop you ageing, you're gonna carry on ageing, nothing will stop that, but hopefully I'll do it a little more attractively..."

She also asked the interviewer, Marcus Brigstocke, "Am I boring you shitless?"

He went on to check behind Toyah's ear to have a look at her surgey scars, while she sat on his knee!

Marcus: Oh my God... Oh there's almost nothing there!

Toyah: You see it's good work!

Marcus: Right, but I'm not gonna grab it and pull!!

Toyah: Oh by the way, I've had my arse done, could you feel that too?!!

Marcus: Yes I could! & I wanna say for the record: I'm not bored now!!

Many thanks to Andrew York for the screen capture and information. Please visit Dreamscape's Forum (Toyah Tit-bits! - Toyah BBC4 TV Interview, Transcript & Pix) for a full transcript of the interview.

Please click on the picture to view more of Andrew's screen caps in the Captured section. Andrew's Toyah website can be found @ www.geocities.com/imagemeister1/Toyah.html

• Glasgow Evening Times - Gina McKie [Saturday 26th March 2005]

The other day I read something which has inspired me to try and read a book a week: 'To read is to lead, and all great leaders are wonderful readers'.

This week I have chosen two books - oh yes, I am getting ahead in this game - and so far I am thoroughly enjoying both of them.

Even though I am not considering a facelift - no laughing at the back, please - I've been reading Toyah Willcox's new book, Diary Of A Facelift.

It is a truly remarkable account of Toyah's quest to look 10 years younger.

• Wales Western Mail - Is plastic really that fantastic? [Tuesday 22nd March 2005]

Recently, it seems like everyone and her sister is having cosmetic surgery. Jade Goody and her new boobs, Anne Robinson and her facelift, even Toyah's written a book about botox, collagen and all the work she's had done. But is a face full of toxins and a body full of silicone really what we should be aspiring to? Or, as Kathryn Gray, argues, should we learn to love our natural selves just a little bit more....?

Some are more forthcoming about cosmetic work.

Lisping 80s soft-punk Toyah Willcox has recently written a book about her face lift.

The store ran striking ads in a number of Sunday newspapers last weekend, and all this week have featured the publication prominently in its bookshops throughout the UK. Many shops have featured window displays and in-store areas dedicated entirely to Toyah's new "diary".

• Toyah in the Top Ten!! -The book has been placed at, a healthy, number eight this week in Waterstones' Best Sellers list.

• Most other major book stores, as well as many smaller book shops, are promoting the book with special window or instore displays. These include Borders and The Works.

Thanks to Andrew York for the scan. Thanks also to Alec Kelly, John Wain and everyone @ the Forum for the info.

• Toyah guested earlier this week on the Hatch & Duffus Show, on BFBS Radio 1. She was, of course, on to talk about her facial surgery.

• Apparently some editions of last week's 'Independent On Sunday' featured a two-page feature/interview on Toyah.

• Wednesday's 'Daily Mail' also ran a two-page interview with Toyah (and Robert) - NIP 'N' TUCK GAVE MY MARRIAGE A FACELIFT: Toyah Willcox has made much of her £7,500 facelift. Here she talks about its consequences... and her husband reveals what HE thinks about it...

• The Sunday Times: Vanessa Wilde's secret diary [Sunday 27th March 2005]

In which Vanessa agonises about going under the knife — who will she end up looking like?

Having a face-lift is probably the most important decision I will ever make. It’s like playing God with myself. It’s awesome. So, of course, I can’t help worrying, now that I’ve made a date with my surgeon, Mr Absolutely Wonderful. I mean, Toyah Willcox, who has come out about her face-lift, just looks ordinary. She used to have a funny look that nobody else had, which was Toyah. Not as good-looking as me, obviously, but sort of adorable, in a wacky way. And now, she ’s just standard-issue pretty woman. 

'Love Is The Law', boasting five bonus tracks, is officially available on CD as of tomorrow. And as with last month's 'Warrior Rock' CD this is another not-to-be-missed release, with the artwork, once again, capturing the essence of the original album and yet bringing it bang up-to-date too.

The booklet (a sample of which I have scanned) has detailed musician/production/design credits, full lyrics to all 15 songs, two-page sleevenotes by Toyah (explaining why she titled the album so, events that surrounded the recording and release, and why she loves 'Love Is The Law'), related press adverts, single sleeves, memoribilia, comprehensive sleevenotes by Alan Robinson, and eight classic Toyah photographs from the era.

What more could you ask for? 

Unfortunately I can't make it as I've been stuck in bed for most of the week with some sort of yucky fluey type thing - *sniff*! Hope everyone who goes has a brilliant night.

And a very HAPPY EASTER too to everyone.

I'm A Celebrity star Toyah, who is now all over the media talking about her facelift, told me that she did it so that she could land some more acting work. 

She reveals: "People actually forget that I am an actress too, lots of them just think I am some 80s pop relic who is now in the twilight of her career. But acting in a period drama is what I am looking at and one or two things are starting to come through now."

• Many of the cosmetic/plastic surgery websites have now picked up on the news of Toyah's facelift and/or book and are reporting on it. Many, for some unknown reason, seem to be using the extracts first published in 'The Telegraph' a fortnight ago.

• Toyah was interviewed on BBC Radio Five Live last Tuesday morning:

BBC Radio Five Live: Victoria Derbyshire [Tuesday 22nd March 2005]

The actress, singer and TV presenter talks to Victoria Derbyshire about her plastic surgery and the book she's written about her experience. This interview can be listened to, @ the Five Live website, by clicking on the "Listen Again" link.

• The Scotsman: Getting under our skin [Sunday 27th March 2005]

Cut-price offers and celebrity endorsement have made plastic surgery as commonplace as buying a car, but the decision to undergo a major operation should not be taken lightly 

Programmes such as the American drama Nip/Tuck have helped normalise the once controversial operations in the eyes of the public. 

Hollywood actress Demi Moore is one of the biggest cosmetic surgery junkies, spending more than $400,000 on breast implants, liposuction and collagen implants. Former Atomic Kitten Natasha Hamilton, model Nell McAndrew and singer Dannii Minogue have all had their breasts enhanced. 

But Searle believes this glamorising of cosmetic surgery is desensitising the public to the potential dangers involved in procedures. He claims cosmetic surgery should be considered on the same level as having major heart surgery or a hip replacement. 

Searle, a consultant plastic surgeon at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, operated on the Queen in 2003 during a dual operation on her knee. 

Next month he will address the Edinburgh International Science Festival in a bid to dispel some of the myths surrounding plastic surgery. He told Scotland on Sunday: "I am aiming to urge caution about the epidemic of plastic surgery we are facing in this country." 

The surgeon said: "We are seeing people like Toyah Willcox talking openly about having a facelift in a national newspaper where a few years ago people like her would never have admitted to this. 

"A general social acceptance of plastic surgery has come about and it is leading people to think that because they look a bit tired they need an operation." 

The Lee Mack Show : BBC Radio Two - Thursday 7th April : 10.00pm
The Lee Mack Show : BBC Radio Two - Saturday 9th April : 1.30pm
Lee Mack presents a variety show, with stand-up, sketches and a musical guest star each week. This week, he is joined by Toyah Willcox and stand-up comedian Noel Britton. He is also ably assisted by long-suffering sidekick Angela McHale and house band leader Steve Brown.

The Most Fertile Man In Ireland : Sky Movies 9 - Saturday 9th April : 2.30am
Bedded by his town's good-time girl, Eamonn quickly acquires a reputation as a man who can make babies. While both sides of Belfast struggle with their sperm-counts, the lucky man becomes the hot property of both Catholics and Protestants. Crown jewel comedy. Director: Dudi Appleton. Starring: Kris Marshall, Kathy Kiera Clarke, Bronagh Gallagher, James Nesbitt, Kenneth Cranham, Toyah Willcox and Olivia Nash.

Queenmania : ITV1 - Saturday 9th April : 9.15pm
With Toyah, Mel C, Heather Small and more, performing Queen songs. The programme was filmed on Thursday 24th March @ The Fountain Studios, Wembley, London.

H Side Story : Each Sunday around 1pm on Ch4/5pm on E4 for the next four weeks
Toyah is scheduled to pop up in one of these instalments in this reality show about ex-Steps H.

Toyah Willcox insists she wasn't bowing to pressure by having a facelift, just trying to look as young as she feels. By Abigail Wild

It's only once you've said goodbye to Toyah Willcox that you realise there was no involuntary intake of breath when she arrived. No need to avert the eyes slightly or to quickly conjure up an approving smile in a way that someone meeting Jackie Stallone or Michael Jackson for the first time might. Toyah still looks like Toyah, the singer and actress turned inspirational speaker - just a much fresher version of her...

The interview mainly covers most of the subject matter Toyah has already talked about elsewhere, and that I've reproduced in articles/interviews over the past few weeks so I don't think there's much need to add this one.

Frightening

One apparently said she looked about 92 and was frightening without her make-up.

Toyah, who has the figure of a teenager, was stung into action. She looked for a surgeon, found a good one in Paris and had the operation.

Her book, Diary Of A Facelift, is a must for anyone contemplating this radical surgery.

It includes graphic descriptions of the operation and many lurid photos of Toyah’s recovery.
As someone who would never dream of tampering with my face in this way, I found it horrific and rather scary — but I have to say she does look absolutely terrific.

She’s managed to avoid the LA “wind tunnel” look so beloved of ageing stars like Joan Rivers, and simply looks like she’s had a terrific holiday and a good rest.

Toyah reckons the surgery has given her career a real boost. She’s due to film a couple of movies and regularly takes part in nostalgic tours featuring acts from the ’80s.

Lucky

She’s lucky enough to have the time, intelligence and money to search for a surgeon who knows what he’s doing and who was happy to give check-ups and aftercare.

She needed help with some of the work around her eyes when it wasn’t settling down. Her surgeon was always on the end of a phone and even came over to the UK to treat her.

Not everyone who has surgery is as lucky as Toyah, who made a good recovery and refreshingly decided to come clean about the operation.

The Sunday Post, 20th March 2005

• 'Mail On Sunday' - Diary of Toyah, an insecure actress [Sunday 20th March 2005]
Has there ever been such self-serving nonsense written as Toyah Willcox's Diary Of A Facelift?

I like Toyah but what is she doing? She describes what she is undergoing as 'the last taboo'. A taboo?

Has she not noticed that a few other people in the public eye have been open about their surgery? Has she never seen Nip/Tuck?

Does she not know that even civilians go to Cape Town for their Surgery and Safari breaks?

Her main motivation is that Jonathan Ross said she didn't look too hot without makeup. The bandages finally come off and she writes of herself: 'It would be a brave soul who could bear to be remembered for having a facelift and writing about it.' Isn't bravery an attribute that others should confer on you?

She says she's 'proud to be such a good advert for middle age'. Oh no, not another woman striking a blow for women by slicing herself up. An advert for insecure actresses maybe.

Thanks to Andrew York for the article.

• Jonathan Ross Show [Friday 18th March 2005]
Jonathan showed and a picture of Toyah on his late-night BBC1 chat show last Friday, and made a (supposedly) half-hearted apology to Toyah for being the "instigator" of her "£17,000" worth of cosmetic surgery. People seem to have differing points of view on whether this was a genuine response or not. Let's face it, JR isn't known for his lack of sarcasm so even if he does feel a tad guilty I doubt he would 'fess up on his own show.

• The Guardian - The Feminist [Friday 18th March 2005]
Q: What is Toyah Willcox doing having a face lift? Shouldn't she know better? 

A: It is galling for such an admirable woman to be setting such a bad example to the sisterhood, but one can't blame individuals for succumbing to the awful pressure society heaps on women to look forever young. Especially not individuals who live out their lives in a glare of publicity. 

And at least Toyah has been upfront about the fact that she has risked her life for the sake of a faux second-youth. The worst thing about this cosmetic surgery business is that celebs generally lie through their teeth about having work done, which means that ordinary women end up feeling wretched to find they have a bunch of wrinkles when they're "only 35". 

Actually, I do know who to blame for all this: men like Jonathan Ross, who slagged Toyah off for looking haggard in a show she appeared in; this was one of the things, she says, that convinced her that surgery was a good idea. 

One final point: surgeons issued a warning this week about the trivialisation of cosmetic procedures. They explained that a hysterectomy - major surgery - takes 45 minutes, while many cosmetic operations take three hours. 

Sisters, don't do it. Make wrinkles the new pink - it's the only way. 

• The Sunday Times - Scotland [Sunday 20th March 2005]
A different kind of face-off in Glasgow

Toyah received a mention in an article about the growth of cosmetic/plastic surgery etc in Glasgow...

Britain’s first high-street cosmetic surgery clinic is proving a roaring success. Anna Burnside furrows her brow and investigates our obsession with perfection

It all looks so easy on television. You start off with panda eyes, droopy brows, skin like a crumpled paper bag and hair that has been brushed with a pork chop. Little wonder passers-by estimate your age at 53. A few tweaks and tucks later, you are striding through Covent Garden while admiring young men put you at about, oh, 28. 

Channel 4’s hugely successful makeover show, 10 Years Younger, is just one of the factors credited with the boom in cosmetic procedures. American imports Nip/Tuck, Extreme Makeover and The Swan are other hour-long adverts for the benefits of the Botox jab and the acid peel. Then there are the ironed, immobilised faces of the rich and famous. For every celebrity who sneaks off to have a discreet little adjustment to a bit that jiggles or sags, there is another who can’t keep quiet about the benefits of surgery. If it isn’t Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne, with their his’n’hers set of debagged eyes and jowl-free jaw lines, it’s Toyah Wilcox, whose bandaged head and gruesome stitched eyes have been everywhere, plugging her new book, Diary of a Facelift. 

This will be the fourth time the set has been available. Originally issued, ten years ago, back in 1995 (on the Tring label) and again, with the same artwork, three years later (on the QED label).

The album was last made available in 2001, this time with completely different artwork (on the Maverick/Cedar label). Each time the tracklisting has been identical.

For some reason it looks like it will be retailing at full price (approx £10.99). Strange, especially as the previous releases were all budget CD's.

The Observer asked writers, critics and celebrities what books they'll be packing for their holidays this summer. The answer: everything from Kafka to Liberace, Byron to Bryson, commas, comas and Buddhist awakenings 

Toyah Willcox: Musician 

I have never been as excited by modern literature as in the past 12 months. It started when I bought The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (Picador), out of morbid fascination for the subject matter and to fill the lonely hours in my dressing room between shows. Within two paragraphs, the author kidnapped my mind; this book had me shouting out loud with joy, terror and anger. I now buy it for all my friends and insist they read it and report back to me. 

The feature includes six new pictures, taken just last week at Toyah's home in Worcestershire.

"As her 'Diary Of A Facelift' is published Toyah Willcox tells us how her life, not just her appearance, has been transformed".

• Toyah guested on yesterday afternoon's The Vanessa Feltz Show on BBC Radio London. The show was webcast, so anyone around the globe could have listened in (and watched) if they wished. Some of the highlights of the chat included:

Vanessa: "I think my guest not only looks great but is very brave and courageous.. I'm staring. You do look amazing. You look how you used to look 15 years ago."

Toyah: "I look my age."

Vanessa: "I don't think you do."

Toyah replies: "Oh!" She then went on to talk about The Ebony Tower, shopping around for plastic surgeons etc. As well as squeamish talk about eyelids and ears.

Toyah: "It's a very natural look."

Vanessa: "Anne Robinson looks like she has had a head transplant."

Toyah: "I like how Anne looks!"

Vanessa: "Oh, I think she looks great, I'm not being nasty, but she doesn't look like herself. How many people don't tell the truth?"

Toyah (laughing): "Oh, good diet!" 

[ During the news break Toyah could be seen showing her scars to Vanessa. ]

A few callers rang in to speak to Toyah. Ironically, the first caller wanted to talk about music. Keith from the Wirral asked what her own favourite was from her career.

Toyah said she doesn't listen to her own music but that she was "particularly proud" of 'Love Is The Law'. "from 1983, "a great period". She also mentioned the album, along with other back catalogue, is being issued soon on CD. Toyah also reminisced about the fans who were invited into the studio to sing backing vocals on the 'Love Is The Law' title track.

She said she wasn't sure if there would be any new music but mentioned that are live gigs coming this year and that the music side of her career was "picking up".

There followed phone calls about facelifts, botox etc. Toyah said that for three years prior to her facelift she had been having regular botox injections under her eyes.

Vanessa: "What were you most scared of?"

Toyah: "Pain. There's also that chance that it might not work."

Vanessa: "She looks sensational, and I'm not just saying that to be polite. She looks stunning, amazing..."

[ Toyah turns round and waves to the webcam. ]

Vanessa: "We're staring, we're allowed to stare. When someone writes a book called 'Diary Of A Facelift' you're allowed to stare."

Toyah talked a bit about her post-surgery experiences: "I look good, but I'm not an advert for this. I've loved my '40s and I'm quite happy to go into my '50s."

After the interview Toyah was seen autographing a copy of the new book.

The full interview should be available to listen to at the 'BBC London' website soon.

• Don't forget that Toyah is scheduled to be in the 'Independent on Sunday' and 'Scotland on Sunday' newspapers this,er, Sunday :o)

During the show Toyah reminisced about being Sylivia's dresser at the Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham, in the early 1970's. Sylvia replied that she didn't remember, but then later said that she had "known Toyah for 30 years" so perhaps she was joking.

Libby Purves: "Actress, writer, singer, broadcaster; Toyah Willcox. A very different kind of autobiography because it is an unnervingly honest diary of a facelift, the title. Before we ask why the facelift, why the book? You didn't have to do that, did you?"

Toyah: "I know, but I wanted to do something very brazen, very confrontational, and very honest, about an industry that isn't gonna go away. That people have been diving into and co-ercing with for many, many decades. I always knew I was gonna have some form of surgery. I think I'm quite body-dysmorphic, I've only just started, at the age of 46, to be comfortable in the body I live in. And I'm ready to live. I'm confident, I'm happy, but I felt my body and my energy were just going in completely different directions. I work on the edge of celebrity in a world that is so... obsessed with image, with fashion, with coiture, all of that. And I just didn't fit it.

And one thing I was very critical about is my face. I always have been. Even my record covers have only been my face. I felt that, if even I can't stand looking in the mirror without my heart sinking then I'm going to do something about it."

LP: "You didn't want to be one of those women who just, sort of, have it done and don't really talk about it. Disappear for a while and say; 'No, no, I've been taking vitamins'?"

Toyah: "This is a multi-layered cake. If a woman came up to me and said: 'Gosh! you look wonderful', and I said it was my diet, I feel I'd be kharmically doing her damage.

There are many, many women out there who look fantastic, who do more than have a good diet. And I'm not afraid to talk about it. I think you have the right to say no, you have the right to say yes you have. but, let's have an honest debate about this. Let's not make victims of women, cos it almost seems that women are damned if they do, damned if they don't."

LP: "It's interesting. You do come very clean in the book and, indicate to us quite clearly some of the reasons for you being, as you say, body dysmorphic. In your childhood... you were born with an awful lot of physical problems, weren't you?"

Toyah: "And invisible disability, which can have its pressures on people, because it's not obvious, therefor people think you've got a funny walk..."

[ Toyah goes on to talk about her, already well documented, physical problems while growing up. ]

LP: "You're extremely keen to be perfect. To get as near perfect as possible?"

Toyah: "Well quite ironically I think I'm someone who is so quirky I never quite fit under the banner of normality anyway. But I think I did this because I wanted to fit under the banner of normality. It's very contradictory."

LP: "It's worse than the banner of normality, it's the banner of celebrity."

Toyah: "I have to disagree with that because more women out of the public eye have surgery than women in it. Women in the public eye are scared to have surgery."

LP: "But in your case there was this extra spur. You're very honest about how wounded you were when Jonathan Ross was rude about your appearance on I'm A Celebrity. Did it not occur to you to say to yourself that Jonathan Ross is, basically, a prat."

Sylvia Syms: "Jonathan Ross is so plain looking. Why should you be bothered?"

Toyah: "He's rude about everyone. I actually phoned him and talked to him about it. This is a completely different argument. What it is... I went into I'm A Celebrity because I phoned the producers and asked to go in because I love the programme. And I went in rally proud of who I was. I felt physically fit. I've achieved a lot. I've had a brilliant 30-year career."

LP: "I thought you looked fine. Like a jungle woman."

Toyah: "But hang on. I came out of the jungle, and everything, everyone was obsessed with the fact I didn't wear make-up. Now, it gave me the incentive and the courage to go through with something that actually takes an incredible leap of faith. To put your face, the most naked pArt of you from the moment you're born to the moment you die, in the hands of someone else, is quite an extraordinary thing to do."

LP: "The shopping around for surgeons is a terrifying bit of the book. You did meet some sinister old creeps down Harley Street, didn't you?"

Toyah: "Let's put it this way. We always, on telly, get the surgeon's perspective, the surgeon's point of view. You never get the point of view of the person who's been through it. And what it's like to go through major surgery, and let's face it, it is major surgery. And I started writing a diary about the whole process because it was like the maddest thing I've ever done and I don't really expect to do it again.

People were starting to phone me, who were in the business, who I'd never met, and they knew what I was doing, and they said; 'Could you tell us what it's like? Could we do it? Could we get away with it?' And I was emailing them my diary, and I thought in the end 'sod it! I'm gonna publish this'. Because this is a big industry, we need to self-regulate it.

I look natural. People would never have guessed I've had surgery. And if we don't insist that surgeons have aesthetic tastes and aesthetic judgements then people could possibly go in..."

Sylvia Syms: "But Toyah. Half the people doing it now aren't even qualified. It's become a growth industry."

LP: "I like the description of the surgeon who hardly even looked at you. He just said 'that'll be four thousand quid', he didn't look you in the eye."

Toyah: "And I was 29! And he was late for the appointment. And he didn't even look at me! He just said 'go and book it now with the secretary. Four thousand pounds'. And I thought 'Wait a minute. You haven't answered any of my questions. I'm 29. How long will it last? Will it look terrible when I'm 50?' And this was a very famous British surgeon."

SS: "Were you thinking of having it done at 29?"

Toyah: "Yeah. Because I was working on a movie with Lord Olivier, called The Ebony Tower, and the lighting man said 'You've really got to do something about your eyes. It's your responsibilty, cos I can't light them to make them look good anymore'."

LP: "The actual experience. you express very well what it is like to be a terrifically healthy, fit, perfectly okay, cos you are, beautiful person. And to let somebody draw on your face. And go under the anaesthetic, and wake up all puffed up and disgusting..."

Toyah: "I've got to be careful here. I did an interview yesterday where the cameraman passed out. This is not a subject matter that most... Men don't like it..."

LP: "Let's just say there are accounts of bruising scars inside your eyelids, and stitches poking into your eyeball, and turning bright yellow. There were times when you thought 'I'm doing this voluntarily, I'm crazy, I wasn't ill to start with!"

Toyah: "It's totally voluntary. And it's contradictory because I'm into homeopathy. I'm non-dairy, mostly vegetarian. And here's the great contradiction - I'm very spiritual... and I go and have a facelift. But I do think I'm allowed the right. And I'm allowed the right to say no as well, but I spent six months finding the surgeon I found. So my confidence in him was 100%, but it is also utterly ludicrous what you go through because you've made yourself a victim, and you are completely in the hands of someone else.

It's the most extraordinary position to be in. And I think we have to be honest about the whole journey, so we weed out the weaklings - those people who aren't psychologically up for it - because you have to have a certain amount of strength to go through with it."

LP: "I think I'll just end the programme, and go along with Barbara Cartland. She says: 'A woman after 40 has to choose between her face and her figure. My advice is to keep a nice plump face and stay sitting down!' Drape the pink drapes around you. Terrifying book! Anyway, I think it may put off as many people as it attracts, which is quite a good thing."

Toyah: "Which is one of the points."

The cover feature, 'My facelift changed my life', boasts five pages and features further extracts from the 'Diary Of A Facelift' book.

"After appearing on I'm A Celebrity - Get Me Out Of Here! singer and actress Toyah Willcox was so devastated by jibes about her haggard appearance that she had a facelift aged just 45. Now she's written a searingly honest diary chronicling the fear, misunderstandings and paranoia she endured in her quest for a youthful face - and her joy at the outcome of her surgery. Here's our exclusive extract in her own words..."

Look out for Toyah in other "celebrity" magazines in the not too distant future.

Thanks to Damon King.

The former pop star's decision to go under the knife followed comments by male commentators after appearing in I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here. 

In her new book, the 46-year-old actress explains how a gruelling tour in the title role of Calamity Jane had affected her looks. She says: "I looked haggard and gaunt and no amount of sleep could cure the tiredness imprinted on my face. I felt so bad about my appearance that I couldn't look in the mirror without my heart sinking." Willcox says she had been contemplating cosmetic surgery since she was 26 and was concerned her skin was ageing rapidly. But the catalyst was appearing in I'm A  Celebrity in 2003. 

She says: "On returning home, I read various derogatory newspaper articles about my jungle experience and listened to hurtful comments about me on radio and television programmes. There seemed to be an obsession with the fact that I hadn't worn any make-up in the jungle. On his Radio2 show, Jonathan Ross said I looked so awful that I shouldn't be allowed to be seen on television, and that male tabloid writers backed up this view. The worst thing was that, secretly, I agreed with them." 

Willcox paid a surgeon in Paris £7,500 to do a "lower lift" to get rid of her "sagging jaw line" and work around her eyes. Willcox says: "The reality of it all hit me hard, but the unavoidable truth is that, if you want to look better, your skin has to be cut. 

I realised that, despite having done everything possible to remain in good shape over the years - I don't smoke, drink, over eat or stay up late - age inevitably catches up with you." 

The chronicling of her surgery was taken from her book Diary Of A Facelift, extracts of which were published today in the Daily Telegraph. Her husband Robert went with her to the hospital in February last year. 

She says: "Because I was completely incapable of conversation I sent Robert away with a hug and a kiss, telling him I would be fine. 

"As he walked off, it dawned on me that the next time I would see him my face would have changed for ever. Will it be good, will it be bad? Is this the point of no return? I was past caring; I was too damn tired." 

• Cosmetic Surgery News: 'On the operating table, I started to shake...' (15th March 2005)
"Actress Toyah Willcox had been thinking of having cosmetic surgery for 20 years. In the first of two exclusive extracts from her new book, she describes how hurtful comments from male media commentators spurred her on to take the plunge at the age of 46. What I am about to undergo is the last taboo. It is a blisteringly cold February morning in Paris; the kind of morning that should be spent lying in bed wrapped in the arms of a loved one. Instead, I am lying on an operating table, drowsy from a pre-op sedative, thinking of my parents and crying, wondering if they will ever forgive me if anything goes wrong. I haven't told them I'm here. They think I'm on holiday, spending a week alone with Robert, my husband, in this most romantic of European cities. In three minutes' time, a stranger will pump me full of white anaesthetic fluid and then another will cut me open. This moment is more personal than any sexual act."

• Toyah guested on yesterday's Midweek on BBC Radio 4. It was an interesting interview, with Toyah being grilled slightly more seriously than the cosy chats with Lorraine Kelly and Richard Allinson the previous day. [Please check back soon for a full transcript of the Midweek interview]

• No Toyah content in yesterday's 'Daily Express'. It may be that the double page feature/interview in Monday's edition was the tabloid's coverage.

• Toyah guests on The Vanessa Feltz Show on BBC London Live later today. She will be interviewed from 4.15pm and can be listened to online at the BBC London website. It'll be interesting to see if Toyah can get a word in edgeways as Vanessa does love to talk, talk, talk ;o)

• Toyah is also listed as guesting, via a pre-recorded interview, on Sky Active. I can't find this programme in my TV listings guide, unforunately. Does anyone know anything about it?

There are also scheduled guest spots on ITV1's This Morning and BBC Radio 5 Live. Also airing interviews and feature spots will be BBC Radio Scotland (The Arts Show), Teletext (Total Entertainment) and BFBS Radio 1 (Hatch and Duffus Show). Further print coverage will include Hello! Magazine (interview with Rosalind Powell and new photo shoot) and the Sunday Mirror's Celebs On Sunday Magazine (2-3 page feature - late March/early April).

Plus: ITN Multimedia will have a filmed interview for release via video-phone networks, on Virgin trains and possibly on news channels.

All of the above is subject to change. Keep an eye on the Official Toyah website for updates on further 'Diary Of A Facelift' appearances, interviews, features and articles.

Items in bold have already occurred. [ News Source: www.toyahwillcox.com ]

The extract included various dates from the book. Yet another new photograph of Toyah accompanied the article.

• Toyah guested on Steve Wright In The Afternoon on BBC Radio 2 yesterday afternoon. The show was hosted by Richard Allinson as Steve is on holiday.

He started off the interview by mentioning that in the US people are "treating" their pets to various types of cosmetic surgery, including facelifts and, even, genital re-shaping, to which Toyah giggled: "I don't think I'd have genital re-shapng myself, actually!"

She went on to say that she had been contemplating having her facelift for the past 20 years: "I found myself unattractive. She said she told the surgeon to "make me look like Joan Rivers. Just stretch everything so that a baseball would hit me and shoot a mile, I wanted everything to be really tight!"

Toyah also said that it was going onto I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! that gave her the "leap of faith" to have surgery. And she admitted that immediately before the op she was thinking: "This is vanity, this is selfish, this is something I can't live with..."

She also mused: "My body looked like a wreck yet spirtually I felt like a great person, and I just wanted to marry them back together again.... I look in the mirror and now I don't see tired eyes, and my eyes were really bad. I now see the spirited soul I was in my '20s."

Richard Allinson, on a number of occasions mentioned how "gorgeous" Toyah looked. How she didn't look like she had had a facelift: "She just looks like she eats well. She was never plug ugly anyway, but now she looks great."

Toyah concluded the chat by saying: "My sexuality faded and now I think it's been restored."

• There has also been coverage in the 'London Evening Standard'.

• Toyah is scheduled to guest on this morning's Midweek, on BBC Radio 4 at 9.00am. The show can be re-listened to after it is broadcast on the Radio 4 website.

• There should also be a feature in today's 'Daily Express', in the 'Express Woman' section of the newspaper.

Lorraine introduced Toyah thus: "Do you remember this woman? Feisty, young, and hailed as a punk rock icon!", followed by a mini clip of  the 'I Want To Be Free' video.

Lorraine, jokingly, commented that Toyah looks 12 on the cover of 'Diary Of A Facelift'.

Lorraine: You look really good and you look like yourself.

Toyah: Yes, it’s very natural, it’s the European style. I found a surgeon who operates on film stars and film stars that must never be discovered that they've had surgery because it’s still derogatory, it still doesn’t do them any good within their careers and the whole thing is that it does not make you look like you've been in a wind tunnel.

Lorraine: No I don't like that, that sort of LA Look.

Toyah: Well I'd like that LA look when I'm about 70, I want to be a really badly behaved old woman. I came out of Celebrity, I went in so proud, so proud, proud of my physique, proud of my career, came out and I realised that everyone was obsessed that I wore no make-up and did look a real minger. I admit I looked bad. And it shocked me, it scared me because I thought I damaged my career, I really felt that and it was personal and it was my world, even though it were some pretty horrendous things said about me at the time.

Toyah also said: "I did this for me, I have never felt so qualified for living and I don’t think that women are alone here, some, the nest are empty, they've got money they are highly qualified and we want to get on and live and have a good time... I want to carry on working, I’ve forsaken a family, I’ve invested 30 years in this bio-degradable product. And I really want to work for a long, long time. Retirement isn't on the agenda, so I had to do something about it.

Toyah went on to say if she had been cast in a horror flick or two, post IACGMOOH!, she wouldn't have minded, how the surgery is already positively affecting her career, and how she would like to be like Dolly Parton if she could.

Please click on the screen capture to visit the Dreamscape Forum to read a full transcript of the interview.

The GMTV website [ www.gm.tv ] was also running a Toyah feature when I looked yesterday.

Many thanks to Andi Westhorpe (screen caps) and Gareth Suthers (text).

Already there has been Abbamania and Greasemania. Also recently announced is an edition called Madonnamania.

The 'Telegraph' ran their first, of two, serialisation extracts from the new book, titled 'On the operating table I started to shake', with Toyah describing arriving at the hospital, and what happened just before her operation. As well as what drove her to go ahead with the procedure.

The 'Express' ran an interview/feature that seemed quite similar to the one the 'Telegraph' published last Saturday, but with a few different quotes. Both newspapers included new Toyah pictures.

• Toyah is interviewed on this morning's GMTV. She will be guesting, live, on the main show, from 7.00am, as well as on LK Today from 8.30am.

• Toyah will also be guesting this afternoon, again live, on the Steve Wright In the Afternoon show on BBC Radio Two, although Steve is currently on holiday. The show runs from 2.00pm to 5.00pm and can be listened to online at the BBC Radio Two website. The show is also available to listen to for a limited time (approx a week, I think) after it is broadcast.

• Most of yesterday's UK tabloids ran a WH Smith press ad that included 'Diary Of A Facelift'.

• Neither of the magazines, or any other major music monthly, have reviewed 'Warrior Rock' or 'Love Is The Law' as yet.

• Look out for Toyah on a future edition of H Side Story, an eight-part series following H, formerly of the pop group Steps. The programme is on each Sunday afternoon on Channel 4. Episode three is broadcast next Sunday.

• She also graces the front page of today's edition of the 'Daily Express' - "How a facelift saved my marriage" type story.

• Toyah will be guesting on tomorrow's GMTV. She will definitely be appearing on Lorraine Kelly's LK Today segment (beginning at 8.30am) but will also probably guest on the main show, beginning at 7am.

• There is a mention in today's 'MegaStar': (on the 'Express' article) "Then there’s a fantastic feature on Toyah Willcox. No, really. The story centres on how the once rebellious pop singer turned pleasant TV presenter had a facelift which “saved my marriage”. There are pictures before the op, just after the scalpel and present day. The fun is in guessing which one is which."

• Some people have already received their 'Diary of A Facelift' books from online retailers. And a number of High St book shops are already selling the book, which isn't officially published until Thursday.

• 'Response Source PR' have also released a short press release today: "Toyah has just written an account of her facelift last year, complete with pictures. Her surgeon was Dr. Olivier de Frahan who has pioneered the more natural look so you won't get the plastic surgery nose, the botox forhead or the collagen lips that we have become all to familiar with. He works with the natural shape, contours and character of eachy face to establish what subtle refinements will improve the appearance without a noticeable change in your expression. It is a discreet treatment!"

'I'm nobody's mother figure now'

As I pull into the train station, it is hard - even from a distance - not to pick out Toyah Willcox immediately. It's not just the bright red hair - it's the childish, stocky figure, dressed in head-to-toe black and pogo-ing from foot to foot because of the cold.

So this is the heroine of my punky teens. I have spent all weekend with my nose stuck in her new book, Diary Of A Facelift, which describes in deliciously gory detail the 11,000-euro operation she underwent in Paris last year. Rude to stare, I know, but it's going to be hard to avoid it. After all, what does a woman of 46 (that's just two years older than me) look like up-close after she's had a facelift?

If the book's cover is anything to go by, she looks wonderful: a veritable Botticelli, with her long blood-orange locks and enigmatic half-smile a million years away from the pouchy platinum-blonde she was in I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here. Or indeed from the Mohican-haired headbutter of the late 1970s and early 1980s. But a photograph is a photograph: I want to see the real thing.

Ah, and here it is... looking, if truth be told, not quite as nubile as her book cover suggests, and a little - well - bright in her thick layer of foundation and pink lipstick for this gloomy Black Country light... but amazing, none the less.

Her skin, even with all that make-up, has a surreal, luminous quality as if it has been lit from inside and, apart from some tiny lines when she smiles (which she does often, if not with abandon), her face is wrinkle-free. That slight turkey wattle, so unforgivingly show-cased on I'm A Celebrity, has disappeared, and her neck forms a perfect right angle with her pretty, pointy chin, making me instinctively want to give the underside of mine a few pats with the back of my hand.

And the scars? When we reach the first set of red lights, she happily lifts back a bank of hair and shows me what merely looks like a bramble-scratch behind her left ear. It is only when she parts the hair that I can see what her clever surgeon, Dr Olivier De Frahon - the man rumoured to have been behind Silvio Berlusconi's "fresh" new features - actually did.

Starting the incision just in front of the ear, he traced it around behind and then went way back into the hairline - which allowed him to lop off the excess skin, reposition the muscles around Toyah's sagging jaw-line and tighten her neck. The incisions he made below the lower lashes, for the eye-lift she was so desperate to have, have left no trace.

"What's so fabulous", says Toyah, in that faintly Brummie lisp we all know from Teletubbies, "is that I don't feel so vulnerable. Before, it was like every bit of emotional baggage I'd ever experienced was etched on my face for all to see: now, it's not there and I can be who I like, which is what actresses are supposed to be able to do, right?"

Oh, and there's one other thing she's had done which has made a huge difference. Can I figure out what it is? No, no idea. "Look, can't you see?" she says, giving her hair a girlish toss. "he made them smaller! people don't realise this, but ear lobes sag - they get longer and bigger as you get older. See, subliminally, men know this just like they subconsciously know that it's a woman's hands or her neck which tell her age better than her boobies. My little lobes, I'm sure of it, make a big subliminal impact."

It was exactly this time last year that Toyah found herself lying in an operating theatre on the outskirts of Paris, with a drip in her arm and tears running down her face. She was possessed by a fear so acute, as she puts it in the book, that "I could feel it oozing out of my armpits".

This stemmed partly from the fact that, three years earlier, she'd had to go under the knife to have an infected contraceptive coil removed - and then had trouble coming out of the anaesthetic. But she was also recalling the words of her astrologer, who had not very helpfully told her that the moon would be in Aries on the day of the operation, and that meant sharp knives making mistakes.

But nothing could dwarf the excitement she felt at the prospect of losing her jowls and bags - as her heroine and fellow Brummie Sharon Osbourne had done before her.

"The worst was some of those young men you have to work with as an actress," she says, as we drive down her local high street and into the driveway of a Georgian town house. "I noticed they were beginning to treat me almost as though I was a - yeeeuch - mother figure, ignoring me in their conversations because they thought I wouldn't understand, making me have to butt in to be heard. They don't do that anymore, though.

In fact, nobody does that anymore. Take the time she was on a shopping trip in London the other day, and popped into the Sloane Street branch of Stephane Kelian. "I thought the sales lady was looking at me in a funny way, " she says, snorting happily, "and then as I'm handing over my credit card, she suddenly shouts: 'Wait a minute, I know who you are - you're Toyah Willcox's daughter!'"

Then, there was the time a van driver reversed down Savile Row the wrong way to get a better look, and mistook her for Davina McCall. "Davina McCall," whispers Toyah reverentially. "Now, if that's not a compliment, I don't know what is."

I am now sitting in her ultra-tidy, teal-accented country kitchen that overlooks the River Avon. Just down a pathway are two cottages she also owns. In one of them, her parents live; in another, her husband of 20 years, the musician Robert Fripp, is pottering about. They are both much happier here in Worcestershire, where she was brought up, she says, than they were at their previous home - Cecil Beaton's old cottage - in Wiltshire.

There, she says, she used to get so lonely, what with being childless and Robert living half the year in Nashville; but here, she is around people all the time who seem to enjoy having a star in their midst; some of them have even taken to caterwauling "It's A Mystery" outside her door when the pubs empty. So far, she adds, everybody's been far too polite to say anything about her new appearance; the shop-keepers tend to make discreet comments instead about how nice her new haircut is or how much weight she has lost.

While a pot of cauliflower and parsnip soup that Toyah made earlier is warming on the Aga, she makes some fresh coffee - "I don't touch the stuff, but my husband loves it" - and sets up her laptop to show me all the carefully catalogued photos which she had Robert - obliging, unsqueamish fellow that he is - take at every stage of the process. "Look," she says, pointing to a picture of her face swaddled in bandages, with day-glo yellow rings around her eyes that are so criss-crossed with stitching they can hardly open. "That's me straight after I came round."

The next shows her entire face bandaged-up, with just a tiny slit for her nostril and mouth; the next with the bandages off and her vermilion hair matted to her head like glue... On and on, she takes me through this ghoulish photographic odyssey - the most bottom-clenching shots, for me, being the ones in which she's bent her head down to show the big metal staples embedded in the back of her scalp. It all looks so painful that it could put a less greedy person than me off their soup.

But, as Toyah is quick to insist, apart from a soreness in her throat from having her jaw clamped open for five hours, and a slight tugging when Dr de Frahan sewed up the holes where the drainage tubes had been, there was no pain: not one iota from start to finish. If anything, it was the frustration of having to keep still for so long (the doctor made her stay in Paris for a week) that was the hardest ordeal. Oh, and not being able to chew properly.

Indeed, by the fifth day, she had lost 6lb (a lot, considering that she weighed only 7st 13lb to begin with) and had resorted, in desperation, to sucking on cheese and onion Pringles - "the only ones that worked because they were so flat in shape".

When I asked what has impelled her to tell the world about the operation, what has given her the courage to reveal such graphic, unflattering pictures (after all, the facelift wasn't a freebie, and privacy, she says, is of the utmost importance to her) - she insists that there was never a question of keeping it a secret.

"This was such a terrifying, major leap in my life, there was no way I wasn't going to share it, no way I wasn't going to do my bit about all those bad guys in Yugoslavia - well, that doesn't exist anymore, but you know what I mean - or those companies who combine plastic surgery with safaris, and women pay all this money only to meet their surgeon when they're knocked out. I also feel that it shouldn't be something that anybody should be ashamed of.

"I know women who feel imprisoned by their looks, prejudiced against, and would love to change them but wouldn't because their husbands don't approve. Well, that's bloody bollocks, isn't it?"

By her own admission, Toyah - the youngest of three children - has always felt an outsider in the looks department. Born with a twisted spine, clawed, over sized feet and an under developed left side, she had to be put into a plaster cast for the first six months of her life and wore one shoe higher than the other for most of her school days. Much shorter than all the other children (she is now just 5ft 1ins), sporting an embarrassing 32D chest by the age of 10, and a bit on the plump side to boot, she was relentlessly teased.

Then there was that lisp, so unmistakable that when she dials a call centre somewhere in India, the operator says: "Wait, that's not Toyah Willcox, is it?" It didn't help, somehow, that her mother, a former dancer, was so tiny and light that "she never, as she liked to tell me, used to leave footprints in the snow".

Carefully, Toyah adds: "My mother had a very hard life herself. She also tended to live her life through my experiences, but it's probably fair to say it was she who taught me to value anxiety, rather than joy; to believe that if I had a dream, it couldn't possibly come true. I'll happily admit I've got Body Dysmorphic Condition - you know, when you look in the mirror and see either a very fat person or a very thin person or a very ugly person. It's just when I look in the mirror, I see my mother's fears."

Like a lot of patients who end up having a facelift, Toyah had been having regular Botox injections and the filler Restylane inserted into her lips (like her unlucky friend Lesley Ash) by a specialist on Harley Street. To supplement these beauty aids, she went to see a "facial consultant", Linda Meredith, who gave her skin oxygen treatment and massage. But none of this seemed to be producing a radical improvement, and her skin was never going to return to its 20-year-old state - when it was admiringly described by Katharine Hepburn, her one-time co-star in the 1978 film The Corn Is Green, "as like the inside of a shell".

Genes, she thinks, had a part to play. "No matter how much I dieted, exercised, gave up caffeine, alcohol, sugar, fat, carbohydrates and chocolate," she writes in the book, "I still couldn't improve my looks." She thinks it was starring in the West End production of Calamity Jane - "all that leaping about a stage, doing a big sing eight times a week" - that probably did her face in for good. But although she had already seen a few Harley Street surgeons (one told her that he wanted to peel her face right back to her scalp, "like that John Travolta film Face/Off") no one had a good enough spiel to convince her.

All this changed when Toyah was introduced to de Frahan by Meredith, and went to see him at his temporary consulting suite at Claridges. Within a few months, Willcox found herself boarding the early morning Eurostar, armed with the loyal Robert, a suitcase full of scarves and sunglasses and every conceivable potion from Boots (including syrup of figs, because she didn't want to strain any facial muscles while going to the loo).

Since that day, says Toyah, she has not looked back. She's been cast in two "big American movies" - one of them co-starring Gene Hackman - she's headlining at the 1980s-themed Wasted festival this summer and, more importantly, neither of her agents is calling to say that "the character parts are just around the corner, if I'll just be patient". Indeed, she quips, the only thing that would throw her now is if the part calls for a shaved head.

Now that she is fully recovered, and the reaction has been so positive (when she told her dad, he asked her why on earth she hadn't done it before), she says she is definitely entertaining fantasies about having just a bit more. A tummy tuck, or a breast reduction, perhaps - because she has always regarded "bee stings as the ultimate in femininity".

"I suppose it's like childbirth, "she muses. "You forget what you've gone through in order to do it again. But Robert says absolutely not, I've got to leave my boobies alone - and I agree with him. Bodies, to me, aren't so important now, anyway.; it's my face which ultimately counts more to me as an actress."

Would she, then, ever go through all of this again? "God, yes! When I'm 60 or 70, I'll definitely be going tighter. I love how Anne Robinson looks! I love how Joan Rivers looks! And, besides, I like the notoriety of it all - it's like sticking two fingers up to the world and saying f--- you.

"Before I had the op, people treated me as an old woman," she adds more earnestly. "I could see it in their eyes - the lack of interest, the irritation. No, really - I promise you it was there. Even worse was when strangers saw me from behind, assumed I was in my teens - people do because I'm so little and bouncy - and then saw me up front and did this kind of "don't look now" double-take.

"I'm sure that's why I used to get overly aggressive and act sometimes like bloody Boadicea attacking the Romans. Now that my face matches my personality, I feel I can allow myself to be more of a serene person - let that femininity, which I've hidden for so long, come out. That's a very, very empowering feeling, you know."

The Daily Telegraph
News review on Saturday
Saturday 12th March 2005

NB: I won't be reproducing any of the 'Telegraph' serialisation extracts. Don't want to get sued :o)

And what a half decade it's been. The website, Toyah, and most of us have gone through many, many changes ;o)

Since March 2000, some of the highlights of Toyah's career have included; the launch of her Official website, the autobiography 'Living Out Loud' being published, appearing in Picasso's Women at the Edinburgh Festival, presenting the mammoth Beyond Medicine series for Discovery Health, playing various PA's at venues around the country, appearing in The Shagaround, the 'Here & Now' 2002 tour, 'Sheep Farming In Barnet'/'The Blue Meaning' double CD reissue, Calamity Jane UK tour and West End run, the 'Little Tears Of Love' EP, starring in five pantomimes, 'Prostitute' and 'Ophelia's Shadow' CD reissues, the 'Velvet Lined Shell' album, appearing on the second series of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!, the 25th Anniversary gig at the Mean Fiddler, London 2003, the Jubilee and The Tempest DVD releases, the 'Best Of the 80s' UK tour, publication of the 'Diary Of A Facelift' book, the 'Warrior Rock' and 'Love Is The Law' CD reissues. Plus... numerous TV appearances and interviews, newspaper features, magazine covers, interviews and articles.

And everything else that isn't included above...

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to visit Dreamscape over the past five years, especially to those who have contributed news/articles for the site. I've made a handful of really good friends because of it too... Wonder what Toyah will get up to in the next five years?

The first CD is released in May: Toyah - 'The Safari Records Singles Collection Part 1 (1980 to 1981)' (CDMRED 266) Tracklisting: 1. Victims Of The Riddle, 2. Victims Of The Riddle (Vivisection), 3. Neon Womb, 4. Indecision, 5. Waiting, 6. Our Movie, 7. Danced, 8. Last Goodbye, 9. Bird In Flight, 10. Tribal Look, 11. Ieya, 12. The Helium Song, 13. Danced (Live), 14. Ghosts (Live), 15. Neon Womb (Live), 16. It's A Mystery, 17. Revelations, 18. Warboys, 19. Angels & Demons.

The second CD will be released in August. Toyah - 'The Safari Records Singles Collection - Part 2 (1981 to 1983)' (CDMRED 267). Tracklist: 1. I Want To Be Free, 2. Walke Talkie, 3. Alien, 4. Thunder In The Mountains, 5. Street Addict, 6. Voodoo Doll, 7. Good Morning Universe, 8. Urban Tribesmen, 9. In The fairground, 10. Furious Futures, 11. Brave New World, 12. Warrior Rock, 13. Ieya ('82), 14. Be Proud Be Loud (Be Heard), 15. Laughing With The Fools, 16. Rebel Run, 17. To The Mountains High, 18. Baptised In Fire, 19. The Vow, 20. I Explode, 21. Haunted.

[ News Source: www.toyahwillcox.com ]

Great Moments In Music: #7 Sting and friends film Quadrophenia, 2 May 1979

Trevor Laird: Inspired by The Who's 1973 concept album, Quadrophenia charted the lives of  a group of '60s Mods. Attending the audition to support best pal Phil Daniels, Laird bagged the role of "pharmacist" Ferdy, after reminding The Who's Pete Townsend of an "old (drug) dealer friend called Winston".

Toyah Willcox: Cast as Modette Monkey. 20-year-old Willcox's debut single, Victims Of The Riddle, had recently reached number 1 in the Independent charts. Attempts to make the riot scenes on Brighton seafront as realistic as possible backfired when Willcox broke her arm in the melee.

Phil Davis: Like most of the actors in the film, Davis's appearance as Jimmy's best mate Chalky was his first major role. He obviously enjoyed the experience of working on a film based on a record - his next appearance was as a roadie in Alan Parker's cinematic version of Pink Floyd's The Wall.

Sting: The Police frontman had never acted before playing top mod Ace Face. When his band appeared on The Old Grey Whistle Test during a break from filming, Sting had to borrow drummer Stewart Copeland's sunglasses after a can of hairspray exploded backstage, severely inflaming his eye.

Leslie Ash: Ash's pivotal scene as femme fatale Steph - a quickie in an alleyway with Jimmy - caused problems with her real-life boyfriend, who asked her not to go ahead with it. The actress, who as a child appeared in a TV ad for Fairy Liquid, delayed filming for half a day before finally agreeing to the scene.

Phil Daniels: The role of doomed protagonist Jimmy - based on teenage mod Barry Prior, who plunged to his death from a cliff in 1964 - almost went to John Lydon until the film's insurers blocked it. Daniels, a 19-year-old singer with "impressionist rock" outfit Renoir, was given the part instead.

Gary Shail: During his audition, director Franc Roddam said that the 18-year-old Shail didn't look tough enough. Shail told Roddam to attack him. "I took a big kick at him," recalled the director. "He did a backwards somersault and landed 10 feet away." Roddam gave him the part of Spider on the spot.

Garry Cooper: Originally set to play Ace Face, Cooper was recast as poseur Pete after Franc Roddam met Sting. Wanting to capture the right atmosphere, the director insisted that the actors spend a month prior to filming hanging out with original mods and zipping around London on vintage scooters.

Mark Wingett: Punk fan Wingett, who played mod Dave, nearly quit the shoot when an assistant admonished him for turning up with a love bite on his neck. Franc Roddam only persuaded him to stay by giving him a vomit-stained shirt once owned by Sid Vicious - a present to the director from John Lydon.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
From then to now in a flash.

Despite a frosty critical reception, Quadrophenia kick-started a brief mod revival. With The Police and as a solo star, Sting went on to sell over 200 million records worldwide. Toyah Willcox's singing career spluttered to a halt in the mid-'80s (er - we think NOT!!) Garry Cooper, Trevor Laird, Gary Shail and Mark Wingett carved out careers as TV actors, Wingett most notably as DC Carver in The Bill. Leslie Ash and Phil Davis were more successful. Ash starred in hit sitcom Men Behaving Badly, while Davis recently appeared in acclaimed Mike Leigh film Vera Drake. Phil Daniels followed his turn as Jimmy with supporting roles in the likes of Breaking Glass and The Pickwick Papers, before hooking up with Blur on 1994 Parklife single. In 1996, he played the Narrator in The Who's Quadrophenia stage show.

Many thanks to Paul Lomas for this.

Toyah is, of course, playing (live PA to backing tapes) at the venue on Bank Holiday Monday (28th March).

'Out North West' also mention Toyah in their 'What's On at Easter' round-up:

Easter - Flamingos brings us a very varied line up, including... on Bank Holiday Monday, not to be missed the High Priestess of Punk herself TOYAH!

Thanks to Paul Lomas for the advert and info.

Please visit Dreamscape's Forum for updates and info on the Blackpool visit. A number of Toyah fans are planning to meet up on the day.

TOYAH
Warrior Rock (Toyah On Tour)
Reviewed By Richard Evans 

I have to say first of all that if you're looking for an unbiased review of this album then you'll need to look elsewhere. 

You see this is a live double album recorded at London's infamous Hammersmith Odeon in 1982 and I was actually there. At the time it was, without any shadow of a doubt , the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me and if I'm honest it's still up there with the best of them. It wasn't my very first gig although it was certainly one of the first, but it was my first Toyah gig and in 1982 Toyah was at the very heart of my life... obsession is an ugly word but in retrospect having 400 or so Toyah press cuttings and pictures on my bedroom wall back then speaks volumes!

I can remember the thrill of buying this album when it was first released... the very weight of the double vinyl and the new ink smell of the gatefold sleeve, and then the perilous journey home - my heart in my mouth in case I dropped it, scratched the vinyl, bent the corners, left fingerprints on the cover... then getting home and putting the vinyl on the turntable, a rumble a couple of crackles and this...

The album opens with the noise of the crowd chanting for Toyah and then simply exploding as she comes on stage in the wake of strange pulses, sounds and drum rolls... the euphoric rush as 'Good Morning Universe' kicks in still makes the hairs on my neck rise twenty-three years later and I'm instantly drawn into Toyah's tribal world of colour and drama and excitement...

Immediately the strength and talent of the live band is apparent, notably the contribution of Simon Phillips on drums who puts on a fantastic show, underpinning every second with his precision drumming, and Toyah herself is in great voice - her voice soaring - and evidently enjoying every moment of the night. This is the sound of a band coming together as one and to this day 'Warrior Rock' remains one of my favourite live albums ever. 

The title track 'Warrior Rock' is up next, originally a b-side on the 'Brave New World' single, the song is a true call to arms and has been adopted as a clarion call by the Toyah faithful and they welcome it here with open arms and the hysteria mounts as Toyah goes into one of her very greatest tracks 'Danced', a true crowd pleaser. The mood softens and mellows as Toyah romps through Anthem's 'Jungles Of Jupiter', the obligatory 'It's A Mystery' and The Changeling's 'Castaways' before leading into one of Toyah most overlooked and sublime songs 'Angel & Me' which starts off quiet and fragile and explodes into one of the albums finest moments.

Exhausted after this frenzy we have 'Brave New World' which slows the pace back down and has never sounded more plaintive, the band giving his live version fresh verve and aspect as they add swoops and twirls of their own that showcase the power of this often forgotten single. I've never really been a fan of 'The Packt' which comes next but Anthem's 'We Are' is a jubilant build-up for the inevitable 'I Want To Be Free' which, complete with audience singalong, brings the excitement to dangerous levels before moving into 'Dawn Chorus' which is another tribal audience singalong number.

Penultimate song 'War Boys' allows Simon Phillips to step into the spotlight opening with an awe-inspiring drum solo which by taking the tribal elements of the song by the scruff of the neck and puts it on a new level and makes this live version an album highlight. 

As any Toyah fan knows, a Toyah show has to close with 'Ieya' (it's the law!) and 'Warrior Rock' is no exception, again the band throw in new details and styling and turn an already powerful song into a vast epic and this recording is possibly the best version of the many that are available.

As the album finishes I actually feel drained by the experience, not as draining as actually being there I admit, but this is a record that immediately and effortlessly transports me back to my early teens when nothing was more important than music and no-one in music was more important than Toyah and that's a great feeling... 

Briefly I feel like I touched the pure power of music again, and it's exactly those feelings that made me start RememberTheEighties.com in the first place... Toyah, here's to you, with thanks!

In a career spanning over 18 years Toyah has had 13 top 40 singles, made 15 solo albums, appeared in over 20 stage plays and made 10 feature films. She recently achieved major acclaim for her role as Calamity Jane, which toured nationally and finished with 3 months in the West End. In 2003, apart from appearing on the stage Toyah also took part in ITV's I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here. In August 2000 Toyah's autobiography "Living Out Loud" (Hodder & Stoughton) was released. Throughout all this Toyah continues to appear on stage in various theatrical roles and still performs with her band, whilst writing for newspapers and finishing her first novel.

Throughout her career, Toyah has maintained a deep interest in social issues and is particularly passionate about education. She is also, as her career will show, an expert on re-invention

Speech Details
1. Learning speech.
This is a twenty minute autobiographical speech about her years at school. She had dyslexia and her school didn't cater for this learning difficulty. She was expected to slip through the educational net. But She didn't. As in most cases of dyslexia there is usually an area the dyslexic excels in and her area was performance.

She tells this as a motivational and all too common story, which she wishes the whole audience can relate to. Also, that it is never too late to learn, we live in privileged times where education is our right and that learning should be a lifetime friend.

As with all her speeches, this is poignant and hopefully light and funny, but also motivating. This is best suited to an adult audience who is embarking on adult education. In the past it has also gone down particularly well with teachers.

2. Travel speech.
Again, this is a twenty minute speech. The subject is about her time as a travel presenter with the BBC HOLIDAY team, which was throughout the 1990's.

This is a very funny and light hearted look at the so called glamorous world of the holiday presenter. Anecdotal stories spanning from childhood holidays to dodging riots in Bethlehem while trying to get a relaxed piece to camera.

The irony of trying to make destinations look cool and relaxed when you're in a foreign country with a psychopathic director who is on the verge of a nervous break down. The trials and tribulations of weight gain because all you do is eat food in front of the camera all day.

This appeals to travel reps of course, but also to almost to all corporates who feel travel is a perk of the job. 

3. Entertainment speech.
This speaks for its self. After 25 years in the business there are an awful lot of stories to tell. All her stories are either wicked or spicy and she tries to make every thing very down to earth. From playing the donkey in the school nativity to wearing a rubber dress on the set of Das Boat in Germany on a hot summer's evening when the dress decided to constrict like a rubber band and leave her starkers in front of two hundred strangers. Her stories are slightly silly and very light hearted.

This speech appeals to anyone, it isn't political and doesn't make any social comment, it's just fun.

4. Ladies speech.
She wrote this for a ladies business lunch. It is not totally autobiographical like her other speeches and very motivating. It is about how history has written women out of the picture, especially women artists and writers and she goes on to feature some women, especially the artist Rolida Sharples who changed the direction of art in 1820 and is now completely ignored in the history books. Then she talks about friends of hers who have built their own empires and how 'people friendly' they are, which is unique in the world of commerce.

This is a 'go out there and kick that male arse' speech. Not for the light hearted but for the thinkers. It would be suited to any Ladies group and very daring to perform in front of men.

There are some subjects she is very passionate about and wants to work on. She has a very good knowledge of New Age themes, for example she works creatively in relation to the phases of the moon and has kept a moon diary for ten years. She believes we are all, but especially women, governed by the moon. She also has a fair knowledge of alternative therapies and remedies.

Her big love is Nutrition, especially for the diet conscious. But she firmly believes that good food cures all except genetic illness and mutated virus's. Nutrition is vital to us all as we get older to ensure good health and freedom from the pharmaceutical companies, who only have our ill health in mind.

She is passionate about our personal health and how it is the key to a better future and financial freedom. She has already started work on this speech and it is heavy weight and hard hitting, quite revolutionary, but it is a subject she feels very strongly about.

She would like to inspire people to continue self education and to stop relying on, and trusting industry to have their best interests in mind. The greatest revolutionary effect we can have on our world is 'not to finance' what we don't like and lets start with rubbish food products. 

She would call this speech: Life management: 10 ways to escape yourself.

TOYAH: WARRIOR ROCK - TOYAH ON TOUR

• The 1982 live double album on CD in its entirety for the first time.

• Features blistering live versions of her biggest pop hits "It's  A Mystery", "Thunder In The Mountains" and "I Want To Be Free", as well as songs from her 'punk' era like "Ieya" and "War Boys".

Toyah's Warrior Rock - Toyah On Tour double-album is reissued as a 15-track CD on 28 February by Edsel, including six bonus tracks making their CD debut. It's followed on 28 March by Love Is The Law.... Plus, which bolsters the 10-song 1983 set with five add-ons.

"For the past two months we've all been working on the live album 'Warrior Rock'. We are mixing it very carefully so it sounds as true to life as on the night. So far it is sounding very exciting. We've tried to include as much audience noise as possible, because it creates such a great atmosphere. So far we have had to redesign the cover because the original had complaints from everyone who saw it. I must say at one point it was so outrageous that even I blushed. You see, what we did on the last tour was take hundreds of 'behind the scenes' photos. Sort of candid shots of life with the Toyah band. So through all the tour we were breaking into the crew's bedroom's at three in the morning and throwing buckets of fich all over someone, and taking pictures at the same time. But no one seemd to find these pictures funny, except the band, and we had orders from Safari to clean the cover up. It's still a good cover, with lots of pictures of fans and the band.

This is probably the first record cover we have had with a picture of the whole band on it."

Toyah's Letter 
Intergalactic Ranchouse 
No. 12, September 1982

Speaking at a retail industry conference at the ICC yesterday, the eighties music idol (pictured) said shopping centres had now become the place to meet and make friends as well as spend money.

Her praise - the Bullring is still her favourite shopping haunt - came as a survey showed women enjoy visiting shopping centres so much they often leave with goods they never use.

And Birmingham women are so obsessed with buying shoes that they own £13 million worth of footwear they have never worn.

The survey by npower found more than one in four women in the city bought clothes or shoes just to take advantage of a special offer or sale.

Mike Lock, from npower, said: "We sampled more than 1,000 people and our calculations suggest that in Birmingham there are £13.1 million worth of new shoes sitting dormant in the bottom of wardrobes and an amazing £637 million worth nationwide."

She said that city consumers also waste money by letting supermarket food go out of date.

Birmingham Post
Thursday 3rd March 2005

The Kings Heath-born star, whose multi-platinum albums made her an eighties idol, was the celebrity speaker at a three-day event for British shopping centre managers at the ICC.

Toyah said she always ended up in a shopping centre when she was on tour overseas.

And the 46-year-old graduate of the Old Rep's Theatre School told delegates of Rhythm in Retail that the Bullring was her favourite spot to spend cash.

"Shopping centres are not just places to shop. They are now places where people meet, make friends and learn. They also have become a shelter for those that need it," she said.

"They are the new community centres and long may that continue."

Her comments were echoed by some of the conference's speakers, including Chris Daffy, a sales, marketing and management expert and the non-executive director of travel company WorldChoice.

Mr Daffy advised managers to create an "experience" for a shopper with memorable surprises and "added extras".

He said: "Our guests are now looking for a significant improvement in their retail experience. It's all about creating the right customer experience.

"The little added extras make the difference when it comes to customer service."

Many of the top names in retail fear customers will increasingly shop on the internet.

But Helen Dickinson, a KPMG accountant who specialises in the retail sector, said internet sales accounted for just three per cent of the £260 billion spent in Britain last year.

She said: "One in four of us shops online. This is three per cent of the overall consumer spend. I see that online percentage doubling, not next year or the year after, but more like in the next five years."

Michael Green, the chief executive of the British Council of Shopping Centres, said the way to counterbalance internet sales was with better customer service.

He said: "Internet shopping is something we have to be aware of. We can offset its success with better customer service. We can draw people in with personal contact that they can't get when they shop on the internet. We are going towards a customer-friendly environment."

He predicted that by 2020 Britain's shopping centres would have more open spaces, more children's entertainment and comfy sofas and televisions for those who did not enjoy shopping.

"Ten years ago shopping centre managers were janitors. Now they are business managers responsible for millions of assets, their job has got a lot lot harder," added Mr Green.

But Toyah was given the final word.

"To see how far shopping centres have come just think back to the 1970s. We struggled to find a shop where you could buy vegetarian food and underwear that didn't resemble a chastity belt," she said.

by Jessica Simpson
Birmingham Post
Thursday 3rd March 2005

The 15-track album, considered by many as one of the best live recordings of the past 30 years, has been remastered and sounds great. A fitting testament to the live Toyah band of the time.

The CD booklet, a sample of which I have scanned, just adds to the brilliance of the release. It stays true to the original design of the double live gatefold album, yet incorporates much more too; a retro 1982 message from Toyah, tour dates, press ad, classic Toyah photographs from the tour the album was recorded on, and all new sleevnotes by Alan Robinson.

A long-awaited addition to everyone's CD collection. Highly recommended.

Check out the Official Toyah website - Just added to the new REISSUES page - Photo Galleries, with related pictures from each era, for both of the new CD's.

It, sort of, reminds me of 'Bubblegum Heart' the painting she created for the cover of the awesome 2002 'Little Tears Of Love' EP.

A whole host of doodles, including Toyah's, are currently being auctioned off on ebay.

You're bidding for an original doodle created and drawn by the actress, singer and TV presenter Toyah Willcox, best known for her songs Thunder In The Mountains' and 'I Want To Be Free', in support of National Doodle Day.

The doodle is drawn on a piece of card measuring approximately 18cm x 13 cm (7 inches x 5 inches).

National Doodle Day is a UK-wide campaign of fun which aims to get the nation doodling and raise money for The Neurofibromatosis Association and Epilepsy Action. For full details of National Doodle Day, including information on how to take part, visit www.nationaldoodleday.org.uk.

Please click on the picture to view a larger version of Toyah's doodle, at the epilepsy.org website.