A few screen caps of Toyah looking utterly amazing when she guested on Russell Harty’s BBC2 show in March 1983. Other guests were Willie Rushton and Janet Street-Porter in a programme looking back at celebrities’ school days. Toyah’s former teacher also made an appearance. View a clip from the programme by clicking on the caps. (Thanks to Andi)
As always, thanks for the music, memories and mayhem. Best Wishes… X
• Polari Magazine: So What If I Am: Singer/songwriter, and huge Toyah fan, Andi Fraggs has written another thought provoking and interesting article for ‘Polari Magazine’. A great read!
• Cake: A birthday cake for Toyah from John and Carl of Burslem Cake Fairy & Tea Rooms.
• Runcorn & Widnes Weekly News: 1980s stars to join Tatton Picnic Concert line-up: Three special guests have been announced for this year’s Tatton Park Picnic Concerts 2013. The event will see 80s superstars Howard Jones and Toyah Willcox joining the Saturday’s headliners The Human League.
• All Star Mr & Mrs: The full appearance has now been uploaded to ‘You Tube’.
• Southern Daily Echo: Show of the Week – Toyah Willcox in Hormonal Housewives: It’s the show for women everywhere, starring 80s pop superstar Toyah Willcox.
• Bucks Free Press: It’s No Mystery: Toyah was included on the cover of BFP last Friday.
• The Quietus: Changeling: Alison Moyet Interviewed: Another example of your career is that you haven’t opted to go on any 80s package tours, stuck between Bucks Fizz and Toyah. (You have to love Alison, she won’t be manipulated into slagging off other artists no matter how much a journalist tries!!)
• Scotsman: On This Day: Birthdays: Toyah Willcox, singer and actress, 55.
• The Astrologer: The Astrologer Daily: May 18th, 2013: And finally happy birthday to Tina Fey, Toyah Willcox and Chow Yun-Fat.
The classic single sleeve from ‘Thunder In The Mountains’ will feature in the forthcoming Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition Club To Catwalk which opens on 10th July. The exhibition traces the theatricality and experimentation of early 80s club fashions and includes the work of Melissa Kaplan amongst many others. (News Source: Official Toyah Facebook)
The six-part radio drama, The Older Woman, in which Toyah plays Elsa airs again from next week for the first time in many years on BBC Radio. Originally broadcast by ‘BBC Radio 4′ in January and February 1993 it also stars Zoë Wanamaker and Martin Clunes as Jane and Roy. It’s being repeated by BBC Radio 4 Extra. Toyah also sings the theme tune – Listen here.
The Older Woman: BBC Radio 4 Extra: Thursday 23rd May: 7am/5.30pm
The Older Woman: BBC Radio 4 Extra: Friday 24th May: 5.30am
Episode 1 of 6. Local hack journalist Roy Hitchcock tries to win the heart of his former teacher. Stars Zoë Wanamaker, Martin Clunes and Toyah Willcox, with David Troughton and Nicky Henson. (A BBC Radio 4 Extra debut). The Older Woman is written by Tony Bagley.
Toyah’s classic 1982 appearance was included in last night’s The Best Of Kenny Everett’s Television Shows on BBC4. Toyah’s hair changes colour numerous times, Kenny plays Toyah, Toyah plays Kenny, plus both perform their own versions of ‘I Want To Be Free’. Brilliant stuff!
Toyah guested on Jo Davies’ show on ‘BBC Radio Nottingham’ on Sunday afternoon. The short interview is available to listen to, for the next four days, at BBC iPlayer.
Toyah talks Hormonal Housewives and her career. There’s also a blast of ‘It’s A Mystery’
• The interview begins at approximately 13 minutes into the show and runs for around five minutes. Listen here.
Wishing Toyah and Robert a Happy Anniversary, their 27th!, and Happy Birthday too to Mr Fripp. Here is that great photo, one of the first of Toyah and Robert together, taken the year they married, 1986, and also released their first collaboration; ‘The Lady Or The Tiger’.
The Corn is Green: True Movies 1: Friday 17th May: 3.00am
The Corn is Green: True Movies 1: Monday 20th May: 5.00pm
The Corn is Green: True Movies 2: Friday 24th May: 1.00am
Academy Award winner Katharine Hepburn stars as a schoolteacher determined to help the people of a turn-of-the-century Welsh mining town. With Ian Saynor, Bill Fraser, Patricia Hayes, Anna Massey, Artro Morris, Dorothea Phillips, Toyah Willcox, Huw Richards, Bryn Fon, Dyfan Roberts and Robin John. Directed by: George Cukor (1979).
Monday’s Hormonal Housewives show at the Bristol Hippodrome has been reviewed by The Post.
REVIEW: Hormonal Housewives,
Bristol Hippodrome, 9/10
The new Hormonal Housewives show has played at the Bristol Hippodrome following on from successful tours in the past two years.
Toyah Willcox, Julie Coombe and Sarah Jane Buckley star in the show written by husband and wife team Julie Coombe and John MacIsaac.
The girls strode onto the stage to Queen’s hit, I Want To Break Free and definitely spent the next hour or two doing just that.
• Continue reading at The Post/This is Bristol.
Late Summer 1983, Toyah filmed The Ebony Tower in the Dordogne area of France with Sir Laurence Olivier, Greta Scacchi and Roger Rees. The 90-minute drama eventually aired on ITV in December 1984, with a TV Times cover accompanying it. 30 years later it’s still one of Toyah’s best remembered acting roles. View a larger version of the Dreamscape advert for the 2011 DVD release here, and the original trailer here. (Thanks to Andi)
Toyah guested on Laura Rawlings’ show on ‘BBC Radio Bristol’ last Thursday. The interview is still available to listen to at BBC iPlayer for the next couple of days.
Toyah talks Hormonal Housewives, thinking positively, celebrity culture, not becoming a politician, and her parents meeting in Weston-Super-Mare.
• The interview begins at approximately 12 minutes into the show and runs for around 14 minutes (which includes a play of ‘Mrs Robinson by Simon & Garfunkel). Listen here.
• Tatton Park Picnic Concerts 2013: Toyah at Tatton Park on Saturday 20th July, playing on the same bill as The Human League and Howard Jones, has been officially confirmed. Details and links to buy tickets here. (Thanks to The Official Toyah Facebook)
• Independent Woman: This Week’s Birthdays: Toyah Willcox, singer and TV presenter, is 55.
• All Star Mr & Mrs: Robert and Toyah’s VT from last week’s programme has been uploaded to You Tube. (Thanks to Jack Cooper)
• Sky Live 1998: I’ve also just uploaded a clip of Toyah from Sky Live. A very short interview and an acoustic performance of ‘It’s A Mystery’. Apologies for the poor picture quality but Toyah is sounding in fantastic voice here.
• Elu24: Weekend Guitar Trio – Live At Kings Place: A review of the new live album. Read the original here or a translation here.
• The Changeling: Alison Moyet mentions Toyah in an interview with ‘Gay Times’ (June 2013 issue) when talking about considering names for her new album: Moyet revealed other considered titles: “Changeling” (“but Toyah had an album called Changeling”).
• David Bowie: Five Years: An intimate portrait of five key years in David Bowie’s career: I’m not sure if he directly contributes to this new documentary but Robert Fripp is mentioned during it. Airing on Saturday 25th May on BBC2. Time tbc, more info here.
• Sign Here: Toyah autographs a Hormonal Housewives crew member’s leg: “Crew member wants my name tattooed on his leg. How could I refuse!“. View the photo at Instagram.
• Hemel Today: Hormonal housewives vent anger at the Arena: An extended sketch show, Hormonal Housewives calls on the same elements that proved such a draw in The Vagina Monologues and Hot Flush.
• Artrocker: Focus Wales 2013: Saturday 27th April, Wrexham County Borough Museum – Golden Fable is Rebecca Palin and Tim McIver, a synth/acoustic duo who produce a magical, hypnotic sort of pop. Palin is all glimmer suit and headdress something akin to Toyah Willcox in her prime.
One of the great things about punk is that it can be as individual as you are. An all incorporating look, you can do anything you want with your punk look. Need inspiration? Here are my favorite first ladies of punk:
Toyah Willcox: One of alternative fashions true style chameleons, You just didn’t know what Toyah would be wearing next! Bold and brash she did her own thing with her wardrobe. ‘Outlandish’ was the word Toyah Willcox and her style statement making costumes.
• The Guardian: Music Festivals Guide 2013
Information and lineups for the UK’s best family festivals
Upton Music Festival: When: 23-25 August, Where: Upton-upon-Severn, Worcestershire, What: Local acts and retro stars, Who: Slade, the Troggs, Toyah Willcox, the Wurzels, How much: Weekend camping £67.50, teen (13-17) £20.
• UK Festival Guides: Tatton Park Special Guests Announced
Three very special guests have just been announced for this year’s Tatton Park Picnic Concerts 2013. In what is lining up to be a truly spectacular night, 80’s superstars Howard Jones and Toyah Willcox will be joining Saturday’s headliners The Human League.
• Indie London: Tatton Park Picnic Concerts 2013: Howard Jones, Toyah Willcox and Amore to support
Howard Jones and Toyah Willcox will be joining Saturday’s headliners The Human League at the Tatton Park Picnic Concerts 2013.
• There are just a couple of weeks left of the three-month Hormonal Housewives tour, with Bristol, Dartford, Hereford, St Albans, Crewe, Newark, Southampton, Lancaster, Telford, Chelmsford, Leamington Spa and High Wycombe left to visit.
• St Albans Review: Interviews: Toyah Willcox can’t remember a time when she wasn’t going through some emotional crisis, which makes her the perfect star for Hormonal Housewives, coming to the Alban Arena: Few could ever describe Toyah Willcox as a shrinking violet. The former princess of pop punk has always been a rebel – as a teen she hung out with the local Hells Angels chapter, dyed her hair “every colour of the rainbow“ and often skipped her classes at her private school.
• Bucks Free Press: Toyah Willcox: ‘I was in a dressing room alone with Jimmy Savile’ (Yes, believe it or not this is an interview to promote Hormonal Housewives!!): Toyah Willcox would not divulge if she was a feminist or not. But she was able to tell me all her about her current show, Hormonal Housewives, which she is said is most definitely not a feminist show, and which has been making women (and even a few men) laugh up and down the country.
• This is Bristol/The Post: Toyah promises naughty show with a big smile: Charismatic Toyah Willcox is the perfect choice for Hormonal Housewives, the comedy that plays The Bristol Hippodrome on Monday, May 13.
• Herts Advertiser: The Levellers, Hormonal Housewives and Chas and Dave at the Alban Arena.
• Chelmsford Weekly News: Boycie and Toyah in Cramphorn summer line-up.
A new interview with Toyah, published on Wednesday, by the St Albans & Harpenden Review.
Toyah Willcox can’t remember a time when she wasn’t going through some emotional crisis, which makes her the perfect star for Hormonal Housewives, coming to the Alban Arena
Few could ever describe Toyah Willcox as a shrinking violet. The former princess of pop punk has always been a rebel – as a teen she hung out with the local Hells Angels chapter, dyed her hair “every colour of the rainbow“ and often skipped her classes at her private school.
Could it have been the hormones? “As far as I can remember I have always been hormonal, and I can remember being hormonal in my pram,“ says Toyah, 54, who is coming to St Albans as the star of Hormonal Housewives.
• Continue reading at the St Albans & Harpenden Review.
This is interesting, all 13 minutes of it…
‘Mystery’ (Soft Mix by The Sonic Healer): Mr Tones & Mr Burns featuring Toyah
Atmospheric & slow; kind of a remix of a remix, done at half tempo and using guitar as well as keys and samples. I think this was about 1998, and I used an early version of Cubase, a Yamaha A3000, and a Roland general midi keyboard. Also a soft synth of some kind that wouldn’t run without glitching. Oh yeah, there was that vocoder too – the one with the pink blobby pattern on the front panel. You know the one.
• Listen to ‘Mystery’ (Soft Mix by The Sonic Healer) at Soundcloud.
A few screen caps of Toyah, Robert and WillyFred from Wednesday’s airing of All Star Mr & Mrs. Please click on these to view larger versions. UK folks don’t forget that the programme is being repeated again this afternoon on ITV, in every region, at 12.30pm.
Wednesday night’s All Star Mr & Mrs on ITV achieved an overnight audience of 4.02m viewers, an 18.6% share of the total TV audience. 107k (0.4%) tuned in on ITV +1.
This is an increase on last week’s first show of the series and will no doubt be higher when the final figures are released next week. (BARB ratings data by Attentional)
A new Summer 2013 live date for Toyah, announced yesterday by Tatton Park Concerts and Festivals For All.
Howard Jones, Toyah Willcox & more added to Tatton Park Picnic Concerts line up
Today sees the announcement that 3 more acts are joining the line up for this year’s Tatton Park Picnic 
Concerts 2013. Howard Jones 80’s superstars and Toyah Willcox will be joining Saturday’s headliners The Human League. Classical four-some Amore will be joining Katherine Jenkins and the National Symphony Orchestra on Sunday 21 July. Tickets are available now for both these outstanding evenings. Tatton Park Picnic Concerts 2013 take place at Tatton Park, Knutsford, Cheshire, between Sat 20th to Sun 21st July 2013.
• As always, before booking tickets specifically to see Toyah please double check she is playing and also refer to the Official Gigs page at toyahwillcox.com for all confirmed dates.
Toyah guested on Paula White’s show on ‘BBC Radio Stoke’ yesterday afternoon. The interview is available to listen to at BBC iPlayer and will remain online until next Thursday.
Toyah talks Hormonal Housewives and her early career. There’s also a blast of ‘It’s A Mystery’.
• The interview begins at approximately 2hrs 5ms into the show and runs for around seven minutes. Listen here.
The CD, ‘Live at Kings Place’, a Weekend Guitar Trio and Toyah collaboration, is launched via two concerts in Estonia this month.
The live CD is the 8th album by WGT, celebrating their 20th birthday this year. It contains the second set of the concert, plus “Boredom Is A Killer” from the first set. The 2-track live recording was restored and mastered by Markus Reuter & Lee Fletcher (Unsung Productions).
The album will be presented in Tallinn (9th of May) and Tartu (15th of May). At these concerts, WGT will be joined on stage by the Estonian poet/singer/rapper/producer Jarek Kasar.
• Further information on the genesis of this collaboration, the new live album and launch gigs at Weekend Guitar Trio’s website.
British singer Toyah Willcox has taken aim at the Hollywood stars who donned punk-inspired outfits for this year’s (13) Costume Institute Gala in New York on Monday (06 May 13), calling their faux rocker outfits “too manufactured”.
Anne Hathaway, Miley Cyrus and Sienna Miller were among the glamorous A-listers who tackled the evening’s punk theme in studded garments and dramatic make-up at fashion’s biggest night, also known as the Met Ball.
But Willcox, who found fame just as the punk movement took off in the 1970s, is adamant their designer gowns missed the mark since punk style was all about do-it-yourself creations made with little to no money.
In a column for Britain’s The Sun, she writes, “As the Met Ball celebrated and adorned itself with super-rich guests dressed in mandatory punk theme, A-listers arrived in their saccharin designer versions of punk chic. The A-listers at the ball… were all too manufactured. But here in the U.K. the punk movement has a far more working class power – a power for me that could never be mimicked by designer labels…”
• Continue reading at The Express. Also at Contact Music, New!, Orange News and OK!, among others!
Toyah has written an article due to be published in ‘The Sun’ today.
The piece is in response to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York exhibition Punk: Chaos to Couture, running from today to 14th August. This will possibly only be available in the print edition of the paper.
• Jubilee: A rare-ish photo of Jordan and Toyah was recently listed on Ebay.
• Stamford Advocate: The Original Punks: Circa 1980: British actress and pop singer Toyah Willcox, lead singer of the punk band Toyah.
• Chester Chronicle: Toyah Willcox stars in Hormonal Housewives at Crewe’s Lyceum Theatre: There was the feisty, whip-cracking heroine of Calamity Jane, then a femme fatale devil in high-heeled boots in Vampire’s Rock. Now Toyah Willcox is one of a trio of ‘hormonal housewives’ in the show of the same name which visits Crewe’s Lyceum Theatre next week.
• The Mirror: Trending Today: Toyah Willcox · Robert Fripp · Richard Hammond · Harry Potter · Rod Stewart.
• Twitter: Toyah tweeted earlier today that the Autumn tour dates will be announced very, very soon – London, Manchester, Bristol, Newcastle, Wolverhampton, Brighton and more.
• This is Lincolnshire: Housewives get personal about all things female: The Hormonal Housewives are back on stage and in discussion, getting up close and humorously personal about all things female, with their spring national tour.
• Daily Track: Toyah was the “daily track” for four days running this week … ‘It’s A Mystery’, ‘Thunder In The Mountains’, ‘Danced’, and ending with ‘I Want To Be Free’ on Tuesday.
• Worcester News: Win a pair of tickets to see Hormonal Housewives at Chelmsford Civic Theatre!
• As everyone knows Toyah and Robert guested on tonight’s All Star Mr & Mrs on ITV. It’s now available to watch online (for UK residents only) at ITV Player for the next 28 days. It’s also available at UTV Player.
• The programme will also be repeated on ITV this coming Saturday at 12.30pm.
• STV Player are using a great photo of Toyah in their index of episodes of the series. View here.
• All Star Mr & Mrs Facebook: Backstage with singer Toyah Willcox & husband, guitarist Robert Fripp! – Congrats to Toyah & Robert, they won £5,000 for St. Richard’s Hospice, Worcester.
• Overnight viewing figures for tonight’s edition will be announced tomorrow. Last week’s programme was watched by almost four million people, though that will probably be over 5m when the final figures are released.
• Those Twitter folks were agog, tweeting: “Toyah Willcox & hubby are just so adorable!!“, “Awwww.. How sweet are Toyah Wilcox and her hubby Robert Fripp” and someone who doesn’t know that Toyah is only 54!!, ”I want to be like Robert and Toyah when I’m old“… etc.
• The power of a prime time TV appearance. In the couple of hours after All Star Mr & Mrs aired tonight Dreamscape has had FIVE times as many visitors as it usually does.
• The last fortnight has been quite entertaining. Every time I’ve searched for Toyah news online there have been Fripp/King Crimson fans aghast at this programme lol!
6. Toyah Willcox
Famed for her ever-changing hair colour, dramatic make-up and outlandish outfits, singer, songwriter and actress Toyah Willcox scored several chart hits in the 70s and 80s, and starred in Jubilee, one of the most influential punk-inspired movies.
• Visit MSN to view the feature.
Toyah announced info about the upcoming tour in her May blog yesterday: The autumn tour is shaping up and we should be announcing the dates any day now. London, Manchester and Bristol are solid, we are now awaiting confirmation on a few other dates before we announce. We have decided to keep it selective and to main venues as I have a TV series to shoot in the autumn, but there will be enough venues for everyone to reach and to follow us around the country. The tour set will include songs from LOVE IS THE LAW, CRIMSON QUEEN, ANTHEM, CHANGELING and SHEEP FARMING, in that order of priority.
Toyah also mentions the possibility of a tour in 2014: Next year I might tour CRIMSON QUEEN, in it’s own right, especially if I can pin SIMON DARLOW down to record the follow up and to come and do some dates too. CQ is a fantastic album and it has had such a great response in the industry I’d like to give it the time it deserves. But this isn’t my priority just yet.
• View a larger version of Dreamscape’s LITL Tour teaser here or by clicking on the image.
A reminder that Toyah’s My Vintage is repeated tonight on ‘Vintage TV’ at 11.30pm.
