Happy Halloween to all our visitors – Exactly three years ago Toyah’s Creepy Room (part of The Changeling Resurrection II Tour) played the Birmingham Ballroom and we counted down to the gig with some suitably spooky images, incorporating the official promo…
Screen caps from the advert for Neil McCormick’s Needle Time. Click below to view larger caps.
Neil McCormick’s Needle Time: Vintage TV: Tuesday 3rd November: 10.30pm
Toyah Willcox. Prolific artist and actor, who enjoyed hits with ‘It’s a Mystery’, ‘Thunder in the Mountains’ and ‘I Want to be Free’, shares the story behind her remarkable career – Running Time: 60 minutes. Vintage TV is available on Sky 369, Freeview 242, Virgin 343 and Freesat 505.
The Vintage TV advert for the, forthcoming, one hour Toyah special Neil McCormick’s Needle Time. This will air on Vintage TV next week.
Tonight Toyah plays a Proud, Loud & Electric gig at Homfirth Picturedome. The last time she played there was in February 2014, the first gig of the Crimson Queen/Greatest Hits… Live! tour. Click below for further info and ticket link for tonight’s concert.
Dreamscape’s News Archive has been updated to include links to the last few months of news posts – Click below to plough through 188 months of Toyah news, info, features, trivia…
Toyah was interviewed earlier this month, in Metro‘s “60 Seconds With”, discussing Aaaaaaaah! and more.
The actress and singer, 57, is starring in a dark British comedy where all the characters act like wild apes.
Your new film, Aaaaaaaah!, is brilliantly bonkers. Why did you say yes to a movie about humans behaving like apes?
It was a clever. well structured, brilliant script with absolutely no respect for anything. It was fabulously complex and incredibly rewarding to do. But I never thought, ‘What the hell have I got myself into?’ because it was a team of really great comedians (including Julian Rhind-Tutt and Julian Barrett) and so they had licence to do something as mad as this.
How do you describe it to your friends?
The first thing I say is, ‘Don’t go and see it!’ I’m 57, so my friends aren’t that much older than me. I said, ‘If you can’t handle vomit, poo, semen, gratuitous sex and gratuitous violence, this isn’t for you,’ and they say, ‘Oh God we’ve got to see this film!’
What was the maddest scene?
It was a kitchen scene. I cook for my husband (musician Robert Fripp) three times a day and so to do the cooking scene was very natural. But to do it where there are no social norms and no hygiene is a very different thing. To do a cookery scene while watching telly with one of the most brilliant interpretations of food porn I’ve ever seen and then to take a crap in the corner – I just thought it was utter genius… Read more…
• Diana Remembered: October 27th 1986 ~ Princess Diana meets singer Toyah Willcox, at Women Of The Year Lunch, Savoy Hotel – View photos at Twitter / Watch Toyah’s speech from the lunch at You Tube…
• Veronica: A rare Toyah feature in a 1982 issue of Dutch magazine Veronica – View at ebay…
• Saturday Superstore: Toyah, looking beautiful, performs The Vow in 1983 – Saturday morning TV used to be unbelievably good – Watch at You Tube…
• Kurious Planet: Kaleidoscope Man: Being camera assistant on Kaleidoscope Man was an amazing experience. Not only did I get to work with some very talented cast and crew including Gordon Hickie, cameraman for the BBC’s Holby City and Toyah Willcox, legendary singer and actress – Continue reading…
• Byronesque Vintage: Epic. Toyah Willcox in Issey Miyake, 1980s – View at Instagram…
• Official Instagram: A fantastic retro Prostitute t-shirt… Toyah and some zombies (from the forthcoming Doctors episode)… Toyah and a huge tennis ball in Bridgwater…
• The Lost Highway Hotel: Review: Aaaaaaaah!: Like it or not (and many will quite understandably hate it), this is one of the most audacious films of the year. It’s detractors will call it over-indulgent nonsense of the worst kind, but they’ll be missing how, regardless of its ugliness and supposed flippancy, perseverance yields results. Somehow, amid what seems like nonsense, Oram conjures emotional investment. The film’s finale is quietly devastating – Continue reading…
• Dear Mr Kershaw – A Pensioner Writes: The Letters of Wilf Turnbull and Derek Philpott, which included a letter to Toyah about I Want To Be Free, are now published as a book – More info/Buy it here…
Just uploaded to Dreamscape’s You Tube channel, a retro interview with Toyah from ITV’s Live Talk. This aired on 26th September 2000 on the short-lived show, which evolved into Loose Women. Toyah was guesting to talk about her, just published, autobiography “Living Out Loud”.
• Browse previous additions by Dreamscape to You Tube: Ask Aspel (1981); Formel Eins/Don’t Fall in Love (1985); This Morning (1992); Life & Times Of Toyah Willcox (2000); Nationwide (1982); Sky Trax (1985); Parkinson (1981); Saturday Action (1982); Get Set For Summer (1982); Breakfast Time (1985); Get Set (1983); The Saturday Show (1983); This Morning (1994); V Graham Norton (2002); TISWAS (1981); It’s Your Funeral (2001); Sixty Minutes (1983); Neno (1987); Saturday Superstore (1983); Harty (1983); Breakfast Time (1987).
Toyah has played dozens (and dozens) of gigs in 2015, one of the most prolific live years of her career – Acoustic, Up Close & Personal; Proud, Loud & Electric; The Humans’ Telling Strange Tales; as well as numerous festivals (New Mills, Cottingham, Bewdley, Lowdham, Soundstock, Cropredy, Glastonbudget…). There are still a handful + of forthcoming Acoustic and Electric gigs over the next few weeks. Click below for details.
Thanks to Brian Marsh, Official Toyah, Chesney Hawkes, Paul/P A C Photography, Damon King, Angus Turner, Ian Davis, Mark Evans and Rewind Scotland for sharing these great live photos through 2015.
2015 was/is the 30th anniversary of the release of two, starkly different, Toyah albums: The big-budget, major label, studio album Minx, which Dreamscape celebrated/posted about sporadically this year; and the, final 80s release on indie label Safari, compilation album Mayhem (“A Special Collector’s Edition Album Of Rare and Archive Recordings”).
Mayhem was also released on expanded CD in 2005 and digitally in 2013. Somewhat ironically in this 30th anniversary year the “multi-media” warehouse which the album was named after, “Mayhem” in Battersea, London began to be demolished. Visit the album page at The Official Toyah Discography, and download the album/buy the CD by clicking on the Mayhem feature from Issue 17 of Dreamscape’s Toyah Fanzine.
Pop and 80s icon Toyah Willcox was at Bridgwater College last night (Sunday, October 25, 2015) to perform at The McMillan Theatre.
The gig proved a unique opportunity for people to experience Toyah up close and personal.
The evening included Toyah performing an acoustic set of her hit singles and classic songs, alongside recalling stories from her colourful 35-year career.
Even Bridgwater Press photographer Jeff Searle could not resist from going along and grabbing a picture with Toyah.
• Continue reading at Bridgwater Press.
Neil McCormick’s Needle Time: Vintage TV: Tuesday 3rd November: 10.30pm
Toyah Willcox. Prolific artist and actor, who enjoyed hits with ‘It’s a Mystery’, ‘Thunder in the Mountains’ and ‘I Want to be Free’, shares the story behind her remarkable career – Running Time: 60 minutes. Vintage TV is available on Sky 369, Freeview 242, Virgin 343 and Freesat 505.
In October 1983, Toyah’s album Love is The Law was released. It was issued on CD in 2005 and made available digitally for the first time ever in 2013 – thanks to toyahwillcox.com – to mark its 30th anniversary. The release was accompanied by a new digital booklet. You can now view/download the booklet at The Official Toyah website. Click on the original 1983 Japanese Love Is The Law press advert – colourised by Dreamscape – below to visit the album page.
• Browse Dreamscape’s recent Love Is The Law archive of posts here. View the related post at Instagram. The album is available to buy at iTunes and Amazon.
Toyah with Caroline Munro, of James Bond and Hammer Horror films fame, at Saturday’s Viva Blackpool event. (Photo © Lindsay Peebles | Thanks also to Damon King)
Besides a bevy of Bond girl beauties, cast members from classic British movie Quadrophenia will be lining up to meet fans at Blackpool’s Viva cabaret venue tomorrow. In the ‘biggest cast reunion’ to date, the likes of Toyah, John Altman – perhaps now best known as EastEnders’ Nasty Nick Cotton, and Gary Shail will be chatting about the days gone by.
The 1979 British film, loosely based on the 1973 rock opera of the same name by The Who, made stars of a whole generation of young actors who went on to great things, with Phil Daniels and Ray Winstone leading the way.
Gary Shail, who played Spider, helped get together the Mods and Rockers crowd attending the charity Our Disappearing Planet’s first Charity Autograph Convention at the Blackpool night spot – which will also play host to a bevy of Bond girls, plus stars of the silver and small screens.
“We don’t get together too often, although we see each other as separate events, but this is probably the biggest grouping for a long time,” he said. “And a lot of people are coming who have never done a Quadrophenia reunion, so it should be really good.”
• Continue reading at The Blackpool Gazette.
Autograph hunters head to Blackpool for a star studded convention
Bond girls, a former Miss World who famously dated George Best, and the ‘Stupid Boy’ from Dad’ Army are just some of the celebrities taking part in the inaugural Charity Autograph Convention in Blackpool.
Other celebs attending including former Miss World (1977) Mary Stavin, pop star Toyah Willcox, Game of Thrones actors Ian Whyte and the ‘Stupid Boy’ from Dad’s Army, Ian Lavender.
• Continue reading at ITV News.
Eeeek!! This is amazing – ZACHT VOOR HAAR >> An astonishing #flashbackfriday to 1977. A rarely seen and seldom spotted shampoo advert modelling shot by a young Toyah. This advert was printed in Dutch magazines and the tag line translates as Soft for you. (Thanks to The Official Toyah Instagram)
• There’s no gimmicks! The above has brought this to mind – From 20 years later…
Steve Oram on AAAAAAAAH!, monkey business and Battenberg
We talk to Steve Oram about his mad monkey movie Aaaaaaaah!
You’ve not seen anything quite like Steve Oram’s dark comedy Aaaaaaaah! Set in a dystopian world where everyone behaves like apes (complete with grunting, there’s no dialogue), it’s a viciously funny and totally odd piece of work that’s been building excellent word of mouth since its debut at FrightFest.
The film has been going round a few festivals, how have you found the reaction so far?
We’ve had various screenings all around the country, we had a little tour with Picturehouse Cinemas, so we’ve been going round with them and it’s been brilliant. We’ve been doing Q & As at most of these places and I’ve been blown away by the response, it seems people like no-dialogue films these days! FrightFest was a really good start for us, it was amazing. It really seems to be growing, which is great. We had a really good screening at Mayhem in Nottingham on Sunday, which went really well. Really great crowd there, very pleased.
Did you have actors in mind?
I did, I wrote most of the parts for the actors that ended up playing them. They’re gathered from the comedy world and most of them are good friends of mine, Tom Meeten who plays my beta male in it and Julian [Barratt] and Noel [Fielding] and Julian Rhind-Tutt, Holly Dempsey, they’re all really good friends, but Toyah [Willcox] was the one I didn’t know. I just sent her a script because I was a huge fan of her in Jubilee and Quadrophenia, her early work I think is just incredible. And she loved it and fit right in with all my mental friends! Which was really great, a really happy coincidence.
• Continue reading at SciFiNow.
Actor & Comedian Steve Oram In Leeds to Hold Special Late Night Screening of His Debut Film, Aaaaaaaah!
Comedian, actor & writer Steve Oram is bringing his new debut feature film to the Hyde Park Picture House this Saturday, where it will show at a special late night screening, alongside a Q&A with the director. The film, entitled AAAAAAAAH! , is a hilarious, anarchic and touching look at the human condition, and stars many of Oram’s comedy contemporaries including Julian Barratt, Noel Fielding, Alice Lowe and Julian Rhind-Tutt.
Aaaaaaaah! plus live Q&A with director Steve Oram is at the Hyde Park Picture House on Saturday 24th October at 11pm.
• Continue reading at North Leeds Life.
As has been posted about a fair bit recently… Toyah’s three quite different and, more than quite, brilliant albums: Desire – originally released in 1987, Prostitute – originally released in 1988, and Ophelia’s Shadow – originally released in 1991, were made available digitally, for the first time, earlier this month. There’s been a lot of related promotion…
Desire: Read Toyah’s Letter, first published in Tellurian One (Spring 1987); View info on Tenterhooks, Echo Beach (Acoustic) and Desirable; Visit the album page at toyahwillcox.com; Read a full transcript of Chris Limb’s 1987 interview with Toyah; Listen to the album at Spotify; Buy at Amazon or iTunes; Browse Dreamscape’s Desire news…
Prostitute: Read Toyah’s Letter (Summer 1988); Visit the album page at toyahwillcox.com; Read a reflection by Craig Astley; Listen to the album at Spotify; Buy at Amazon or iTunes; Browse Dreamscape’s Prostitute news…
Ophelia’s Shadow: Read Toyah’s Letter (Summer 1990); Visit the album page at toyahwillcox.com; Listen to the album at Spotify; Buy at Amazon or iTunes; Browse Dreamscape’s Ophelia’s Shadow news…
Explore Toyah’s Instagram for rarities related to all three albums (Thanks to Breaking Through).
The 28th Bewdley Festival has been described as a great success by its organisers.
Bewdley Festival brought its traditional mix of local talent, regional celebrities and national and international stars of stage, screen and concert halls, all packed into an eventful ten days and all delivered entirely by volunteers. The event, which ran from Friday, October 9, to Sunday, October 18, is much anticipated by lovers of music, comedy, drama and the arts in Wyre Forest.
Other performances across the 10-day festival included Toyah Willcox, Lesley Smith, Andrew Downes, Dr Phil Hammond and Max Keen.
• Continue reading at The Kidderminster Shuttle. Browse our Bewdley Festival 2015 news.
