Archive

Archive for the ‘Fan Stuff’ Category

Dreamscape: A Very Merry Run Up To Christmas!

December 10th, 2023

Introducing my giant Dreamscape Christmas card… To wish everyone a great run up to Christmas, I thought I’d feature one of Toyah’s inspirational, beautiful images from 1981, in huge Christmas card form as a way of starting things off.

In a 45+ year career of ground breaking, outstanding, pioneering visual creativity this is up there with the best of Toyah’s iconic images.

Christmas is a great season, but the run up is the really special time for many, so please enjoy the next two weeks. It always feels like there is something magical in the air while heading towards Christmas Eve and the 25th. So, here is to the next two weeks of wonderment, fun, surprises and joy… Merry Christmas Run Up!

Live 1980 – 2022: Toyah’s Glasgow Gig History

July 12th, 2023

Something I’d thought about doing for years, and had a spare weekend so I went ahead with “The Toyah In Glasgow Gig History Tour Of Toyah Tours”. A snappy title. See the full set at Instagram. Coincidentally, one of the venues I forgot to include: The Pavilion Theatre is mentioned in this radio clip from BBC Stereo Underground.

Site News: A New Dreamscape Is Coming!

January 12th, 2023

Dreamscape goes into its 24th year online in March and I’m currently working on revamping the website. Right now the idea is to completely change the look/format, which I find slightly scary/daunting, but I think it really is time for a radical change as I’ve been using this layout since 2012. During the 12 years before that I altered the format every couple of years.

This is, obviously, going to take a while as we have a huge archive that needs to be reformatted, or at least included in the new website in some form, as I’ve always considered the archives to be a really important aspect of any website. I’m also thinking of a way to incorporate the fanzine in some way.

So, the changes aren’t going to happen immediately but just a heads up that the changes will be happening…

Soul Passing Through Soul: Dreamscape Fan Art

April 12th, 2022

This past weekend Toyah revisited her 1985 album, Minx, by exploring the second single released from it, Soul Passing Through Soul, in Toyah At Home. Here’s a bit of SPTS fan art I put together a few years ago… (While on the subject of MinxSpace Between The Sounds is still one of my favourite Toyah songs. Yup, it’s over-the-top but bloody brilliant!!)

Dreamscape Runs To The Water’s Edge…

April 10th, 2022

This website flew (almost like a Bird in Flight!) into it’s 23rd year online last month. I started creating Dreamscape in the late 1990s, while I was also, slowly, teaching myself how to build a website with basic html. So I like to think of this website as existing in two millennia… even though it didn’t actually go live until March 2000, after a failed launch in late 1999!

I’ve thought about changing the website – It’s not one of those flashy “with bells on” sites but it does the job it’s supposed to do well I think, and I worry changing it to one of those websites would spoil it. Who knows…

I always said – as certain people like to remind me – I’d stop running a fansite (or a fanzine!) at 50, but I’m now the ripe young age of 54 with no plans, anytime soon, of stopping!!! (NB: I’m hoping to bring the News Archive up to date, at some point this year, by adding links to each of the past 18 months of news that hasn’t been “”archived” yet!)

Cherry Red: Going To Be Me: The Life Of A Toyah Super Fan

February 4th, 2022

The dedication and commitment of the super fan is something we never take for granted at Cherry Red. Their passion and energy for artists is the lifeblood of any musician’s career, and in our latest blog piece we celebrate that with a wonderful piece by writer and designer Chris Limb.

Chris has been a steadfast Toyah fan since the early 80s and wrote I Was A Teenage Toyah Fan; a fascinating example of loyalty and affection that serves as a window into the soul of any ardent music lover.

It is 1981. I am seeing Toyah play live. For the first time I am actually in the same room as her, albeit a very large room. There she is, over there. I can see her with my eyes.

It is 1991. I am putting together the latest issue of the Toyah Fan Club magazine Tellurian, a cut and paste concoction of photocopied articles as well as a handwritten letter to the fans from Toyah herself. I am typing up the lyrics for her new album Ophelia’s Shadow to include in it; once finished I’ll then take it to a print shop in Store Street WC1 to get a few hundred copies run off.

It is 2001. I am in a recording studio in Nuneaton where Toyah is recording guest vocals on a track by the band Chester with whom I currently play bass. The track will eventually be put out under the band name Family of Noise.

It is 2011. I am putting the finishing touches to the manuscript for my memoir I Was A Teenage Toyah Fan which grew out of a series of blog posts I’d written about my experiences some thirty years previously. I am about to self-publish this as both a paperback and an ebook.

It is 2021. I am writing this blog entry about Toyah and the impression she’s made on my life over the past 40 plus years.

• Continue reading at Cherry Red. Browse Dreamscape’s I Was A Teenage Toyah Fan news archive. There’s much more IWATTF content in our vast News Archive (scroll to around 2010 – 2012).

Internet: The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive

August 30th, 2021

The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive has had a substantial update recently. Lots of new radio and TV interviews have been transcribed with accompanying visuals.

These include ITV Unscripted, Evelyn Glennie Podcast, Tammy Gooding, BBC Hereford & Worcester, RTE Arena, BBC Radio Two Steve Wright In The Afternoon and more. There’s also the latest Toyah interview from Classic Pop magazine.

• Click to visit the archive. Find links to all of the new, and previous, transcripts on the right hand sidebar of the blog/website.

Dreamscape Fanzine: Digital Lockdown Issue: Toyah Solo

August 23rd, 2020

New print issues of Dreamscape’s Toyah Fanzine are coming… In the meantime, our free digital lockdown issue – celebrating Toyah Solo – is still available online to read or download.

Dreamscape Toyah Features: Dive In… Be Rescued!

August 23rd, 2020

Dreamscape has 20+ years of Toyah news in our archives, but this isn’t only a news site – There are also tons of retro, and not so retro, Toyah career features – celebrating albums, eras, releases, significant Toyah “moments” and much more – to browse and read!

Dreamscape 20: Our (Weird) 21st Year Online!

August 23rd, 2020

Didn’t expect our 21st year online to have been quite like this… Lockdown, masks and staying home! But there’s still been plenty of Toyah news (and newsy bits!) to post… I’ve been doing that for two decades now and the idea of not doing it feels slightly weird! I always said I’d stop running a fansite at 50, but I’m now just about to hit 53 with no plans, just yet, of stopping!!!

Toyah.Net: You Tubing with Dreamscape

June 10th, 2020

Re-uploaded to this website’s You Tube channel recently, Sky Trax – The 1985 Toyah Special; a great Minx-era interview; and BBC Breakfast Time, a much shorter but still interesting Desire-era interview. These uploads have both been edited to remove all music from them, which was the reason they were originally made unavailable by You Tube.

Lots of other quirky clips and footage have also been added to our channel: Toyah, Superhits, Monster Munch 80s adverts, and more! Click below to visit and/or subscribe!

Dreamscape – Toyah.Net: You Tube Channel

May 27th, 2020

Following our recent post about Toyah’s official You Tube channel… Here’s one about this website’s –  Dreamscape’s You Tube channel.

Our You Tube is pretty much what you’d expect from a fan based channel. We’ve compiled a selection of retro interviews, Toyah TV appearances and more from throughout Toyah’s career (which I believe is now in its 45th year if Glitter – filmed 1975, aired 1976 – is regarded as the very beginning!).

We are rollercoasting towards 1K of subscribers, and our most popular video is Toyah: This Is Your Life, which as of writing has been viewed 184,629 times and is currently increasing by around 2K views per day. Not that I’m a stats freak of course! Please click below to visit Dreamscape’s You Tube Toyah channel (which also includes some rare Madonna footage).

Happy Birthday Toyah!

May 18th, 2020

Many Happy Returns to Toyah.

May 18th 2020: It’s Toyah’s Birthday

May 18th, 2020

It’s Toyah’s birthday. This website has been celebrating Toyah’s birthday for over 20 years now. Here are some of our previous virtual birthday card designs. Click to zoom.

Dreamscape: Website Restored

May 7th, 2020

After almost three weeks of work and hassle this website has been sorted and restored to the format which works best. The database was also saved, meaning the past eight years of Toyah news in this format are also restored. I quite liked the temporary version but this permanent format uses advanced functions to categorise and tag news posts, something Toyah’s eclectic and busy career needs. (Some photos from 2012 are still missing. I’m working on fixing this)

Categories: Dreamscape, Fan Stuff, Site News Tags:

Dreamscape Fanzine: Digital Issue: Toyah Solo

February 27th, 2020

Toyah Solo is released tomorrow – Check out Dreamscape’s, just uploaded, tribute to Toyah’s first box set – An info-packed digital issue – Spring/Summer 2020 – of our Toyah fanzine, compiling new and previously published features related to Toyah Solo + extra bits and pieces!

Toyah Solo: Dreamscape Features

February 9th, 2020

Dreamscape has features on four of the six Toyah solo studio albums included in the forthcoming Toyah Solo box set: Desire, Prostitute, Take The Leap! and Velvet Lined Shell.

Click below to see all four plus lots of other Toyah features.

The Toyah Willcox Interview Archive

January 29th, 2020

Check out, the newly revamped, Toyah Willcox Interview Archive. There’s an abundance of Toyah goodies and curiosities to explore.

Dundee Telegraph: No Mystery Who Is Toyah’s Biggest Fan

May 7th, 2019

My faberoonie pal Sharon was interviewed in yesterday’s Dundee Evening Telegraph, in a feature about being a lifelong fan of Toyah and following the recent Thunder In The Highlands Tour on all of its Scottish dates.

Sharon is one of the most generous and gorgeous people I’m privileged to know. Incredibly modest, fiercely loyal to Toyah and hugely supportive of her career. A real credit to Toyah fandom!

It’s No Mystery: Dundee lookalike is Toyah’s Biggest Fan

A woman travelled more than 500 miles to see ’80s pop star Toyah Willcox in four different venues in as many days – and proved it’s no mystery why she’s her number one fan.

Sharon Dickson has followed the punk rocker around the UK seeing her perform more than 40 times.

Toyah, whose hits include It’s A Mystery and Thunder In The Mountains, performed four shows across Scotland last week to celebrate her 40 years in the music industry.

Sharon, 48, said she has beein going to her shows for almost as long.

She said, “I have been planning to go to all four gigs since last November, I got all my holidays booked and got my accomodation sorted – it was a great buzz to be able to go to all of the gigs”.

• Continue reading the interview by clicking here or below.

Dreamscape: The Furious (Vegetarian) Futures

April 4th, 2019

This website is now in it’s 20th year – yes I’ve been furiously typing away here for over 19 years now – and before anyone accuses me of moaning about that, I’m not. Yes, I have been known to complain very occasionally :), but not at the moment! I’ve mostly enjoyed posting about Toyah’s amazingly eclectic career over the years. It’s been fascinating, fun, fulfilling, occasionally frustrating and fundamentally a fantastic hobby (lots of f’s from Fleming there!). I’ve been thinking about the future of this site, what with the absolute juggernaut onslaught of social media, one sometimes wonders if websites, particularly fansites, are a resource that is even needed anymore? I’m vaguely proud of keeping this site going as it proves I’m not as fickle as I thought. The only other thing I’ve stuck with for longer is being vegetarian. Almost 35 years of not eating animals. Veggies need to be louder and prouder in these ridiculous vegan-bashing times!!!

So with regards to all that I think Dreamscape is going to change. More streamlined, news-orientated/focused, and possibly a sporadic print version – sort of a back-to-basic newsletter type format – for people who aren’t completely living in a digital world. Watch this space!

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You Tube: Idols and Inspirations

February 11th, 2019

Moreaux’s take on some of Toyah’s most amazing early 1980s make-up looks. View her fantastic Toyah inspired creations via her video upload at You Tube.

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