In her 30-plus year career, Toyah Willcox has been a rock warrior, minx, changeling and Ophelia's Shadow. In 2006 she is still going strong and looking great.

[ Source: www.reminscin.co.uk - 25th November 2006 - Thanks to Toni Williams ]

The next 'Hitmakers' show is at Eastbourne Congress Theatre on Thursday 30th November (Tel: 01323412000). Following that there are two other dates:

Dec 1st: Portsmouth Guild Hall - Tel: 023 9282 4355
Dec 7th: Tunbridge Wells Assembly Hall Theatre - Tel: 01892 530 613

[ Many thanks to Brian Marsh for the great pics ]

[ Thanks to John Sanders for the info ]

Multi-Coloured Swap Shop and Tiswas' original presenters are all reuniting for the special shows. Both are looking for fans to contribute to the shows, and the latter is looking for old clips from viewers too. 

Maybe a Toyah fan with good-quality footage could send Tiswas a clip? Toyah was a guest a number of times on both shows so it would be fitting if she was included in the nostalgiafest.

Tarrant brings Tiswas back to ITV
Anarchic 1970s children's programme Tiswas will return to ITV next year with original presenter, Chris Tarrant. 
He will host a one-off show featuring classic sketches and interviews with guests who were "gunged" on the programme, such as Sir Trevor McDonald. 

But Tarrant has launched an appeal for recordings of Tiswas, as many of the original tapes were scrapped. 

"If anybody's got any videos that will help us put this programme together, please get in touch," he told the BBC. 

Tiswas became a cult favourite when it hit the airwaves on Birmingham-based ITV station ATV in 1974. 

The tribute programme will have a similar format to ITV's Audience With... series, where stars perform and answer questions from a celebrity audience. 

Tarrant said it would mark the 30th anniversary of Tiswas becoming a national programme "that fundamentally changed children's television forever". 

Members of the public who want to submit tapes of the original series can contact Tarrant's production company at the email address unimediaman@aol.com. 

[ Source: www.bbc.co.uk/news - 23rd Nov 2006 - Thanks to Karen Wadsworth ]

Swap Shop stars set for reunion
Stars of the 1970s Saturday morning show Swap Shop, including Noel Edmonds, are to reunite for a one-off special. 

The two-hour programme will also look back on other shows of the genre, including Saturday Superstore. 

Other Swap Shop stars, including Keith Chegwin and John Craven, will appear along with Posh Paws, the purple dinosaur who was the show's mascot. 

The programme's makers are looking for people who appeared on Saturday morning shows to take part in the special. 

'Amazing memories'
Contributors who took part in a swap or had a film crew in their house on one of Chegwin's outside broadcasts are being asked to come forward to mark the 30th anniversary of live Saturday morning TV. 

It Started With Swap Shop, due to be aired between Christmas and the New Year on BBC Two, will relive some memorable moments from Saturday morning TV, and will feature celebrity swaps. 

Edmonds, who recently revived his TV career as host of gameshow Deal Or No Deal, said: "I have some amazing memories and a special affection for Swap Shop. It was a programme that broke the mould and I am proud to have been a part of it. 

"The show's going to be like a giant party... old friends reunited!" he added. 

Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, which ran on BBC One from 1976-82, was the first live show of its kind, containing cartoons, live guests and outside broadcasts. 

Young viewers used to phone the programme and offer items to exchange for something they wanted, the best of which would be placed on the "swap board". 

The programme was replaced by a succession of derivatives, including Going Live and Live and Kicking. 

Anyone who contributed to Saturday morning shows and would like to take part in It Started With Swap Shop should visit www.saturdaymornings.co.uk for further information.

[ Source: www.bbc.co.uk/news - October 2006 ]

[ Thanks to Paul Cable ]

Director Derek Jarman's controversial portrait of early British punk which imagines Elizabeth I paying a visit to the future of her sceptred isle, with the aid of an astrologer and Shakespearean fairy Ariel. Somewhat overshooting the present, she finds herself in a land of chaos and decay in which the punks have inherited the Earth. Made in the year of Elizabeth II's silver jubilee.

Director: Derek Jarman. 

Starring: Jenny Runacre, Nell Campbell, Toyah Willcox, Jordan, Hermine Demoriane, and Ian Charleson.

Credited as being THE British punk film, Jubilee is a jewel of a movie that stunned, disgusted and excited critics at the time of its release. Made as a response to the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977, it is a radical anti-monarchy, anti-establishment film that stars some of the UK’s best known music stars from the era.

A young Toyah Wilcox rubs shoulders with Adam Ant, alongside Jenny Runacre and Richard O’Brien (Rocky Horror Picture Show). Runacre stars as Queen Elizabeth 1, who travels through time to the modern age where the world is populated by violent punk girls who are tough and aren’t afraid to show it.

This clever satire on British society combines punk idealism and the less wholesome aspects of society with that of England’s Golden Age. The result is a film that is as compelling as it is frank and uncompromising.

“It’s almost an understatement to say that Jubilee has a lot going for it...ingenious” - Time Out

Saturday 18th November, 8.30pm (T)
Director: Derek Jarman, Feature, 100 minutes, UK, 2005.

[ Source: www.nlff.co.uk - November 2006 ]

Unfortunately, I don't know much about this, other than it is amazing! 

[ Thanks to Paul Lomas ]

Please keep 'em coming. I'm hoping to add the Toyah... Plus Gallery sometime soon. 

[ Thanks to Paul Lomas ]

Toyah: Take The Leap!**
Edsel/Demon, DIAB 8081
Myssstrey solved as 1994 Japanese album gets UK release
Toyah's long-lost album is neither a Smile-style tale of artistic exasparation (despite its slightly schizophrenic new and old content) nor, sadly, much of a mystery. All the same, fans will be delighted it's finally seen the light of day. Originally sold at shows on her 1993 tour as a cassette-only album (simply called Leap!), a CD version was released in Japan the following year, but shelved in the UK in favour of Dreamchild's ambient noodlings.

In contrast, Take The Leap! is straight-ahead (and at times borderline goth) rock, recorded in the wake of a tour with youthful backing band, Friday Forever. The mish-mash album features six (predictably indie) new tunes and eight reworkings of older material, including the ubiquitous I Wanna Be Free and a woefully weak It's A Mystery. If anything showcases the super-tight backing outfit, it's Toyah herself, whose often weedy vocals don't always fit the music. Things work better on the ambient Requite Me and Tears For Elie, two exceptional demos that appear among this expanded reissue's four bonus tracks. Steve Adams

[ Thanks to Zoe Clow for these ]

[ Thanks to Laura Balshaw, with Toyah here, for the pic ]

It looks likely, going by BBC Press Office releases, that Toyah's character will debut on Monday 4th December.

Silver Street: Monday 4 December 
1.30-1.40pm BBC ASIAN NETWORK 
www.bbc.co.uk/silverstreet 

The Chauhans return from Leicester, but Kamla isn't in the best of moods. At home, Rita is shocked to discover answerphone messages from Siobhan and wonders what she wants after all these years. Pradeep warns her not to get involved – but then Siobhan calls again. 

Meanwhile, Zenab returns from Pakistan, but Mushtaq is disappointed that Imran isn't with her. Later, Zenab decides that she is moving in with Rozena. 

Kamla is played by Surendra Kochar, Rita by Bharti Patel, Siobhan by Toyah Willcox, Pradeep by Ashvin-Kumar Joshi, Zenab by Sudha Buchar, Mushtaq by Paul Bhattacharjee and Rozena by Pooja Ghai.

Silver Street: Tuesday 5 December 
1.30-1.40pm BBC ASIAN NETWORK 
www.bbc.co.uk/silverstreet 

Rita sends Arun to bed because she has an old friend visiting. However, Arun and Krishan eavesdrop from the top of the stairs, and Arun guesses that the visitor is Sean's mum, Siobhan. 

Rita fills Siobhan in on Sean's life, and Siobhan explains why she had to abandon her baby so long ago. Later, Kamla hits the roof when she discovers the visitor, but Siobhan is more concerned about how her own mum will react. 

Rita is played by Bharti Patel, Arun by Naithan Ariane, Krishan by Rahual Das, Sean by Kee Ramsorrun, Siobhan by Toyah Willcox and Kamla by Surendra Kochar.

[ Source: www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/BBC Asian Network Publicity ]

Tales of The Unexpected : ITV3 - Friday 1st December : 11.35pm
Tales of The Unexpected : ITV3 Plus 1 - Saturday 2nd December : 00.35am
Blue Marigold. Series 5, Episode 1. At the height of her fame, Myra, a fashion model, is suddenly out of favour with her agencies and deserted by her boyfriend. Years later she sees an opportunity to win him back. Starring: John Houseman, Sharon Duce, and Toyah Willcox.

Radio Rivron Ep 5/6
Thursday 14 December 
10.00-10.30pm BBC RADIO 2 

Rowland Rivron goes to Fowey in Cornwall to speak to Silver Street star Toyah Willcox at the Daphne Du Maurier festival, in the penultimate programme in this light-hearted music celebration show. 

In the studio he's joined by Richard Fairbrass, one half of Right Said Fred, who chats to Rowland about his career and musical passion. Doctor Dave Radio is back helping listeners get through the good and bad, and Martha Reeves receives a phone call as the team finds out what she's up to right now. Finally, the show takes a look at some lyrics penned by Big Audio Dynamite to find out when they stopped making sense. 

[ Source: www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice - November 2006 ]

As part of a planned BBC series on environmental issues to be broadcast next year, Toyah Willcox visited Abbotsholme School to film and to learn about the annual restocking of the river Dove with 150.000 young salmon. The salmon are hatched in Kielder Water and then brought down by the Trent River’s Trust to be released into the Dove by the children in Abbotsholme’s Junior Department, This is the fourth year that the scheme has been running and the children were very excited that this year they were going to be releasing the salmon under the watchful eye of Toyah.

Elliot Field (7) from Ashbourne Green, pictured on the left of the fish tank, said, “They were tiny fish and we had to be very gentle as we tipped them into the river. I hoped that my fish would all survive the three year journey to the sea and that some of them would come back again when they were big. It is amazing to think that I will be in the Sixth Form by the time they come back here.”

“We are very pleased to be able to play a part in this scheme,” said Steve Fairclough, Headmaster of the school. “It raises the children’s awareness of the importance of conservation of life in our rivers and they also learn about the cycle of life and death of the salmon. Their imaginations are set alight as they watch the salmon swim out of their bucket and away down river. They wonder what their fate will be and how many will actually return. Then to have Toyah there as well was very exciting for them.”

[ Source: www.abbotsholme.com - Autumn 2006 ]

After trawling the country for the most colourful shows set to grace our stages this year, blueyonder has put together a selection fit for even the choosiest panto connoisseur. Oh yes we have! 

Aladdin at the Theatre Royal, Brighton
14 December – 14 January

Pop on your fez, get out your magic carpet and make for the south coast. Aladdin will be gracing Brighton for a month, providing an enticement for pop fans old and new. Toyah Willcox will be proving that she can still shimmy with the best of them, while X-Factor curiosity Chico takes the title role.

[ Source: www.ntlworld.com - November 2006 ]

The next 'Hitmakers' show is at Folkestone Leas Cliff Hall on Thursday 23rd November (Tel: 01303 288 600)

[ Many thanks to Richard Smith for the great pics - Click on each to zoom ]

• The 'Sunday Telegraph' magazine SEVEN ran a Toyah article in their 12th November issue. Does anyone hacve a scan of this?

• It seems that Toyah's appearance at Butlins on Sunday 26th November is, according to www.butlinsonline.co.uk, actually at Bognor Regis, rather than the advertised Minehead.

Please make your photo as large as possible to ensure decent quality. Thanks!

Never Mind The Buzzcocks : UKTV G2 - Thursday 23rd November : 11.00pm
Never Mind The Buzzcocks : UKTV G2 Plus 1 - Friday 24th November : 12.00am
Never Mind The Buzzcocks : UKTV G2 - Friday 24th November : 01.50am
Never Mind The Buzzcocks : UKTV G2 Plus 1 - Friday 24th November : 02.50am
Mark Lamarr hosts a special anniversary edition of the long-running pop quiz, with team captains Phill Jupitus and Bill Bailey. Guests are singer turned actress and broadcaster Toyah Willcox, ex-A1 (where are they now?) singer Ben Adams, Radio One's Annie Mac and comedian Alun Cochrane. With special performances from X-Factor casualties Sumon Sunyal and Robert King.

The Most Fertile Man in Ireland : Sky Movies 5 - Fri 24th November : 03.40am
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.

The whisperings about Eastenders, Emmerdale and, even, Doctor Who (well, it is a sort of intergalactic, time-travelling, shape-shifting soap) never materialised into reality but Toyah will soon be appearing in the BBC Radio soap Silver Street.

Silver Street is broadcast daily, weekdays on the BBC Asian Network, and is recorded at the Mail Box (the replacement for Pebble Mill) in Birmingham. No info on the character Toyah will play, when she starts recording or when her first episode will air, as yet.

[ News Source: www.toyahwillcox.com - 10th November 2006 ]

Are You Gonna Go My Way
Obsolete
Thunder In The Mountains
Echo Beach
Jungles Of Jupiter
It's A Mystery
Sweet Child Of Mine
She Sells Sanctuary
I Want To Be Free

[ Thanks to Angus Turner for the pic and info]

[ Thanks to Angus Turner (pics 1-3), and Paul Williams (pics 4-6 ]

THE HITMAKERS TOUR: Ipswich Regent Theatre: 3rd November 2006

You couldn’t have visited this website without noticing that the Hitmakers have been on tour in the UK. However, for those who have had their eyes closed for the last few months, Toyah Willcox, Howard Jones and ABC featuring Martin Fry are together to perform a series of concerts, billed collectively as the 'The Hitmakers Tour', and I caught them at the Ipswich Regent.

The opening act was Toyah, who was the artist I was least familiar with, but was ideally suited to start the proceedings for the evening, as she brought the audience to their feet having delved into her back catalogue to give storming renditions of 'It’s a Mystery', 'Thunder In the Mountains' and a surprise cover of Guns ‘N Roses 'Sweet Child O’ Mine', her version of Martha and the Muffin’s 'Echo Beach', as well as a few other songs. She truly rocked, and ended up being the real entertainer of the evening.

Thanks to Paul Williams for the pics - Reading Hexagon Theatre; 9th November.

[ Source: www.remembertheeighties.com - Review by Craig Martin - 7th Nov 2006 ]

Wednesday 15th: Derby Assembly Rooms - Tel: 01332 255 800
Saturday 18th: Collectormania, GMex, Manchester
Sunday 19th: Collectormania, GMex, Manchester
Thursday 23rd: Folkestone Leas Cliff hall - Tel: 01303 288 600
Sunday 26th: Butlins, Minehead (Live PA)
Thursday 30th: Eastbourne Congress Theatre - Tel: 01323412000

It's what the Summer was invented for... Five truly spectacular evenings with the stars - under the stars... 11th to 15th July 2007.

Henley Festival of Music and the Arts
14 Friday Street
Henley-on-Thames
Oxon RG9 1AH
Box Office: 01491 843404

Other Toyah dates also already tentatively scheduled for 2007 are:

February 23rd: Butlins Skegness 
March 16th: Butlins Minehead
April 20th: Butlins Bognor 

[ News Source: www.toyahwillcox.com - 10th November 2006 ]

I'm unsure if this is linked to the other wildlife documentaries Toyah recently filmed, but Saving Planet Earth will air early in 2007 on the BBC.

The show, which launched around May this year, and is usually presented by Peter Purves and Judith Chalmers, transmits daily at 1.00pm on the new lifestyle channel, Overseas Property TV. It can be found on Channel 287 on Sky.

Toyah will record her guest slots soon, to be broadcast around Christmas.

[ News Source: www.toyahwillcox.com - 10th November 2006 ]

Toyah: I'm being terrorised by jet-set stalker
Midland rock star Toyah Willcox is living in fear after being plagued by a woman jet-set stalker.

The obsessed fan has been jetting in from New York to harass the singer and actress at her home. And the situation has become so serious that a friend has offered Toyah an ex-SAS soldier to protect her.

The Birmingham-born singer, who lives in the quiet market town of Xxxxxxxx in Worcestershire with rock star husband Robert Fripp, said: "This woman is severely mentally ill. She is very dangerous.

"I want her to leave me alone but I don't wish her any harm. I told a high-profile industrialist about the problem and he offered me the number of the SAS man who could 'remove' her.

"Fortunately, these days, stalkers are taken very seriously and the police have been very helpful."

So frightened has the 48 year-old star been that she has enlisted Government help.

"Immigration are also dealing with the problem," she revealed. "They are trying to stop her coming into Britain. It is a long way to come from New York, but that's what people do when they're mentally ill. When I say anything, she thinks I'm communicating with her. 

"I've had to deal with several stalkers over the years. Some are just over-zealous fans who don't mean any harm, but their presence is inappropriate. I don't want people hanging around outside my front door. It's difficult when I live in a town and not the middle of the country. I don't like to create that kind of attention.

"My husband has had even more problems than me. Ten years ago, someone tried to kill him. The stalker was sectioned and is now in prison in Germany."

Toyah, who grew up in Kings Heath, Birmingham, is returning to her home city on Saturday to perform at the Alexandra Theatre in The Hitmakers Tour, a 1980s revival show with Howard Jones and ABC's Martin Fry.

She admits that touring these days is different from 20 years ago.

"I'm much more relaxed now, and there's no throwing TVs out of hotel windows!" she said. "I used to be very rock'n'roll, going for days without eating and sleeping, and just going AWOL. Once, I jumped off a Manchester hotel balcony and swung from a chandelier in the foyer. It was very dangerous and stupid.

"A security man had to get a ladder to get me down. I have a lifetime ban from that hotel!"

These days Toyah is teetotal, and more interested in a quiet country walk. She's made four nature documentaries for the BBC to be screened next year, featuring animals in danger in the Midlands - swans, salmon, water voles and slow-worms.

It was facing snakes, spiders and eels in the Australian jungle that proved a turning point for Toyah.

She was horrified to see footage of herself without make-up on I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! Jonathan Ross said she looked so awful that she shouldn't be allowed to appear on TV.

And Toyah agreed with him.

In February 2004, she went to Paris for a £7,500 procedure and then published a book, Diary Of A Facelift.

"It's put some people off," she admitted. "They say 'I'm really glad I read your book because I know I could never go through that'."

Holding her hand after the operation was her husband of 20 years, guitarist Robert Fripp, the 60 year-old founder of supergroup King Crimson. 

Until recently, he spent most of his time working 4,000 miles away in Nashville. They used to spend just 12 weeks of the year together, although they spoke on the phone five times a day.

Now they are more regularly both to be found in Pershore or at their London home. Toyah admits they have grown closer since her facelift.

"There were some pretty gruesome moments after the op, but he was wonderful," she said. "He was so patient and calm. I really thought that the moment he saw me, looking all bruised and swollen, he'd run away. But he rose to the occasion brilliantly and it's made our marriage even stronger."

[ Source: Sunday Mercury: 5th November 2006 ]

Celeb ‘fears for her life’
Pershore celebrity Toyah Willcox has been receiving some unwanted attention recently leaving her fearing for her life'.

Toyah, 48, has put up with a prolonged period of harassment from an obsessed female stalker who jets into the UK from New York to visit her home in Xxxxxx Xxxxxx.

The situation has become so serious that one of the celebrity's friends has offered her an ex-SAS soldier as protection, from any of the woman's possible advan