Lead singer Alexis's performance was interesting to watch as it was very theatrical, taking me back to the late 70's/early 80's as there were elements of Siouxsie, Toyah and Hazel O'Connor all in there.

Read the full review here.

[ Source: www.cdtimes.co.uk - 25th January 2007 ]

She mentioned attending the Madame Tussauds party (see pics above), a new "horror" film that she may appear in, live dates for 2007, Destination Lunch, and more Silver Street.

[ Thanks to voodoo doll @ Dreamscape's Forum ]

Back To The Future
Take That are back at the top of the charts. But what happened to the other big stars of the '80s and '90s?

Toyah, 48, lives in Worcester with her musician husband Robert Fripp

"The '80s were an amazing time to be a pop star. I was only 23 when I hit the big time, so it was incredibly exciting.

I had very clear ideas about my image and how I wanted to look - as you can see from this photo. It took all day to get the make-up right. It was shot for my official Christmas card in 1981. I sent out 10,000 copies to all the members of my fan club and I had to hand sign them all. That's dedication.

Back then pop was a real boy's club and female singers were supposed to look very pretty and feminine, but I had other ideas. And so did Hazel O'Connor and Siouxsie Banshee. Together we did our own punk thing and everyone loved it. It wasn't about stylists then, we put our own looks together and lived and died by them.

When I stopped singing, I branched out into acting and presenting - I feel like a classic all-rounder now. I'm a bit of a workaholic and I'd hate to be sitting around doing nothing.

I had a facelift a couple of years ago. It really boosted my confidence and it's helped me stay working in an industry that's obsessed with looks. I'll carry on working as long as I'm still in demand."

[ Source: 'First' magazine - 9 - 15th January 2007 ] 

Toyah: Toyah! Toyah! Toyah!**
Cherry Red Records CDM RED 299
Another slice of Toyah's back catalogue - with jam on

In the liner notes to this reissued live album (recorded in Wolverhampton in 1980), Toyah claims it represents 'one of the last gigs I did as a club act. Three months later I was the biggest thing in England since sliced bread'. The diminutive singer-cum-TV presenter was never one to hide her light under a bushel, but this claim is as fatuous as it is conceited. OK, she made a crust from the odd chart hit, but it was crumbs in comparison to 1981's real breadwinners (Adam Ant, The Police, Human League... Shakin' Stevens, even).

Ego-related niggle aside, this comprehensive reissue will delight fans by adding eight tracks to the original 10-track release. It's a crisply-recorded (though undeniably dated and somewhat lacking in crowd dynamic) live effort showcasing much of the singer's then-current Blue Meaning album. Single Ieya is probably the best-known song of the lot, and Toyah takes to it in suitably anthemic fashion.

By the time It's A Mystery made the Top 10 the following year a new backing outfit was in situ. As a result, Toyah initially dismissed this live album as irrelevant, though completists revelling in the additional live tracks (two originally appeared on B-sides) and 1982, will doubtless disagree. Steve Adams.

[ News Source: 'Record Collector' - February 2007/Issue 333 ]

If you'd like yours included please email me in the next week or so and it'll be in there.

• Toyah was namechecked in an SX News Australia article. Author Jack Seargent talks queer punk and road movies. Go here to read the full piece. 

• Toyah was also mentioned in an article titled "Tonight Transylvania, next month Bognor". Go here to read that! And should 'I Want To Be Free' be the new National Anthem? Click here for a humorous article that thinks possibly maybe.

• It appears that Toyah's Silver Street character, Siobhan, may be returning to the BBC radio soap soon...

"I was lucky enough to be cast opposite John Mills in a new TV series called Quatermass. It didn't take very long to film. It was lovely working with John Mills; he was such a gentle and delightful man. We were all playing futuristic travellers, all in search of a new god." Living Out Loud; 2000

[ Thanks to Paul Lomas & Shawn Whittaker ]

Quatermass : ITV4 - Sunday 28th January : 8.00pm
An Endangered Species. Episode 4. Quatermass risks his life to set a trap for the alien force, but the arrival of a group of Planet People at the stone circle near Kapp's house puts his plans in jeopardy.

The Most Fertile Man In Ireland : Sky Movies 3 - Mon 29th January : 1.40am
Twenty-four year old virgin, Eamonn Manley, lives with his mother in Belfast and is painfully shy with the ladies. Things change for Eamonn when Mary Malloy decides to make the first move and soon Mary realises that she is pregnant even though she was using birth control. The doctor discovers that Eamonn has an unusually high sperm count... His mother has the idea that he can help the local ladies who have had problems conceiving a baby... Director: Dudi Appleton. Starring: Kris Marshall, Kathy Kiera Clarke, Bronagh Gallagher, James Nesbitt, Kenneth Cranham, Toyah Willcox and Olivia Nash. 

Never Mind The Buzzcocks : UKTV G2 - Fri 2nd February : 11.40pm
Never Mind The Buzzcocks : UKTV G2 Plus 1- Sat 3rd February : 00.40am
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.

"I had very clear ideas about my image and how I wanted to look - as you can see from this photo. It took all day to get the make-up right."

[ Source: 'First' magazine - 9 - 15th January 2007 ]

Sexed-up panto hits Brighton with a bang
Chico is doing panto in Brighton and this year's offering is a rather sexed-up version of Aladdin. 

Just moments after he bursts onto the stage to waves of applause, he's writhing around to Livin' La Vida Loca, cheekily lifting up his Arabian attire to reveal a toned torso. 

It's all a bit Chippendales for the family, the whooping shrieks of delight from menopausal women in the audience by far drown out the cheers of the kids. 

Toyah Willcox supports Chico, as the genie and, despite some rather tenuously linked '80s music references, gives an enthusiastic if slightly bizarre performance. 

There are plenty of gags that give a nod in the direction of TV shows such as the X-Factor and the Weakest Link that kids will love and the skimpy outfits worn by some of the young women in the chorus will definitely keep the dads and grandads entertained. 

The show would not be complete without a full rendition of Chico Time, a song that, let's be honest, the majority of us would refer to as a guilty pleasure. A very silly, very fun show.

[ News Source: www.morningstaronline.co.uk - January 2007 ]

[ Thanks to Craig Watkins ]

This magazine is available for the next week in shops. Check back soon for a full scan and next week for the full Toyah interview.

 [ Thanks to John ]

DAVID BOWIE: A 60th Birthday celebration: The making of Young Americans, Neil Tennant and other star fans on Bowie, and Bowie Collectables.

[ Thanks to Fallen Angel @ Dreamscape's Forum ]

• Interesting tidbit from a recent 'Cherry Red' Newsletter: The Cherry Red label releases it's fourth Toyah album this month which is a re-issue of her 1980 live album 'Toyah Toyah Toyah' (CDMRED 299). It contains versions of all her hit singles up to that time as well as 8 bonus tracks. This album is very collectable and has been unavailable for nearly 25 years, and has never been on CD before. All our Toyah albums have sold consistently well over time and this one will be no exception.

What Women Really Want : UKTV Style - Thurs 18th January : 7.30am
What Women Really Want : UKTV StylePlus 1 - Thurs 18th January : 8.30am
Money. It's grumpy old men with heels on! Er no, it's feisty high-profile women of all ages giving forth on everything from sex and singledom to plastic surgery and pregnancy. Today's hot topic is money - find out what Toyah Willcox, Jenny Eclair, Nadia Almada and other celebs have to say about loot. Narrated by Ulrika Jonsson.

Never Mind The Buzzcocks : UKTV G2 - Thurs 18th January : 10.00pm
Never Mind The Buzzcocks : UKTV G2 Plus 1- Thurs 18th January : 11.00pm
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.

Toyah Willcox: Genie of the Lamp... More recently Toyah played Magenta alongside Anthony Head's Frank 'N' Furter in the Royal Court Theatre's 50th Year Celebration of The Rocky Horror Show.

She has presented Saving Planet Earth, a nature documentary for BBC1 to be screened in 2007, and guest presented Destination Lunch, a chat show about buying property abroad. Toyah was the only female to make it through to the quarter finals on BBC1's Masterchef, her cooking winning much acclaim and she has recently begun recording a running character in the Asian network radio soap opera Silver Street. She has just completed a three month tour with Howard Jones and Martin Fry.

In 2006 First Magazine declared her an official icon and the Midlands voted her the 6th Most Fabulous Woman in the region, along with Julie Walters.

Please click to zoom and read the full bio.

[ Thanks to Laura Murray for the scan - Please visit www.chico-official.com ]

Please click on both pictures to zoom.

[ Thanks to Laura Murray - Please visit www.chico-official.com ]

They were at the Liz Brewer and Ivana Trump Party on Saturday 9th December 2006.

NB: Sorry the pics are so small - They're the only ones I have.

It's Toyah's lyrics we should be turfing out - not the cat
ROBERT MCNEIL

Banning news, and influential person Toyah Willcox has joined the banned-wagon calling for various things to be made illegal. The singer-turned-actress lifted her head from the sink to issue this proclamation yesterday: "If I governed this country, I would make it illegal to sell a child a violent video game, a thong, a midriff-revealing T-shirt...

To read the full opinion-piece you'll have to register at the 'Scotsman' website or buy the paper. I'm doing neither...

[ Source: www.news.scotsman.com - Friday 5th January 2007 ]

Yes, I know children are our future - but don't ask me to have any!
By TOYAH WILLCOX

At this time of year, I always perform in pantomime, which involves working with children. These youngsters are, without fail, exceptionally wonderful. 

As the curtain comes down at the end of each show, there will normally be a small hand slipping into mine as a child, bewildered by the artificial darkness caused by the lights going down, looks to me to protect her. 

Because I don't have any offspring of my own, this is the only contact I have with children, through my work in such shows as Aladdin, this year, and the children's TV series Barmy Aunt Boomerang, Brum and Teletubbies.

So to suddenly have a child putting her trust in me evokes very strange emotions. As I try to guide this little soul to safety, her sense of wonderment is tangible: the hopes and dreams which she has are all clearly there, waiting to take more mature form. 

It may seem strange in a world that often revolves around children, with people saying that having children is the point of being alive, but I have never wanted one of my own. 

Considering all the problems in the world and the maze of difficulties that the passage from childhood to adulthood takes, I believe parents are either saints or masochists. As for myself, I cannot think of one good reason for giving up my peace or my sanity. 

I come from a background where my parents constantly told my sister and me never to have children. They wanted us to be financially independent, but never made us feel unwanted. 

My sister hasn't got children, not because of this advice but for the same reason that I don't: we were part of a generation of women who believed that to have a career meant you should NOT have family. 

And the absence of children doesn't stop there. My husband's sister didn't have children, my aunts never had any and virtually all my close friends don't have any either. The truth is that I am simply not capable of compromise, especially with the young.

For example, if I was in a supermarket with a child having a tantrum because it was demanding something I couldn't afford, or which was bad for their health, I would walk away and let the little devil find their own way home. 

However, I don't see myself as inhuman or unusual. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I would put a child's safety before my own, although I would never, ever pander to their whims. 

And that is one of the greatest challenges of being a parent today. For I see children as collectively 'our' children. They are our future. I like to think that I am still responsible as a role model, with my work in children's theatre and television being an example to future generations. 

There is a profound difference between those children with whom I work in pantomime (whose magic revolves around the fact they still behave as youngsters) and those types that you see hanging out on the streets. On stage, there is discipline and focus; out on the streets, they are charged with aggression. 

If I governed this country, I would make it illegal to sell a child a violent video game, a thong, a midriff-revealing T-shirt, or anything that encourages them to get plastic surgery or to become a size zero.

Do you think it is healthy that a young girl under the age of 14 should idolise glamour models such as Jordan? 

I admire her self-made success, but I am a 48-year-old adult. When I was a child, the fairy princess in my imagination wore a ballgown that covered her entire body. Breasts didn't even figure in my fantasy. 

Instead of Jordan, our children should be shown another role model, the world's first female space tourist, Anousheh Ansari. She came from a poor family in Iran. As a child, she loved astrophysics, but since the mullahs had closed all educational opportunities for girls, her family fled to America where Ansari could follow her dream. 

Starting a telecoms company with her family, she was worth $750million by the time she was 35 years old and was able to buy her ticket to space. 

Education is our gift, our privilege and our freedom. We are so lucky to have freedoms and choices, so why do we take them for granted? Instead, we are hit by headlines such as the one about a four-year- old expelled from primary school for sexual misconduct, a 12-year-old stabbing a classmate in the face with a pair of scissors or a sevenyearold selling drugs. 

Why do we allow children to become disillusioned, overweight and aggressive? Where has the spirit of adventure and intelligent rebellion gone? 

These days, a child can't even climb a tree without a school or a playground being sued. When I was a child, we were all writing and printing our own magazines and selling them outside school! 

I suppose my parents motivated me by making me fear I wouldn't be able to provide for myself in the future. Cash handouts weren't so readily available then, so education and getting a job were at the top of my future wish list. Today, there is an increase in street gangs, which are nothing more than children self-policing themselves to make sure no one ever has a chance to shine and break away from the crowd. 

What has gone wrong? I think that the poor diet that so many children have is the main offender, not only junk food, but a bad cultural diet, in the shape of violent DVD games and sexual images on TV. 

I blame computers and hardsell advertising (if I see another advert selling frozen foods on primetime TV, I'll scream). 

Sportsmen selling products and not the beautiful game have a lot to answer for. Who gives a sod what aftershave David Beckham wears? It's his talent on the pitch that children should be seeing, not a man raking in the cash for looking good. 

We have given children the wrong impression of our intentions. By giving in to them on so many fronts, in some cases parents have become a laughing stock by being too scared to stand up to them. 

A few years ago, I was in Leeds, filming the children's series Adam's Family Tree. The school in which we were shooting was in the centre of a notorious housing estate and we had to be ferried there in an armoured bus. 

What I saw on that two-minute journey made my blood freeze: cars burning, with children running up to the flames and pushing their hands in. 

I had only ever read about this sort of thing in the 1975 Doris Lessing novel, Memoirs Of A Survivor, where the author warned her readers that children could become our oppressors. Suddenly, here was the reality. 

Whereas I have supported both my parents since I left home and started work at the age of 18, a high percentage of children now don't leave home, preferring to gather their savings to purchase a first home in their 30s. It fills me with horror to think that, if I had children, I could have to subsidise them for so many years. 

Am I self-centred for feeling this way? That's partly true but what is far more disturbing is to have a child because you feel that is what society expects - even if, like me, you have no biological urge. 

As such, the next generation cannot afford to be lazy and uninspired because the State cannot support us all for much longer using the present pensions system. 

You may think that I am proud to be a grumpy old woman. That's true. But I am not proud to be a childless woman. It has always perturbed me that I've never felt the biological urge, but I accept my fate. 

However, what I do have is monumental respect for every parent out there who takes on the challenge... 

NB: This was published on the 'Daily Mail' website last night so may possibly be in today's print edition.

[ News Source: www.dailymail.co.uk - Wednesday 3rd January 2006 ]

The 100 Greatest Songs Of The 80s : TMF - Saturday 6th January - 1.00pm 
The 100 Greatest Songs Of The 80s : TMF - Saturday 6th January - 5.30pm 
We're counting down the 100 Greatest Songs of the 80s, including the likes of Duran Duran, Madonna, New Order, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Queen, Spandau Ballet, and many more.

Talk The Talk : BBC2 (Learning Zone) - Wed 17th January : 5.15am
To challenge some learners’ views on the relevance of language learning, this programme features a variety of people talking about their experiences, including  Gary Lineker, Toyah Willcox, a website designer and a retired bus conductor.

• Don't forget that Aladdin, at the Theatre Royal in Brighton, with Toyah as the Genie of the Lamp, runs until next Sunday (14th January). The panto has received some great reviews over the last few weeks, including a very favourable critique by 'The Stage'.

• Go here for a couple of great pictures (of promo posters), taken at the entrance of the Theatre Royal, of Toyah and Chico.

• Does anyone have the Aladdinprogramme? And if so would you be willing to scan the Toyah Bio page in it? If anyone can, please email it to me and I'll add it here for everyone to see... Thanks!

1. The expanded Special Edition CD reissue of 'Toyah! Toyah! Toyah!'
2. An Audience With Toyah Willcox
3. The UK 'Hitmakers Tour' 2006
4. The Royal Court's 50th Anniversary Rocky Horror Amnesty International show
5. Two Disc Special Edition Quadrophenia DVD
6. The expanded CD reissue of '(Take The) Leap!'
7. Faith & Music - ITV1 Toyah documentary Special
8. Celebrity Masterchef
9. The Ebony Tower - Finally issued on DVD
10. Toyah as Cruella De Vil in The Hundred & One Dalmations

[ Thanks to John for the pic - Source: www.deanstockings.co.uk ]

Toyah won and was awarded some prizes, "I'm going on ebay now to sell them!" she joked.

Please visit www.bbc.co.uk/radio to listen to the show. This is available for a limted time, with Toyah appearing approximately 80 minutes into the show.

[ Thanks to Fallen Angel & John Shepherd @ Dreamscape's Forum ]