• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

Toyah Wilcox

Status
Not open for further replies.
L

lillilady

Brummie babby
It really gets me that nobody ever remembers Toyah as a famous Brummie. She was huge in her day (and still working today). All over Europe she has lots of fans and she still lives in Pershore, close to her roots. I think she deservies a star on Brum's walk of fame. Afterall she was the original Lady Gaga - she was so colourful and unique.
 
Toyah was a guest speaker at a seminar that I attended last Monday at the ICC. She gave an inspiring hour long talk on how school underachievers and those suffering with difficulties that impede learning can achieve. She gave examples of how she overcame discrimination caused by her speech impediment and how her determination allowed her to achieve in life. She came across as a very approachable individual who is proud of her Brummie heritage.

To end the presentation she sand 'It's a Mystery', although extremely good, her maturity seems to have taken the edge off her youthful tenacity in the delivery of this iconic song. It appears that age catches up with us all - including punk rebels like Toyah....... Mabz

 
HI LILLILADY
Yes i agree with you; and i also remember her from her youth and when she first started her career as a pop singer
and started to make her name as a good old brummie and when she was young she lived in portland rd edgbaston way back
a few yards from the bail hostel for wayward girls back in the sixtyies and as you say she as come back to her roots
in good old pershore which is about five miles from me and i pass her front door quite often
and so she should be put on our street of fame
funny enough last night on a certain channel very late in the night there was a pop programe
top of the pops series 1964 to 71 ; and it showned most of the ld groups in the sixties and i had a very nostic moments
watching it and seeing old faces that i knew and pointing out to my wife the story lines about certain people whom i knew personally
before they started out in the game in the pop scene ike roger taylor ; and hot chocolate and one or two more
unfortunalely they never played toya
when she lived in portland rd and made her first recording she moved to london and made the big time and made it big
there is another girl from handsworth whom was on the scene and still going strong from way back in the late fiftys
and now she is finely been reconised she should also be on the street of fame
and another one from selly park rin tin duffey whom lived in st johns she also meet the street fame;
but yes i remember dear topya ; and yes she should be there with tommy iomie
best wishes Astonian
 
I remember she appeared in a play with Sir Laurence Olivier but can't remember what it was called?.
 
I have never heard of this person but my Brum 'actual experience' ended in the 60s and anything punk or rap or whatever does not register as artistic with me. If remotely like the lady Gaga then I am sorry but the only knowledge that I personally have about this phenomena is seeing her on the opening page of the browser. I, and possibly others, here, experienced and appreciated songs and music from a different era...lyrics that were up-raising and music that meant something different and voices that were meant to inspire and and be marvelled at. I think we had a better experience with this. But since you mentioned this lady I will try to find a sample of her tallents on record/cd whatever. Perhaps you can recommend her best effort.
 
She had an unfortunate list Rupert but it didn't hold her back. I think she played a nymph in the play and had very little clothes on. Jean.
 
I used to work in the Bullring market and before she was famous Toyah used to breeze through the market hall always dressed
very outlandish and always smiling.
We didn't know who she was then but as soon as she became famous i recognised her.

Her name is mentioned on the Ozzy Osborne thread as being a candidate for a star.
 
Last edited:
I saw her last Christmas in Pantomime at Malvern and she was superb, there was a part where the pram she was pushing nearly tipped over and she could hardly speak for laughter. She also sang Lady Ga Ga's Bad Romance and proved what a great voice she still had.
 
She is a bit more 'cabaret' than she was, not so much of a punk now. It's a mystery was of course the big hit but also Thunder in the Mountains, Brave New World, Be Proud Be Loud Be Heard and lots more. She also did a lot of acting alongside her music and started out at Birmingham Rep. I'm going to see her later in the year in Wolverhampton. She was slightly mocked in her heyday by punks and others but always had a hard core of fans and was fantastic live in her youth, so full of energy. TOYAH FOR A STAR!!!! The near naked scence she did with Laurence Olivier was in the Ebony Tower.
 
never knew toyah came from brum never detected a brum accent anyway I think she started in "punk" I remember pink hair and loads of chains did find her speach impediment "lipth" sexy though.
paul
 
Toyah is also a great person to chat with - met her thruogh work, many years ago, when she was still in the charts and she was lovely! The film, The Ebony Tower, is different but I quite like it.
I think she deserves a star too, many people my age would remember her.
Sue
 
Astonian said:
HI LILLILADY
Yes i agree with you; and i also remember her from her youth and when she first started her career as a pop singer
and started to make her name as a good old brummie and when she was young she lived in portland rd edgbaston way back
a few yards from the bail hostel for wayward girls back in the sixtyies and as you say she as come back to her roots
in good old pershore which is about five miles from me and i pass her front door quite often
and so she should be put on our street of fame
funny enough last night on a certain channel very late in the night there was a pop programe
top of the pops series 1964 to 71 ; and it showned most of the ld groups in the sixties and i had a very nostic moments
watching it and seeing old faces that i knew and pointing out to my wife the story lines about certain people whom i knew personally
before they started out in the game in the pop scene ike roger taylor ; and hot chocolate and one or two more
unfortunalely they never played toya
when she lived in portland rd and made her first recording she moved to london and made the big time and made it big
there is another girl from handsworth whom was on the scene and still going strong from way back in the late fiftys
and now she is finely been reconised she should also be on the street of fame
and another one from selly park rin tin duffey whom lived in st johns she also meet the street fame;
but yes i remember dear topya ; and yes she should be there with tommy iomie
best wishes Astonian
Click to expand...
" You did'nt live next door to Ted Turner of Wishbone Ash fame by any chance did you...? "
 
I think Toya was great and still is today. I have seen her in a few things and she always seemed very "grounded" for the music she did. She always comes across as a lovely genuine person. Wasn't she in one of those jungle programs. I think she well deserves a star!
 
hi wendy ;
HERE ; HERE ; OUR WENDY ;
I WOULD SAY A GREAT BIG ONE I WOULD RATHER SAY OUR WENDY WOULDNT YOU
A GREAT BIG RED ONE ; TOP CLASS ;
HAVE A NICE EVENING WENDY ; BEST WISHES ASTONIAN
 
Yes she was in I'm a Celebrity Get Me out of Here. When she was in it she was slated for looking old and past it back here in the UK. She came back from that, saw herself on tape, went off to France and had a face lift and wrote a book on it! She was deeply affected by comments about how she looked.
 
That's awful I know people in the public eye worry about how they look and I now understand why! It's sad that they have to do this. In my eyes she looked fine after all she couldn't wear makeup....newspapers and media have a lot to answer for! I think she is lovely.
 
Let's face it: anyone who appears on "I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here" is past it.... And if she was so proud of being a Brummie, why did she affect a London accent?

Big Gee
 
hi big gee
thats quite easely she moved to london to progree her proffession and being a brummie you have to do it its like tom jones aqnd the rest of midlans groups and enterainers thats where all the work is and the agents in the enterainment world is
and when you move to another part of the globe what ever or where ever you go
rubbing shoulders with another breed of people you slowly and with out noticeing you pick up there accent ;
its like mixing with people whom use bad languenge it rubbs on you
when i was young i went to live in wales and after afew years i came back with the slight welsh lingo ;
but you can never and one should never forget your roots and then your accents come back to where you come from
just like the kids next to me and there parents they came from the black country when they was young now they speak worcerites accen
but thats why she left brum to further her carreer now she his a worcerite ; in pershore astonian
 
Astonian I didn't pick up a Welsh accent lived with the natives for over 14 years and with a Welsh woman for 30 she still talking to me
 
Strange, because people like Ozzy Osbourne, Roy Wood and Noddy Holder, for example, did extremely well in the music business without dropping their native accents.
I rather suspect that she thought it was 'uncool' to have a Brummie accent.

Big Gee
 
Perhaps being sent to a private school in Edgbaston she lost her accent there. She doesnt seem to have a regional accent from anywhere.
 
She never had a Birmingham accent in the first place. She's middle class, from a well off family and went to a private school. I was a big fan of hers when I was a kid/teen, but the "overcoming prejudice in my journey up from the streets" routine was always fake. She played at being a punk rebel because suburbia bored her. Having said that, her talent was genuine, and she was successful enough in her day to deserve a star on Broad Street. Lesser successes than her seem to have been given one.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top