Live At The Rainbow

Product Information

Live At The Rainbow is released via Cherry Red Records on 25th November 2022 and is available here. CD and DVD set containing all 13 songs as performed at the momentous concert at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, with two songs from the broadcast reinstated following their cut from a 1982 VHS video release. The 53-min concert film has been remastered for this release with improvements to both picture and sound. The newly remixed and remastered audio has been integrated to the concert for an enhanced viewing experience. The concert was in February 1981 at London’s iconic Rainbow Theatre and includes a performance of ‘It’s A Mystery’. Such was that single’s success (it reached number four as part of the ‘Four From Toyah’ EP) it prompted a gig upgrade from the Lyceum Theatre to The Rainbow. The irrepressible Toyah Willcox is marching on, opening up new horizons in audio-visual entertainment… She is now number one in a field of one… An original.” London Trax

Cherry Red Records is delighted to announce the remastered release of Toyah’s 1982 Silver certified-selling album “The Changeling”. The Changeling is the darker, more grown-up sequel to the previous year’s Platinum-selling album Anthem. The Changeling entered the UK Top 40 in June 1982, peaking at number 6. Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. The DVD contains all 13 songs as performed at the momentous concert at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, with two songs from the broadcast reinstated following their cut from a 1982 VHS video release Good Morning Universe. War Boys, Neon Womb, Waiting, Our Movie, Revelations, Danced, Race Through Space, Angels & Demons, Love Me, Mummies, Insects, It’s A Mystery, Computer, Indecision, Tribal Look, Ghosts, Victims Of The Riddle, Ieya. ENCORE: It’s A Mystery, War Boys , Bird In Flight, Danced

First time on DVD and CD/LP

The Rainbow Theatre, originally known as the Astoria Theatre, is a former cinema which still stands today in Finsbury Park, London and is now a Grade II listed building. It closed as a music venue in December 1981 and lay derilict for many years but was restored in the 1990s and is now used as a church. CD2 contains an alternate run-through of the full album sequence all in revealing ‘work in progress’ variations courtesy of archive master tapes and Joel Bogen’s cassette archive. These include significantly alternate vocals on Brave New World, Creepy Room and Castaways, the latter with an entirely different lyric. The band were: Toyah Willcox (Vocals|), Joel Bogen (Guitar), Adrian Lee (Keyboards), Phil Spalding (Bass Guitar, Vocals), Simon Phillips (Drums). Christmas 1981 , Following an incredible year of huge hit singles, gold-selling album, tours, a multitude of images, hundreds of press interviews and numerous television appearances, Toyah closed her/their sensational 1981 by playing the final date of the Good Morning Universe European Tour, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London on Christmas Eve. Toyah: Live At Drury Lane has become an almost mythic like tale, one of a queen riding into battle to take on the scourge of beige mediocrity, the uniform of men in suits and the screaming banshees of dull complexity. That tale of mythic, even legendary proportions has been mostly lost, the format used at the time that framed the evening as lost as the mists that have enveloped our lives as our bodies have been eroded by tide and the fears of those who wish us to be servient to the commonplace.

The newly remixed and remastered audio has been integrated to the concert for an enhanced viewing experience. All audio remastering was approved by Joel Bogen. Featuring brand new artwork including photography of Toyah’s iconic stage entrance for the gig, 20ft above the band and audience. Rare and previously unseen photographs of the band’s Drury Lane concert the day before (23 Dec 1981) from the Safari Records archive also illustrate the CD booklet.

Statistics

Featuring the original 12-song concert film released for the first time ever on DVD, much requested and sought after by fans for decades

Following Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! (May 2022, #72) and Anthem (September 2022, #33), Toyah secures a third Top 100 album in 2022 on The Official Charts today, with Live At The Rainbow entering at #100. Not only that, though, Live At The Rainbow places very well in various other Official Chart album countdowns today. Toyah, the band, were invited by the BBC to play a special live concert on 24 December 1981 for broadcast live on BBC2 for The Old Grey Whistle Test Christmas Special. Simultaneously the concert was broadcast in stereo on BBC Radio 1. The much-loved Christmas Eve 1981 concert was watched by an astonishing 12 million television viewers. In one of the great mysteries of life, the fans of one of Birmingham’s finest musical ambassadors, the scintillating and unique Toyah Willcox, have always been left wondering why one of the most memorable performances of her early career was never given the aural treatment it deserved. Why it seemed to appear on every other format except the one it mattered on, the vinyl love it required to truly capture an icon at the height of her powers and majestic best. The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (vinyl, CD &Blu-ray)A 30-minute edit of the gig was aired by the BBC in 1981 and a 55-minute version was released on BBC video and laser disc. Neither of these included the full set-list of songs played at the gig: Live At The Rainbow is a great keepsake of one of Toyah’s most loved live performances, and will be welcomed by fans of the band, who have waited a long time for an updated release to replace the previously released VHS version. Celebrating the much-loved February 1981 concert at North London’s legendary Rainbow Theatre, this hotly anticipated release marks the first time ever the concert film has been issued on DVD, following an early 1980s release on VHS and laserdisc. Simultaneously, it is the first time ever the audio, recorded on the Rolling Stones’ Mobile Unit, has ever been officially released. Loughborough Echo: Tribute acts galore set their sights on Glastonbudget: Top tribute acts and local artists took to the stage at Glastonbudget last year which marked its 10th anniversary with a record attendance. The real-life Toyah Willcox headlined as special guest on Saturday – Continue reading…