Dolly Mixture : Classic or Dud?

The best Dolly Mixture site with the most info can be found at:

http://www.elysium-london.demon.co.uk/Pages/dmcur.html

Oh, one of them used to be married to Captain Sensible (who they backed on 'Happy Talk' sad to say) and may still be for all I know/care. Think there's also an instrumental (?) ep by the DM that I've never seen/heard.

DM = possibly the greatest unknown indiepop band ever. The fact that nothing of theirs is currently in print is FUCKEN CRIMINAL

As for Dolly Mixture: you already know I'm gonna say CLASSIC.

Bob from Saint Etienne writes (October 11, 2004 entry):
Dolly Mixture CD... well yes, don't I wish I had a spare box of them. For anyone thinking of forking out fifty, sixty, or seventy quid for one, DON'T! unless you really can't wait. I know they are going to release their whole back catalogue at some point, in the next year or so.

THE WHOLE BACK CATALOGUE!!

It was great, especially the few live performances and a clip of them performing 'Happy Talk' on Top of the Pops.

Debsey was in the audience and was stormed by fans after the film finished. One girl in standing near me was too shy to approach, mirroring the end of the feature where 2 girls and their mother come backstage at ToTP to sheepishly grab and autograph.

Is this the long-rumored, never-completed Dolly Mixture film from the '80s??? PLEASE say there will be a DVD release. PLEASE.

Dolly Mixtures (*)
BBC director Simon West follows the early career of teenage Cambridge-based girl group Dolly Mixture, and how they fare in a male-dominated industry. This is the film’s belated premiere.
UK 1982, 30 min.

longer piece here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguide/features/story/0,,1497492,00.html

dud.

Back to Dolly Mixture, I wonder though, how many copies the reissue will sell. What other early 80's indie girl groups don't have a reissue readily available?

oh you beat me to it.

I've not seen anything by Strawberry Switchblade, except a pricey Japanese reissue years ago. Also, The Rosehips (the ones on Subway Organisation) who got really good just before breaking up.

i think the flatmates' stuff is out of print.

the funny thing about the shop assistants, i completely adore 3 or 4 of their songs--2 of which are some of my favorite songs ever-- and am almost completely indifferent to all the others.

Pleasure
Girls at Our Best!

1 used & new from $200.00

http://www.officialdamned.com/docs/bandmembers/captain/dolly/index.htm

Sorry.

More Birdie business, if anyone cares: they are playing an exceptionally rare live set for us on Saturday lunchtime, with David Tattersall of the Wave Pictures, and also with the wonderful Would-be-goods. More details here: http://hangoverlounge.blogspot.com/2012/01/birdie-return-to-stage.html

I care!

And here they were:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7156/6737999447_a5473c126a_z.jpg

They were amazing.

Wish I could have been there.

Nice! Got any pics of the Would-be-goods?

There are some here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.283477248374319.70866.165516670170378&type=3

There'll be some videos along by and by, no doubt.

It was a real pleasure to see both of these groups in an environment which was worthy of them!

Ooh, good work by Ms Jarvis there.

Looks fantastic. Thanks for that link.

I recorded the performances for the Daylight Music Podcast, Last Saturday's will be along at some point this year (there's quite a backlog) they can be found here:

http://www.jointhecircle.net/radio/?p=1684

Apologies for the advertising.

Thanks for the advertising!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmB-6Koyxl8

(That's "Let Her Go" rather than "Come Out Party" but that's not so important I guess.

Dolly Parton stands to make a new fortune off "I Will Always Love You""

Dolly Parton is set to earn millions from Whitney Houston's cover of her song I Will Always Love You, it has been revealed.

The track, which Whitney covered for the soundtrack of The Bodyguard, was originally penned by Parton in 1973.

Last month, Parton revealed to CNN that Houston's cover had already raked in lots of cash for her.
'When Whitney did it, I got all the money for the publishing and for the writing, and I bought a lot of cheap wigs,' she said.

Wrong Dolly thread.

Lolville indeed.

I'm presuming Debsey never wrote anything for Whitney.

Just breaking.

Thanks for the revive anyway, hadn't seen the recent youtube.

Time for a new screenname.

Debsey did write for Lena Zavaroni, though.

did the dolly mixture box set ever come out?

Yes, it did.

and presumably it is now long gone... :-(

Apparently so... :(

http://dollymixture.greedbag.com/dept/~dolly-mixture/

I have two spare copies.

(By "copies", I mean "original official versions", not "CDR knockoffs".)

do you mean the original demonstration tapes dbl vinyl alb, mike, or the 3 CD disc boxset? if the latter, do you have one for sale?

i used to own an original copy of the demonstration tapes, after the same friend (prettybluefox) who martin s mentions upthread played it to me and i then saw copies of it for sale in the Virgin Megastore, quite some time after it was originally released. Sold that many years ago, but the other day i was listening to a 'CDR knockoff' of the first CD reissue, and it still sounded terrific - especially 'side 3', always my fave - so i wld v v like to hear the unreleased stuff

The box set is an improvement over the earlier CD reissue soundwise I think. Never heard the vinyl.

You have mail, Ward...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VT82yIvSXA

Well I'm involved in organising this so I guess this counts as spam but I am delighted to say we have tempted Birdie out to play again, fot the fifth anniversary of this thing I help to do:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Z_5ihPluXH0/US6MUepX5CI/AAAAAAAAAo0/WQj5UpxeJtQ/s320/the+hangover+lounge+2013+05+26+copy.jpg

http://hangoverlounge.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/5th-birthday-party-starring-birdie-amor.html

will Birdie ever release anything ever again?

― keythhtyek, Sunday, 10 October 2010 00:11 (seven years ago)

Apparently a new single's on the way!

Reissue of Demonstration Tapes on vinyl:

https://www.monorailmusic.com/album/b33f0fa1-ff29-11e9-8305-1298a0617e72/Demonstration_Tapes.html

And some unreleased material that sounds essential:

Well, this is is something incredible. A new compilation album with unreleased songs (in some cases taken from casette) that captures the unbeatable spirit and energy of Dolly Mixture. Early recordings mix their winning punk attitude, 60's pop hooks galore and joyous originality which makes Dolly Mixture sound so fresh 41 years after they formed.

This album has been pieced together from original tapes and 1/4 inch masters. Side A is raw recordings and it just adds extra grit to the sweet indie pop delights of Dolly Mixture. Among the 11 tracks are two tracks that were recorded in 1978 at Spaceward Studios and intended as their debut 7", an alternate recording of How Come You’re Such A Hit With The Boys, Jane?, Covers of the Velvets Femme Fatale, Mott the Hoople's Foxy Foxy, Love Affair's Rainbow Valley, a Demo for Paul Weller's Respond Records plus five tracks recorded in 1984. These were the band’s final recording session and recorded at Treetop Studios, Suffolk. All tracks on vinyl for the first time.

Side One
1. How Come You’re Such A Hit With The Boys Jane? (Alternate studio version - previously unreleased recording from cassette)
2. Femme Fatale
3. Foxy Foxy (previously unreleased studio recording from cassette)
4. Night After Night (previously unreleased studio recording from cassette)
5. Divided By A Wall
6. Rainbow Valley

Side Two
1. Dust To Dust
2. The Same Mistake
3. Our Tune
4. Down The Line
5. Now When I Count

https://www.monorailmusic.com/album/fc545cf0-ff28-11e9-8305-1298a0617e72/Other_Music.html

Wow. I saw them many times between 1978 and 1980; Femme Fatale and Foxy Foxy were in their early sets (along with covers of Dizzy and Leader Of The Pack), and I remember Divided By Wall being talked about as their first single.

I don’t think we need to explain why you need to grab this now if you don’t have it already.https://t.co/h26evlVKQn pic.twitter.com/ICY4sYCUVP

— Slumberland Records (@SlumberlandRecs) March 24, 2023

I've been to see Rachel Love a couple of times in the last 2 years, tbh the fist time I just went because she was in one of the best bands of all time, so you kind of have to don't you. but she was great and played here again a couple of weeks ago and she played 2 of the harshest diss tracks of all time Miss Candy Twist and How Come You're Such A Hit With The Boys, Jane? - so I know who the Jane is in that song, but which obviously terrible music journalist was Candy Twist> I wouldn't want to be her tbh.

Jane is just the best song. I feel bad for not making the v recent show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUWsEtAJaR8

Supporting the Jam, sausages with the Bay City Rollers and defying skinheads: post-punk girl group Dolly Mixture look back

Well that made me dig out some things. On streaming media at least. It's a trip reading this thread and watching something go from almost unfindably obscure to accessible via a brief search. YouTube even delivered up the TOTP performance!

Sometimes you have to wonder if some material was so celebrated because it was so hard to find. But then you hear it, and nope. This is still startlingly fresh and lovely it feels like stumbling into a secret history of something you knew must have been there all along. But the piece goes a good way to explaining why they were so unjustly sidelined.

Does that article mention Birdie at all?

https://www.chickfactor.com/interview-birdie-gets-ready-to-reissue-some-dusty-25-years-later/

https://www.chickfactor.com/the-very-long-overdue-debsey-wykes-interview/

And, before I forget:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g2M01K6Q1Q

Didn't know they had their own thread--I posted about them in a different thread a few months ago...This has become an all-time favourite:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VstBuin9V6Q

yep, clemenza's post last year was what hipped me to them and they've been in sporadic rotation ever since. i only know them in hindsight, but what a bunch of heroes.

of course there were the go-gos, who were terribly successful as far as we could see.

cf: they were a teenybopper band. they were kind of like the spice girls in the u.s.

Uh, no

Debsey did write for Lena Zavaroni, though.

Indeed she did and it works, by Jove, it works!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9XQucaIhNw

Yeah, both the A-side and the B-side ("Dream Come True") were pre-existing Dolly Mixture songs that were a part of their live repetoire, so they weren't written to order for Lena.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOlnumOA1NU

this https://freq.org.uk/interviews/ian-button-interview/ towards the end mentions Railcard which is Rachel and Pete Momtch and ian

Didn't know about the revive--had "Never Mind Sundays" on a mix-CD in the car this afternoon!