Dolly Mixture

Three school friends and a Peel session

Dolly Mixture formed in Cambridge in February 1978 around three school friends: Debsey Wykes on bass and vocals, Rachel Bor (later Rachel Love) on guitar and vocals, and Hester Smith on drums. Rachel Love's own site cites 1960s harmonies, glam rock and punk as influences, and they admired the Undertones and girl groups such as the Shangri-Las. In 1979 they played with the Fall and the Transmitters, and supported the Undertones on an early UK tour, after the Undertones were handed a tape following a gig. Their first BBC session, for John Peel, was in August 1979, and a second for Kid Jensen in September 1982; the official site counts 14 BBC tracks in all.

They signed to Chrysalis in 1980 and made "Baby It's You", a Shirelles cover produced by Eric Faulkner, which the band disowned because they objected to being marketed as a teen girl group. They then moved to Paul Weller's Respond label: "Been Teen" in 1981, produced by Captain Sensible and Paul Gray of the Damned, and "Everything and More" in 1982 (RESP 4). In 1982 they sang on Captain Sensible's "Wot" and, as Dolly Mixtures, on his "Happy Talk", which went to number 1 in the UK with the band in the video and on Top of the Pops. "Remember This" followed in 1983 on their own label, Dead Good Dolly Platters, and the double album Demonstration Tapes in 1983 or 1984 (sources differ), 27 tracks pressed in a numbered run of 1,000 per Wikipedia. The Fireside EP on Cordelia, six tracks mostly instrumental for piano and strings, closed the story, and they stopped working as a group in 1984.

Bob Stanley of Saint Etienne reissued Demonstration Tapes on CD in 1995 via Royal Mint, and Cornelius released the Dreamism! maxi-single in Japan in 1998. The three-CD box set Everything and More (2010, 56 remastered recordings) brought a wave of reviews: Cokemachineglow's Andrew Hall heard a missing link in the emergence of indie pop, and Record Collector said they set the template for every female indie band since. The Stranger's Lois Maffeo wrote in 1999 that one song pre-dated riot grrrl by a decade. Remember This, the singles collection, followed in 2011 and Other Music, with first recordings from 1978 and the final five from 1984, in 2019. Wykes wrote a memoir, Teenage Daydream, from her diaries. Bor and Wykes played one reunion show on April 24, 2013 at Islington Assembly Hall supporting Veronica Falls.