Teenage Daydream: We Are The Girls Who Play In A Band Limited Signed Hardback by Debsey Wykes
‘It was a time for full dreams ahead.’
Debsey Wykes was a singer, bassist and founding member of trailblazing all-girl post punk band, Dolly Mixture, alongside her school friends, Rachel Bor and Hester Smith. Teenage Daydream tells a story of how this close-knit trio of skint girls took their bedroom dreams and fuelled by punk’s DIY energy, imagination and a deep longing, created a world with real magic.
‘I can confirm the widely held view that late seventies Britain was a pretty drab place and by 1978 punk was no longer adding much to the palette. We were young, wanting to live and celebrate life, feel joy and then cry at sad songs, and feel more joy again. We embraced colour and melody and we wanted to burst into the world.’
Debsey Wykes traces her diverse, sometimes feverish, passions - for Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, The Bay City Rollers, Stevie Nicks, the Shangri-las, Patti Smith, Blondie, The Ramones - as she moves from posters on her bedroom wall to the real world live gig scene and then being part of the line-up, with her best mates. Dolly Mixture supported some of the biggest alternative groups of the time, including The Fall, Dexys Midnight Runners, The Jam and The Undertones — as well as having U2 support the girls whilst they were still in their teens. For a brief moment – signing with Paul Weller’s record label and following the success of ‘Happy Talk’, their Number One collaboration with Captain Sensible – success seemed theirs for the taking. Teenage Daydream is a bittersweet coming of age story of youthful enterprise and a determination to create your own rules and identity – as musicians and as young women. Dolly Mixture remains an influential force within the post-punk genre, signalling the way for the indiepop to come and their contributions to the music industry continue to be celebrated by fans worldwide. Debsey’s early diaries and reflections, alongside the fan letters, memorabilia and photos that accompany them, are a beautiful reminder of howconfusion about yourself or life can be dealt with by dressing up and writing a tune.
