Last week marked the release of Debsey Wykes’ new book, Teenage Daydream: We Are the Girls Who Play in a Band, and we were lucky enough to publish an excerpt from it on our site. If you’re reading chickfactor, you probably already know that Debsey is one of the greatest living singers. In addition to forming Dolly Mixture with Rachel Bor and Hester Smith, she also sang with Saint Etienne and made fantastic music with Paul Kelly as Birdie. Here is a new interview with Debs about the book-writing process.
Read an excerpt from Teenage Daydream: We Are the Girls Who Play in a Band
Read our 2006 Debsey interview here
Read our 2024 Birdie interview here
We also interviewed Rachel Love in our latest paper issue, chickfactor 19, which is still in print.
chickfactor: What made you want to write a book/publish your diaries?
Debsey Wykes: When I was twelve years old, everyone in my class was given a copy of the Diary of Anne Frank to read. It was 1972 and the Second World War was still fairly recent history, especially for our parents who would constantly reference it, so the story felt fairly tangible and everyone was captivated. We all began our own diaries in earnest but I suspect most of the other girls gave up after a few weeks. I loved filling up notebooks and no doubt dreamt of one day being published. By the time we had formed Dolly Mixture the idea of sharing any part of my diaries would have been unthinkable!
It was only years later, as other people began to reference the band as an influence or ask me about the group, that I began to re-visit that part of my life. I had reached an age where I felt very strongly that I needed to try and make sense of my formative years. It was time to make sure we didn’t end up as a footnote in someone else’s story. Other female bands who had formed in our wake seemed to be getting a lot of attention and I was determined that we should not be overlooked.
How did it make you feel to go back and read them when you first did?
Debsey: The diaries had been living in a battered old suitcase for years, and each time I moved house I would have to haul this ever expanding monster around with me, literally carrying around the baggage of my youth. I had never bothered to read them before but when I finally decided to write the book and confront my younger self I was often mortified! There were a couple of times I threw the diary against the wall in exasperation. Having already committed to the ‘project’ however, I decided to press on, and after cringing my way through endless stories about school, exams, parties, boys, gigs and arguments with my mother, I eventually began to accept that younger self.
What are some examples of how you might have remembered something differently from Rachel or Hester?
Debsey: I’m sure the three of us have completely different versions of the Dolly Mixture story. It’s a long time ago and we’re bound to see shared events from our own personal perspective. Luckily, for the book, I had the diaries to lean on and jog memories but some do fall between the pages. Several years ago I was chatting with Hester and Rachel about how we were lucky not to have been on the end of any physical harassment. We certainly faced a lot of verbal abuse and spitting but I felt we had managed to avoid too much lairy behaviour. Hester then pulled out a polaroid of the three of us – taken in the late 70s – grinning at the camera as a middle aged man attempts to grope me! It seems I must have blocked out some of the more unpleasant aspects of male behaviour while growing up in the late seventies and early eighties.
What are some of the most meaningful connections you made back then? Lifelong friends?
Debsey: Almost everyone important in my life I have met through music. Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs first came to see Dolly Mixture support Orange Juice in London in 1982 and instantly became fans. It was their love of Dolly Mixture that eventually led to me joining the Saint Etienne live set up where I met Paul and we formed our own band Birdie and ended up having children. Hester and Rachel are still two of my closest friends. Amongst others, I am still in contact with Captain Sensible, and some of our original fans. Over 40 years on, Dolly Mixture continues to bring us new fans and friends. It’s incredible to think the band can still have such a positive effect on our lives after all this time.
Anything you feel you may have left out of the book about your story?
Debsey: The original version of the book came in at about 120k words. The final version is around 90k so yes, some stories didn’t make it in but I think the book is probably better for it. From 1981 we were playing over 200 gigs a year and there are only so many times you can talk about touring without repeating yourself. If I started to write the book again now it would probably be completely different, the whole process has been so alien to me and in some ways this feels like a dry run. It’s just impossible to cram everything in, but I can always do another one!
How do you see the band’s legacy now?
Debsey: It would be nice to think that some young people completely unaware of the band might pick up the book or listen to the records and be inspired to do something themselves. I personally would have loved to read a story about an all girl band when I was a teenager.
Is the book available in the US and elsewhere outside the UK?
Debsey: Hopefully a US publisher will pick up the book and take it to a wider audience. At the moment it is available on import from Rough Trade and Monorail Music in Glasgow.
Will you be doing any events?
Debsey: As well as a couple of things in London, I’ve been invited to Monorail in Glasgow and will be in Manchester for the Louder than Words festival in November. I would love to have events in the States, Japan or Europe. In fact anywhere that will have me or we never managed to visit with the band.
Top ten records the Dolly Mixture were listening to while an active band
More in chronological order really…
The first Blondie album ‘Blondie’
The film soundtrack album from ’Stardust’
‘Shake some Action’ by The Flamin’ Groovies
‘Ever Fallen in Love…’ by Buzzcocks
‘Be my Baby’ by the Ronettes
‘Sunday Morning’ by The Velvet Underground
Dusty Springfield Greatest hits album!
‘The Happening’ by Diana Ross and the Supremes
First two Undertones albums
Phil Spector Christmas album
