The Dolly Mixtures were a band I have heard of but had not really listened to much of their music due to it's unavailability. Formed in 1979 the excellent PunkModPop describe them as "......The Dolly Mixture was like the Shangri-La's or the Go-Go's if they had any class. Or the Raincoats without the weirdness and electric violins."
Influencing the likes of Talulah Gosh, Heavenly, The Flatmates and possibly Saint Etienne you can now hear how courtesy of Dolly Mixture Songs. This site has posted almost all their output in the vain hope that someone will reissue the songs on CD.
Whether the record companies, who are more concerned with lining their pockets with conveyer belt pap as Pop Idol or poxy ringtones proves, listen is another matter. In the meantime download these gems now!
I'd say Dolly Mixture definitely influenced Saint Etienne, if only because Debsey sang with the band as a backup vocalist for ages. You can hear her most prominently in the duet-y St Et single "Who Do You Think You Are?"
The site you linked to is a GREAT resource; I'm lucky to have Demonstration Tapes (well, just on CD) as well as the Fireside 12" but there were several tracks on there that I've only heard on cassette! Thanks for posting it.
I found out about this site a while back, great stuff even if I still only listen to Demonstration Tapes. I also know the Dolly's used to play with Captain Sensible (I even hear one of them is married to him?) -- if I'm not mistaken, I think they're even in his "Wot" video.
Fishes,
narco.
Debsey still sings bv's with Saint Etienne. Well, she did last week when I saw them at Koko. 'Who do you think you are' was a particular highlight!
Man, thank you SO much for this. This is awesome!
Even more importantly, this site has the last five unreleased demos they did post-Demonstration Tapes. These have never been heard except live, I think, but are the equal of anything else they ever did.
Dolly Mixture were a great band and it's about time that their tracks are reissued. There was a Dolly Mixture documentary shown in London recently, you can find more information about it here - http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1498738,00.html