Debsey Wykes Q&A on her book “Teenage Daydream” and screening of “Take Three Girls The Dolly Mixture Story” at the ICMP London February 19th 2026

I went along to the ICMP Music College in Queen’s Park for the first time for a rare screening of “Take Three Girls – The Dolly Mixture Story” directed by Paul Kelly from Heavenly Films and the partner of Debsey Wykes bassist and vocalist with the band, who met when touring as part of St. Etienne’s live line-up. The screening was followed by a Q&A session with author Daniel Rachel interviewing Debsey about her excellent, critically acclaimed autobiography “Teenage Daydream: We Are The Girls Who Play In a Band”. They discussed various key aspects of both the book and the film along with the process of writing and the background of collating all the information from Debsey’s suitcase full of diaries along with the ‘brutal’ editing process. I think it’s testament to Dolly Mixture and their legacy that they set a template for many an all-girl and female fronted Indie-Pop band for years to come. Not just with their vintage 60’s style look and timeless songs of seemingly wide-eyed innocence but that most crucial of things - the classic song writing and gorgeous vocal harmonies, which still sound as fresh today as they ever did. Unfortunately, it’s a sad fact of musical life that true originators and talent often get commercially overshadowed by the impersonators. For example, take three of my favourite bands, The Prisoners, Shack and That Petrol Emotion, they too never hit the mainstream heights that they deserved but were somewhat crushed in the rush to copy their sounds and for record companies to later cash in on the slipstream. I think Dolly Mixture suffered from this too but I sincerely hope that Debsey’s superb book, along with a wider release of the documentary, might go some way to redressing that balance.

Daniel confronts the sexism that the band were subjected to, from the ‘male obnoxiousness’ of the times to the more ingrained discrimination from the record companies and music press in general. There’s a harrowing tale of the time that Debsey was assaulted on stage by a skinhead at a Bad Manners gig which is quite shocking but it’s a reminder of the gig-going times of the late 70’s and early 80’s. Touring with Bad Manners also opened them up to being spat at and being subjected to outbreaks of sieg-heiling from a hostile audience. Bad Manners as a band were very supportive and protective of Dolly Mixture though but it must have been disheartening for the band to have to endure. Although, the sexism they faced from the male dominated music industry was sadly to be expected in those times, what surprised me most is the antagonism and outright hostility they faced from some of their female peers – most noticeably from The Modettes. They think they are in for some welcome support from a female journalist who then proceeds to complete slag the band off for no apparent reason in print. It’s spiteful and unnecessary and you wonder why this kind of bullying would exist, especially towards a band such as Dolly Mixture, who whatever you thought of their music, were hardly controversial or antagonistic.

They did however receive some unexpected support from Captain Sensible, who along with The Damned’s bassist Paul Gray offered to help them in the studio. He then asked them to back him on his new solo career and they eventually reached Number 1 in the charts together with the single “Happy Talk”.  This led to various appearances on Top of The Pops and despite Captain generously promoting Dolly Mixture in their own right, they still couldn’t seem to break out. Despite the good intentions and success, maybe it was more a curse than a blessing as they were more likely to get labelled as just the Captain’s backing band. More support came from some very unexpected people such as Eric Faulkner of Bay City Rollers, Dave Goodman the sound engineer for the Sex Pistols and Buffin from Mott the Hoople who all helped them out in the studio. They even wrote a comeback single for the child-star Lena Zavaroni. Terry Hall gave them Single of The Week in Melody Maker and invited them to play with The Fun Boy Three. Paul Weller’s Mum, Ann and Dad, John were also extremely supportive and Debsey talks very warmly about Ann in particular, who she wished had been their manager. Paul Weller signed them to his fledgling label Respond but sadly soon lost interest to concentrate on his next protégé. John Peel was also a huge fan but apparently his producer John Walters hated them and they never got their session repeated, which was very rare. The Undertones continue to cement their place in music history as being the nicest guys in Rock ‘n’ Roll as they offer Dolly Mixture a support slot the very next night after the girls hung around with their demo tape outside a gig in Cambridge. Debsey asked for Damian O’Neill’s autograph and he told her he had loved their Peel Session. “Just bring your guitars to Aylesbury Friars tomorrow” they said and this led to a proper tour with The Undertones. So despite these welcome offers of generous help and support it’s even more unbelievable why the band could not break out into the mainstream. There’s also the irony of having U2 support them at the Moonlight Club in West Hampstead, a gig that my Blog colleague Rock photographer Paul Slattery attended, they had no idea at the time that U2 would go on to be such global superstars, sometimes there’s no justice!

The book is a charming collection of diary entries, fan letters and reminiscences about what it’s like to form a band, of playing in bedrooms, swapping instruments and taking those first steps out to play live. Debsey captures those innocent times perfectly, of going up to London with a stash of demo tapes and heading to a phone box to call various record companies plucked from the telephone directory. She also discusses the band’s influences such as Glam Rock, The Monkees, Blondie and Debbie Harry, Patti Smith and Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex and the Ramones. They also started delving back into the 60’s of Bacharach and David, Motown, The Shangri-La’s and the Ronettes and you can see touches of all these in the Dolly Mixture sound. It’s shocking to think Dolly Mixture didn’t even release an official album until their own self-released “Demonstration Tapes” compilation just a year before they called it a day. Even to this day, it’s quite difficult to track down copies of their records and surely, some proper record label with sense should consider a thorough reissue plan. 

The Long Play Sessions is a series of talks with musicians and music related authors about their current books held at the ICMP campus in Queen’s Park. They have already hosted Daniel Rachel being interviewed by Miranda Sawyer about his latest book “This Ain’t Rock ‘n’ Roll” and have upcoming talks booked in with Lawrence from Felt and Will Hodgkinson about their superb book “Street Level Superstar”, Keith Cameron on his history of Manic Street Preachers and Melissa Auf Der Maur from Hole and Smashing Pumpkins discussing her forthcoming autobiography. It’s a great venue and Paul Wilson seems to be doing an excellent job in attracting some top names to his sessions and being a music college, of course they have good access to enthusiastic staff and top audio/visual facilities.

For more on Daniel Rachel's books including the superb "Too Much Too Young: The 2 Tone Records Story", please check out his website here. 

Retro Man Blog & Retrosonic Podcast's Favourite Books of 2024

 

Here's a selection of twelve of our favourite books published this year, please click on the highlighted links throughout the feature below for more information.

1. "Street Level Superstar: A Year With Lawrence" by Will Hodgkinson

Jarvis Cocker interviews Author Will Hodgkinson and Lawrence (Felt, Denim, Go-Kart Mozart, Mozart Estate about the book at Foyles, London - Photo by Retro Man Blog

2. "Too Much Too Young: The 2 Tone Records Story" by Daniel Rachel

Author Daniel Rachel (centre) with Pauline Black of The Selecter and Bedders of Madness at the book launch event, South Bank Centre London - Photo by Retro Man Blog

3. "A Taste of Ink, The Prisoners Sentenced By Their Fans" Edited by Elinor Crockford, Jeremy Stride, Thomas Buch & Michael Langer

Editors Jeremy Stride, Elinor Crockford, Michael Langer and Thomas Buch with their book before The Prioners reunion show at The Roundhouse - Photo by Retro Man Blog. You can check out a review of the gig and see more information on the book at our Retro Man Blog feature here.

4. "Forever Changes: The Authorised Biography of Arthur Lee and Love" by John Einarson

You can see our review with photos and videos of the Love Revisited with Johnny Echols "Forever Changes" gig at Shepherds Bush Empire here. Photo by Retro Man Blog

5. "Diminished Responsibility: My Life As a U.K. Sub and Other Strange Stories, Vol. 3" by Alvin Gibbs

Check out our review of "Diminished Responsibility Vol. 3 at Retro Man Blog here.

6. "In The Jingle Jangle Jungle: Keeping Time with The Brian Jonestown Massacre" by Joel Gion

7. "Sixteen Again: How Pete Shelley and Buzzcocks Changed Manchester Music (and Me)" by Paul Hanley

8. "Under A Rock: A Memoir" by Chris Stein of Blondie

9. "Folklore Rising: An Artist's Journey Through The British Ritual Year" by Ben Edge

Ben Edge at the screening of his documentary "Frontline Folklore" at the Garden Cinema, London - Photo by Retro Man Blog

10. "1967 - How I Got There and Why I Never Left" by Robyn Hitchcock

Robyn performing during the Q&A to promote "1967" at Foyles in London - Photo by Retro Man Blog

11. "Road Eyes 20:20 Vision, Photo Tales with The Clash & The Mescaleros" by Barry 'Scratchy Sounds' Myers

You can hear our Retrosonic Podcast special with Scratchy discussing the book and his time with The Clash and Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros below...

Retrosonic Podcast · DJ Scratchy Sounds: Photo Tales with The Clash & Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros

12. "Days In Europa" by Richard Jobson of The Skids

Ranking Roger “I Just Can’t Stop It: My Life in The Beat” co-written with Daniel Rachel and published by Omnibus Press - Feature Including Exclusive Paul Slattery Photos

I went along to the launch party for Ranking Roger’s autobiography “I Just Can’t Stop It: My Life In The Beat” at the Heavenly Social recently. Of course, it was a very poignant affair as sadly Roger passed away before he could see the book published. Co-writer Daniel Rachel took part in an entertaining interview and Q & A session and did a great job in what must have been difficult circumstances. Daniel has already had books published on subjects that include Rock Against Racism, Britpop, 2 Tone and Red Wedge so he was a good choice to work with Roger on his autobiography. The book was available for sale on the night prior to publication so I picked up a copy and have just finished reading it. First of all I must say, that there are some fantastic photos throughout and it was great to see a couple of my Retro Man Blog colleague Paul Slattery’s pics inside, including the famous one of Roger with Joe Strummer backstage at the Mogador Theatre in Paris. Here, Paul shares two of his own favourite photos and gives us some background behind them.

Ranking Roger - Photo copyright Paul Slattery

“I took this backstage photo of Ranking Roger with his top hat after a gig in late 1979 at The Subscription Rooms in Stroud. He was still only 16 at the time but for a young man he was loaded with charisma, good looks and a lot of talent. Although the gig was nearly forty years ago, I’ll never forget it. A cold winter’s night was turned into a cauldron of heat in the upstairs room of the Subs and I felt the floor bounce up and down with the rhythm of the dancing. Ranking Roger was a smiling genius, his toasting on such numbers as “Tears of a Clown”, “Whine and Grine” and “Big Shot” was a real treat – he certainly earnt his “Ranking” moniker in my opinion, comparing with the likes of Ranking Trevor and Ranking Joe. The Beat were certainly one of the best and most exciting bands I have ever seen and Roger’s toasting, along with the legendary Saxa, added a real slice of Jamaica to what was an incredible live act. The second photo is of Rog, still only 17 years old, and Dave Wakeling blowing the crowd away at the Hammersmith Palais in the spring of 1980”.

The Beat - Photo copyright Paul Slattery

Thank you Paul. The book starts with Roger on stage with The Beat. He stops the band three songs into their set to confront a gang of skinheads in the crowd who are sieg-heiling and shouting National Front slogans. Roger gets the crowd to chant “Black and White Unite” until the offending Nazis disappear and the show goes on. The NME ran a review of the gig in which the writer noted that Roger was “almost hysterical with rage and emotion”. Roger’s no-nonsense attitude towards racism and his mantra of “Love, Peace & Unity” are at the heart of this thoroughly entertaining memoir. Gigs in the late 70’s and early 80’s were a hotbed of violence, a fact that we discussed with Buddy Ascott of The Chords in our special Retrosonic Podcast where he reminisces about the time that skinheads disrupted one of their shows with The Undertones. Sadly, a lot of this violence was of a racist nature. There are similar themes explored in “Day-Glo”, the recent emotionally charged biography of Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex, which we reviewed in the Blog here. Whereas Roger had the character that could deal with the situation head on, Poly had her own mental health issues, which saw her struggle with the violence and racism of the time. However, both saw in Punk a scene where individuals/outsiders could thrive creatively regardless of their sex or colour. 

Ranking Roger - Photo copyright Steve White

Roger Charlery was born and raised in Birmingham, quite literally in the heartland of the National Front. Their Headquarters were close to his family home and he would often run outside to abuse the regular marches that passed his house. Roger’s parents had come over from St. Lucia, which was a French speaking Catholic country and I’m sure this background must have had some bearing on his open-minded attitude. He mixed easily and enjoyed playing cricket and football with kids from Asian, White and Black backgrounds. He developed a love of music, inspired by his musician father who had a big record collection that encompassed an eclectic mix such as James Brown, Motown, Manfred Mann and even Country & Western. Roger is also exposed to the sounds of Calypso and Ska from various house parties and later on, shebeens and sound systems. Roger talks about MC’s such as Big Youth and U-Roy and the impact of hearing John Lydon talking about Reggae on the radio. He starts to frequent local pubs and venues popular with Punks and at Barbarella’s in Birmingham he gets friendly with the DJ who allows him to toast over Punk records including, rather bizarrely, Angelic Upstarts “I’m An Upstart”. He gets an early taste for toasting in a live environment when he grabs a mic during a stage invasion at a Specials gig. Roger joins a band called Unity as their drummer and later The Dum Dum Boyz, who like many other Birmingham bands at the time, were multi-racial. Soon, another local multi-racial band were bugging The Dum Dum Boyz for a support slot – this band was called The Beat and Roger finds himself drawn to their more Punky take on Reggae, Ska and Soul. He goes to see them support The Au-Pairs and just can’t stop himself from getting on stage to toast during one song. There's an immediate chemistry between Roger and The Beat and soon afterwards he gladly accepts the offer to join the band, but not before turning down a similar offer from UB40. It’s all go from there, Jerry Dammers snaps up the new Beat line-up for his 2 Tone record label and within nine whirlwind months of joining, Roger finds himself on Top of The Pops performing their debut single “Tears of a Clown”. 

What follows is a conversational, unpretentious and honest autobiography where Roger not only takes us on his journey with The Beat, but also throws in many of his observations on the prevailing attitudes towards racism, sexism and the politics of the time. He talks warmly about John Peel, R.E.M and of touring with Talking Heads and The Police and you might be surprised which of the peroxide haired three-piece was the least friendly. However, The Clash really make an impact. He talks in depth about the band and their 8-night residency with them at the Mogador theatre in Paris, which Roger claims were among the best gigs the Beat ever played. The later chapters suddenly take a slightly darker turn and Roger discusses drugs and groupies. He also admits that the fame and adulation, particularly in America, did start to go to his and Dave Wakeling’s heads. He is particularly honest and open about the reasons for the break-up of The Beat but you will just have to buy the book to find out the whole story. Following the split, Andy Cox and David Steele went on to form Fine Young Cannibals with Roland Gift who commercially outstripped The Beat with two superb LPs. Roger and Dave formed General Public, initially with Mick Jones who had left The Clash. They were both persuaded some years later to get back together for a Beat reunion show at The Royal Festival Hall. This was followed by a couple of ill-fated gigs but things didn’t work out too well between them and Dave went back to live in California where he continued playing gigs as The English Beat. Roger carried on with the Beat name over here with his daughter Saffren and son Matthew, otherwise known as Ranking Junior, joining the line-up. The book ends sadly with Roger saying how much he still loved performing with The Beat “The only things that would make me stop are illness or war, it’s a compulsion, I just can’t stop it”. Sadly just days after finishing those lines, he was diagnosed with lung cancer and passed away on March 26th 2019, aged only 56. Despite the ultimately tragic outcome hanging over the book, it still manages to be a hugely uplifting and positive read. You can feel the warmth of Roger’s huge smile radiating through each page. 

- RIP Ranking Roger. Love, Peace and Unity.

Ranking Roger - Photo copyright Steve White

“I Just Can’t Stop It” is available as a regular paperback here and as a special limited edition, which you can ordered from Rough Trade here. Daniel Rachel’s other books can be ordered here. With thanks to Paul Slattery and Steve White for the excellent photos. Paul is currently working on a book and exhibition of his early Joy Division photographs and we will be sure to give you more details in due course. Please do check out Steve’s Flickr page for his superb archive of live music photography and you can see more examples for his work in our feature on the recent Buzzcocks and Guests tribute gig to Pete Shelley at the Royal Albert Hall here.