123 - Dolly Mixture, The Jam, Captain Sensible with Debsey Wykes

123 - Dolly Mixture, The Jam, Captain Sensible with Debsey Wykes

Author: Rock n Roll Book Club July 5, 2026 Duration: 46:38

Join us for a live recording with Debsey Wykes about her book Teenage Daydream: We Are The Girls Who Play In A Band. 


Debsey’s early musical experiences were centred around Cambridge & her early interests included The Bay City Rollers, Queen & David Bowie. 


Punk arrived soon after & her tastes developed into The Damned, The Jam & The Stranglers. 


Her & a couple of friends have the idea to form an all girl band which becomes Dolly Mixture. 


They draw the attention of John Peel, get a mention in NME after only two months of rehearsals & incredibly play the largest venue in Cambridge, The Corn Exchange on only their fourth gig. 


After a couple of gigs with U2 & a tour with The Undertones, their debut single Baby Its You is released, a cover of the Bacharach & David track. 


However they don’t end up signing to Chrysalis Records & their second single is released on Paul Weller’s Respond Records. 


The Weller family are hugely supportive & the band want Ann Weller to manage them. 


They later appear on Happy Talk by Captain Sensible which leads to an appearance on Top of the Pops. 


The only Dolly Mixture album The Demonstration Tapes is released towards the end of the bands lifespan. 


The band member stayed in touch & their legacy has been kept alive by a documentary by Paul Kelly & various reissues with Bob Stanley. 



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Hosted, Produced & Edited by Simon Cardwell

Music by Andy Maxwell


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The Music Maps Podcast from the Rock n Roll Book Club isn't your typical music show. It's an audio expedition where geography is the guide. Every episode starts with a specific location-a city, a venue, a forgotten roadside attraction-and uses that place as a launchpad to explore the sounds, stories, and scenes connected to it. You might find yourself deep in the blues clubs of Chicago one week and tracing the underground punk threads of a small European town the next. The conversations are wide-ranging, connecting the dots between iconic artists and obscure movements, all anchored to a point on the map. Listening to this podcast feels like adding a new, richly detailed pin to a global atlas of musical influence. It’s about the context behind the chords and the cultural soil from which genres grow. The result is a continuously evolving, deeply human portrait of how music and place are inextricably linked, one fascinating destination at a time.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Music Maps Podcast
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