A Times Book of the Year 2025
The Shindig Book of the Year
“The godmothers of indie-pop” Mojo
“A tale of pop life well lived” Shindig
“Winningly captures the devil-may-care optimism of adolescence” Guardian
An evocative coming of age story from one of the UK’s first ever female post-punk musicians.
Debsey Wykes was the bass playing singer in the first all girl punk group Dolly Mixture. Thrown into the musky, misogynistic, male dominated world of the UK music industry in the late 1970s, they enjoyed unlikely #1 success alongside Captain Sensible of The Damned on1982’s even unlikelier cover version of ‘Happy Talk’, whilst fame and success on their own individual terms alluded them.
Debsey went onto greater prominence with Saint Etienne with who she has performed since 1992, whilst in 2025, desirable Dolly Mixture reissues sell out around the world as quickly as they are printed.
Featuring a cast of contemporary post-punk heroes – rom Paul Weller and the Jam (their first record label boss) to Madness and the Pogues – Teenage Daydream is a unique coming of age story of youthful ambition, enterprising DIY musical ethics and how an unlikely bunch of school-girl friends ended up on Top of the Pops in home made hula skirts.
“Teenage Daydream winningly captures the devil-may-care optimism of adolescence. Steeped in the combined hopefulness and dourness of the early 80s, evoking what it was to be young, on the dole and chasing your dreams in the early years of Thatcherism. Dolly Mixture may have failed to dent the charts with their own songs, but at least they had a wild adventure” — The Guardian
“A beautiful tribute to the intense time we had growing up in a band and to the strong friendships we still have today” — Rachel Bor, Dolly Mixture
“A joyful and sad book. There is triumph and failure that’s quite a journey told through a really interesting approach that combines diaries and fan letters to the band” — John Kennedy, Radio X
“This is how it was, Debsey’s got it. She always did” — Hester Smith, Dolly Mixture
