A Bit About the Dolly Mixture

There is an interesting interview with Debsey from the Dolly Mixture in the fanzine Making Waves, available for download here http://www.jennywoolworth.ch/deardiary/files/Making_Waves_1_zine%20.pdf
They were one of my favourite bands of that time: we played together a few times and I used to sit in the dressing room and chat with Hester, the drummer, who was often knitting.
When The Chefs were offered a residency at the Moonlight Club in West Hampstead, I asked if they could play with us each time because I wanted to share the bill with a band that we actually liked. Not that we didn't like the people in other bands, but we all liked all of the people in the Dolly Mixture, and they werene' furiously ambitious, which was often a bit of a pain in the arse on the circuit.
Both bands did versions of the Velvet Underground's Femme Fatale, both really different. I liked that fact too.
For the Lost Women of Rock Music, I spoke to Hester and Rachel; it's strange just talking to one or two people from a band but often you find out enough to fill in gaps. I spoke to Gina from the Raincoats, but not Ana (although I have arranged to interview Ana for another piece of writing I will be doing). I had hoped to speak to more of the Delta 5 than I actually did. I was glad I spoke to so many of The Slits (though not, sadly, Palmolive or Kate Korris: that would have been interesting, to speak to the beginner-drummer and beginner-guitarist). The book also doesn't represent the very many women who wrote to me who had been in bands that never got noticed by the press at all (although the original PHD did, and I did mention them in the book but probably without enough trumpets).
And of course, I never got to some bands at all. For it not being noticed at the time, punk was phenomenally well-populated with women musicians.