10 Amazing '80s Bands That Everyone Forgot About
4. Dolly Mixture
Brief favourites of John Peel, this Cambridge-based twee pop act only had a brief spell as an active band, but the music they’ve left has aged like fine wine. Taking inspiration from ‘60s girl groups but avoiding laying on the influences too thickly, Dolly Mixture’s indie pop is catchy, upbeat, and slyly funny.
Perhaps aware they weren’t long for this world, their one record, 1983’s Demonstration Tapes, stuffs in just about everything they’d ever written. The near-80 minute album is, as the title suggests, packed out with first drafts and sketches, but the chemistry of the band overcomes some of the thinner songs.
The more developed ideas are fantastic. “Will He Kiss Me Tonight” wears the Supremes-et-al influence most boldly, but the vocal harmonies across the record always hit a sweet spot. “Angel Treads”, pacy and spiky, could fit into modern indie radio, and “Sorry To Leave You” shows what the band can do with a fuller sound.
The self-deprecating name perhaps set the band back, but Dolly Mixture’s brand of confident, lyrical guitar pop still sounds totally fresh.