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Teenage Daydream: We are the Girls Who Play in a Band: A Times Book of the Year 2025
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.
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.
304 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 25, 2025
6 people are currently reading
133 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 16, 2025
It’s quite an extraordinary feeling when a book connects so strongly to personal memories from long long ago and unearths lost memories and sentiments from the past.
November 7, 2025
i love dolly mixture and this book made me love them more
January 12, 2026
What a treat to settle down for several hours with the warm and engaging (and often hilariously dry-witted) voice of Debsey Wykes, bringing me the story of Dolly Mixture - a band I would have loved so very dearly had I been a teenager a decade earlier. This is a touching and beautifully-written book about an all-girl pop-punk band who came so close to making it in a time of male dominance across the indie music scene. The Undertones are here, The Jam are all-powerful, The Pogues are on the rise - but it's Dolly Mixture we root for...
This story is told via Debsey's teen diary extracts as well as her wonderfully detailed memory; not just for what happened when, but in relaying the feelings and moods of her near-miss (it's more near than miss) with stardom and the thrills and disappointments of growing up through music. She watches herself performing with Captain Sensible in the Christmas Day edition of Top of the Pops and is still squirming inside long after her family has whooped up her moment in the spotlight. She writes amusingly and honestly about being jealous of other bands' success and the hell of early mornings getting up to do her cafe job at Victoria station. We want her so much to succeed because she feels like us... a version of us with a permanent spring in her step and better hair.
This is a really enjoyable read from one of the UK's secret national treasures (any Saint Etienne fan knows that much about Debsey). Dolly Mixture will forever be a hidden cult fan favourite of the 1980s zine scene but this lovely book should put them on the higher contours of the pop map where they really belong.
This story is told via Debsey's teen diary extracts as well as her wonderfully detailed memory; not just for what happened when, but in relaying the feelings and moods of her near-miss (it's more near than miss) with stardom and the thrills and disappointments of growing up through music. She watches herself performing with Captain Sensible in the Christmas Day edition of Top of the Pops and is still squirming inside long after her family has whooped up her moment in the spotlight. She writes amusingly and honestly about being jealous of other bands' success and the hell of early mornings getting up to do her cafe job at Victoria station. We want her so much to succeed because she feels like us... a version of us with a permanent spring in her step and better hair.
This is a really enjoyable read from one of the UK's secret national treasures (any Saint Etienne fan knows that much about Debsey). Dolly Mixture will forever be a hidden cult fan favourite of the 1980s zine scene but this lovely book should put them on the higher contours of the pop map where they really belong.
December 31, 2025
I first saw the all-girl band Dolly Mixture playing a gig at the Great Northern pub in Cambridge in 1979. As well as their own material, they did covers of Leader of the Pack and The Locomotion. They then popped up as Captain Sensible's backing band on his solo hit Happy Talk. I never heard of them again and they never broke through in their own right.
This is their story, told by bassist and backing vocalist Debsey Wykes. With the help of extracts from her lifelong personal diaries, she tells the charming story of this band of schoolgirls forming, touring with the great bands of the day such as the Jam and the Undertones, then facing setbacks and missed opportunities before their 1984 split. Despite their fresh approach and great talent, perhaps the male-dominated rock industry wasn't ready for a girl band who played all their own instruments and stood firm in their self-belief and lack of compromise from their vision. The story is told beautifully and eloquently and there is never a dull moment's reading.
This is their story, told by bassist and backing vocalist Debsey Wykes. With the help of extracts from her lifelong personal diaries, she tells the charming story of this band of schoolgirls forming, touring with the great bands of the day such as the Jam and the Undertones, then facing setbacks and missed opportunities before their 1984 split. Despite their fresh approach and great talent, perhaps the male-dominated rock industry wasn't ready for a girl band who played all their own instruments and stood firm in their self-belief and lack of compromise from their vision. The story is told beautifully and eloquently and there is never a dull moment's reading.
December 9, 2025
wonderful
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews