SUMMER 2010: DOLLY MIXTURE

One of the best things about working in Monorail Music is the thrill you get when a box you've been waiting patiently for finally arrives, and the content more than that lives up to the hype you've attached it. This year has been another year of expert archive work but the Dolly Mixture box set has been, for me, the biggest revelation.

Everything And More, I guess, must be everything they recorded (56 songs) and it shows them to be the missing, magical link between the tough end of British 1960s girl groups (The Liverpudlians, The Orchids, The Exceptions) and the 80s / 90s non-wave of slightly awkward but winning, odd independent pop (Shop Assistants, Talulah Gosh, Melody Dog). But in terms of their own time (1978-1984) they seem to fit in with almost nothing; maybe very loosely with Marine Girls, TV Personalities or Orange Juice, but nothing really. Their isolation and non-sceneness seems to give their music a poignant timelessness which enables their music to fit very easily into this world. Their songs are incredibly melodic and amateur-sophisticated and completely addictive.

I think they can't have played in Scotland too many times but Bob Stanley, who weighs in with excellent sleevenotes, seems to have seen them multiple times (of course). Maybe they mostly played in London or in Cambridge where they originated. I want to say how much I love these songs like Step Close Now, Remember This and Divided By A Wall; how instinctively great they are, these bedroom Goffin & King genii, Rachel, Hester, Debsey. I love their singing, I love their playing, I love their way. The artwork is beautiful too; this is Paul Kelly's work. He also made a film about them which he really needs to bring to Scotland.

My record of the summer.

SP