The Dickies in concert
The Dickies were at their height in the UK in the late 1970s. They are a crazy, fun punk band who played superfast versions of well known songs. They were like the Ramones, but even more tongue in cheek and took and very funny. Their album “The Incredible Shrinking Dickies” was quite a hit in the UK, as were versions of “Paranoid”, “Eve of Destruction” and “Nights in White Satin”. They had their biggest success with “Banana Splits (Tra La La Song)”, the theme tune from the TV show, which got into the UK top 10 in 1979, and was released in dayglo yellow vinyl. 
I saw The Dickies a few times, including gigs at the City Hall (first supporting the Jam, and then their own headline show at which they were supported by Chelsea) and The Mayfair. The Mayfair gig took place while Banana Splits was in the charts. Played live, the song featured loads of bananas being thrown into the audience. They were a great fun night out, a cartoon-like crazy punk band, every song played super fast, with the crowd pogoing for their lives. They had a pretty strong following in the North East with young punks. I found this report from the time: “A riot breaks out in Newcastle when the band appears at a record signing. 2500 kids skip school to meet them but end up breaking the store’s front window. The police are called.” I seem to recall for the Newcastle Mayfair gig they played two shows, an early show for under 16s and a later show for older fans. My memory tells me that I went to the early kids show, so that I could then go along to the City Hall and see Judas Priest, but my ticket shows the time of the show as 7pm start, so maybe I went to see Priest first and then went to The Mayfair. The Dickies remain popular with punks in the UK, and continue to play to this day.
Archive for the ‘Dickies’ Category
21 Sep
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