DEBSEY WYKES

Debsey lives in London where she continues to write songs. She plays extensively around the world with Saint Etienne as well as making occasional appearances singing and playing bass guitar with Birdie.

She formed her first band, Dolly Mixture, in Cambridge in 1978 with friends Rachel Bor and Hester Smith while still at school. Championed by John Peel the girls were soon playing regularly in London where they became the darlings of the music press.

They signed to Chrysalis Records and toured extensively for the next few years both as headliners and as support for groups including, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, The Undertones, The Beat and The Jam. In 1981 they signed to Paul Weller’s Respond label releasing two singles. Around the same time they also backed Captain Sensible on his 1982 number one hit ‘Happy Talk’.

They continued to appear on the Captain’s records but the band split in 1984 just after releasing their now legendary double album Demonstration Tapes.

Debsey continued to play and write throughout the eighties releasing another album with the band, Coming Up Roses, on Billy Bragg’s Utility Records before being asked to join Saint Etienne’s live set up in the early nineties. When Saint Etienne took a sabbatical in 1995, Debsey and guitarist Paul Kelly formed Birdie who would release several singles and three albums.