American punk legends The Dickies have announced a rare Brighton gig. They will be playing live on Wednesday 26th July at The Arch on Brighton seafront courtesy of Hidden Talent promoters. Support will come from Slackrr. Grab your tickets HERE.
The Dickies formed in 1977 after current band member Stan Lee and former band member Billy Club witnessed a gig by The Damned. Having noted that, you can understand exactly how these Californian guys adopted their humour after seeing Captain Sensible in action. The Dickies went on to be the first California punk band to appear on network television in the USA and the first California punk band to be signed to a major record label, namely A&M Records.
They released their first studio album in 1978 entitled ‘The Incredible Shrinking Dickies’, which contained a cover version of Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’ and their 100mph version of ‘Eve Of Destruction’ which had been made famous by Barry McGuire.
In 1979 they unleashed their second album ‘Dawn Of The Dickies’, which included their revved up version of The Moody Blues classic ‘Nights In White Satin’ which they crammed into less than three minutes.
The Dickies material is mainly composed of self-written compositions, however they are often best remembered for their wonderful version of the Banana Splits theme tune ‘Banana Splits (The Tra La La Song)’ which peaked here in the UK official singles chart at No. 7. Obviously it was pressed on yellow vinyl and their previous 7” single which superbly massacred ‘Silent Night’ and ‘The Sound Of Silence’ was pressed in white vinyl.
The Dickies became known for their campy and humorous live performances, which fit with their influences like The Ramones, who they opened with several times.
The Dickies line-up when they played in Sussex a few years back consisted of Leonard Graves Phillips (vocals), Stan Lee (guitar), Ben Seelig (guitar), Edward Tatar (Thunder Broom) and Adam Gomez (drums).
