Tra La La….The Dickies are coming back to Sussex

Sunday 23rd July 2017 was not a good day for yours truly, as I was heading back home from my holiday abroad, I was ill and worst of all, I was going to miss The Dickies playing live.

Thankfully, those lovely concert promoters at We Love The Big Blue Shed have secured a 2018 date in Sussex as part of their forthcoming tour. It’s going to be at the Lewes Con Club on Saturday 4th August and tickets can be purchased HERE.

The Dickies current line-up is made up of Leonard Graves Phillips-Vocals, Stan Lee-Guitar, Ben Seelig-Guitar, Edward Tatar-Thunder Broom and Adam Gomez-Drums.

The band 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 number 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.
So to watch The Dickies live is one fantastic comedy event and so shouldn’t been missed. Grab your Con Club tickets HERE and find out about the band on their Facebook page.