Nicky And The Dots – Small Wonder Records – 1979

Never Been So Stuck

Linoleum Walk

Brilliant power pop 7″ single from this Brighton based band released on the equally brilliant Small Wonder Records. Very catchy and well worth a listen. Photos courtesy of Simon Woolval.

Not an awful lot of history about this band on the web right now which means I can not cut and paste anything off any relevant sites! But for what its worth Nicky And The Dots were formed late on in 1977 by two art students Nick Dwyer and Chris D’Ouseley. The band were favourably compared to Talking Heads and XTC of that era, 1978.  The band played a fair bit with The Piranhas and Attrix (the band, same name of the record label and of the shop). Nicky And The Dots also had tracks released on the Voltage 78 compilation LP along with The Piranhas and the first Peter And The Test Tube Babies offerings (pre Oi! genre and No Future Records). This LP was on Attrix Records – the best indie shop anywhere on the south coast at this time in the late 1970’s early 1980’s.

I have no idea where the connection with East London’s Small Wonder Records came from as I would have assumed Attrix Records would have or should have released this single, but anyway…Actually thinking about it, the same could be said for Cockney Rejects debut 7″ single ‘Flares And Slippers’ released on Small Wonder Records. Why did this not get released on Terry Murphy’s Bridgehouse Records, a label that were active around the same time of that Cockney Rejects release? Spooky!

An answer to the above riddle came through on the KYPP wire:

“It was asked why a Brighton group were on small wonder and not on Attrix , well being on Attrix was not all hearts and flowers, in fact I was personally told by a number of people in bands that were on the Attrix  LPs, that they were charged for being on there, and the money raised paid for the LPs to be made. I know the two people who hand screen printed the original covers for the first pressing, along with people from most of the bands involved.

There was some sort of promotion going by Small Wonder and I believe they asked for groups to submit songs to be considered for a contract. This led to the Small Wonder showcase gig which included ( if I remember correctly 5 bands ) including Nicky & the Dots, The Cure, Patrick Fitzgerald, The wall ( I think ) and I can’t remember the other one. I travelled up to this on the Dots coach with them, and it was a fantastic night at The Music Machine in London”.

5 comments
  1. Nic
    Nic
    September 9, 2009 at 12:51 am

    Nice choice, Penguin – more good stuff!

    Their Peel session can be listened to here (along with lots of other interesting things):
    http://www.punkbrighton.co.uk/nickd.html

    You can find the ‘Vaultage’ comps over at Mutant Sounds:
    http://mutant-sounds.blogspot.com/2007/01/vavaultage-787980-uk-197819791980.html

    You can also read about ‘The Brighton Scene’ (Chapter 3) in Helen Reddington’s interesting book:
    http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=l5l4PiOfYTcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=helen+reddington#v=onepage&q=&f=false

    Last time I was in Brighton I went to a Rock ‘n’ Roll night which featured a midget Elvis impersonator…who was only topped by Kevin Rowland dressed like one of The Rubettes…

  2. Ian
    Ian
    September 9, 2009 at 9:35 am

    Ahhh..Helen. How about some Chefs

  3. majes
    majes
    November 21, 2009 at 1:51 am

    ‘Why did this not get released on Terry Murphy’s Bridgehouse Records, a label that were active around the same time of that Cockney Rejects release?’

    Maybe he noticed they were nicking gear from other bands, as admitted here…

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7088bmKk4gg

  4. Jim
    Jim
    October 24, 2010 at 11:25 am

    Thanks for this, had never heard the B side prior to now.

  5. gerry molyneaux
    gerry molyneaux
    February 5, 2011 at 1:14 pm

    i have the single and it’s a great song. neverbeenso neverbeenso have i got it right?????????????? great punk pop band. like desperate bicycles, notsensibles, oxy and the morons gone but not forgotten. pity they didnt play dublin in the day.

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