D U M M I E S - Album
A day in the life of the Dummies
The Booklet - background information included in the CD version:
Who are The Dummies and why are they semi-legendary? One question at
a time... the drummer was a fellow named Frank Lea from Wolverhampton,
and everything else - that's record production, songwriting, lead vocals,
guitar and bass and a lot more besides - was the work of his brother,
James, perhaps better known as Jimmy Lea, bass player with Slade and
co-writer of all their hits (well over thirty since 1971 and still not
out of breath). Frank was unemployed around 1980, but fired by both the
energy of punk rock and the exciting growth of small independent 'do it
yourself' record labels, yet unconvinced of the authenticity of much of
what he was hearing, he decided to prove that any independent label
could get a hit record if it was properly promoted and marketed and not
'out of stock'.
Jimmy Lea hat written several songs like 'It ain't love, it ain't bad'
(from 1977 'Whatever happened to Slade?' album) and 'Nobody's fool' (the
title track of Slade's 1976 album), and Frank ultimately convinced him
to re-record them in demo form and play all the instruments except the
drums. The initial idea was for a single, 'When the lights are out'
(originally from Slade's 1974 album, 'Old, new, borrowed & blue',
on which Jim Lea hat sung lead), which was recorded in four hours at
Portland Studio (owned by Chas Chandler, Slade's manager at the time).
Frank formed an independent label, Cheapskate Records, simply (and only)
to release the single, and after getting 1.000 copies pressed, he
borrowed one of Jimmy's cars and spent a few weeks promoting the record
on a national radio tour of Britain. He had no previous experience of
the complexities of such an undertaking, yes succeeded in covering
virtually all the country - as he recalls, 'I went from Radio Clyde in
Scotland to Plymouth Sound in Devon'. The single was playlisted on
numerous regional stations, featured in 'Record Business' magazine's
playlist chart for three months and was chosen as BBC Radio One disc
jockey Paul Burnett's Record of The Week on the national network, where
it was played for 12 weeks.
Frank placed the single with two distributors, but the closest it came
to the UK chart was bubbling under. Nevertheless, he had proved, despite
problems with distribution, that a good song can make the charts whoever
it's by and whatever label it's on. That's why he chose the anonymous but
disturbing name of the Dummies for the Cheapskate label's first (and
intended as only) release.
The scheme hadn't quite worked, but Frank and Jimmy (and Chas Chandler,
no doubt surprised at the relative success enjoyed by this throwaway
record) decided to have another go, but this time with a song specially
written for The Dummies by Slade's highly successful songwriting team of
Jim Lea & Noddy Holder. That was 'Didn't you use to used to be you'
(which appeared in a special bag picturing a three year old - in fact,
Jim Lea's daughter - wearing headphones) on which Louise 'Lou' Lea,
Jim's wife, sang back vocals. The single went straight on BBC Radio
One's 'A' playlist (generally reserved for expected Top 5 hits) and was
also regularly rotated on many ILR stations, yet distribution (by yet
another so called specialist in that field) once again let it down,
although it once again peaked just outside the lower end of the chart
after two months. By that time, it's promotion budget was exhausted,
although Dave Robinson of Stiff Records, at the time the hottest
Independent label in the UK, contacted Frank and offered to take the
single on, but negotiations broke down.
After painstakingly completing the single, which was sub-titled 'One hit
wonder', Frank and Jim used the studio time remaining on that day to
record a string of swift cover versions of Jim's under-rated compositions.
Frank felt that his brother's songs might not have been getting the
attention they deserved because Slade's lead vocalist wa (and remains)
the unmistakeable Neville 'Noddy' Holder, whose vocal style tends not to
encourage cover versions. However, US hard rock band Quiet Riot would
score two US hit singles ('Cum on feel the noize', which made the Top 5,
and 'Mama weer all crazee now' in 1983/4), so Frank was quite obviously
correct in his belief that Slade songs could be covered and become hits
for other acts.
The experiment ended at that point, as Frank Lea and Chas Chandler
became partners in Cheapskate Records, to which Slade signed. Cheapskate
also released a major hit by Sue Wilkinson, 'You've gotta be a hustler
if you wanna get on'. Chandler soon afterwards severed his ties with
Slade and Cheapskate, which left Frank Lea with quite enough on his
plate without trying to make points about the hit potential of his
brother's songs. Frank went on to launch another label, Speed, which
released a hit single by John Dummer & Helen April and a 'Best Of' album
by Birmingham rock hero Roy Wood which strongly charted. Ten years after
The Dummies were finally pacified (ho, ho), Frank Lea was somewhat taken
aback to discover that original copies of the two Dummies singles hat
become collectable to the point where a copy in fair condition (like the
hundred in Frank's garage) were changing hands for the price of an album,
mainly (but apparently not exclusively) because Jimmy Lea was on it,
Slade's fan base being particularly avid collectors of group-related
merchandise. So these are the complete works of The Dummies, a mouthful
of record collection history. Suck them and they won't come in your
mouth.