Stray Dags

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The Stray Dags, nicknamed The Dags, were an Australian all-female post-punk Australian band. Formed in Sydney in 1979, the band were very successful in the independent music scene, and toured Australian capital cities as well as playing frequently in Sydney. They released one single, "Self Attack" / "Confessions" (1981), and one self-produced album, Lemons Alive!, through their production company Ewe Wave Music.

History

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The Stray Dags, a musical group which formed in Sydney in 1979, are variously described as "a lesbian rock band"[1] and "feminist post-punk band with reggae and ska influences".[2] The name is a play on the phrase "stray dogs", with the substituted word, dag being Australian slang deriving from "daglock",[a] [4] often used affectionately as a term describing someone dressed untidily, shabbily, or unfashionably,[5] but also used derogatorily, as a fool.[3]

The founding members of the band were Tina Harris, Mystery Carnage, and Ludo McFerran, who got together and started at the Women's Warehouse. They could borrow equipment and there were regular cabarets.[3]

The Dags' first live performance was at the Toucan Cafe in the inner-Sydney suburb of Glebe, when the cafe held a week of women's music. They only played three songs, two of which were written by Ludo McFerran.[3] The songs included "Jenny the Jillaroo" and "Elsie Blues", the later about the about the Elsie Women's Refuge,[2] which was the first women's refuge in Australia, established in 1974 by Anne Summers and Bessie Guthrie.[6]

The band had a weekly gig at the Sussex Hotel on Thursday nights, and performed at monthly "rent dances" to support the Women's Warehouse at the Haymarket. They also toured to the capital cities of Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra, and Melbourne.[2] Many of their gigs were played at gay and lesbian dances that were "one of the main forms of LGBT organisation" at the time.[4] In Adelaide, they played four gigs over June one year, including at Norwood Town Hall and Uni Bar, with supporting bands.[7]

On Saturday 9 August 1980 they appeared at Glebe Town Hall in Sydney, along with Wimmins Circus and Hens' Teeth.[8]

In January 1982 The Dags performed at "Frock Rock", a women's music event that was part of the Sydney Festival. The event was staged at both Sydney Town Hall and Petersham Town Hall, and included musicians from Sydney, Adelaide, and Melbourne.[2]

On 18 September 1982, they performed at Melbourne State College, along with Right Furniture.[9]

The Stray Dags disbanded in 1984.[1][2]

Description

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Members of the Stray Dags were:[2]

  • Tina Harris (vocals/guitar)
  • Chris Burke (drums) (died 2016)
  • Celeste Howden (bass)
  • Mystery Carnage (vocals/percussion)
  • Ludo McFerran (saxophone)

A fan described the band's sound as being an "original, quirky blend of blues reggae funk pop and disco... [with a] great sense of self-parody and wry humour";[10] however, some of their songs, such as "Tension" and "Heterosexual Jungle" are intentionally angry.[3]

Songs and releases

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The Stray Dags' most well-known track (although not to mainstream audiences) was "Self Attack".[11] The song, described by a fan as "an upbeat disco tune with a driving bass line", was released as a vinyl 45rpm single in 1981,[10][12] with "Confessions" on the B Side. [13] The lyrics of "Self Attack" have been interpreted as "a feminist commentary on how women 'attack' their body surgically via plastic surgery, and also, for those in the know, a somewhat indirect and sly dig toward radical feminists into self-defence".[11]

Their only album, Lemons Alive!, was released in 1983 and reached the top spot on the independent music chart.[11][2] Tracks on Lemons Alive! are:[14][10][2][3]

A-side:

  • Cradle Song
  • Tension
  • Love Songs
  • Let's Have A Party
  • Avon Calling

B-side:

  • Intimidation
  • Black + Blue
  • Het Jungle
  • Six Months
  • Rude Girls

Their album was self-produced, by their outfit Ewe Wave Music, after finding women with production and sound engineering skills (Lesley Wood, Sharon Jakovsky, and Kathy Sport[14]) to assist.[3]

Both the single and the album were played by 2JJ (now Triple J) and community radio stations.[2]

The song "Self Attack" features on the soundtrack released in conjunction with the 2020 Australian documentary feature film directed by Catherine Dwyer about the history of the Women's Liberation Movement of that era, along with songs by Toxic Shock, Judy Small, Hens' Teeth, Clitoris Band, Robyn Archer, and others.[15][16]

Recognition

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The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia describes the Stray Dags as "one of the most successful band of the women's music scene in the early 1980s".[11]

A 1980 poster by Leonie Lane of the Lucifoil Poster Collective, created in the Tin Sheds (Sydney University Art Workshop) in 1980, is held by the National Gallery of Australia. In the foreground is a flock of sheep, to one side a building with "Wimmins Warehouse" on it, and across the middle in large letters, "Stray Dags".[17]

Several posters relating to the Dags are held at the Jessie Street National Women's Library in Sydney.[18][9][19] One of these, designed by Anne Sheridan and Marla Guppy, reads "Stray Dags : my auntie went to Sydney Australia & all I got was a Stray Dags record. Ewe Wave music!"[19]

Reunion

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As a fundraiser for film project Rock On With Your Frock On on Saturday 28 November 2009, a one-off reunion of the band, performing as the headline act after a number of other bands, was held at Red Rattler Theatre in Marrickville, Sydney. The film, by Kathy Sport, was planned to be a documentary about Australian women musicians.[b] Members of the audience had travelled from Canberra, Adelaide, and Melbourne. The MC for the event, titled "Dagarama", was Fran Kelly, and their performance was described by an attendee as "an energetic and electric hour-long set". Erica Lewis played drums for the night. The performance was filmed.[10]

Footnotes

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  1. ^ "the grotty bits of wool around a sheep's bottom which can spell disaster for a sheep.[3]
  2. ^ It seems that the film never got made (website now defunct),[20] but writer/ director Kathy Sport wrote a PhD thesis called "Women's music in Australia: space, place, bodies, performance" at Macquarie University in 2015.[21]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Stray Dags". The Dictionary of Sydney. Archived from the original on 24 May 2025. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Stray Dags". History of Australian Music from 1960 until 2000. 22 February 2021. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g McFerran, Ludo (30 November 1983). "Ewe wave music from the Stray Dags". Tribune. No. 2311. New South Wales, Australia. p. 17. Retrieved 13 November 2025 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. ^ a b Clews, Colin (13 February 2014). "1980. Music: Stray Dags". Gay in the 80s - A personal account of LGBT life in the 1980s in the UK, USA and Australia. Archived from the original on 9 July 2025. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  5. ^ "daggy, daggiest, daggier- WordWeb dictionary definition". WordWeb Online Dictionary and Thesaurus. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  6. ^ "Elsie Women's Refuge (From 1974– )". Australian Women's Register. 14 September 2023. Archived from the original on 22 June 2025. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  7. ^ "Details for: Stray Dags over Adelaide" (library catalogue entry + image). Jessie Street National Women's Library catalogue. 16 April 2015. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  8. ^ "Details for: Wimmins Circus August 7 Shopfront Theatre; August 9 Glebe Town Hall; 10 Women's Warehouse" (library catalogue entry + image). Jessie Street National Women's Library catalogue. 16 April 2015. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  9. ^ a b "Women's dance: 'Stray Dags' and 'Right Furniture'" (library catalogue entry + image). Jessie Street National Women's Library catalogue (in Estonian). Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  10. ^ a b c d "Happy Punter" (December 2009). "News: Raising funds for the film". frockrockfilm.com. Archived from the original on 10 September 2013.
  11. ^ a b c d Henderson, Nick (2017). "Feminist rockers you've never heard about". National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. Archived from the original on 18 May 2025. Retrieved 13 November 2025. This article was first published in 2017. Some details were updated in 2023
  12. ^ Grose, Ken. "Collection guide: N-T". Australian Popular Music Catalogue – Vinyl Records (PDF). National Film and Sound Archive. p. 450. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  13. ^ "Self Attack- Stray Dags". National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. Archived from the original on 22 May 2025. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  14. ^ a b "Stray Dags – Lemons Alive! – Vinyl (LP, Album), 1983 [r4608372]". Discogs. 7 April 2025. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  15. ^ Martin, Josh (6 November 2020). "'Brazen Hussies' compilation album released, featuring rare '70s-'80s Australian feminist music". NME. Archived from the original on 12 November 2025. Retrieved 12 November 2025.
  16. ^ "Brazen Hussies". Chapter Music. 6 November 2020. Archived from the original on 18 April 2024. Retrieved 12 November 2025.
  17. ^ "Leonie Lane, b.1955" (poster image). National Gallery of Australia. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  18. ^ "Results of search for '"stray dags"' › Jessie Street National Women's Library catalogue". Jessie Street National Women's Library catalogue. 16 April 2015. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  19. ^ a b "Stray Dags : my auntie went to Sydney Australia & all I got was a Stray Dags record. Ewe Wave music! / [designed and printed by Anne Sheridan and Marla Guppy] c. 1980" (library catalogue record + image). Jessie Street National Women's Library catalogue (in Estonian). Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  20. ^ "Rock On With Your Frock On". frockrockfilm.com. 8 December 2009. Archived from the original on 7 February 2011. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
  21. ^ Sport, Kathy. Women's music in Australia: space, place, bodies, performance (Thesis). Macquarie University. doi:10.25949/19435682.V1. Retrieved 13 November 2025.
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