Note: This is one of a series of posts in The DFFD Blog Goes Girl Crazy! special — a monthlong commemoration of the 35th anniversary of the release of ‘The Dictators Go Girl Crazy!’
I guess it was Spring of ’75. My friends and I would take trips to hit up the import racks at Listen Records in Glasgow’s Cambridge Street. 
Something in the deepest recesses of my mind tells me that I read about The Dictators Go Girl Crazy in Hot Wacks magazine. This was an Edinburgh based maga(fan)zine run by a guy by the name of Bert Muirhead who also had an amazing record store called Ezy Rider. Being a huge BÖC fan and ergo interested in what Sandy Pearlman and Murray Krugman were up to, it was a natural gravitation thing.
In those days records wore their hearts on their sleeves. Literally. There was no question of this being anything less than a belter. I didn’t even listen to any of it on the cans in the store. Four of us bought a copy each, Jack Seath (RIP) , Bert McMillan, Roy Litts and myself. All it took was a few seconds for our faith to be completely and utterly justified.
The author, Lindsay Hutton, with Andy Shernoff, at Andy's place in September 1983
You often hear about how a record changed somebody’s life, well this one certainly stitched mine up a treat. I have never basked in the sun in Florida but I did (and subsequently with the author’s blessing) appropriate the title “The Next Big Thing” to be that of my own antidote to what passed for punk rock out this way at the time. At the time, the expression hadn’t entered the cliché hall of fame but the crunching riff to the song certainly struck a chord with anybody who came into contact with it. The fuel injected legend aspect didn’t slouch none either.
Over the years, I took up the mission to spread the gospel far and wide. It’s been pretty successful. Maybe not in terms of them becoming multi-platinum but I know enjoy being part of an extended global family that recognises just how important that first shot across the bows was. I feel sorry for people who say they don’t “get” the band but it’s a deficiency that is ultimately treatable.
And that’s about it. I could rattle on for paragraphs but I think I’ll just leave it right there. When the band last played in Spain (2008) they were better than ever. I hope that somewhere down the pike it might all happen again. Anyway, this album was the bridge between then and now. Too punk for the metal crowd and too metal (?) for the alleged punks, it was just too sophisticated for both because it was rock’n’roll and people didn’t understand that.
They still don’t to some degree but bollocks to ‘em.
— Lindsay Hutton
Lindsay Hutton started a fanzine called ‘The Next Big Thing’ in April 1977. Taking its name and inspiration from the opening cut on ‘The Dictators Go Girl Crazy,’ the title has since morphed into a blog (www.tnbt.co.uk). More …
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