The Doll Squad delivers the wild sounds lead by Joey Bedlam​

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Doll Squad is a band named after the 1973 film by Ted V. Mikels with Tura Satana that was the framework for Charlie’s Angels when a group of female CIA agents perform as assassins against a heartless arch villain with a plan to overthrow the world using their skills in martial arts and guerrilla warfare to confront this evil madman in a good vs. evil action thriller.  The band itself is out of Melbourne, Australia, and is celebrating its tenth anniversary as lead vocalist Joey Henrichmann, aka Joey Bedlam leads the attack.  Her vocals and style take one back to the 60’s and 70’s girl group sound updated with a unique style that sets Doll Squad apart.  Joey’s life is also an interesting trip like an adventure movie comes to life as she and her family escaped communist rule to freedom and to her new home in Australia. They have shared the stages with the likes of Killing Heidi, The Stems, Stray Cats, The Rev Horton Heat, The Horrors, and The 5, 6, 7, 8’s The Street Dogs, The Remains (60s), The Models, and The Angels.  She is joined by band mates Yolanda on guitar, Aleks on bass, Lulu on percussion and baking vocals and Ash on drums.  Their music is garage fueled power pop and will hypnotize your senses.

 

"I had a very interesting life, says Bedlam.   My dad grew up in Transylvania in an orphanage.  He was shipped off to Bulgaria and married my mum. Then when I was four years old the three of us escaped Bulgaria (a communist country) in a car and partially on foot all the way to former Yugoslavia.   The penalty for escape was shooting on site in the area of the border or if found after that life imprisonment and I would have gone to an orphanage.  My parents risked our lives to get to a free country.  That’s why The Sound of Music freaks me out but makes me cry with joy at the same time.  That’s why I am obsessed with America too.  All former Eastern Europeans are!  You grow up very on edge with an experience like that.  You grow up traumatized but you learn determination. Hiding for over 6 months all over Europe before we got to Perth, Australia.  But in those days nobody acknowledged that kind of trauma.  These days there are all sorts of treatment and attention being paid to these types of things not to mention ‘political correctness’ but back then you got on with it in a new country as best you could.  We were tough.  All this accusing people of prejudice around the world and pointing fingers and demanding compensation and not letting the holocaust go…it’s just noise…people need to just get over by now.  It’s a whole new generation.”

 

​“Doll Squad really is different; we don’t just say we are!  We really are preferred by an audience.  90% of our European shows are always sold out making them even more fun.  If I had a dollar for every time someone came up to me after a gig and said ‘’that was really great one of the best gigs I have seen in a long time’’ I’d…”

 

 Despite the fact that Doll Squad was courted briefly by Kim Fowley, they chose to record their second album with Steve Lucas (of legendary Australian band X) at Bakehouse Studios in Melbourne. Making an album is not like buying a designer pair of jeans! You don’t go to some big name producer just to get their ‘name’ on your record. While it was the ultimate compliment to get attention from Kim Fowley, we felt that Australian bands should be utilizing the resources at home. Where is it stated that the further someone is from Australia the better they are at production?

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Doll Squad was the brainchild of Bedlam.  “Essentially Doll Squad is my concept and I have been playing under that name for 10 years now so this year being our 10 year anniversary is a very special year for me and the band.  Most guy bands don’t even last 10 years much less a band like Doll Squad with such a specific image and musical style.  Does anyone know how hard it is to recruit women for this band!  It’s no small feat!   The current line up has pretty much been together since 2007 and it’s the most!  Yolanda on guitar and backing vocals, Aleks on Bass, Lulu on backing vocals and percussion, Ash on drums, me on lead vocals.   Our keyboard player Alice left the band to go back home and we call her “Dorothy” for this reason.  She will come back and do the anniversary shows with us though if all goes well.   I am hoping some of the original members will come and back out a few tunes as well but they are proving hard locate after all these years.” 

 

Bedlam saw an opportunity to form a band in Australia with a style that was not being done by others. “There were not all girl bands in the 60’s music scene in Melbourne and I saw an opportunity.  I was a lot older when I started DollSquad than most people are when they start their first band. How old? That would be telling!  I loved The Pandoras, Daughters of Eve, The Brood etc. all from the USA.  I also loved Shocking Blue who are my all time favourite band.  I ‘’inherited’’ the records left in the house that my parents bought when I was about 5 years old.  The guy Alfred Meli had great stuff and wrote his name on each of his records.  There was stuff by The Argyles and The Tokens among others.  When I started Doll Squad I wanted the band to be tough and sexy not cute and girly.  I wanted to blend the ugly energy of the early The Rolling Stones with the ethereal and beautiful vocal harmonies of The Chiffons or The Crystals.  I guess that’s “fusion” in today talk haha.”

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Doll Squad stands apart from the mainstream of music and takes one to another dimension in music.  “I am not sure how I guess it’s a combination of the image, the sound, the lyrics and the song compositions.   I think it’s a combination of elements that contributes to this sensation.   We are very sub culture orientated.  I never wanted to be a massive mainstream band.  That’s not want Doll Squad is about.  We are about niche, do it yourself, secessionist, exclusive not inclusive ethics.  We openly support similar bands, individuals and organizations’ that defy modern day popular culture.

 

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