The Dandys arrived on "the scene" with "I Wanna Be Like You" in May 1997. Before it was even released they earned themselves a booking at Reading Festival. This single also introduced The Dandys to the public through The Chart Show. At this time they only played to around twenty people in small venues, and still treated them to a "show" ! They supported Kenickie and The Divine Comedy which started off their enthusiastic following.
Because of their performances and crowd reaction by November 1997 most small venues were full, many sold out ! and they were invited to return immedietley, February 1998 tour.
July 1997 saw the release of their second single "Dirty Weekend" which picked up an extra thousand fans. In August 1997 they had their first festival appearance at Reading, on the Dr Martens stage. The front of the packed crowd were even mouthing the words to their songs ! The band reckon this was one of their favourite shows.
In the latter part of 1997 the Dandys spent their time recording their debut album "Symphonic Screams", with Chris Sheldon (Foo Fighters, Terrorvision, Feeder, etc.). It is a highly accomplished album, with potential tracks to reach the top 10. 1997 ended with a show at the Mean Fiddler 15th Aniversary week in front of an audience with the members of The Bluetones, Dub Star, Manic Street Preachers, Dodgy, Edwyn Collins.
"We wrote it a week before we went into the studio, so it were a bit of a rushed job", "But it came out really well" (Andy and Mike on "You Make Me Want To Scream) Too right it came out well, its a blinder !
They began 1998 with the release of "You Make Me Wanna Scream", which earned them "single of the week" on Virgin Radio and a second performance on the Jack Docherty Show. This dark anthem didn’t endear them to the national music press. Who either don’t like the name of just get confused with that American band The Dandy Warhols :(.
