Rockabilly Roots

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Dibbs Preston remembers when it was a matter of broken teeth and bloody knuckles.

London. 1977. Punk rock was heating up the city like a grease fire — violently, at times.

But not everyone was down with the dudes with safety pins in their noses, namely, the impeccably coiffed rockabilly cats who dressed like Jerry Lee Lewis and who didn’t want to be bothered by a bunch of kids with bad skin and worse manners.

“You had these older Teddy boys (stylish British rockabilly fans), maybe about 30 years old, and then you had these punk rockers who were definitely teenagers, or in their early 20s,” recalls singer/guitarist Preston, who came of age in this cauldron of rock ‘n’ roll combat. “There was a little bit of friction. They used to have gang fights, just like they did a generation earlier with the mods and the rockers, which you’ll see in ‘Quadrophenia.’ If you just switch those over to Teddy boys and punks, it would be the same story.”

But Preston pledged allegiance to both parties. He had grown up idolizing rockabilly forebears like Johnny Cash and Gene Vincent, but it was punk that got him going to shows and making the scene for the first time.

His first serious band, influential, neo-rockabilly cult favorites Levi and the Rockats, was steeped in the sounds of Bill Haley, but brought the snarling energy of curled-lip Londoners like Generation X and the Damned.

“So far as I was concerned, I loved punk rock and I also loved rockabilly,” Preston says. “So really, Levi and the Rockats was like a prototype punkabilly band. We were in London, and the year we got together, ’77, you know what was happening: the Sex Pistols, the Clash, all the great bands. That’s when I first started going out to clubs, to see punk. But, on the other hand, there’s always been a real strong Teddy boy/rock ‘n’ roll/rockabilly stronghold in the U.K. Always. It’s as if it never went away.”

With bands such as the Rockats leading the way, the U.K. was ground zero for a strong rockabilly revival in the late ’70s, when a new generation of adrenalized acts updated the genre with an emphasis on torque and ‘tude in addition to the classic template of big walking bass lines and squealing, reverbed guitars.

It was in Britain that nouveau rockabilly bands such as the Stray Cats first found an audience, and the Rockats would ride atop the crest of this second wave of acts who modernized the genre.

Though they never became household names like Brian Setzer’s crew, the Rockats earned their share of notoriety, appearing on “The Merv Griffin Show” and “American Bandstand” and touring the world several times over.

After the band’s namesake, Levi Dexter, left the group in 1979, Preston took over as lead singer, and the band would continue on until the late ’80s, when ebbing interest in the rockabilly scene caused many acts of that ilk to fade.

After spending some time as the proprietor of a haberdashery in Ixtapa, Mexico, Preston eventually relocated to the Philadelphia area and launched a new band, the hard twangin’ Detonators.

“I had no doubt that I’d be touring and playing again, but I didn’t quite know how I’d do it,” Preston says. “I moved back to London, and the original Rockats were all over the world, so it was very difficult to get back together. We’d do, like, two tours of Japan a year, so we were still playing, but I really wanted to do something a bit more serious again. The Rockats have a good history, it’s a very influential band, but I couldn’t get anywhere with it, for some reason. Everywhere was a dead end, it seemed. So I thought I’d have to update my sound and my approach and really go for it this time.”

Incorporating a slightly rootsier edge to the revved-up rockabilly that Preston is known for, The Detonators’ self-titled debut, released earlier this year, looks westward with a dusty swing that re-imagines Hank Williams as a slick-haired hepcat.

“This has got more of the traditional country element in it,” Preston explains. “As you sort of refine your sound and your style, you take bits of what you like, and this band has got more of a country rockabilly element in it. We can do a Buck Owens song and make it our own. Not bad for a Londoner, eh?”

Now on tour opening for old friend Setzer, Preston sounds grateful to be back on the road again. Since his emergence with the Rockats, rockabilly has become a full-fledged culture, undergoing something of a rebirth in the ’90s, when renewed interest in the genre made it easier for guys like Preston to get back in the game.

Nowadays, he’s part of something far bigger than himself or his band, and best of all, no one has to throw a fist to make his point any more.

“People want a lifestyle, they want to be a part of something,” Preston says of rockabilly culture. “It’s not necessarily pop music or top-of-the-charts type of music any more, it’s almost like an underground thing, but it’s great. It’s a very healthy scene. You’ve got the fashion aspect of it and the tattooing and all that,” he adds, “but it still all comes down to the music.”

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0476.