In the late 70s Dennis Butler, Fred Rascon and Rick Hartwell go to the same high school, El Cajon Valley High (in San Diego). Dennis and Fred live next door to each other and are best friends. Fred is a naturally gifted guitarist, and he gives Rick pointers for playing bass in exchange for motorcycle driving lessons. 'In 1977/78 Dennis started saving up for a drum kit,' Rick remembers. 'Eventually a band formed with a female lead singer. Dennis met this girl, Dawn Crosby, and she had a guitarist friend named Eric. So Dennis, Eric, Dawn, and I started a band called Majesty, with Fred making guest appearances and giving us music support. We played a few gigs in the weekend, on parties, and senior ditch day kinda stuff. Mostly covers of Black Sabbath, Zeppelin, Ramones etc., with maybe one or two original songs. Dennis and Dawn got involved quite soon, which was a volatile relationship. The band grew popular and we were getting gig invites outside of our local area.'
Early 1980, Rick has to quit the band in order not to flunk school. Dawn is active in the London, England band First Attack before both she and Dennis pop up in Allies by mid 1983.
Not a lot is known about First Attack. Quoted from Steve Jacobs, who shared a squat in Lambeth with Dawn in 1983 and roadied for a variety of rock acts in 1982/83:
I had been working as a roadie/stage tech with various new bands in the London area and one of these bands (Hunter) had recently split up. The drummer from that band (Simon Giddens) contacted me and told me of a new band (First Attack MK 1) he was working with that had a female singer. They were doing some studio work and had a few gigs lined up and he asked if I would be willing to do some work for them. I went with him to their next rehearsal (in a pub basement in London) mainly out of curiosity. Most of the female rock singers around that time were doing Bonnie Tyler type covers or worse so I wasn't that hopeful. Then I met Dawn! Not only could she sing but she could sing with balls, in fact I told her shortly afterwards that she was the only woman I knew that had bollocks. They ran through a few covers and then did a track called "Mission Impossible" this was when Dawn started to show some of the potential she had. I was working with quite a few bands at this time, mostly hard rock, but thrash didn't exist then so there was nothing I could draw a comparison to. The way Dawn attacked the music was stunning. I don't think that any of the other band members really knew what was happening. I was friends with the DJs on a London pirate radio station at the time and I took a copy of a couple of their tracks to them to try and get the band some air time. They put "Mission" on air almost as soon as they heard it. It was broadcast almost every week for the rest of the year. The band was only just forming and like I already said Dawn was very much out of the ordinary. The rock/punk thing was only just starting to happen even though Punk had been around for ages by then. Most of the time Dawn and I just hung out with the bands playing in London. We used to go to an underground club in Chalk Farm called the "Funny Farm" where we got drunk with whoever was there. Big names in the rock scene at the time but it was just somewhere we could go without being hassled. The odd impromtu jam session with Dawn taking center stage. She was building contacts but not doing much in the way of live work. I think the biggest gig they did was in Basildon (can't remember the name of the club though) where they played to about 200 people.'
Allies is the band that Dennis Butler and Dawn Crosby are in from June 1983 to July 1984. The band only releases one demo. Other members are Sport Thompson on guitar and Scott McDaniel on bass.
The story continues with Détente here.