Dexys Midnight Runners

Dexys Midnight Runners (currently called Dexys)^[1] are an English pop band with soul influences, who achieved their major success in the early to mid-1980s. They are best known for their songs "Come On Eileen" and "Geno", both of which peaked at No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart, as well as six other top-20 singles. However, in the U.S., due to lacklustre promotion, Dexys' only hit was "Come On Eileen", which gave the band an undeserved image as "one-hit wonders".

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Dexys went through numerous personnel changes over the course of three albums and thirteen singles, with only singer/songwriter/co-founder Kevin Rowland remaining in the band through all of the transitions and only Rowland and "Big" Jim Paterson (trombone) appearing on all of the albums. The band broke up in 1987, with Rowland becoming a solo artist. Dexys was reformed by Rowland in the 2000s, with a few members from the band's original lineups re-joining, including Paterson. In 2012 the band released their fourth album.

Career

1978–79: Foundation and first single

Kevin Rowland (vocals, guitar, at the time going under the pseudonym Carlo Rolan)^[2] and Kevin "Al" Archer (vocals, guitar), both previously of the Killjoys, founded the band in 1978 in Birmingham, England. Rowland had written a Northern Soul-style song that the two of them sang, "Tell Me When My Light Turns Green", which became the first Dexys "song",^[3] and they named the band after Dexedrine, a brand of dextroamphetamine popularly used as a recreational drug among Northern Soul fans at the time.^[2] The "midnight runners" referred to the energy the Dexedrine gave, enabling one to dance all night. The band was recruited as a full-time job, as Rowland said, "Anyone joining Dexys had to give up their job and rehearse all day long. . . . We had nothing to lose and felt that what we were doing was everything."^[3] "Big" Jim Paterson (trombone), Geoff "JB" Blythe (saxophone, previously of Geno Washington's Ram Jam Band), Steve "Babyface" Spooner (alto saxophone), Pete Saunders (keyboard), Pete Williams (bass) and John Jay (drums) formed the first line-up of the band, which began playing live at the end of 1978.^[4]

By summer 1979, Bobby "Jnr" Ward replaced Jay on drums.^[4] Clash manager Bernard Rhodes then signed them and sent them into the studio to record a single, "Burn It Down", which Rhodes renamed to "Dance Stance".^[2][3] In response to Rhodes' criticism of Rowland's singing style, Rowland developed a "more emotional" sound, influenced by General Johnson of the Holland-Dozier-Holland band The Chairmen of the Board.^[5]

As a result of a series of dates opening for The Specials, who wore suits on stage to create an image, Rowland decided that the band needed its own distinct look.^[5] Borrowing from an outfit that Paterson had worn to rehearsals,^[5] Dexys subsequently dressed in donkey jackets or leather coats and woolly hats, and had a look described as "straight out of De Niro's Mean Streets".^[2] Rowland said of the band's sound and look in January 1980: "we didn't want to become part of anyone else's movement. We'd rather be our own movement".^[2] A unified image became very important to the group, with Rowland commenting "We wanted to be a group that looked like something ... a formed group, a project, not just random."^[6]

"Dance Stance", which Rhodes produced, was released on the independent Oddball Records, which Rhodes owned, and which was distributed by EMI.^[4] Although it was named "single of the week" by Sounds,^[2] it stalled at number 40 in the British charts,^[4] which EMI said was due to Rhodes' poor production.^[3] As a result, Dexys fired Rhodes and signed directly to EMI, and EMI immediately put Pete Wingfield in charge of their production.^[3] Both Saunders and Ward left the band, to be replaced by Andy Leek (keyboards) and Andy "Stoker" Growcott (drums).^[4]

1980: Searching for the Young Soul Rebels and first band split

Building on the unexpected success of "Dance Stance" (aka "Burn It Down"), Dexys' next single, "Geno" – about Geno Washington – became a British Number One in 1980.^[3] It featured the band's "Late Night Feelings" imprint on the single, which became a trademark of the band's records on EMI.^[4] Rowland wrote about Washington as he had seen one of his performances aged 11 with his brother.^[6] The success of the song prompted Washington to make a return to live performance, but it also prompted the departure of Leek, who gave his reasons for leaving as "Really hating being famous all of a sudden ... Just because I've been on Top of the Pops doesn't mean I should get any more respect. I didn't want people asking for my autograph all of the time."^[7] Pete Saunders returned to the band temporarily, replacing Leek, to record their debut album.^[4]

Dexys' debut LP, Searching for the Young Soul Rebels, which featured "Geno", was released in July 1980.^[4] The label of the album also included the band's "Late Night Feelings" imprint, and the album's sleeve featured a photograph of a Belfast Catholic boy carrying his belongings after moving from his home during the Troubles; the Irish-descended Rowland explained that "I wanted a picture of unrest. It could have been from anywhere but I was secretly glad that it was from Ireland."^[6] Of the album's title, Rowland said "I don't know ... I just liked the sound of it, really."^[6] Of the songs on the album, only two ("Geno" and "There, There, My Dear") were written by Rowland and Archer together; producer Pete Wingfield hadn't liked Rowland's lyrics on their third co-composition ("Keep It") and had instead turned those lyrics into a separate song ("Love Part One"); Blythe had written new lyrics for the version of "Keep It" on the album.^[8] The same month, Rowland imposed a press embargo on the band; instead, Dexys would take out ads in the music papers explaining the band's position on various issues.^[2] This was a response to some less than complimentary opinions from some music press writers;^[3] for example, the NME's Mark Cordery accused the band of "emotional fascism" and described their music as a perversion of soul music with "no tenderness, no sex, no wit, no laughter".^[6]

After "There, There, My Dear" became the band's second Rowland-Archer top-10 single, Saunders was replaced by Mick Talbot (ex-The Merton Parkas on keyboards.^[4] For the next single, recorded after a couple months of touring, Rowland insisted on re-recording Archer's music for "Keep It" with new lyrics that he had written, which was now called "Keep It Part Two (Inferiority Part One)", over EMI's objections.^[4] It was a failure, and five of the band members quit,^[4] angered over continual personality problems with Rowland, as well as Rowland's policy of not speaking to the music press.^[3] Archer and Paterson both stayed in Dexys at first, but then Archer also decided to leave,^[3] which left Dexys with just two members: Rowland and Paterson, whom Rowland referred to as "the Celtic soul brothers" (in reference to Paterson's Scottish background and Rowland's Irish background).^[9]

Archer (and Leek) eventually formed The Blue Ox Babes, while the other departing members—Blythe, Spooner, Williams, "Stoker", and Talbot—formed The Bureau, which Wingfield continued to produce.

1981: The Projected Passion Revue

Rowland and Paterson chose to continue Dexys, which first involved days of writing new material,^[3] and then adding Kevin "Billy" Adams (guitar/banjo), Seb Shelton (drums, formerly of Secret Affair), Mickey Billingham (keyboard), Brian Maurice Brummitt (who dropped his last name for his stage name, alto saxophone), Paul Speare (tenor saxophone) and Steve Wynne (bass).^[4] This new lineup also adopted a new look that included hooded tops, boxing boots, and pony tails.^[6] Along with the new image, Rowland brought in a fitness regime, which included working out together and running as a group, Rowland commenting "The togetherness of running along together just gets ... that fighting spirit going".^[6] The group would also take part in group exercise sessions before performances, and drinking before shows was strictly forbidden.^[6]

By the time the new band's first single "Plan B", produced by Alan Shacklock instead of Wingfield, was released in March 1981, the band were in dispute with EMI, claiming that as their contract option had not been picked up by the company, they were no longer under contract; they asked, without success, that EMI not release the single.^[2] Later in March 1981, an ad appeared in which Rowland stated that the previous members of the band had "hatched a plot to throw Kevin out and still carry on under the same name". It also cited Rowland's suggestion that "they might learn new instruments" as a reason for their displeasure.^[2] The ad announced that Dexys had been working on a new live venture, "The Midnight Runners Projected Passion Revue".^[2]

In April, Dexys succeeded in gaining their release from EMI, and in June they signed by Mercury Records, where Dexys remained until their breakup in 1987 (and where Rowland then remained as a solo artist into the 1990s).^[4] Dexys' first single for Mercury, "Show Me", produced by Tony Visconti. was released in July 1981 and reached No. 16 in the UK.^[4] The label switch was followed by a session for Richard Skinner's BBC Radio 1 show in which the band previewed tracks that would be reworked later on Too-Rye-Ay.^[2] Wynne was sacked by the group at this point, to be replaced by Mick Gallick (whom Rowland gave the stage name "Giorgio Kilkenny") on bass.^[10] Music journalist Paolo Hewitt commented about this version of Dexys: "Dexys wouldn't make a record unless they thought it was great. And they wouldn't play a gig unless they thought they were gonna be great."^[10]

Around this time, Archer played Rowland demos of Archer's new group, The Blue Ox Babes, which featured, in Rowland's words, "a Tamla-style beat with violins".^[3] The violins had been played by a Birmingham Conservatoire classical violin student named Helen Bevington. Rowland's first idea was to get the horn players to also play strings, as he had discussed in the March interview (with Speare on viola, which he had played while in school, and Paterson and Maurice on cello), and they contributed strings to the third single with the new lineup, "Liars A to E", produced by Neil Kernon, which was released in October 1981.^[4] In November, the group played a three-night stand at The Old Vic in London, with the horn section again doubling on strings. The Old Vic shows attracted unexpectedly rave reviews in the press, although these concerts were not recorded. Rowland said of these shows, "Those three nights at the Old Vic were all I wanted to say in '81."^[10]

Dexys' 1981 recordings, including all three singles (both A-sides and B-sides) as well as three tracks from the BBC appearance and tracks from a live show aired on BBC Radio 1, were released by Dexys on CD in 2007 as The Projected Passion Revue.^[4]

1982-84: Too-Rye-Ay, stardom, and turnover

As Dexys prepared to record their first album for Mercury, Rowland decided that he needed more proficient string players to achieve the sound he envisioned. He sent Speare to invite Bevington to join Dexys,^[10] which she agreed to do, and Rowland gave her the Irish-sounding stage name of Helen O'Hara.^[9] Rowland also asked her to recruit two other violinists; she brought fellow students Steve Shaw and Roger Huckle, whom Rowland renamed as Steve Brennan and Roger MacDuff, and Rowland named the violin section "The Emerald Express". However, the need to rearrange all the songs for both strings and horns left the brass section of Paterson and Maurice (and to a lesser extent Speare) feeling that their role in the band had diminished. Thus, just prior to the recording sessions, Paterson and Maurice quit.^[11] Rowland was able to persuade them to remain in Dexys long enough to record the next album .^[10] Shortly thereafter, Speare also joined their departure.^[10]

This fractured line-up recorded Too-Rye-Ay in early 1982 with producers Rowland, Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley,. The album featured a hybrid of soul and Celtic folk, similar to Archer's new direction. All of the post-breakup singles were re-arranged and re-recorded with the new lineup. The new sound was accompanied by the band's third new look, with the band attired in dungarees, scarves, leather waistcoats, and what was described as "a generally scruffy right-off-the-farm look", or "a raggle-taggle mixture of gypsy, rural Irish and Steinbeck Okie".^[2][6][12] Rowland jokingly said of the new image: "These are my best clothes. Again it just feels right for the music. Everybody else is dressing up sort of straight-laced and pretty down-to-earth and we come in wearing these and it's like, y'know here we are, a bit of hoedowning is even possible".^[2]

The first single, "The Celtic Soul Brothers" (cowritten by Rowland and Paterson with Mickey Billingham), which was released before the album, reached number 45 on the UK charts.^[13] To launch the album, the band performed a live BBC Radio 1 concert in Newcastle on 6 June 1982, which was the last appearance of the horn section of Paterson, Maurice, and Speare with Dexys.^[4] Released right after the live appearance, Dexys' follow-up, "Come On Eileen" (cowritten by Rowland and Paterson with Billy Adams), became a Number One hit not only in the UK, but also in the United States, where it peaked at #1 in April 1983 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The third single from the album , Van Morrison's "Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile)", also reached the top 5 in the UK singles chart.^[2] The band sang this song on the UK comedy The Young Ones.^[2] When the band performed this single on the BBC TV music show Top of the Pops, instead of a picture of Jackie Wilson, the American soul singer, the band performed in front of a photo of Jocky Wilson, the Scottish darts player.^[14]

The brass section, who had already quit the band, formed The TKO Horns, in which Maurice was soon replaced by original Dexy Geoff Blythe, though he eventually returned. Working with Too-Rye-Ay producers Langer and Winstanley, The TKO Horns most famously recorded an album with Elvis Costello in 1983 and with Howard Jones in 1985. To replace them, Dexys added saxophonist Nick Gatfield and used various session musicians, including Kevin Gilson (saxophone) and Mark Walters and Spike Edney (trombone).^[4] Soon thereafter, Billingham also left the band but continued to appear with Dexys on a session basis until the end of the year, when he joined General Public.^[4]

In September, behind the hit album, Dexys embarked on The Bridge tour.^[4] On 10 October 1982, the Dexys performance at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London was recorded by Steve Barron and then released on videodisk and videocassette (and later DVD) as an edited 9-song set also entitled The Bridge. With all of the turnover of personnel, the core of Dexys became Rowland, Adams, and O'Hara, who jointly wrote the band's next single, "Let's Get This Straight (From the Start)". At the start of 1983, Robert "Bob" Noble replaced Billingham on keyboards, and Kilkenny was replaced by John "Rhino" Edwards on bass.^[4] Dexys finally toured the U.S. in 1983 and continued to tour through that summer, after which the band's nucleus, now including Rowland, Adams, O'Hara and Gatfield, began planning a new album. However, the major success of Too-Rye-Ay became an issue for Rowland, who said in 1999 that "I was fairly comfortable being the outsider knocking on the door[, but] once the door opened and I stepped inside, I was completely lost" and that he went into "complete self-destruct mode."^[5] Rowland and O'Hara also began a personal relationship during the U.S. tour; in Rowland's words, he was "obsessed with her but not enjoying the band."^[3]

1985–86: Don't Stand Me Down and break up

Although Dexys began preparing new material for a new album in late 1983, the band quickly was reduced to a nucleus of Rowland, Adams, O'Hara and Gatfield.^[3] Recording and mixing the new album took almost two years and spread across Switzerland, the U.K., and the U.S.^[4] Finally, in September 1985, Dexys released its first new album in three years, Don't Stand Me Down.^[4] The four remaining members album were pictured on the cover in another new look, an Ivy League, Brooks-Brothers look,^[4] wearing ties and pin-striped suits (except for O'Hara, who wore a grey women's business suit), and with neatly combed hair. Various seasoned performers and session musicians made up the rest of the band, including Vincent Crane (ex-Atomic Rooster) on piano, Julian Littman on mandolin,, Tim Dancy (who had been Al Green's drummer) on drums, Tommy Evans on steel guitar, and former Dexys members "Big" Jim Paterson on trombone, Robert Noble on organ and synthesizer, and John "Rhino" Edwards on bass. Production was originally credited to Alan Winstanley and Rowland, although later reissues have included Adams and O'Hara as producers as well.^[15] Rowland described Dexs' look as "so clean and simple; it's a much more adult approach now".^[6]

In an interview with HitQuarters Gatfield later described the recording process as "very long and painful",^[16] and he left the group after a short tour of France and the UK. By contrast, O'Hara felt that "we had to keep going ahead with what we believed".^[17]

The album's most controversial feature was its use of conversational dialogue in the songs; Rowland said, "The idea of a conversation in a song is interesting to me."^[18] Most reviewers were highly critical of it, comparing the Dexys' look to "double glazing salesmen" and condemning the album as "a mess".^[15][19] Only a few were supportive; for example, writing in the Melody Maker, Colin Irwin described it as "quite the most challenging, absorbing, moving, uplifting and ultimately triumphant album of the year".^[20]

Rowland at first refused to issue any singles from the album, comparing Dexys to bands like Led Zeppelin that never released singles.^[5] By the time a 3-minute edit of the 12-minute "This Is What She's Like" was released, it was too late to save the album from commercial failure, and the "Coming to Town" tour that followed the album was played before "half-empty theaters".^[5] Rowland said, "I felt that we couldn't do anything better than [Don't Stand Me Down]. It took so much out of me, but the record company threw the towel in. I think they wanted to teach me a lesson."^[3] In the aftermath, Rowland and O'Hara's personal relationship ended, and Rowland started to have issues with drug abuse.^[5] However, Dexys returned to the U.K. charts in late 1986 with the single "Because Of You", again written by and featuring the nucleus of Rowland, O'Hara and Adams (and which was used as the theme tune to a British sitcom, Brush Strokes).^[4] Dexys, which at this point just consisted just of that trio, finally disbanded in early 1987.^[4]

1987–2003: Rowland solo albums and failed Dexys reunions

Rowland became a solo singer with the release of 1988's poorly received album, The Wanderer.^[4] Rowland then suffered from financial problems, drug addiction and issues with depression, leading to him being "a bankrupt" by 1991 despite his ongoing royalties.^[21] However, Dexys returned to the charts that year with the greatest-hits TV compilation The Very Best of Dexys Midnight Runners, which featured a number of songs that had never been released on CD, reached #12 on the charts, and was certified "Gold". Consequently, Rowland "spent most of my time in rehab" in 1993 and 1994.^[5] As part of that, Rowland made plans to reform Dexys together with Big Jim Paterson and Billy Adams, although these plans resulted in little more than a solitary TV performance in 1993.^[4] Rowland then went on the dole; as he put it in 1999, "Insanity is no fun, mate. People try to romanticize the idea of the suffering artist. At my lowest ebbs there was no romance to it at all."^[5]

After more treatment, Rowland returned once more as a solo performer and signed to Creation Records, although, in his words, "every other record label advised [Creation] against it because I was trouble"^[5] In 1997, he released his first project on Creation: a remastered and reprocessed version of Don't Stand Me Down with extensive liner notes, revised credits and titles, and two extra songs, which helped contribute to a significant reversal of opinion with regard to the album, which was now increasingly being re-evaluated and recognized as an unfairly-overlooked masterwork.^[21] Following this, in 1999 Rowland released a new solo album of interpretations of "classic" songs called My Beauty, which received virtually no publicity or radio airplay and sold poorly but attracted attention for Rowland's cross-dressing cover attire.^[5][21] Rowland limited his pre-release publicity for the album to one interview, and he "auditioned" potential interviewers before selecting one.^[5] However, the demise of Creation Records shortly after My Beauty's release meant that Rowland's planned follow-up album, which would have featured Dexys performing new material, was never made. The failure caused Rowland more problems; in his own words from 2003, "Four years ago, I was nuts."^[21] Later, in March 2010 Rowland said that signing to Creation was "definitely a mistake".^[22]

2003–10: Dexys reformed

In April 2003, Rowland introduced a new nine-piece incarnation of the group, featuring original members Pete Williams as co-vocalist and "MD" Mick Talbot on keyboards, along with Paul Taylor on trombone and Neil Hubbard on guitar.^[4] Rowland had become increasingly focused on returning to recording and live performing; he told Williams that his goal for the reformed band was to be true to the memory of Dexys but to "take it somewhere else".^[21] A Dexys greatest hits album, Let's Make This Precious, was released on EMI in September 2003,^[21] followed by a successful tour 'to stop the burning' in October and November.^[4] Two newly recorded songs, "Manhood" and "My Life in England" (both credited to Rowland, Paterson, and David Ditchfield), appeared on the album and were touted as new singles, with Dexys even performing "Manhood" on Top of the Pops.^[4] However, despite promotional single releases for each by EMI and airplay on national radio, neither was officially released as a commercial single. Instead, a live performance by this 2003 version of Dexys was released on DVD, entitled It Was Like This -- Live (although some versions were packaged with a misleading picture of Rowland from the 1980s on the cover). It Was Like This -- Live was reissued in 2012 on CD and DVD as At the Royal Court, Liverpool.

In 2004, another Rowland-supervised reissue of the now-out-of-print Don't Stand Me Down, subtitled "The Director's Cut", was issued on EMI with different remixing and remastering, an additional track ("Kevin Rowland's 13th Time"), and a different cover photograph showing the core trio (Rowland, Adams and O'Hara) walking in a park wearing "preppy" attire (instead of the previous business attire). In the liner notes, Rowland said that, after the remastering and track changes, the album "now sounds to me as it was intended to sound."^[23]

During a June 2005 interview on BBC Radio 2, Kevin Rowland announced that Dexys were "back in the studio" and seeking a record deal for a new album. A new track, "It's OK Johanna", appeared on the band's MySpace site in 2007, and in January 2008, Rowland told Uncut magazine further details about the album, saying in part: "I'm in the process of demo-ing the songs ... I don't know when it will be ready or who will play on the record. I want to get everything 100 percent right, and know that it's the best I can do and every note is there for a reason ... The only way I can be satisfied is to make the record I'm hearing in my head on my own terms."

2011–present: One Day I'm Going to Soar and subsequent touring

In 2011, with the band's name shortened to Dexys, work on new material started again with Rowland, Pete Williams, Mick Talbot, Neil Hubbard, and violinist Lucy Morgan, who had all been in Dexys since the 2003 reformation, plus Big Jim Paterson and new female vocalist Medeleine Hyland.^[24] Dexys then announced that they would be embarking on another tour.

In February 2012, Rowland officially announced the imminent release of a fourth studio album for Dexys.^[24] The band also released a preview of "Now", the album's first track. The album, entitled One Day I'm Going to Soar, was released by BMG on 4 June 2012.^[25] All but one song were co-written by Rowland and Talbot, usually with other co-writers such as Paterson or Glen Matlock; the album continued in the same style as Don't Stand Me Down (featuring spoken sections in the songs), which led the album to be described as "a concept album with an unreliable narrator".^[26] The first single from the album was "She Got a Wiggle", released 28 May 2012.^[27] They performed the song on Later... with Jools Holland in May 2012. The group toured in September 2012 in the UK, performing their new album.^[28] Talbot left the group following this tour.

In 2013 the band announced that they would play nine shows in London's West End at the Duke of York's Theatre, St Martins Lane between 15 and 27 April.^[29] These shows would become the basis for a documentary on the group entitled Nowhere Is Home, directed by Kieran Evans and Paul Kelly.^[30] Nowhere Is Home was issued in both triple-CD and double-DVD formats in October 2014 on Dexys' own label, Absolute Dexys.^[4] Dexys played more live dates in 2014; however, as Hyland was not available for several shows during the summer, Siobhan Fahey replaced her in the Dexys lineup.^[31] (Fahey's sister, actress Máire Fahey, had portrayed "Eileen" in the music video and picture sleeve for "Come On Eileen" in 1982.)^[32]

Members

Current members

• Kevin Rowland — lead vocals, bass, guitar, piano (1978–86, 2003–present)
• Jim Paterson — trombone (1978–82, 1985, 2005–present)

Former members

Awards

• 1983 Brit Awards – Best British single (for "Come On Eileen")

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

Live albums

• 1980–1982: The Radio One Sessions (1995)
• BBC Radio One Live in Concert (1995)
• The Projected Passion Revue (2007)
• At the Royal Court, Liverpool (2012)
• Nowhere Is Home (2014)

Compilation albums

• Geno (1983) UK # 79^[40]
• The Very Best of Dexys Midnight Runners (1991) UK # 12^[40] UK: Gold
• Because of You (1993)
• It Was Like This (1996)
• Master Series (1996)
• Let's Make This Precious: The Best of Dexys Midnight Runners (2003) UK No. 75^[40]
• Worth It - The Collection (2008)
• 20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: The Best of Dexy's Midnight Runners (2009)

Videography

• The Bridge (1983)
• It Was Like This - Live (2004)
• At the Royal Court, Liverpool (2012) (repackage of It Was Like This - Live)
• Nowhere Is Home (2014)

References

External links

• Dexys official website
• Pete Williams official website