Dexys and Dexys Midnight Runners

............................................................................................................................................. A BRIEF HISTORY : Originally formed by Kevin Rowland with Kevin {Al} Archer in Birmingham in 1978, with a brief to look and sound great, Dexys Midnight Runners went on to give us three seminal albums ("Searching For The Young Soul Rebels", "Too Rye Ay" and "Don't Stand Me Down") and a clutch of classic singles including Number One hits "Geno" and "Come On Eileen", which went on to be the biggest selling UK single of 1982 and a US number 1. Dexys were famed for their live performances, in the early days for the intensity and power, but also for breaking new ground with likes of the The Projected Passion Revue, going into areas no other band had been before. Their whole approach and attitude towards performance was unique. They always tried to do something special, sometimes it came off supremely well {The Projected Passion Revue} sometimes it didnt always gel {The shows around Too Rye Ay}. 1985's Coming To Town..Park Street South was way ahead of its time, taking the conversation pieces, drama and comedy of Dont Stand Me Down and more, onto the live stage. Though there were problems { roving microphones arent what they are today} the shows were an artistic success. But because the mode of the shows was a shock for the audience {The curtain opened at the start of the show to reveal Kevin sitting by a mock up of a night time Thames, next thing, Billy Adams walks on, takes a seat on the same bench as Kevin, they converse for a minute, then Kevin goes into an a cappella version of Elvis's Cant help Falling In Love. It wasn't a greatest hits show, lets put it that way. It was brilliantly ambitious, well thought out, but perhaps not what fans of Come On Eileen were looking for at that point. Dont Stand Me Down's release and tour saw a downturn in the bands commercial fortunes, the shows were pretty much panned critically and the media paid more attention to the poor album and ticket sales than they did the music or shows themselves. Paradoxically, its hard now to find anyone who was at those shows who doesnt rave about them, its also hard to imagine now for anybody who wasnt around at the time, but, the look the band adopted at the time {American Ivy league} caused outrage in the UK music press and overshadowed the albums release. Again, most serious music pundits now agree that DSMD is Dexys masterpiece to date. Dexys are also known for their uncompromising attitude, which was in many ways their making, but would also later, when applied in the wrong way, prove to be the death of them. They hijacked the master tapes of their debut album in order to renegotiate their deal, they had bitter battles with their record companies {when these were fought for artistic integrity, they were worthwhile and almost always they would be proved right, but when these were fought with an attitude of being beligerent because they felt like it, time would prove that they were wrong}. Sadly, some of this took away attention from the music, but when it comes down to it, it's the music that matters - the albums and the shows, and Dexys gave us some fucking great ones, putting their hearts and souls into it. The problem was though that in many ways, they were ahead of their time, they were visionaries. When they came into the music business, it was full of guys from the seventies wearing Doobie Brothers tour jackets. Nothing wrong with the Doobie Brothers of course, but who of these could understand the young soul rebels? Essentially Kevin Rowland has always been the core of Dexys. He built several different line ups of the band { a new one, for instance for each of the three albums}. And after Rowland finally put Dexys to rest in 1986, 2 solo albums, "The Wanderer" and "My Beauty" punctuated the next two decades. In 2003, Dexys were at last reinvented for a critically acclaimed and rapturously recieved tour {Again, it wasnt a greatest hits tour, and many of the ideas approaches that were received with bewilderment in 1985, were employed again. But this time, those ideas were understood and very warmly welcomed. The world had caught up with them. This is the untold story of the 2003 tour}. Since then Rowland has been working on his first book and writing Dexys' 4th album. 2009 could be a good year for fans of Kevin and Dexys. Dexys will release their new album ‘Let The Record Show DEXYS DO IRISH AND COUNTRY SOUL’ on June 3rd. www.dexysonline.com