Dexys Midnight Runners
Background information
Origin	Birmingham, England
Genre(s)	Pop, Soul
Years active	1978–1983, 1985–1986, 2003–
Label(s)	EMI, Windsong, Mercury
Associated acts	The Killjoys
Former members
Billy Adams Al Archer Mickey Billingham Jeff Blythe Steve Brennan Andy "Stoker" Growcott Giorgio Kilkenny Andy Leek Helen O'Hara Jimmy Paterson Kevin Rowland Peter Saunders Seb Shelton Paul Speare Steve Spooner Mick Talbot Pete Williams Steve Wynn

Dexys Midnight Runners – the name usually spelled without an apostrophe [1] – are a British pop group with soul influences, who achieved their major success in the early to mid 1980s. They are best known for their hit "Come on Eileen".

Contents 1 Career 2 Discography 2.1 Singles 2.2 Albums 3 Awards 4 Trivia 5 External links

Career

Kevin Rowland (vocals, guitar) and Kevin "Al" Archer (vocals, guitar) founded the band in 1978 in Birmingham, England, naming the band after Dexedrine, a brand of dextroamphetamine popularly used as a recreational drug among Northern Soul fans at the time. The midnight runners referred to the energy the Dexedrine gave, enabling one to dance all night. "Big" Jim Paterson (trombone), Jeff "JB" Blythe (saxophone), Steve "Babyface" Spooner (alto saxophone), Pete Saunders (keyboard), Pete Williams (bass) and Bobby "Jnr" Ward (drums) formed the first line-up of the band to record a single, "Dance Stance" (1979). The song was released on the independent Oddball Records, and reached only number 40 in the British charts, but the next single, "Geno" – about Geno Washington, and released on EMI – was a British Number One in 1980. It featured the band's newest recruits, Andy Leek (keyboards) and Andy "Stoker" Growcott (drums).

The band members were disappointed with their share of the profits, and soon stole the master tapes of Searching for the Young Soul Rebels, their debut LP, in order to renegotiate the deal. The album was released later in 1980 and became a massive success. After the next single, "There, There, My Dear", was a hit, Rowland insisted on choosing the uncommercial "Keep It Part Two (Inferiority Part One)" for the following single. It was a failure, and most of the band members quit, angered over continual personality problems with Rowland. Archer eventually formed The Blue Ox Babes, while Blythe, Spooner, Williams, Stoker and Mick Talbot (ex-Merton Parkas, who had recently joined on keyboards) left to form The Bureau. Paterson stayed with Rowland, who added Billy Adams (guitar/banjo), Seb Shelton (drums, formerly of Secret Affair), Micky Billingham (keyboard), Brian Maurice (alto saxophone), Paul Speare (tenor saxophone) and Steve Wynne (bass), releasing "Plan B", "Show Me" (this line-up's only Top 40 hit) and "Liars A to E" in 1981 without much success.

Rowland then recruited fiddle players Helen O'Hara (from Archer's new group, the Blue Ox Babes), Steve Brennan and Roger MacDuff, known collectively as "The Emerald Express". With the addition of new bass player, Giorgio Kilkenny, this line-up recorded Too-Rye-Ay in 1982, a hybrid of soul and Celtic folk. The first single, "The Celtic Soul Brothers", was mildly successful but "Come on Eileen" soon followed, and became a Number One hit in both the UK and the United States (and, in the former, the biggest-selling single of 1982). The follow-up "Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile)", a cover of a Van Morrison tune, also reached the top 5 in the UK singles chart. The band sang this song on the UK comedy The Young Ones.

Feeling that their role in the group had diminished following the arrival of the fiddles, the brass section of Paterson, Speare and Maurice left to form The TKO Horns and recorded an album in 1985 with Howard Jones, while Kilkenny was replaced by Johnny Edwards on bass and Billingham left to join General Public. The group continued to tour until 1983 with a nucleus of Rowland, Adams, O'Hara and Shelton augmented by other musicians.

After a two-year break, Dexys returned in 1985 with the critically panned[2] album, Don't Stand Me Down, featuring Rowland, Adams, O'Hara and Nicky Gatfield together with various seasoned performers including Vincent Crane (ex-Atomic Rooster), Julian Littman and Tim Dancy (who had been Al Green's drummer). Rowland at first refused to issue any singles from the defiantly uncommercial album, and by the time "This Is What She's Like" was released, it was too late to save the album from commercial failure. The group disbanded the following year after a brief return to the charts with the single "Because Of You" (which was used as the theme tune to a British sitcom, Brush Strokes), and Rowland became a solo singer with the release of 1988's poorly-received album, The Wanderer. Despite spending much of the 1990s suffering from financial problems and drug addiction, Rowland made plans to reform Dexys together with Big Jim Paterson, although these resulted in no more than a solitary TV performance in 1993. Returning once more as a solo performer, Rowland signed to Creation Records, releasing an album of cover versions called My Beauty in 1999, which sold poorly; some sources quote a figure of fewer than 500 copies sold. [3] This was followed by a disastrous appearance at the Reading festival where Rowland was bottled off by a hostile crowd after introducing two strippers who had accompanied him. [4] The demise of Creation Records meant that the planned follow-up album, which would have featured Dexys, was never made.

In April 2003, the group announced that they would be reuniting for a tour. A greatest hits album, Let's Make This Precious, was released in September 2003, and a successful tour took place in October and November of the same year. Two newly recorded songs, "Manhood" and "My Life in England," appeared on the album and were touted as new singles. Despite airplay on national radio, neither was officially released as a commercial single. 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.

Discography

Singles

• Dance Stance / I'm Just Looking (1979) #40 UK
• Geno / Breakin' Down The Walls Of Heartache (1980) #1 UK
• There, There, My Dear / The Horse (1980) #7 UK
• Keep It Part Two (Inferiority Part One) / One Way Love (1980)
• Plan B / Soul Finger (1981) #58 UK
• Show Me / Soon (1981) #16 UK
• Liars A To E / And Yes We Must Remain The Wildhearted Outsiders (1981)
• Come On Eileen (1982) #1 UK
• Jackie Wilson Said (I'm In Heaven When You Smile) (1982) #5 UK
• Let's Get This Straight (From The Start) / Old (1982) #17 UK
• The Celtic Soul Brothers (Reissue) / Reminisce Part One (1983) #20 UK
• (An Extract From) This Is What She's Like / This Is What She's Like (Finale) (1985) #78 UK
• Because Of You / Kathleen Mavourneen (1986) #13 UK

Albums

• Searching for the Young Soul Rebels (1980)
• Too-Rye-Ay (1982)
• Geno (1983)
• Don't Stand Me Down (1985)
• BBC Radio One Live in Concert (1995)
• Projected Passion Revue (2007)

Awards

• 1983 BRIT Awards - Best British single (for Come On Eileen)

Trivia

• In the Simpsons, when Homer receives a grammy award, Lisa says to him "You beat out Dexys Midnight Runners" where Homer replies, "You haven't heard the last of them!". This was a play on the fact that Dexys was considered a one hit wonder in the United States.

• Dexys Midnight Runners appeared in an episode of The Young Ones, performing Jackie Wilson Said.

• Kevin Rowland is referenced in an episode of The Mighty Boosh, "The Priest and the Beast."

External links

• Dexy's Midnight Runners fansite
• A BBC audio interview with Kevin Rowland - recorded on 01 October 2003 (This is a RealAudio file, you will need a compatible media player to play this file)