Dexys Midnight Runners

Kevin Rowland sings in 2012 for the Dexys Midnight Runners

Dexys Midnight Runners , later just Dexys , is a British band that play a mixture of New Wave , Northern Soul and Celtic folk and had their greatest successes in the early 1980s.

Band history

Kevin Rowland (vocals, guitar) and Kevin "Al" Archer (vocals, guitar) formed the band in 1978 in Birmingham . In the original line-up with “Big” Jim Paterson (trombone), Geoff “JB” Blythe (saxophone), Steve “Babyface” Spooner (alto saxophone), Pete Saunders (keyboard), Pete Williams (bass) and Bobby “Jnr” Ward ( Drums) the band recorded their first single Dance Stance in 1979 . While this track only reached number 40 in the UK charts , the second single, Geno , a song about Geno Washington , became a number one hit in 1980 . The new band members Andy Leek (keyboard) and Andy "Stoker" Growcott (drums) took part in the recording.

The first album Searching for the Young Soul Rebels in 1980 was a great success - the band had stolen the recordings on the spot to get better financial conditions. After the next single There There My Dear became a hit again, Rowland pushed through Keep It, Part Two for the following single, which then flopped. As a result, most of the musicians left the band, as they otherwise had difficulties with Rowland's high-handed manner. Archer founded The Blue Ox Babes , and Blythe, Spooner, Williams, Stoker, and Mick Talbot (ex- Merton Parkas who had recently joined) founded The Bureau.

Paterson stayed with Rowland, with Billy Adams (guitar, banjo), Seb Shelton (drums, previously Secret Affair ), Micky Billingham (keyboard), Brian Maurice (alto saxophone), Paul Speare (tenor saxophone) and Steve Wynne (bass) joining. They brought out the singles Plan B , Show Me and Liars A to E in 1981 , all of which were not very successful.

Rowland then hired the string group The Emerald Express , consisting of Helen O'Hara (of the Blue Ox Babes), Steve Brennan and Roger MacDuff. With the new bassist Giorgio Kilkenny, the Dexys recorded Too-Rye-Ay in 1982 , a mixture of Celtic folk and soul . Van Morrison's strong influence on Dexy's Midnight Runners was clearly audible on this album. The first release, The Celtic Soul Brothers, was a moderate hit, but the following Come On Eileen became # 1 in both the UK and America . With the next singles Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile) , the cover version of a Van Morrison piece, and Let's Get This Straight (From the Start) , the group continued on the wave of success.

Since the winds felt disadvantaged by the strings , Paterson, Speare and Maurice left the band and founded The TKO Horns . Johnny Edwards replaced Kilkenny on bass and Billingham went to General Public . Dexys were on tour until 1983, when they took a two-year hiatus.

In 1985 the band released a new album, Don't Stand Me Down . The line-up was now Rowland, Adams, O'Hara and Nicky Gatfield, along with alternating guest musicians, including Vincent Crane (ex- Atomic Rooster ), Julian Littman and Tim Dancy (who had played drums for Al Green ). At first Rowland did not want to release a single; when this finally happened, it was too late, the album flopped.

After a last minor hit with Because of You , Dexy's Midnight Runners broke up the following year. Rowland began a little-noticed solo career. In the 1990s he planned to revive the band with Big Jim Paterson, but more than one TV appearance in 1993 did not materialize for the time being.

In April 2003, the Dexys were put back together by Rowland for a tour. The band released the highly regarded best-of record Let's Make This Precious in September 2003 .

In an interview with the BBC in June 2005, Rowland announced that the group Dexys Midnight Runners had come together again in the studio to record a new album. In June 2012 the album One Day I'm Going to Soar was released under the band name Dexys.

Band name

The band is named after the drug dextromethorphan , a stimulant popular in the scene at the time. Nevertheless, one often comes across the wrong band name “Dexy's Midnight Runners” - in this case, however, “Dexys” is not the English genitive form (as for example with “Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass”, where the Tijuana Brass band of the person Herb Alpert is assigned). Regardless of this, this incorrectly apostrophized spelling is increasingly found, even the new CD of the 1982 album Too-Rye-Ay is accordingly incorrectly printed; the cover, however, is still correct as it was taken from the original LP.

Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1980	Searching for the Young Soul Rebels	-	-	-	UK6th silver (10 weeks)UK	-	First published: July 14, 1980 Producer: Pete Wingfield
1982	Too-rye-ay	DE29 (23 weeks) DE	-	-	UK2 platinum (46 weeks)UK	US14 (24 weeks) US	First published: July 26, 1982 with Kevin Rowland Producers: Clive Langer , Alan Winstanley
1985	Don't Stand Me Down	-	-	-	UK22 (6 weeks) UK	-	First published: September 9, 1985 Producers: Alan Winstanley, Kevin Rowland
2012	One Day I'm Going to Soar	DE55 (2 weeks) DE	AT15 (1 week) AT	-	UK13 (4 weeks) UK	-	First released: June 15, 2012 as Dexys Producers: Kevin Rowland, Mick Talbot , Pete Schwier
2014	Nowhere Is Home	-	-	-	UK79 (1 week) UK	-	First released: October 20, 2014 as Dexys producers: Kevin Rowland, Pete Schwier
2016	Let the Record Show: Dexys Do Irish and Country Soul	-	-	-	UK10 (1 week) UK	-	First released: June 3, 2016 as Dexys producers: Kevin Rowland, Pete Schwier, Sean Read

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

Live albums

• 1993: BBC Radio One Live in Concert
• 1995: 1980–1982: The Radio 1 Sessions

Compilations

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1983	Geno	-	-	-	UK79 (1 week) UK	-	First published March 14, 1983 Producers: Pete Wingfield, Alan Shacklock, Foote & Mouth, Sean Rowley
1991	The Very Best of Dexys Midnight Runners	-	-	-	UK12 gold (15 weeks)UK	-	First published: May 27, 1991
2003	Let's Make This Precious: The Best Of	-	-	-	UK75 silver (1 week)UK	-	First published: September 22, 2003

More compilations

• 1993: Because of You
• 1996: Dexys Midnight Runners
• 1996: It Was Like This
• 2007: The Projected Passion Revue
• 2008: The Collection

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1980	Dance Stance (Burn It Down) Searching for the Young Soul Rebels	-	-	-	UK40 (6 weeks) UK	-	First published: January 7, 1980 Author: Kevin Rowland
	Geno Searching for the Young Soul Rebels	-	-	-	UK1 silver (18 weeks)UK	-	First published: March 7, 1980 Authors: Al Archer, Kevin Rowland
	There There My Dear Searching for the Young Soul Rebels	-	-	-	UK7 (9 weeks) UK	-	First published: June 27, 1980 Authors: Al Archer, Kevin Rowland
1981	Plan B Too-Rye-Ay	-	-	-	UK58 (2 weeks) UK	-	First published: March 9, 1981 Authors: Jim Paterson, Kevin Rowland
	Show Me (I'll Show You) Too-Rye-Ay	-	-	-	UK16 (9 weeks) UK	-	First published: June 29, 1981 Authors: Jim Paterson, Kevin Rowland
1982	Celtic Soul Brothers Too-Rye-Ay	-	-	-	UK20 (10 weeks) UK	US86 (4 weeks) US	First published: March 8, 1982 Authors: Jim Paterson, Kevin Rowland, Micky Billingham
	Come on Eileen Too-Rye-Ay	DE6 (27 weeks) DE	AT9 (8 weeks) AT	CH1 (10 weeks) CH	UK1 platinum (18 weeks)UK	US1 (23 weeks) US	First published: July 21, 1982 with The Emerald Express Authors: Billy Adams, Jim Paterson, Kevin Rowland
	Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile) Too-Rye-Ay	DE62 (6 weeks) DE	-	-	UK5 (7 weeks) UK	-	First published: September 20, 1982 with Kevin Rowland Author and original: Van Morrison , 1972
	Let's Get This Straight (From the Start) / Old Too-Rye-Ay	-	-	-	UK17 (9 weeks) UK	-	First published: November 22, 1982 Authors: Billy Adams, Helen O'Hara, Kevin Rowland
1985	This Is What She's Like Don't Stand Me Down	-	-	-	UK78 (2 weeks) UK	-	First published: November 4, 1985 Authors: Billy Adams, Helen O'Hara, Kevin Rowland
1986	Because of You The Very Best of Dexys Midnight Runners	-	-	-	UK13 (10 weeks) UK	-	First published: November 10, 1986 Theme song from the BBC series Brush Strokes Authors: Billy Adams, Helen O'Hara, Kevin Rowland

More singles

• 1980: Keep It Part Two (Inferiority Part One) (release: November 14th)
• 1981: Liars A to E (release: November)
• 1984: Dance Stance (release: March)
• 1985: One of Those Things (release: September)
• 2012: She Got a Wiggle (Promo)
• 2014: Nowhere Is Home (as Dexys; released July 21)
• 2016: Grazing in the Grass (Promo)

Video albums

• 1982: Dexys Midnight Runners
• 1983: The Bridge - The Live Performance (with Kevin Rowland)
• 1989: Come On Eileen (with The Emerald Express )
• 1996: It Was Like This - Live (released as At the Royal Court in 2011 )

swell

1. ↑ Dexys (Midnight Runners). In: Rolling Stone , March 13, 2012 (accessed March 21, 2012)
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Chart sources: Singles Albums UK US
3. ↑ ^{a b c} UK gold / platinum database

Web links

• Official website
• Dexys Midnight Runners at Allmusic (English)
• Dexy's Midnight Runners at Discogs (English)