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Ian Dury
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Ian Robins Dury (12 May 1942 – 27 March 2000) was an English rock and roll singer, songwriter, and bandleader who initially rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and New Wave era of rock music. He is best known as founder and lead singer of the British band Ian Dury and the Blockheads, though he began his musical career in pub-rock act Kilburn and the High Roads.
father, William, was a bus-driver and ex boxer, while his mother Margaret (known as Peggy) was a Health Visitor, the daughter of a Cornish doctor, and grand-daughter of an Irish landowner.
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Encyclopedia
Ian Robins Dury (12 May 1942 – 27 March 2000) was an English rock and roll singer, songwriter, and bandleader who initially rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and New Wave era of rock music. He is best known as founder and lead singer of the British band Ian Dury and the Blockheads, though he began his musical career in pub-rock act Kilburn and the High Roads.
Early life
Dury was born at his parents' home at 43 Weald Rise, Harrow Weald, Harrow (although he often claimed, and all but one of his obituaries in the national press stated, that he was born in Upminster, Essex).
His father, William, was a bus-driver and ex boxer, while his mother Margaret (known as Peggy) was a Health Visitor, the daughter of a Cornish doctor, and grand-daughter of an Irish landowner. William Dury trained with Rolls Royce to be a chauffeur, and was then absent for long periods, so Peggy took Ian to stay with her parents in Cornwall. After World War II, the family moved to Switzerland, where his father chaufferred for a millionaire and the Western European Union. In 1946 Peggy brought Ian back to England and they stayed with her sister Mary, a Doctor in Cranham, a small village bordering Upminster. Although he saw his father on visits, they never lived together again.
At the age of seven, he contracted polio; very likely, he believed, from a swimming pool at Southend on Sea during the 1949 polio epidemic.
Dury left the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe at 16 to study at Walthamstow Art College. In 1964 he won a place at the Royal College of Art where he was taught by the eminent British artist Peter Blake and, in 1967, Dury himself started teaching art at various colleges in the south of England. When asked why he did not pursue a career in art, he once said, "I got good enough [at art] to realise I wasn't going to be very good." Despite this claim, Dury did have some notable successes as an artist, such as gaining a place in a group exhibition, called Fantasy and Figuration, alongside Pat Douthwaite, Herbert Kitchen and Stass Paraskos in a show at the prestigious Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, in 1967.
Dury married his first wife Betty Rathmell in 1967 and they had two children, Jemima and Baxter, who is now also a recording artist (he is the author of the ballad "Cocaine Man"). They divorced in 1985 but remained on good terms. She died of cancer in 1994.
Kilburn and the High-Roads
Dury was inspired to form Kilburn and the High-Roads (a pun on the road in north London) in November 1970 following the death of his hero Gene Vincent. Dury was vocalist and lyricist, co-writing with pianist Russell Hardy and later enrolling into the group a number of the students he was teaching at Canterbury College of Art, including guitarist Keith Lucas (who later became the guitarist for 999 under the name Nick Cash) and bassist Humphrey Ocean. Managed by Charlie Gillett and Gordon Nelki, the Kilburns found favour on London's Pub Rock circuit and signed to Dawn Records in 1974, but despite favourable press coverage and a tour opening for The Who, the group failed to rise above cult status. The group disbanded in 1975.
The Blockheads
Managed by Andrew King and Pete Jenner, Ian Dury and the Blockheads had several hit singles, including What a Waste, Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick (which was a UK number one at the beginning of 1979, selling just short of a million copies), Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3 (number three in the UK in 1979), and the rock and roll anthem Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, often credited with introducing the phrase to the language.
Dury's lyrics are a unique combination of lyrical poetry, word play, observation of British everyday (working-class) life, acute character sketches, and vivid, earthy humour. This is what we find refers to how "Home improvement expert Harold Hill of Harold Hill ... Came home to find another gentleman's kippers in the grill, So he sanded off his winkle with his Black & Decker drill." The song Billericay Dickie continues this sexual content, rhyming "I had a love affair with Nina ... In the back of my [Ford] Cortina", and joking that "A seasoned-up hyena ... Could not have been more obscener".
The Blockheads' sound drew from their many musical influences - which included jazz, rock and roll, funk, and reggae - plus Dury's love of music hall. The band was formed after Dury began writing songs with pianist and guitarist Chaz Jankel. Jankel took Dury's lyrics, fashioned a number of songs, and they began recording with members of Radio Caroline's Loving Awareness Band, drummer Charley Charles, bassist Norman Watt-Roy, keyboard player Mickey Gallagher, guitarist John Turnbull, and the former Kilburns saxophonist Davey Payne. An album was completed, but major record labels passed on the band. However, next door to Dury's manager's office was the newly formed Stiff Records, a perfect home for Dury's maverick style. The classic single "Sex & Drugs & Rock and Roll" marked Dury's Stiff debut and this was swiftly followed by the album New Boots and Panties!!, which was eventually to achieve platinum status.
In October 1977 Dury and his band started to go out as Ian Dury and the Blockheads, when the band signed up for the Stiff "Live Stiffs Tour" alongside Elvis Costello And The Attractions, Nick Lowe, Wreckless Eric, and Larry Wallis. The tour was a success, and Stiff launched a concerted Ian Dury marketing campaign, resulting in the Top Ten hit What a Waste and the classic UK number one Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick.
The band's second album Do It Yourself was released in June 1979 in a Barney Bubbles-designed sleeve of which there were over a dozen variations, all based on samples from the Crown wallpaper catalogue. Bubbles also designed the "mock-cubist" Blockhead logo (illustrated on the left) which received international acclaim, and continued to be used by the Blockheads after Dury's death, e.g. on their DVD: Live in Colchester 2004.
Another top ten single, "Reasons to be Cheerful", kept Dury in the public eye. In 1980 Jankel left the Blockheads to concentrate on a solo career and was replaced by former Dr. Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson, who also contributed to the next album Laughter and its two minor hit singles. In 1980-81 Dury and Jankel teamed up again with Sly and Robbie and the Compass Point All Stars to record Lord Upminster.
Ian Dury and the Blockheads disbanded in 1981 after Dury secured a new recording deal with Polydor Records through A&R man Frank Neilson, choosing to work with a group of young musicians which he named The Music Students and recorded the album Four Thousand Weeks' Holiday. This album marked a departure from his usual style and was not as well received by fans for its American jazz influence. In 1998, following Dury's diagnosis with cancer, he reunited with the Blockheads to record the well-received album Mr Love-Pants and play a number of live dates. In the early 1990s, Dury appeared with English band Curve on the benefit compilation album Peace Together. Dury and Curve singer Toni Halliday shared vocals on a cover of the Blockheads' track What a Waste.
The Blockheads have continued after Dury's death, contributing to the tribute album, Brand New Boots And Panties, then Where's The Party. The Blockheads still tour, and are currently recording a new album. They currently comprise Jankel, Watt-Roy, Gallagher, Turnbull, Dylan Howe on drums, Gilad Atzmon and Dave Lewis on saxes. Derek The Draw (who was Dury's friend and minder) is now writing songs with Jankel as well as singing. They are aided and abetted by Lee Harris, who is their 'aide de camp'.
Spasticus Autisticus
His 1981 song "Spasticus Autisticus", intended to mark the International Year of Disabled Persons, was banned by the BBC despite having been written by a disabled person. The lyrics were uncompromising:
- So place your hard-earned peanuts in my tin
- And thank the Creator you're not in the state I'm in
- So long have I been languished on the shelf
- I must give all proceedings to myself
The song's refrain, "I'm spasticus, autisticus" was inspired by the response of the rebellious Roman gladiators in the film Spartacus, who, when instructed to identify their leader, all answered, "I am Spartacus," to protect him.
Acting and other activities
Ian Dury's confident and unusual demeanor caught the eyes of producers and directors of drama. His first important and extensive role was in Farrukh Dhondy's mini-series for the BBC, "King of the Ghetto" (1987), a drama set in London's multi-racial Brick Lane area with a cast led by a young Tim Roth. Dury had small parts in several films, probably the most well-known of which was Peter Greenaway's The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, as well as cameo appearances in Roman Polanski's Pirates and the Sylvester Stallone science fiction film Judge Dredd. He also wrote a musical, Apples, staged in London's Royal Court Theatre. He had a small supporting role in The Crow: City of Angels, directed by Tim Pope, who had directed a few of Dury's music videos. He also appeared alongside fellow songwriters Bob Dylan and Tom Waits, respectively, in the movies Hearts of Fire (1987) and Bearskin: An Urban Fairytale (1989).
In 1987 he appeared as the narrator (Scullery) in Road at the Royal Court Theatre. Among the cast was actress and singer Jane Horrocks, who co-habited with Dury until late in 1988, although the relationship was kept discreet.
Dury wrote and performed the theme song "Profoundly in Love with Pandora" for the television series The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 (1985), based on the book of the same name by Sue Townsend, as well as its follow-up The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole (1987). Dury turned down an offer from Andrew Lloyd-Webber to write the libretto for Cats (a gig which reportedly earned Richard Stilgoe millions). The reason, said Dury, "I can't stand his music." "... I said no straight off. I hate Andrew Lloyd Webber. He's a wanker, isn't he?" "Every time I hear 'Don't Cry for Me Argentina' I feel sick, it's so bad. He got Richard Stilgoe to do the lyrics in the end, who's not as good as me. He made millions out of it. He's crap, but he did ask the top man first!"
When AIDS first came to prominence in the mid-1980s, Dury was among celebrities who appeared on UK television to promote safe sex, demonstrating how to put on a condom using a model of an erect penis. In the 1990s, he became an ambassador for UNICEF, recruiting stars such as Robbie Williams to publicise the cause. The two visited Sri Lanka in this capacity to promote polio vaccination. Dury appeared with Curve on the Peace Together concert and CD (1993), performing "What a Waste", with benefits to the Youth of Northern Ireland. He was also involved with the charity Cancer Bacup. Dury appeared in the Classic Albums episode that focused on Steely Dan's album, Aja. Dury commented that the album was one of the most "hopeful" he'd ever heard, and that the album "lifted [his] spirits up" whenever he played it. He also felt that it showed Steely Dan's love for jazz musicians and that it had "California in its blood...[even though it was recorded by] boys from New York."
Illness and subsequent death
It was known for some time before his death that Dury had cancer. He was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 1996 and underwent surgery, but tumours were later found in his liver, and he was told that his condition was terminal. In 1998, his death was incorrectly announced on XFM radio by Bob Geldof, possibly due to hoax information from a listener. Upon hearing of his illness Dury took the opportunity to marry his girlfriend, sculptor Sophy Tilson, with whom he had two children, Billy and Albert. In 1999, Dury collaborated with Madness on their first original album in 14 years on the track "Drip Fed Fred". Suggs and the band cite him as a great influence. It was to be one of his last recordings.
Ian Dury & The Blockheads' last performance was a charity concert in aid of Cancer Bacup on 6 February 2000 at The London Palladium, supported by Kirsty MacColl and Phill Jupitus. Dury was noticeably ill and had to be helped on and off stage.
Dury died of metastatic liver cancer on 27 March 2000. One of his obituaries read: "one of few true originals of the English music scene" (The Guardian). Meanwhile, he was described by Suggs, the singer with Madness, as "possibly the finest lyricist we've seen." The Ian Dury website opened an online book of condolence shortly after his death, which was signed by hundreds of fans. The 250 mourners at his funeral included fellow musicians Suggs and Jools Holland as well as "celebrity fans" such as Mo Mowlam.
Legacy
Dury's son, Baxter Dury, is also a singer. He sang a few of his father's songs at the wake after the funeral, and has released his own albums - Len Parrot's Memorial Lift and Floor Show.
In 2002, a musical bench was placed in Poet's Corner, near Pembroke Lodge, within Richmond Park, South-West London, being a favoured viewing spot of Dury's. This solar powered seat was intended to allow visitors to plug in and listen to eight of his songs as well as an interview, but has been subjected to repeated vandalism.
In 2009, a musical about his life entitled Hit Me! The Life & Rhymes of Ian Dury, was premiered at the Leicester Square Theatre in London, running from 6 January-14 February 2009.
Discography
Singles
- "Rough Kids" / "Billy Bentley" – 1974
- "Crippled With Nerves" / "Huffety Puff" – 1975
- "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll" / "Razzle In My Pocket" – 1977
- "Sweet Gene Vincent" / "You're More Than Fair" – 1977
- "Sex and Drugs and Rock & Roll" / "Two Stiff Steep Hills" / "England's Glory" – 1977 (NME Give-a-way)
- "What A Waste" / "Wake Up And Make Love With Me" – 1978 (UK #9)
- "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" / "There Ain't Half Been Some Clever Bastards" – 1978 (UK #1)
- "Billy Bentley" / "Pam's Moods" – 1978
- "Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3" / "Common As Muck" – 1979 (UK #3)
- "I Want To Be Straight" / "That's Not All" – 1980 (UK #22)
- "Sueperman's Big Sister" / "You'll See Glimpses" – 1980 (UK #51)
- "Spasticus (Autisticus)" / "(Instrumental)" – 1981
- "Really Glad You Came" / "(You're My) Inspiration)" – 1983
- "Very Personal" / "Ban The Bomb" (1984)
- "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick (re-mix)" / "Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll" / "Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 3" / "Wake Up And Make Love With Me" – 1985 (UK #55)
- "Profoundly In Love With Pandora" / "Eugenius (You're A Genius)" – 1985 (UK #45)
- "Apples" / "Byline Brown" – 1989
- "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll" / "Close to Home" – 2007
Albums
Compilations
Videos
- Hold On To Your Structure - Ian Dury & The Blockheads (VHS- Live Video, 1985)
Blockheads albums (without Dury) and DVDs
- Brand New Boots And Panties (2001) - Various Artists. A tribute album, a re-recording of New Boots with guest singers
- Straight From The Desk - 2 (Live At Patti Pavilion, 2003)
- Where's The Party? (2004)
- Live In Colchester DVD (soundtrack is exclusively available via iTunes) (2006)
- 30 (30th Anniversary Show) (soundtrack is exclusively available via iTunes) (2008)
- Staring Down The Barrel (2009)
Audio sample
See also
External links
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- late interview from The Independent
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