Dexys Midnight Runners

Birmingham

Kevin Rowland and Kevin "Al" Archer, both formerly of the punk band the Killjoys, formed the group in Birmingham in 1978. The name came from Dexedrine, a stimulant popular with Northern soul fans. An early gig at the Romulus on Hagley Road had Joy Division as support. In 1979 the band signed with the manager Bernard Rhodes, who renamed Rowland's Burn It Down as Dance Stance and produced it. Released by Oddball, it reached number 40 in the UK, and the band dropped Rhodes and signed with EMI.

In March 1980 Geno, a tribute to the soul singer Geno Washington, went to number one on EMI. Searching for the Young Soul Rebels followed in July and reached number six. A second single, There, There, My Dear, made number seven in June.

Collapse and rebuilding

The success did not hold. In late 1980 the single Keep It Part Two flopped, five members quit and Archer left, so that only Rowland and the trombonist Jim Paterson remained. Rowland rebuilt the group in 1981 and took it out on the Projected Passion Revue tour, and Plan B flopped that March. Line-ups kept changing: Billy Adams on guitar and banjo, Seb Shelton on drums, Mickey Billingham on keyboards and the violinists Helen O'Hara, Steve Brennan and Roger MacDuff all belonged to this second incarnation. In June the band signed to Mercury, and Show Me reached number 16 in July, and Liars A to E followed in October. Rowland added violins to the horn section, and the new players became known as the Emerald Express. Three nights at the Old Vic in London in November 1981 drew rave reviews, though they were not recorded.

Come On Eileen

Too-Rye-Ay was recorded between December 1981 and March 1982 at Genetic Studios in Berkshire. The band reached number 45 with The Celtic Soul Brothers, and then in June 1982 Come On Eileen went to number one in the UK. The album came out in July and peaked at number two, and Jackie Wilson Said, their cover of a Van Morrison song, reached number five in August.

In April 1983 Come On Eileen also topped the American Hot 100, and the album reached number 14 on the Billboard 200. It won the Brit Award for Best British Single that year. Mickey Billingham left late in 1982 to join General Public, and Paterson and the saxophonist Brian Maurice left before the Too-Rye-Ay sessions ended. By 1983 John Rhino Edwards had joined on bass and Robert Noble on keyboards.

Don't Stand Me Down

By the time of Don't Stand Me Down, released on 13 September 1985, the line-up had shrunk from ten to four. Sessions with the producers Jimmy Miller and Tom Dowd ended with both dismissed, and Nick Gatfield called the making of it long, painful and more expensive than Too-Rye-Ay. Rowland refused publicity and released no single from it. An edited version of This Is What She's Like appeared that November and missed the charts.

The record was a commercial failure, and the band disbanded in early 1987. Rowland released the solo album The Wanderer in 1988. Creation reissued Don't Stand Me Down in 1997, and critics have since called it a neglected masterpiece.

Return

Rowland reformed the band in April 2003 as Dexys, with Lucy Morgan, Pete Williams, Mick Talbot, Neil Hubbard and Paterson in the line-up. One Day I'm Going to Soar came out on BMG in June 2012, and Let the Record Show: Dexys Do Irish and Country Soul followed in 2016 and reached number ten. Madeleine Hyland joined on vocals in 2011, and Sean Read and Michael Timothy in 2013. A tour for the fortieth anniversary of Too-Rye-Ay was cancelled in March 2022 after Rowland's motorcycle accident.

The Feminine Divine reached number six in 2023, the band's highest chart placing in more than 30 years. A live album from the tour followed in May 2024, and the band played Glastonbury that summer. Rowland's memoir Bless Me Father appeared in 2025. In March 2026 the band signed to Heavenly Recordings, and the album LOVE appeared on 4 September 2026.