DEXYS MIDNIGHT RUNNERS

Random and bite-sized facts on all things from the mythical figures that made up Dexys Midnight Runners. Totally random but totally fascinating if you're into it. Do you know Dexys Midnight Runners now?

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THE JOCKY WILSON MIX-UP WAS DELIBERATE

When Dexys Midnight Runners performed "Jackie Wilson Said" on Top of the Pops in 1982, the screen behind them showed Scottish darts player Jocky Wilson instead of American soul singer Jackie Wilson. Everyone assumed the BBC had made a mistake. It hadn't. Kevin Rowland later revealed that the band had requested the picture as a joke, even after the producer warned him that viewers would think it was a blunder.

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Dexys Began Before Dexys Existed

"Tell Me When My Light Turns Green" was already a Dexys song before Dexys Midnight Runners existed. Kevin Rowland had written it while he was still in the punk band The Killjoys.

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Michael Rennie

For me, a small part of the genius that is Kevin Rowland is that he name checked the British actor Michael Rennie in There There My Dear. He was something like 6ft4" and good looking in a distinguished sort of way. He was best known for the film "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951) but he had such screen presence it's hard to take your eyes off him whatever the film. Wicked Lady with Margaret Lockwood was another, I recall.

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Kevin Rowland Was Only 23 When He Wrote It

Kevin Rowland wrote the lyrics to "Tell Me When My Light Turns Green" when he was 23, although the song wasn't released until he was 26. He later said that he wrote the lyrics because he felt he had to.

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Big Jim Paterson Joined Almost By Accident

Big Jim Paterson became a member of Dexys after seeing an advert in Melody Maker looking for a trombone and trumpet player. He phoned up while slightly drunk, went for an audition and got the job.

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They Once Stole Their Own Master Tapes

Dexys actually took their own master tapes from EMI during a dispute over royalties. Kevin Rowland later recalled that they did it because they wanted a better deal.

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They Refused to Become a Backing Band

During their early days, Dexys were asked to provide their brass section for other artists, including Robert Plant and members of the Specials. They refused, because Rowland didn't want anyone else using the distinctive Dexys sound.

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Five Members Left at Once

After the first album, five members of Dexys announced that they wanted to leave and form their own version of the group. Rowland initially felt relieved by the split, before deciding that he wasn't prepared to lose the Dexys name.

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They Rehearsed For Nine Hours a Day

When Dexys were first forming in Birmingham, Rowland and Kevin Archer auditioned dozens of musicians and the eventual band developed an extremely demanding rehearsal routine, sometimes practising for around nine hours a day.

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They Banned Themselves From Easy Exposure

Dexys were so determined not to become just another band on the scene that they refused some easy opportunities for exposure. They even used adverts in the music press to make their statements rather than giving interviews.

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The Boy on the Album Cover Didn't Know He Was on It

The boy on the cover of Searching for the Young Soul Rebels was 13-year-old Tony O'Shaughnessy, photographed fleeing his home in Belfast in 1971. He didn't know the photograph had been used until Dexys came to play Belfast in 1980 and he saw people selling records with his face on them.

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Kevin Rowland Wanted Ireland on the Cover

Kevin Rowland said he wanted a photograph showing unrest for the cover of Searching for the Young Soul Rebels. He said it could have been from anywhere, but he was secretly glad that the picture turned out to be from Ireland.

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Dexys Used to Run Before Rehearsals

When the second Dexys lineup was forming, Kevin Rowland introduced group running as part of the band's routine. They would run around parks and into rehearsals for anything from half an hour to 45 minutes.

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The Band Had No Tour Bus

On some of their early long tours, Dexys travelled in a 15-seat minibus with the musicians sleeping on top of each other. Bassist Pete Williams later described those tours as "really ill-advised".

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They Were Almost Obsessed With Physical Fitness

Kevin Rowland treated Dexys partly like a gang and partly like a team. Physical fitness became part of the band's identity, with running and exercise used to build what Rowland called a sense of togetherness and fighting spirit.

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The First Dexys Gig Was in 1978

Dexys played their first gig in December 1978. Because established venues were difficult for a new band to break into, they helped create their own circuit of youth-club gigs around Birmingham and the Black Country.

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The Band Name Comes From an Amphetamine

"Dexys" comes from Dexedrine, an amphetamine-based stimulant. The full name Dexys Midnight Runners referred to what the drug supposedly made you do: run around at night.

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"Dance Stance" Was Originally Called "Burn It Down"

Dexys originally called "Dance Stance" "Burn It Down". Bernard Rhodes, who was managing the band, persuaded them to change the title because he thought "Burn It Down" was too inflammatory.

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Dexys Were Offered a Deal by Two Tone

Dexys came close to signing to Two Tone in their early days. Kevin Rowland later said they were offered a deal, but he didn't want Dexys to become part of somebody else's movement.

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Kevin Rowland Wasn't Into Northern Soul

Although Dexys became strongly associated with Northern Soul, Rowland later said he wasn't actually part of the Northern Soul scene. He had discovered soul music as a teenager in London and was more interested in funk.

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"Geno" Was About Someone Rowland Saw as a Child

Kevin Rowland first saw Geno Washington perform when he was about 11 years old. Years later, that memory became the subject of "Geno", which gave Dexys their first UK number one.

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Only Two First-Album Songs Were Written by Rowland and Archer Together

On Searching for the Young Soul Rebels, only "Geno" and "There, There, My Dear" were written jointly by Kevin Rowland and Kevin Archer. The rest of the album came from different combinations of writers and arrangements.

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Their Record Company Owned the Songs They Didn't Want Released

When Dexys recorded a batch of songs as early studio sessions, Kevin Rowland didn't consider some of them finished recordings. Years later, the record company released them anyway because it owned the recordings.

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They Didn't Want to Be an "80s" Band

When Dexys returned after their long break, Kevin Rowland was determined that they shouldn't simply tour their old hits. He said they hadn't waited 27 years to come back and turn themselves into a revival act.

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They Banned Drugs Despite Their Name

Dexys were named after Dexedrine, an amphetamine associated with the Northern Soul scene, but Kevin Rowland banned drugs from the band. He wanted Dexys to be disciplined and focused, treating the group more like a team than a typical rock band.

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They Nearly Wiped Out Their Own Album

After stealing the master tapes of Searching for the Young Soul Rebels from EMI, Dexys had to get them back to Birmingham. The tapes were taken through the London Underground, where they risked being wiped by the magnetic barriers.

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They Wanted to Look Different From Other Bands

The original Dexys wore donkey jackets and woolly hats as part of their carefully worked-out image. Kevin Rowland later said he wanted the group to look like a formed unit rather than a collection of random musicians.

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Their Original Look Was Almost a New Romantic Look

Kevin Rowland later said he wished Dexys had kept the original look they started with in 1978. Their management and record label talked them out of it, and a couple of years later Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet appeared with a similar style.

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They Refused to Do Session Work

Dexys were asked to provide their brass section for other musicians, including Robert Plant, the Specials and Glen Matlock. They refused because Rowland didn't want other artists using what he considered the Dexys sound.

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Rowland and Jim Paterson Wrote All Night

After most of the original Dexys lineup left, Kevin Rowland and Big Jim Paterson started writing together. Paterson said they sometimes worked for 16 hours at a time, writing through the night.

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Rowland Once Wanted Dexys to Be Like a Gang

Kevin Rowland deliberately ran the early Dexys as something between a gang and a team. He imposed rules about fitness, clothing and behaviour because he wanted the members to feel that they belonged to something bigger than just a band.

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They Refused to Give Interviews

Kevin Rowland imposed a press embargo on Dexys during the Searching for the Young Soul Rebels period. Instead of giving interviews, the band placed statements in music papers explaining their position. Rowland later admitted that this infuriated the music press.

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Rowland Called the Music Press "Dishonest"

Rowland wasn't simply shy about interviews. He described the music press as dishonest and said he didn't want Dexys to become part of the music industry's usual way of doing things.

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"There, There, My Dear" Was About Success

After the original Dexys lineup broke apart, Kevin Rowland and Big Jim Paterson began writing together again. "There, There, My Dear" came from Rowland's feeling that success hadn't made him happy and his frustration at seeing other people on television.

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They Tried to Write Their Own "Bohemian Rhapsody"

During the writing of their second album, Rowland and Paterson set out to write something they jokingly described as their own "Bohemian Rhapsody". The result was "Plan B", one of the songs that grew out of their long writing sessions.

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The Band's First Look Came From Mean Streets

The original Dexys image was partly inspired by Martin Scorsese's 1973 film Mean Streets. They later changed the look to resemble New York dock workers from On the Waterfront, complete with donkey jackets, leather coats and woolly hats.

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Rowland Was a Trained Hairdresser

Before Dexys, Kevin Rowland trained as a hairdresser. He later used that eye for appearance when creating the band's carefully controlled visual identities, which changed dramatically from one Dexys era to another.

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Big Jim Stopped Playing for 16 Years

Big Jim Paterson eventually stopped playing the trombone and put his instrument in the loft. When Rowland reconvened Dexys in the 2000s, Paterson had been away from the instrument for 16 years.

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Their "Soul" Label Annoyed Rowland Later

Although Searching for the Young Soul Rebels put the word "soul" right into its title, Rowland later regretted attaching the label to Dexys. He said that once you label music, you can kill it, and wished they had simply called themselves Dexys.

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They Once Refused to Play "Geno"

Dexys became so fed up with audiences shouting for "Geno" that Kevin Rowland once told a crowd in Dundalk that anyone who had come expecting to hear it could leave. The irony was that the song was the only Dexys record many people there actually knew.

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"Tell Me When My Light Turns Green" Was Nearly Lost

When Dexys first recorded "Tell Me When My Light Turns Green", their producer didn't like the result. Kevin Rowland didn't like the production either and decided he couldn't work with him, helping lead to Dexys signing directly to EMI.

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Rowland Didn't Think the First Album Was Finished

The master tapes of Searching for the Young Soul Rebels became the centre of a dispute with EMI. Dexys took the tapes because they wanted a better royalties deal, delaying the album's release.

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Big Jim Had Stopped Playing Trombone

When Kevin Rowland reconvened Dexys years later, Big Jim Paterson's trombone was literally in the loft. He hadn't played for 16 years and had stopped drinking, but Rowland persuaded him to return.

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Rowland Put His Own Words Into "Geno"

Kevin Rowland first saw Geno Washington perform when he was a child, and that memory became the starting point for Dexys' "Geno". Rowland wasn't trying to write a conventional tribute: the song was also about himself, his memories and what Washington's performance meant to him.

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They Gave Up Their Day Jobs

The original Dexys members eventually gave up their jobs because they agreed the band had to be 100%. They rejected other work that might have brought in easy money, including offers for their brass section to play on other artists' records.

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Rowland Used a Brendan Behan Book for Lyrics

While writing "Tell Me When My Light Turns Green", Rowland looked at the back of a biography of Brendan Behan and saw the names of famous Irish writers. He later admitted that he hadn't actually read most of them at the time — he simply put their names into the lyric.

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