Skip to content
Sign inOpen the app
Artwork for Word In Your Ear
Word In Your Ear · July 8 · 40 min

Kevin Rowland, the new Dexys and what he's learnt from life

We first saw Kevin in ‘77 wearing jodhpurs onstage with his art-punk band the Killjoys! He’s formed a new version of Dexys, made an album, starts a tour in October, and looks back here at central moments in his life, some recent ones so huge and affecting “that I put them to music” and they’ll be performed as a drama in the first half of these upcoming theatre shows. This touches - in vivid detail - on bands that inspired him, repaired relationships, a health crisis, what it took to be a singer in the first place and what’s requires now to put the show back on the road, along with … … memories of music before the Beatles … playing Jim Reeves and Ricky Nelson in a social club band in 1975 “after the bingo” … the touching shift of power in his relationship with his 102 year-old father: “he was like a child again, he needed me” … Roxy Music on Top Of The Pops, “I couldn’t believe you could be avant garde AND commercial” … life on the Top Rank circuit supporting the Specials: “you learnt not to play at an audience but play for them” … making Searching For The Young Soul Rebels in ten days with producer Pete Wingfield dancing in the studio … “Come On Eileen doesn’t belong to me anymore” … the alarming spectacle of an ‘80s Hear & Now package tour and what it taught him .. the song he wrote for his grandchildren (one of whom is 31) … a possibly terminal diagnosis in 2024 and “like Wilko Johnson, the relief I felt” … and the Tim Buckley song he just recorded without knowing who wrote it! Order the new Dexys album ‘Love’ here: https://dexysofficial.lnk.to/love And tour tickets here: https://dexys.tmstor.es/Live Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

0:00-40:42
Play in podnod

transcript

No transcript — this publisher did not publish one.

show notes

We first saw Kevin in ‘77 wearing jodhpurs onstage with his art-punk band the Killjoys! He’s formed a new version of Dexys, made an album, starts a tour in October, and looks back here at central moments in his life, some recent ones so huge and affecting “that I put them to music” and they’ll be performed as a drama in the first half of these upcoming theatre shows. This touches - in vivid detail - on bands that inspired him, repaired relationships, a health crisis, what it took to be a singer in the first place and what’s requires now to put the show back on the road, along with …

 

… memories of music before the Beatles

 

… playing Jim Reeves and Ricky Nelson in a social club band in 1975 “after the bingo”

 

… the touching shift of power in his relationship with his 102 year-old father: “he was like a child again, he needed me”

 

… Roxy Music on Top Of The Pops, “I couldn’t believe you could be avant garde AND commercial”

 

… life on the Top Rank circuit supporting the Specials: “you learnt not to play at an audience but play for them”

 

 … making Searching For The Young Soul Rebels in ten days with producer Pete Wingfield dancing in the studio

 

… “Come On Eileen doesn’t belong to me anymore”

 

… the alarming spectacle of an ‘80s Hear & Now package tour and what it taught him

 

.. the song he wrote for his grandchildren (one of whom is 31)

 

… a possibly terminal diagnosis in 2024 and “like Wilko Johnson, the relief I felt”

 

… and the Tim Buckley song he just recorded without knowing who wrote it!

 

Order the new Dexys album ‘Love’ here: https://dexysofficial.lnk.to/love

 

And tour tickets here: https://dexys.tmstor.es/Live

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

links4

more episodes

All episodes