Episode

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

Podcast
Word In Your Ear
Published
Jul 8, 2026
Duration seconds
2442
Processing state
not_requested
Canonical source
https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear
Audio
https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/5ff0586154e2a73589267809/e/6a4e037a195f86360508cdcb/media.mp3
JSON
/v1/public/podcasts/word-in-your-ear-66565/episodes/kevin-rowland-the-new-dexys-and-what-he-s-learnt-from-life
Markdown
/podcast/word-in-your-ear-66565/kevin-rowland-the-new-dexys-and-what-he-s-learnt-from-life.md

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Summary

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 g…