There’s been quite a procession of tributes to the newly departed on the site. So it’s heartwarming to see one of our elder stars as pumped full of life as the LGTS(FTS)H is here. It’s a long way from the best thing he’s ever done and I wish the production was a twist punchier (that fade out – like an old geezer’s piss stream), but it’s colourful and chipper and will be getting me out of bed for this month of April and for that I am gratepril..
Kevin Rowland …. LIP
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In a similar spirit – and in similar grooving down the street fashion – here’s the new Rhoda Dakar single:
More the Wanderer than Don’t Stand Me Down, but some Kev is better than no Kev.
Still live in hope that I’ll get to see him live in Dublin one of these days
@Jaygee tour dates will be announced imminently and I for on can’t wait. His last tour was a exceptional.
The tour that was cancelled due to the bike accident had no dates in Ireland listed.
Also – per my remark above about “the best thing he’s ever done” – I had no idea that this video was up on Yer Tube in its full unexpurgated glory:
Not normally one to promote male grooming, but a bit of cherry blossom would do wonders for his tache. He looks disturbingly like Windsor Davies in that vid.
That’s kinder – and more constructive – than the dude in the comments who compares his present singing style to a drunk Kermit The Frog. Harsh!
I’m not sure the one-piece romper suit look is going to catch on for men of a certain age, but it least it covers up his undercrackers. No chance of builder’s bum, I suppose.
Musically, I didn’t get the last couple of Dexys albums, although they amde a bit more sense on the live DVD.
Indeed. Kermit has never touched alcohol.
I’m not sure if an artist can plagiarize themselves but does anyone else think it sounds remarkably similar to Tell Me When My Light Turns Green?
which is a good thing
(isn’t it?)
It is
It does and it is.
Not sure about the look though. Some sort of religious Cloggie cult?
Despite my liking of the song and Dexys in general, he is looking somewhat ridiculous these days. I liked the look from around the last album and thought it really suited him, but this is a sort of overdressed and over thought idea of style. No one should ever look like they’ve been “styled” and he does here.
I thought it was his audition tape for The Joker
It’s built round the acoustic version of Tell Me that the 83 band did live.
I liked that.
Nice mid 1980’s vibe like The Style Council.
I went off Mr Rowland after listening to the incredibly non-self-aware track on DSMD – *checks wikipedia* – “One Of Those Things”, where he laments that all music on Radio sounds exactly the same. On a track on an album where all the tracks sound – yep – exactly the same, and the same as most of his output since Too Rye Ay.
This track sounds pretty much exactly the same as that track me. Not a terrible thing, but let’s hold that mirror up to ourselves sometimes, Kev.
Wow that’s a bit harsh.
His last two albums don’t sound anything like each other.
DSMD ha always sounded pretty varied to these ears.
The one thing it doesn’t sound like is anything released
before it or since
Indeed, very harsh. DSMD is one of my favourite albums of the 80s full stop. The barnstorming Listen To This sounding the same as The Waltz or This Is What She’s Like? Nah.
And if anyone needed a mirror more than him…
The song is very good and makes me wish I hadn’t seen the video. He’s walking and dancing like his shoes are anvils. The devil-may-care feel-good persona he is expressing in the song is not quite the same in the video. If he was snapping his fingers as he approached me, I wouldn’t be caught up in his love of life and sharing a fist-bump, I’d be giving him a wide berth.
I’m just bored with the same chord changes and the same self-referential lyrics. Every single song, apart from Old.
Tour dates now announced and my prayers for a Dublin night have been answered with the last show of the tour taking place at the fabulous Olympia Theatre
September:
Tue 5th York, Barbican
Thu 7th Liverpool, Philharmonic
Fri 8th Manchester, Bridgewater Hall
Sun 10th Newcastle, O2 City Hall
Mon 11th Glasgow, Royal Concert Hall
Wed 13th Cardiff, St David’s Hall
Thu 14th Ipswich, Regent Theatre
Sat 16th Wolverhampton, The Halls
Sun 17th Southend, Cliffs Pavilion
Tue 19th Brighton, Dome
Wed 20th London, Palladium
Fri 22nd Bath, Forum
Mon 25th Dublin, 3Olympia Theatre
More about the new album here
Following the announcement of their highly-anticipated new album The Feminine Divine earlier this week, Dexys have announced a September 2023 UK and Irish tour, which includes a show in Olympia Theatre on 25th September 2023. The Feminine Divine Live! will see the band play the new album top to bottom alongside a selection of classics and hits (including plenty from Too Rye Ay).
Tickets priced from €42.55 including booking fee & €1.50 restoration levy on sale Friday 14th April @ 10am with http://www.ticketmaster.ie. Three Ireland Presale tickets on sale Wed 12th April @ 10am with #3plus
The Feminine Divine is Dexys’ fifth album of original material produced once again by Pete Schwier, along with acclaimed session musician and producer Toby Chapman. After taking some time out to refocus his energy, Kevin Rowland came back to music with a fresh perspective and new-found positivity. A personal, if not strictly autobiographical, record portraying a man whose views have evolved over time. Not just on women, but the whole concept of masculinity he had been raised with: an education and an un-learning that is traced across the arc of The Feminine Divine with dizzying effect.
The record’s first half is full of music hall-esque swagger, much of it written with original Dexys’ trombonist Big Jim Paterson (a non-touring band member). The second side of the record is like nothing Dexys have done before. A saucy, synth-heavy cabaret, written in collaboration with Sean Read and Mike Timothy. It’s steamy, fizzing and sultry, at times doom-laden and heavy and at other times raunchy and funky. Quite a heady mix.
With over a billion worldwide streams, three top 10 albums in the UK, two number 1 singles, a Brit Award and a multi-platinum selling album with their sophomore release Too-Rye-Ay (as Dexys Midnight Runners), Dexys are as vital and exciting today as ever. The Feminine Divine marks a new chapter in a book that just keeps getting better and better.
I didn’t see the One Day I’m Going to Soar tour because of the “playing the new album in full” thing, but later bought the live CD/DVD and kicked myself for not going.
Ah! So LIP stood for “live in person”. No Jimmy means Dexys have achieved Trigger’s Broom status (and the new album will mean there’s as many Dexys LPs as there are by Dexys Midnight Runners). The Olympia is a decent venue. Last time they were here they played the National Stadium – not a fan..
Thanks for the info @jaygee
The Olympia is wonderful. The National Stadium is horrible. Only surpassed in its awfulness by the sterile hangar that is the NCH