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

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This week’s penalty shoot-out of news sorts the surefire hits from the over-the-bar misses. That final score again …

… what Morrissey’s only gone and done now

… when your logo’s worth than your songs

… Taylor Swift’s wedding and how Sly Stone got there first

… do musicians care about awards?

… Divine Comedy, Jonathan Richman, Fountains of Wayne, Zappa: why are ‘humorous’ records so divisive?

… happy 200th birthday Stephen Foster, the man who invented the pop song!

… and cover versions of his songs you’ll know - Hard Times Come Again No More (Dylan, Springsteen, Emmylou Harris), Beautiful Dreamer (the Beatles), My Old Kentucky Home (Randy Newman), Oh Susannah (James Taylor), Camptown Races and many more

… why comic actors are funnier on TV than in films

… the delicious melancholy of songs about going home

… when did musicians ‘go pro’? Did the Clash or the Faces consider themselves ‘professionals’?

… Oasis, New Order, the Hollies, Herman’s Hermits, Corrie, Man City/Man U, the Smiths: why is Manchester Feud Central?

… plus Margot, Jerry & the take-away curry, and birthday guest Guy Constant.

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The blistering heat of 1976 burnt various things onto the memory – standpipes, strikes, Entebbe, ‘Confessions’ movies, Jeremy Thorpe – but most of all the records that became its soundtrack, some of them revolutionary, others begging for extinction. John L Williams captures the moment in ‘Heatwave: the Summer of 1976, Britain at Boiling Point’ and a paints of picture of a country on the brink of a vast pop-cultural shift. We talk to him here about …

… violence at gigs and football and on Derek & Clive albums

… dumb people pretending to be clever (prog rock) and clever people pretending to be dumb (Ramones)

… the rise of Joan Armatrading in the days before ‘identity’ marketing

… how ‘funny’ t-shirts were the memes of their day

… when Tom Robinson saw the future in Scarborough

… “mainstream culture gave you things to both love and hate”

... how Rock Follies featured an imaginary Blitz Club where people danced in military uniforms

… Andy Summers (with Kevin Ayers) and Stewart Copeland (Curved Air) on the same bill a year before the Police

… why anyone with a Sensational Alex Harvey Band scarf got a wide berth

… Time Out’s headline: "It's the Buzz, Cock!"

… Tom Waits, aged 25, unconvincing hobo-hipster

… and Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Emmanuelle and the lowest point of the Radio One Roadshow.

Order copies of ‘Heatwave’ here: https://tinyurl.com/2kudc6xr

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.