Ian Dury was a sweetheart of the English rock and pop scene. First getting attention for his music with the Kilburns, surrounded as he was by an experienced cohort of Russell Hardy, Ed Speight, Charlie Hart, George Khan and a conveyor belt of drummers including Chris Lucas, Terry Day and David Newton-Rohoman. Dury had knack of surrounding himself with incredible talent and various line ups and incarnations also saw fall outs, twists and turns from the 1970s almost to his death.
In the High Roads, George Khan was replaced by Davey Payne, Charlie Hart by Humphrey Ocean. There was a debut album, a re-recording and changes to personnel with the newly formed Ian Dury and the Kilburns – later to become Kilburn and the High Roads and various twists and turns. Eventually, Ian Dury and The Blockheads formed.
With the Blockheads behind Ian, there seemed to an undeniable yet fully charged alchemy. The rhythm and free-flowing sax of Davey Payne combined with the intuitive interaction of Norman on bass, the pin-point accuracy of Charlie Charles on drums and his occasional reining in of the rhythm, the fluidity of Mickey Gallagher on keys and Johnny’s amazing voice and guitar playing, together with the disco-funkiness of Chaz Jankel – slightly muted when playing with the Blockheads – brought into being one of the tightest, most musically adept bands of the late 1970s.
Ian Dury enjoyed huge success with several hit records and an album, before the band were largely over taken in the popularity stakes by the likes of Madness (who had followed them and whose style they influenced). The Blockheads, however, continued to perform on and off and the musicians veered in and out of playing with Ian over the decades as well as having their separate careers. Ian tried various incarnations and collaborations including the album Lord Upminster with Sly and Robbie, the Music Students with Michael McEvoy and cohorts, a period without Jankel and with ex-Dr. Feelgood’s Wilko Johnson.
The drama and adventures of Ian Dury would take volumes. He remained popular through his acting, his portrayal of the vernacular, avuncular miscreant and had a place in many hearts – and still does.
When Dury was with the Blockheads, however, they established a period of solid, strong and coherent music and a combination of their talents and his devilment led to them filling a musical gap which existed at the time. Although called new wave, Dury and company were more their own wave – one which rode high for a while and then leveled out as the band diverged.
Charlie Charles and Ian Dury left this world, and personnel changes altered the group dynamics and appeal. After Dury died in 2000, the Blockheads decided to continue and still pack a punch in many venues up and down the U.K. and occasionally in Europe. John Turnbull stepped up to vocal duties for a while before Ian’s long-time friend Derek Hussey took on permanent Dury duty. They toured with guest vocalists, including stalwart supporter and fellow honorary Blockhead Phil Jupitus.
The Blockheads remain a popular touring band and have enjoyed a steady flow of gigs. Now they are Derek Hussey on vocals, Johnny Turnbull on guitar, Norman Watt-Roy on bass, Chaz Jankel on keys and guitar, Mickey Gallagher on Hammond organ, John Roberts on drums and a rolling line up of Terry Edwards, Dave Lewis and Gilad Atzmon on saxes – apart from when other commitments take them away temporarily: Watt-Roy is a veteran of Wilko Johnson’s band and has worked with ex-Blockhead drummer Dylan Howe. Turnbull collaborates with Bob Geldof, while Atzmon leads jazz ensembles from his base in Greece, making his returns are less frequent.
There are sometimes rumors of Davey Payne (flutes, saxes) returning for some gigs too – which is a stroke of genius because, perhaps second only to Dury, Payne was key to the Blockheads’ original sound. In the meantime, COVID-19 has meant things which were planned have been put on hold.
“Gilad is in Greece but will be with us whenever possible,” the Blockheads’ Mickey Gallagher says. Rotating replacement Dave Lewis “has worked out great in recent years. We tend to ask Davey Payne to come and play whenever we are in the West Country, as his commitments and location prohibit easy travel to be included in larger tours. Of course, the “new normal’ – which includes not allowing us to go out – inhibits everything in the events sector, and new modes of operation are being explored. To date any solutions have been scuppered by legislation and the fear in communities have reached a point where any mention of a festival or gathering brings out the locals with their pitchforks! All we can do at the moment is roll with the punches and hang on. All 2020 shows have been kicked down the road to 2021. How many will be left standing by then?”
Fans can content themselves until then with Hit Me: The Best of Ian Dury, a new three-disc compilation. The first disc opens with “Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll,” followed by the entire tracklist from New Boots and Panties, interspersed with scattered tracks from the Kilburn and the High Roads’ album Wotabunch. The second disc begins with three hit singles, all but two tracks from the album Laughter and three b-sides, which have become as famous as the a-sides.
The third disc is a mix of songs from Mr. Love Pants, Ten More Turnips From the Tip, another track or two from Laughter, a couple of singles and b-sides and a live recording of “Spasticus Autisticus” – a track which Ian Dury held particularly dear to his heart because it was released for 1980’s Year of the Disabled but then banned by many radio stations, which hurt him. There is also a sprinkling of tracks from Mr. Love Pants and the final tracks are “Bed O’Roses No. 9,” “O’Donegal” from The Bus Driver’s Prayer and Other Stories, two more tracks from Ten More Turnips From the Tip, “I Believe,” “One Love” and “England’s Glory” from his musical Apples.
That most of the songs are brilliant on Hit Me: The Best of Ian Dury cannot be denied. A gift left by a wordsmith from his time, playing with great musicians and a dynamism which flows between them like water and you are going to get that. That Dury is missed, the band are never quite the same – it was one of those relationships where the band needed Dury and he in turn needed the band – is also true.
The question is perhaps why release numerous tracks on a three-disc set which you can hear by playing the original albums – and most Ian Dury fans will have these. It is good to see a mix of different arrangements of the Blockheads, but it does feel like Dury fans are being asked once again to dig into their pockets to buy another re-arrangement of a collection of music they have heard before. It would be even cooler to include some of their more recent music.
That said, Hit Me has been curated brilliantly and shows his artistic breadth – from the 1970s to more recently.
Highlights along the way include New Boots and Panties (which spent 87 weeks on the British Album charts); his No. 1 single “Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick” – a slightly rude, tongue-in-cheek song that rode out the charts at No. 2 for weeks before hitting the top spot, something which Ian Dury said meant it actually sold more records than if it had gone straight to No. 1; and a series of middle-career recordings when some felt he lost his way a bit. (There were still some incredible numbers, like “Ban the Bomb” and “Peter the Painter” amongst them, which reflected personal aspects of Dury’s life and beliefs – making them well worth seeking out.)
Hit Me: The Best of Ian Dury is available as a 50-track compact-disc set and a 20-track vinyl gatefold LP, and also as download. Sleeve notes are provided by Phil Jupitus, who stood ably in on Dury duty for their 2005 tour and several concerts outside of that.
For me, the Blockheads have been in and out of my life. I began as a bit of a fan when I was very young, then wrote with them when I was a little older. More recently, I’ve gotten to know Gilad Atzmon well and been privy to a few conversations regarding past personnel, but they still feel like a family in some ways. There is the return to the familiar, the spats, the respect.
Dury was a bit of a magician in that he juggled different personas, presented himself in different ways and much of his character is reflected in the variable qualities prevalent in his music. The appeal is that he was very human and also very talented and Hit Me is a great way to get to know the breadth of his music.
Jupitus sums up in his sleeve notes: “As I look over these tracks, I’m reminded of certain times in my life. Certain feelings. Wonderful gigs, interminable car journeys, close friends, new friends, family, mad nights out, sad times, the biological father I never knew. Ian and the band’s music has been such a part of our lives that it has that kind of effect.”
Listening through the tracks and deciding the reasons perhaps for this particular combination, it becomes clear that they sort of chart a life – and a paradox that was Dury with his Blockheads. The most unlikely pop stars, being as they were early- to mid-30s, unglamorous, the sax player influenced by the great jazz players he adored as a kid, the lead singer brash and loud on stage, the fusing of pub rock with punk and a brush of music hall yet it somehow worked.
Their combination of musical backgrounds, origins, schooling, musical journeys and styles sounds like it could not work, but the fact that it did for a good while made them popular because people could see almost every kind of person there in the diversity. At the heart of the Blockheads was a music tightness and coherence on some numbers which, along with Dury’s choice of phrasing and lyrical presentation of his words, made the tracks stand out.
The breadth of musical style Dury encompassed along with the musicians is vast, from the superb strings introduction to “Sueperman’s Big Sister,” the verbalized instructions “take it to the right of the jukebox, please” (or whatever you interpret the words to be) at the start of “Hit Me,” the funk, the jazz , the soul – all are there as Dury picked up the influences of nearly everyone he ever heard or saw. It’s all brushed with that indefinable Blockheads polish.
So yes, Hit Me: The Best of Ian Dury is nostalgia but it is also curated in such a way you get a real insight into Dury’s musical persona: the homage to Gene Vincent; the brash, crassness of some of the lines; and the endearing admiration Dury had for past rockers. He was loved young and old and gone, but his music has been treasured, reassuringly played for many years by the Blockheads as they continue touring – and now, everyone can own some of it.
The current line up put on a great show and are well worth going to see as they provide an example of a tight, completely on-point combo – in particular when they are playing as the full familiar line up, which since 1998 has meant Gilad Atzmon on saxes and John Roberts on drums. There is a hankering for the original line up by many, and at a gig a few years back a guy tapped me on the shoulder after an Atzmon solo and said: “He’s great, but no Davey Payne huh?” If I had replied, I might have replied: “No, but the band chose well.”
Things change, time moves inexorably on but the music remains – and Hit Me: The Best of Ian Dury is one way to experience it almost in full.
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