Ian Dury was a fixture in UK Punk and New Wave culture in the late 70’s.
With his bands Kilburn and The High Roads and The Blockheads (featuring ex Dr Feelgood guitar legend Wilko Johnson) - Dury created an amazing series of albums and singles that captured the times, with his rhymes and music that encompassed everything from rock and roll to funk.
His style was unique - and a result of tragically contracting polio as a child. He was hospital bound for years during his childhood - but wordplay, poems and how he looked at the world became his defense to the new world he found himself in.
School days were challenging as he fought to overcome the challenges of having a disability - with physical and verbal attacks.
As a result he developed a tough exterior and gained respect through music and drawing.
Going on to art school he found his spiritual home working under the tutelage of respected artist (and Beatles Sgt Pepper album cover fame) : Peter Blake.
Dury himself became an art teacher and illustrator.
On the scene in the early UK pub rock scene in 1974 with Kilburn and The High Roads - he was cultivating a sound and style that was a precursor to influencing Punk and New Wave - just about to explode.
Major labels passed on Dury however it was the new Stiff label that signed him with his new group The Blockheads.
Classics like “Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll” in 1977- with Dury’s vamping rhyming slang ,ushered in the golden period.
I remember him as regular fixture on BBC’s Top of The Pops - notably the lyrics and vocal delivery in “What a Waste” in early 1978 -the ode to all school leavers as I was at that time -not to waste your life, but be someone!
I could be the driver an articulated lorry
I could be a poet, I wouldn't need to worry
I could be a teacher in a classroom full of scholars
I could be the sergeant in a squadron full of wallahs
What a waste
What a waste
What a waste
What a waste
“Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick” in 1979 propelled him to number one in the UK singles chart and was a high point.
His series of classic albums notably “New Boots and Panties!! “ in 1977 - were classics and essential in every record collection at the time.
He fused 50’s rock and roll, funk ,disco even British Music Hall that gave him universal appeal.
His tough demeanor and incisive lyrics and rhyme schemes captivated a generation and influenced thousands of guitar bands that would follow.
Think Blur and The Smiths.
Great memories of a great time, with me hearing Ian Dury singles blasting out of juke boxes in London pubs in those gritty tough Punk and New Wave days in the late 70’s!
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