Episode Ep 935 July 8, 2026 40 min 42s

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

From Word In Your Ear Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold

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