The Blockheads
Encyclopedia
The Blockheads are an English
rock and roll
band
. Originally fronted by vocalist Ian Dury
as Ian Dury and the Blockheads, the band has continued to perform since Dury's death in 2000. Current members include Chaz Jankel (guitar
), Norman Watt-Roy
(bass guitar
), Mick Gallagher (keyboard
/piano
), John Turnbull (vocals/guitar
) and Davey Payne
(saxophone
). The band are best known for their hit single
s "What a Waste
", "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick
", "Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3
" and "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll".
Under the management of Andrew King
and Peter Jenner
, the original managers of Pink Floyd
, Ian Dury and the Blockheads quickly gained a reputation as one of the top live acts of New Wave music
. They built up a dedicated following in the UK and other countries and scored several hit single
s, including "What a Waste
", "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick
" (which was a UK number one at the beginning of 1979, selling just short of a million copies), "Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3
" (number three in the UK in 1979), and the rock and roll anthem
, "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll". (Although it is sometimes claimed that Dury coined the phrase, there is evidence that it was already in common use and a virtually identical wording was used by Australian band Daddy Cool
for the title of their second album Sex, Dope & Rock'n'Roll: Teenage Heaven, released in 1972.) The tune is based on part of Charlie Haden
's bass solo on "Ramblin'" on Ornette Coleman
's 1959 album Change of the Century.)
Dury's lyrics are a distinctive combination of lyrical poetry
, word play
, observation of British everyday (working-class) life, acute character sketches, and vivid, earthy sexual humour. "This is what we find ... [H]ome improvement expert Harold Hill of Harold Hill, Of do-it-yourself dexterity and double-glazing skill, Came home to find another gentleman's kippers in the grill, So he sanded off his winkle with his Black & Decker drill." The song "Billericay Dickie
" continues this sexual content, rhyming "I had a love affair with Nina, In the back of my Cortina
" with "A seasoned-up hyena, Could not have been more obscener".
The Blockheads' sound drew from its members' diverse musical influences, which included jazz
, rock and roll, funk
, and reggae
, and Dury's love of music hall
. The band was formed after Dury began writing songs with pianist and guitarist Chaz Jankel
(the brother of noted music video, TV, commercial and film director Annabel Jankel
). Jankel took Dury's lyrics, fashioned a number of songs, and they began recording with members of Radio Caroline
's Loving Awareness Band—drummer Charley Charles (born Hugh Glenn Mortimer Charles, Guyana
1945), bassist Norman Watt-Roy
, keyboard player Mick Gallagher, guitarist John Turnbull -- and former Kilburns saxophonist Davey Payne
. An album was completed, but major record labels passed on the band. However, next door to Dury's manager's office was the newly formed Stiff Records
, a perfect home for Dury's maverick style. Their classic single, "Sex & Drugs & Rock and Roll", marked Dury's Stiff debut and although it was banned by the BBC
it was named Single of the Week by NME
on its release. It was soon followed by the album New Boots and Panties!!, which was eventually to achieve platinum status.
In October 1977 Dury and his band started performing as Ian Dury and the Blockheads, when the band signed on for the Stiff "Live Stiffs Tour" alongside Elvis Costello
and the Attractions, Nick Lowe
, Wreckless Eric
, and Larry Wallis
. The tour was a success, and Stiff launched a concerted Ian Dury marketing campaign, resulting in the Top Ten hit, "What a Waste", and the classic hit single, "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick", which reached #1 in the UK, was notably not included on the original release of their subsequent LP Do It Yourself. Both the single and its accompanying music video
featured Davey Payne simultaneously playing dual saxophones during his solo, in evident homage to jazz saxophonist Rahsaan Roland Kirk
, whose 'trademark' technique this was.
The band's second album Do It Yourself
was released in June 1979 in a Barney Bubbles
-designed sleeve of which there were over a dozen variations, all based on samples from the Crown
wallpaper
catalogue. Bubbles also designed the Blockhead logo which received international acclaim, and continued to be used by the Blockheads after Dury's death, e.g. on their DVD: Live in Colchester 2004.
Jankel left the band temporarily and relocated to the U.S. after the release of "What A Waste" (his organ part on that single was overdubbed later) but he subsequently returned to the UK and began touring sporadically with the Blockheads, eventually returning to the group full-time for the recording of "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick"; according to Mickey Gallagher, the band recorded 28 takes of the song but eventually settled on the second take for the single release. Partly due to personality clashes with Dury, Jankel quit the group again in 1980, after the recording of the Do It Yourself LP, and he returned to the USA to concentrate on his solo career. The group worked solidly over the eighteen months between the release of "Rhythm Stick" and their next single, "Reasons To Be Cheerful", which returned them to the charts, making the UK Top 10. Jankel was replaced by former Dr. Feelgood
guitarist Wilko Johnson
, who also contributed to the next album Laughter and its two minor hit singles, although Gallagher recalls that the recording of the Laughter album was difficult and that Dury was drinking heavily in this period. In 1980-81 Dury and Jankel teamed up again with Sly and Robbie
and the Compass Point All Stars
to record Lord Upminster. The Blockheads toured the U.K and Europe throughout 1981, sometimes augmented by jazz legend Don Cherry
on trumpet, ending the year with their only tour of Australia.
The Blockheads disbanded in early 1982 after Dury secured a new recording deal with Polydor Records
through A&R man Frank Neilson. Choosing to work with a group of young musicians which he named The Music Students, he recorded the album Four Thousand Weeks' Holiday. This album marked a departure from his usual style and was not as well received by fans for its American jazz influence.
cricket-ground. The way the pair worked was for Ian Dury to present Jankel with lyric sheets hand-typed by the singer. According to Chas in Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll: The Life of Ian Dury he would be repeatedly given the lyric for "Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll" but Jankel kept rejecting the song only for it to be at the top of the pile again the next time only to be rejected again. This went on until Dury sung the song's guitar riff to Chas and sang the song's title in time with it. Sometime later Jankel heard "Ramblin", a tune by Ornette Coleman
(from the album Change of The Century that also included Charlie Haden
and Don Cherry
) and heard exactly the same bass riff being played by Haden.
Ian Dury once apologised to Coleman for lifting the riff but, as Coleman explained, he (or possibly Haden) had lifted it himself from a Kentucky
folk tune called Old Joe Clark
. An alternative version to this story exists: as Dury explained when he guested on BBC Radio 4
'sDesert Island Discs
, he had apologied to Charlie Haden
at Ronnie Scott's Club for the riff lift, who responded by saying there was no need for an apology as he had lifted it from an old cajun
tune.
The single did not chart, selling only around 19,000 copies (a small amount for a single in 1977) but won critical acclaim. A factor of this poor sales could be Stiff Record's singles deletion policy designed to promote initial sales and as such, chart success. The original single was deleted after only two months.
Released as it was in the height of the popularity of punk rock
, the song was misinterpreted (as it is often is to this day) as a song about excess as its title and chorus would suggest. Although the single was banned by the BBC
, a number of Radio 1
disc jockeys, including Annie Nightingale
and John Peel
, continued to promote the record by playing the mildly salacious B-side "Razzle In My Pocket". Dury himself, however maintained that the song was not a punk anthem and said he was trying to suggest that there was more to life than a 9-to-5 existence (such as in his track-by-track comments in the sleeve-notes of Repertoire Records
' Reasons To Be Cheerful: The Best Of Ian Dury & The Blockheads compilation). The verses themselves are at times somewhat riddle-like, although always suggestive of an alternative lifestyle:
The title of the song became part of the English language and was later used in many other song lyrics.
, the song is filled with name-checks for places in Essex
. It is based around naughty rhymes such as:
Each verse tells a different short story, relating one of Dickie's sexual conquests around south-eastern England, while in the choruses the character insists he is a caring, conscientious lover and 'not a thickie', even giving the names of two girls ("a pair of squeaky chickies") as references to attest this. Dickie is a character most commonly referred to in the media as an 'Essex lad'. Ironically the song, perhaps the best example of Dury's 'Englishness' and 'Essexness', was given its oompah, fairground like arrangement by an American, Steve Nugent.
Ian Dury stated on numerous occasions (as mentioned in both his biographies, Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll: The Life Of Ian Dury and Ian Dury & The Blockheads: Song By Song) that he saw Dickie as a pathetic figure. He would reflect this on-stage by breaking down, as if he were about to cry during the final part of the song, before returning to normal, to shout the final lines of the final verse. The song was rarely used as an opening track for live sets (another song from New Boots and Panties!!, "Wake Up And Make Love With Me", was used instead), but it does open the set recorded live at the Hammersmith Odeon, in 1985, that was released as the Hold Onto Your Structure VHS/DVD. Live versions can be found on both of Dury's live albums Warts 'n' Audience and Straight from the Desk
.
that while not condemning 9-to-5 jobs, he had written the song to make people question their lives, echoing the sentiments of his earlier single "Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll
". The song's verses list a number of things the song's narrator could have been, from a driver, poet, teacher or soldier to an inmate in a long-term institution and the ticket man at Fulham railway station
before the chorus reveals that instead he chose to 'play the fool in a six-piece band' highlighting some of the pitfalls of this (loneliness specifically), before deciding that 'rock 'n' roll doesn't mind'.
The song was written following the break-up of Kilburn and the Highroads in a lull between the formation of Ian Dury & the Kilburns and was written with Rod Melvin in mid-1975, two year before it was released. Originally a third writing credit was given to Chaz Jankel (Dury's long-term songwriting companion): this third writing credit has gradually been phased out and the 2004 Edsel Records re-issue of Do it Yourself credits the song to Dury/Melvin solely. However in Ian Dury & The Blockheads: Song By Song, John Turnbull (guitarist with the Blockheads) claims that the middle instrumental section was brought over from one of the songs four of the The Blockhead had written while they were their previous band, Loving Awareness.
Dury's first hit, "What A Waste"/"Wake Up And Make Love With Me" was released in April 1978 just before the start of headlining tour, entering the Top 75 on 29 April and spending 12 weeks there. It peaked at number 9 in the UK Single Charts, becoming Stiff Record's biggest-selling single to date. A very limited 12" pressing was also released.
The single has most likely contributed to the confusion over exactly what Ian Dury songs are by 'Ian Dury & The Blockheads', including as it did "Wake Up and Make Love with Me" on its B-side: this is not a new version of the song re-recorded by the band but the version from New Boots and Panties!! which is not a Blockheads album (although some of the band do play on it). "What a Waste", however, is a Blockheads track.
7" single BUY 38, "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick"/"There Ain't Half Been Some Clever Bastards" went to number one on the UK Singles Chart
in January 1979, and is the band's most successful single ever. It also was named best single of 1979 in the Pazz & Jop
poll.
Its lyrics mix various locations across the world and a number of phrases in non-English languages (including French
and German
). According to its author Ian Dury, the song has an anti-violence message.
The Blockheads (minus Jankel, who returned to California) toured Spain in January 1991, then disbanded again until August 1994 when, following Jankel's return to England, they were invited to reform for the Madstock
Festival in Finsbury Park
; this was followed by sporadic gigs in Europe, Ireland, the U.K. and Japan through late 1994 and 1995. In the early 1990s, Dury appeared with English band Curve
on the benefit compilation album Peace Together
. Dury and Curve singer Toni Halliday
shared vocals on a cover of the Blockheads' track "What a Waste".
In March 1996 Dury was diagnosed with cancer and, after recovering from an operation, he set about writing another album. In early 1998 he reunited with the Blockheads to record the well-received album Mr Love-Pants. In May, Dury and the Blockheads hit the road again, with Dylan Howe replacing Steven Monti on drums. Davey Payne left the group permanently in August and was replaced by Gilad Atzmon; this amended lineup gigged throughout 1999, culminating in their last performance with Ian Dury on 6 February 2000 at the London Palladium
. Dury died six weeks later on 27 March 2000.
and Dave Lewis on saxes. Derek Hussey (aka "Derek The Draw", who was Dury's friend and minder) is now writing songs with Jankel as well as singing. They are aided and abetted by Lee Harris, who is their 'aide de camp'.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
rock and roll
Rock and Roll Music
"Rock and Roll Music" is a song written and recorded by rock and roll icon Chuck Berry which became a hit single in 1957 and has been covered by many artists....
band
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
. Originally fronted by vocalist Ian Dury
Ian Dury
Ian Robins Dury was an English rock and roll singer, lyricist, bandleader and actor who initially rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and New Wave era of rock music...
as Ian Dury and the Blockheads, the band has continued to perform since Dury's death in 2000. Current members include Chaz Jankel (guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
), Norman Watt-Roy
Norman Watt-Roy
Norman Watt-Roy is the bassist for The Blockheads, previously known as Ian Dury & the Blockheads.In November 1954 the Watt-Roy family, including Norman, his older brother Garth and his sister, moved to England...
(bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
), Mick Gallagher (keyboard
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
/piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
), John Turnbull (vocals/guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
) and Davey Payne
Davey Payne
David 'Davey' Payne is an English saxophonist best known as a member of Ian Dury's backing band The Blockheads, and his twin saxophone solo on their 1978 UK #1 single "Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick"....
(saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
). The band are best known for their hit single
Hit single
A hit single is a recorded song or instrumental released as a single that has become very popular. Although it is sometimes used to describe any widely-played or big-selling song, the term "hit" is usually reserved for a single that has appeared in an official music chart through repeated radio...
s "What a Waste
What a Waste
What a Waste is a song and single by Ian Dury and the Blockheads, originally released on the Stiff Records single BUY 27 "What a Waste" / "Wake Up and Make Love with Me"...
", "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick
Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick
"Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick" is a song and single by Ian Dury & The Blockheads, first released 23 November 1978 and was first released on the 7" single BUY 38 Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick / There Ain't Half Been Some Clever Bastards by Stiff Records. It went to number one on the UK Singles...
", "Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3
Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3
"Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3" is a song and single by Ian Dury and the Blockheads, initially released as the single BUY 50 "Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3 / Common as Muck" issued on 20 July 1979 and reached number 3 in the UK singles Chart the following month...
" and "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll".
Formation and early years
Andrew King (music manager)
Andrew King is a music manager, formerly for Blackhill Enterprises, where he co-managed Pink Floyd and others.King, Peter Jenner and the original four members of Pink Floyd were partners in Blackhill Enterprises...
and Peter Jenner
Peter Jenner
Peter Jenner is a British music manager and a record producer. Jenner, Andrew King and the original four members of Pink Floyd were partners in Blackhill Enterprises.- Early career :...
, the original managers of Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
, Ian Dury and the Blockheads quickly gained a reputation as one of the top live acts of New Wave music
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
. They built up a dedicated following in the UK and other countries and scored several hit single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
s, including "What a Waste
What a Waste
What a Waste is a song and single by Ian Dury and the Blockheads, originally released on the Stiff Records single BUY 27 "What a Waste" / "Wake Up and Make Love with Me"...
", "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick
Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick
"Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick" is a song and single by Ian Dury & The Blockheads, first released 23 November 1978 and was first released on the 7" single BUY 38 Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick / There Ain't Half Been Some Clever Bastards by Stiff Records. It went to number one on the UK Singles...
" (which was a UK number one at the beginning of 1979, selling just short of a million copies), "Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3
Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3
"Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3" is a song and single by Ian Dury and the Blockheads, initially released as the single BUY 50 "Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3 / Common as Muck" issued on 20 July 1979 and reached number 3 in the UK singles Chart the following month...
" (number three in the UK in 1979), and the rock and roll anthem
Anthem
The term anthem means either a specific form of Anglican church music , or more generally, a song of celebration, usually acting as a symbol for a distinct group of people, as in the term "national anthem" or "sports anthem".-Etymology:The word is derived from the Greek via Old English , a word...
, "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll". (Although it is sometimes claimed that Dury coined the phrase, there is evidence that it was already in common use and a virtually identical wording was used by Australian band Daddy Cool
Daddy Cool (band)
Daddy Cool is an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne in 1970 with the original line-up of Wayne Duncan , Ross Hannaford , Ross Wilson and Gary Young . Their debut single "Eagle Rock" was released in May 1971 and stayed at number 1 on the Australian singles chart for ten weeks...
for the title of their second album Sex, Dope & Rock'n'Roll: Teenage Heaven, released in 1972.) The tune is based on part of Charlie Haden
Charlie Haden
Charles Edward Haden is an American jazz musician. He is a double bassist, probably best known for his long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman...
's bass solo on "Ramblin'" on Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman is an American saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter and composer. He was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1960s....
's 1959 album Change of the Century.)
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
, word play
Word play
Word play or wordplay is a literary technique in which the words that are used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement...
, observation of British everyday (working-class) life, acute character sketches, and vivid, earthy sexual humour. "This is what we find ... [H]ome improvement expert Harold Hill of Harold Hill, Of do-it-yourself dexterity and double-glazing skill, Came home to find another gentleman's kippers in the grill, So he sanded off his winkle with his Black & Decker drill." The song "Billericay Dickie
Billericay Dickie
Billericay Dickie is a song by Ian Dury, from his debut album New Boots and Panties!!. It is narrated by a bragging bricklayer from Billericay, and is filled with name-checks for places in Essex...
" continues this sexual content, rhyming "I had a love affair with Nina, In the back of my Cortina
Ford Cortina
As the 1960s dawned, BMC were revelling in the success of their new Mini – the first successful true minicar to be built in Britain in the postwar era...
" with "A seasoned-up hyena, Could not have been more obscener".
The Blockheads' sound drew from its members' diverse musical influences, which included jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, rock and roll, funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
, and reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
, and Dury's love of music hall
Music hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...
. The band was formed after Dury began writing songs with pianist and guitarist Chaz Jankel
Chas Jankel
Charles Jeremy Jankel professionally known as Chaz Jankel, is a musician best known as the keyboard player and guitarist with Ian Dury and the Blockheads...
(the brother of noted music video, TV, commercial and film director Annabel Jankel
Annabel Jankel
Annabel Jankel is an award-winning British film and TV director who first came to prominence as a music video director and the co-creator and director of the pioneering cyber-character Max Headroom...
). Jankel took Dury's lyrics, fashioned a number of songs, and they began recording with members of Radio Caroline
Radio Caroline
Radio Caroline is an English radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopoly...
's Loving Awareness Band—drummer Charley Charles (born Hugh Glenn Mortimer Charles, Guyana
Guyana
Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
1945), bassist Norman Watt-Roy
Norman Watt-Roy
Norman Watt-Roy is the bassist for The Blockheads, previously known as Ian Dury & the Blockheads.In November 1954 the Watt-Roy family, including Norman, his older brother Garth and his sister, moved to England...
, keyboard player Mick Gallagher, guitarist John Turnbull -- and former Kilburns saxophonist Davey Payne
Davey Payne
David 'Davey' Payne is an English saxophonist best known as a member of Ian Dury's backing band The Blockheads, and his twin saxophone solo on their 1978 UK #1 single "Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick"....
. An album was completed, but major record labels passed on the band. However, next door to Dury's manager's office was the newly formed Stiff Records
Stiff Records
Stiff Records is a record label created in London in 1976, by entrepreneurs Dave Robinson and Andrew Jakeman , and active until 1985. It was reactivated in 2007....
, a perfect home for Dury's maverick style. Their classic single, "Sex & Drugs & Rock and Roll", marked Dury's Stiff debut and although it was banned by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
it was named Single of the Week by NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
on its release. It was soon followed by the album New Boots and Panties!!, which was eventually to achieve platinum status.
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
and the Attractions, Nick Lowe
Nick Lowe
Nicholas Drain "Nick" Lowe , is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer.A pivotal figure in UK pub rock, punk rock and new wave, Lowe has recorded a string of well-reviewed solo albums. Along with vocals, Lowe plays guitar, bass guitar, piano and harmonica...
, Wreckless Eric
Wreckless Eric
Wreckless Eric is an English rock and roll/new wave singer-songwriter, best known for his 1977 single " Whole Wide World" on Stiff Records. More than two decades after its release, the song was included in Mojo magazine’s list of the best punk rock singles of all time...
, and Larry Wallis
Larry Wallis
Larry Wallis is a guitarist, songwriter and producer. He is best known as a member of the Pink Fairies and an early member of Motörhead.-Early bands:...
. The tour was a success, and Stiff launched a concerted Ian Dury marketing campaign, resulting in the Top Ten hit, "What a Waste", and the classic hit single, "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick", which reached #1 in the UK, was notably not included on the original release of their subsequent LP Do It Yourself. Both the single and its accompanying music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
featured Davey Payne simultaneously playing dual saxophones during his solo, in evident homage to jazz saxophonist Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Rahsaan Roland Kirk was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist who played tenor saxophone, flute and many other instruments...
, whose 'trademark' technique this was.
The band's second album Do It Yourself
Do It Yourself (Ian Dury & the Blockheads album)
Do It Yourself is a 1979 album by Ian Dury & The Blockheads. It was the first album to be credited to Ian Dury & The Blockheads rather than Ian Dury alone, although Dury had used the full band name for the "What A Waste" 7" single of 1978...
was released in June 1979 in a Barney Bubbles
Barney Bubbles
Colin Fulcher aka Barney Bubbles was a radical English graphic artist, whose work primarily encompassed the disciplines of graphic design, painting and music video direction. He is most renowned for his distinctive contribution to the graphic design associated with the British independent music...
-designed sleeve of which there were over a dozen variations, all based on samples from the Crown
Crown Wallpaper
Crown Wallpaper was an agglomeration of wallpaper manufacturers in the United Kingdom in 1899....
wallpaper
Wallpaper
Wallpaper is a kind of material used to cover and decorate the interior walls of homes, offices, and other buildings; it is one aspect of interior decoration. It is usually sold in rolls and is put onto a wall using wallpaper paste...
catalogue. Bubbles also designed the Blockhead logo which received international acclaim, and continued to be used by the Blockheads after Dury's death, e.g. on their DVD: Live in Colchester 2004.
Jankel left the band temporarily and relocated to the U.S. after the release of "What A Waste" (his organ part on that single was overdubbed later) but he subsequently returned to the UK and began touring sporadically with the Blockheads, eventually returning to the group full-time for the recording of "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick"; according to Mickey Gallagher, the band recorded 28 takes of the song but eventually settled on the second take for the single release. Partly due to personality clashes with Dury, Jankel quit the group again in 1980, after the recording of the Do It Yourself LP, and he returned to the USA to concentrate on his solo career. The group worked solidly over the eighteen months between the release of "Rhythm Stick" and their next single, "Reasons To Be Cheerful", which returned them to the charts, making the UK Top 10. Jankel was replaced by former Dr. Feelgood
Dr. Feelgood
Dr. Feelgood may refer to:In music:*Dr. Feelgood , an album by American band Mötley Crüe**"Dr. Feelgood" , a single and the title track from that album*"Dr. Feel Good", a song by Travie McCoy on the album Lazarus...
guitarist Wilko Johnson
Wilko Johnson
Wilko Johnson is an English guitarist and songwriter, particularly associated with the UK rhythm and blues band Dr. Feelgood in the 1970s.-Career:...
, who also contributed to the next album Laughter and its two minor hit singles, although Gallagher recalls that the recording of the Laughter album was difficult and that Dury was drinking heavily in this period. In 1980-81 Dury and Jankel teamed up again with Sly and Robbie
Sly and Robbie
Sly and Robbie is the prolific Jamaican rhythm section and production team of drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare who joined in the mid 1970s after having established themselves separately in Jamaica as professional musicians...
and the Compass Point All Stars
Compass Point All Stars
The Compass Point phenomenon was designed to be to reggae-based pop/rock music of the 80s, what Nashville was to country music, or the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section was to soul and R&B in the 60s: a recording facility animated by in-house sets of artists, musicians, producers and engineers, all...
to record Lord Upminster. The Blockheads toured the U.K and Europe throughout 1981, sometimes augmented by jazz legend Don Cherry
Don Cherry (jazz)
Donald Eugene Cherry was an innovative African-American jazz cornetist whose career began with a long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman. He went on to live in many parts of the world and work with a wide variety of musicians.-Biography:Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and...
on trumpet, ending the year with their only tour of Australia.
The Blockheads disbanded in early 1982 after Dury secured a new recording deal with Polydor Records
Polydor Records
Polydor is a record label owned by Universal Music Group, headquartered in the United Kingdom.-Beginnings:Polydor was originally an independent branch of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. Its name was first used as an export label in 1924, the British and German branches of the Gramophone...
through A&R man Frank Neilson. Choosing to work with a group of young musicians which he named The Music Students, he recorded the album Four Thousand Weeks' Holiday. This album marked a departure from his usual style and was not as well received by fans for its American jazz influence.
"Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll"
The song was written by Ian Dury and Chas Jankel in Dury's flat in Oval Mansions, London (nicknamed "Catshit mansions" by Ian) that overlooked The OvalThe Oval
The Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...
cricket-ground. The way the pair worked was for Ian Dury to present Jankel with lyric sheets hand-typed by the singer. According to Chas in Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll: The Life of Ian Dury he would be repeatedly given the lyric for "Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll" but Jankel kept rejecting the song only for it to be at the top of the pile again the next time only to be rejected again. This went on until Dury sung the song's guitar riff to Chas and sang the song's title in time with it. Sometime later Jankel heard "Ramblin", a tune by Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman is an American saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter and composer. He was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1960s....
(from the album Change of The Century that also included Charlie Haden
Charlie Haden
Charles Edward Haden is an American jazz musician. He is a double bassist, probably best known for his long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman...
and Don Cherry
Don Cherry (jazz)
Donald Eugene Cherry was an innovative African-American jazz cornetist whose career began with a long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman. He went on to live in many parts of the world and work with a wide variety of musicians.-Biography:Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and...
) and heard exactly the same bass riff being played by Haden.
Ian Dury once apologised to Coleman for lifting the riff but, as Coleman explained, he (or possibly Haden) had lifted it himself from a Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
folk tune called Old Joe Clark
Old Joe Clark
Old Joe Clark is a folk song, a mountain ballad that was "sung during World War I and later by soldiers from eastern Kentucky." An early version was printed in 1918, as sung in Virginia at that time. Joe Clark was born in 1839, a mountaineer who was murdered in 1885. There are about 90 stanzas in...
. An alternative version to this story exists: as Dury explained when he guested on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
'sDesert Island Discs
Desert Island Discs
Desert Island Discs is a BBC Radio 4 programme first broadcast on 29 January 1942. It is the second longest-running radio programme , and is the longest-running factual programme in the history of radio...
, he had apologied to Charlie Haden
Charlie Haden
Charles Edward Haden is an American jazz musician. He is a double bassist, probably best known for his long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman...
at Ronnie Scott's Club for the riff lift, who responded by saying there was no need for an apology as he had lifted it from an old cajun
Cajun
Cajuns are an ethnic group mainly living in the U.S. state of Louisiana, consisting of the descendants of Acadian exiles...
tune.
The single did not chart, selling only around 19,000 copies (a small amount for a single in 1977) but won critical acclaim. A factor of this poor sales could be Stiff Record's singles deletion policy designed to promote initial sales and as such, chart success. The original single was deleted after only two months.
Released as it was in the height of the popularity of punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
, the song was misinterpreted (as it is often is to this day) as a song about excess as its title and chorus would suggest. Although the single was banned by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, a number of Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
disc jockeys, including Annie Nightingale
Annie Nightingale
Anne "Annie" Nightingale MBE is an English radio broadcaster. She is most commonly known by the more informal name of Annie...
and John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
, continued to promote the record by playing the mildly salacious B-side "Razzle In My Pocket". Dury himself, however maintained that the song was not a punk anthem and said he was trying to suggest that there was more to life than a 9-to-5 existence (such as in his track-by-track comments in the sleeve-notes of Repertoire Records
Repertoire Records
Repertoire Records is a German record label from Hamburg, Germany, specialising in reissues of classic pop and rock albums originally issued in the 60s and 70s. The chairman is Thomas Neelsen....
' Reasons To Be Cheerful: The Best Of Ian Dury & The Blockheads compilation). The verses themselves are at times somewhat riddle-like, although always suggestive of an alternative lifestyle:
- Here's a little bit of advice, you're quite welcome, it is free
- Don’t do nothing that is cut-price, you'll know what they'll make you be
- They will try their tricky device, trap you with the ordinary
- Get your teeth into a small slice, the cake of liberty
The title of the song became part of the English language and was later used in many other song lyrics.
"Billericay Dickie"
Narrated by a bragging bricklayer from BillericayBillericay
Billericay is a town and civil parish in the Basildon borough of Essex, England. It lies within the London Basin, has a population of 40,000, and constitutes a commuter town east of central London. The town has three secondary schools and a variety of open spaces...
, the song is filled with name-checks for places in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
. It is based around naughty rhymes such as:
- I had a love affair with Nina
- In the back of my CortinaFord CortinaAs the 1960s dawned, BMC were revelling in the success of their new Mini – the first successful true minicar to be built in Britain in the postwar era...
- A seasoned up hyenaHyenaHyenas or Hyaenas are the animals of the family Hyaenidae of suborder feliforms of the Carnivora. It is the fourth smallest biological family in the Carnivora , and one of the smallest in the mammalia...
- could not have been more obscener
Each verse tells a different short story, relating one of Dickie's sexual conquests around south-eastern England, while in the choruses the character insists he is a caring, conscientious lover and 'not a thickie', even giving the names of two girls ("a pair of squeaky chickies") as references to attest this. Dickie is a character most commonly referred to in the media as an 'Essex lad'. Ironically the song, perhaps the best example of Dury's 'Englishness' and 'Essexness', was given its oompah, fairground like arrangement by an American, Steve Nugent.
Ian Dury stated on numerous occasions (as mentioned in both his biographies, Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll: The Life Of Ian Dury and Ian Dury & The Blockheads: Song By Song) that he saw Dickie as a pathetic figure. He would reflect this on-stage by breaking down, as if he were about to cry during the final part of the song, before returning to normal, to shout the final lines of the final verse. The song was rarely used as an opening track for live sets (another song from New Boots and Panties!!, "Wake Up And Make Love With Me", was used instead), but it does open the set recorded live at the Hammersmith Odeon, in 1985, that was released as the Hold Onto Your Structure VHS/DVD. Live versions can be found on both of Dury's live albums Warts 'n' Audience and Straight from the Desk
Straight from the Desk
Straight From The Desk is a live album by Ian Dury & The Blockheads recorded 23 December 1978 at the Ilford Odeon, Ilford, Essex.There is little information about the album available other than what can be heard on the record...
.
"What a Waste"
Essentially a song about being in a job that makes you happy, Dury claimed in an 1984 interview with PenthousePenthouse (magazine)
Penthouse, a men's magazine founded by Bob Guccione, combines urban lifestyle articles and softcore pornographic pictorials that, in the 1990s, evolved into hardcore. Penthouse is owned by FriendFinder Network. formerly known as General Media, Inc. whose parent company was Penthouse International...
that while not condemning 9-to-5 jobs, he had written the song to make people question their lives, echoing the sentiments of his earlier single "Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll
Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll
"Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll" is a song and single by Ian Dury. It was originally released as the Stiff Records single BUY 17 with "Razzle In My Pocket" as the B-side, on 26 August 1977...
". The song's verses list a number of things the song's narrator could have been, from a driver, poet, teacher or soldier to an inmate in a long-term institution and the ticket man at Fulham railway station
Fulham Broadway tube station
Fulham Broadway is a London Underground station on the branch of the District Line. It is between and stations and is in Travelcard Zone 2. The station is located on Fulham Broadway . It is notable as the nearest station to Stamford Bridge stadium, the home of Chelsea Football Club...
before the chorus reveals that instead he chose to 'play the fool in a six-piece band' highlighting some of the pitfalls of this (loneliness specifically), before deciding that 'rock 'n' roll doesn't mind'.
The song was written following the break-up of Kilburn and the Highroads in a lull between the formation of Ian Dury & the Kilburns and was written with Rod Melvin in mid-1975, two year before it was released. Originally a third writing credit was given to Chaz Jankel (Dury's long-term songwriting companion): this third writing credit has gradually been phased out and the 2004 Edsel Records re-issue of Do it Yourself credits the song to Dury/Melvin solely. However in Ian Dury & The Blockheads: Song By Song, John Turnbull (guitarist with the Blockheads) claims that the middle instrumental section was brought over from one of the songs four of the The Blockhead had written while they were their previous band, Loving Awareness.
Dury's first hit, "What A Waste"/"Wake Up And Make Love With Me" was released in April 1978 just before the start of headlining tour, entering the Top 75 on 29 April and spending 12 weeks there. It peaked at number 9 in the UK Single Charts, becoming Stiff Record's biggest-selling single to date. A very limited 12" pressing was also released.
The single has most likely contributed to the confusion over exactly what Ian Dury songs are by 'Ian Dury & The Blockheads', including as it did "Wake Up and Make Love with Me" on its B-side: this is not a new version of the song re-recorded by the band but the version from New Boots and Panties!! which is not a Blockheads album (although some of the band do play on it). "What a Waste", however, is a Blockheads track.
"Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick"
First released as the Stiff RecordsStiff Records
Stiff Records is a record label created in London in 1976, by entrepreneurs Dave Robinson and Andrew Jakeman , and active until 1985. It was reactivated in 2007....
7" single BUY 38, "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick"/"There Ain't Half Been Some Clever Bastards" went to number one on the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
in January 1979, and is the band's most successful single ever. It also was named best single of 1979 in the Pazz & Jop
Pazz & Jop
The Pazz & Jop critics' poll is a poll of music critics run by The Village Voice newspaper. It is compiled every year from the top ten lists of hundreds of music critics...
poll.
Its lyrics mix various locations across the world and a number of phrases in non-English languages (including French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
). According to its author Ian Dury, the song has an anti-violence message.
"Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3"
Initially released on 20 July 1979, the single BUY 50, "Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3"/"Common as Muck", reached number 3 in the UK singles Chart the following month. It was the last single to be released by the band in their original line-up.Later years
The Blockheads briefly reformed in June 1987 to play a short tour of Japan, and then disbanded again. In September 1990, following the death from cancer of drummer Charley Charles, they reunited for two benefit concerts in aid of Charles' family, held at The Forum, Camden Town, with Steven Monti on drums. In December 1990, augmented by Merlin Rhys-Jones on guitar and Will Parnell on percussion, they recorded the live album Warts & Audience at the Brixton Academy.The Blockheads (minus Jankel, who returned to California) toured Spain in January 1991, then disbanded again until August 1994 when, following Jankel's return to England, they were invited to reform for the Madstock
Madstock
Madstock is an album by Candy Flip.# Love Is Life - 5:09# Strawberry Fields Forever - 4:10# Wonderland - 4:59# This Can Be Real - 5:21# Madstock - 5:55# Redhills Road - 4:30# See the Light - 4:52# Theme - 5:37# Space - 4:29# Ask Why - 4:16...
Festival in Finsbury Park
Finsbury Park
Finsbury Park is a 46 hectare public park in the London Borough of Haringey. Officially part of the London area of Harringay, it is also adjacent to Stroud Green, the Finsbury Park district and Manor House. It was one of the first of the great London parks laid out in the Victorian...
; this was followed by sporadic gigs in Europe, Ireland, the U.K. and Japan through late 1994 and 1995. In the early 1990s, Dury appeared with English band Curve
Curve
In mathematics, a curve is, generally speaking, an object similar to a line but which is not required to be straight...
on the benefit compilation album Peace Together
Peace Together
Peace Together was a 20 July 1993 fundraiser compilation album released by the Peace Together organisation, dedicated to promoting peace in Northern Ireland, which was started by Robert Hamilton, of The Fat Lady Sings, and Ali McMordie of Stiff Little Fingers.Tracks 1 and 13 feature contributions...
. Dury and Curve singer Toni Halliday
Toni Halliday
Antoinette "Toni" Halliday is an English musician best known as the lead vocalist, lyricist, and occasional guitarist of the band Curve.-Early life and career:...
shared vocals on a cover of the Blockheads' track "What a Waste".
In March 1996 Dury was diagnosed with cancer and, after recovering from an operation, he set about writing another album. In early 1998 he reunited with the Blockheads to record the well-received album Mr Love-Pants. In May, Dury and the Blockheads hit the road again, with Dylan Howe replacing Steven Monti on drums. Davey Payne left the group permanently in August and was replaced by Gilad Atzmon; this amended lineup gigged throughout 1999, culminating in their last performance with Ian Dury on 6 February 2000 at the London Palladium
London Palladium
The London Palladium is a 2,286 seat West End theatre located off Oxford Street in the City of Westminster. From the roster of stars who have played there and many televised performances, it is arguably the most famous theatre in London and the United Kingdom, especially for musical variety...
. Dury died six weeks later on 27 March 2000.
Present day
The Blockheads have continued after Dury's death, contributing to the tribute album Brand New Boots And Panties, then Where's The Party. They still tour, and are currently recording a new album. They currently comprise Jankel, Watt-Roy, Gallagher, Turnbull, John Roberts on drums, Gilad AtzmonGilad Atzmon
Gilad Atzmon is an Israeli-born British jazz saxophonist, novelist, political activist and writer.Atzmon's album Exile was BBC jazz album of the year in 2003. Playing over 100 dates a year, he has been called "surely the hardest-gigging man in British jazz." His albums, of which he has recorded...
and Dave Lewis on saxes. Derek Hussey (aka "Derek The Draw", who was Dury's friend and minder) is now writing songs with Jankel as well as singing. They are aided and abetted by Lee Harris, who is their 'aide de camp'.
Discography
- Do It YourselfDo It Yourself (Ian Dury & the Blockheads album)Do It Yourself is a 1979 album by Ian Dury & The Blockheads. It was the first album to be credited to Ian Dury & The Blockheads rather than Ian Dury alone, although Dury had used the full band name for the "What A Waste" 7" single of 1978...
(1979) - LaughterLaughter (album)Laughter is an album by Ian Dury & The Blockheads; released in 1980, it was the last studio album Dury made for Stiff Records. It was also the last studio album he made with The Blockheads, until 1998's Mr...
(1980) - Live! Warts 'n' Audience (1990)
- Mr. Love PantsMr. Love PantsMr. Love Pants is a 1998 album by Ian Dury and the Blockheads, released on East Central One under Dury's own label Ronnie Harris Records .- History :...
(1998) - Straight From The DeskStraight from the DeskStraight From The Desk is a live album by Ian Dury & The Blockheads recorded 23 December 1978 at the Ilford Odeon, Ilford, Essex.There is little information about the album available other than what can be heard on the record...
(2001) - Ten More Turnips from the TipTen More Turnips from the TipTen More Turnips From The Tip is the final album by Ian Dury and the Blockheads. It was compiled and released in 2002, two years after the singer's tragic demise from cancer in March 2000.- History :...
(2002)