Dexys Midnight Runners (known as simply Dexys from 2003 to 2026) are an English pop rock band from Birmingham. They are best known in the UK for their songs "Come On Eileen" and "Geno", both of which reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart, as well as their cover of Van Morrison's "Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile)", which reached No. 5. They achieved five other UK top-20 singles. Outside of the UK, the band are largely considered a one hit wonder, with "Come On Eileen" also having topped the US Billboard Hot 100. With extensive airplay on MTV, they were associated with the Second British Invasion.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Dexys went through numerous personnel changes over the course of three albums and 13 singles, with only singer/songwriter/co-founder Kevin Rowland remaining in the band through all of the transitions; only he and trombonist "Big" Jim Paterson appeared on all studio albums. By 1985, the band consisted only of Rowland and long-standing members Helen O'Hara (violin) and Billy Adams (guitar). The band broke up the following year, and Rowland pursued a solo career for several decades.
After two failed restart attempts, the band was reformed by Rowland as Dexys in 2003 with new members, as well as a few returning members from the band's original lineup. Dexys released their fourth album, One Day I'm Going to Soar in 2012; a fifth, Let the Record Show: Dexys Do Irish and Country Soul, followed in 2016. The band later released their sixth album The Feminine Divine in 2023, and released their seventh album Love in September 2026 following a revert back to the original band name.
History
Dexys Mark I: 1978–1980 Foundation and first single Dexys Midnight Runners were founded in 1978 in Birmingham, England, by Kevin Rowland (vocals, guitar, at the time using the pseudonym Carlo Rolan)Gimarc, George (2005) Punk Diary: The Ultimate Trainspotter's Guide to Underground Rock 1970–1982, Backbeat Books, and Kevin "Al" Archer (vocals, guitar). Both had been in the short-lived punk band the Killjoys. Rowland had previously written a Northern soul-style song that the two of them sang, "Tell Me When My Light Turns Green", which became the first Dexys "song". The band's name was derived from Dexedrine, a brand of dextroamphetamine used as a recreational drug among Northern soul fans to give them energy to dance all night. Rowland later said of recruiting members for the band that "Anyone joining Dexys had to give up their job and rehearse all day long ... We had nothing to lose and felt that what we were doing was everything." "Big" Jim Paterson (trombone), Geoff "JB" Blythe (saxophone, previously of Geno Washington's Ram Jam Band), Steve "Babyface" Spooner (alto saxophone), Pete Saunders (keyboard), Pete Williams (bass) and John Jay (drums) formed the first lineup of the band, which began playing live at the end of 1978.
By the middle of 1979, Bobby "Jnr" Ward had replaced Jay on drums. The Clash manager Bernard Rhodes then signed them and sent them into the studio to record a Rowland-penned single, "Burn It Down", which Rhodes renamed "Dance Stance". In response to Rhodes' criticism of Rowland's singing style, Rowland developed a "more emotional" sound influenced by General Norman Johnson of the Holland–Dozier–Holland band Chairmen of the Board and the theatricality of Bryan Ferry.
After a series of dates opening for the Specials, who wore suits on stage, Rowland decided that his band needed its own distinct look. Borrowing from an outfit that Paterson had worn to rehearsals, Dexys subsequently dressed in donkey jackets or leather coats and woolly hats, a look described as "straight out of De Niro's Mean Streets". In January 1980, Rowland said of the band's sound and look, "we didn't want to become part of anyone else's movement. We'd rather be our own movement". Image became very important to the group: Rowland said, "We wanted to be a group that looked like something ... a formed group, a project, not just random."Reynolds, Simon (2005) Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984, Faber & Faber, , p. 293–296
"Dance Stance", which Rhodes produced, was released on Oddball Records, which Rhodes owned, and which was distributed by EMI. Although it was named "single of the week" by Sounds, it stalled at number 40 in the British charts, which EMI and Rowland believed was due to Rhodes' poor production. Rowland said, "We learned that early on, that the wrong producer can totally screw your record up." As a result, Dexys fired Rhodes and signed with EMI, and EMI immediately put Pete Wingfield in charge of their production. Saunders and Ward left the band, replaced by Andy Leek (keyboards) and Andy "Stoker" Growcott (drums).
Searching for the Young Soul Rebels and first band split Building on the unexpected success of "Dance Stance" (aka "Burn It Down"), Dexys' next single, "Geno" – about Geno Washington – became a British Number One in 1980. It featured the band's "Late Night Feelings" imprint on the single, which became a trademark of the band's records on EMI. Rowland wrote about Washington as he had seen one of his performances aged 11 with his brother. The success of the song prompted Washington to make a return to live performance, but it also prompted the departure of Leek, who said he didn't want to be famous.Record Mirror, 10 May 1980 Pete Saunders returned to the band temporarily, replacing Leek, to record their debut album.
Dexys' debut LP, Searching for the Young Soul Rebels, which featured "Geno", was released in July 1980. The label of the album also included the band's "Late Night Feelings" imprint, and the album's sleeve featured a photograph of a Belfast Catholic boy carrying his belongings after moving from his home during the Troubles; the Irish-descended Rowland explained that "I wanted a picture of unrest. It could have been from anywhere but I was secretly glad that it was from Ireland." Of the album's title, Rowland said "I don't know ... I just liked the sound of it, really." Of the songs on the album, only two ("Geno" and "There, There, My Dear") were written by Rowland (lyrics) and Archer (music) together; producer Pete Wingfield hadn't liked Rowland's lyrics on their third co-composition ("Keep It") and had instead turned those lyrics into a separate song ("Love Part One"); Blythe wrote new lyrics for the version of "Keep It" on the album.Kevin Archer, Liner notes to Searching for the Young Soul Rebels (2000) The same month, Rowland imposed a press embargo on the band; instead, Dexys would take out ads in the music papers explaining the band's position on various issues. This was a response to some less than complimentary opinions from some music press writers; for example, the NME's Mark Cordery accused the band of "emotional fascism" and described their music as a perversion of soul music with "no tenderness, no sex, no wit, no laughter".
After the album, Saunders was replaced by Mick Talbot (ex-The Merton Parkas) on keyboards. "There, There, My Dear" became the band's second top-10 single. However, after a couple of months of touring, Rowland insisted on writing new lyrics to Archer's music for "Keep It" for release as the band's next single, despite EMI's objections. The single, called "Keep It Part Two (Inferiority Part One)", was a failure, and five of the band members then quit, angered over continual personality problems with Rowland, as well as Rowland's policy of not speaking to the music press. Archer and Paterson both remained with Rowland at first, but then Archer also decided to leave, which reduced Dexys to just Rowland and Paterson, whom Rowland referred to as "the Celtic soul brothers" (in reference to Paterson's Scottish background and Rowland's Irish background)."Young Guns" BBC interview, available at "The Dexys Story" .
Archer (and Leek) eventually formed The Blue Ox Babes, while the other departing members—Blythe, Spooner, Williams, "Stoker", and Talbot—formed The Bureau, which Wingfield continued to produce.
Dexys Mark II: 1981–1982 The Projected Passion Revue Rowland and Paterson first chose to write several new songs, so that Dexys could move forward from the split. They then brought in an old friend of theirs, Kevin "Billy" Adams (guitar/banjo), along with Seb Shelton (drums, formerly of Secret Affair), Mickey Billingham (keyboard), Brian Maurice Brummitt (who dropped his last name for his stage name "Brian Maurice", alto saxophone), Paul Speare (tenor saxophone) and Steve Wynne (bass). This new lineup also adopted a new look that included hooded tops, boxing boots, and pony tails. Along with the new image, Rowland brought in a fitness regime, which included working out together and running as a group, Rowland commenting "The togetherness of running along together just gets ... that fighting spirit going". The group would also take part in group exercise sessions before performances, and drinking before shows was strictly forbidden.
By the time the new band's first single "Plan B", produced by Alan Shacklock instead of Wingfield, was released in March 1981, the band's management had discovered that EMI had failed to pick up a mandatory contract option, so Dexys were technically no longer under contract. They asked, without success, that EMI not release the single; without promotion, the single flopped. Later in March 1981, an ad appeared in which Rowland stated that the previous members of the band had "hatched a plot to throw Kevin out and still carry on under the same name". It also cited Rowland's suggestion that "they might learn new instruments" as a reason for their displeasure. The ad announced that Dexys had been working on a new live venture, "The Midnight Runners Projected Passion Revue".
In April, Dexys prevailed to win their release from EMI, although without the financial support of a label, they were unable to mount the spring tour that had planned and had to settle for playing only five dates, including one recorded by BBC Radio 1. In June they signed to Mercury Records, where Dexys remained until their 1987 breakup. Dexys' first single for Mercury, "Show Me", produced by Tony Visconti, was released in July 1981 and reached No. 16 in the UK. The label switch was followed by a session for Richard Skinner's BBC Radio 1 show in which the band previewed tracks that would be reworked later on Too-Rye-Ay. Wynne was sacked by the group at this point, to be replaced by Mick Gallick (whom Rowland gave the stage name "Giorgio Kilkenny") on bass. Music journalist Paolo Hewitt commented about this version of Dexys: "Dexys wouldn't make a record unless they thought it was great. And they wouldn't play a gig unless they thought they were gonna be great."
Around this time, Archer played Rowland demos of Archer's new group, The Blue Ox Babes, which featured, in Rowland's words, "a Tamla-style beat with violins". The violins had been played by a Birmingham School of Music classical violin student named Helen Bevington. Rowland's first idea was to get the horn players to also play strings, as he had discussed in the March interview (with Speare on viola, which he already played, and string novices Paterson and Maurice on cello), and the horn players (with session musician support) contributed strings to the third single with the new lineup, "Liars A to E", produced by Neil Kernon, which was released in October 1981. In November, the group played a three-night stand at The Old Vic in London, with the horn section again doubling on strings. The Old Vic shows attracted unexpectedly rave reviews in the press, although these concerts were not recorded. Rowland said of these shows, "Those three nights at the Old Vic were all I wanted to say in '81."
Dexys' 1981 recordings, including all three singles (both A-sides and B-sides) as well as the tracks from the two BBC Radio 1 appearances, were released by Dexys on CD in 2007 as The Projected Passion Revue.
Too-Rye-Ay, stardom, and turnover