Dexy's Midnight Runners

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.Dexys Midnight Runners were founded in 1978 in Birmingham, England, by Kevin Rowland (vocals, guitar, at the time using the pseudonym Carlo Rolan) 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.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.