100 - Dexys Midnight Runners with Kevin Rowland

100 - Dexys Midnight Runners with Kevin Rowland

Author: Rock n Roll Book Club January 24, 2026 Duration: 38:47

Join us to celebrate 100 episodes of Music Maps with the mighty Kevin Rowland to discuss hew recent memory Bless Me Father & the story of Dexys Midnight Runners. 


We start with Kevin’s early years in Wolverhampton, the families relocation to the London suburbs & how he ended up attending the 1966 World Cup Final & briefly meeting Cassius Clay. 


Kevin’s tells us about his early years as a skinhead, his early musical influences including Bob Dylan & Bryan Ferry, his brief career in hairdressing & the beginnings of his first band Lucy & The Lovers. 


The band morphed into punk band The Killjoys with future bandmate & collaborator Kevin Archer. 


Kevin develops a very specific idea for a band right down to the clothes, the dancing & the unique brass sound. 


We hear how Kevin missed Joy Division while having a haircut, how close Dexys ever came to signing to Two Tone & their appearance on the famous Two Tone tour.


Geno reaches number 1 & Dexys become much better known with their debut album Searching For the Young Soul Rebels (we also hear what actually happened with the demo tapes for the album). 


However just as success arrives Kevin veers in a different direction & develops a new version of Dexys with multiple new members & a different sound. This incarnation go on to score huge hits with Come On Eileen & Jackie Wilson Said both featuring on the Too-Rye-Ay album. 



It takes anything from 5 to 40 hours to prepare each episode of Music Maps - if you’d like to make a contribution to help us cover the costs & time of producing these episodes for you, you can do so at this link: ko-fi.com/musicmaps



It is hugely important for us to get positive reviews & star ratings - if you have enjoyed Music Maps & can spare the time to do either we would hugely appreciate it. 



You can see our upcoming live events here: https://rocknrollbookclub.co.uk/events



Instagram: @rocknrollbookclube17


X: @simonmusicmaps


Facebook: E17rockbookclub



Hosted, Produced & Edited by Simon Cardwell

Music by Andy Maxwell




Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.


The Music Maps Podcast from the Rock n Roll Book Club isn't your typical music show. It's an audio expedition where geography is the guide. Every episode starts with a specific location-a city, a venue, a forgotten roadside attraction-and uses that place as a launchpad to explore the sounds, stories, and scenes connected to it. You might find yourself deep in the blues clubs of Chicago one week and tracing the underground punk threads of a small European town the next. The conversations are wide-ranging, connecting the dots between iconic artists and obscure movements, all anchored to a point on the map. Listening to this podcast feels like adding a new, richly detailed pin to a global atlas of musical influence. It’s about the context behind the chords and the cultural soil from which genres grow. The result is a continuously evolving, deeply human portrait of how music and place are inextricably linked, one fascinating destination at a time.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Music Maps Podcast
Podcast Episodes
123 - Dolly Mixture, The Jam, Captain Sensible with Debsey Wykes [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:38
Join us for a live recording with Debsey Wykes about her book Teenage Daydream: We Are The Girls Who Play In A Band. Debsey’s early musical experiences were centred around Cambridge & her early interests included The Bay…
122 - Elvis Presley & Colonel Tom Parker with Peter Guralnick [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:43
We welcome legendary music writer Peter Guralnick as we take a deep dive into the fascinating relationship between Elvis Presley & his manager Colonel Tom Parker. Peter first gained access to Parker’s archives in the mid…
120 - The History of the Velvet Underground with Richie Unterberger [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:08
We turn our attention to one of the most influential bands of all time, The Velvet Underground for the first time with biographer Richie Unterberger. Lou Reed grew up in suburban Freeport, Long Island listening to the fi…
119 - Yoko Ono & the Avante-Garde Diaspora with Paul Morley [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:01:12
Join us & Paul Morley to hear all about Yoko Ono & the Avant-Garde Diaspora. We hear about her early years in Tokyo, born into an almost aristocratic background via her banker father, before her eventual relocation to Ne…
118 - Glasgow Barrowlands with Alison Irvine [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:12
Join us for a deep dive into an iconic gig venue, the legendary Glasgow Barrowland Ballroom. The building was first opened by Maggie McIver on Christmas Eve 1934 & hosts dances for the East End of Glasgow for decades, ho…
117 - Ringo Starr & The Beatles with Tom Doyle [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:36
So today we take a deep dive into the early life of Ringo Starr, how he joined the Beatles & their subsequent unprecedented success. After overcoming various serious Illnesses as a child, a young Ringo first develops an…