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

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

Author: Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold July 8, 2026 Duration: 40:42

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

 

And tour tickets here: https://dexys.tmstor.es/Live

Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear


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There’s a particular kind of conversation about music that happens between friends who’ve spent a lifetime immersed in it-not as distant critics, but as participants in the culture. That’s the atmosphere you’ll find in Word In Your Ear, a podcast from Mark Ellen, David Hepworth, and Alex Gold. With a collective eighty years of writing and broadcasting for titles like Smash Hits and Mojo, and shows from "The Old Grey Whistle Test" to VH-1, they don’t just recount history; they unpack the stories behind it with the ease of a shared laugh. This podcast grew naturally from their work on the late, great magazine The Word, where they began recording over thirteen years ago, building a dedicated following who found something genuinely special in the mix. Each episode weaves together music, commentary, history, and interviews, moving seamlessly from deep-dive analysis of a seminal album to a frank chat with a surprising guest, all delivered with the warmth and wit of a late-night chat. It feels less like a formal show and more like you’ve been invited to pull up a chair in a room where the anecdotes are plentiful and the expertise is worn lightly. The result is a consistently engaging listen that treats music not as a museum piece but as a living, breathing part of our lives.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Word In Your Ear
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