The Intro

In 1979, anything seemed possible in pop. Need proof? How about outsider misfits Ian Dury and The Blockheads scoring a number 1 with the new wave classic Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick?

Before

Frontman Ian Robins Dury was born 12 May 1942 in Harrow Weald, Middlesex. His father William was absent for long periods, so mother Peggy took him to live with her parents in Cornwall. After the Second World War the Durys moved to Switzerland, where William chauffeured for a millionaire. In 1946 the family went to live in Essex with her sister, but WIlliam remained.

At the age of seven Dury contracted polio, which he believed he caught in a swimming pool during the 1949 epidemic. In and out of hospital for two years, the illness resulted in the paralysis and withering of his left leg, shoulder and arm. He went to Chailey Heritage Craft School in East Sussex, which also served as a hospital. Children were taught to toughen up and learn a trade but his mother wanted Dury to be more academic so he switched to the Royal Grammar School in High Wycombe, then aged 16, the Walthamstow College of Art. In 1967 he served under pop artist Peter Blake, who that year co-designed the legendary album sleeve for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

In 1970, while occasionally painting illustrations for The Sunday Times, Dury formed the pub rock band Kilburn and the High Roads. In 1974 they signed to Dawn Records and recorded two albums, for which he sang and wrote lyrics. Despite a support slot with The Who, they disbanded in 1975.

Meanwhile, in 1974 pop group The Loving Awareness Band formed, releasing only one album in 1976. In 1977 they split and its bassist Norman Watt-Roy and drummer Charlie Charles joined Dury and pianist/guitarist Chaz Jankel in their new band. An LP was recorded but they struggled to find a record label, perhaps in part due to Dury’s unique and unusual appearance.

Eventually however they found a home with the independent label Stiff Records. Their first release, credited to Dury alone, was Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, which was a critical success and became a slogan in itself. The album New Boots and Panties!! followed and although sales were modest at first, it’s now regarded as perhaps his finest work, including fan favourites like Billericay Dickie.

Watt-Roy and Charles’ former bandmates, guitarist John Turnbull and keyboardist Mick Gallagher, joined the line-up, as did former Kilburn and the High Roads saxophonist Davey Payne, who had played on New Boots and Panties!!. Inspired by the name of a song from the album, they became Ian Dury and The Blockheads when the next single Sweet Gene Vincent was released. Their next single, another fan favourite, was What a Waste, became their first hit when it peaked at nine in 1978. New wave was becoming increasingly popular, and this was the year of its first chart-topper, Rat Trap.

According to Jankel, who co-wrote the track, Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick was written in Rolvenden, Kent during a jam session between him and Dury. The tune was apparently inspired by a piano part on Wake Up and Make Love with Me, the opener on New Boots and Panties!!. Dury once claimed the lyrics had been written three years previous and after his death a typed manuscript from 1976 showed the lyrics, nearly fully formed, along with ideas for the music (‘drums and fuzz bass doing Roy Buchanan volume trick’). His daughter Jemima said he was working on the track as early as 1974.

The track was recorded in the Workhouse Studio on Old Kent Road in London. Unusually, an uncredited Laurie Latham produced it by recording The Blockheads live, situated in different places around the studio, with Dury sat in the centre. There were allegedly 28 takes recorded, but it was the second that was selected. Despite this, Latham was unhappy with the finished result. He was unhappy that Watt-Roy’s bass wasn’t loud enough. It’s hard to disagree, as that bassline is amazing and certainly one of the highlights. He was also unhappy with the vocal and piano, and he has a point that the piano does drop out just before the final verse. To my ears though, this kind of adds to the song’s unique power. Jankel was far more happy with the recoding. After they finished, he rang his mother to tell her he’d just recorded his first number 1.

Review

I’d argue that Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick is one of the coolest chart-toppers of all time, certainly up to this point. There’s so much to love about it – the aforementioned bassline (how is he playing that?), the ultra-catchy rollicking piano from Jankel, the way it turns from rock’n’roll and blues into cosmic funk, with Payne playing two saxophones at once, and of course Dury’s gravelly, occasionally unhinged performance of childlike lyrics that – and this has genuinely only just occurred to me – refer to sex. It is odd how his delivery seems more restrained after the funk section… or is it just because that stands out so much? Here’s a track I’ll never tire of hearing.

The video has left a lasting impression on me too. It was directed by Laurie Lewis, an old art school friend of Dury’s, who filmed the band performing the track on stage. It has an unreal, disturbing quality, and as a child I was at once frightened and entranced by Dury.

On 27 January, Turnbull, Watt-Roy and Charles were sat outside a cinema listening to a car radio when they heard the news they had toppled the Village People from the top spot. Dury was on a beach in Cannes when hotel staff gave him the news and brought him a bottle of champagne. To celebrate, the whole band bought Moss Bros suits for their Top of the Pops performance. Dury normally bought his whole wardrobe bar footwear and underwear second hand (hence his debut LP’s title). It started to look as though the record may sell a million, and Stiff announced that whoever the millionth buyer was, they would receive a mystery prize. Sales stalled however and it didn’t sell a million until downloads were counted towards sales. Nobody received a prize.

After

The group followed this up with the first LP credited to The Blockheads as well as Dury – Do It Yourself. They didn’t like to include singles on their albums, with neither their number 1 nor number three follow-up, Reasons to Be Cheerful, Part 3, featuring. The latter track is also excellent and among their best.

Jankel and Dury’s relationship had begun to sour, and the former left The Blockheads in 1980. Former Dr Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson replaced him for the recording of the album Laughter. The single I Want to Be Straight, also released that year, was their final charting single, at 22. The next, Sueperman’s Big Sister, was their last. Dury was drinking heavily, and it was taking its toll.

In 1981 Dury teamed up with Jankel and reggae duo Sly and robbie to record his second solo album Lord Upminster. It was poorly received, though it did include the controversial Spasticus Autisticus, which went from being banned by the BBC to being performed at the 2012 Paralympic Opening Ceremony. It’s a shame Dury wasn’t around to see it. Around this time, Andrew Lloyd Webber asked him to write the libretto for Cats. He refused, later saying, ‘I hate Andrew Lloyd Webber. He’s a wanker isn’t he?’.

Dury signed a solo deal with Polydor and The Blockheads disbanded. He instead recorded with the jazz-influenced Music Students, and his commercial and critical appeal floundered upon the release of their 1984 album 4,000 Weeks’ Holiday. They did however record the memorable Profoundly In Love with Pandora, the theme to ITV’s 1985 adaptation of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4. Also that year, fellow number 1 artist Paul Hardcastle remixed Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick, re-recording all the instrumental parts with keyboards.

Dury had tons of natural charisma, making it inevitable that he would make the move into acting. In 1986 he had a cameo in Roman Polanski’s Pirates and his most notable role was in The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover in 1989. He also, despite his hatred of Lloyd Webber, wrote a musical, called Apples with an accompanying album released that same year.

Ian Dury and The Blockheads briefly reformed for a tour of Japan in 1987. Three years later they got together again to play two benefit concerts for the family of Charles, who had died of cancer. Steven Monti replaced him on drums. That December, with Merlin Rhys-Jones augmenting them on guitar and Will Parnell on percussion, they recorded a live album, Warts & Audience. They toured Spain, minus Jankel, the following month.

In 1992 Dury released his seventh solo LP, The Bus Driver’s Prayer & Other Stories. It featured all The Blockheads minus Watt-Roy. Jankel returned from California in 1994 when Ian Dury and The Blockheads were invited to reform for Madness’s festival Madstock at Finsbury Park – the perfect warm-up act for the Nutty Boys. Sporadic gigs followed.

The Outro

In 1996 Dury was diagnosed with cancer. After recovering from an operation, he reunited with The Blockheads to record their first album since Laughter in 1980. Mr Love Pants, released in 1997, was considered a return to form. It was to be their final album. Monti was replaced soon after by Dylan Howe and Payne left soon after, with Gilad Atzmon becoming their new saxophonist.

Sadly this line-up was cut short when Dury died of cancer on 27 March 2000, aged 57. A true original, Dury was a giant of new wave but refused to be pigeonholed and is sadly missed. But thankfully, you can hear his influence in the music of his son Baxter Dury, and The Blockheads continue to perform. These days, Jankel, Watt-Roy, Gallagher, Turnbull and Atzmon perform with John Roberts on drums. Dave Lewis also appears on sax, and Dury’s friend and minder Derek the Draw writes and sings alongside Jankel.

The Info

Written by

Ian Dury & Chaz Jankel

Producer

Laurie Latham

Weeks at number 1

1 (27 January-2 February)

Births

27 January: Actress Rosamund Pike

Deaths

2 February: Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious (see Meanwhile…)

Meanwhile…

1 February: Liverpool grave-diggers call off a strike which has delayed dozens of burials.

2 February: Simon John Ritchie, aka Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols, is found dead in New York’s Chelsea Hotel, having suffocated on his own vomit after a heroin overdose. Vicious was on bail for the second degree murder of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen, who had been found stabbed to death on 12 October 1978.