FULLER UP HOME GRIM REAPER PAGE CAUSES OF DEATH SEARCH BY NAME GET IN TOUCH SHAMEFUL DISCLAIMER    Fuller Up The Dead Musician Directory    Ian Dury Ian Dury March 27, 2000 Age 57  Colon/Liver cancer    OBITUARY  BIOGRAPHY   LINKS  Buy or Hear the Music         Editor's Pick:  Jukebox Dury

OBITUARY 

U.K. Rock Icon Ian Dury Dead At 57                     Ian Dury, one of the best-loved individuals in recent U.K. music                       history, died earlier today after a long battle with cancer.  He was 57.                       Lovers of Dury's uniquely charming, quintessentially London-born music                      -- which blended elements of new wave, pub rock, and music hall                      -- had been bracing themselves for the news for some time,                      although Dury had continued to work until only a few weeks ago.                       He played the London Palladium last month and helped his                        friends in Madness to promote their recent single "Drip                      Fed Fred," on which he made a cameo appearance.                      Dury had spoken openly and with typical good humor                      about his illness since it was publicized in 1998. Then,                      in a newspaper interview, he revealed that he had been                      suffering from cancer of the colon since 1995, and that                      it had spread to his liver.                      He first emerged during the pub rock era of the early                      1970s, with Kilburn & the High Roads, who recorded                      for WEA and Pye. But it was when his band, Ian Dury                      & the Blockheads, signed to Stiff Records in the                      summer of 1977 that he really found his voice with his                      inimitable Cockney narratives. The following year, the                      "New Boots And Panties" album became an enduring                      classic of the new wave era, even if it sounded quite                      unlike anything else from the period. It produced the                      anthemic U.K. No. 1 single "Hit Me With Your                      Rhythm Stick."                      In 1979, the band followed up with "Do It Yourself,"                      which was their biggest U.S. success, reaching No.                      126 on the Billboard pop singles chart." A succession                      of less successful releases led Dury towards a new                      career as an actor and stage writer. On the death of                      Blockheads drummer Charley Charles from cancer in                      1990, the band reformed for London gigs and                      continued to make occasional, affectionately received                      appearances on the live circuit during the decade.                      Dury's defiant attitude to the disease mirrored his                      attitude to polio, from which he'd suffered since the age                      of seven. In 1998, he became a goodwill ambassador                      for UNICEF, publicizing and taking part in a polio                      immunization program in Sri Lanka. 1998 also brought                      a modest return to the charts and a reunion with the                      Blockheads, for the acclaimed album "Mr. Love                      Pants," released on Ronnie Harris Records (named,                      Dury said, after his accountant).                      Dury leaves behind a cast of vivid characters in his                      songs both real and imaginary, including "Clevor                      Trevor," "Sweet Gene Vincent," and "Billericay                      Dickie." His unquenchable joie de vivre was admirably                      characterized in such classic recordings as "Sex And                      Drugs And Rock And Roll," "I'm Partial To Your                      Abracadabra," and "Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 3."                                             -- Paul Sexton, London / Billboard      British punk poet Ian Dury dies of cancer at 57 By John O'Callaghan  LONDON (Reuters) - Ian Dury, the gravelly voiced British entertainer who mixed punk rock attitudes with a thick streak of humor in such songs as ``Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick,'' died of cancer Monday at age 57, his agent said.  Partially paralyzed by polio as a child, Dury became an unlikely star at 35 when his 1977 debut album  "New Boots and Panties'' propelled him and his band, The Blockheads, to critical acclaim and a yearlong stay in the British charts.  His wry Cockney wit and wink of the eye came through loud and clear in songs like "Clever Trevor'' and "Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll,'' his lampoon of the music industry.  Dury's style made him a seminal influence on pop music ranging from the ska sounds of Madness to the pop-punk of Blur.  "I'M Here To Be Alive'' Madness singer Suggs hailed Dury as ``more of a poet than a rock 'n' roll artist'' and credited him with opening minds to ``all the possibilities for people that didn't look like rock stars.''   After stints as an actor, screenwriter and television host, Dury returned to the music scene last year with ``Mr. Love Pants,'' his first album with The Blockheads in nearly two decades.  He familiar face was back on British TV this year, advertising the Times newspaper.  As his health deteriorated after an earlier bout of colon cancer spread to his liver, Dury refused to be down-hearted.  ``I don't spend a lot of time shaking my fist at the moon,'' he told BBC radio last year in a retrospective on his career. ``It doesn't make you feel any better, I'm sure, plus 50 percent of any battle you're in is your spirit.''  Born on May 12, 1942, in Upminster, east of London, Dury initially decided on a career in art and taught the subject until he was 28 before getting his musical start by playing in pubs and clubs around London.  He leaves his wife Sophy and two young sons, Albert and Billy, as well as two older children from his first wife Betty, who also died of cancer.  "I don't care if I'm immediately forgotten,'' Dury told the BBC. ``I'm not here to be remembered. I'm here to be alive.''   Reuters/Variety    NY TIMES           Ian Dury, 57, Roguish Voice of Punk Music             Ian Dury, an emblem of the English punk music movement, died on           Monday at his home in Hampstead, London. He was 57. The cause           was liver cancer; Mr. Dury had made his illness public in 1998.            Though ailing, Mr. Dury had performed last month at the London           Palladium and continued his long campaign to raise awareness about           polio, which he survived as a child.            Polio left him partly paralyzed at age 7. He eventually studied painting at           the Royal College of Art and taught art in the 1970's, but he had already           begun the musical career that would blossom in 1977.            That year, as punk heralded the uncomely and unrefined, Mr. Dury and           his group, the Blockheads, released the rollicking album "New Boots and           Panties" on Stiff Records. Mr. Dury adopted a roguish persona,           delivering his frank lyrics in a good-natured cockney grumble.            The band's first hit, "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll," made fun of the rock           'n' roll lifestyle while extolling its primal satisfactions. Other hits, like "Hit           Me With Your Rhythm Stick," also celebrated simple passions, with           humor enlivened by Mr. Dury's lovable gruffness.            After the band's popularity waned, Mr. Dury acted on television and in           films like "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover," directed by           Peter Greenaway.            He periodically reunited the Blockheads. In 1998 the band toured to           support "Mr. Love Pants," its first album in two decades, despite Mr.           Dury's illness. "I'm not here to be remembered," he told the BBC last           September. "I'm here to be alive."            He is survived by his wife, the sculptor Sophy Tilson; two sons, Albert           and Billy; and two other children from his first marriage for whom details           were unavailable.

 

 

BIOGRAPHY

All-Music Guide                               Rock & roll has always been populated by fringe figures, cult                             artists that managed to develop a fanatical following because of                             their outsized quirks, but few cult rockers have ever been quite as                             weird, or beloved, as Ian Dury. As the leader of the                             underappreciated and ill-fated pub-rockers Kilburn & the High                             Roads, Dury cut a striking figure -- he remained handicapped                             from a childhood bout with polio, yet stalked the stage with                             dynamic charisma, spitting out music-hall numbers and rockers in                             his thick Cockney accent. Dury was 28 at the time he formed                             Kilburn, and once they disbanded, conventional wisdom would                             have suggested that he was far too old to become a pop star, but                             conventional wisdom never played much of a role in Dury's   career. Signing with the fledgling indie label Stiff in 1978, Dury developed a strange fusion of   music-hall, punk rock and disco that brought him to stardom in his native England. Driven by a   warped sense of humor and a pulsating beat, singles like "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick," "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll" and "Reasons to Be Cheerful (Part 3)" became Top Ten hits in the U.K., yet Dury's most distinctive qualities -- his dry wit and wordplay, thick Cockney brogue, and fascination with music-hall -- kept him from gaining popularity outside of England. After his second album, Dury's style became formulaic, and he faded away in the early '80s, turning to an acting career instead.    At the age of seven, Ian Dury was stricken with polio. After spending two years in hospital, he   attended a school for the physically handicapped. Following high school, he attended to the Royal   College of Art, and after his graduation, he taught painting at the Canterbury Art College. In 1970,   when he was 28 years old, Dury formed his first band, Kilburn & the High Roads. The Kilburns   played simple,'50s rock & roll, occasionally making a detour into jazz. Over the next three years,   they became a fixture on England's pub-rock circuit. By 1973, their following was large enough that Dury could quit his teaching job. Several British critics became dedicated fans, and one of them, Charlie Gillett, became their manager. Gillett helped the band sign to the Warner subsidiary Raft, and the group recorded an album for the label in 1974. Warner refused to release the album, and after some struggling, the Kilburns broke away from Raft and signed with the Pye subsidiary Dawn in 1975. Dawn released Handsome in 1975, but by that point, the pub-rock scene was in decline, and the album was ignored. Kilburn & the High Roads disbanded by the end of the year.   Following the dissolution of the Kilburns, Dury continued to work with the band's pianist/guitarist,   Chaz Jankel. By 1977, Dury had secured a contract with Stiff Records, and he recorded his debut   with Jankel and a variety of pub-rock veterans -- including former Kilburn Davey Payne -- and   session musicians. Stiff had Dury play the 1977 package tour Live Stiffs in order to support his   debut album New Boots and Panties!!, so he and Jankel assembled the Blockheads, recruiting   guitarist John Turnbull, pianist Mickey Gallagher, bassist Norman Watt Roy and drummer Charley   Charles. Dury and the Blockheads became a very popular act shortly after the Live Stiffs tour, and   New Boots and Panties!! became a major hit, staying on the U.K. charts for nearly two years; it   would eventually sell over a million copies worldwide. The album's first single, "What A Waste,"   reached the British Top Ten, while the subsequent non-LP single "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick"   climbed all the way to number one.   Ian Dury had unexpectedly become a superstar in Britain, and American record companies were   suddenly very interested in him. Arista won the rights to distribute Dury's Stiff recordings in the U.S., but despite overwhelmingly positive reviews, New Boots and Panties!! stiffed in America, and the label instantly dropped him. Despite his poor U.S. sales, Dury was still riding high in his homeland, with his second album, Do It Yourself, entering the U.K. charts upon its summer release in 1979.  Dury supported the acclaimed album, which saw him delving deeply into disco, with an extensive tour capped off by the release of the single "Reasons to Be Cheerful (Part 3)," which climbed to number three. Once the tour was completed, Jankel left the band and Dury replaced him with Wilko Johnson, former lead guitarist for Dr. Feelgood. With Johnson, Dury released his last Stiff album, Laughter, which received mixed reviews but respectable sales upon its 1980 release. The following year, he signed with Polydor Records and reunited with Jankel. The pair flew to the Bahamas to record his Polydor debut with reggae superstars Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare. The resulting album, Lord Upminster, received mixed reviews and poor sales upon its 1981 release; the album was notable for the inclusion of the single "Spasticus Autisticus," a song Dury wrote for the United Nations Year of the Disabled, but was rejected.    Following the failure of Lord Upminster, Dury quietly backed away from a recording career and   began to concentrate on acting; 1984's 4000 Weeks Holiday, an album recorded with his new band the Music Students, was his last major record of the '80s. He appeared in several plays and television shows, as well as the Peter Greenaway film The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover and Roman Polanski's movie Pirates. He also began to write jingles for British commercials.  In 1989, he wrote the musical Apples with Mickey Gallagher, and he also appeared in the stage production of the play. Dury returned to recording in 1992 with The Bus Driver's Prayer and Other Stories.    In May 1998, Dury announced that he had be diagnosed with colon cancer in 1995 and that the   disease had spread to his liver. He decided to release the information the weekend of his 56th   birthday, in hopes of offering encouragement for others battling the disease. -- Stephen Thomas   Erlewine, All Music Guide

 

LINKS

Official site Frank Magazine on Dury Ian Dury on Billy Fury

 

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