Ian Dury
Not one to let life get him down, Ian Dury wrote a song to commemorate the International Year of Disabled Persons. Considering that Ian Dury was disabled after suffering from polio at age 7, you might think that Ian Dury's song would be hailed as a success for disabled persons everywhere. You would be wrong. The song was "Spasticus Autisticus", and it was banned by the BBC.
Born May 12, 1942, Ian Dury was a British singer, songwriter and frontman. While he was best known as the leader of Ian Dury and the Blockheads, he originally pursued a career in art, teaching at various colleges and showing in prestigious galleries around England. But his main love was music.
In 1971, he started the band, Kilburn and the Highroads. He was the lead vocalist and group lyricist, and he recruited several of his students from art school to join the band. They did well on the pub-rock circuit in London, and in 1974, they signed a deal with Dawn Records. Though the group generally got good press, and even opened for The Who, they never really made it beyond cult status, and they broke up in 1975.
Ian Dury's next effort, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, was born out of a collaboration with pianist/guitarist, Chaz Jankel. Jankel took some of Dury's lyrics and wrote music around them, bringing in musicians to record the songs for an album.
After the album was completed, the group had a difficult time finding a label that wanted it. When all the major record labels passed, the Blockheads finally found a home at the newly created Stiff Records. Their Stiff debut album and single, Sex and Drugs and Rock & Roll, became a classic. They followed it up with the album New Boots and Panties!!, which would ultimately go platinum.
Following a 1977 tour with a few big name acts, Stiff Records launched an aggressive marketing campaign centered on Ian Dury and the Blockheads. The result was the top 10 hit, "What a Waste", and the classic UK #1 single, "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick".
Their sophomore effort, Do It Yourself, created another hit album with the top 10 single, "Reasons to be Cheerful". But after Jankel left the group to pursue a solo career, Ian Dury and the Blockheads recorded their final album Laughter, and then parted ways.
Ian Dury's next musical effort marked a departure from his usual style, and the American jazz influence that featured on the record was not well received.by his critics. But Ian Dury's post-Blockhead career also brought on non-musical roles, and in the 1980s, Ian began an acting career and became a vocal supporter of the AIDS cause.
Sadly, Ian Dury passed away in 1998, after a bout with cancer, but his influence, on the world of music and beyond, will continue to live on.
Our Ian Dury T-shirts are fully licensed, endorsed and custom made from the softest, prewashed and shrunk cotton jesery. We faithfully reproduce the original article as tracked down by Worn Free from archive images.
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Ian Dury T-Shirts
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