Dexys Midnight runners – Young soul Rebels by Richard White

As you know, an antidote to the vulgarity is reading beautiful stories. Sometimes it is not easy to find these stories, and it is even rougher whether to read it in another language that is not yours. But in this case, it is worth it, because the book is about a band that is in itself a genuine praise for effort and determination.

Some lessons:

1-      The Dexys were not only the personal project of Kevin Rowland. It was an idea, an obsession, extreme madness, which it nearly cost them their lives (and all of them, actually cost them the future)

2- The talent for making things is a necessary, not sufficient, to become something in any field. Moreover, sometimes becoming something in any field, you can wipe out the talent that would in principle.

3- Having character and infinite determination is the only way to get the glory. Be somebody really, not a bloody sham. And love music almost exclusively, not everything that surrounds it (these guys, as the revolutionaries did not know the sex or alcohol or substances, even some money). Not enough that you like a little, continuous  rehearsals  of  12 hours wrapped in bad feeling, huge charges, expulsions and bad character difficult but really hard, with self and others, creates spirit in the band. And if you are able to endure and survive it, beings who hear and have the same character but are across the stage, receive and check that everything is for real. It is not a diversion. It is not a pantomime. There is not a gram of fakeness, that what is there is only genuine passion and attitude. Not like in other scenes and / or groups and / or movements…

The Dexys, devotion Soul

The book by Richard White, a native of Northampton, is not mere chronology of Dexys nor biography, nor a brainy essay on the music scene of the time. It is simply the idea of ​​devotion to music, the SOUL, for a group that knows no facilities in life, not believing a star or even having a huge musical talent. It is the chronicle of what should be the basis of any group that claims: Authenticity.

For those who want details and bait, it has everything to be the beginning grueling Killjoys, theft  the Geno master of the record (fleeing in a taxi …), the sneak on the trains and subways (loaded all the instrumental) to go to their own concerts and restaurants always flee without paying, after them. Not having nor pipes, but even white label. Fights, madness, tyranny of impossible orders (take a month to a full horn section to learn how to play the violin) and finally, the curse of not knowing digest success (the most famous they were, the more fights They had).

By reading the book, you perceive what is being in a band that does not feel absolutely no one, whose lead singer is totally mad and also thinks that sings badly, they were workers have been paid instruments with endless effort, rehearsals ending in gloomy wet holes and finally the recurring idea that has finished playing the trombone casting train through the turnstiles.

After reading the book, one can only see a concert Dexy’s Midnight runners with the same infinite devotion that they have had all this time with their music.