Dexys Midnight Runners

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Birmingham (UK) (1978 – present)

Dexys Midnight Runners - the name consistently spelled without an apostrophe - were a British post-punk and northern soul band who achieved their major success in the early to mid 1980s. The word “Dexys” in this case, comes from a colloquialism of “dextroamphetamine” or “purple hearts,” a type of amphetamine diet pill that was a popular “upper” drug with England’s Northern Soul scene in the 1960s.

Founded by former singer of The Killjoys, Kevin Rowland and guitarist Kevin “Al” Archer, in Birmingham (UK) 1978. The band name was taken from a colloquialism for dextroamphetamine (ie, “dexies” or “dexys”), a drug commonly abused by the UK’s Mod/Northern Soul scenes of the 1960s.

The band, especially at its beginnings, was unique in that musically, they seemed best suited to the budding mod/Skinhead Revival scene in the United Kingdom, but in many ways, especially fashion, they came off as rather hard to “sell” to any particular scene. Musically, they’ve always been a sort of “soul-fusion.”

An early single, “

Geno” (written as an ode to American Northern Soul singer, Geno Washington), was immensely popular, despite being repeatedly bad-mouthed by the NME. In fact, “Geno” remains their biggest-selling single in the UK, thanks in part to at least one re-issue.

Tagged as:

new wave, 80s, post-punk, british, rock
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Come On Eileen / Dubious
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Let's Make This Precious: The Best of Dexys…
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Searching for the Young Soul Rebels
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Top Tracks

1	Come On Eileen full track	4,880
2	Geno full track	485
3	Burn it Down full track	98
3	Seven Days Too Long full track	98
5	Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile) full track	77
6	Come On Eileen - Album Edit	72
7	Tell Me When My Light Turns Green full track	66
8	There There My Dear full track	63
9	Keep It full track	61
10	I'm Just Looking full track	58
11	Thankfully Not Living in Yorkshire It Doesn't Apply full track	57
12	There, There, My Dear	54
13	Plan B	53
14	The Teams That Meet In Caffs full track	52
15	Show Me full track	50

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TheTateShelton wrote:
Wednesday morning

I love Tell Me When My Light Turns Green. The horn section in the song is just amazing.

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revolving_doors wrote:
9 days ago

i agree with jason

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DaveMcP wrote:
12 days ago

last fm newby here! A band I have recently discovered who come from North staffs the same as me are This is Seb Clarke.. you should check them out, similar sound etc. I bought their album 'Rover' the other day and have literally worn it out! check em out!

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Metalbeast7 wrote:
20 days ago

That first album of theirs is superb!

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TheFeldster wrote:
20 days ago

Haven't heard any of their stuff apart from Eileen, but it's on my to-do list.

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jason_ug8 wrote:
last month

come on eileen=best drunk song ever

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SonOfBelushi wrote:
last month

Best band ever. 1982, my first concert ever: Dexys in Cologne, Germany. Unforgettable.

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AntonFjordson wrote:
September 2009

post-punk wtf?!

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YesMother wrote:
August 2009

Awesome.

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tobi116 wrote:
August 2009

Whooooaaa Geeenooo

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viragom wrote:
July 2009

I always thought they were cool but it wasn't until I watched the episode of the Young Ones where they perform "Jackie Wilson..." that I thought "Ya know what? I might just love these guys."

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James_Murton wrote:
June 2009

Let's Make This Precious isn't in the top 15? Oh dear...

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YogurtJalla wrote:
June 2009

So much more than one hit-wonders. Really high quality british soul...

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Anonymous2258 wrote:
June 2009

i love that song!!

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Scouse Mouse wrote:
June 2009

@raydl - agreed, I much prefer nothing to it

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raydl wrote:
June 2009

nothing is better than come on eileen

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vote4_pedro_85 wrote:
June 2009

come on eileen!

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lmaochelsea wrote:
May 2009

ringtone, basically.

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cborden1989 wrote:
April 2009

Because their music is highly reminiscent of folk and soul? Doesn't take a genius to figure that one out.

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Vanilla-villa wrote:
April 2009

Why are they tagged with folk and soul? LOL

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