In the US, Kevin Rowland and his Birmingham band Dexys Midnight Runners are generally remembered as one-hit wonders, thanks to the massive success of their 1984 smash "Come On Eileen." In the UK, though, Rowland is a hero of the people.
In their homeland, Dexys were considered a serious Celtic soul act, and they had a bunch of hits. After Dexys broke up in 1987, Kevin Rowland publicly struggled with debt, depression, and drug addiction. His solo career never made it off the ground, and he was widely mocked for wearing fishnets on the cover of his 1999 LP My Beauty. For a while, he was on welfare, and he's told a story about the whole crowd at the dole office singing "Come On Eileen" to him when he was waiting for his check. But Rowland got off drugs and returned with a revived Dexys, and now he's ready to tell his story.
Kevin Rowland's memoir Bless Me Father is coming out this summer. It promises to follow Rowland through his turbulent childhood, into new-wave fame and then cautionary-tale infamy, all the way up to 2024, when Dexys Midnight Runners -- now simply known as Dexys -- played a triumphant comeback set at Glastonbury. Forgive Me Father is out 7/10 via Penguin Books; pre-order it here. Dexys' most recent album The Divine Feminine came out in 2023.
