KEVIN Rowland’s brutally honest autobiography 'Bless Me Father' was published to critical acclaim last year.
During a conversation with Danny Morrison in a packed St Comgall’s it soon becomes clear why he chose the title.
Born in Wolverhampton in England in 1953 to Irish parents, Kevin, who would later front Dexys Midnight Runners and have two number one hits in the British charts with Geno in 1980 and Come On Eileen in 1982, had a difficult childhood and strained relationship with his father.
He remembers a vivid conversation with his father when he was eight. Sitting around the living room one of his sisters asked their dad what did he think she would be when she grew up. He said, "You’ll be a teacher." An older brother asked what would he be and he answered, "You’ll be a businessman." When Kevin asked the same question his father looked at him and said: “You’ll be married with a kid when you’re seventeen.”
Kevin signs music journalist Stuart Bailie's copy of his autobiography
Kevin couldn’t work out why his dad treated him differently from his siblings.
He takes up the story: "Well into adulthood I was talking to a therapist, and he had a hunch, and he said to me, 'How did your dad get on with your mother’s side of the family?' I said I had no idea.
"So I went and saw my dad and I said, 'Dad am I like you?' And he said, 'No, you’re nothing like me.' And I said, 'Who am I like?' And he said, 'You’re a McDonnell' – my mum’s side. So because the therapist gave me the suggestion to ask these questions, I said, 'What was your relationship like with them?' And he said, 'They thought they were better than everyone else.' And he also said, 'They didn’t think I was good enough for your mum.'"
Growing up in England Kevin struggled with his Irish identity but would eventually embrace it.
He equally struggled with the guitar, but his musical break came when the guitarist in his brother's band announced that he was leaving and had given six months’ notice. Kevin was told that if he wanted to join the band he had six months to learn their songs on rhythm guitar. He succeeded and joined the band. After that he formed his own band, The Killjoys, and then Dexys were born.
The albums 'Searching for the Young Soul Rebels' and 'Too-Rye-Ay' followed, as did a slew of chart hits. Along with other second generation Irish, including Johnny Rotten, Boy George, Elvis Costello, all four of the Smiths, Siobhan Fahey and Shane MacGowan, he blazed a trail in the British charts in the eighties.
By 1985 Dexys' third album, 'Don’t Stand Me Down', had the critics scratching their heads. It only reached number 22 in the charts, yet today it's viewed as a classic.
If you want to get ahead get a hat
During the course of the conversation Kevin was brutally honest about the drug addictions that followed, and the times when his life spiralled out of control.
But there were moments of laughter too and he was keen to set the record straight on one infamous incident on Top of the Pops when Dexys were performing 'Jackie Wilson Said' and a photo of darts player Jocky Wilson appeared on the big screen behind the band.
"It was totally deliberate," he insisted. "We used to have pet names for all the songs, like Vino instead of Geno, and sometimes in rehearsals I would sing Jocky Wilson for a laugh. We wanted to have a laugh, so when we got to the Top of the Pops studio I said to the producer could he put up a photo of Jocky Wilson and he said, 'But people will think it’s a mistake.' I said, 'I don’t care' and he said, 'Okay, we’ll do it.'"
Bless Me Father is published by Penguin, priced £12.99.
Dexys Midnight Runners play the Ulster Hall in Belfast on November 5.
