BOOKS ON DEXYS

BOOKS ON DEXYS

recommended by Norman Warwick

THE TEAM THAT DREAMS IN CAFFS

By Geoff Blythe, Ian Snowball, Pete McKenna and Mike Laye.

After focussing in yesterday pages on the Too Rye Ay album, as part of a bigger picture about Dexys Midnight Runners, we thought we´d recommend a couple of appropriate books on that same subject matter. We ought to warn you that some carpentry skills might be required.

The Team That Dreams In Caffs is the first book written by a member of Dexys Midnight Runners from the period of their debut album Searching For the Young Soul Rebels. This book is the story of the making of that album and what it was like being a member of the band and working with the genius Kevin Rowland. Alongside Geoff Blythes and the authors narrative the book includes contributions from a selection of fans and people that were connected with the making of the album and the band at the time. The Team That Dreams in Caffs also includes photographs from Mike Layes collection. Mike was the bands official photographer between 1979 and 1980 and captured that iconic image that the band displayed of donkey jackets, woolly hats, brogues and carrying northern soul style holdalls. All the photographs are black and white, which adds to the atmosphere of the book. Searching For The Young Soul Rebels was the album that gave the world such songs as Geno and There There My Dear and put Dexys Midnight Runners on the map. The album is regarded by many as one of the greatest debut albums of all time and this book is an attempt to celebrate that fact. It’s a book that will resonate with a generation and appeal to those still searching for the young soul rebel in themselves.

Dexys Midnight Runners were one of the most misunderstood and overlooked groups of the 1980s. At the centre of it all was their front man and originator Kevin Rowland, with a reputation for maintaining control and domination over Dexys at all costs. Author Richard White has conducted in-depth interviews with former members of the band. It sheds new light on the Dexys legend including the fractious period of writing and recording the classic “Come on Eileen”, one of the biggest selling singles in UK history and its parent album “Too Rye Ay”. While celebrating their achievements on record and on stage, this book also uncovers aspects of Rowlands working methods in the studio and the subsequent fall-out and break-ups that ensued. It details Kevin Rowland’s return and the latest Dexys re-invention, championed on a triumphant tour in 2003.

The author of the acclaimed Whatever Happened to the C86 Kids? conducts another hugely entertaining musical investigation as he tracks down the many and varied members of chart-topping 80s group Dexys Midnight Runners.

In the early 1980s, the pop charts were dominated by musicians tarted up in Day-Glo colours, who fought it out for coverage on our TV screens and magazine pages. Dexys Midnight Runners did things differently. They were surly. They were serious. They were ambitious, but success had to come on their terms. They were a disciplined outfit, a gang with a defined purpose: to make music so pure that it couldn’t fail to elicit a deep emotional response from anyone within earshot.
 

And they managed it. This motley crew – in woolly hats and donkey jackets for their first coming; all dungarees and copious body hair for the second – gate-crashed the charts, scoring number-one hits around the globe. But being in Dexys wasn’t all sunshine and roses. Many members came, many members went. Some returned unexpectedly as being part of this particular gang was a way of life; it was everything.
 

Nige Tassell, author of the Penderyn Prize-shortlisted Whatever Happened to the C86 Kids? employs his skills of detection to go off in search of the dozens of members who – for however brief a period, and to whatever level of success – have been a part of Dexys Midnight Runners. These are the people who gave the band its sound, its soul, its substance. But whatever happened to them?

‘Hugely readable glimpse into the lives of those who made Dexys’ – Mojo

‘Tassell’s prismatic portrait benefits greatly from the perceptions of the varied cast members unbeholden to anyone. 4 stars’ – Classic Pop

‘Warm-hearted insider tales … [Tassell] captures a tale that is as much about Dexys as it is a vital social history. 4 stars’ – Record Collector

‘Nige Tassell is just the person for this momentous task.’ – Danny Baker

‘The inside story of one of the greatest bands of them all. I devoured it!’ – Gary Crowley

‘Terrific idea, wonderfully executed’ – Pete Paphides

‘A compelling, moving book about a childhood dream of the ultimate gang, who turned out to be quite the opposite.’ – The Times

Rashomon meets Sherlock Holmes… this is one of the great musical detective stories. An incredible feat of journalism that’s also a powerfully emotional story of human brilliance and creative madness. The story of Dexys is about more than one man and for the first time Nige Tassell unravels the knotty history of a great band.’ – David Quantick

‘Entertaining roll call of former Midnight Runners. 8/10’ – Classic Rock