Dury, Ian Robins (1942–2000), popular singer, songwriter, and actor, was born on 12 May 1942 at 43 Weald Rise, Harrow Weald, Harrow, Middlesex, the only child of William George Dury (d. 1968) and Margaret Cuthbertson (Peggy) Dury, formerly Walker (d. 1995).
At the time of his birth, his father—a working-class Londoner—was driving buses for London Transport. In contrast, Ian's mother was the middle-class daughter of a doctor and a housewife, and worked as a health visitor.
Born during the blitz, Ian soon moved with his parents to his grandmother's home in Mevagissey, Cornwall. When peace came they moved to a village near Montreux, Switzerland, where his father worked as a chauffeur for the Western European Union. By 1946 his parents' social incompatibility had taken its toll on their marriage; Ian and his mother returned home and moved into a cottage owned by Ian's aunt Betty in Cranham in Essex. This matriarchal, somewhat feminist, household set the tone for his upbringing and shaped his character to lasting effect.
Ian Dury was five when he started at Upminster infants' school, and records at Upminster junior school show that he arrived there for the new term in September 1947. But a terrible twist of fate meant that Ian never attended this school. That summer, he and a friend had been taken by the other boy's mother to Southend-on-Sea for the day, where they swam in an outdoor pool. Within weeks Ian fell ill and was diagnosed with polio, then a scourge in England (between 1947 and 1958 it affected 58,000 people). The indiscriminate nature of the disease saved his friend from infection, but Ian's left side was paralysed and he lived with the scars all his life. As a result, in 1951 he was sent, for better or worse, to Chailey Heritage Craft School in Sussex, a school and hospital for children with a range of disabilities, and one with what would be considered half a century later an extremely tough regime. But Ian's mother, Peggy, was anxious for his educational as well as physical needs to be met, and began contacting schools.
He was eventually enrolled at the Royal Grammar School in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, but it proved a disastrous choice. Its deep-seated desire for academic excellence and emphasis on traditional values alienated the young disabled boy and he rebelled. He did, however, discover rock and roll at that time, and American jazz musicians such as John Coltrane and Ornette Colman.
In Upminster, Essex, where his mother and aunt were now living, he became involved in a skiffle group.
He left grammar school with O-levels in English language, English literature, and art, and the last became his ticket to a bohemian lifestyle and a new-found happiness. Walthamstow College of Art was a hotbed of talent as the 1960s began to swing, and there Ian rubbed shoulders with Vivian Stanshall, the eccentric genius behind the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, and the film-maker Peter Greenaway, as well as being taught by the acclaimed artist Peter Blake.
Dury continued to study art after he left Walthamstow, taking up a place at the Royal College of Art in London, where he met his first wife, Elizabeth (Betty) Rathmell (1942–1994), the daughter of two Welsh painters. They each graduated (upper second class) with the diploma of associate of the Royal College of Art in July 1966, settled in a flat near the college, and soon after marrying in 1967 had a daughter, Jemima.
Dury started to pick up work as an art lecturer, including a spell at Canterbury College of Art, and socialized extensively with many of his students. The couple moved to Buckinghamshire, where a son, Baxter, was born, but by this time Ian's professional focus lay elsewhere.
Along with some of his students and other musician friends, including pianist Russell Hardy, he had started his own group—the memorably named Kilburn and the High Roads. Initially the band made little impact and the personnel changed constantly, but this eccentric ensemble was eventually embraced by the 'pub rock' scene that took off in smoke-filled bars and pub back rooms around London in the early to mid-1970s. An album recorded for Raft, a subsidiary of the American label Warner, came to nothing when Raft was suddenly closed, but in November 1974 the coarse strains of Ian Dury were finally committed to vinyl when 'Rough Kids/Billy Bentley' was released as a single on the Dann label, a subsidiary of Pye.
The Kilburns had a cultlike following, but their live reputation did not translate into sales; their album Handsome, issued in the following year, sold only about 3000 copies. But while pub rock provided a badly needed platform for bands outside the mainstream to play live, the independent record label Stiff—launched in the summer of 1976—was the perfect home for the maverick recording talents of Ian Dury.
He kept company with Elvis Costello, among others, on the Live Stiffs tour of 1977, on which he was the unexpected success; he was a charismatic performer who, far from being daunted by his disability, used it as part of his stage act. During the tour his backing band, the Blockheads, were christened, and his début single 'Sex and Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll', co-written with Chaz Jankel, became a punk anthem. The song's title entered the language, but the record itself did not chart, and neither did the follow-up 'Sweet Gene Vincent', a tribute to the 1950s rocker who had captivated Dury as a child. But the overall impact of the accompanying album, New Boots and Panties (1977), was seismic and it inhabited the British album charts for more than ninety weeks.
In common with several acts of the era, Dury preferred singles not to appear on his albums and the following two were no exception. 'What a Waste', an early example of the songwriter's penchant for outlandish rhyme, became his first hit single, reaching number nine, while its successor ensured Ian Dury's place in pop history.
'Hit Me with your Rhythm Stick' mixed quirky, memorable lyrics with a jazz/funk beat and reached number one in January 1979, selling more than 1 million copies.
His second album, Do It Yourself, was eagerly awaited, but despite extensive touring in the UK and mainland Europe, it was not the commercial success some had expected. Another unique-sounding single recorded during the expedition did strike a chord with the public, however, and maintained his high profile. 'Reasons to be Cheerful (Part 3)'—a fast-paced Cockney version of 'These are a Few of my Favourite Things', set to a dance beat—climbed to number three in August 1979.
Dury's regular songwriting partner, Chaz Jankel, left to pursue a solo career and took no part in the album Laughter (1980). He was replaced by guitarist Wilko Johnson, formerly of Doctor Feelgood, who played on the singles 'I Want to be Straight', which made it to number twenty-two, and 'Sueperman's Big Sister', which peaked at number fifty-one.
Having changed labels from Stiff to Polydor, Dury released the reggae-influenced album Lord Upminster (1981), which contained his most controversial single 'Spasticus Autisticus', a protest at the attitudes implicit in the United Nations' designation of 1981 as the year of the disabled. It was banned by Radio One and did not chart. Two years later he recorded the album 4,000 Weeks' Holiday with a new group, the Music Students, and two singles, 'Really Glad you Came' and 'Very Personal'; all of these failed commercially, and he and Polydor parted company.
By now he had begun to devote much of his time and creative energies to acting, having made his stage début in a high-speed Hamlet and having gone on to appear in the plays Talk of the Devil and Road. Following his 1984 appearance in the television film Number One, he went on to feature in numerous films, including Roman Polanski's Pirates (1986); The Raggedy Rawney (1989); The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover (1989); Judge Dredd (1995); and The Crow: City of Angels (1996).
In collaboration with Blockheads keyboardist Mickey Gallagher he wrote a musical entitled Apples, which enjoyed a run at the Royal Court Theatre in 1989, and the pair also supplied the words and music for The Joviall Crew and The Country Wife, which were performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company. His television acting credits, meanwhile, included Skallagrigg (1994) and King of the Ghetto (1986). Ian was invited to fulfil a prestigious ambassadorial role with the United Nations Children's Fund in 1997, travelling to Zambia to take part in a polio immunization programme. The following year he joined up with the singer Robbie Williams on another vaccination mission in Sri Lanka, and was rewarded for his efforts when the United Nations Children's Fund endowed him with the title 'special representative'.
Dury's first marriage had effectively broken up after only a few years and the couple were divorced in 1985. In April 1998 he married again; his second wife was Sophy Jane Tilson, a sculptor, the daughter of the artist Joe Tilson. With her he had two children, Billy and Albert.
He had found time to record new material and had been reunited with many of the Blockheads for The Bus Driver's Prayer and other Stories (1989). However, it was when the original line-up came together for Mr Love Pants (1998) that Dury received the widespread critical acclaim that had eluded him for so long. Despite being diagnosed with cancer in 1995, he continued to play in live shows.
He died at his home in Fitzjohn's Avenue, Hampstead, London, on 27 March 2000. His funeral was held on 5 April at Golders Green crematorium, London.
A tribute album, Brand New Boots and Panties, featuring—among others—Paul McCartney and Robbie Williams, was released in April 2001. A biographical film, Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll, charting Dury's rise to fame and success with the Blockheads, appeared in 2010.
Sources: Richard Balls, 'Dury, Ian Robins (1942–2000)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2010 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/73862, accessed 6 Aug 2015] Note Author: Richard Balls
