Later this month I will be in conversation with British menswear legend Mark Powell at the V&A’s Sartorial Style day.
Kevin Rowland
It’s just never enough: Nowhere Is Home, the new Dexys film
“Do you know what? I was a no-hoper. Prison was a possibility, you know, an absolute possibility for me. It was probably 50:50 whether I’d end up there or not.
“I was considered a failure. I left school, no qualifications, at 15. I’d come bottom of the class in several subjects. I’d gone from one job to another. I was seen as a drifter within my family, so now I wasn’t going to screw this up.
“If I was going to do this I was going to really do it, because this was the one thing from very young that I knew I was good at. And I’d kind of gone off the path, I’d tried to be like everyone else, I’d tried doing the things I thought I was supposed to do, that other people wanted me to do, and failed at all of them.
“So this meant everything to me really.
“Probably meant too much, you know?
“There it is.”
Kevin Rowland, 2014.
Centred on Dexys’ 2013 residency at London’s Duke Of York’s Theatre and the group’s One Day I’m Going To Soar album, Nowhere Is Home will premier in May.
Scenes from the launch of The Look in Soho 2006: Boy George, Pippa Brooks, Mark Powell, Kevin Rowland et al
This film by Rik and Jane Gadsby of the May 2006 London launch of the second edition of my book The Look has just been posted online; it really evokes the good time that everyone had that night.
Pippa Brooks and her band All About Eve Babitz played and DJs included George O’Dowd.
The party was held at the premises of Raymond Revuebar, which by that time was Two II Much (dunno what it is these days). I was very touched when Kevin R. talked about how important he viewed the book and my work. “This is our culture,” he says in the clip above.
Enjoy.
Vinyl: One Day I’m Going To Soar – Dexys
Hats off to Kevin Rowland and his team for the vinyl release of Dexys’ album One Day I’m Going To Soar.
Videos: Incapable Of Love – Dexys
Here Kevin Rowland answers the Blokes Of Britain questionnaire.
Keith Allen’s Breakfast Pirate Radio featuring ‘Northern Industrial Gay’ Jerry Arkwright + Boots Sex Dread
Plus ca change…
Tucked away in the June 1983 edition of The Face was this news story about a brave broadcasting venture, the scabrous and short-lived Breakfast Pirate Radio.
Smiles all round at the Tommy Roberts book launch
There were big smiles for Tommy Roberts at the midsummer’s eve party to celebrate the publication of my new book Mr Freedom – Tommy Roberts: British Design Hero.
Continue reading Smiles all round at the Tommy Roberts book launch
Interview for ARTE documentary on British music’s scenemakers
Yesterday I was visited by a camera crew for an interview about the behind-the-scenes individuals who have made the difference to British popular music over the years.
The team, from Kobalt Productions in Berlin, are producing the documentary for Franco-German arts channel ARTE. The director is Simon Witter, who has a fine pedigree in journalism and broadcasting.
Continue reading Interview for ARTE documentary on British music’s scenemakers
Blokes Of Britain: Kevin Rowland
NAME: Kevin Rowland
RESIDES: London
OCCUPATION: Dexys
Kevin Rowland is a very dapper gent. This is a truth acknowledged by all right-thinking people.
And Kevin is his own man. How many of us can say that?
He is also something of an artist, one whose connection to his muse is unadulterated by commercial concern or critical pressure. I can’t wait for the new Dexys record, which will be out in 2012.
I covered the stylistic changes Kevin rang through earlier Dexys incarnations – from stevedore to Ivy League – in THE LOOK.
Today Kevin answers the Blokes Of Britain questionnaire, providing an opportunity to present some of his looks – including rare and previously unpublished images – past and present: