40 years on, still a reason to be cheerful

The Blockheads, The Globe, Cardiff

HOW do you replace a musical icon like Ian Dury?

That must have been the question facing The Blockheads, the backing band of the infamous punk rock firebrand, after he passed away in March 2000.

The answer is, you don’t even try – you just celebrate the incredible legacy of songs he left behind.

Thankfully, when you’ve got players in your line-up of the calibre of Norman Watt-Roy, Chaz Jankel, Mick Gallagher and John Turnbull, missing your figurehead becomes less of an insurmountable obstacle.

And the man at the mic with the unenviable task of filling Dury’s boots?

Why, it’s Derek the Draw, the late singer’s mate and minder who’s been handling vocal duties in the group since the star of the millennium.

Formed in ’77 to promote Dury’s album New Boots and Panties on the first Stiff Records tour of the UK, The Blockheads have rarely been off the road ever since.

Several classic hit singles followed, including What a Waste, Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick (top of the hit parade in 1979 and the greatest musical moment to namecheck Cardiff’s Tiger Bay), Reasons to be Cheerful Part Three and party anthem-on-high Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll.

And now, 40 years later, their workingmen’s club funk and white-boy dance grooves – once the perfect vehicle for Dury’s home-spun philosophy and chirpy Essex charm – are still packing them in at clubs up and down the land.

Like acts such as Banned from Utopia – made up of acolytes from the late Frank Zappa’s entourage – or Paul Weller’s former band mates From The Jam, The Blockheads will probably never entirely assuage the loss of their main man, no matter how long they jam.

However, even without Dury’s inimitable presence, they remain one of the greatest live acts the UK has ever produced.

The Blockheads play The Globe in Cardiff on Saturday November 11. For tickets call 0871 220 0260.