Having recently signed to Heavenly Records, Dexys Midnight Runners will release their first album for the label on September 4.
According to the press release, LOVE “gathers stories spanning Kevin Rowland’s life – from his second generation Irish childhood and family relationships to late-life romance, loss and reconciliation.”
The album was produced by David Holmes, aided and abetted by Peter Schweir, with additional contributions from long-time collaborators Sean Read, Mike Timothy, Jim Paterson and string arranger Brian Irving. Watch a video for the first single “My Life In England Pt 1” below:
Says Kevin Rowland: “We put out a version of this song on a compilation album in 2003, but I felt we could improve on it. I wrote it a long time ago with Jim [Patterson], along with ‘My Life in England Pt 2’. It’s all memories of my own experiences. Pete, that’s my brother. In my book [Bless Me Father], I changed his name to Pat. There’s quite a lot of overlap with the book in this one.
“We were in England dreaming of America: it was pre-Beatles, so it was Elvis, it was Sonny Liston, Cassius Clay, clothes, all of it was America. In the second verse, I’m remembering being in a social club listening to everyone singing Kevin Barry [a song about 18-year-old medical student and IRA soldier Kevin Barry, executed by the British government on 1st November, 1920] and my mum telling me ‘This song’s not allowed in England’. It was daytime, and all the curtains were drawn, everyone drinking, singing an illegal song. I remember thinking, ‘Wow, yes, exciting!’
“My childhood memories, I just wrote them down. You can’t really write on behalf of anybody else. Though I realised later that when I was growing up in north-west London, loads of the kids around there were second generation Irish. All obsessed with being up the front with the best clothes, with dancing to the new records.”
Pre-order LOVE here and peruse the Dexys tour schedule below:
In-store appearances
04.09.26 – Assai – GLASGOW (signing only)
05.09.26 – Jumbo – LEEDS (signing only)
06.09.26 – HMV – BIRMINGHAM (signing only)
07.09.26 – Rough Trade – NOTTINGHAM (stripped back live performance)
08.09.26 – Rough Trade – BRISTOL (stripped back live performance)
09.09.26 – Resident – BRIGHTON (stripped back live performance)
10.09.26 – Rough Trade East – LONDON (stripped back live performance + Q&A with David Holmes)
Live dates
04.10.26 – Gota Lejon – STOCKHOLM
06.10.26 – Pustervik – GOTHENBURG
07.10.26 – Slagthuset Teater – MALMO
10.10.26 – Passionskirche – BERLIN
11.10.26 – Elysee Montmatre – PARIS
20.10.26 – Royal Concert Hall – GLASGOW
21.10.26 – City Hall – NEWCASTLE
23.10.26 – The Halls, University of Wolverhampton – WOLVERHAMPTON
25.10.26 – Opera House – MANCHESTER
27.10.26 – Hackney Empire – LONDON
28.10.26 – Hackney Empire – LONDON
30.10.26 – Corn Exchange – CAMBRIDGE
01.11.26- Dome – BRIGHTON
04.11.26 – Olympia – DUBLIN
05.11.26 – Ulster Hall – BELFAST
06.11.26 – Blackbox Theatre – GALWAY
08.11.26 – Beacon – BRISTOL