44 Facts About Ian Dury

Ian Robins Dury was an English singer, songwriter and actor who rose to fame in the late 1970s, during the punk and new wave era of rock music.

Ian Dury was born at 43 Weald Rise in Harrow, at that time in Middlesex.

Bill Dury was absent for work for long periods, so Peggy often took Ian to stay with her parents in Mevagissey.

At age seven, Ian Dury contracted polio, most likely, he believed, at Westcliff Swimming Pool in Southend-on-Sea during the 1949 polio epidemic.

Ian Dury attended Chailey Heritage Craft School, East Sussex, from 1951 till 1954.

Ian Dury found this school a challenge and recounted being punished for misdemeanours by being forced by prefects to learn long tracts of poetry until a housemaster found him sobbing and put a stop to it:.

Ian Dury left school at 16, having achieved GCE 'O' levels in English Language, English Literature and Art to study art and design at Walthamstow College of Art, where he met lifelong friend, pop artist and teacher Peter Blake.

In 1963 Ian Dury began an MA in painting at the Royal College of Art, graduating in 1966.

In 1967 Ian Dury took part in a group exhibition, "Fantasy and Figuration", alongside Elizabeth Rathmell, Pat Douthwaite, Herbert Kitchen and Stass Paraskos at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London.

Ian Dury painted commercial illustrations for The Sunday Times in the early 1970s.

Ian Dury formed Kilburn and the High Roads in 1971, and they played their first gig at Croydon School of Art on 5 December 1971.

The band was formed after Dury began writing songs with pianist and guitarist Chaz Jankel.

Partly due to personality clashes with Ian Dury, Jankel left the group again in 1980, after the recording of the Do It Yourself LP, and he returned to the US to concentrate on his solo career.

Jankel was replaced by former Dr Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson, who contributed to the next album Laughter and its two hit singles, although Gallagher recalls that the recording of the Laughter album was difficult and that Ian Dury was drinking heavily in this period.

In March 1996 Ian Dury was diagnosed with cancer and, after recovering from an operation, he set about writing another album.

Ian Dury released a single album with the Music Students, 4,000 Weeks' Holiday.

Ian Dury described the song as "a war cry" on Desert Island Discs.

In 1984, Ian Dury was featured in the music video for the minor hit single "Walking in My Sleep" by Roger Daltrey of The Who.

Ian Dury's self-styling and chief musical influence was his hero since childhood, American rock and roll and rockabilly artist Gene Vincent.

Vincent wore a leg brace, although Ian Dury said he did not know this until later.

Ian Dury wrote the lyrics after spending six weeks of research on Vincent, which included reading two biographies.

Ian Dury was a lover of music hall, another of his heroes being Max Wall.

Ian Dury developed a unique style that mixed music hall with punk and rock and roll, and crafted an on-stage persona that entertained his audiences.

Ian Dury appeared in the Eduardo Guedes film Rocinante, the German comedy Brennende Betten, Alejandro Jodorowsky's The Rainbow Thief, and the Sylvester Stallone science fiction film Judge Dredd.

Ian Dury appeared alongside fellow lyricists Bob Dylan and Tom Waits, respectively, in the movies Hearts of Fire and Bearskin: An Urban Fairytale, by Eduardo Guedes.

Ian Dury wrote a musical, Apples, staged in London's Royal Court Theatre.

Ian Dury turned down an offer from Andrew Lloyd Webber to write the libretto for Cats.

Ian Dury got Richard Stilgoe to do the lyrics in the end, who's not as good as me.

Ian Dury appeared with Curve on the Peace Together concert and CD, performing "What a Waste", with benefits to the Youth of Northern Ireland.

Ian Dury appeared in the Classic Albums episode that focused on Steely Dan's album Aja.

Ian Dury commented that the album was one of the most "upful" he had ever heard, and that the album "lifted [his] spirits up" whenever he played it.

Ian Dury was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 1996 and underwent surgery, but tumours were later found in his liver, and he was told that his condition was terminal.

In 1999, Ian Dury collaborated with Madness on their first original album in fourteen years on the track "Drip Fed Fred".

Ian Dury and the Blockheads' last public performance was a charity concert in aid of Cancer BACUP on 6 February 2000 at the London Palladium, supported by Kirsty MacColl and Phill Jupitus.

Ian Dury was noticeably ill and again had to be helped on and off stage.

Ian Dury died of metastatic colorectal cancer on 27 March 2000, aged 57, in Hampstead, London.

Ian Dury was cremated after a humanist funeral at Golders Green Crematorium with 250 mourners at the service, including fellow musicians Suggs and Jools Holland and other "celebrity fans" such as Member of Parliament Mo Mowlam.

The Ian Dury website opened an online book of condolence shortly after his death, which was signed by hundreds of fans.

Ian Dury sang a few of his father's songs at the wake after the funeral, and has released six of his own albums, including It's a Pleasure, Prince of Tears and The Night Chancers.

In 2002, Jemima Ian Dury organised a "musical bench" designed by Mil Stricevic to be placed in a favourite viewing spot of Ian Dury's near Poets' Corner, in the gardens of Pembroke Lodge, in Richmond Park, south-west London.

The film, in which Ian Dury recalls his life and career, intercut with concert footage, includes contributions from painter Peter Blake, Jemima and Baxter Ian Dury, and members of the Blockheads.

Ian Dury married Elizabeth "Betty" Rathmell on 3 June 1967 in Barnstaple, Devon, and they had two children, Jemima and Baxter, in 1969 and 1971, respectively.

In 1973 Ian Dury left the family, who were living at the time in a Buckinghamshire village, and moved back to London to pursue his music career.

Ian Dury married sculptor Sophy Tilson in 1998, with whom he had two children.