Singer Ian Dury rode the
punk bandwagon in the
1970s with the singles ``Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick'' and ``Reasons to be Cheerful (Part 3)''
Dury, whose
singing featured clever, exuberant,
Cockney-accented
lyrics was backed by a
band called the Blockheads.
Dury was partially
crippled by
polio at age 7, and as a result was a lifelong campaigner for the acceptance of
disabilities and
eradication of polio.
After
graduating from
school, Dury pursued a
career in
art as an
illustrator and
teacher. It wasn't until
1970 that he turned seriously to
music, forming a group called Kilburn and the High Roads that was characterized by Dury's
wry, gravel-voiced vocals.
The group mostly struggled for seven years, but the formation of Ian Dury and the Blockheads in
1977 helped him finally taste
success -- even though, at 35, he was almost two
decades older than the
archetypal punk rocker.
Dury and the Blockheads were signed to
independent Stiff Records, and the group's 1977 tour with other Stiff artists, including
Elvis Costello and
Nick Lowe, served as a springboard for the so-called
New Wave, a gentler, more thoughtful offshoot of punk.
As rock 'n' roll became ``exhausting,'' Dury segued into
acting, taking roles in movies ranging from
Roman Polanski's ``Pirates'' to Peter Greenaway's ``The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover.''
He also wrote a musical, ``Apples,'' that was staged at London's
Royal Court Theatre in 1989.