Band issue apology to Dundalk 43 years later

IT’S been a long time coming but anybody from Dundalk who was told to ‘F*** Off‘ by kevin Rowland in 1980 have been issued a formal apology by the Dexy’s Midnight Runners frontman.

Dexy’s Midnight runners were hugely popular during the 1980’s and are best known in the uk for their songs “Come on Eileen” and “Geno”, both of which peaked at no. 1 on the uk Singles Chart as well as six other top-20 singles.

“Come On Eileen” also topped the uS Billboard Hot 100.

Speaking in the Irish Times this week the Dexy’s Midnight Runner frontman recalled an incident at the band’s gig in the Imperial Hotel in Dundalk which caused him to lose his temper with the packed crowd.

“I was in Manchester recently and some guy came up to me and told me that in 1980, when Dexys Midnight Runners walked on stage in a hotel in Dundalk, I told the audience that if they had come to the gig expecting to hear us play Geno, then they could all f**k off. Oh, dear – youth, youth is all I can put that down to.

“In my defence – well, hardly in my defence – the story is this: we had nicked the master tapes for our debut album, Searching for the Young Soul Rebels, from EMI.

“The record should have been out by the time we played Dundalk, but because we had the tapes it hadn’t been released, so the only song people knew from us was Geno, and believe me, we had become really fed up with people chanting Geno all through our shows. However, that wasn’t the fault of the audience in Dundalk. In fact, if we were doing that now, I’d take a very different approach. So here goes – Dundalk, I’m sorry!” said the Dexy’s frontman.