A TALE OF TWO KEVINS

John Reed uncovers the sorry story of a lost album from Dexys’ other Kevin, ‘Al’ Archer, which is finally released two decades on…

Dexys Midnight Runners had such grand designs. An eight-piece soul band created at the height of guitarbased New Wave, they set out to forge music that mattered – music with soul, passion, truth and integrity. Dexys Mark I created one of the landmark hits of the postpunk era in Geno and the magnificent, criticallyapplauded debut album Searching For The Young Soul Rebels.

But in his quest, Kevin Rowland managed to alienate not only his record company and much of the media (not necessarily a bad thing, granted) but also most of his band, who duly upped sticks to form The Bureau only months after the release of that debut album.

One Dexy who stuck around long enough to form Dexys Mark II was Kevin Archer – or Al Archer, as he was then known. Having been recruited for a late line-up of Rowland’s punk combo, The Killjoys, Archer co-founded Dexys with Rowland in 1979, but after co-writing two progressively less successful follow-ups to Geno in the joyous There There My Dear and the ambitious Keep It (Part Two), Archer had reached the end of his tether, tired of the claustrophobic atmosphere caused by Rowland’s dominant personality. He left in early 1981 to form a new band, Blue Ox Babes, with new girlfriend Yasmin Saleh in tow.

What happened thereafter, which Archer saw as a …

by John Reed
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