Dexys and the genius of Kevin Rowland

On a night punctuated with ovations, one number in Tuesday's triumphant Dexys show at Shepherds Bush Empire elicited more excitement than any other. "So, what's she like?" began Pete Williams, stepping in to play Billy Adams' spoken-word part on This Is What She's Like. This was the moment we cheered more loudly than any other. We cheered because no one has written a song like This Is What She's Like before or since. We cheered for the 12 scintillating minutes it portended. And, perhaps without even fully realising it, we cheered to atone for the hostility that greeted Don't Stand Me Down , the 1985 album from which it came. With hindsight, the hostility seems extraordinary. The transition from the ripped dungarees of Too-Rye-Ay to preppy Ivy League suits prompted a response typified by TV interviewer Muriel Gray when she asked the group: "Why the change from country hicks to double-glazing-salesman look?" Music papers chided Rowland for writing about his Irish roots in Knowledge Of Beauty and The Waltz, but not making his political affiliations explicit. When the time came to tour the album, Record Mirror dismissed the whole spectacle as, "chartered accountants playing music for chartered accountants". Twenty-six years later, though, the ephemeral distractions that clouded the judgment of so many listeners have long evaporated. When people talk about the genius of Kevin Rowland this is the record they're most likely to reach for.