Great heroes of London's 1980s post-punk scene, the marriage of Ian Dury's working class cockney poetry and The Blockheads' funky new wave rock created some of the era's classic albums and a string of unlikely pop hits. A polio sufferer who walked with a pronounced limp, Dury learned his trade with pub rockers Kilburn & The High Roads but, with fame eluding them, he signed to Stiff Records for debut solo album New Boots And Panties!! (1977). It became a cult hit and The Blockheads were initially recruited as a live band, before striking up an intense relationship with Dury that produced classic singles What A Waste, Reasons To Be Cheerful Part 3 and the UK Number 1 Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick. Their mix of punk attitude, music hall playfulness, funk rock strut and jazzy rhythms proved a unique breath of fresh air at the time, and albums Do It Yourself (1979) and Laughter (1980) won huge critical acclaim. The band split in 1982, but reformed in the 1990s when Dury was diagnosed with cancer and recorded his final album Mr. Love Pants (1998) before his death in 2000.
