This is an extract from Sex & Drugs & Rock’n’Roll: The Story of Ian Dury by Richard Balls. Although Ian declined to be interviewed by Richard, the great man raised no objections when Richard talked to his family,
friends and musical colleagues, over 50 people in all. In the event, the book
was completed just days before Ian’s death from cancer in the spring of 2000,
and had to be hastily rewritten as a result.
“Ian took a most
generous attitude towards [the book],” says Richard. “Towards the latter end of
my research, I met him at his home and discussed the book with him, and at no
stage did he seek to prevent me from writing his story. Although he did not
give an interview himself, he gave me his blessing to talk to family members
and friends and, knowing I was a fan, made it clear that he did not the book to
be a ‘hagiography’.”
It’s 1986. Ian is a star but he never really behaved like one.
Unlike so many rock’n’rollers, Ian Dury had shown little interest
in hard drugs. He had smoked dope since his college days and remained a heavy
cannabis user, but those who knew him say Class A drugs were always out of
bounds. Booze, however, was a different matter. One source said that Ian’s
“love affair with alcohol” had put them off drinking. His drunken behaviour
often caused incidents as the more drink he consumed, the more cocky and
confrontational he became. But the consequences were usually short-lived and
his antics are remembered with great fondness by The Blockheads and other
friends. One episode, which took place towards the end of the eighties, has
gone down in Blockheads’ history.
[Blockheads bassist] Norman
[Watt-Roy] had played bass on a solo album by Who singer Roger Daltrey and as a
result, both he and Ian had been invited to appear in a video being filmed in a
boxing club in Harrow, west London. Arriving at 9am, they had found the filming
process long and boring and had spent their time emptying bottles of champagne
down their necks. At about 7pm, during a break from filming, the pair went to
an exhibition of Humphrey Ocean’s work at the National Portrait Gallery where
they bumped into Peter Blake and his wife Chrissie. Peter suggested they meet
him later at the highly fashionable restaurant, Le Caprice, near The Ritz
Hotel, and after returning to the video shoot in Harrow they went on to the
restaurant. By now, they were extremely drunk and Ian was in typically
ebullient form.
Norman describes what followed. “We
sit at the table and we’re having dinner with Peter Blake and his wife. There’s
all these stars all over the place, and in the corner is Omar Sharif with two
minders and a girl. Ian suddenly looks round and he happens to know the girl
with Omar, from art school or something, and he’s going, ‘I’m gonna go over and
talk to her’. Peter is trying his hardest to talk him out of it, saying, ‘I don’t
think that’s a good idea’, because Peter knows Omar, and we’re saying, ‘No Ian,
you’re a bit too drunk.’ But Ian goes, ‘Naaah, I’m going...’ and he hobbles
over there and I’m watching what’s going on.
“Peter’s sitting at an angle and
doesn’t want to look up and watch, so he was asking me ‘What’s going on? Is Ian
getting angry? Is Omar angry?’ and I said, ‘No, it’s all right at the moment,
he’s sitting down talking to the girl.’ So, Ian sits down next to the girl and
starts talking to her and I could see Omar wasn’t too happy and then I saw Ian
lean over and start talking to Omar. Ian said something, Omar said something,
Ian said something back, and the next thing, Omar stands up and he’s going
bang, bang, bang, and he’s really punching the fuck out of Ian and there’s blood
and everything. So I jump up, run over and I grab hold of Omar Sharif from
behind and throw him across this settee thing and his two minders jump up and I
just go ‘Wow’ and I pick Ian up and carry him back and I say to them, ‘Look, I’ll
just take him away, he’s not going to hit you back or anything, that’s enough’.
Luckily, the minder didn’t go for me. So I take Ian back and he’s sitting there
with blood everywhere and Peter Blake’s really angry and Omar and his party
start going to leave and as they walk past, Peter says to Omar, ‘There was no
need for the violence at all’ and Omar is all flustered and they walk out. I
said to Ian, ‘What did you say to him?’ and Ian says, ‘I leaned over to Omar
and said ‘I think the first film you made was your best one, everything else
was shit’ and Omar turned round to him and said ‘I don’t give a fuck what you
think’ and Ian said, ‘Well, then you’re a cunt.’
“We were going
home in the cab and Ian’s covered in blood and his lip is all swollen and he
says to the cab driver, ‘‘Ere, I just got punched in the teeth by Omar Sharif’
and the cabbie goes ‘Well that’s the most expensive fist you’ll ever have in
your mouth’. What a night!”
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