艾恩·迪里

Ian Robins Dury (12 May 1942 – 27 March 2000) was an English singer, songwriter and actor best remembered as the frontman of Ian Dury and the Blockheads. Described by The Guardian as "one of few true originals of the English music scene", Dury drew from music hall and punk traditions, often incorporating observational humour and word play in his lyrics.

Dury initially performed with the pub rock band Kilburn and the High Roads before signing to the new wave-oriented independent record label Stiff in 1977. With the Blockheads, he scored several UK singles chart hits in the late 1970s, among them "What a Waste", "Reasons to Be Cheerful, Part 3" and the chart-topper "Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick". In the 1980s, Dury initiated an acting career in film and television. His best-known later recordings include "Profoundly in Love with Pandora", written for the 1985 ITV series The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾, and the 1981 single "Spasticus Autisticus". The latter, a protest song reflecting Dury's life with polio and his opposition to contemporary attitudes about disability, was performed during the opening of the London 2012 Paralympics.

Early life and education

Ian Dury was born at 43 Weald Rise in Harrow, at that time in Middlesex. His early years were spent in Harrow Weald (although it is often misreported that he was born in Upminster, Essex, an impression he often encouraged) and in Mevagissey, Cornwall, during the Blitz. His father, William George Dury (born 23 September 1905 in Southborough, Kent, died 25 February 1968 in Victoria, London), was a former boxer, coach and bus driver, and chauffeur for Rolls-Royce. His mother, Margaret "Peggy" Cuthbertson Walker (born 17 April 1910, Rochdale, Lancashire, died 20 December 1994 in Hampstead, London), was a health visitor, a doctor's daughter and the granddaughter of an East Donegal Ulster Protestant landowner. Bill and Peggy married in 1939 and set up home in Belsize Park, London.

Bill Dury was absent for work for long periods, so Peggy often took Ian to stay with her parents in Mevagissey. After the Second World War, the family moved briefly to Switzerland, where Ian's father was chauffeuring for a millionaire and the Western European Union. In 1946, Peggy brought Ian back to England and they relocated to Cranham, near Upminster in Essex, to live with Peggy's sisters. Although he saw his father on visits, they were never to live together again.

At age seven, Dury contracted polio, most likely, he believed, at Westcliff Swimming Pool in Southend-on-Sea during the 1949 polio epidemic. After six weeks of isolation in the Royal Cornwall Infirmary, Truro, Ian was moved by ambulance back to Essex, to Black Notley Hospital in Braintree, where he spent eighteen months regaining his strength and mobility. Polio caused paralysis on the left-hand side of his body which led to a permanent disability.