Dexys Midnight Runners
O'Hara left Uncle Po in late 1977 to study music at Birmingham School of Music (now UCE Birmingham Conservatoire), graduating in 1982 with an offer to join the Madrid Philharmonic. However, after a stint with The Blue Ox Babes, a band founded by ex-Dexys founder Kevin 'Al' Archer, she had also been offered a place with Rowland's new line-up of Dexys—the result of a session she and two other violinists from the university had carried out as part of Kevin Rowland's decision to revamp the band's sound and image. Rowland has said that he saw O'Hara standing at a bus stop with her violin case and stopped to meet her. The more prosaic truth is that of the three violinists at the session she was the only one with any rock and roll experience, and therefore the only one to be able to play a solo by feel. This she did well enough to be immediately drafted in. Within months she was touring the US as "Come On Eileen" reached #1 in the charts. With the singles "Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile)" (a Van Morrison cover) and "Let's Get This Straight (From The Start)" maintaining their popularity, the group continued to tour until 1983 with a nucleus of Rowland, Adams, O'Hara and Shelton augmented by other musicians.
In 1985 she was part of the nucleus of the band that wrote and recorded Don't Stand Me Down.
Read more about this topic: Helen O'Hara
Famous quotes containing the words midnight and/or runners:
“We need more of the Office Desk and less of the Show Window in politics. Let men in office substitute the midnight oil for the limelight.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“We need no runners here. Booze is law
and all the Indians drink in the best tavern.
Money is free if you’re poor enough.”
—James Welch (b. 1940)