[4] The band's name was derived from Dexedrine, a brand of dextroamphetamine used as a recreational drug among Northern soul fans to give them energy to dance all night.

[3] While recruiting members for the new band, Rowland noted that "Anyone joining Dexys had to give up their job and rehearse all day long ... We had nothing to lose and felt that what we were doing was everything.

"[4] "Big" Jim Paterson (trombone), Geoff "JB" Blythe (saxophone, previously of Geno Washington's Ram Jam Band), Steve "Babyface" Spooner (alto saxophone), Pete Saunders (keyboard), Pete Williams (bass) and John Jay (drums) formed the first lineup of the band, which began playing live at the end of 1978.

[7] After a series of dates opening for the Specials, who wore suits on stage, Rowland decided that his band needed its own distinct look.

[6] Borrowing from an outfit that Paterson had worn to rehearsals,[6] Dexys subsequently dressed in donkey jackets or leather coats and woolly hats, a look described as "straight out of De Niro's Mean Streets".

[5] Although it was named "single of the week" by Sounds,[3] it stalled at number 40 in the British charts,[5] which EMI and Rowland believed was due to Rhodes' poor production.

However, after a couple of months of touring, Rowland insisted on writing new lyrics to Archer's music for "Keep It" for release as the band's next single, despite EMI's objections.

[11] Archer (and Leek) eventually formed The Blue Ox Babes, while the other departing members—Blythe, Spooner, Williams, "Stoker", and Talbot—formed The Bureau, which Wingfield continued to produce.

[3] Later in March 1981, an ad appeared in which Rowland stated that the previous members of the band had "hatched a plot to throw Kevin out and still carry on under the same name".

[3] In April, Dexys prevailed to win their release from EMI, although without the financial support of a label, they were unable to mount the spring tour that had planned and had to settle for playing only five dates, including one recorded by BBC Radio 1.

[5] As Dexys prepared to record their first album for Mercury, Rowland decided that he needed more proficient string players to achieve the sound he envisioned.

However, the need to rearrange all the songs for both strings and horns left the brass section of Paterson and Maurice (and to a lesser extent Speare) feeling that their role in the band had diminished.

[3] The first single, "The Celtic Soul Brothers" (cowritten by Rowland and Paterson with Mickey Billingham), which was released before the album, only reached number 45 on the UK charts.

[12] To help create momentum, the band performed a live BBC Radio 1 concert in Newcastle on 6 June 1982, which was the last appearance of the horn section of Paterson, Maurice, and Speare with Dexys.

To replace them, Dexys added saxophonist Nick Gatfield and used various session musicians, including Kevin Gilson (saxophone) and Mark Walters and Spike Edney (trombone).

[5] On 10 October 1982, the Dexys performance at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London was recorded by Steve Barron and then released on videodisk and videocassette (and later DVD) as an edited 9-song set also entitled The Bridge.

[4] Although Dexys began preparing material for a new album in late 1983, once the touring stopped, the band was reduced to a nucleus of Rowland, Adams, O'Hara and Gatfield.

[18] Recording and mixing the new album took almost two years and spread across Switzerland, the U.K., and the U.S;[5] at various times, Tom Dowd, Jimmy Miller, and John Porter were attached as producers.

[19] Some seasoned performers, ex-Dexys members, and session musicians made up the rest of the band, including Vincent Crane (ex-Atomic Rooster) on piano, Julian Littman on mandolin, Tim Dancy (who had been Al Green's drummer) on drums, Tommy Evans on steel guitar, and former Dexys members "Big" Jim Paterson on trombone, Robert Noble on organ and synthesizer, and John "Rhino" Edwards on bass.

[24] Most contemporaneous reviewers strongly disliked this latest incarnation of Dexys, comparing the new look to "double glazing salesmen" and condemning the album as "a mess" and "truly awful".

[20][25][26] Only a few reviewers were supportive; for example, writing in the Melody Maker, Colin Irwin described it as "quite the most challenging, absorbing, moving, uplifting and ultimately triumphant album of the year".

[6] However, Dexys returned to the U.K. charts in late 1986 with the single "Because Of You", again written by and featuring the nucleus of Rowland, O'Hara and Adams (and which was used as the theme tune to a British sitcom, Brush Strokes).

"[6] In 1997, he released his first project on Creation: a remastered and reprocessed version of Don't Stand Me Down with extensive liner notes, revised credits and titles, and two extra songs, which helped contribute to a significant reversal of opinion with regard to the album, which was now increasingly being re-evaluated and recognized as an unfairly overlooked masterwork.

[6] However, the negative reaction to My Beauty and the demise of Creation Records shortly after its release meant that Rowland's planned follow-up album, which would have featured Dexys performing new material, was never made.

[30] While recording two new songs, "Manhood" and "My Life in England" (both credited to Rowland, Paterson, and David Ditchfield) for a forthcoming Dexys greatest hits album, Rowland recruited Welsh classical violist (and studio musician) Lucy J. Morgan to play on the sessions along with original Dexys members Pete Williams as co-vocalist and "MD" Mick Talbot on keyboards, plus Paul Taylor on trombone and Neil Hubbard on guitar.

A new track, "It's OK Johanna", appeared on the band's MySpace site in 2007, and in January 2008, Rowland told Uncut magazine further details about the album, saying in part: "I'm in the process of demo-ing the songs ...

In 2013, the band announced that they would play nine shows in London's West End at the Duke of York's Theatre, St Martins Lane between 15 and 27 April.

[48] The publicity photo for the tour, which would have played the album in its entirety along with other Dexys material, shows, from left to right, Read, Rowland, O'Hara, and Paterson.

[50] In December 2022, 100% Records announced via Twitter that they had signed Dexys and that the band's sixth studio album, The Feminine Divine, was scheduled for release in 2023.

The second half saw Dexys play many of the songs that appeared on the Too-Rye-Ay album: "Soon", "Plan B", "I'll Show You", "All In All (This One Last Wild Waltz)", "Until I Believe In My Soul", "Come On Eileen", "Jackie Wilson Said (I'm In Heaven When You Smile)".