Lifelong Wolves supporter Kevin Rowland is returning to the city this evening to perform with Dexys Midnight Runners at the University of Wolverhampton at The Halls.
Having grown up in Wolverhampton, Rowland maintained his Old Gold links throughout his life, even incorporating the club and its players into the band’s lyrics, and tonight offers him the chance to perform in front of his hometown once again.
Last season, Rowland spoke to the matchday programme about his love for the gold and black.
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It's the interval of Kevin Rowland's appearance in Edinburgh discussing his arresting new memoir published earlier this year, Bless Me Father. The maverick frontman of Dexys Midnight Runners (later Dexys), who turned 72 in August, is meeting fans, and the atmosphere is one of deep warmth. It's the kind of reverence usually only reserved for footballers and musicians around Britain.
Earlier that evening, I sat down with Rowland to discuss the crossover between music, fashion, and football. His early life was nomadic, the son of Irish parents. As a young child, he moved back and forward from Mayo to Wolverhampton and then to London." Between age of one and four, I was in Ireland, and I started school there. Then I moved back to England. I remember going home and asking why the kids were calling me 'meat'; my brother explained it was alright; they were calling me ‘mate’".
Rowland first saw Wolves during early childhood when his older brothers Pete and John took him to the South Stand at Molineux and into town to see the side that had won a fourth FA Cup for the club against Blackburn in 1960. "With football, it was the fans that I was totally drawn to. I didn't watch the game that much; I would watch the fans singing, what they were wearing, and how they would relate to each other. I used to wonder how the songs were made up and I'd try to get into the centre and stand amongst it all". Perhaps on some level, those early fan songs and chants had an effect on your direction towards music? "I've no idea, but I liked it; I suppose everything is an influence.”
Support for Wolves would provide an essential cultural link during his early teens after a move to Harrow. "At first, I wasn't really bonded with Wolves, so when we moved, I thought I'd support one of the London clubs like Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, or West Ham, but they (other kids) started going on about my accent. I thought, okay I'll be a Cockney but I'll still support the Wolves. I went to three secondary schools during that time, but I was the only kid who supported Wolves. It was becoming more tribal around then, I didn't get back to the Molineux much at that point because I didn't have the money and my mum wouldn't let me travel back to Wolverhampton from London as it was a two-hour train journey but Wolves came to London quite a lot during the mid-1960s so I was getting to away grounds when Wolves were demoted to the Second Division during the 1964/65 season. During those years I saw Wolves at Charlton Athletic, Crystal Palace and Millwall.”
Rowland singles out a controversial match against Millwall played on 1st April 1967 when the Old Gold were working their way back to top flight promotion. "I got to places like Millwall, which was notable, with Derek Dougan threatening to score (he eventually did to make it 1-1), it was then a Millwall fan (disguised in a Wolves scarf), ran on the pitch and chinned him (some reports suggest he was kicked in the groin). We had never seen anything like it. Back then, most football hooligans were aged between 14 and 18 at the very oldest, but Millwall were different; they had grown men in their 40s, and they all gathered around us, these big docker-type guys. It really was amazing to see that in the culture at the time.”
Derek Dougan, known as 'The Doog', was one of the game's big characters, and he enjoyed seven seasons as an accomplished centre-forward at Molineux, winning the League Cup against Manchester City in 1974. Dougan would also write several autobiographies and a novel, The Footballer. A man of many talents, he later became chief executive at Wolves and a well-known pundit and television personality. "I really liked Derek Dougan, he was the star player for Wolves, a goal scorer, and an interesting guy. I met him in a bar at Houston station once and he was really great with the fans. He was from the North of Ireland and protestant, his autobiography was called The Sash He Never Wore, so he wasn't into any of that sectarian stuff."
The book was published in 1972, a prolific year for the Northern Ireland internationalist. His habits of hitting the net and dazzling in the air would help Wolves reach the UEFA Cup final that year; it was also the first time two clubs from the same league would meet in any UEFA competition. Rowland was there, and it remains the furthest Wolves have gone in any European competition. "I went to Wolves against Tottenham, it was played over two legs, I had to bump in at the Molineux because I didn't have a ticket.” Did you keep a programme? "No, I don't keep anything like that, not even Dexys stuff.”
It wasn't the first time Rowland had to ‘bump in’; just a few years earlier, he had found his way into the second half of the World Cup final at Wembley in 1966 to watch England win the competition against West Germany. Earlier that summer, he watched England vs Uruguay after a policeman gave him a ticket for the match, in Bless Me Father, he paints a vivid picture of the fans back in ‘66 while capturing the sense of belonging felt as a young football fan.
"The singing fans were mostly middle-aged men wearing old-fashioned 1950s clothes, beige gabardine raincoats, and windcheaters. Their hair was dressed black, and they were tough. I didn’t know any of them, but there was a great atmosphere, and I was happy to be singing and walking with them.” As the book suggests, Rowland was often keeping one eye on the fashion of football supporters. What were the differences between the fans when he was a teenager? "I would eventually get back to games at Molineux and moved back in my twenties. The fashion and football was a weird one for me when I was living in London because things moved a lot slower, I was going to Wolves in the latest clothes and they were about six months behind because there was no internet in those days, so fashion wouldn't change until about six months to a year later.”
Football violence was also a fact of life during the time, "I remember a fight against Derby County and there was a stand-off, someone shouted 'Watch it; he's got a knife', I turned round so I could take it in the back but I didn't get stabbed, I don't know if he stabbed anyone else but that was a bit hairy, there were loads of incidents like that, it was a very violent time.”
By the late 1970s, Rowland was concentrating on his music career. Dexys Midnight Runners scored their first number one hit with Geno in 1980, and their 1982 single Come On Eileen was a global hit and Britain's best-selling single of the year, also taking the number one slot. "I didn't follow football from the mid-1970s to the mid-80s; I got fed up with it. I remember certain Villa fans, it was their life and I thought: 'What about your own life?'" It was the 1988 Associate Members' Cup final, then known as the Sherpa Van Trophy final in May, that year that brought Rowland back to Wolves. "It was an exciting time to be a fan," he adds of the late 1980s. This was the beginning of a long journey back to the top flight.
Once again, Rowland was there for the 2003 play-off final in Cardiff against Sheffield United. It's a highlight he shares with Robert Plant, who arrived in Wolverhampton 72 hours after the win due to Led Zeppelin promotional duty. The pair have enjoyed a game against Liverpool together, where they were joined by John 'King John' Richards, a prolific goal scorer for Wolves between 1969 to '83. "I got invited to a game back in 2023 by our promoter, who is also a fan, so we had tickets for the directors' box where I met with John Richards and Robert Plant, who was also there.”
Nuno Espirito Santo was one of Wolves most charismatic managers in recent history. Rowland still remains in awe of the Portuguese maverick. "I loved Nuno, he was just brilliant, he had the magic, and he brought Wolves up from the Championship to the Premier League. During those first two seasons, we finished seventh twice in a row, and he brought us back into Europe. He also donated £250,000 of his own money to the poor of Wolverhampton during Covid. It's amazing, you can't buy that kind of loyalty. Look at him now; he's flying with Nottingham Forest, they almost made the Champions League.”
As we wrap up, Rowland speaks of his love for Molineux and the South Stand. He poses for a photograph in an old gold and black scarf. I'm reminded of his song My Life In England, where Rowland immortalised his love of Wolves from the days when posters of 'The Doog' hung on his wall and he longed for the Wolves to come to London so he could hear West Midlands accents again. "Cos accents like mine, in Harrow, there were few, I learned to talk more cockney but thought about the Wolves, the sound of Wolverhampton, its toughness, and "The Doog".
My Life In England
Tickets for Rowland’s homecoming show with Dexys Midnight Runners can be purchased at the University of Wolverhampton at The Halls website here.