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Ian Robins Dury (12 May 1942 – 27 March 2000) was an English rock and roll singer, songwriter, and bandleader who initially rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and New Wave era of rock music. He is best known as founder, frontman, and lead singer of the British band Ian Dury and the Blockheads, who, with other bands like the Talking Heads, ushered in the New Wave era.
As a songwriter, his authorship of popular songs of the time, in particular, a classic single, "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll", is often overlooked by critics and fans alike, though it has been performed and quoted by countless musicians since it was written. Dury somehow never got the recognition of a historically notable songwriter, whose song summed up the credo of an unquestionable number of rock and roll musicians both before him, and to follow, whereas for other artists such a song often makes them a household name.
Dury was born at his parents' home at 43 Weald Rise, Harrow Weald, Harrow (although he often claimed, and all but one of his obituaries in the national press stated, that he was born in Upminster, Essex). His father, William, was a bus-driver and ex boxer, while his mother Margaret (known as Peggy) was a Health Visitor, the daughter of a Cornish doctor, and grand-daughter of an Irish landowner.