12 May: Ian Dury

English pop star Ian Dury was born on this date in 1942. 10 things you might not know about him.

1. He was born in Harrow, Middlesex. It’s sometimes reported that he was born in Upminster, Essex or Mevagissey, Cornwall, during The Blitz. Untrue, although he did spend time in both places growing up. His mother’s parents lived in Mevagissey, so he had holidays there, and after his parents split up his mother moved to Upminster to live with her sisters.

2. His mother was a health visitor; his father a former boxer, coach driver, and chauffeur for Rolls-Royce.

3. He lived in Switzerland for a while as a child when his father was working as a chauffeur for a millionaire.

4. The bands he was in were Kilburn and the High Roads, the Kilburns, Ian Dury and the Blockheads and Ian Dury and the Music Students.

5. When he was seven, he caught polio. He believed he caught it at a swimming pool in Southend. He spent 18 months recovering and was left with a permanent paralysis on his left side. He attended a school for disabled children for a time, which focussed on teaching trades and toughening up the kids. His mother wanted him to have a more academic education so he was moved to a grammar school in High Wycombe.

6. He left school at 16 with three O levels in English Language, English Literature and Art, and then attended Walthamstow College of Art, where he met his first wife, Betty Rathmell.

7. He was an actor, too and had small parts in several films including The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, Roman Polanski's Pirates and Judge Dredd.

8. He wrote and performed the theme song for the television series The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ based on the book by Sue Townsend, but turned down the chance to write the libretto for Cats, simply because he hated Andrew Lloyd Webber’s music.

9. He died of cancer at the age of 57. His last last public performance was a charity concert in aid of Cancer BACUP, supported by Kirsty MacColl and Phill Jupitus, just over a month before his death. Dury was noticeably ill by this time and had to be helped on and off stage.

10. A biopic titled Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll starring Andy Serkis as Dury was released in 2010.

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