Editing Dexys Midnight Runners (section)

====''Don't Stand Me Down'' and break-up====
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.<ref name="2014int" /> Rowland wanted to explore different songwriting, and Dexys Midnight Runners began recording more "introspective, mournful" music.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Duerden |first=Nick |date=16 April 2022 |title='That's it? It's over? I was 30. What a brutal business': pop stars on life after the spotlight moves on |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/apr/16/pop-stars-spotlight-bob-geldof-robbie-williams-lisa-maffia |access-date=16 April 2022 |website=[[The Guardian]] |language=en |archive-date=16 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220416090302/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/apr/16/pop-stars-spotlight-bob-geldof-robbie-williams-lisa-maffia |url-status=live }}</ref> Recording and mixing the new album took almost two years and spread across Switzerland, the U.K., and the U.S;<ref name="bio" /> at various times, [[Tom Dowd]], [[Jimmy Miller]], and [[John Porter (musician, born 1947)|John Porter]] were attached as producers.<ref name="Stand" />  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. Near the end of these sessions, Rowland and O'Hara's personal relationship broke up, although they continued to work together.<ref name="Stand">{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01hl29f?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_radio_4&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=radio_and_music |first=Pete |last=Paphides |title=Dexys Midnight Runners: Don't Stand Me Down |publisher=[[BBC]] |date=17 May 2012 |access-date=4 July 2018 |archive-date=8 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308202658/https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01hl29f?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_radio_4&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=radio_and_music |url-status=live }}</ref>

In September 1985, Dexys released their first new album in three years, ''[[Don't Stand Me Down]]''.<ref name="bio" /> Production was originally credited to [[Alan Winstanley]] and Rowland, although reissues also credit Adams and O'Hara.<ref name="reissue">Kevin Rowland, Liner notes to Creation reissue of ''Don't Stand Me Down''. (1997)</ref> The four remaining members were pictured on the album cover in the band's fourth look, an [[Ivy League (clothes)|Ivy League]], [[Brooks Brothers]] look,<ref name="bio" /> wearing ties and pin-striped suits (except for O'Hara, who wore a grey women's business suit), and with neatly combed hair. Rowland described Dexys' new look as "so clean and simple; it's a much more adult approach now".<ref name="Reynolds" />

In an interview with [[HitQuarters]] Gatfield later described the recording process as "very long and painful",<ref name="hitquarters.com">{{cite interview |interviewer=Kimbel Bouwman|url=http://www.hitquarters.com/index.php3?page=intrview/opar/intrview_Nick_Gatfield_Interview.html |title=Interview With Nick Gatfield |publisher=[[HitQuarters]] |date=8 October 2007 |access-date=30 June 2010 |archive-date=14 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314062258/http://www.hitquarters.com/index.php3?page=intrview/opar/intrview_Nick_Gatfield_Interview.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and he left the group after a short tour of France and the UK. The album's most controversial feature was its use of conversational dialogue in the songs;<ref name="Holland">{{cite web |url=https://www.popmatters.com/feature/4-dexys/ |last=Holland |first=Roger |title=Dexy's Midnight Runners, Don't Stand Me Down (1985) |publisher=PopMatters.com |date=10 November 2005 |access-date=18 February 2016 |archive-date=8 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308182353/http://www.popmatters.com/feature/4-dexys/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Rowland said, "The idea of a conversation in a song is interesting to me."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.popmatters.com/feature/176821-searching-for-the-older-soul-rebel-an-interview-with-dexys-kevin-row/ |first=Phil |last=Mason |title=Searching for the Old(er) Soul Rebel: An Interview with Dexys' Kevin Rowland |publisher=PopMatters.com |date=3 December 2013 |access-date=13 February 2016 |archive-date=13 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160213090910/http://www.popmatters.com/feature/176821-searching-for-the-older-soul-rebel-an-interview-with-dexys-kevin-row/ |url-status=live }}</ref>  Commenting on this, O'Hara said that "we had to keep going ahead with what we believed" despite the length of time that the production took.<ref>Helen O'Hara interview, reprinted at [http://www.dexys.org/helenohara.html Dexys' website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181005105603/http://www.dexys.org/helenohara.html |date=5 October 2018 }}</ref> 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".<ref name="reissue" /><ref>Thompson, Dave "[{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r35273/review|pure_url=yes}} ''Don't Stand Me Down'' Review]", ''[[AllMusic]]'', Macrovision Corporation</ref><ref>Schnee, Steve "Spaz" "[{{AllMusic|class=album|id=mw0000820495/review|pure_url=yes}} The Blue Ox Babes: ''Apples & Oranges (Bonus Tracks)'' Review]", ''[[AllMusic]]'', Macrovision Corporation</ref>  Only a few reviewers were supportive; for example, writing in the ''[[Melody Maker]]'', [[Colin Irwin (journalist)|Colin Irwin]] described it as "quite the most challenging, absorbing, moving, uplifting and ultimately triumphant album of the year".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Irwin|first=Colin|title=Stand And Deliver|journal=Melody Maker|date=7 September 1985}}</ref>

Rowland at first refused to issue any singles from the album, comparing Dexys to bands like [[Led Zeppelin]] that never released singles.<ref name="Wilde" />  By the time a 3-minute edit of the 12-minute "[[This Is What She's Like]]" was released, it was too late to save the album from commercial failure, and the "Coming to Town" tour that followed the album was played before "half-empty theaters".<ref name="Wilde" />  Rowland said, "I felt that we couldn't do anything better than [''Don't Stand Me Down'']. It took so much out of me, but the record company threw the towel in. I think they wanted to teach me a lesson."<ref name="2014int" />  In the aftermath, Rowland started to have issues with drug abuse.<ref name="Wilde" />  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]]'').<ref name="bio" />  Dexys disbanded in early 1987.<ref name="bio" />