Dexys Midnight Runners – the name consistently spelled without an apostrophe – were a British post-punk and Northern Soul band who achieved their major success in the early to mid 1980s. The word Dexys in this case, comes from a colloquialism of dextroamphetamine, a type of amphetamine diet pill that was a popular ‘upper’ drug with England’s Northern Soul scene in the 1960s.

Founded in 1978 by former singer of the Killjoys, Kevin Rowland, and guitarist Kevin “Al” Archer