Dexys Midnight Runners‘ Kevin Rowland has recalled calling David Bowie “filled with shit” and “a foul copy of Bryan Ferry“.

The infamous remark was made throughout a help slot in 1983. Rowland was requested about it when taking NME‘s Does Rock ‘N’ Roll Kill Braincells?! quiz this month.

“No one’s ever requested me about this earlier than. We needed to be escorted out of the world!” Rowland laughed. “I’d been taking sturdy sleeping tablets prescribed by a personal New York physician. At any time when I took them, I’d be grumpy and didn’t give a shit about something.

“We have been about 5 songs into our 12-song set and it was going properly, and I may see the applause going proper again on this large open-air venue. After we’d end every music, round 50 folks within the entrance have been chanting and waving their fingers within the air, so I’m considering: ‘That is nice! They’re actually into it!’.”

He went on: “I believed they have been chanting in French, and went over to the drummer Seb [Shelton] and requested: ‘What are they saying?’. He replied: ‘They’re shouting ‘Bowie! Bowie! Bowie!’ at you. So I simply misplaced it! [Laughs] I used to be actually disenchanted. As a result of we have been taking place very well other than these 50 folks within the entrance, who have been all half-naked, muddy and appeared like hippies – not what you’d consider as Bowie followers.

“So I went as much as them and mentioned one thing alongside the strains of: ‘You’re sitting in a fucking area all day in a load of mud ready for fucking David Bowie! He’s only a pale imitation of Bryan Ferry!’ As we went to start out the subsequent music, the plugs have been pulled. Bowie had been behind the stage and heard it. We have been alleged to do two nights, however they didn’t need us again for the second.”

Rowland added that Bowie was apparently “actually upset about it”.

“A few years later once I received into restoration from cocaine habit, I wrote him a letter apologising, to make amends, and mentioned if he ever needed to speak about it, please contact me. I do know he received the letter, however I didn’t hear again. However that’s OK.”

Rowland and Dexys launch a brand new album titled ‘The Female Divine’ subsequent month (July 28). It’s their first new materials in seven years, following on from their 2016 launch ‘Let the Document Present: Dexys Do Irish and Nation Soul’, and marks their first album of unique songs in a decade.