Chaise Longue - Baxter Dury

 CHAISE LONGUE - BAXTER DURY

'They fuck you up, your mum and dad,' as Philip Larkin once observed 'They may not mean to, but they do. But they were fucked up in their turn...' All parents make mistakes but then one man's mistake is another man's momentary lapse of judgement. Where does one end and the other begin? Take Ian Dury, for example. Was leaving his son, Baxter, in the hands of someone called The Sulphate Strangler whilst he went off on tour a good idea? Well, as with anything there's always nuance.

According to Baxter Dury in his childhood memoir, Chaise Longue, The Sulphate Strangler was a six-foot-seven malodorous , drug-addled, drug-dealing, professionally violent, giant of a man. He was also Ian Dury's bodyguard and right-hand man, and one of his most committed and loyal people - depending on his state of mind. Compared to Ian Dury, however, The Strangler was arguably the more sensible one.

Anyone who knew him or has read anything about him would know that Ian Dury was a character. A very 'difficult' character, to put it mildly. According to Baxter, his dad was like a pot-soaked Fagin figure who had perfected the art of control over everyone. Volatile, unpredictable, mercurial by nature. To be around him was complicated and to be his son even more so.

Baxter was the boy famously featured stood alongside his dad on the cover of New Boots And Panties, the debut album by Ian Dury and The Blockheads. It's a brilliant photo that speaks volumes in regard to both father and son as in where they're from and what they're at though nothing, of course, about what was to come following the album's success.

Chaise Longue is the story of Baxter Dury's childhood prior to the release of New Boots And Panties and after, when fame and bursts of cash came not only laden with new problems but also an entry into other worlds that to a child is either a treat or a curse.

Was Ian Dury the best father ever, or the worst? It's an obvious question to ask but in this case it's not actually a valid one because he wasn't really a father at all, or not in the conventional meaning of the word. Then again, is the conventional father any better than the unconventional one? Who's to judge?

Baxter Dury, however, has recorded nine studio albums and written this funny, tender, and at times very insightful book that has garnered a lot of praise. In terms of creativity and the passion for art and self-expression, Ian Dury evidently did something right for his son.

John Serpico