Ian Robins Dury was an English rock and roll singer, songwriter, and bandleader who initially rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and New Wave era of rock music. He is best known as founder and lead singer of the British band Ian Dury and the Blockheads, though he began his musical career in pub-rock act Kilburn and the High Roads.

Managed by Andrew King, Ian Dury and the Blockheads had several hit singles, including "What a Waste", "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" (which was a UK number one at the beginning of 1979, selling just short of a million copies), "Reasons to be Cheerful, Part Three" (number three in the UK in 1979), and the rock and roll anthem "Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll", often credited with introducing the phrase to the language.

Dury's lyrics are a unique combination of lyrical poetry, word play, observation of British everyday (working-class) life, acute character sketches, and vivid, earthy humour. "This is what we find" refers to how "Home improvement expert Harold Hill of Harold Hill...Came home to find another gentleman's kippers in the grill, So he sanded off his winkle with his Black & Decker Drill.

The song Billericay Dickie continues this sexual content, rhyming "I had a love affair with Nina...In the back of my Cortina", and joking that "A seasoned-up hyena...Could not have been more obscener".

The Blockheads' sound drew from their many musical influences - which included jazz, rock and roll, funk, and reggae - plus Dury's love of music hall. The band was formed after Dury began writing songs with pianist and guitarist Chaz Jankel.

Jankel took Dury's lyrics, fashioned a number of songs, and they began recording with members of Radio Caroline's Loving Awareness Band, drummer Charley Charles, bassist Norman Watt-Roy, keyboard player Mickey Gallagher, guitarist John Turnbull, and the former Kilburns saxophonist Davey Payne.

An album was completed, but major record labels passed on the band. However, next door to Dury's manager's office was the newly formed Stiff Records, a perfect home for Dury's maverick style.

The classic single "Sex & Drugs & Rock and Roll" marked Dury's Stiff debut and this was swiftly followed by the album New Boots and Panties!!, which was eventually to achieve platinum status.