dexys midnight runners come on eileen - dexys midnight runners come on eileen

What this video is

Released on 25 June 1982, 'Come On Eileen' arrived at a precise inflection point in Anglo-American pop culture: MTV had launched the previous August, the Second British Invasion was accelerating, and post-punk acts were being repackaged for transatlantic consumption. Dexys Midnight Runners — with their Celtic violin section 'The Emerald Express' and their consciously crafted working-class Irish-British identity —…

Why it matters

A canonical artifact of Celtic soul and New Wave, 'Come On Eileen' demonstrated that folk instrumentation (Celtic fiddle, acoustic guitar) could coexist productively with pop song structure for mainstream chart success. The video's documentary street aesthetic established a visual grammar for…

The director

Julien Temple (born 26 November 1953, London) is an English film, documentary, and music video director. He launched his career with Sex Pistols short films including The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (1980). By the early 1980s he was one of the most prominent…