Ian Dury, the eighties pop singer best known for humorous hits like "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" with his band The Blockheads, has gone public with his fight against cancer. The singer chose his 56th birthday on the weekend to tell the British press that he had been diagnosed with colon cancer in 1995 and that he found out this past February it had spread to his liver. He told reporters that by telling his story, he hoped to cheer up others fighting the disease.
Dury told the "London Daily Mirror" that while having cancer was like getting hit by a bus for two years, he wasn't in any pain, and was coping quite well. He said the disease "hasn't knocked me sideways," possibly because of his earlier bout with polio. Dury contracted that disease at the age of seven and spent two years in the hospital. He walks with a dragging limp and has limited use of his left hand.
The diminutive Dury - he stands just over 5' tall - lost his first wife to cancer. He recently re-married and has two young boys, ages one and three, in addition to two older children from his first marriage.
Dury was one of the first artists signed to the prestigious Stiff records in 1978. He had three top 10 hits in Britain, "Rhythm Stick," which went to No. 1, "Drugs, Sex and Rock n' Roll," and "Reasons To Be Cheerful." He recorded his last major album in 1984 and launched a successful acting career. He returned to music with an album called "The Bus Driver's Prayer and Other Stories" in 1992.
On the acting front, among other roles, he recently played Geiger in 1995's "Judge Dredd," and Noah in the 1996 film "The Crow: City of Angels."
