Baxter Dury

How did the tale of Baxter Dury’s latest, greatest album to date, his masterpiece, begin? Serendipitously…

It was Sunday June 28, 2024, and Baxter had just stepped from a rapturously received set on The Park Stage at Glastonbury Festival. After towelling himself down, a familiar figure approached him backstage. It was Paul Epworth (Florence + The Machine, Glass Animals, Paul McCartney, U2, Adele) the lauded producer/songwriter whose creations have draped themselves across the airwaves of the 21st Century more successfully than any other Briton. 

Together they dreamt up Allbarone’s nine-track tour-de-force, stripping everything away and building Baxter’s most melodically direct, futuristic collection in intense three-hour daily shifts throughout December and January.

Baxter Dury is not prone to self-congratulation or the prideful boast. He does not humble brag. He describes his accomplishments with the air of a man awaiting the other shoe to drop. Nevertheless, even he knows that Allbarone is the album of his career so far. Push him hard enough, he’ll almost say so himself.

“I don’t want to say it’s contemporary,” he summarises. “Because I sound like a cunt using that word. But it does sound really contemporary. It doesn’t sound like a Harrods hamper band made it. It doesn’t sound like a band made it all. Which is what I wanted most of all. It’s just something that’s brand new for me. It’s quite exciting, really.” Which in Baxter Dury-speak is as good as proclaiming: “I’m top of the world!” 

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