4000 Weeks Holiday (2026 Reissue)

Released in 1984, this was the second album released by Polydor and the first and only to be billed to Ian Dury & The Music Students. Songwriting duties were shared between Ian Dury, Russell Hardy, Rod Melvin and a young American songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Michael McEvoy.

Whilst performed by effectively a new line up there were many familiar names who worked on ‘4000 Weeks’ Holiday’. Though Chas Jankel did not write any of the songs, he did play lead guitar as a guest whilst Ed Speight and Geoff Castle, who had played on Dury's seminal New Boots and Panties!! LP in 1977, guested on guitar and Moog synthesizer. The sessions also featured celebrated reggae/ska trombone player Rico Rodriguez MBE, whilst most of the recordings were performed by the 'Music Students', made up of McEvoy, Rhys-Jones, drummer Tag Lamche and saxophonist Jamie Talbot.

The single "Really Glad You Came" was released and the band performed on National TV inc The Tube. The album also contains "Peter the Painter" written on request from British Pop artist Peter Blake, Dury’s former teacher at London's Royal College of Art. Blake was having an exhibition at The Tate Gallery, London and asked Dury to compose a theme tune for it. "Peter the Painter" was that theme tune.

The cover art, one of the last ever designed by Barney Bubbles featured Ian Dury with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) logo (the peace sign) into his hair – in 1984 Ian was an official face for the campaign group in Britain.