The Blue Ox Babes

The Blue Ox Babes were a pop group formed in 1981 by former Dexys Midnight Runners guitarist Kevin Archer together with his girlfriend Yasmin Saleh and former Dexy's keyboard player Andy Leek. Archer was keen to mix the soul sounds of his previous group with folk styles. To this end he recruited fiddle player Helen O'Hara to play on demo tapes of the new songs he had written. When former colleague Kevin Rowland heard these demo tapes he invited O'Hara to join Dexy's, and adopted a similarly folk-influenced sound for his own group.