Graham Reid | | 2 min read
An expatriate New Zealander in the right place at the right time helped launch British rock’n’roll.
In 1956, John Kennedy was a suave opportunist in his mid-twenties who would become a clever and shameless publicist-cum-PR operative in London showbiz circles. He had, as Nik Cohn wrote, “flair, invention and a fast mouth”.
In the mid 1950s a teenage culture emerged in London around the recently opened 2i’s Coffee Bar in Soho. A plaque there reads “Birthplace of British Rock’n’Roll and the Popular Music Industry”.
It was in that cramped basement that a distinctively British version of rock’n’roll was kick-started by a most unlikely singer, 20-year-old Tommy Hicks, a former merchant seaman from a working-class family south of the Thames.
(Ironically, Hicks had visited Wellington in 1954 while working as a steward on the Rangitane. A hairdresser who met him at a party, where he sang, recalled, “He said that we would see his name in lights one day, but of course we just laughed at him then.”)
One night in 1956, Kennedy was drawn to the sound coming from the 2i’s basement and was smitten by Tommy Hicks’s good looks and tousled hair.
The legend – which Kennedy invented – is that after seeing Hicks sing at the 2i’s, Kennedy immediately offered to be his manager and publicist. In fact, two minor figures in London pop music were already interested in Hicks, and invited Kennedy to see him perform at the 2i’s.
For years, Hicks stuck to the script, telling the BBC that Kennedy had followed him out of the 2i’s, and asked him if he wanted to turn professional. Both Kennedy and Hicks were amateurs, but Hicks said yes.
First, Hicks needed a new name. He became Tommy Steele, and – through outrageous and amusing manipulations of the British press – Kennedy made him Britain’s first rock’n’roll star.
By extension, he helped create a new era in Britain’s pop business.
To help fund his hype of Steele, Kennedy turned to showbiz entrepreneur Larry Parnes (left in the photo with Kennedy), who became his business partner.
These days Parnes is better remembered than Kennedy. “Mr Parnes, Shillings and Pence” was a svengali who went on to create a school of British pop stars with names like Billy Fury, Marty Wilde, Georgie Fame, Johnny Gentle, Dickie Pride, and Vince Eager. His methods were . . . .
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To read the rest of this article about Kennedy's fascinating career at AudioCulture go here.
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Audioculture is the self-described Noisy Library of New Zealand Music and is an ever-expanding archive of stories, scenes, artists, clips and music. Elsewhere is proud to have some small association with it. Check it out here.
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