John Kennedy (Australian musician)
| John Kennedy | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | John Francis Kennedy |
| Born |
1 July 1958 Liverpool, England, United Kingdom |
| Origin | Brisbane, Queensland, Australia |
| Genres | Country, R&B |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar |
| Years active | 1980–present |
| Labels |
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| Associated acts |
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John Francis Kennedy (born John Kennedy 1 July 1958) is an English-born Australian musician and singer-songwriter–guitarist. He has been the leader of a number of groups including JFK & the Cuban Crisis (1980–84), and John Kennedy's Love Gone Wrong (1984–88). In 1984 he described his music as "urban and western".
John Kennedy was born in Liverpool, England on 1 July 1958. His father's name is also John Kennedy. In October 1965 the Kennedy family migrated to Australia and settled in Brisbane. Kennedy took the confirmation name, Francis, when he was ten and – as his middle name – it completes the famous JFK initials. According to his website, "It seemed like a good idea at the time. The joke has long since worn off for him, but it still takes some explaining." Kennedy grew up in Acacia Ridge, where he developed a preference for country-influenced music, especially Elvis Costello's debut album, My Aim Is True (July 1977). He later recalled that "My parents listened to a lot of popular country – people like Burl Ives, Tom Jones, who was doing country then, and Johnny Cash... It was quite sophisticated country music – big vocals and a big production sound."
John Kennedy, on lead vocals and guitar, formed his first band, JFK & the Cuban Crisis, with former school friend James Paterson on vocals and mandolin in Brisbane in October 1980. The rest of the initial line-up were John Downie on bass guitar, Paul Hardman on keyboards, Holger Maschke on slide guitar and Stephen Pritchard on drums. They established themselves on the local scene, taking up a residency at 279 Club, with their smart Squeeze influenced pop. According to Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, they "played a brand of jangly guitar pop with country overtones." They released two cassette albums, Over the Underpass and Under the Overpass (1981) and Down and Out in Brisbane and Sydney (1982). They played support spots for the Pretenders and Ian Dury and the Blockheads. The band issued their debut single, "Am I a Pagan", in March 1982 and then moved to Sydney in May.
For the band Kennedy and Paterson recruited a new rhythm section: Greg Hall on bass guitar and Paul Rochelli on drums. They started a residency at the Southern Cross Hotel in Surry Hills. A four-track extended play, Careless Talk Costs Lives (December 1982), had been recorded in Brisbane earlier and was the first release on the new Waterfront Records label. It featured the song, "The Texan Thing", which received alternative radio airplay. Kennedy had started writing it as "Take Something", which was a "jaunty keyboard-driven song". When Paterson recommended "The Texan Thing" as their next single, Kennedy thought "that's a bit rude, he'd already had the A-side of the first single, and now he was mentioning this song I'd never heard of". However Paterson had "misheard ['Take Something'] as 'Texan Thing'. So I had to go back and rewrite the lyrics."
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