‘I owe them both so much’
WE TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT THE CAREER OF MALE VOCALIST KENNIE JACKSON
THE youngest of seven kids, Kennie Jackson was born on Woodcock Street just off Hessle Road in 1983. He lived with mum Shirley and dad Ken Jackson and he said: “I owe them both so much. I’m the only one of my close family in the business and their encouragement was priceless.
“My dad even drove me around for the first 13 years of my career until he sadly passed away in 2016. I went to school at St Georges primary school and Sydney Smith and even then I grew up appreciating music from the likes of Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash and Freddie Mercury. I’ve always been a mad Elvis Presley fan and from the start, he was always my biggest influence. His music just stood out to me over everyone else”.
Kennie started in the business back in 1996 when he was just 13 yearsold, joining a show team called The Yorkshire Dales Junior Showgroup.
They would travel around to different residential homes and perform shows with singing and choreographed dance routines and some years later he entered numerous competitions at Haven sites.
“I won the park finals and in 1999 and 2000 and making it to the last six of the National Finals. I was also in the final of Hull Daily Mail Talent Trail back in 2007, which got my name out there and gave me some priceless experience singing on a much larger theatre stage.
“My very first paid gig, back in 2000, which was a booking at The Schooner Pub in Anlaby Park Road South, west Hull. I was 16 years old and petrified. It didn’t really help in that I was a little unprepared both in experience on stage and what really didn’t help was that I only had enough material to just about get through three sets.
“I didn’t even realise that I would probably have to do an encore and it taught me to organise my show properly, that you can never have enough songs.”
In 2000, Kennie was taken on as a managed act and taken very good care of by entertaiment agent Stuart Adamson who at the time ran The Newland Artists agency in Boothferry Road. He started performing his shows regularly on the clubland circuit, first locally and then in venues further afield.
Stuart eventually retired and Kennie was invited to move on and be handled by the Lincoln Management Group (LMG) who he is still with today.
Kennie said: “I was really taken by the so-called ‘Skeg-vegas’ scene as there are so many great venues to perfrom in, but it means that I don’t get the chance to play locally very often.
“Now I perform four completely different shows. My mixed show where I perform song from the 1950s right through to 2020, a tribute show to the 1980s, a Robbie Williams tribute that I’ve been doing since 2015 and, of course my Elvis Presley tribute, which I’ve been performing since around 2003”.
He has worked hard to progress his career and Kennie, or the ‘Hull Dynamo’ as he’s known, puts everything into his performances. He has bags of charisma and he is rightly regarded as one of the top, young male vocalist. He is now very much in-demand and he added: “In my younger days I’ve had the privilege of working with some of Hull’s finest and watched and learned from the likes of Mike Lodge, Ric Owen, Zara, Kristian and Serena Williams.
“I’ve also met some amazing acts from across Europe while I’ve been working abroad and working on the ferries and cruises. One person that I’ll never forget is lovely Lorraine Crosby.
“She is the lady that sang on the track ‘I will do Anything For Love’ with the rock superstar Meat Loaf and I had the honour of performing that very song with her live while we were working together for Brittany Ferries back in 2016.
“Another night that always sticks in my mind was when I performed in a show around nine years ago at the Hull New Theatre.
“I was singing live with the band that night which consisted of a bass player Dave Norman, guitarist Mike Leeman, keyboard player Terry Bell and on the drums that night was Dave Naylor. I was singing the Bryan Adams hit Summer of ‘69, which we had rehearsed earlier that day.
“We planned that I’d give the cue for the end of the song by putting my hand in the air to which Dave replied “No problem, bud”.
“We started the song and all was going perfectly, just like we’d rehearsed and three and half minutes into the song I put my hand up to give the cue to finish and ... Dave completely blanked me and carried on with another verse. Thinking this was just a mistake I went with it until the end comes around again, and again Dave continued. I turn around to find the whole room laughing and Dave going nuts on the drums.
“He later said that he didn’t want to finish because he was really enjoying himself.
“What should have been fourminute song ended up going forever. It messed up the shows running time and we got a right telling-off”.
On reflection Kennie said: “Obviously, things have been strange throughout 2020.
“I’ve been a cabaret singer, a party night singer, wedding day singer, but more important to me I’m a dad to three boys now Conner, Kieran and Dyllan and their safety and well-being is all that really matters”.