Kenny BERNARD

Read More...

he arrived in the UK from Trinidad one November morning in 1953. and eventual settling in Sydenham, S.E London.

In 1959 he met and formed a group with Pete London called The Thunderbeats. The first song he learnt to perform was Move It.

At about that time he busked regularly at The Tigers Head in Lee Green with Albert Leigh who is regarded by many as the best lead guitarist in the business.

In 1962 he joined the The Wranglers and it was with them that helearnt a lot and got a whiff of success.

In 1963 he met Bill Wyman at St Michaels Hall in Lower Sydenham. His group was then called The Cliftons. He mentions them briefly in his book Stone Alone.

In 1964 they released there first record Liza Jane and in 1965 David Bowie auditioned for them and played a couple of gigs.

The Wranglers (they were now called Kenny and the Wranglers) appeared on television four times and made the film Be My Guest. with Jerry lee Lewis

As our popularity grew they appeared at many of the “in” clubs in London such as Ad Lib, Leicester Square and Playboy, Mayfair. Many famous stars came to see them such as Dionne Warwick (with whom he toured the country with in 1975), Buddy Greco, Petula Clark, Mick Jagger, Kenny Lynch, Sammy Davis Jr, Peter Lawford, Shirley Bassey and Paul McCartney.

In 1966 kenny left the Wranglers and went solo

he was introduced to Shirley Bassey’s musical director Kenny Clayton who encouraged me to start doing cabaret. During this time he appeared at the Savoy Hotel, London Palladium, Prince of Wales Theatre and he followed Peter Cook and Dudley Moore into the Establishment Club.

Around this time he recorded What Love Brings which was to become a Northern Soul classic.

he recorded Hey woman Jimi Hendrix’s management got to hear it and Jimi liked it and released it as Hey Joe. his version was taken out of the Radio London’s Fab 40 and his was put in. The rest is history.

Ain’t No Soles Left in These Old Shoes” was the B side to Hey Woman and this was later destined to become a Northern Soul favorite.

In 1968 he formed a group called Cats Pajamas and recorded the Ronettes hit Baby I love you. Unfortunately Dave Edmunds also released it and had a hit

In 1970 he took a break from the business due to ill health

he later came back to the business and appeared in a cabaret show at the Boulogne Restaurant in Soho and the Celebrity in Mayfair.

he dabbled in and out of the business for a number of years and finally picked up his career on a semi-pro basis when I was able to go on the road using backing tracks.

David Bowie once told him “You are a good performer Ken but you need to write your own songs to become successful”.

he has just recorded a new single (May 2008)

You came into My Life

I appeared at the Northern Soul weekender on the 23/5/08 and am due to appear at a Northern Soul event on November 2008 in Hunstanton

I hope to do more, contact me for details

www.kennybernard.com

User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.