12 STEPS FROM CORONATION STREET –
Feb. 2021 – ‘It was the end of the 90s and although I didn’t realise it at the time, I was coming to the end of my run in the Street when I sent a demo tape to some record companies,’ recalls Kevin. ‘I have always written stuff, and people have always told me it was decent material, so I chanced my arm and sent it down to London to see if anyone would bite. But I didn’t send it as Kevin Kennedy. I thought I would have no chance if I said who I really was, so I used a pseudonym, so nobody would know it was me – Curly Watts – who was having a dabble in the cool world of rock. Incredibly, I got a positive response and was asked to go down to London to meet some blokes who wanted to find out more about my material and talk things through with me.’
Kevin describes the moment he got the invite to talk to BMG, the record company that employed Cowell, as one of the best experiences of his working life.
‘The look on Simon’s face when he first saw me was priceless,’ he recalls. ‘He had no idea he was meeting this fella who was one of the main characters in a major TV soap. He just thought he was going to be talking things through with another aspiring musician, which I was, in reality. The meeting went well, and Simon liked my music enough to sign me up. The end result was I got an album that went on to become a gold disc, and everyone was happy.’
