'Get on with it' - How headteacher inspired Sheffield-born Grammy winning songwriter and producer Eliot Kennedy
The award-winning Sheffield-born music producer and songwriter Eliot Kennedy spoke to The Star about his musical beginnings, his career journey and his gratitude for some sage life-changing advice from his school headteacher
Eliot Kennedy was born in Sheffield at Jessops Hospital on 29 March, 1969. In Eliot’s early years, his family and siblings lived in Gleadless before emigrating to Australia when he turned four.
“All of my childhood was in Australia, we didn’t come back here until I was in high school,” Eliot said. “My dad was a musician. He played in a lot of bands. Music was always in the house.” Growing up around music meant it became a huge part of young Eliot’s life.
“That was my life. I never had any sort of lessons, but I remember my dad brought home a keyboard. An electric organ, and I was just able to play it. I really took to it, loved it.”
Eliot’s natural approach of picking up musical understanding didn’t come from lessons, which is something of a regret for him.
“For instance, I’ll be in Prague doing strings for an album and I’ve got people who read and write music, and I feel a bit of a dumb sometimes,” he says with a laugh.
After more than 30 years in the industry, it’s apparent that although Eliot did not take the academic or formulaic approach to his craft, his approach to music has always been driven by curiosity. He has always been an advocate of listening and then doing.
“As long as I can articulate my ideas they can help me turn it into what I need it to be,” he says.
“I’m very fortunate that I’ve been able to have a career on my ideas. I can play a few instruments enough to be able to get it out. As a producer, I’ve learnt to make records over the years. I can sort of get what I want without having to be an academic musician.”
Eliot’s formative years in Dinnington, where he went to secondary school, mean he has passion for working-class communities.
“I’ll always support kids that come from communities like I did,” he said. “My careers meeting was, ‘which pit do you want to go down?’, I said ‘no, I want to be a songwriter’. He just looked at me, smiled.”
As any local will know, the mining industry in those towns came to an end in the early 90s. Dinnington was the first to go in 1992, Kiveton Park followed in 1994.
Thousands of jobs were lost. The socio-economic impact on those close-knit communities was strongly felt.
“Getting out of that and becoming a songwriter and a producer is unheard of. Somehow I managed to do it. Just grit and determination, I guess.”
While he was in secondary school, Eliot and some friends formed a band, entering a national competition.
“We entered this thing called TSB Rock School, and the finals were on telly. Saturday Superstore, if anyone remembers that.
“We came third, which was amazing, I loved it. We did a couple of gigs to raise money and the school let us buy some equipment.
“It was probably the worst thing they could have done.”
At this time Eliot was in the ‘lower-sixth’ year at school and though he always attended school, he often didn’t make it to lessons. He was too distracted working on music.
Then he received some words of encouragement that changed everything:
“I was trying to finish this mix and then I turned around. The headmaster was stood there, Mr. Forster, he was quite an imposing guy. He said, ‘what are you listening to?’ and I gave him my headphones, and said that I was trying to mix an album.”
Mr Forster listened and gave some gentle words of encouragement to Eliot, telling him to “get on with it” when it came to furthering his music career.
That summer, Eliot left school, got a job as a tea-boy in a studio, and never looked back.
Eliot Kennedy is now one of the UK’s most successful songwriters, he’s written hits for the likes of Aretha Franklin, Celine Dion, Bryan Adams, and more.
His first number one was Take That’s ‘Everything Changes’, co-written with Gary Barlow, a close-friend to this day. Milestone hits since include ‘Say You’ll Be There’ for The Spice Girls, and ‘Picture of You’ for Boyzone, which won an Ivor Novello award. Eliot has written and produced for S Club, Five and Billie Piper.
Eliot has returned to his old school, a moment he shares with a glint in his eye. He said: “I did a gig there. I had one of these platinum record plaques, it was one for the six biggest-selling albums that I’d had. Celine Dion, Spice-Girls and some more. I had a little message engraved for Mr Forster.”
“I was so nervous, but, it’s fantastic, it reminds you where you came from which is so important.
“I invited Mr Forster to the gig, got him on-stage and presented it to him and said ‘none of these songs would have been written if you hadn’t given me that push’.
“He saw something within me, I’ll always be grateful for that.”