'I let the Spice Girls stay at my house and we produced a UK Number One'
”The very, very first session I did in my little studio was the Spice Girls. Unsigned”
Award-winning music producer and songwriter Eliot Kennedy is one of the big hitters in the music world.
He’s worked with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Celine Dion, Bryan Adams and Take That.
And he also has a story involving the Spice Girls which he recalls fondly when he looks back at the highlights of his career.
He had just built a studio in his house, which was in North Anston at the time, when the then unsigned Spice Girls travelled to Sheffield to track him down - and the rest is history.
"I convinced Sony and my manager to let me build a studio in my house,” he said.
“I had this little house I bought for my mom and dad so they could go and buy a bungalow.
“And at the back was a little extension in North Anston.
“And I put my gear in there and I've got three bedrooms so people could come and crash over.
“And the very very first session I did in my little studio was the Spice Girls. Unsigned.”
He added: “They'd fired their manager the day before they were coming to work with me because he wouldn't give them my phone number.
“So, they drove to Sheffield to find me in the phone book and I'm not in the phone book.
“And eventually found me through a studio and then said: ‘Are we, is there anywhere we can stay?’
“I said: ‘Well, yeah, you can stay at my house’.
“And that was it.”
“Then I'd got five sisters and I was relegated to the settee because they took the bedrooms.
“We just sort of holed up in my little house and wrote songs and had an amazing laugh and became like a little family.
“It was brilliant fun and they went off and changed the world and I was somehow swept along with that and became a part of their story which is remarkable.
“We wrote Say You'll Be There in that little house.
“We also wrote Love Thing, Step to Me, which ended up being a big Pepsi campaign record."
Reflecting on his musical beginnings, his career journey and his gratitude for some sage life-changing advice from his school headteacher, the legend’s path to glory wasn’t quite as straight forward as you may expect.
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,” he said.
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 said 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.
“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,” he said.
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,” he said.
“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,” he said.
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.”