Kevin Hewick

Encyclopedia : K : KE : KEV : Kevin Hewick

Kevin Hewick is a Leicester based singer-songwriter who has seen a revival of interest in the mid-2000's and a new label, Burning Shed, and was an early member of the Factory Records roster.

-->

Contents

1 The Factory Years
2 Cherry Red
3 Present Day
4 External links

The Factory Years

Following the death of Ian Curtis (lead singer of Joy Division)it's alledged by certain sources that Factory owner Tony Wilson suggested the remaining members of Joy Division (Peter Hook, Bernard Sumner,and Stephen Morris) try out Hewick as lead singer in their proposed new band.No more came of it other than a session in June 1980 with producer Martin Hannett in Graveyard Studios where they recorded the track "Haystack".

Other Factory releases included the controversial live side of the A Factory Quartet double album (FACT 24) in 1981 - live tracks picked against Hewick's wishes by Tony Wilson of a confrontation between him and a very aggressive audience - and the single "Ophelia's Drinking Song" (FAC 48)which featured producer Donald Johnson of A Certain Ratio on percussion and was mixed by Peter Hook of New Order.

For a time Hewick was proxy to many pivotal moments in Factory's early history,describing himself as a "gormless bystander" to those events.He often stayed at the famous Palatine Road flat of Alan Erasmus but as Alan became less involved with the label and Kevin's fraught working relationship with Tony Wilson rapidly worsened throughout 1982 (with Hewick even telling Wilson that the Hacienda was a bad idea as he "couldn't even run a record company properly never mind a club as well") an offer to "jump ship" to Cherry Red Records in London proved too tempting to resist.

Cherry Red

In 1982 he left Factory for a period on Cherry Red Records, releasing an album Such Hunger for Love (bred 48) and an EP in collaboration with the late Adrian Borland and The Sound Reality/Unreal (1983). These items and much of the Factory era have been compiled on 2003 Cherry Red release Tender Bruises and Scars which also features extensive sleeve notes by Kevin about his experiences in the early 80's.

After being dropped by Cherry Red by 1984, constantly savaged and ridiculed by the music press, and developing total writer's block Hewick hit rock bottom in his musical and personal life.

Present Day

After a 5-year self-confessed "black hole period" in the mid-late 80's, since 1989 Hewick maintained his status as a stalwart of the Leicester music scene, and can be found at frequent gigs within the city both as performer and/or event organiser,including,since September 2005, booking acts and hosting the monthly Firebug Comfort Zone Sunday afternoon/evening acoustic sessions.

He is still a prolific songwriter, citing 2005 as his best year so far this decade.

Most likely the only act to have ever supported both Joy Division and Showaddywaddy, Kevin's other support slots over the years have included Roy Harper, The Fall, Durutti Column, New Order, Section 25, PJ Harvey, Martin Carthy, Kevin Coyne, Fairport Convention, Dr.Robert, BJ Cole and Bobby Valentino, Eyeless In Gaza, Sonja Kristina, Clive Gregson, Ben Watt, Tim Rose, and Jackie Leven, with whom he has also performed in "The Stornoway Girls". He also appeared on Leven's live albums Greetings from Milford (2001) and Only The Ocean Can Forgive (2003). He has also guested on guitar and/or vocals on albums by The Freed Unit, Steve Cartwright, Meta-Tekki and recently on ist's King Martha (2005) and has contributed both lyrics and vocals for Soul Sonic Sauce's forthcoming self titled first album due out in late Summer 2006.

Kevin has also recently returned to the London acoustic circuit after an absence of nearly five years. Much of his recent work, including the album Helpline (1999), has been issued by Leicester maverick label Sorted Records. Forthcoming 2006 material will be released on Burning Shed.

Kevin can be found as a regular on the forum part of Pineapster - an online music community of the East Midlands. He feels his involvement with this site has bought about a major improvement in his connection with local audiences and fellow Leicester artists. He strongly feels that the city's time has come to step out of the shadow of better known centres of UK music activity.

He also contributes occasional album and live reviews to Planet Sound, the Channel 4 teletext music pages, and has written material for The Leicester Mercury, BBC Radio Leicester, Tight but Loose (The Official Led Zeppelin magazine), Wears The Trousers, and a chapter for "(The Book of) Happy Memories", an appreciation of the life of The Sounds Adrian Borland published in English and Dutch editions.

External links

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.